Falling Dark Star (open)

[Brandon]

(This thread takes place before the saga)


Hot. Thats what the day was. There were a few wispy clouds in the sky, but not much to protect people from the suns rays. Though there was a wonderfully cool breeze that blew over the Wonder Island from time to time to make the day a bit more bearable.

The day would seem to be a normal one, but a thunderous BOOM roared through the air. The sound of something breaking the sound barrier as something, covered in flame, soared through the air and impacted into the ground near the shore of the east coast of the island.

Smoke billowed up from the impact site, as visible to anyone who was curious to see what crashed into the ground. They would not find any ship, but something buried in the sand. Something, Human shaped...

If they were to unbury it, they would feel the sand very hot. Even some had melted to form globs of rough glass. Eventually, they would come across what looked like a grey skinned human male, with very little clothing. Though it would be easy to see that much of the males clothing had been burnt to cinders upon the re-entry...

[Ethan Snow]

A hot day was a perfect day for surfing and that was exactly what Ethan was doing. It had been a few weeks since his seventeenth birthday and that whopper of a party Ohkara had given him, however due to the damage that had been done to the docks, the teen had opted to take his boat back to his favorite surfing grounds, right off the shore of Metropolis island. Sliding down a wicked tube on his ethereal board, Ethan heard the booming sown of an object falling below the sound barrier and like a few weeks earlier when the lizard man's ship fell into the ocean, thought it was a similar occurrence. Pumping some more energy into his board, Ethan took flight while still inside the curling wave, and ascended right up through the water, drenching himself in the cooling liquid as he did so. Looking about, the shirtless teen spotted the descending smoke trail heading towards Wonder island, another large landmass only a hop, skip and a jump away from Metropolis Island. Ethan only had sight of the object for a few seconds but he could tell it was out of control from it's ballistic arc across the sky and also that it was definitely coming down on or in the waters around Wonder Island.



Gliding higher, Ethan poured on some speed and followed in the direction of the object, arriving just a few minutes behind it's evidently messy landing on the beach. There was smoke and a few small ground fires where some drift wood or fallen palm leaves had been ignited by the intense heat of the fallen object and that of the splattered molten sand. Descending cautiously, Ethan surveyed the area but could spot anything that looked like parts from a spacecraft. Instead all there was was a pile of plowed up and half molten sand, still smoking from what ever was buried in it. Thinking it odd that there was no evidence of a ship but not seeing any danger, the shirtless boy touched down in the surf and walked ashore, bring with him a manipulated carpet of water that flowed with his footsteps and cooled the globules of glass as he approached the pile of disturbed sand.



"Hello?" the boy shouted at the pile. "Anyone in there?"



He didn't exactly wait for a reply, reasoning a moment after he asked the question that if someone was in there they'd likely not only be in distress but potentially getting burned by the smoldering materials in the sand. Acting quickly, Ethan focused more of his energy into manipulating the water around him and summoned up a controlled stream on water, a bit more powerful then a garden hose but not so powerful as a fireman's hose. Directing the stream of water on the pile of sand, Ethan started to wash it away from the top down.

"Hang on in there, I'll get you out." he called out, to reassure who ever might be buried underneath. A few moments more and he was surprised to uncover nothing more then the seemingly unconscious form of a young man, though possibly dead judging by the state of what was left of his clothing and the color of his skin. "Crap..." the boy mumbled to himself thinking he was too late in saving whomever this was. With the area cooling from the water though Ethan was free to move in and washed the supposed corpse down so it wouldn't be covered with sand and then stooped down to lift the other young man out of the now hole in the ground and up into his arms. More surprising then the lack of a ship though was that this young man, with all of his exposed skin, did not appear to be injured, only blacked in placed by soot and indeed now that he was in Ethan's arms, was breathing.



"Um... Hello?" the blue haired teen spoke a little more softly as he carried the charred male away from the impact side and knelt down, setting him down on a patch of grass near the beach.

[Wabisa]

Lately it seemed that all Wabisa wanted to do was just get away from people and relax, but even here on the island that most seemed to steer clear of due to the strange creatures that were supposed to inhabit it, her luck was as horrifically bad as ever. She had been sitting under a lone parasol on the beach a mile or two from where Brandon's ship had made such a wondrous, slightly unpleasant crash landing. Even with the cover of her parasol, the sunbathing Makyan had spotted the falling vessel as it neared her location. She rubbed the temples on the sides of her forehead with both hands, sighing out of frustration as she slowly climbed to her feet. The makyan assumed nobody would wreck her parasol and beach towel for the time being, and she took to the air, casually flying along towards the site of the disturbance.

To her surprise, someone else had arrived long before she did. The person, apparently human by the look of him, had pulled a gray skinned individual out of a heap of sand and molten glass. The Makyo-jin descended slowly as to not startle anyone present. She crossed her arms, looking rather odd while taking such a stern posture in a yellow bikini. Wabisa shook her head before finally speaking up, "Hey there. Are they gonna make it or was the landing too hard on 'em?" She eyed the impact site and took note of the large amount of molten glass that was now cooling and solidifying thanks to the intense heat of the ship's crash landing.

The blanket of water that seemed to be moving along under the human's control certainly had her a bit curious, but she could clearly see that he was using it just to cool off the sand to make it traversable so he could save whoever it was that had landed here. She kept her distance for the time being and waited to see if anything turned up. "He looks to be fine. A bit beaten and bruised, but he's breathing and he's not bleeding profusely." She commented from a distance as Ethan sat Brandon down in a patch of grass. "You happen to know this guy?" Wabisa asked Ethan curiously. He seemed to care enough to save the fellow, or at least to attempt to. So maybe he knew something about the crashed man that she didn't know.

[Brandon]

(Wabisa, there was no ship )

While Brandon did indeed appear to be a corpse when Ethan lifted him from the now cool pile of sand and glass, His chest hardly moved with breathing at all. He started to regain consciousness, and in doing so, he let out a soft groan while he heard voices around him.

There were two voices he didnt recognize, infact... When he tried to remember what happened, his head hurt badly, and no memories came back to him. He could remember his name, but not much of anything else.

"Ugh... Where am I?" He asked, as he slowly opened his eyes. It was then Ethan and Wabisa were greeted with two bright glowing purple eyes that one would only see in Sci-fi films. And it wasnt a pleasant purple colour either, as it was more of a eerie glow. Looking between Ethan and Wabisa, he also asked "Who are you people?"

[Ethan Snow]

Relieved to see the grey skinned young man coming about after he'd set him down, Ethan remained kneeling beside him as someone else approached and inquired as to whether the young man would pull through, but then conjectured that he'd be fine. Looking up Ethan noted he was being addressed by a very scantily clad young lady in a yellow bikini. She went on to ask if he knew the crispy gentleman on the ground to which Ethan finally replied.

"Nope, he just fell out of the sky while I was surfing, so I followed the smoke and put out the fires." the boy replied matter-of-factly and then looked back down to the grey skinned fellow as he too started to speak, asking where he was and who they were.

"Heh, you're on Wonder Island... Though by the way you came screaming in from the sky it might be a little more helpful to say you're on Earth." the shirtless teen answered and offered the young man a reassuring smile. It was interesting to note the guy had glowing eyes, purple ones at that, but seeing as he was very likely an alien, they didn't seem unusual except in the sense that it wasn't something that was generally seen in humanoids unless they were undergoing some drastic power transformation.

"I'm Ethan, and this is uh..." the boy continued, starting to answer the young man's second question but stopped short as the lady had not identified herself. "Are you ok? Can you tell me your name? Where you came from maybe, what happened?"

[Wabisa]

Wabisa supposed that her attire was probably a bit awkward for this kind of sudden meeting, but she was taking a bit of a vacation and a flaming young man came plummeting out of the sky like a comet. Any sane person would come to see what caused that ruckus and to check if everyone was alright, or at the very least that they were alive and getting help. When Ethan introduced himself to the half conscious male, Wabisa followed suit on his introduction and named herself, "My name is Wabisa. I'd say it's nice to meet you, but I'd say you aren't feeling too nice after an unpleasant fall like that. Better circumstances on our next meeting, hopefully?" It almost sounded like she was joking as she uttered that last sentence.

Despite being so scantily clad, the Makyan walked over and knelt down on one knee, resting one arm on her other, upright knee. She looked down at the seemingly injured young man, "If the fall hadn't given you such a thorough thrashing, I'd think about pummeling you myself for interrupting my vacation. But since you're in pretty dire straits, I won't bother. No fun in beating a barely conscious guy." She chuckled cooly and smirked. It probably came off as sarcasm when she spoke up again after that, but there was a strange tone of sincerity to her voice, "Seriously, though, if you need anything just let me know. I'm staying in a small hut down the coast a couple of miles. It's nothing fancy, but it's a roof over your head and there's a fire pit for cooking."

She was unaware of the fact that Ethan had a large boat available for use, although the young man hadn't offered it to the gray fellow. It did feel mildly comforting to see someone with a similar skin tone to herself. Maybe he had some demonic heritage of sorts? His eyes certainly lead her to believe as much, although her own eyes didn't have that eerie glow. Wabisa stood up after that and sighed, "So, Ethan, was it? I can give you a hand toting him to some proper medical facilities if you think it's necessary, but if he's talking and breathing after an impact like that I'd say he's made of tough enough stuff to not worry too much. He might be stiff and sore for a while, though."

[Brandon]

Brandon looked confused at Ethan and Wabisa as they spoke to him. "Wonder Island? Never heard of it..." He replied, as his head continued to pound against his skull. "I cant remember much really... My names Brandon, but thats all I can really remember... The rest is all distorted...fragmented... last thing I can... Remember... I have a friend who lived on a boat... ugh, w-whats the date?" He asked, as he sat up and looked up at the girl.

"Actually, My head is the only thing that hurts terribly... My body feels... tingly... Aaand WHAT THE FUCK!?" He said, as he looked at his hands, and his arms. "The hell happened to my skin?!" He asked, looking under his shirt. Well, what was left of it. "Last I checked, My skin was not this color!" He said, almost panicking. But he took a deep breath, as his yelling and panicking only made his head hurt more.

He waited for a moment, before he tried to get up on his feet, but his legs were a bit weak, so he was forced to sit back down...

[Ethan Snow]

Still kneeling next to the singed young man, Ethan made note of Wabisa's name when she piped in and introduced herself, though only now realized that besides the very Earthling fashion statement of the bikini, she didn't appear all that Earthly herself, although nowhere nearly as striking as the guy laying in front of him. Turning his attention back to said guy, Ethan listened as he recalled his name was Brandon but couldn't remember much else other then having a friend who lived on a boat.

"Heh, well lots of people live on boats, heck even I have one parked near here." Ethan replied, trying to keep the mood light. Brandon though seemed to have different plans and started to freak out when he noticed his skin was all grey, checking himself over only to find the color rather uniform. It did tell Ethan something though, grey might not be his natural skin color and if that was true, perhaps he was human after all, but somehow altered to survive that fall he'd just taken. What ever protection mechanism it was though certainly needed work if it resulted in memory loss. Before Ethan could think more on the matter though the other young man tried to stand up, but obviously hadn't the strength or coordination to do so yet.

"Here, here, relax man." Ethan reacted quickly, slipping a hand under the other's head and letting it down to the grass decidedly softer then if he'd just let the guy drop. "Just take it easy, don't push yourself. I know if I took a fall like that I wouldn't be walking around just yet. And don't worry, we'll find out what happened to your skin... and get you some new clothes." the blue haired teen added with a slight chuckle, turning his gaze back up to the young lady.

"You wouldn't happen to have something to put under his head for a little while do you?" he asked, still cradling the other male's head with his hand.

[Wabisa]

Wabisa really wasn't accustomed to dealing with people who had intense mental issues like this fellow seemed to have. Then again, feeling foreign to your own skin, literally, had to be quite a shock. She wasn't sure if it would help or not, and given that she felt a little insulted by him being so upset at having grey skin like her own, she spouted off, "What's so bad about having grey skin? I happen to have grey skin and I get along just fine!" The Makyan's arms crossed over her chest and she scowled at him for a moment. The trauma of his situation wasn't lost on her, but she couldn't help feeling a bit insulted and disgusted at his reaction to having grey skin. It was something she'd lived with her whole life, after all! And he was acting like it was the end of the world.

She turned to walk away from the two males, pausing to glance over her shoulder, "I'll get him a pillow and a blanket. Regulating his body temperature probably isn't a bad idea. I'll get some water for him to hydrate with, too." Clearly there was still a hint of disgust in her tone at him, but she took to the skies for faster travel speed and rocketed a couple of miles down the coast in no time. After just a couple of minutes she returned with a large pillow, a teal and blue comforter, and a large jug of cool water. Wabisa sat the jug down beside Brandon and then slid the pillow under his head, "Shut up and relax. You can worry about your existential crisis or the color of your skin or whatever...whenever you aren't in such bad shape." She snapped at him and gave a firm, but gentle push to get him to lie back down.

Wabisa looked up at Ethan and asked, "So you don't know this guy, but you showed up to save him from being reduced to ashes in the fires of his own impact crater?" She pondered that question, which was mostly rhetorical, before adding, "You do look strangely familiar to me. I know I've seen you before, but I can't recall where." The Makyan tapped her chin as she eyed him, "Are you a member of the Crane School in Central City?"

[Brandon]

Before Brandon could answer Wabisa's question, She had bolted off to grab him a pillow and blanket as well as a jug of water.

She then proceeded to push him on his back gently, so his head rested on the pillow. "Thank you for all this. Im sorry I blew up earlier... I just... used to have skin like his..." He said, gesturing to Ethan.

But it was then he heard them talking about an impact crater, as well as mention of a school, and a city he had never even heard of. "Wait, Impact crater? How did I...ya know... survive? And I've never heard of a school or city by those names before..." He said, getting more confused by the moment. He took a deep breath to calm himself down as he eventually just listened to the two of them.

"Any of you two know what the date is by any chance?"

[Ethan Snow]

Letting Brandon's head down gently on the pillow when the someone cantankerous young lady returned with it and other provisions, Ethan kept his mouth shut about the water. He could have generated all the clean water they needed in about any temperature desired with but some concentration and a portion of hi energy, but the bottle Wabisa brought back would work just as well. The young man in their care though seemed to be getting a grip on himself now though and apologized for freaking out and even went on to point out that his skin wasn't originally grey, but flesh toned like Ethan's, which of course prompted the boy to crack a joke.

"Ah, so you had perfect skin too eh?" the blue haired teen joked and sat back now that his hand wasn't needed to hold Brandon's head up anymore.

The direction of the conversation though changed when Wabisa started to question Ethan, asking first why he'd save someone he did not know. However before he could answer she went on to start asking somewhat more uncomfortable questions, pointing out that he looked familiar and wondering where she knew him from. "I uh... I uh... Uh..." his mind raced trying to think of a likely excuse, anything other then telling her he was the leader of the resistance and later the President for all of three months.

"Uh... well I do go surfing around here a lot..." he blurted out and then instantly regretted it. 'Way to go man, that was the lamest excuse ever. You might as well teller her, you've been all over the TV after all and the only reason she probably doesn't remember you clearly is that damn suit they always had you dressed in... There hair though, she's probably remember the hair, it's like the brightest blue around... Yeah, I'm screwed.'

"Errr, ok... You're probably remembering me from the television... I was on it quite a bit a few months ago... Heh hem... Yeah..." Ethan admitted, but didn't quite go all the way while he searched for another topic and one just presented it's self as Brandon had asked what the date was.

"Oh, the date? July twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred ninety one. Must have been cruising around up there for a few months then eh?" the shirtless boy answered, hoping the move was slick enough to avoid further scrutiny about his identity.

[Wabisa]

So he had been on TV a lot a few months ago? The blue hair was striking and unforgettable. He was the one who lead the resistance. It seemed he wasn't too keen on talking about that portion of the past, although she couldn't fathom why. He was deemed as a hero, and even given the position of President of Earth. She had done a bit of fighting in those battles as well, although she didn't consider herself a major player in them. Wabisa took a deep breath and sighed, "If that's how you feel about it then I won't pry further. I'm sure you've got your reasons for laying low."

She decided not to pressure him. Someone with his ability and charisma could easily take advantage of that situation and rule the planet like a tyrannical dictator if he wanted to, but instead he left that life behind after saving the world. Perhaps he was a simple man who just wanted peace? Either way, the Makyan's attention shifted back to Brandon. "You must have hit your head a lot harder on the sand than is reasonably possible. You don't remember your past, barely remember your name, and don't even know what year it is. That's a rough way to go, guy."

Wabisa sat down beside of Brandon and curled her legs inward, Indian style, before resting her hands on her knees. "Yeah, guy, you rocketed through the sky towards the ground, slammed into the beach, and you hit so hard that some of the sand got cooked into natural glass. You must be tough as nails to have survived a fall like that, but it's not out of the question. I'd say I could handle a hit like that, although I'd definitely be woozy and beaten like you are."

[Brandon]

"E-Eighteen Nintey one?!" He said, as his eyes widened. He shot back up, sitting up quickly.

"A few months? Try a few centuries!" He said, as he looked at his watch, but the strap had burned clean off, and the face was gone. All that was left was a burn mark of where the watch had been. The last thing I remember... I was... was... I was at my home in the forest, Just a short distance from East City... It was April fifteen... Fifteen Ninety. Ugh, this is getting just too much..." He said, rubbing his face with his hands.

Three Hundred years from his last memory, to the present. Many years had past since Brandon was last conscious, and he had alot of years to backtrack to get his memories back.

Some memories of his past did bubble through though, as friendly faces greeted him, but their names were currently lost to him. "All my friends... they are dead..." He said, as a tear streamed from his right eye. Soon anger took him, as he balled his fist and slammed it into the ground. "Damn it, Why can't I remember!" He said, as he felt some tingling in his body go, but it seemed to pool in his balled up fist.

He looked down at his fist, and saw that roughly six inches all around where his fist had impacted the ground, the grass had turned brown and seemingly...died in a matter of seconds.

"What...the heck...?"

[Ethan Snow]

Sitting back a few more inches while Brandon freaked out some more, Ethan didn't know what to do other then sit and listen, at least though he had another line of conversation open to him, one that although not exactly welcome, was less awkward. Looking to Wabisa he answered her statement about his having a reason to lay low.

"Well it's not exactly laying low, it's just avoiding the media circus that used to follow me around." he explained. "You must not have paid attention to politics, you see, the reason I was on the TV was because after the war I was in office for a few months... You know, the big guy. Heh, I mean, can you imagine me wearing a pressed, black suite and having people call me sir every five seconds. Anyway, I only stayed long enough to make sure the government wasn't going to fall apart when I was gone and then I was out of there. So yeah... Just don't call me President Snow, please."

Looking back to Brandon as he pounded his fists into the ground in frustration, Ethan was as surprised to see the dead grass as he was. "Well you don't see that every day." the shirtless teen commented with a raised eyebrow.

[Wabisa]

Now she was certain that this fellow had some otherworldly heritage. Aside from Namekians and Changelings, Wabisa wasn't aware of any mortal race that lived that long under normal circumstances. Something else that was far more interesting all but confirmed her suspicions of his dubious heritage, too. As he punched the ground, the plant life near the edge of the sand around his fist seemed to just curl up, wither, dry out, and die all in a matter of seconds of being near him. The release of energy necessary to cause such an effect likely came from his heightened emotional state and his desperation. It didn't appear as though he intentionally did it, at least.

Wabisa looked to Ethan and smiled, "Don't worry about it, guy. I'd treat you no different whether you were king of the galaxy or a pauper begging on the streets. That's just not my style. Personally, though, I think a strapping young fellow like yourself would be more intimidating in a suit. That just appeals to my line of work, though." She chuckled at that and then looked back to Brandon, "You have a huge gap in your memory, your skin changed color, and you've got otherworldly dark powers? Sounds to me like you've either dabbled in things you weren't capable of understanding, you made a pact with a particularly powerful demon to gain power or longevity, or maybe you've had latent demonic blood all along and a rather unpleasant experience awoke your darker side? I'm not unfamiliar with the way dark powers tend to work, being of dubious heritage myself...it comes with the territory. Your run of the mill demon is, in some form or fashion, like a distant cousin to my kind." She smirked at that and plucked the withered flower from where it lay, crumbling it up as she clenched her hand into a fist. She then opened her palm and blew the dust away.