Game Master X Ch.1: A Familiar World
 

Bright sunlight shined on Alex's face. Groaning, he opened his eyes, expecting to see the sun through his bedroom window. When he saw nothing of the kind, he awoke with a start.
"Where the hell am I?" he asked aloud, looking around. There were hills and plains for miles around, and in one direction he saw a castle situated over a large town surrounded by forest. It looked familiar somehow, but he knew he had never been here before, which made it all the more confusing.
He stood up, and as he did so, he noticed that he, too, had changed; his glasses were already on his face, he was wearing a large cotton shirt he had never seen before, and at his hip was a small sheath with a sharp knife in it. In his pocket, he found his Game Boy Advance SP. "Well, at least there's one familiar sight," he said to himself. It had a game in it, but it was unlabeled, so he turned it on. Displayed on the screen was a menu very similar to that of Final Fantasy I from Dawn of Souls, but instead of the four Light Warriors, it only showed Alex.
Before he could delve into it any further, however, he heard a voice from behind him. When he turned around, he found himself face to face with someone he knew well but thought to be imaginary.
"You... but I... you're... how..." he stuttered, hardly believing his own eyes. "Are you really...?"

Link was panting, having just rescued Queen Ambi from the Black Tower, and defeating Veran. His Noble Sword in his right hand, he tried to recover before anything bad happened.

Of course, the sudden shadow and the sinking feeling meant something was wrong.

"Eh?" he barely uttered before falling through a portal, a Wall Master having almost captured him.

Conciousness left him as he fell...

************************************************** **************

"Ungh..." As Link got up, he felt dizzy. Somehow, he had gone away from Labrynna and ended in some plain. Looking around, he managed to see a boy, which he thought was from there. "Hey! Where are we?" he asked, as he approached the boy.

(OOC: I don't have a cap right now.)

"Ya ya ya", Garet said digging his sword into the ground, "Ya, I'm really Garet. But the real question is, who are you? Why are you here to begin with?" He saw the blank expression on Alex's face. "Well, I guess I'm not the only clueless person here so lets get going and see if we can find someone that might help us." Garet looked at the GBA SP Alex had, "What is that? I've never seen anything like that before."

Garet heard someone coming from behind. He raised his sword and turned around to face a strange man in a green hat and tunic. "Now I've seen everything", Garet said putting his sword down once more,"Who are you?"

(ooc: my person was set to meet Alex first. evidence: pm.)

OOC: That's fine, I'll just meet them both simultaneously. The rest I'll run into a little later.

Taking deep breaths, Alex asked, "Are you Link?" Link nodded. "And you're Garet." Another nod. Wow, I'm talking to Link and Garet. This is insane. Oh well, I'd better go along with it until I find out what's going on. "I'm Alex. To answer Link's question first, I'm still trying to figure out where we are myself, though I have a strange feeling I already know." Turning to Garet, he said, "I'm not sure why I'm here, or why you are for that matter, but I can tell you what this is." He showed the SP to Garet. "This is called a Game Boy, this particular model being a Game Boy Advance SP. It allows me to play games, but it's changed somehow. I'll tell you when I know more. For now, let's head over to that town; if it's what I think it is, we could get some answers." He began walking.

(OOC: No cap, 'member?)

Link looked at Alex, then at Garet. "Well, might as well go on and follow you two." Before following them, however, he checked out his equipment. Sword, check. Shield, check. Secondary Equipment, check. He then headed towards the others.

"That town should be our starting point, we should buy supplies and food there", Garet said pointing towards the town Alex was headed for. He started walking along with Alex and Link. "This is going to be a rough day."

As they walked, Alex pulled out the SP again and turned it on. It still showed the same screen, but in addition to Alex, Garet and Link appeared, with accompanying stats. "Wait... I think I get it! I can use this to check the status of whoever is with me. But what do I need -" He stopped mid-sentence, for in front of them stood three knife-wielding goblins. "Whoa... random encounter. This shouldn't be too tough," he commented, looking over at his two new allies.

Link unsheathed his sword and shield. "What are those things? They remind me of the Moblins, but worse... both in appearance and in smell."

(ooc: next post you might wanna include what enemies we're fighting)

Garet looked at them and arched his brow. "You call these enemies?" He asked raising his sword. "I might as well use psynergy on them, then again it would be a waste. I'm sure 'Link' here doesn't have a clue about random encounters. Lets see what you got Link." Garet kept his sword ready to defend.

OOC: I did say what we're fighting - we're up against three Goblins.

IC: "Those are Goblins. They're about as tough as they look; 8HP and an attack power of 4. We'll each take one," said Alex, and drew his knife. Lunging at one of the Goblins, Alex swung his knife and dealt a powerful blow. A white number appeared over its head, a 7.
Alex stared at it incredulously. "Oh come on! I am not that weak!"

Garet picked up his sword for an offensive blow and began to charge. "I'll show you how its done." Not minding Alex and Link, he jumped into the air and performed a front flip before bringing his sword down on the enemy goblins.

(ooc: sorry, i wasn't looking at the rest of the post before it said random encounter.)

Link looked briefly at Alex and Garet, a sweatdrop forming in his head. "HP? Random encounters? Numbers above people's heads?" He shaked his head. "This place is weird." Given how weak these things probably were, if Alex was right, he decided to simply bonk one of them with the Noble Sword. After all, they didn't seem that strong. Maybe as strong as a Stalfos. Maybe.

Garet attacks! 379 damage.
Link attacks! 297 damage.
Two goblins fell to the ground and vanished. The remaining goblin took a swing at Link, who blocked the blow with his shield. "MISS" appeared over his head.
"Note to self: Buy a shield," Alex said to himself.

"Alright then, just gotta get through the rest of this level and then the final showdown with Dr. Wily." Megaman said as he jumped on his jet and flew through the level. He switched to his metal blades nad started taking out nemies left and right. He looks up and sees the final door. He shoots at one last enemy, but as the metal blades start to reach the door, a portal of sorts started to open. The metal blade went flyiing through, and megaman couldn't get off his jet fast neough not to go through either. When he came out on the other side, the blade had found another target and went clear through what looked like a goblin. Of course Megaman had no idea what the hell it just cut, or who the other people were that seemed to be fighting them. He got off, and started walking towards them. "Where am I?" He askes one of them.

"Now what", Garet said gaining battle position once more. He took a look at the man with a weird blue helmet and blue suit. "Who is it this time Alex since you seem to know who we all are. I thought I had seen everything." He looked down at the place where the goblins had fallen. "We should also pick up those items before we leave."

Link tried to head over the items to pick them up... only to find that he couldn't move forward. "Hey?! What kind of sorcery is that?"

Alex watched as a Metal Blade ripped through the last goblin with an accompanying "263" above it. He turned to see Megaman standing nearby. "This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder. I believe we're near Cornelia, judging by the town surrounded by forest and the wimpy enemies. Come along, Megaman! We're all trying to figure out why we're here, and this is our first stop."
Also noticing that he couldn't move, Alex pointed out, "The battle's just ending. We can move in a moment." Suddenly, messages appeared in midair:
[Earned 4 EXP.]
[Obtained 18 gil.]
"There. Now let's check out this town."

Link looked at Alex. "Wait... you know where we are? Why didn't you tell us before?"

"I wasn't entirely sure, because this place isn't supposed to be real. Cornelia is the name of a town in a video game called Final Fantasy. All of you are characters from video games I've played; that's how I know who you all are, and why I reacted the way I did when I saw you. I didn't think any of you were real, but recent events have convinced me otherwise."

Link stared at Alex, almost as if he was crazy. "You're saying... that we... are not real?" He then started to twitch.

(Yeah, kinda weird, but Link just can't handle the idea of him not being real. He'll be in denial for a while, I think.)

"Well it really doesn't matter right now. Let's go check out that town if we are going to check it out. I'd rather not waste time with more of those... things you guys were fighting."

"What is the currency here? Gil? Geez, I don't have that kind of weird currency on me. I guess we'll have to go through more of those 'random encounters' you were talking about." Garet started to walk towards the town getting the feeling that he was the only one. "C'mon you guys lets go!!"

Link followed the others, still twitching. He was cutting a lot of stuff while he was walking, however.

Garet looked back at Link. "What are you expecting to find, money? Who ever heard of money in the bushes?" He continued walking towards the town. He looked around at the strange new world they were in.

Link looked at Garet, surprised. "You mean you don't find Rupees or whatever you spend in your world?"

"For a town, it seems very small. They don't even have super tall buildings, except of that one." Megaman points at the castle. "But even that is a tad small. Also, where are the roads? Surely there has to be a taxi system implemented in this world?"

Link stared at Megaman. For several minutes. "What's a taxi?" Link asked, finally.

"You know what? Nevermind. I'm sick of walking so let's make this easy." Megaman then pulls out his jet board. Which at firsts floats, then starts to take off. Megaman jumps on it and Link, then Garet, then puts Link on the board and Grabs Alex. Then takes off for the town and reaches it in mere seconds. His board starts to flash, and Megaman immediately sets everyone down, but right before he gets off, the board disappears and he falls with it. "Well, looks like we are here."

"I'm going to ask the same question, taxi? What was that we were on? Last but not least, we should head to the weapons shop first, check out the local militia's weaponry." He started walking into town feeling all the glares and stares seeing as though he was wearing something completely different from what everyone else was..

"Looks like it. Thanks for the lift, Megaman! Let's look around." It definitely was Cornelia, just as Alex knew it. "Yeah, we should check out the local shops, though I doubt we'll find anything useful for anyone but me. Unfortunately, we only have 18 gil to spend, unless... Hey Garet, you wouldn't happen to have a few Herbs on you, would you? They could be good for some quick cash if we sell them. I kinda need better equipment," he admitted, indicating his knife and shirt. As an afterthought, he added, "I wonder if I can learn any spells...?"

Link was still cutting stuff up, but he was sulking as well. "This is way too weird... I had just defeated Veran, rescued Ambi, and left the tower, when I suddenly am taken somewhere else... where someone thinks I don't exist..." He then put a hand to his head, to try and calm down. That's when he realized it.

Cue image of the world.

"WHERE'S MY HAT?!"

"Ehhh, I do, but I wouldn't know what they were worth here or where you could find any more. I'll lend you a couple but thats it, I'm saving the rest for later battles." Garet quickly handed Alex 3 herbs in hopes it would give them a good amount of cash. He checked in his pack and looked at the few potions they had, he sighed in relief.

"Hmm... this should be just enough. While the Potions you carry fully restore health, the ones in this game only restore 50HP. I figure, if those Potions and your Herbs heal the same amount, they should be worth the same amount of gil. That means these three are worth 60 gil total; that plus our earnings gives 78 gil. That's enough for me to buy a Rapier and Chain Mail armor." Alex headed for the weapons shop.

Link checked his pockets. Apparently, his wallet still had plenty of Rupees. "Say, how much do you think you can get for these? Maybe they can be traded..."

"Hmmmm, they might think they're gems of some sort and buy them at a higher price then they're actually worth. It's worth a try Link." Garet sheathed his sword remembering he was in a town. "Well, if my potions restore more health then their potions, shouldn't we keep mine?" He was still clueless on what was going on. "We'll wait outside the weapons and armor shop for you."

"I doubt your potions are useful for me. And man how do these people live in such primative areas?" Megaman said as he looked around town.

"I don't know where you're from, but I think this place is beautiful", Garet said patting MegaMan on the back. "What is that weird weapon on your arm? Haven't seen a weapon like that before, never." He looked down at his sword and back up a Megaman.

"Oh my blaster. It is the latest in technology, and can adapt other robot weaponry too." Megaman takes a look around. "Once we are done here, where are we going to next?"

"A, robot? B, I have no idea." Garet waited outside the weapons shop with the whole gang. "I wonder who will appear next, this whole thing is a mystery, we seem to be in someones world." He stood and looked up at the sign to the shop.

Just walking through the desert surrounding The Gold Saucer with Cloud and Tifa, Barret said, "Ya know? I think were lost." As soon as he finished saying this, he fell into some quicksand and it sucked him under. The oddest thing happened, instead of chokeing in the sand, he fell onto a street of a small town. "What the..." He said, "where am I?"

Everyone in the area seemed the same except for 3 odd-looking people. 2 with swords, and one looking like a new version of some sort of Shinra robot. Barret aimed his gun at the robot, "who are you and how did I get here? Answer quickly, your lives depend on it!"

OOC) wow almost as good as the other GM thread, look at all those posts, in such a short time too!
Gj Mammoth, I like the quick action.

"There we go, that's better," Alex said as he walked out of the armor shop. "Bought a Rapier and Chain Mail, and sold my old stuff, so we're down to 11 gil. Now we..." He stopped mid-sentence, for standing in front of him was Barret, aiming his gun at Megaman. "Whoa... That's Megaman. Don't worry, he's a friend. Okay, Barret? Don't shoot him." He sounded quite nervous.

"Mega...man? Alright, you seem knowledgeable, whats going on. I'll lower my gun so you don't start being a wimp during your explanation. Which you will start now." Barret said. "I jsut want to know, where am I, how do I get back to Cloud and Tifa, and who are you guys?

If this Barret tries anything funny he'll lose that arm.

Garet started without hesitation,"We seem to be in the town of Cornelia. My friend with the rapier is Alex, the other one with the sword is Link, the strange blue armored one is Megaman, and I would be Garet. No one knows how we got here, nor how to get out."

He shuffled through his pack and pulled out his clerics ring. He shined it with his shirt and looked up at Barret. "We could sure use some more help here. By any chance would you have a currency called Gil? We need some more supplies before we leave."

Link looked at Alex. "You still haven't answered me about that. And what does that box of yours do?"

"How much gil? Well lets see...Cloud had most of it, but I did have my secret stash. Ah! Here we go, 300 gil, not too bad if you want to buy a couple of things." Barret said.

*sigh* "I guess I'll travel with you for now. Lead the way to wherever we are going."

"This? Normally it lets me play games, but now it seems to be a reference tool of some sort. And as soon as I figure out what's going on and why we're here, you'll be the first to know. Now let me see..." Alex walked over to a woman standing by the two magic shops. "Excuse me, ma'am..."
Her reply was swift: "Please save the princess!"
Returning to the odd group of heroes, Alex said, "I think I just found something. In the first Final Fantasy game, four Warriors of Light appear and rescue Princess Sara from Garland, who resides in the Chaos Shrine to the north. However, it seems that this has not happened yet. I vote we talk to the King of Cornelia to get more information."

Link sighed. "Seems I'll just have to keep moving with you to figure out how this goes... oh well. I'm in."

"Yes, I agree with Alex here. Maybe we'll find out whats going on around here. Alex, you should be able to tell whats going to go on next. I wonder why all the people say the same thing over and over?" He walked over to a guard now in front of the entrance, "Excuse me sir, could you please bring us to the King?"

"I could have sworn that woman just said save the princess. So how come you assume she isn't kidnapped?" Megaman says to Alex as they walk towards the castle.

Link shrugged. "Well, he said he knew how this goes. Maybe he has played with those guys before."

"I meant that the Warriors of Light haven't appeared yet, which gives me an idea. Follow me, everyone."
Alex led the group to the King's Room on the second floor of Castle Cornelia. He bowed respectfully, then said, "I come bearing news of the Warriors of Light."
The king's aide responded. "What have you heard?"
"I have reason to believe they are indisposed at the moment. I request that you allow my companions and me to rescue your daughter from the Chaos Shrine."
The king replied, "If you believe yourselves capable, then by all means, do what you can to save Sara."
"Thank you." Alex bowed again, and left the room with the others in tow.

"Well, now where do we go? It seems nobody here has any idea of how this place works," Link said, before looking upwards. He then noticed something. "How come the sun ain't moving?"

(Just a joke about how it's always daytime in most RPGs. Basically, in the official dimension, it should have daytime and nighttime. In the game one [which we exploit], there isn't one. Methinks.)

"I guess we follow Alex to this 'Chaos Shrine'. It can't be any harder then trying to figure out whats going on here." Garet started walking out of the castle. He looked back at Alex, "Lead the way my fine sir", he said as he unsheathed his sword and dug it into the ground.

"Will do, Garet." And with that, the five of them headed north from Cornelia. It wasn't long before they ran into five more goblins.
"Goody, more experience! I go first," he said as he drew his Rapier. He slashed at one of the goblins, dealing 15 damage. The goblin vanished into thin air.
"Oh yeah! That's more like it!"

"Looks like we will be doing a little fighting. Unfortunately I won't be able to haul all of you like I did before. Tha jetboard ran out of juice, so we are stuck walking."

Then the battle started and they were fighting Goblins again. "I don't feel like waiting." Megaman switched to crash bombs and fired. Watchign the explosion hit all the goblins left.

Link decided to test out one of his weapons. "Let's see... what does the Switch Hook does here?" he asked, before activating it.

"I think I'll go basic Alex", he said as he rushed one of the goblins with fine sword slash. His sword whistling as it flew through the air towards the goblin.

Order of events:
First, the Crash Bomb hits one goblin for 188 damage, followed by the Switchhook, which flips one goblin on its head with a THUNK and a 65. Garet's sword deals 353 damage, then the Crash Bomb goes off, blowing up the remaining goblin.
[Earned 6 EXP.]
[Obtained 30 gil.]
"Awesome! On we go! This should be easy."

OOC: Wow, six pages in ten hours? That's almost as good as the first GM.

Link stared at Alex. "We got 6 of those experience points things, and you think that's awesome? For all I know, it's probably divided by 5 or something, which doesn't helps too much."

"Just great, I'm mowing down anything that gets in our way this time. Hopefully this time we'll get to the temple." He sheathed his sword and awaited Alex's next order. He still wondered why the heck they were doing this to begin with.

(ooc:I won't be on the rest of the night so don't get to the temple without me, unless you Mammothtank wanna rp him there.)

"While six experience may sound small, have you noticed how weak I am in comparison to you guys? I'm close to growing a level here. Also, that six is the divided number; on my own, I'd have gotten way more, but I would've taken some damage."

After passing two more forests, the group came across a small ruined keep. "Welcome to the Chaos Shrine, everyone! Let's beat on Garland and rescue the princess. This shouldn't be too tough; Garland only has 212HP."

"Just show us where this guy is so me or Garet can deal with him. The others don't need to watch." Link was awfully calm as he said that. 'Seems as if this Garland is a swordsman of sorts. Maybe it's better if a swordsman fought him.' He then grinned. 'Besides, we are the strongest guys, and I wasn't even trying to beat that goblin up. I think I'd turn the guy into a pulp if I really tried.'

(ooc: Mammothtank, could you rp Garet there for me please? I won't be on the for the rest of the night)

"Yeah, let me and Link take care of it. I think we can defeat him in one shot." Garet said this with confidence as he approached Garland who was standing over Princess Sara.

(Same for me. Turning in for the night.)

[According to Swordmaster I'm supposed to post the following. I'm out of the loop so, take it up with him or whatever.]

OOC: I've talked this over with Mammothtank. It's all koshure.

IC: Rudy deflected a blow from the sword of one of his assailants. The force caused him to fall back, but buy running with the momentum, he was able to not only keep his feet, but put some distance between himself and his enemies. Finding himself with a few spare moments, Rudy reexamined his opponents.

The first was a tall swordsman fully clad in armor. His face did not show behind the full plate helmet, but his eyes glowed somewhat ominously. He called himself Garland. He seemed to be the leader of the group, but he didn't do much fighting. Instead, two strange looking men did most of the dirty work.

The first was made of metal. He was not living metal made in the form of flesh, as Rudy was, but an iron clad behemoth who's defenced seemed impenetrable. Upon his head was a scizor shaped blade and when he attacked, he took it from atop his head and threw it in an arc. It would tear through almost anything and always returned to him. He called himself Cutman.

The second, however, was clearly the more dangerous of the two. He had green skin and blue hair, and attacked with a sword ablaze with mystic will. He was a very skilled swordsman and a pyromancer of much merit. He called himself Saturos.

Rudy's HP was getting low and his amunition was begining to run out. He was forced to concede to himself that he was no match for this group alone.

Then he began to hear a comotion from outside wherever the hell he was. Reinforements? For whom? Rudy readied himself for the worst. "Time for some heavey artilery." He just hoped that he could prepare it in time.

Link had noticed the sounds of battling, and headed towards it to see a two swordsmen and another weird thing attack a guy with some sort of weapon. "Oh great... what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

"CUTMAN!" Megaman exclaimed when he saw his foe. "Now how the hell is that dude alive? I could have sworn I killed him the last time Dr. Wily attacked." Megaman changed into a redish colored suit. "There is no way your going to stand against this man without my help." Megaman suddenly seemed to charge, and his colors started to flash. "This should take the fool out."

(OOC: Shouldn't this be the point where Alex comments that the party is full and either one of us or Rudy has to wait out?)

"How did you... nevermind," Link said, "just how do you know this guy?"

OOC: Before entering the Chaos Shrine...

IC: "Huh? Oh, it's Edge. Wow, this group's getting bigger by the minute. I don't have time to explain, so just follow along. If you're confused, don't worry - you're not the only one. Let's go!" Alex entered the Chaos Shrine.

What he saw inside made his jaw drop and his eye twitch. "Is that Cut Man? And Saturos? And Rudy taking them both on simultaneously? And Garland sitting on the sidelines? Now I've seen everything." He pointed at his allies. "Megaman, Link, you're with me. Let's give Rudy here a hand. The rest of you, sit tight; only four people can fight at a time." He drew his Rapier, and pointing it at Saturos, shouted "Charge!"

As the group got larger Garet got mopre confused. But out of the confusion came anger as he saw the face of Saturos. "Why is he here? I'm gonna kill him", Garet said rushing at Saturos with his blade raised. He then jumped into the air bringing his sword down at Saturos not even minding the presence of Cut Man.

Link looked at Alex, then pushed him. "You'd better stay back. Me and Garet are the strongest, and Garet has jumped in the fray already. Meanwhile, Megaman is ready to attack. Unless you can make me or the other guy not attack, you're out." He then dashed towards Saturos. "Let me lend a hand, Garet!"

"Alright then. Let's see how he likes this." Megaman had finished his charging. Though he was to focused on Cutman to realize that Alex wanted them to attack Saturos first. He aimed his blaster and fired his charged shot at Cut Man, hoping to take out a huge chunk of hp.

Alex scowled at Link, but said nothing. He simply crossed his arms and leaned against a pillar, watching the fight from what he thought was a safe distance.

Saturos parried Garet's blow and laughed. "Heh. Looks like you're as predictable as ever. No Water Adept to heal you this time, is there? See if you can even amuse me!" He charged his sword with the power of Mars and swung at Garet.

Link decided to not use any tricks or go easy this time. If Saturos was as strong as he looked, then he'd better go all out. He unsheathed his sword, put up a ring on his finger, and delivered a forward slash that converged into a beam.

(Remember the ring? Well, I'm gonna use the Beam Ring lvl2. That is, I can shoot an energy beam until I lose 1/8 of health. Or a smaller fraction, whatever fits.)

(ooc:can I use psynergy?)

"I'm not letting you get away this time Saturos", Garet said as he barely blocked the blade. "I'll make sure of it", he said as charged up his psynergy. "Avalanche!" Garet called as he sent a giant rockslide as Saturos who was waiting for his next attack.

"Well Alex, I guess you n' me are sittin this one out. Huh, even though they look like wimps, I guess they can fight." Barret said. Astonished at the avalanche, and the fact that the name rung a bell, he said, "How do they do that...do they have some new kinds of materia? Earth materia perhaps?"

Scratching at his arm, "Thats it, I claim the next battle, I can't just sit back and wait while you guys do all the work!

OOC)If you get to the next battle and I haven't posted (because I'm doing homework), post for me please, just make Barret shoot the enemy. Thx

"Damnit, he is still up. Hate to pull this out, but it should end the battle quickly." Megaman suddenly changed colors again. Then everything stopped, except Megaman, in which he quickly switched over to crash bombs and started unloading. He got off about 7 of them when everything went back to normal speed, just the enemies were suddenly screwed due to 7 bombs exploding in unison.

(Eh... mammoth should tell you whether it hit or not...)

(Well I never said it ended the battle, nor did I say that the enemies actually take damage. But it doesn't matter and shouldn't stuff like this go in the discussion thread?)