Sorry for the wait guys, got bogged down with school stuff and hadn't had the time to write. I had to change a couple things to the plot line and such to make sure things flowed more smoothly. I changed the Leadership Attribute to Presence and took the Date in the prologue out.

Please leave a comment or cookie if you wish and criticism is always welcome

Other than that, Enjoy XD

Chapter 5

A Road Less Traveled

she asks puzzled at the question.

he replies as he looks around frantically.

she asks curiously.

she asks quickly.

“What are you thinking about that makes you look like a complete retard boy?” Marneus asks beside him.

“I’m trying to wrap my head around what you just said!” he replies with wide eyes.

“Don’t sweat the small stuff boy. You’ll be fine…I hope.” He says with a smirk on his face.

Bazz’s face goes pale and frantically messages Elena.

She says coyly.

Chat has ended

“Damn it, the hell am I supposed to do now?” Bazz mutters looking at the cars along the highway.

“What was that princess?! I know I didn’t hear a complaint outa you!” Marneus barks.

“Nothing, nothing, I’m just wondering when we will be getting to our destination. I’m curious to know what we will be doing first.” Bazz placates with a smile.

The hover car gets off the highway and proceeds to a checkpoint about 300 meters away. The checkpoint looks like a massive steel gate with walls on each side, both spanning about 20 feet tall, and goes along the border of the city.

The large checkpoint has hover cars/trucks stopping at the gate house in the middle to check who passes through. While the hover car stops at the end of the line for the checkpoint, Bazz takes this moment to take a better look at the forest.

The trees are towering at around 90 meters high (300 ft.) with vines displayed in between the trees. The ground floor is littered with bright flora and the occasional decaying tree lying on the ground. Brush and bushes are scattered around the tree line heading into the forest.

A long winding concrete road stretches through the forest, but he can’t see anything past 100 meters. All in all, it looked like a cross between a scene fresh out of Jurassic Park and a highway toll booth.

As the hover car reaches the gate house, Marneus gets out to talk to some of the guards. Bazz watches him go, and immediately focuses his senses on his surroundings to prepare himself for the wilderness.

“Well well, must be my lucky day.” A low voice says from behind him.

Bazz whirls around in his seat…just in time to see a long black knife flying towards him. He knocks the knife away and jumps out of the car.

-3 Health

Luck +3, Agility +2, Dexterity +2

He quickly swipes away the pages.

“I almost didn’t recognize you with your current choice of apparel Spacer. Is this the latest sense of fashion?” the low voice continues.

Bazz searches for where the voice comes from and notices a man in an Armani black tuxedo with a blood red tie standing between 2 trucks.

The man has a sleek look to him, with high cheekbones and a defined jawline. Piercing yellow eyes can be seen under the prominent bangs of his long swept back dark chocolate hair. Between his leather gloves is another long black bowie knife twirling around in his hands, as if he was a child playing a game.

~Hmmm, let’s buy some time to see what his motives are~ Bazz thinks to himself going into a non-threatening posture.

“I wouldn’t pretend to know fashion kind sir, although I am at a bit of loss as to who I am addressing.” Bazz says calmly.

A look of surprise blossoms on the man’s face.

“I’m sorry, where are my manners. My name is Jimmy Earl Ray. Although my friends just call me Ray for short.” He says lightheartedly.

“A pleasure to meet you Mr. Ray, I am known as Bazz. Pardon my asking but what do your enemies call you, Mr. Ray?” Bazz asks carefully.

“They don’t because they are all dead,” Ray says cheerily.

Ray slowly starts walking around the side of the car, further playing with his long black knife.

“Ah, I guess that would make sense Mr. Ray. But to what do I owe the pleasure of your appearance?” Bazz says walking around the other side in an attempt to keep his distance.

His senses were screaming “RUN YOU FOOL!”, but he knew that that wouldn’t work as long as this man was anywhere within shouting distance. He notices his rifle in his periphery sticking out of the bag in the backseat, but doesn’t deign to move for fear of a swift death.

“Ah, that would be Signor Luciano. You killed his friend, so he sends his regards.” Ray says and immediately leaps across the car.

Bazz raises his hands and directs his energy to the soles of his feet. Ray starts lunging with the knife and as soon as it reaches about 2 feet from his head, he lurches forward, grabs the arm, and throws him to the ground.

Ray rolls as he hits the ground and twirls around hurling the knife. Bazz immediately drops to the ground dodging the knife and sweeps his feet out from under him.

A look of surprise blooms on Ray’s face as he sees his entire world shift sideways. A sickening crunch resounds as his head smacks against the warm pavement.

Agility +3, Dexterity +2

-10 Stamina

Ray slowly looks up at Bazz smiling broadly, while having a slight gash above his left brow leaking blood.

“It’s been a while since I’ve had this much fun!” He says cheerfully licking the blood dripping down his cheek.

Bazz now thoroughly freaked out, stands up ever so slowly, constantly watching Ray for any more movements. He notices the black knife embedded up to the hilt in the car door that he had been riding in.

The knife was directly to his left and as he reaches for it, Ray pulls out another knife from an inside coat pocket and starts standing up slowly.

~This is getting dangerous, I’ve gotta finish this quickly~

“Are you two ladies finished? Cause we got shit to do Bazz.” A deep voice growls for the other side of the car.

The two of them freeze and look over at the disturbance. Marneus is standing on the opposite side of the hover car with an amused look. Ray stands up and says,

“Apologies sir, I did not know that this man was under your charge.”

“Well now you know. If you want to spar with him, wait till he is trained first. Until then, piss off,” Marneus growls.

Ray seems to take the hint and starts walking away, heading back towards the city. He stops after about 15 steps, looks over his shoulder, and states clearly,

“Just remember Signor Bazz. We will be seeing each other again, I can guarantee you that.”

He walks off. Bazz turns around to look at Marneus with an apologetic look.

“I apologize about--”

“You’ve had formal training before haven’t you.” Marneus interrupts giving him a discerning look.

Bazz stares at him not knowing what to say. Marneus, on the other hand, walks slowly around the car and rips the knife out of the door. Inspecting it, he glances at Bazz for a moment.

“Might I ask to what extent you learned and to the methods?” Marneus asks quietly.

Bazz freezes and takes a moment to think about it and says quietly,

“With all due respect sir, I’d prefer it if you didn’t ask that.”

Marneus gives him a stern look and states,

“Show weapon info”

A page appears in front of him to which Bazz looks at the weapon stats and turns pale.

Bonded Assassin’s BladeType:TM series- 5th degreeDurability:45 / 50Quality:Titanium- Excellent22-30 Dmg

+15 Poison Dmg

+10% Critical Chance

+30% Critical Dmg

A titanium bonded knife with a built in poison injector along the edge of the blade. The vial for the poison is built into the hilt of the weapon.

“Boy, had it been anyone else with no training whatsoever, they would have died from a strike from this blade. A severed artery, stab wound in the kidneys or lungs, you would’ve been a goner.

I watched the entire situation over at the guard house. Instead of losing your shit like normal people do, you seem to have a calmness that settles into your actions and demeanor. It was like looking at a stream flowing around a boulder that had suddenly been thrust in its path.”

Bazz continues to stare at the weapon info not knowing what to say.

“Now, if you are telling me that you don’t wish to speak about being formally trained, fine. It just means that I will have to start your training from scratch. Is that alright with you? Because if not, you better spill the beans pretty boy or else we will get nowhere real quick.”

Marneus continues to watch him carefully, waiting for a response. 5 minutes pass while they stand there in the middle of the traffic. Bazz chooses his next words carefully.

“I’m sorry sir, but for now all I can do is confirm that I have had formal training. Anything else is going to take time. For the training aspects, what should I expect and what is the end result of this journey?”

“Once we get into the forest and get situated, we can talk about it. Almost no one goes into the actual wilderness anymore. Well… not anyone from this area at least.”

Relief becomes palpable on Bazz’s face as Marneus drops the subject for the time being.

“Well I’m not getting any younger here so let’s get a move on princess.” Marneus says as he hops in the driver seat.

After a second of getting his seatbelt on, he looks at Bazz and points to the door, “Oh and you are paying for that by the way.”

“…God damnit.”

--------------------

After the two of them left, the drivers of the two trucks come out and slowly walked over to the ground where the blood stain is. Both had a camera in their hands.

They look over at each other and nod with a huge grin on their faces.

“This is so going on Facenooke!” They say simultaneously.

--------------------

Meanwhile in the Real World…1 hour has passed

RING….RING…

The home phone starts ringing inside the Totec’s apartment.

RING…..RING…

“Ugh… who is it now…” Lirin mutters as she rolls out of her bed.

Noticing that her sheets are plastered to her body, she tries to untangle them. Instead of getting free of her contraption, she ends up hopping through the apartment with the sheets wrapped around her in a cocoon.

RING….RING…RIN-

“Hello?” She answers groggily.

“Liri? Where’s your bro?” A charming baritone voice with a crisp timbre comes out of the phone.

“Oh hey Clive, good morning to you too. And Bazz is up doing…hold on let me see.”

She puts down the phone and hops over to his room. She opens the door and takes a peek.

Seeing the capsule lying next to the window, she goes back to the phone.

“He got a casket looking thing today and is currently inside it. Why do you ask?”

“Does it look silver with a bluish stripe down the center?”

“Yeah why?”

“Hehe, your bro is gonna be in for a surprise. Oh before I forget, can you remind him that the anniversary is coming up this Saturday? That’s if he doesn’t remember of course.” Clive says with a hearty chuckle.

“I sure can, now is there anything else or can I go back to bed now?” She asks irritation starting to show in her voice.

“Goodnight princess, and don’t forget to untangle yourself first.” Clive teases.

“Grrr to you...” *click*

--------------------

Inside Neos…

“SHIT!” He swears under his breath.

THUD!!...

-10 Health, -15 Stamina

He hits a tree and falls flat on his back.

~Well this wasn’t what I was expecting~ Bazz thinks as gets up again. He runs through the forest trying to keep up with Marneus.

“Hurry up princess I haven’t got all day here!” Marneus’ voice calls ahead of him.

~How the hell did I agree to this…~ He thinks as he tries to figure out the direction Marneus is heading.

20 minutes earlier…

“Alright boy, time to lay everything out on the table. The training regimen, the places we are going, and the end result. Which one do you wanna hear first?”

Bazz stops for a moment as they reach a small clearing in the forest. A fallen tree is sitting next a couple bushes with a small clear stream running behind it.

“Well let’s hear about the places we are going first I guess, I want to have a rough estimate of the places I am going.” Bazz says as he takes a seat on the log and unshoulders his pack.

“Alrighty then, we are going to visit five places to which you will undertake a trial of some sort. And don’t worry about the knowledge aspect of this. You will have time to rest and read after each trial.

The first place we will be stopping at is Agora, Harbrace, otherwise known as ‘Dictator’s Demise’.”

“… I think I can hazard a guess as to why it is called that. Anyway, what are the other places?”

“I don’t think I’ll tell you just yet. Anyway I guess it’s high time I told you what you are going to get out of this. How would like to become the future of the Human race?”

“…What do you mean by that?” Bazz asks suspiciously.

“What I mean is I started a project quite a while ago and it involves the next step in human evolution. The problem however is that I can’t quite seem to get the right individual to start it.

After all that I’ve seen so far, I think the Spacers’ would be the best to start this. Would you like to be the first?”

Human EvolutionDifficulty: CDescription:Requirements:How many people have the privilege of becoming the forefather of a new species? Not many, because human genetics are a bitch. In any event, to become the best new thing the human species can offer can either be extremely painful or immensely exhilarating. Time to find out which.

Must be a Human

Mission Rewards:

Unlocked Species

???

???

~A mission for the opening of a new species? Sounds interesting…~

“Sure, I guess I’ll give it a try.” Bazz states with a smile.

“Good. You best wipe that smirk off your face boy because this training is going to be hell for you. This is the future of our race after all and I’ll be damned before it fails.” Marneus growls.

Bazz looks down dejectedly.

“On to the next order of business! The training regimen will only be centered on one core tenet. Can you guess what that is?”

“Survival.” Bazz states softly.

He should’ve guessed. It’s the same training outline of what he went through last time.

FLASH…

A bloody slick knife in his hand trembles slightly. The muddy, bruised, and weary body of a 14 yr old can be seen wading through the swamps of the Amazon in only his cargo pants and combat boots.

“SCRREEEEE!!...”

He whips his head up in the direction of the sound knowing that he is being followed. Something doesn’t feel right in this forest.

~Just regulate your breathing. In, out, in, out, in out… Everything is going to be fine~ He thinks as he walks up the riverbank. He finds a log to sit down on and takes a canteen out from one of the front pockets.

~I just need to find the RZ. I don’t want to stay here any longer than I have to~ He thinks looking up at the sky to get his bearings.

Getting up, he notices that the sun is beginning to set. It’s never a good idea to stay out in the open after dark.

He notices a clearing on the other side of the river and a tree that had fallen over making a makeshift bridge to the other side. In the clearing is a small helicopter with a person sitting in the cockpit.

He starts jogging towards the ‘bridge’ but doesn’t seem to notice a pair of yellow slitted eyes watching him from the opposite side of the river.