We're all in this virtual space together.
Mismar

You walk towards the humming noise, wondering if this abstractthing is the unknown enemy which you had feared, or if perhaps the noise housedwhatever great evil had trapped you and your friends here. Your head begins toache as you walk closer, and you know that whatever is ahead of you are whattook your memories. You mind is trying to take them back, release them fromtheir captive prison but whatever held onto them so tightly was much too strongfor you Alone, even aided by the souls of departed you held onto like asecurity blanket.

When you finally reach the source of the humming, what you seesurprises you. All that lays there is a small wooden door, some sort of vibrantcherry wood. You inspect it, and decide it would be harmless to open. Youwonder what such an out of place object is doing in this state of the artvirtual (or not) space, but write it off as strange anomalies that had beenplaguing this whole not so grand adventure.

The brass door knob is solid in your hand, and you wiggle it abit, replaceing it turns easily. With a small flick of your wrist not cradling thediving tool from the Sorceress, you open the door and see what the source ofthe humming is. Or, perhaps, with just as fluid of a motion, you slice throughthe wretched door with the swordswoman’s trusty weapon, and end the ceaselesshumming that has been plaguing your brain. Both options are equally favorableto you, and both might give you answers to what the mystery of this virtualspace might be.

But neither will give you back your companions. And it is thisreminder of Loneliness that causes you to make up your mind.

What do you do?

When the door finallycreaked open, Myos’s already pale skin faded to downright colorless to what laybefore him. Rows upon rows of the Empress’s guards lay in front of them, armedto the teeth with weapons far out of the caliber of what the small rebellionhad their hands on. It was four against an entire army, and suddenly thefearless leader wasn’t so sure of their odds. Achernar yowled in rage, about tomaterialize her sword when Zeke grabbed her shoulder forcefully, vibrantemerald eyes never leaving the scene in front of him.

“What the fuck do youthink you’re doing?” Achernar screamed, throwing off the man’s hand with venom.

“Just running in thereis suicide. Do you want to die?” Zeke sneered, but didn’t bother to grab thewoman’s shoulder again.

The rows of soldiersstood perfectly still in an impeccable formation, as if their only duty was tostand there for eons, denying the passage of time its right to break down anddegrade their bodies all in service to the Empress, on the small chance that apowerful force might come to stop her. It was unsettling and disheartening,hitting Myos for the first time just how ill prepared their so called revolutionreally was.

“But...we’ve, we’ve comeso far,” Amaya said weakly, her lips quivering as if she were going to cry.Myos could understand the wall of hopelessness, those very emotions threateningto overcome him as well.

The young man took adeep and shuddering breath, and forced himself to put on a smile. It was fakeand first, painfully so, but slowly evolved into something genuine as he facedhis own troops, meager in comparison to the enemy. “And we’re still going. Wecan’t give up now.”

He stepped away fromthem, in the direction of the awaiting forces instead. They tensed inreadiness, as if this one man was a serious threat. Myos stood with his legsshoulder width apart, planting his feet into the ground. Below him he felt thehum of the propulsion system, the ever present force that had propelled themthrough space and further and further from their original home since the momenthe was born. He and his companions were humans who would never know the soil oftheir homeland, the feel of a real gust of air that barely buffeted the fieldsof golden grain, a color so much more natural than any they would ever know.All they knew were the stars.

All he knew were stars.Endless pinpricks of light in a seemingly endless void that would carry on farlonger than Myos could ever hope to imagine. And so, Myos pointed to theheavens, drastic cherry hair fluttering around his triumphant face like abeacon, star outline proudly emblazoned on the back of his neck facing histeammates. He was going to fight the pull of whatever twisted false fates theEmpress had in store for them, to resist little by little in what may be auseless struggle because every real hero knew that just one step and one pushand one last battle would be enough to start a miracle, only truly conceivableby the stars that surrounded them. And so, he held his fist to the heavens. Andso, Myos took a confident breath, staring down an impossible number of guardsthat only wanted to see them fall if for no reason then by the Empress’s orders.

And so, Myos shouted outwith all his might as the armored gauntlet around his upraised arm twirled offlike a shooting star spiraling through galaxies with all the simplicity ofdrawing a single pencil stroke.

“You think we’re justgonna give up now?!”

Myos had transformedinto his robotic battle form, every line and curve on the sleek steel bodyoverflowing with power. He drew his missile powered crossbow and took aim atthe mass before him, the large disks of the headphones spinning in placerapidly on either side of his head, creating a powerful whirring that began toemit a blinding light. His suit began to transform once again, as if the lighthad enveloped it, melding with the metal and steel and nuts and bolts and thevery soul of the machine itself.

“Well, get a fuckinggrip!”