The Champions each looked at each other and the new place they were in. Mal waited for someone, anyone, to break the ice and start the ball rolling for them all. She didn’t know about the other Gods, but Elements gave her the impression that they were going to be together for a long time. So they should get to know each other, and maybe once they did, the Gods might let them know what they were supposed to do from here. But no one moved.

Anna merely kept glaring at Drew, breathing heavily through her nostrils. Drew was merely staring down at his feet, refusing to meet anyone's eyes. Everyone else seemed to be having their own reactions as well. Including one man who was pacing back and forth, hands behind his head looking severely panicked.

“Well, since no one will take the plunge,” Mal took a deep breath and smiled, “Hello, my name is Mallory, I go by Mal, I will answer to either. I was chosen by Elements to be the Champion of Elements. Anyone else here find it rather dull that the Gods are named after their occupation?”

At the very least, she got a smile out of everyone, a few even laughed a bit. Except for Anna, who was scowling at her.

Mal decided to ignore that as she looked at the woman on her left. "Why don't you go, next sweetie."

The woman, who had been giggling, had a bright smile on her face as she said, "Hello, I'm Elise, and I'm the Champion of Day."

She looked to her left, and there, all eyes widened in shock at what they saw. A young woman with dark pink skin, long thick ebony hair, and two bronze colored horns with engravings. She grinned. "I'm Cameron, and I'm the Champion of Demons."

Cameron stepped up to Mal. “May I touch your hair!? It’s so pretty! It's like its water or something! It's glowing too!”

Elise turned back to Mal as well. “Me too! I’m sorry, I just, if she can, can I?”

“Uh, sure.” Mal said with a shrug, looking over to the guys on the other side of the clearing. “Why don’t you take it from here?”

"I'm Anna," Anna said stepping forward with a wide grin on her face before anyone could say something. "I am the Champion of love!" She proceeded to fix all but Mal with her best sexiest stare. Giving her hair a swirl, and her lips curved into a sultry smile. “Feel free to adore me. I promise to make time for all of you.”

Mal thought this is where she would usually roll her eyes. As it was, there was no emotional reaction.

When none of the men moved, she turned that sultry smile to the other women. "Excuse me, ladies, I believe it was my hair you wanted to touch. It does, after all, look like liquid gold, far better than that stuff that looks like Pepto-bismal."

"Maybe later." Cameron said not looking at her.

Elise looked at Anna confused. "It doesn't look like that medicine, it's far too pale. Why would you say something like that?"

Again, the shock of it all caught Anna off guard. It seemed to Mal, whatever Anna expected or wanted to happen, wasn't going to.

“We need to keep with the introductions.” Mal said motioning with her hands. Wanting to keep things moving so Anna wouldn't make this take longer than it should. “Thank you for introducing yourself Anna, though the added commentary really wasn’t necessary.”

“Here here.” A man on the other side of the clearing said.

"I'm Drew." Drew said finally lifting his head. Looking determined. "The Champion of Heroes."

"Kenneth." the boy to Drew's left said. "Champion of War."

"Xavier, Champion of Night." His eyes rested on Elise, his opposite.

"Alex, Champion of Wisdom." Said the man who agreed with Mal a moment before.

She smiled at them all. "Okay, now that we all know each other, and we know what we are.” She frowned and looked at each them. “Did anyone’s God mentioned why we are here? Like, specifically?”

:: BING::

In front of them, eight screens appeared in a circle, a screen for each of them, though at the moment each of them was shown the same thing.

WELCOME CHAMPIONS TO TAIMIN

As of this moment, the journey has begun. Quests, tasks, and duties will be asked of you.

How you handle each situation, will determine how much power you gain.

The main objective when it comes to gaining power is to ASCEND.

ASCENSION LEVELING is fairly simple

Grades 1-10 ranging from 1-99%

Grades 1 and 2 are labeled as BEGINNER

Grades 3 and 4 are labeled as INTERMEDIATE

Grades 5 and 6 are labeled as MASTER

Grades 7 and 8 are labeled as DEMIGOD

Successful Ascension through grades 9 and 10 results in full Divinity

However, no Champion in the past has ever Ascended past Grade 6.

“Gods!?” Anna shrieked excitedly. “We’re going to be Gods!?”

“Only if we can Ascend through the levels.” Kenneth said with a frown. “It’s not like any game I’ve ever played. So we don’t know what it will take to Ascend. It could be easy, could be difficult. Could start out easy and get progressively more difficult.”

“Seems accurate.” Alex said with a sigh. “Though it flat out says here that no one has ever Ascended past grade 6. So I think the likelihood of us becoming Gods is pretty slim.”

“Dream killers.” Anna grumbled at them.

“The screens changed again.” Elise pointed out.

Note: To keep there from being any confusion, all Champions will be regressed, or progressed, to the age of 21. As that the age you are all accustomed to being considered adult and are no longer hindered by age restriction laws.

Note: All Champions will be immune to each other's powers unless it involves saving the others life.

"What!?" Anna shrieked in outrage. "That's not what I was promised!”

"So you meant to use your powers on us?" Xavier asked looking over at her skeptically. "To what end? As means to control us, or is that you can't keep your legs closed for any length of time?"

"WHY YOU!?" Anna yelled at him, she turned to Drew. "Are you just going to stand there and let him talk to me like that!?"

"I already told you I only slept with you so I could exhaust you and get the hell out of town. They all heard me, and they heard your introduction where you made it obvious you were willing to sleep with every one of us.” Drew said, "Furthermore why would I argue against something that's completely true."

Anna's nostrils flared and she took a deep breath, sensing a long-winded argument, and/or screaming match, Mal interceded.

“I think it was a smart move.” Mal shrugged. “I mean, we don’t know exactly what each other's powers are. Also, while we’re learning them, we know we don’t run the risk of accidentally doing something to each other we shouldn’t.”

“I concur.” Kenneth said. “Less chance of friendly fire.”

“And now we know we can trust each other because we won’t be enthralled by another.” Alex said with a nod.

Anna looked between all of them. Her expressions varying between shock, outrage, and hurt. When everyone said all they needed to say on the matter, she didn't get the chance to say another word as the notifications changed. Each champion seeing a different thing now. And all fell silent as they looked over their screens.

* * *

Kenneth looked at his screen.

Champion of War

Ability Chosen: Berserk

Item Chosen: Multichoice

Item given: Sword

Favor granted: Illness cured Would you like to change your name at this time? YES or NO

"No." Kenneth said softly.

You have chosen to keep your name, you will not get another chance to change it.

"Okay, that's fine with me." Kenneth said.

His screen went blank but didn’t disappear. Clearly, the Gods had more they wanted to say, so he waited for the others to finish with their screens.

* * *

Anna gritted her teeth as she looked at her screen.

Champion of Love

Ability Chosen: Climax Princess

Item Chosen: Lovers Kiss

Items granted: Lover's Kiss and Wand of Disbonding

Favor granted: Goddess of Love's Hair Would you like to change your name at this time? YES or NO

"Hell no!" Anna said firmly. "I like my name thank you very much!"

You have chosen to keep your name, you will not get another chance to change it.

"Good!" She said. "Why would I ever want to change perfection."

WARNING A MESSAGE FROM ALL OF THE GODS Items given will not work on other Champions and their requirements for usage has drastically changed. Lover’s Kiss can be used at any time, however, those immune to its effects will not succumb to its spell. Also, the target must already be feeling desire for the user for it to work.

Its full effect has also been limited. The user must be Ascended to grade level 4 before it will have full effect. User must be Ascended to grade level 7 before Wand of Disbonding can be used. WARNING

Goddess of Love was not supposed to choose you, be wary in what you do, or the tasks will be designed for you to fail.

Anna stared at her screen with a huff of disbelief. "You're joking right?"

A MESSAGE FROM ALL OF THE GODS NO! Love has gone against the collective and chosen an unworthy Champion, but you have been chosen nonetheless, you are being given ONE chance to prove to us you are worthy of the title.

Should you fail, at the very least, your title will be revoked.

Anna stared at the screen in disbelief. That couldn’t be right, it just couldn’t be. She was chosen by the most beautiful Goddess of them all. She was chosen. She was worthy. Love assured her she was. She remembered Love being heartbroken. Was she being abused by the other Gods? Oh! How horrible! Anna broke down crying. This was not how it was supposed to go!

* * *

Alex looked away from his screen and couldn't help but hear the different reactions to what was being shown the others. One of them, Anna, was crying. He looked back to his screen, it wasn't any of his business. If it was, he was certain he would be told.

Champion of Wisdom

Ability Chosen: Adviser

Item Chosen: Pick any two, lose one forever

Items granted: heavy sleep potion and Ring of Wisdom

Favor granted: the Famous actor has been forgotten by those who would only see the user as an object.

unless the user wishes to have it known. Would you like to change your name at this time? YES or NO

"No." Alex said.

You have chosen to keep your name, you will not get another chance to change it.

"That's fine." Alex assured the screen, and his went blank but didn’t disappear. So he calmly waited for the others to finish.

* * *

Elise blew out a nervous breath as she turned her attention to the screen.

Champion of Day

Ability Chosen: Heliokinesis

Item Chosen: Rings of Sun

Favor granted: Cat has been given to a suitable home. Family heirloom was brought from Earth to Taimin for Champion Would you like to change your name at this time? YES or NO

"No, my name can stay the way it is." She said. "I'm not good with names anyway."

You have chosen to keep your name, you will not get another chance to change it.

Her screen went blank, signifying she was done for now.

* * *

Xavier sighed and fidgeted nervously. He hadn't chosen a damn thing, and he was standing there blind. He didn't know what his powers were going to be, he didn't know what items he was going to be given, or what his "favor" was going to be granted to him.

Champion of Night "Hey there handsome, you didn't choose a thing, did you? That's okay, I chose a good one for you." Ability Given: Shadow Drifter "because I figured you would want to be able to save lives, but not being a complete and total dominating dick about it." Items Given: Cloak of Night

Description: Allows the user to be invisible, day or night, while under it. If Ascension is high enough.

User can wear this during the day and be at full power, so long as the reverse side is facing out (otherwise the user could be barely visible, or completely invisible) "Yes, I literally gave you the skin off my back so you can be protected. So use it wisely my boy, and no using it to mess around with little hotties. *smooch* " "By the way, I owe you one favor."

Xavier shuddered. "Oh, my devils and demons! You freaking pervy God!"

YOU'RE NOT ALLOWED TO CHANGE YOUR NAME!!!!!!!

"Yeah, yeah, yeah." Xavier muttered as the screen went dark.

* * *

Drew did his best to put the two women from his former life out of his mind. He wished there was a way that he could avoid women forever. Still, such a thing was impossible, he knew. His screen changed and he looked at what it was telling him.

Champion of Heroes

Ability Chosen: Light Hero

Item Chosen: Sword of Heroes

Favor granted: To be like God of Heroes WARNING: champion may be subject to even greater personality changes because of this favor Would you like to change your name at this time? YES or NO

He already knew his personality would change, normally he would have been nervous as hell, or even losing his temper with Anna. Instead, he was calm and wanted to think of a rational way to deal with the situation. What more was there to change?

His screen starting to flash to get his attention, oh yeah he had to answer a question.

"No, my name is fine."

You have chosen to keep your name, you will not get another chance to change it.

"Story of my life." Drew muttered.

* * *

Champion of Demons

Ability Chosen: The Endarkened

Item Chosen: Ring of Lust

Favor granted: Memories Altered Would you like to change your name at this time? YES or NO

"Sure, why not." Cameron said with a shrug.

Memories altered? What did that mean? She thought back to life on Earth, and nothing came to mind. What had she done that was so horrible she asked to forget about it? Oh well, not like it mattered now.

Please Type Chosen Name Below

She reached up to the screen which had a keyboard showing and typed out the first name that came to her mind.

Champion of Demons

You have chosen to change your name to ~ Hexia ~ Is this the name you want? YES or NO

"Yes." She said.

You have chosen ~ Hexia ~ as your name, you will not get another chance to change it.

"A demon doesn’t need a human name." She said softly.

* * *

Mal stared at her screen.

Champion of the Elements

Ability Given: Control over all elements

Fire, Water, Earth, Air, Light, and Metal

Item given: Character Alteration

Character Alteration complete.

Alterations are now permanent

Favor given: None

Champion accepted request of the Goddess Elements Would you like to change your name at this time? YES or NO

"No." She said softly.

She used to hate her name, which is why she spent so much time getting people to call her Mal. As of that moment, she just didn't care, and couldn't think of a name to change it to. She wondered if she would kick herself later for giving up this opportunity.

You have chosen to keep your name, you will not get another chance to change it.

"Very well." Mal said and her screen went blank.

“I guess everyone saw the same thing?” Alex asked.

Everyone nodded.

“Pretty much just letting us know what ability we chose, what items, and what favor.” Elise said taking hold of the locket.

“What’s that?” Anna said stomping toward her, making a grab for the pendant. “Some kind of trinket meant to subdue us!? Or perhaps it makes your ugly mug prettier than it should be!”

“No!” Elise cried, protecting it and herself best she could. “It’s mine! My parents got it for me for my birthday! It's all I've got left of them! Please leave me alone!”

"Give it to me you bitch!" Anna yelled.

Mal stepped forward and threw Anna back. Usually, Anna would have been able to recover quickly, but Mal’s actions made everyone aware they were no longer who they once were. Anna flew back with a force Mal should not have been capable of. Anna landed with a heavy thud on the other side of the clearing.

With a face devoid of emotion, Mal stared down at Anna. “That is enough.”

WARNING Champion of Elements has been cursed

The curse of CAGED HEART now afflicts the Champion Curse can only be cured by The Champion of the Kings

until cured Champion of Elements will feel little to no emotions

"What the hell do you mean 'can't feel emotions'!?" Anna shouted from where she’d landed, having read the screen when the others did as well.

Mal stared at the screen. "It means exactly that, I am emotionless, or, near to it anyway. Apparently."

Anna glared at her. "Does this mean you remember me? And Drew?"

"Yes,” Mal admitted.

Drew sighed relieved. “I’m glad you remember.”

Mal looked at him. “I feel nothing.”

“I know.” He said with a smile. “But, you wouldn’t be you if you didn’t remember. And how can I begin to atone if the person I hurt the most can’t remember why.”

Mal nodded. “I see your reasoning, but please, atone because you feel you must, for your own reasons. Not for me.”

He nodded. “I can do that.”

"I think we have a bigger issue here everyone is overlooking." Alex said stepping toward Mal. "One our Champions is cursed. We don't know if this will affect Mal's powers. Furthermore, if you were all paying attention to the wording, that warning let us know about something else. Something pretty damn big."

"There's another Champion." Xavier, who had reread the message, said in awe. "One who isn't here in this clearing with us."

Alex nodded. "We're incomplete."

The blue screen popped up again, and all read it's message silently.

Announcement Champion of Demons name has been changed to ~ Hexia ~ Announcement Champions have been notified of the Champion of Elements' Curse Announcement Champions have now been made aware of the missing Champion QUEST UNLOCKED

Travel to the nearest shelter before dark QUEST UNLOCKED

Break CAGED HEART on Champion of Elements QUEST UNLOCKED

Travel to the former Champion of Kings hidden dwelling

Save Champion of Kings from SEALED SOUL WARNING: Only Champion of Elements can cure the Champion of Kings, only champion of Kings can cure Champion of Elements QUEST UNLOCKED

Learn the TRUTH from the former Champion of Kings

"What's SEALED SOUL?" Kenneth asked.

"I would think it's the opposite of SOUL BREAK." Alex contemplated aloud. "If SOUL BREAK is the breaking of the soul because of some vicious act, then maybe, SEALED SOUL, is where the victim of SOUL BREAK realizes what's happening, and seals their own soul to keep it from happening."

:: BING::

ACHIEVEMENT Alex discovered the meaning of SEALED SOUL

ASCENSION GRANTED

Grade 1 - 5%

"Well that was nice," Alex said as the screen faded, "But all I did was use logic."

"I think we found how you will level up." Mal to him with an encouraging smile. "You are the Champion of Wisdom after all."

“What kind of truth are they talking about?” Elise asked softly.

“Yeah, that’s what I’m wondering about too.” Xavier said scratching his head. “The Gods seemed like a sketchy lot if you ask me.”

“No one asked you.” Anna spat at him.

Alex sighed. “Four quests, all in one go, I’m not sure where to even begin. I’ve got so many questions.” He looked at Kenneth, “You seem to have some gamer knowledge, what do you think?”

Kenneth scratched his chin where he felt stubble from a beard growing in. Odd, he never had one before. Now he was kind of anxious to get to a mirror. “Seems to me like we go with the easiest one for now. Which is find some shelter before dark.” He scrolled through the messages. “If you look at the quests, both the missing Champions curses can only be cured by the other.”

“So, in finding the King, we cure them both.” Hexia said with a smile. “Makes sense to me.”

“Still, I highly doubt it will be that easy.” Kenneth sighed. “It says ‘hidden dwellings’, meaning it won’t be easily found.”

“So we make for shelter.” Drew said with a nod of approval. “And we plan our next course of action from there.”

"Sounds good to me." Elise said looking toward the sky. "There's a storm coming.”

"Yeah, I know." Xavier said. "I can feel my power growing." He looked at her. "I take it to mean that your power is lowering then?"

She nodded. Xavier looked at the rest. "Then yeah, we need to hurry to shelter." He glanced at Mal, “Can you tell when it strike?”

She thought about for a moment, tilting her head and parting her lips to taste the air. “The cloud cover will be over us within an hour, the temperature will cool drastically after that.” She looked back at the others. “But the rain won’t start till after dark.”

“Which way should we go?” Elise asked looking around.

“I see a road past those trees.” Xavier pointed out to her.

“We’re in a strange world, and you want us to walk out in full view of whoever could see us!?” Anna glared at him. “I think you should let the adults talk.”

Xavier quirked an eyebrow at her. “I am an adult.”

“Perhaps, you can lend us a hand here Mal.” Alex said stepping toward her. “You should be able to tell if it’s safe using the earth, right?”

She wiggled her bare feet further into the ground and concentrated. “There’s a cluster of building structures up the way. I’d say about ten miles.”

“We have to walk!?” Anna shrieked. “There’s no way we’d make there in time!” She got a thoughtful look and grinned at the men. “Who wants the right to carry me?”

“You walk on your own two feet or you get left behind.” Kenneth said stepping forward, crossing his arms. “That is the only fair way.”

“Well said.” Drew grinned at Kenneth.

“As much as I’m sure everyone enjoys Anna putting her foot in her mouth, then watching her be taken down a peg, there’s another option.” Mal pointed to the road.

A man, wearing simple clothes, was walking toward the circle where they all were. He peeked in and smiled nervously.

“Beg yer pardon, bu’ uh, whut ya doin’ down in der?”

“We’re new Champion of the Gods.” Mal said stepping toward him with a soft smile. “We’ve just arrived, and we need to get to shelter before the storm hits.”

“Oh!” The man proclaimed excitedly. “Come on up ‘ere den! I got room me in cart for de lot of ya! Be bit of a squeeze, but should fit ya’all.”

“My, what a handsome man you are.” Anna said stepping forward, hand on her hip, licking her lips. “Got a spare seat for me up front?”

“Man?” He repeated confused, then he burst out laughing. “Man! Ah ha ha ha! Dat’s a funny one right der dat is! HA! HA!” He waved his arm. “Come up ‘ere den, we ain’t got all day. Got tu get back to de misses. She expectin’ de litter any day now, an I don’t wanna miss dem being birthed ya know?”

“I’m sure we understand.” Kenneth said following him out.