TerraEarth Forums

Jason Tandro · Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:25 pm

Terra Earth Memories
© 2007 Jason Tandro

Introduction: This is a collection of short stories that follow TE: Adventures and are a prequel to TE: Absolute. I felt when writing TE: Absolute, that the shift was too abrupt from a happy ending of unity and peace to a sudden outbreak of civil war. Ergo, these short stories (which happen in chronological order, for the most part, explain how things go horribly awry in TE: Absolute.)

Terra Earth Timeline:

2 U.A. (Unity Age)

2 years after the initial virus that trapped people in the world of Terra Earth, a group of heroes rise up and slay the evil Ark4Elle. Unfortunately, this does not end the trap of the original virus. (TE: Adventures)

3 U.A.

Jason Tandro, Joan Michele and Axe Kazama team up and form a treasure hunting group, seeking the secrets of TerraEarth and a possible way out. (Golden Cave)

Rainichan and Freedan are wed, and encounter an odd note from Chicken who claims he has found another Twilight Ring. (The Third)

Deathpit and Blade train in the desert of Nazca and discover a startling fact about the inhabitants of the Sky Garden. (The Floating City)

USHHG runs across a new hero, Hammerit, who tells her about a great monster inhabiting the ocean beside the Seaside Palace. (Leviathan)

Fixy, Coz, TH, and TK work together to unravel a mystery in the aftermath of the Tower of Babel and discover a weapon originally designed to destroy TerraEarth in times of Crisis. (Reboot)

4 U.A.

Boxxleman, eFlare and Kaleflame dispute the methods of dealing with the remains of the virus in Terraearth. Seeds of enmity between the three are sown by a mysterious figure. (Lurking Shadow)

Raini is crowned the Queen of the South Continent, and trouble begins to stir during an assassination attempt… by Freedan?! (Betrayal)

Boxxle and eFlare claim the East and North Continent respectively, and lines are drawn in the sand. Could this be the beginning of a terrible war?! (Project Absolute)
Golden Cave

Jason Tandro stared at the mural before him. He couldn’t quite decipher what it meant. A soft voice called from behind him: “Hey!”

Jason turned to meet his companion, the fox-girl hunter named Joan. She was quite handy to have around. Even though she wasn’t much on ancient wisdom, she had an undisputed sense of street smarts.

“Would you stop gawking at that mural and try to find a way out already?” Joan asked.

“I’m hoping this mural might give us a clue,” Jason said.

A man in heavy bronze armor carrying a massive axe turned and said: “Well those murals haven’t done us any good.”

This one was Axe. And while he was not a pleasant man on the surface, he was a stoic warrior and a loyal comrade. The three of them had gone into business together as treasure hunters, and now, what seemed like a simple excavation had gone terribly wrong, and they found themselves stuck in a small room beneath the Pyramid.

“So who’s idea was it to make noise in the Heiroglyph room again?” Joan asked.

Axe went crimson and turned to the wall: “I’m just saying that the way outta here has gotta be the same way we got in here. And since that way is up, I doubt there’s anything we can do besides call for help.”

“Not necessarily,” Jason said. “This structure is notorious for hidden passages and failsafes,” and he added, as a sidenote, “as well as inescapable traps…”

“Well I already sent out an SOS and it’ll take twelve hours for help to show up, so we might as well look around,” Joan said.

“I don’t want to leave without that treasure,” Axe said.

Joan turned to Jason. Jason leaned back against the wall and pulled out his lance, Fusion. He then struck the back of the wall with it. A loud grinding sound reverberated through the room and the wall behind Axe opened up.

“Found a way out. And who knows, maybe a treasure or two,” Jason said.

“Wow! You’re a pro!” Joan laughed. “I’m gonna have to keep an eye on you boy, or you might outdo me as a hunter.”

Jason snickered. “You knew that was there the entire time, Joan. You were looking right at it.”

Joan grinned. “Yeah, but I wanted to see if you could figure it out. Plus I love pissing off Axe!”

Axe moaned. “I knew it. You’re all out to get me!”

They walked down the passage and found a small shrine at the end.

“So this is where the treasure is?” Axe asked.

“Unlikely, as the Shrines of worship themselves didn’t usually contain the treasure. There was almost always a room below them filled to the brim with treasure,” Jason said.

“Then let’s get down there!” Axe shouted.

“Unless you want to dig, I don’t see us getting there,” Joan said. “Another room, but this one doesn’t look like it has any special traps.”

Jason laughed. “This time I win. It’s a false tomb. The emblem of the royal family isn’t in place. All we gotta do is move this casket and we’ll be home free.”

With that Jason kicked over the casket, revealing a rope ladder to the bottom floor.

“Nice,” Joan smiled. “I guess we’re tied for now.”

The bottom floor had another casket and a passageway into another room. This time, the casket was golden and emblazed with the royal crest.

“Awesome! The treasure must be in that room back there!” Axe exclaimed.

“So it would seem,” Jason said. “Okay Axe, you go gather the treasure. Joan, check out the status of the search party and see if we can use anything here as a way back up the hole we fell through.”

“Roger that, what are you gonna do?” Joan asked.

“I still wanna check out these murals before we leave,” Jason said.

Jason began looking over the murals. They seemed to be simply the concept of the afterlife. A person is dead and mourned at a funeral, and then they appear alive once more. And yet, something is off, because the “dead” person has his eyes open. And then a strange note appeared beneath the hieroglyph. “Log-Out”.

“Log-out?” Jason asked. “Joan! Come here!”

Joan rushed over the Jason. She stared at the word that Jason’s eyes were now fixed upon.

“A way to log out?” Joan asked. “What’s this word beside it?”

Suddenly a word appeared next to the second part of the mural: ABSOLUTE.

Golden Cave- The End

The Third

It was a glorious spring day. Raini and Freedan awoke in their hotel room in Euro and lay together in bed. They had just been married the previous day.

“Good morning Angel,” Freedan said.

“Morning,” Raini smiled.

As they were about to kiss, a knock came at the door. Freedan went to answer it, and found himself face-to-face with Muerte.

“Hey, Muerte, what’s up?” Freedan asked.

“Chicken told me to give you this. He and Aoiga are in the midst of something big over at Mt. Temple. You’re gonna wanna check it out,” Muerte said.

“Okay. Is Deathpit local?” Freedan asked.

“Nah, he and Blade are off in the Nazca desert doing some training. Those two can never get strong enough, it seems,” Muerte said. “But it’s only to Mt. Temple. You guys can hike it or take a Kruk.”

Freedan nodded and shut the door. He opened the note:

“Dear Freedan and Raini:

Please hurry to Mt. Temple. Aoiga and I have uncovered something you have to see. I think it’s another Twilight Ring, but I can’t be sure.

Your pal,
Chicken.”
Freedan and Raini arrived at the strange garden that was Mt. Temple. They looked around for any sign of their comrades, but only saw a distant fire, which was most likely enemy patrols.

“What do we do? I’m within chatting range, should I try to reach him?” Raini asked.

“I’d rather not make any transmissions until we have no other option, in case those monsters can pick us up,” Freedan said.

So the two traveled in silence across the greens, finally arriving at a large crater, where a great battle had taken place a year ago.

“Look!” Raini shouted. Laying in the crater was Chicken. Next to him was Aoiga, who was holding a ring in his hand.

“Hey! About time you showed up!” Chicken shouted.

“Sorry! We got caught up in a bunch of weird stuff,” Freedan said.

Aoiga handed Raini the ring.

“What do you make of it?” Aoiga asked.

Raini sighed. “It’s clearly another Twilight Ring. Now there are three. How many more can we expect?”

Suddenly the ring burst forth a shimmering light and a loud voice proclaimed: “I AM THE THIRD. THE TIME HAS COME FOR THE THREE ADMINISTRATORS CHOSEN TO CLAIM A RING AND RESOLVE THE CONFLICT OF THE WORLD. FREEDAN, YOUR TIME IS UP, AND YOUR RING SHALL GO TO BOXXLE. AND THIS RING IS DESTINED TO EFLARE!”

The light dissipated, and calm returned.

“What in the world?” Aoiga asked.

“Could this be our ticket outta here,” Chicken asked.

Raini sighed. “It doesn’t feel right. I hate it…”

The Third- The End

Part 2

The Floating City

Blade and Deathpit were fiercely locked in battle with two Lizardmen. They had ambushed them in the middle of the night and caused general ruckus and panic amongst the inhabitants of Nazca.

"So this is what our training has led to?" Deathpit asked.

"Careful man, they might go after your ship next," Blade said.

One of the Lizardmen lunged at Blade, who spun elegantly out of the way and sliced down the beasts back with his twin blades. The other Lizardman leapt high in the air and smashed Deathpit's back with his stone axe, but the strongly armored Deathpit barely even felt it.
He turned cooly and fired three round directly into the Lizardman's skull.

"I am so good at this job," Deathpit grinned.

One of the nomads walked up to them. "You must be the Descendants of..."

Deathpit cut him off, "If you say Viagra I WILL BLOW YOUR HEAD OFF!"

The man raised his hands in the air. Blade let out a whistle. "Easy tiger," he said. "We're the Descendants alright. Did you need something else?"

"Well, um, yes. The Sky Garden is about to pass overhead, and we're afraid it has become quite full of monsters. Please check on our airborne brothers," the man pleaded.

"Will you be okay by yourselves?" Deathpit asked.

Suddenly a man with long dark hair walked up carrying a katana. It was Muerte.

"Muerte? What are you doing here?" Blade asked.

"I'm the delivery boy apparently. I just got here from Euro and some strange stuff is going down. I'll keep an eye on these villagers, you go check on the citizens of Sky Garden. If something fishy goes down, report back immediatly to eFlare, got it?" Muerte said.

"Got it." Blade said.

The Sky Garden hovered above their heads, and Blade stood upon the teleporter. It glowed bright blue and began to lift him into the heavens.

"Deathpit, you better get on!" Blade said.

"Right! Goin' up!" Deathpit shouted as he jumped on the teleporter.

Around them was ruin. The once great Sky Garden had been burnt to a crisp.

"What the hell?" Blade asked.

"We need to search for survivors. Send an Emergency Notice out to Tower of Babel, I'll get KaleFlame over here," Deathpit said.

Deathpit looked around and saw a large red emblem glowing on the ground. A status bar suddenly appeared in front of him.

"Project Absolute Active.
20% Restored"

"What the hell is this?" Blade asked.

"It looks like it's... downloading something?" Deathpit said.

Another Monitor appeared.

"Running Debug Program.... Running Triangulation Program... Three Pillar Points Searching...."

"This Sky Garden is the host for a triangular convergence between three pillar points," came a voice behind them. It was eFlare.

"You got my message?" Deathpit asked.

"No, one that a villager had sent out moments before this happened. Project Absolute is something that Boxxle only briefed me about two days ago. It was a backup plan to get out of here," eFlare said.

"How does it?" Deathpit asked, but was cut off.

"That does not concern you. Get off of here immediatly. Boxxle, Raini and I will conduct an investigation and help any survivors... if there are any." eFlare said.

"But-" Blade began, but he knew arguing was futile. They left quietly, with only the sound of the transporter beam illuminating the scene of death they had just witnessed.

Floating City- End