Animus are the riders of the Gears, or Anima. Anima may become Omnigears through the powers of an anima relic, and only an anima relic.
Each relic is aligned with a certain Anima and Animus. Only when the Anima interacts with the Relic does the Animus become Omnigear.
It was a page Skan had read a hundred times, from a book he had read a hundred times. This morning, Skan had read and reread this page from Bart Fatima's diary. Bart himself was once Anima, and because of the extreme resemblance in their Gears, Skan figured, well, HOPED more than figure, that their relics were one and the same.
Skan was thinking of whether or not his friends too were Anima when Teron knocked on his door.
"Skan, gimme a hand with this Logic Cube!"
Skan pulled on his trench coat and opened the door. There stood Teron with a baffled look on his face. In his hands was a wierd item that was about the size of a softball. It was covered with large buttons that could light up red. If you push a button, it and all the buttons around it would either light up, if they were unlit, or UNlight, if they WERE lit. THe object was to light up all the buttons. "I've been at it all morning!" said Teron.
Skan took the sphere and turned it over, slowly, examing it. Then he pushed a button twice and another button once. The cube lit up and began blinking lights and playing a small tune, signifying Skan's win.
Teron stared at the cube for a few seconds, blinking, then snatched it away with a scowl. Skan grinned. He was a literal genious, with an IQ of 180, and everyone knew, but he always made sure they knew several times a week.
Skan walked over to the cockpit where Thom expertly piloted the submarine to the surface, which wasn't too far. Next to Thom, on Skan's chair, there lay a cup of coffee and a bagel. Skan sipped his coffee, still black-he never understood how people could drink it with so much sweetness poured in-and said the word "Thanks". Thom smiled, but otherwise gave no sign of hearing. Skan sat down in his chair and began lathering on cream cheese. Unlike the coffee, he liked his bagel with a lot of add on flavoring.
Taking a bite of his bagel, Skan began an unneccesary check of the Gear estimation damage repair cost. Seth could do it when he got back, but Skan was kinda bored.
It seems a lot more happened than met the eye. Instead of being 'magically fixed', it seems an Omnigear, being able to suffer more damage, didn't take ENOUGH damage to be defeated. So, because there was no pilot, the autopilot temporarily took over and placed the Omnigear in it's default boarding position. Interesting....
Here we go. About $3,000 worth of frame damage, $800 worth of armor damage, and $500 worth of fuel was spent. It was expensive, but Skan had faced worse. Only problem was the Guild's financing. Windor still supplied the Guild with $30,000 a year, but with more people joining every day... Maybe the money Skan would get from Bart's Company would help, being an extremely rich company. In a sense, there WAS a challenge for companies, and since Skan had won...
Skan shook his head, disgusted. Only a day ago, he promised himself he would never kill, and here he was, coldly calculating what he could gain in profits out of a man's death!
Thom interupted his thoughts. "Skan, we're at the surface. The Gears have been repaired, as much as we can underwater, and are being shipped to the Highwing now. We can leave, any time."
"Is now good?" asked Skan.
"Of course. I'll go get Nise and Teron." Before Skan could reply, Thom turned on his heels and walked away.
Skan didn't know the submarine very well, so he brought the map on screen, and studied it. Then he walked down the course he had burnt into his mind to the exit.
The small bridge over the water to the land had no railings, but was wide enought for Skan to walk through confidently. The airship Highwing stood in view.
The airship was as wide as a house, and was long as three. It looked magnificent, a mix between a blimp and a helicopter, lifted by hotair blasting down on the ground and several dozen propellors. All of the propellors were spinning, and the only thing keeping the Highwing on the ground were several thick cables.
Skan saw the Gears being pulled in on a conveyor, crouched in boarding positions but with the cielings still brushing their heads.
Seeing Thom, Nisemeisho, and Teron walk up from behind him, Skan jumped. "Ahm let's go!" he said, and took off in a run towards the ship. Everyone followed him at the same pace.
"Play agin, Thom?"
Skan grinned at Thom's grimace. Then the older man replied, "One last time. I'll win!"
They were playing a nameless virtual game that Skan himself had designed and programmed. Equipped with virtual visers, they seemed to be in a round cave with no exits. The point of the game for one person was to escape, and the other, to prevent the escape. You could say something, and reality was altered. For example, the escapee could say 'A door opens to the outside!'. The blocker could say something that makes exit through the door VERY hard or impossible. The only exception, is you can't say something to directly cancel out the last phrase, like 'Rocks crush the door.' A good phrase would be 'Locks and chains bind the door', then, 'A chain clipper appears in my hand', etc, until either 20 rounds have passed or the escaper manages to free himself.
In this game, Skan was the escaper. Both he and Thom were in the room. Since it was virtual reality, Skan made himself appear...enhanced. Other than his height and broader shoulders, you couldn't excaclty point to a place where he was different and describe it, but Skan DID look improved. Thom also improved himself, but neither beyond recognition.
"I go first," said Skan. "A hole appears in the wall to the outside." And one did.
"Ha!" countered Thom. "A venus man trap appears in the hole in a place where it can't be avoided!" And, a venus fly trap awaited, looking quite hungry.
"Ummm...in the hole appears a fungus that causes all plants to wither away and die." Fungus sprouted form the wall, and the venus man trap wilted awat.
"Easy! The fungus does the same thing to people that it does to plants!" Nothing visible changed, but Skan knew it to be true.
"No matter what I do," Skan though aloud, "you can always counter it with something deadly. Fine. I make this hole able to ward away lions, dragons, tigers," and Skan droned on to every dangerous animal he could think of, leaving Thom thinking hard. "Kirres, bugbears, and oh yes! The deadly egret! That bird is NASTY! Almost as bad as the female of the species!"
Thom pondered for a moment, then snapped his fingers. "In the tunnel," Thom said triumphantly, "appears an...EGRESS!!"
In the tunnel appeared what Thom figured was a female egret, so he raised his eyebrows in surprise when Skan went up and started petting the bird. THe long beaked bird closed its eyes then dissapeared. "Wha?"
Skan grinned. "Check your books, Thom. Not onyl is an egrett a harmless bird, but the word 'egress' doesnt mean a female egret. Its another words for exit!" A flashing neon sign, labelled 'EXIT', popped into view above the cave's exit. "You fell into my trap!" With a laugh Skan walked through the hole.
His turn gone, Thom could only watch helpless as Skan strutted through the 'egress'.
"Bah!" said Thom, throwing his visor to the floor, "You beat me for the last time!"
Skan opened his mouth to tease when Teron poked his head into the room. "We're at the Pisces Temple now!!"
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