Dyson - Twokinds Crossover

[Defender_16]

Dyson - Twokinds cross over
(The Chararacters Alexander Valient and James Tralough are (c) me so dont take em without permission. )


A man walked through a forest made up of old gnarled trees, a small orange furred Nekonian sitting on his shoulder.
"Shalla you could walk you know." said the man to Shalla. A seven year old that he had rescued from bounty hunters that had killed her parents.
"Oh come on Alex I walked all morning!" Exclaimed Shalla. "And you walk so fast I almost have to run to keep up. Besides would you prefer that I sat on top of your head?"
"Fine stay there, at least I have shoulder armour. "

Alex Valient was a super soldier, the last of his kind. He had been created under the name James Tralough more than three hundred years earlier during the Aftermath of the Twenty Years war. James had been brilliant but tended to believe that the ends justified the means. After suffering a near fatal head injury he had lost almost all memory allowing a new personality to be created, one with morals and a sense of right and wrong. The 'James' personality still surfaced every now and then though....

"Alex your going spacey again."
"Sorry." He said glancing at the cute little furball.
"It's ok, but I saw a weird light ahead."

Sure enough there was a strange greyish light between several large trees ahead.
"Lets take a look!" Said Shalla excitedly as she jumped down from Alex's shoulder and started to run towards it. She only made it three steps before Alex grabbed her and picked her up by the scruff of the neck. Lifting her up face to face with him he asked her;
"Did I ever tell you the expression 'Curiosity killed the cat?'."
"No, but it sounds like a horrible expression."
Alex lowered her to the ground. " Just stay alert ok? It could be a trap of some kind."

As they approached they found that there was no object to give off the light. The greyish light seemed to emanate from mid air.
"That's not right, even in the war I never saw anything like this."
Raising his hand he gently reached towards the point the light seemed to be coming from.
As if someone had hit a switch the light was gone and the forest around them seemed different.
"That was different."
"I'll say!" Came Shalla's response. She was wrapped around the top of Alex's head, Fur on end, and claws digging in slightly.
"You can get off now."

[Defender_16]

After freeing his head from his feline friend Alex spotted a dirt road not far away.
"That wasn't there before."

After following the road for awhile the two travellers rounded a bend. Some distance down the road the forest ended and a town could be seen further along.
"Shalla. "
"Yes?"
"Clothes."
"Oh.... Do I really have to?" She hated wearing human clothes, they always felt really uncomfortable and made her fur stick to her.
"Yes. For the hundredth time, you need to wear clothes if we're going into a town. It's just one of those things, humans expect people that enter their cities to wear clothes. And in your peoples case shows you're not feral."

After Shalla had dressed and put on some light armour the two continued on towards the town.
As they got closer to the town they could see that it was surrounded by a stone wall at least 3 stories tall. More toward the other side of the town was a tall grey metallic looking tower. There were several antennae at the top and strange blue writing on the upper sections. Plates made of metal floated around the upper half of the tower with the inner sides painted a bright Alliance Red.

"That’s not right, I thought repulsor technology couldn’t be used on the Dyson Sphere because of the power drain. "

"Alex look up at the sky. " said Shalla quietly.
Looking up and noting the position of the sun and lack of visible Shadow slides.......Alex swore under his breath. "Were not on the Dyson sphere anymore!"

"That means that the Marauders and bounty hunters wont be out to get me right?" asked the hopeful little girl.
"Well the only way we’re going to find out were we are, is from that town. Hopefully a spaceport isn’t too far away.”
***
Walking through the town gates the two travellers tried to ignore the stares that the guards on duty gave them when they walked past.
"It isn’t very nice of them to stare."
"Oh I'm sure everything is fine, they just don’t see Nekonians that often I would bet."
As they continued further into the town the number of people wearing hoods and cloaks increased.
'A combat Caster would blend in well here.' Alex thought to himself.
Looking around to see if there were any Uniforms he recognised he thought he caught a glimpse of another Nekonian heading around the corner of a building.
"Alex, trouble" said Shalla as she pulled on his sleeve to get his attention.

The street suddenly cleared of people revealing a Black cloaked figure with a hood obscuring his face. A blue circular insignia was the only marking on his clothing, it was the same as one of the markings on the Tower. Four other heavier built men flanked him carrying what looked like billy clubs.

"Well this is just dandy." commented Alex.

"Whoever you are, give us the Keidran and you can leave this town a free man. "

[Defender_16]

"Whoever you are, give us the Keidran and you can leave this town a free man. " Said the Dark hooded figure

"What the heck is a Keidran?" Said Alex back to the cloaked figure, one eyebrow cocked in confusion.

The Hooded figure shook his head. "It really didn't have to be like this." He signalled to one of the heavy looking men to his right. The man pulled out a billy club and advanced towards him.

When he was a few steps away the man raised his club and bought it down intending to strike Alex on the head. At the last moment Alex grabbed the man's wrist stopping the blow and with the other hand punched him in the gut, knocking the wind out of him. After turning the man around and giving him a good shove back the way he'd come, Alex stood and faced down the rest of the strangers.

"It is most un-wise to resist the will of an upper level Templar. If you are so intent on protecting that Keidran then why don't you join them!"

A bright yellow beam of light shot out from the hooded man's hand. Alex tried to block the beam with the un-deployed shield on his left arm but the light just washed over him eventually covering him completely before fading away.

He inhaled sharply as his body was wracked by sudden pain. His hair greyed at the temples for a moment then returned to normal. "Shalla stay........ behind me. " said Alex between breaths as he stumbled then leaned against the wall of a nearby building. He pulled out he sword as the attackers encircled them.

Within seconds Alex was shaking from the continuing pain but doesn't drop his sword.
"Is that all you've got? I can still take you all at once. aaaagghh.."
"Alex!"
"Its okay" he said through clenched teeth. "Just make sure no one can get a clean shot at you with arrows or anything else."

A light covering of orange and white fur with black stripes was becoming visible where his skin was exposed. Quickly slipping out of his heavy boots Alex noticed that his feet were changing shape slightly as well.

"Are you ready to surrender the Keidran yet? I can still reverse the transformation. " asked the hooded man.

"Damnit I don’t know what a Keidran is but I'm not letting you lay a hand on this Nekonian. "

Finally the thugs begin to move in closer as a group this time, readying their clubs and some small knives.

"Wow you guys are smart bringing clubs to a sword fight." He said still shaking like someone in shock.
“Almost as good as bringing a knife to a gun fight.” he mutterd under his breath.

[Defender_16]

Alex hit two small catch releases on his left arm and a circular shield made up of thin metal sections quickly deployed.

All three of the thugs charged straight at him. 'This is almost like old times’, Alex thought to himself.

At the last second Alex jumped into the air and did a flying kick. He arced the kick so that it hit all three of the thugs in their faces knocking them down.

Looking down at his hands Alex realised he had been completely transformed. Pads covered the palms of his hands and the rest were covered in light fur.

The Thug with a knife took the opportunity to take a lunge at him and missed. Alex brought his sword down on the hand that held the knife cutting it clean off.

Out of nowhere someone shouted "Guards!" And four heavily armed Templar troopers rushed around a corner and towards them. The black robed Templar that had been there a moment before had vanished.

"Not good. Run."

One of the troopers was carrying a pump-action Crossbow and fired arrows at the pair. One went wide and Alex deflected the next three with his sword and shield before ducking into an alley behind Shalla. Both of them were running full out now and the guards behind them could be clearly heard from the sound of their armour.

"Quick towards the city wall! We have to get into the forest.”

An arrow went whistling over head followed by someone else yelling. "After them!!"

As they ran a telepathic presence tried to grab hold of Alex and push him against a wall, but he pushed his way through it.

When they were half a block away from the city wall Shalla yelled "Aaaa! Alex I cant jump that high!"
"C’mere quick" he responded while sheathing his sword.

He continued to run while picking up Shalla. When they were three metres away from the wall he stopped. Crouching and bunching the muscles in his legs then springing up, he threw himself up to the top of the wall.

"What the hell??!!!" shouted a startled guard as they landed on the walkway three stories up. Brushing past the stunned guard, they leapt over the fortifications and to the ground below landing with a thud.

Legs burning from over exertion Alex sprinted towards the tree line. The twang of bow strings could be heard from behind them. A well placed arrow struck him in the left shoulder blade but he ignored it and continued running deep into the forest.

[Defender_16]

It was an hour later and Shalla was attempting to remove the arrow from Alex’s back.

“It’s just stuck in the Leather armour. Pull it out.”
“I already cut away all of the armour, it’s stuck in your back. If I pull it out you’ll bleed a lot and I don’t know if I can patch it. I never realised having fur made such a big difference.”

Using a razor Shalla shaved most of the fur surrounding the cut and pulled out the arrow. She was forced to change the bandage twice before the bleeding stopped.

“Ok so what do we do now?” Asked the diminutive catgirl.
“I don’t think it would be the safest thing to go back right away.” Said Alex as he sat thinking.
“What about that crazy guy in your head? Doesn’t he know all sorts of things?”
“James? He’s a genius, but he can be very dangerous at times.

James.....James wake up. It was as if a swirling cloud appeared out of nowhere and rose to the forefront of his consciousness.
Shalla watched Alex’s face as his eyes seemed to grow darker for a moment then return to normal. Then he started talking to himself.
“Ah, Mr.Valient. I see you are in need of my services again. How long did you keep me locked away in the back your mind this time. A dozen years? A hundred? A THOUSAND”?
“It's 4438 and I wouldn’t have woken you up if it weren’t for a good reason. You know that.”
“So who might this beautiful young lady be?”
Shalla was starting to feel nervous. Alex had not told her very much about James and her instincts were telling her to be afraid of him.
“This is Shalla. I rescued her from Bandits when they killed her parents. You are not to harm her.”
“You're overreacting again. I would never hurt someone without a good reason. I used to be a Doctor after all.”
“That hasn’t stoped you from killing people in the past.”
“Medics are expected to defend themselves in wartime. Besides you killed more people then I ever did.”

“Could you two hurry up? We don’t have all day.” This was getting annoying, she could hardly tell who was talking anymore.

“So what’s the current situation?”
“We're on an M class planet. Most likely in an alternate universe, but we could be in a different point in time as well.”
“Oh? What’s wrong did our universe get boring for you? Had to find some new places to explore?”

Alex then proceeded to tell James about the strange point of light they had walked through earlier.

“Ahh. A temporal or subspace distortion of some sort. But they normally occur outside of gravity wells.”
“We were on the Dyson Sphere.”
“Fascinating. The artificial gravity generators might have accidentally anchored a temporal Vortex causing it to become dormant. That or the Anchients placed the anomaly there themselves.”

“There's more going on here as well. Have you heard anything about Magic users while you’ve been hiding in the back of my mind?”

“More than enough. They use some kind of mix of Telepathic and Telekinetic abilities. Most of them use an object of some type to focus their powers through and cast destructive "Spells." It isn't really magic as far as I'm concerned, we started seeing some of it during the Third Dark War and into the Aftermath.”

“Yeah well the people here have some other forms of magic up their sleeve’s. Look at our hands.”

[Defender_16]

James, posessing Alex's body held up his hands in front of his face to look at them. “Fascinating. We are somehow in a Nekonian body now.”
He took a moment to look down at his exposed feet.
“I was mistaken. The foot structure is slightly different from a Nekonian. Have you noticed any increase in abilities?”

“No, same as before. I would have guessed that the change was external only it it wern’t for all of the wierd pain that went through me when they changed me.”

“Claws, teath, tongue, ears, fur, tail all check.” James said to no one in particular as he looked over their body. “ I have no idea how they could have done this. My best theory is that whatever they did to you, involved a Shape Changer DNA crossover link. All we have to do is remove the foreign DNA strands and you will revert to your original state. Either that or just get the same guy to undo it.”

“That’s you professional opinion?!!? Thanks for nothing James.”
“Hey, while I'm posesing your body do you mind if I go find a Brothel?”
“Shalla Could you slap me? Hard.”

“Fine.” Shalla made sure her claws were not out, then gave Alex an open handed slap to the face.

“That was uncalled for. Ok, you want something else? Another option for you would be to find a TCE operative.”
“Temporal Continuity Encorcement?!!? That’s the last thing we want to do!”
“No I think it’s the first thing you want to do. I would bet that there is an operatie waiting for you in the city. They can fix the whole problem and send you back to the proper universe and timeline. After that we can spent a few months chatting with Alliance Military Police in some prison.”

“James go to sleep.”
“Ungrateful basterd just locking me up again without so much as a thank you. One of these times I’m not going to be arround to-” James’ rant was cut off in mid sentence as Alex pushed him to the back of his mind.

“I guess we have to head back to the town then. Shalla get out what ever you need.”
Alex reached over, opend his back pack and started rummaging arround in it for awhile.
“What are you looking for?”
"This." He responded pulling out a thin cloth case from the bottom of the backpack.
He opend it to reveal metal parts, small bags of powder, tiny explosive caps and brass casings. Taking the metal parts out one at a time he slowly began assembling them.
Moments later the two largest parts came together and he pulled back the slide on the completed 9mm Jericho. He put together several bullets next and loaded them into the clip.
“This thing has 16 rounds of High Velocity ammo loaded. You could use it as a rilfe.” He finished screwing on a barrel extension that looked like a silencer then pushed it into the specially designed holster on his right thigh.
“Here take some throwing daggers. I’ll give you the gun later on.” Alex said as he passed two more thin daggers to Shalla.

“Lets go find that TCE officer.

* * *

It was the middle of the night and the moon was three quarters full. None of the Templar guards noticed as a dark shadow scaled the town wall and then leapt across to the roof tops.
“Where would a TCE officer be hiding.”
“Bell tower on the right.” Pointed out Shalla while giving him a toothy grin. “I still have better night vision then you.” The church tower was only slightly higher than the rooftops arround it. It must have been older then the other houses. Making his way to the roof of the church he approached the open sides of the bell tower as silently as possible. As he stepped inside a voice came from a shadow in the corner.
“Your right on time.”

[Defender_16]

“I take it you already know who I am.”
“Of course. You are the infamous former Alliance General, Alexander Valient. And your travelling companion Shalla Fenris.” He added gesturing to Shalla

“Well it’s good that you know something. Who are you.” Asked Alex not bothering to sound polite.

“You may call me Mhikel. I am a Lieutenant in the TCE. I can’t say I have much in the way of practical field experience though.”

“Are you saying that this is your first deployment?”

“Yes.” Alex visibly slumped. “But I do have combat experience and all of the technical knowledge needed for this mission.” The operative quickly added.
“That’s great. Can you just pull out your little portal-opener thing and get us out of here?”

“Unfortunately I was miss-dropped and the equipment in that tower is interfering with my Temporal displacement projector.” he said while pointing at the large dark tower near the East side of the town. “I’ve been waiting around for the correct time of your arrival for two weeks.”

“Let me guess. We have to go to that tower and turn off whatever is interfering with your little toy.”

“That about sums it up. I’m not gifted enough to get past all of the Templar guards myself, so I need your help. I’m a combat Mage so I’ve been able to blend in here the past few weeks and learn about the people and the Tower. The leader of the Templar for this area is very powerful spell caster. He turned you into a Keidran which is race of people who are enemies of the human government. They undoubtably though that your young friend here was a Keidran not a Nekonian. The only real difference between the two is that Nekonians don’t have any magic abilities.”

“Hey! I resent that!” said Shalla who was still perched on Alex’s shoulder.

Mhikel continued on, ignoring Shalla’s outburst. “Since the leaders of the Templar usually live in the Towers, I don’t see why we couldn’t capture the local one and have him turn you back before we leave. It should be easy enough to do with both objectives in the same building.”

“A little overly simplified but sounds alright to me.” said Alex. “Before we go in I want to know what caster type you are.”

“Certainly. I specialise in fire and know a half dozen different styles.”

After moving down into the deserted church the three spent the next few hours sleeping to gain enough strength for the attack on the Tower.

***

It was early morning and all three were looking over the edge of a roof down at the open area surrounding the Tower. No less than a dozen armed guard patrolled the grounds outside the building, all wearing the blue circular insignia of the Templar.

“What exactly does the Tower do again?” asked Alex while he tried to smooth down the fur on his face.
“The Tower uses a high intensity Bioplasmic Waveform scan system. “
“Meaning?”
“Meaning they can use it to scan for high power magic users, and warn them if an army is approaching. I’m not powerful enough in the right way to be detected by the scans.”
“Could they detect me or Alex?” asked Shalla.
“I doubt that the scanners detect physical abilities. Get ready, they change the guards in two minutes. We have to get in while they have the doors open.”

[Defender_16]

“Shalla here’s the gun. I attached a forward handgrip, make sure to use it.”
Mhikel pulled a small windup watch out of his pocket and glanced at it. “Ready?” he asked. Both nodded. “Ok in...three...two...one...GO!”

All of them jumped up from behind the lip of the roof they had been hiding behind and ran down the slope of the roof. When they reached the edge they leapt down and hit the ground running. They were half way across the open area surrounding the Tower when the main doors opened. It was a full second before the first of the guards shouted out; “Hey! Stop them!”

"Try not to kill them all if possible.” yelled Alex over his shoulder, just before charging into the large group of Templars that had come out the Main door. He ducked under the first soldier’s sword swing and grabbed the guards arm stopping him from bringing the sword back. Then he hit him over the back of the head with the pommel of his own sword. Not wasting any time Alex somersaulted over the heads of the other guards, landed in their midst and kicked their feet out from under them before the first hit the ground.

Other Templar guards that were already outside ran towards them. Shalla turned to the left shot each of the four Templars rushing toward her in the leg. Mhikel turned to the right and let loose a stream of fire from the palm of his right hand setting three Templars on fire and scaring two others into running away. Alex whacked the last guard over the head with his shield, knocking him out. “Inside quick.”

There were doors to other rooms on this level and a curving staircase on the far wall that disappeared up into the ceiling.

“Upstairs, the transmitters are on the roof.” said Mhikel to Alex as they headed across the large circular room. Several Templars entered the room from a doorway beside the base of the stairs, some of them had crossbows. Mhikel threw a ball of fire into their midst before any of them knew what was happening. All of them threw themselves to the floor and began rolling around trying to put out the flames. Alex ran past the mob of writhing Templars and up the stairs taking them three at a time with Mhikel not far behind.

Half way up the staircase there was a lone swordsman with his weapon drawn coming down the stairs. Upon seeing Alex he lunged at him trying to spear him on the tip of the sword. Alex dodged to the left at the last second and grabbed the swordsman by the upper arm before reaching over and grabbing the nearest leg. He flipped the confused Templar head-over-heels and slammed him into the opposite wall. Mhikel gave the guard a kick to make sure he was unconscious and threw a fireball back down the stairs before continuing.
They reached the second level just in time to hear a “Ding” sound emanate from a pair of doors before they began to slide apart. Alex and Mhikel got ready to tackle any Templars that came through the door when Shalla stepped out. She gave them a worried look. “Haven’t you guys ever heard of an elevator before?”

All three ran up another two flights of spiral stairs. Each floor was slightly smaller than the one below it. Finally they reached the highest floor before the roof, and to no surprise, a guard immediately ran at them.
Shalla went low, kicking his feet out from under him, while Alex jumped up and kicked him in the chest at the same time, sending the guard flying back against one of the metallic walls. There was a desk in the room that looked like if belonged to a secretary. A set of double doors were closed with no obvious way of opening them. Mhikel searched around the desk until he found an admittance button for the doors. He pushed it and the doors swung open.

Charging into the next room Alex saw a black robed Templar standing at a large curved window staring out at the city. “Don’t move, and don’t get any ideas about calling for backup.” He told the Templar in a gruff voice.
“I don’t know who you are or how you got up here but no Keidran is leaving this Tower alive.” Said the Templar lowering his hood to reveal sandy brown hair and blue eyes.
“That’s good, I intend to be turned back into a human by the time I leave. My Nekonian friend has no intention of becoming a Keidran either. First things first, how about you turn me back to being a human again.”
The Templar just smiled. “I'm useless to you. Only the Grand Templar would have the power to change you into a Keidran and back.”

[Defender_16]

“I happen to know a thing or two about curses.” Said Alex sounding indignant. “And what I do know implies that if I kill the person who cast it on me then the curse will lift.”

“What makes you think I was the one who did it?” Said the dark clothed Templar with a hint of a smirk on his face. “Or for that matter what makes you think it can be classified as curse?”

At that very moment Mhikel walked in and knocked over Shalla taking the gun. He then grabbed her and picked her up using her as a 'human shield'.
"Alex!" She squeaked out.
Alex slowly turned to face Mhikel. “What the hell are you doing?” He said in an even tone.

“Oh? I thought it was rather obvious. I'm going to use the equipment at the top of this tower to escape.” He responded while grinning manically.

Alex’s eyes suddenly went wide with realisation. “You’re a Preventor.”

“Very good Mr.Valient! You’re really not as slow witted as some people make you out to be.”

“Wait, that doesn’t make any sense.” said the Templar who was still near the window. “The Towers don’t have any Teleportation technology. All they do is move and harness energy, besides detecting armies.”

“Yes. All the energy I need to get home is stored in this Tower. It was very considerate of you not to waste it.”

“Dammit Mhikel! Are you responsible for turning me into a Keidran as well?”

“No.” He said as he edged his way towards a set of stairs at the back of the room.

"Well who the hell changed me then?"

"I don’t know. I wish I knew who it was and how they did it. It would be nice to change traitors into what they desire to protect so much before executing them. Like I so badly wish I could do to you.”

"You couldn't kill me even if you tried."
"Quite true. I could hurt you badly enough to stop you from following me though.”

Unexpectedly Mhikel pointed the gun at the Templar and fired, sending a bullet into his upper left chest. The Templar fell to the floor clutching his chest.

“Good day!” shouted Mhikel as he ran up a set of stairs at the back of the room.

Alex ran to follow but jumped back as a hail of bullets rained down upon the lower stairs. One of them grazed his ear sending off a thin spray of blood.

Mhikel ran up the last few steps then fired two more shots back in Alex's direction to further discourage pursuit.

Alex opened his shield but went to check on the Templar first. “Help me up.” He said.
He was breathing hard and blood was visible at the corners of his mouth. “Press that button under the desk. It’ll unlock all of the doors in the Tower. That madman locked the door at the top of the stairs I could hear it from here.”

Alex pressed the button, hoping it wasn’t really a self destruct mechanism. “More guards will be up here shortly and clerics will heal me. Go.”

Alex charged up the stairs not knowing what he would find when he got there.

[Defender_16]

Mhikel was on the roof of the Tower at long last. He pulled a device out of an armoured pouch inside his coat and plugged it into a terminal on the centre of the Tower roof. The device spent several seconds interfacing with the controls on the top of the Tower. The two floating plates moved further up the tower and spun in a circle several metres above the control unit. Lighting began to ark between the circle and the antennae around the roof.

When it looked like he had the least amount of attention on her, Shalla bit deep into his arm. "Bitch!" Mhikel screamed at her as he threw her to another part of the roof. He brought up his right glove and focussed the flame emitter Crystal on his palm in her direction.

Just as the first traces of flame began to arc out from the glove, two throwing daggers hit him in the wrist. A small blast of fire shot from his glove and missed it's target hitting an antenna.

Alex came out of his crouch and started running across the roof.
"Why don't you just die!!" Screamed Mhikel as he brought the Pistol to bear on Alex and fired three shots at him as he raced across the roof and grabbed a dazed Shalla. He fired two more shots at the pair which were stopped by Alex's deployed shield.

Mhikel pulled the daggers out of his wrist not even noticing the pain. Lifting his hand once more, he sprayed that entire side of the rooftop with flame.

The air was growing thick with lightning and a blue swirling vortex was beginning to appear above the Tower. The metal panels were spinning so fast as to make them look like a solid object with blue lightning bleeding away from them.

Alex steadily advanced towards Mhikel, protected from the worst of the flame by the shield. Scorching heat would still boil them alive if he didn’t do something soon.

Glancing up Mhikel laughed to himself. "The portal is almost open, I can leave this infernal backwater. " He couldn’t keep up the barrage of flame for long, but he only needed seconds more. “Wait is that movement?” Dropping the empty pistol he used his left hand to draw his sword.

Too late.

A flash of metal bisected his right arm above the elbow. The flames that had been coming from his right hand guttered out and died. "Damn you Valient!" He cursed as he backed away, blocking half a dozen of Alex’s lighning fast sword blows.

Just as it looked like Mhikel might give up, he launching himself towards Alex at full speed.

Alex predictibly blocked with his shield and parried the sword strike away. Mhikel jumped up onto Alex’s shield and pushed off, straight up into the open vortex waiting above him. Alex swore then bracing himself against the roof, bunched the muscles in his legs and sprang straight up... and into open air.

He landed back on the charred roof top. The Vortex had already closed.

What am I going to do now?