Darren Astor
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
DARREN ASTOR'S VIRTUEVERSE PAGE HAS BEEN COMPLETED AND IT IS LIKELY THAT IT WILL NEVER EVER CHANGE EVER. Sorry.
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| Darren Astor | |
| Player: @Sgt. Roy | |
| Origin: | 
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|---|---|
| Archetype: | 
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| Threat Level: | Blueside = 30 Redside = 40 |
| Personal Data | |
| Real Name: | Darren Brett Astor |
| Known Aliases: | Darren, That One Dude That Sang The Other Day, Dare-Bear, and Bro. |
| Species: | Elemental |
| Age: | 27 |
| Height: | 6'3" |
| Weight: | Around 195 lbs. |
| Eye Color: | Brown |
| Hair Color: | Brown-Black |
| Biographical Data | |
| Nationality: | Confidential |
| Occupation: | Working on becoming a professional singer and/or techno artist. |
| Place of Birth: | Confidential |
| Base of Operations: | Confidential |
| Marital Status: | Single |
| Known Relatives: | Father: Brandon Astor (Deceased)
Mother: Cindy Astor (Deceased) Brother: Tim Daniels |
| Known Powers | |
| Confidential | |
| Known Abilities | |
| Superior control over raw Energy | |
| Equipment | |
| Energy. | |
| Is either fucking awesome or a complete douchebag. It's your choice.
Themesong: "Don't Stop Me Now" - Queen Has a personality and voice that is almost identical to that of Dante from Devil May Cry. | |
Random Person 1: "That dude is a complete douchebag."
Random Person 2: "You serious? He's fuckin' hilarious."
Random Person 3: "...He's a dumbass."
Biography
<<OOC NOTE>> If you actually bother to read everything that I've put here, you'll notice that it really skips all of Darren's life. That's because, honestly, I never thought about his life before he went to Paragon City/The Rogue Isles. My excuse for that? None of it really matters to him or his background. Minus the discovery of his powers, anyway. So... yeah. I'll update it as things go along.
Personality
Darren is typically the guy that is always there to cheer up his friends. His sharp wit and great sense of humor does really well when he's around other people. He hates being serious in public, and is almost always found joking around with his brother Tim Turbulon, and their friends. At first sight, he'll probably seem odd and stupid, but once you get to know him you'll realize how kind and smart he can be. He takes friendships very seriously, if anyone dares threaten any of the people he even vaguely cares about, he won't hesitate to break your arms. He's very easily approachable; he won't mind talking to complete strangers unless they're rather shady and mysterious. Being a friend of his is a simple process, you just need to be open to conversation, and know a sense of humor when you see one.
If you are unlucky enough to become one of his enemies, then there's a good chance you should completely avoid him. Due to the fact that he is rarely ever taken seriously from his normal personality, he seems like an easy target. Robotics would scan a minimal threat; psychics would find nothing of interest according to his abilities; just looking at him makes you pretty confident that you can wipe the floor with him. But never judge a book by its cover. When Darren is mad, he has the ability to use every bit of Energy he can gather to beat the hell out of you. His strength is multiplied over twenty times when he channels enough Energy into his body. If he only gathers enough Energy to about half of his capacity, he'd still have the ability to take down nineteen Godzillas, twelve King Kongs, and eight Chuck Norris'––at the same time. Underestimating him could be one of the worst decisions you have ever made.
Stress and nervous tension are now serious social problems in all parts of the world, and it is in order that this character's background should not be in any way confusing to anyone. The following facts will now be revealed in advance.
A) Darren is an Energy Elemental. He can control Energy in any way he wants. His body is really just a large amount of Energy stored in one place, but the way he manipulates the Energy allows the Energy to create a seemingly human shell over it. Because of this, Darren looks completely human to the naked eye. When he first had the ability to use his powers, his arm was removed and replaced with a cybernetic one. In NO way did that cybernetic arm give him his powers. Darren only thinks it did. In reality, Darren's father had the exact same abilities Darren does now, only his father was much more experienced and powerful. One of the main things Darren can do with his power is heal himself, only it starts healing him when he has a fatal wound. Say for example, his hand is cut off. Firstly, Energy would explode from the opening in his arm, and probably have enough force to demolish a small town. After a few seconds, his hand would reform and look as if nothing happened at all. In this way, he cannot be killed. However, he CAN die. But I digress. When Darren's arm was cut off, the Energy stored in his body immediately tried to reform his arm, but then the cybernetic arm was quickly placed there instead, cutting off the flow and causing all of the stored Energy to become backed up. This was what really caused Darren's powers to show, and why they were so unstable to begin with. When the flow of Energy was moving toward the open wound, it was forced to continue onward to the cybernetic replacement. This malfunctioned it, and because it was built to poison Darren and end up killing him, ended up becoming completely defective and useless.
Darren never got his powers from the cybernetic arm. He got them from his father. His powers are genetic.
B) Darren cannot be killed, as I said. You can definitely beat the hell out of him. It's not like he's invulnerable. But no matter what you do, you won't kill him. However, it is indeed possible for him to die. In fact, he WILL die. Where to start? Hm. Okay, Darren is an elemental. He cannot grow tired, he does not get hungry nor thirsty, and, because he isn't human, has no need to take showers or baths. If at any time he decides to do any of these things, he does it because he wants to. Now, dying? There's only one way this will ever occur. Darren's powers are renewable, because Energy is typically renewable. You can run a mile, and then when you grow tired you just rest and you'll gain Energy again. Darren doesn't need to rest, because the Energy in his body is rapidly reforming. At some point in his life, although it won't be for a VERY long time, the Energy in Darren's body will lose the ability to reform, and slowly dissipate and fade away. Because Darren is an elemental, he will fade with it. Take the fire out of a fire, you no longer have a fire. That's pretty much how straightforward it is. The way Darren dies looks nearly identical to how a Jedi dies. Can you remember how Yoda died in Star Wars? He faded away. That's the way Darren dies, but he doesn't just disappear in his death bed, he slowly fades away over time, because the Energy in his body is being used up and does not have the ability to recreate itself.
C) Darren's body is Energy. That's it. To the touch, however, he seems very much human. That is because he has manipulated the Energy in his body in a way as to create a realistic shell over the many layers of Energy that is very much like that of a human's skin. Darren also has the ability to shift his looks, although he will very rarely do it. The only thing in that area that he is always doing, is keeping himself from aging. Well, he is aging, but he doesn't look that way. He could be 63, and still look 25. That's because he's making himself that way. And no, it's not like in the middle of a conversation he'll suddenly look like a 63 year old. It doesn't take very much concentration to do this.
D) Darren is very much connected to his Dad. So much so that he's slowly gaining the abilities his father once had. The one thing that his father was best at was connecting the Energy in his body to the Energy in someone else's. He could do a handful of things by connecting himself to others, but the only thing Darren has been able to do like that is speak telepathically, and read people's thoughts. Only, he can't read thoughts on purpose. It just happens, and when it does, it feels like someone just smashed two very large iron mallets onto both sides of his head. He's slowly learning to do this on purpose, but he's very bad at it, and it normally ends up in him either becoming extremely lightheaded, or fainting. The fact that he is learning to do this is opening another door into telepathic abilities: he's able to mentally watch playbacks of another person's memories. Again, this only happens by accident, and when it does, he feels like the middle ball in a five ball pendulum.
Part I: Prologue
Darren got his powers from a really random situation that nobody could have seen coming. He was on his way to a friend's house when suddenly someone came up behind him and drugged him, knocking him out. When Darren awoke in an alley he was seemingly unharmed, until he looked over to his right arm. Completely shocked, Darren saw his right arm had been removed, and replaced with an odd-looking robotic one. It seemed to work fairly well, as if he never even lost his arm. He didn't mind the fact that he was missing an arm too much, this one boosted his strength and such, which was nice. He decided to head back home until suddenly the robotic arm began glowing a faded pink color, then darkened. The glow continued shifting color until it was a deep red shade. Out of nowhere, a wave of red Energy flew from his arm, forming a massive hole in the wall of a neighboring building. Darren had no idea what had happened, but he realized that the robotic arm had somehow given him powers. He decided to use it to his advantage; beating down his enemies with the aid of raw Energy sounded like a great idea.
As time passed, Darren realized he could slightly control how he used the Energy, whether he used it to boost the strength in his punches, and send out a wave of Energy to damage foes. There was a problem with his new found ability, however. If Darren went on without using his powers for too long, his arm would begin glowing again, and Energy would shoot out in various directions uncontrollably. The only way to stop or prevent such a thing from happening or getting worse would be to occasionally use Energy in whatever form he wanted. It sounded nice at first, but it became a pain, especially when his powers got even more complicated.
With the Energy coursing through his body constantly each day, Darren soon realized that something was wrong. The Energy began to backfire more quickly than before, sometimes he would use certain abilities without even trying to. He could only guess that the Energy in his body was becoming more and more unstable as time passed. He had to figure out what was going on before it was too late.
As all of this had been happening, Darren did his best to seem cheerful around his friends so that they didn't crowd around him with worry and sadness. The only person he explained his recent issues to was to his brother and best friend Tim Daniels, now known as the Spark Capacitor. Tim promised Darren that they would work together to get through whatever was happening. They always stood side by side, no matter what happened. Tim was mainly Darren's only friend at the time. There was Lucy Bousquet, or more commonly known as "Skitchy", who he had been friends with for a bit. However he hadn't seen her very often. Another person was a girl Darren had only known for a couple days at the time, Lacey Barlow, who was also known as the Dismal Dove. They quickly became friends soon after Lacey decided to try annoying Darren, which didn't work too well. They hung out in Pocket D, just doing random things that didn't make much sense. For example, Darren would test various random drinks that were kept behind the Heroes' Bar, seeing how they tasted, and soon after, what the side affect of drinking them was. This helped quite a bit in cheering Darren up during everything that was going on. Being with Lacey and joking around was one of the few things Darren had to look forward to each day. He grew slight feelings for her after a while, however he obviously kept those feelings to himself.
As the Energy inside Darren's body continued to become unstable and destructive, Darren soon realized it was extremely hard to control when he used his powers. He became worried that sooner or later he would completely lose control of his powers, which would lead to death. One day, while Tim and Darren were talking to each other, an argument sparked and Darren became uneasy and angry. Suddenly, metallic red armor crept over Darren's skin and pressed itself onto his body. It had completely encased him to the point where he was no longer breathing, talking, or anything of the sort. This new form surprised Tim beyond belief, and Darren immediately began attacking Tim, viciously and relentlessly beating him. They began a massive fight, which spanned for about twenty minutes until Tim had sent Darren flying into a wall and knocking him unconscious. When Darren awoke again, Tim didn't trust him enough to hang around him anymore. This had unsettled Darren even further.
Darren became afraid of his powers, he refused to use them until he could gain control over his powers again. On top of all of this, while Darren had hid his problems from Lacey to prevent her from becoming worried or scared, another man who was once his ally began flirting with her. It became very hard for Darren to conceal his anxiety and sudden jealousy from everyone. It had made Darren insane, the pressure was far too much.
When Tim decided to trust Darren again and help him in figuring out exactly what was going on, Tim decided to joke around and playfully threaten Darren of going off to tell Lacey how Darren felt about her. This made Darren angry yet again, and Darren changed, attacking Tim once more. Tim, however, refused to fight back. He urged Darren to fight the Energy in his body and overcome it. This was very hard for Darren; the Energy was taking over to the point where Darren could barely think straight. The Energy had taken full control of his mind and body. Darren struggled to regain control of himself, however to no avail. The Energy continued to push him toward viciously attacking those that were around him, until Darren used as much of his strength to fight himself. A few moments later, Darren suddenly disappeared.
Darren found himself in a large red dome. Upon inspection, the dome would appear to be made of crystal of some sort. Darren looked ahead to see a figure in a red cloak across the room, staring at him. Darren would walk toward the figure, asking him who he was and what was going on. The figure didn't answer the questions, he only explained what was going on with the Energy in Darren's body.
The man said that the robotic arm that had given him the powers was made as a virus that soon after kills the victim after being replaced and installed into the person. However, something about Darren's blood had kept the Energy from completely taking over. The most it managed to do was make Darren a monster for a short span of time. The definite reason behind this is unknown. From there, the man had decided to show Darren exactly where they were, and what he would have to do to learn to control his powers. This took about a year and a half for Darren to finally accomplish, but when he came back home only about a day had passed. So far, Darren had learned to control his powers by about a fourth. This was a major step for Darren, and it boosted his confidence in finally taking complete control of his powers.
While Darren had been gone, however, a man named Legionbreaker had been hanging around with Lacey, flirting and such. This had made Darren rather nervous, and a lot more jealous. He did his very best to hide his emotions, and avoid the two before things went wrong. That plan had failed completely, and not too long afterward Darren had gotten in a fight with Legion, to which he easily beat Legion to a pulp. Legion was extremely close to dying before Darren absentmindedly switched targets from Legion, to Lacey. After hurting Lacey a bit, and nearly killing Legion, the two retreated to a place called the Damon Flugel. Darren had no clue what this was, but didn't care. His main concern was the fact that he had hurt Lacey; the last thing he ever wanted to do. Soon after, Lacey agreed to begin dating Legion. Darren had never had to deal with so much pressure in his life.
Unstable powers, jealousy of a crush, and faltering friendships. Darren was considering ending it all, leaving forever, never coming back. It was far too much for him. One small spark was the only thing holding him back from leaving. That was his willpower to grit his teeth and continue onward. As time passed, Darren grew more and more control over his powers, as did his hope of finally being able to be with his friends again, mainly Lacey. As time passed, Darren slowly gained control of his powers. His depression had not helped in the least, but that small speck of hope was the only thing Darren had to force himself to keep going.
As if things couldn't get any worse, Darren soon heard news that the dimension that Darren had been learning to control his powers was becoming corrupted with an unknown enemy. The sages there said that Darren was the only one that could strike back and actually have a fighting chance, because he was human, and not completely drained of his powers when he was around Negative Energy. The level of danger in this task was uncharted, Darren could easily die if he had not succeeded. The only thing was, even if he did succeed, the process of saving the alternate dimension would end in both Positive and Negative Energy completely corrupting his body until he died. Despite the almost one-hundred percent chance of being killed, the things he had been forced to deal with were unbearable. Darren agreed, he would sacrifice himself to save the lives of everyone in the alternate dimension.
((You can find the link to exactly what happened in this side-plot at the bottom of the section.))
Darren had one thing left that he needed to do. Say his goodbyes. The first person he went to was Tim. He told him how he was sorry for everything that had happened, and that no matter what, they would always be brothers. They then went their separate ways, knowing that they would most likely never see each other again. The only other person he needed to say goodbye to, and the most painful person to have to talk to, was Lacey. He told her to meet him alone so that they could talk. Jealousy and hatred was written all over Darren's face, he was unsure whether or not Lacey could tell. He told her to live her life the way it should be lived. He told her to stop thinking about him, to forget that he was ever part of her life. As extremely painful as it was to push her away the way he did, he forced himself through it. After saying his goodbyes to her, he teleported himself to the other dimension, leaving Lacey alone.
(( http://z8.invisionfree.com/Shadow_Spiders_Forum/index.php?showtopic=57 ))
Aftermath
Darren had miraculously survived the mission, even he was unsure exactly how it happened. However, he now had complete control of his powers, he was no longer afraid of using them, and now he could use his abilities in ways that amazed himself. Darren was stuck in the alternate dimension for three years, however to Lacey, Tim, and everyone else he was only gone for two days. After Darren finally made it back home, the first thing he did was to meet up with Lacey. He talked to her for a while, explaining everything he could. Thousands of things were still flying through Darren's head, and he was still uneasy as to what was going to happen next, but ultimately, Darren was just happy to see Lacey again. Later, Lacey broke up with Legion, and after both Lacey and Darren confessed their feelings to each other, the two began dating.
However, after a couple weeks of laid back hanging out, Darren noticed something was wrong. He'd been getting frequent headaches and recurring nightmares. Not only that, but sometimes he would hallucinate and see things that weren't there or hear things that nobody else could. This confused him, and he decided to look into it a bit more. After a few days, he realized that Dark Astoria was the cause of these odd things. He decided to go there to find out why these things were happening, and to make them stop.
As Darren prepared to leave, he learned that he wasn't the only one dealing with these headaches and nightmares. Lacey was having the same problem; whenever Darren had a headache or something of the sort, she would too. After learning this, Darren decided that Lacey needed to stay away from Astoria so that he could go on his own and keep her out of harm's way. Darren also never mentioned that he was going to go to Astoria to Lacey, he even told her that he had no intention of leaving.
Darren headed off to Astoria a few days after, and after walking aimlessly around the deserted town he found Lacey. Surprised and anxious, he attempted to make her leave to no avail. The two decided to delve deeper into the town together. One of the main horrors that Darren was put through was watching his own mother die. As if that weren't bad enough, Lacey's shadow––what she manipulated to use her dark powers––was attempting to attack and kill her. Whenever Darren touched her, the shadow would calm down as if it was only trying to hurt Lacey or was possibly afraid of Darren. Everything was falling apart, leaving both Darren and Lacey scared and weary. They soon approached the graveyard, where Darren came across the gravestones of his mother and father. This confused him, as he witnessed the death of his mother only an hour before. His father's gravestone was also engraved with the words, "BORN AND DIED IN THE TOWN THAT HAUNTED HIM FOR SO LONG."
Both Darren and Lacey were utterly confused, working together to try and figure out what was going on. It seemed hopeless until a man suddenly appeared a few yards away from them. He refused to reveal his name, however he said that he was to be Darren's godfather until his parents decided that he would be unfit for the job. Soon after, he told Darren of his family's relationship with the town.
Every male born in Darren's bloodline was born in Dark Astoria. Darren was the only male born elsewhere. Darren's parents were to be punished for birthing Darren in another town, by whom, Darren does not know. His mother's punishment was to be driven insane, which she was, and in her mad fury she murdered Darren's father. However, Darren's father's punishment was to kill the person he had loved the most which was clearly Darren's mother. Obviously Darren's mother had gotten to him first, and his father was unable to atone for what he had done. "They" decided that because Darren's father could not face the consequences, the punishment was to be moved down to Darren. Darren was to kill the person he loved most.
He loved Lacey most.
Confused and angry, Darren attacked the man, quickly killing him. Feeling that their job here was done, Darren and Lacey left Astoria. A few days passed and everything seemed to be going back to normal.
Loved And Lost
About a week after Darren and Lacey's return from Astoria, Darren and Tim had overheard a conversation between Skitchy and Lacey. Apparently, the two had become overly stressed from everything that had been going on. They decided that they needed to leave. Skitchy called it a "vacation," but Tim and Darren were reluctant to believe that they would return. Skitchy and Lacey left to wherever it was they were headed, Darren hadn't even had the chance to say his goodbyes. Although Darren may never see Lacey again, he knew it was for the best.
Part II: Brandon Astor
Son of an Elemental
Since Lacey left, a lot had happened to Darren. It took him quite a while to get over the fact that he'd never see her again, but what really fixed it for him was meeting a girl named Jamie Denton. He grew feelings for her over time, and once they started dating, Lacey was quickly void from his mind. Darren and Jamie dated for a few months, and then she disappeared as well. However, this didn't bother him as much as he thought it should have.
A little before Darren realized Jamie was gone, he had heard that Tim went to another dimension, where he met countless Elementals just like them. Fire Elementals, Water Elementals, Wind, Earth, Electricity, and Energy. Tim said that he had also met the Ancients of those elements. He told Darren many things about them, but the only thing that really got his attention was the fact that his father was one of the Ancients. Darren's father, Brandon Astor, was the Ancient of Energy.
This completely caught Darren off guard. His mental image of his father was the complete opposite of an Elemental, much less an Ancient of them. Tim explained to Darren that Brandon was just as powerful as all of the other Ancients, however he was the person that they all went to to be mentored. This is because all of the Elements in existence are made up of concentrated Energy to give it a certain form. Brandon, being the Ancient of what basically gives all of the other Elementals life, is only fitting to be someone they all look up to.
Darren had to meet him. He hadn't seen his father in almost twenty years. It was all he thought about. This was why Darren didn't mind all that much that his girlfriend was gone. It did indeed bother him here and there, but it wasn't the same. His father was all that was on his mind. He dreamt of being able to train under him almost every night. It was only a matter of time before Darren decided that he would finally go with Tim to the alternate dimension, and meet his father.
Leaving
A little before Darren decided to find his father, something a bit more personal had been going on. A good friend of his, Casey McKnight, also known as Shadeweb, had told him that he broke up with his girlfriend. Casey was rather depressed over this, and Darren decided that he would try and cheer him up. After a bit of a man-to-man talk, Darren jokingly suggested that Casey ask another friend of theirs out on a date, Lia MacKay.
So he did.
Darren only half-expected this. After all, he was only joking when he said that Casey should ask her out. When he learned that she agreed to date him, Darren noticed a very small spark of jealousy. He thought nothing of it, mainly telling himself to be happy that Casey didn't need to be depressed over his ex anymore.
Darren then went back to thinking of his father, usually standing around his friends in Pocket D, but not talking. His mind was set on being able to be with his father. One day, while a few of his friends were talking, Darren suddenly stood up and blankly told him that he was leaving. They were clearly stressed out over the fact that he was just up and leaving, and attempted to convince him not to leave. But he had to, he had to see his father then and there, or it would haunt him for the rest of his life.
And then Darren said his goodbyes, turned, and left. Little did Darren know that this trip would change him completely.
((If you want more info on exactly how this turned out, and what he did in the other dimension regarding his father and all that fun stuff, read this. http://tinyurl.com/l2snod ))
Alone
((At this point, about four to five days had passed.))
Darren lay on the floor in the middle of the Abandoned Warehouse, both a group and an actual building that the 'Warehousians' reside in. He found it extremely hard to breathe and extremely hard to move. The only thing he could think of was what he had just done. All he wanted to do was scream, so he did.
A few moments after, Casey and Lia ran over to him, asking him what happened. He insisted on not talking about it, so they just moved him over to the Medbay and laid him down on one of the benches. They tried to convince him to talk to them about what happened, but instead he replied with insults and told them to go away. Making Lia angry, she stormed off and out of the Warehouse while Casey stayed.
Casey continued to persuade Darren into talking, and again, Darren did not open up to him. Casey then left and went to go see what everyone else was up to. Down the hall, Darren saw a small group of Warehousians talking to someone in their room. He slumped off of the bed and went to go find them. They were talking to a girl named Kieahna, or just Ahna, about her being possessed or controlled. Darren didn't quite understand. He just sat on the couch and listened. He didn't pay that much attention, however. His mind was focused on his father. After a few more minutes, Erik Jameson, the leader of the Warehouse, said something that caught Darren's attention. He stood up and threatened Erik, who then boasted and told him to fight him. He was clearly unable to do so, and he fell to his knees, full of regret and anger.
Everyone left the Warehouse, leaving Darren staring at the ground, pounding his fist into it and creating several dents in it. He had not cried since he was twelve. Although, Darren being an elemental, he has no tears. When he does cry, small orbs of Energy replace the water, falling out of his eyes and dissipating before they reach the ground.
Casey and Lia returned a bit before Darren fell to his knees, and they walked over in an attempt to comfort him. Darren, being as stubborn as he usually is, told them to leave him alone. This angered Lia, and she left yet again after being unable to help him. Casey did not leave, however. He continued to try and comfort Darren and get him to open up. After many attempts, Darren finally explained to him everything that happened when he went to find his father. He also made Casey promise not to tell anybody until he said it was okay.
Casey then left the Warehouse, and Darren moved back onto the couch, falling asleep. He no longer had family. His last tie to anyone that was really connected to him was dead. How could this have happened? It wasn't supposed to be this way. Darren had watched the slow and gruesome death of his mother, and he had murdered his father with his own hands.
He was alone, and he was losing the will to live.
Part III: Fatal Wounds
Unable to Continue
Darren then spent a majority of his time alone, regretting everything that he had done. His feelings were causing him to lose his concentration, and as such, his connection to Energy. Unable to keep the Energy inside of him under control and connected, he slowly began to fade away. He looked at his hand, being able to just barely see through it. After seeing his father do the same, he knew what was going on.
He was dying.
He told himself that it wouldn't make a difference. He had no reason to be around. Sure he had friends, but he was easily replaced. He never helped anyone. He never protected anyone. If he died, nothing would change. So he was going to disappear. He'd be there one day and gone the next. Nobody would notice. And that was the end of it.
But, for some reason, he wanted to at least see Lia again. If anything, apologize for anything he might have done that angered her. After all, it would have ended up being the last time she ever saw him if he chose not to apologize. He looked around the Warehouse to see Lia sitting in the Lounge, staring at the ground. He talked to her for a little while, and she explained to him that she was exhausted and irritated over the constant drama going back and forth around the Warehouse. The Abandoned Warehouse is very prone to drama.
He then convinced her to take some time off for a break. He said that that was what she needed. Enough time to get her head straight and calm down. She was always trying so hard to help keep everyone happy and content when, actually, Darren felt that she was the one who needed help. She told him that she would try, and the last thing Darren said to her was that he was sorry for angering her, if he did. Casey then entered the room, and Darren decided that he'd be better off comforting Lia. Darren left, patting Casey on the shoulder. His hand made no contact––it went directly through Casey's shoulder.
Fading From Existence
As time passed, Darren gradually continued fading away. The more things he did, the faster he faded. Since Darren is made up of nothing but raw, un-concentrated Energy, the Energy throughout his body normally reforms within seconds. But after the recent events and the fact that Darren was losing the connection with his powers, the Energy had lost the ability to reform, and left Darren's body like any typical human. Without the ability to reform, he disappeared with it. This is how an Energy Elemental dies.
Knowing full well what was happening, he promised himself he would stay out of the way. He hung around the Warehouse, not paying attention to anyone or anything. It was almost as if he wasn't there to begin with.
Darren was standing around the Warehouse, thinking to himself, when a young Warehousian named Amathyst––or more commonly known as Ama––came up to him telling him that Casey and Lia needed help fighting Ramseres II, yet another Warehousian who, at the time, was possessed by a being completely unknown to Darren. He told Ama that it wasn't his problem, and that they could handle him, but as a few moments passed and Darren began thinking to himself, he decided to save them. If anything, it would be a decent way to spend his last few hours alive.
He ran over to Lia's room to find her unconscious and bleeding and Casey attacking Ramseres. Darren held his arms out and threw Energy into her body so that he could pick her up without physically touching her––being sure that he didn't hurt her any further. He moved her out of the room and onto a nearby couch, telling Ama to watch over her.
Darren then walked back into the room and quickly attacked Ramseres, pinning him down and wailing on him. After all of this, Darren was almost completely invisible, if you were to look at him you would see very clearly through his body. Ramseres then hovered into the air and sent out a large wave of an unknown force in all directions, knocking both Casey and Darren down. Ama's boyfriend and another Warehousian, Knyte, then sent a powerful bolt of lightning at Ramseres, which ended up defeating him. Darren struggled to get to his feet, leaning on a bed and catching his breath. Ramseres, regaining consciousness, rose to his feet and ordered that they gave him a strange vial. In doing so, he promised to leave Ramseres' body and leave the Warehouse alone. Ama said that she had hid the vial, and after many attempts to convince her into telling them where the vial was, she finally pulled it out of a box that she had, giving it to Casey who then gave it to Ramseres. Ramseres then left, as he said, and as far as Darren knows, wasn't heard from for the rest of the night.
Casey, Ama, and Knyte all moved over to Lia, who was also regaining consciousness and practically vomiting blood. Darren stayed inside Lia's room, staring down at his barely visible self and catching his breath. Lia fell off of the couch and stumbled around on the floor, coughing up a large amount of blood.
Darren looked over at her, knowing full well that she was dying. It was at this moment that Darren knew how he felt about her since the day he met her. He was in love with her, and he'd be damned if he was going to stand around and allow her to die.
Having just barely enough Energy left in his body to move, he trudged toward her, falling to his knees, explaining to her that he was quickly dying, and had a very short amount of time left to live. He then told her that he would transfer the rest of his being to her, so that she could live. Lia crawled away from him, crying and telling him that she wouldn't let him die. Darren fell onto his back and held out his hand toward her, promising her in a soft and calm voice that everything would be alright. Nearly bawling, Lia moved over and took his hand, sighing.
Darren concentrated as much as he could, the rest of the Energy in his body dispersed and slowly flew out in all directions, before moving into Lia's body. After sacrificing the rest of his being for Lia, he disappeared completely. Darren had died.
Not Your Time
Darren awoke in that familiar red abyss, arms and legs spread out and his eyes staring off into the distance. This was now his home, he was no longer a part of Earth or anything that made him human. To Lia and all of his friends, he was dead. Darren moved to his feet, looking around and slowly walking into the unknown as thoughts of what he had done flew back and forth through his mind.
After taking a few steps forward, a bright white light flashed into his eyes. He held up his arm in an attempt to shield the blinding glow, but as he lowered his arm he found himself surrounded by several men in long red robes. They wore hoods that covered their eyes. He asked them what they wanted, and, in sync, they explained to him that he was not meant to die. They told him it was far too early to give up on life, and that he had much to learn about his powers before he could even consider taking his father's place. In other words, they were temporarily banishing him from the entire dimension until they felt that he was ready to come back. Darren argued with them, explaining to him that he had no meaning to go on. He had lost everything he had, nothing to hold onto and keep himself alive. The men said that he was to find something new to keep himself going, or he really would die in both their dimension and his. After a long debate, Darren finally settled at considering it. He was then sent back to Earth, but, in order to find something or someone he could hold onto, he would be invisible to everyone around him. At least, they thought he was.
Part IV: Death
Ghost
Darren found himself in Pocket D, strangely enough. He looked around to find Lia being comforted and held by Casey. He stood in front of them and attempted to get their attention, to no avail. They looked through him as if he wasn't there to begin with. Darren took Casey by the shoulders and shook him, yelling at him to look at his face. It seemed to work, Casey looked directly into Darren's eyes, but as Darren lowered his arms, Casey was suddenly holding Lia again, staring at the ground, as if Darren had never shook him at all. He then moved to Lia, putting his hands on her face and yelling her name. Just as before, Lia looked directly at Darren, just staring into his eyes. But, as Darren lowered his arms again, Lia was suddenly staring at the ground, leaning on Casey as if Darren never laid a hand on her. Darren felt like nothing more than a ghost. He turned and tackled a random man in the bar, shoving him to the ground and slamming his fist into his face. A few seconds passed, and Darren found himself kneeling on the ground. He turned around and looked up to see the man drinking beer and talking with his friends. Darren rose to his feet and slammed a fist into the side of a woman's face, causing her to fall to the ground. He moved over to her and kicked her directly in the gut. She spat blood and rolled over onto her back. Breathing heavily, Darren continued to stare at the woman, before suddenly he was only staring at the ground. The woman was standing next to Darren, casually talking to her friends.
Darren walked around the bar, staring at people intently before he moved to the center of the bar, looked at the ceiling, and screamed.
He looked over to Lia and Casey, still staring blankly at the ground and leaning on a wall. He walked over to them and stood there, staring at both of them. They quietly whispered to each other, and after Darren leaned in to hear them, he heard their conversation. They were talking about Darren; Lia asked Casey if Darren was going to be alright. Casey responded by telling her that he didn't know. Darren looked between the two for a few moments, before finally speaking, "Casey... Lia... I'm dead."
Darren moved over to the railing and jumped over it, walking over to the elevator, headed for Kings Row. But, just before he reached the elevator, Darren hit some kind of invisible wall. He was unable to go any further, for some odd reason. Since he was invisible, he decided to go the Rogue Isles, but as he walked across the dance floor, about halfway through it he hit the same kind of wall. He was trapped in a small section of Pocket D, but why? He kept poking at the wall, before it seemed to disappear. He took a few steps forward and reached the wall yet again. He turned around to see Lia and Casey walking toward the dance floor. After a few minutes, Darren realized that for some reason, the wall was moving with them. Casey stopped and looked as if he was telling Lia to wait a few minutes, and ran off. Darren tried following him, but he ran into the invisible wall again, unable to follow Casey. He turned to see Lia sitting on the ground, staring at her hands. Darren then realized that it wasn't both Casey and Lia that the wall was following, it was only Lia. Darren was restrained from moving too far away from Lia. Why was this? Was he somehow connected with Lia? Did it have something to do with him transferring the rest of his being into her?
He walked over to her and sat down, looking at her. He knew trying to comfort her in any way would do no good, so he decided that he would have to follow her around. Darren didn't necessarily have a problem with this, but the fact that she couldn't see or hear him irritated him. All he wanted to do was comfort her, and he would try as hard as he could to do so. Darren began talking to her, a casual tone, just trying to tell her that he was there for her, that he wasn't leaving. She didn't respond. Darren relentlessly talked to her, repeating himself over and over. Casey returned and moved Lia to her feet, taking her to the Warehouse. The entire time, Darren walked behind Lia, talking into her ear. Repeating himself, over and over, trying to convince her that he was going to be there forever.
Follow Her
Darren spent the next couple of days following Lia around, constantly talking to her, yelling at her, screaming at her, doing anything he could to get her attention. But nothing worked. He stood next to her no matter what she did. When she ate, he talked to her. When she slept, he talked to her. When she did anything, all he did was talk. There were even points where Darren hadn't paid any attention to the world outside him and Lia. All he would focus on at those times was talking into Lia's ear, as if he were in a trance. Darren was convinced that something would get through to her, some day.
And it did. One day, in Pocket D, Darren was standing behind Lia as she talked to Casey and a couple of her other friends. He yelled into her ear, telling her that he was here, with her. Suddenly, Lia jumped, holding her head and explaining to Casey that she was hearing voices. Casey asked her if she recognized the voices, but she said she couldn't make out some of the words, so she couldn't recognize who it might have been. Casey said that it might have been Darren, and Darren jumped, screaming into Lia's ear, telling her that he was here. Looking around, Darren knew it was too noisy for him to clearly get through to her, so he tried to tell her to go to Ouroboros. She seemed to understand part of it, but all that mattered was that she heard Ouroboros. She told Casey that she should go there and see if she could talk to Darren. Casey told her that he would go with her, and they left.
To Ouroboros
As Casey, Lia and Darren all teleported to Ouroboros, Darren immediately found himself on one of the far-off islands around the main platform of the area. He was standing next to a small pond of water which trailed off the edge and fell down into an endless ocean of water. Darren never fully understood how this came to be, but he enjoyed looking at it––it always somehow helped him clear his mind.
After a few moments, he noticed Casey and Lia moving over to the island. They stood next to him, looking around. After another moment, Casey noticed Darren's faded outline on the ground. He beckoned Lia over and she attempted to talk to him. Darren was unable to physically speak, seeing as he wasn't fully there. Though, when he used telepathy to talk to Lia, she could hear him perfectly. They talked about how Darren had lost his will to live and how Lia was very grateful over how Darren sacrificed himself for her. After asking him why he did so, Darren stood up and walked up the island, sitting next to a tree. He told her that he cared more about her than he thought he should.
This caught Lia off-guard, Darren basically gave away the fact that he had feelings for her of some kind. She followed him, Casey behind her and trying to get her to tell him what Darren was saying, as only Lia could hear him. Lia sat at the edge of the island, also using telepathy to talk to Darren.
He explained to her that he had nothing to hold onto, and that there was no real reason for him to come back, even though he had the chance. He told her that he never really did anything to help anyone, that he had no real purpose for being there. He was just, there. Lia argued the fact that she still liked having him around regardless, and that she felt oddly safe around him. Darren refused, he knew that if he came back he would get in the way of everyone, mainly because of his feelings for Lia. What Darren was thinking, was that he knew he'd do something over Lia that Casey would dislike him for, but he didn't tell Lia. He only said that he knew he would do something that people wouldn't like him for.
Lia started crying, attempting to convince him to come back. She explained to him that while he may not have a real reason to be around people, they still enjoyed his company. She told him that there would be a very big void if he disappeared, and one that would be very hard for another person to fill. Darren told her that she and everyone else would get over it sooner or later because he didn't make any kind of impact on anyone's lives.
Casey butted in on the conversation, growing impatient. He almost demanded that Lia tell him what they were talking about, and she finally agreed to do so. She leaned in and whispered to him for a few moments. Darren stood up and walked a small ways away from them to avoid as much awkwardness as he could. He heard Casey stumble around behind him and pause, leaning against a tree. Darren knew that Lia had told him the fact that he had feelings for her.
Lia told Casey that she would leave the two alone for a little while to talk about everything. She ran off and over the side of the island, leaving Darren staring into the abyss and Casey taking deep breaths. After a few seconds, Darren silently moved back down to the small pond. Casey followed and stood behind him, waiting for an explanation. Darren turned around, quickly remembering that he couldn't actually talk to Casey. He decided that the best way to talk to him was to mouth words as clearly as he could, luckily Casey almost completely understood him.
He explained to Casey that he didn't want to come back because he felt that, after harboring feelings for Lia, he would do something that would ruin their relationship as friends, something he really didn't want to do. He thought he would be better off as he was, nothing but an elemental. Casey told him that, although he really didn't expect something like this, he went through the same feelings for Jamie, Darren's now ex-girlfriend. This surprised Darren, as well as make him feel relatively bad, knowing that he had to go and tell Lia that he cared about her, while Casey kept his feelings to himself when it came to Jamie.
They talked for a little while longer, and Casey ended it by saying that he'd leave the ultimate decision to Lia––whether she would choose to be with Darren or Casey. With that, Casey left to find Lia and talk to her for a little while. Darren sat next to the pond, staring at the water and thinking to himself. He was at a complete loss of what to do.
Waiting
Darren spent a majority of his time in Ouroboros afterward. For some reason, when he was here, he didn't need to stay near Lia. Perhaps Darren or maybe Energy in general had some kind of strange connection with Ouroboros. Darren didn't do much here, he mainly laid in the grass on one of the floating islands, thinking. Of course, Lia and Casey were all he thought about for a majority of the time, but when he wasn't thinking of them, his mind drifted off to his father. All he wanted was to spend time with him, after not seeing him for well over twenty years.
He laid on the grass, staring up at the sky. He wondered what Casey and Lia were talking about, and whether it was something that he needed to know. Time didn't pass at all in Ouroboros, but Darren guessed that he had been lying in the grass for a couple hours. He closed his eyes for a moment, and then opened them to see Lia, giving a weak smile. He asked her what they talked about, and she said that Casey told her the same thing he told Darren. She said that Casey told her that he couldn't fathom the idea of her leaving him, but he would still let her make the ultimate choice.
Lia moved over to Darren and sat next to him. They talked for a little while, Darren told her that he was still hesitant to come back, and Lia said that what she wanted most was for him to come back to life. She explained to him, with a bit more detail than before, that she felt empty and alone with him gone. She said that whenever he was around, she felt oddly safe, which was a feeling she never got around Casey. Darren didn't know what to say. Suddenly, he felt like the worst person on the planet for forcing Lia through this, especially when she felt this way about him.
Lia said that she needed time to think, and then she left. Darren found it hard to breathe, all he wanted to do was scream. He stood up and grit his teeth, then finally letting everything out. He didn't scream. He couldn't scream. He just collapsed onto his back, falling asleep.
Darren never left Ouroboros after that. He spent all of his time walking around, thinking and waiting. He had nothing better to do. It was like this for several days, before Darren noticed something different.
Part V: Reborn
Second Birth
Darren looked down at himself, and realized that it was a little bit harder to see through himself. He didn't understand why this was, but he knew that something was bringing him back. But he just didn't know what it was yet. As he paced around Ouroboros, thinking, he realized that it had something to do with Lia. It had to be related to what she told him, that she felt safe when he was around her.
He continued to think, occasionally looking at his hands to see that, gradually, he was reforming. Something in his head suddenly clicked. His subconscious made up his mind for him. Lia said that she was safe around him, and empty and alone when he wasn't. Darren had vowed to himself that he'd do whatever he could to make Lia happy, protect her, love her, all without even realizing that he had done so.
Darren rose to his feet, staring into the sky and closing his eyes. He waited a few minutes, then opened his eyes and looking down at himself. He could see his own body, his clothes, everything. He wasn't faded in the least, he was visible, he was no longer a ghost, he was alive. The only thing Darren could think of doing was finding Lia. His first instinct told him that she would be in the Warehouse, and that was the first place he went.
Darren looked around the Warehouse trying to find Lia for a few minutes until he went to the dojo and found her along with a couple others arguing. Lia's back was turned to Darren, so he just decided to stand there and wait for her to notice. Captain Mantis, or Terry, another Warehousian, looked to Darren and told him that he thought he was dead. Lia looked over at Terry, still not facing Darren, and threatened to beat him if he was trying to trick her into thinking Darren was behind her. Sure enough, when she turned to face him, there he was. She jumped off of the dojo and tackle-hugged him.
Afterward, Darren and Lia spent the rest of the day at Pocket D, hanging out with several of their friends (Except Casey, he was nowhere to be seen that night, which honestly Darren had no problem with). Darren was alive again, and it felt good to be around others for a change. However, this was not an entirely happy occasion––unbeknownst to Darren and Lia, new problems were sprouting.
Never-ending Conflict
After about a day, things were already becoming difficult for Darren, mainly involving his jealousy over Lia. When Casey entered Pocket D, he greeted Darren with a relatively happy tone and smile on his face, although Darren felt that that wasn't exactly the way Casey was feeling. He suddenly felt as if Casey wanted him out of the way. They didn't talk very much that day, nor did they talk several days afterward. They both knew exactly what the other person wanted, and they were both hesitant to get it. There was no real way of settling this to the point where everyone was happy.
Darren did his best to stay away from Casey and Lia. He felt extremely awkward to be around both of them when the three of them knew all too well that he had feelings for Lia. Darren was not aware of it at the time, but this made it very hard for Lia to consider dating him because he was always off to the side, keeping to himself. This gave her mixed feelings, because when they were in Pocket D, around friends, he was always quiet and usually leaning on a wall, thinking to himself. However, when they were alone someplace, Darren was very open to her and wasn't afraid to talk. Lia wanted him to be open all the time, not just when he was alone with her.
One thing Darren noticed while occasionally looking over Casey and Lia, was that Casey constantly told her that he was very much attached to her, and held feelings that he had seldom held for other women he had dated. To Darren, this was complete bullshit. The fact that, initially, Casey left the choice to her and was fine with whatever she chose to do, but now when she even mentioned leaving Casey, he jumped all over her and almost begged her to stay. Darren knew this was making it very hard for Lia to decide, and part of him was telling him to just leave her with Casey so she wouldn't feel stressed anymore. The other part of him convinced him that he would most likely hold feelings for her for a while, and that he would be much better off dating her. Darren was busy trying to convince himself what to do at this point.
A few days had passed, and Casey asked Darren if he could talk to him alone. Although Darren agreed, he was very anxious to hear what Casey had to say. Obviously, Casey wanted to talk to Darren about Lia. Casey told him that, no matter what happened between the three of them, he wanted to make sure that it wouldn't ruin their friendship. He didn't want to lose either of them as a friend. Darren felt relatively better knowing Casey still wanted to consider him a friend, but he wasn't convinced that Casey was completely okay with everything. Darren then explained to Casey how he felt about practically forcing Lia to stay with him. After that, Casey said that he would apologize to her and really leave it up to her from then on.
A day or two passed and, again, Darren worked to stay out of the way of Casey and Lia. At some point in the middle of the day, Darren decided to go to the lounge in the Warehouse and rest. He fell asleep for about an hour before he was awakened by Lia. She told him that she had thought long and hard over everything, and that her ultimate decision was to stay with Casey. She apologized and, before she left, confessed that she loved Darren.
Darren spent the rest of that day and the next in the Warehouse. Now that he knew how Lia felt about him, he knew that it was best to keep himself as far away from the two as he could. While lying on a couch in the lounge, Darren heard over his communicator that Casey was going to visit his home to see his family and that he would be gone for a few days. Darren wasn't all that phased over this, it wasn't like he planned on secretly going to Lia while Casey was gone. He wasn't the type of person to try and do that. The night after, Casey called everyone to the Warehouse to see him off. Darren was the last person to say his goodbyes, mainly because he was hesitant to see if Casey even wanted to see him. After that, Darren decided to sleep off the rest of the night.
The day after, Darren went to Ouroboros again to clear his mind. He spent a few hours there, thinking to himself about what it is he could do now. He still had nothing to hold on to. That was what he needed to work to find now. His thinking was interrupted when he heard odd noises coming from his communicator, followed by a scream of both anger and terror. Shortly after that, Erik said that Lia had gone missing, and that he figured the sounds were from her. Darren, Erik, and a few others then went to go find her. They searched for about forty-five minutes before they found her, curled into a ball on the main platform of Ouroboros. However, what they found wasn't exactly Lia. She was transformed into a savage, red monster from the Energy Darren had given her. She didn't know how to control it, and it was only a matter of time before it took her over like it did Darren so long ago. Darren quickly noticed that it hadn't completely taken over when she was able to talk to him telepathically. This meant that either she was quickly learning how to fight it, or it hadn't taken over as much as when it took control of Darren.
He told her that the main thing she needed to do was to keep herself calm and relaxed in order to keep the Energy from spreading further throughout her body. If she continued to be as scared and irrational as she was, the Energy would quickly take over the rest of her system, and there would be no way of ever getting her back to normal. She stood up and slowly moved toward him, when Erik quickly tried to tackle and pin her to the ground. She screamed and fled, quickly disappearing around a corner. They continued to search the platform when Erik and Brad, also known as Dantian, found her huddled under a staircase. She then ran over and climbed up the stairs, trying to reach the top and hide again. Brad quickly beat her to the top of the staircase and blocked her from going any further. Allen, or Trianao, and Erik were waiting at the bottom in case she tried to run back down. They slowly moved in on her, planning on tackling her all at once and pinning her to the ground. Before they got too close, Darren ran forward and jumped in front of her, holding his arms out at the three of them, telling them to let him handle it. Darren knew exactly how to help her, he just hoped the others would allow him to do it.
After a few minutes, the three agreed to leave Darren to tend to Lia. Once they left, Darren turned to her and placed his hands on her arms, telling her to stay calm over and over as he began to leech Energy from her body. A few minutes passed and Lia regained her original form, quickly becoming very tired and weak. Darren picked her up and moved her to an island, setting her down and letting her lean on a rock. He sat next to her, making sure the Energy didn't immediately attempt to take over again. They talked for a while after that.
Darren asked her if she really meant what she said before; that she loved him. Lia said that she meant it, and that she was indeed in love with him. He asked her why she chose Casey over him, if that was the way she felt. She admitted that the main reason why she chose Casey over Darren was because of guilt, and that she didn't want to hurt Casey anymore. Darren suddenly felt a large surge of guilt for being one of the bigger factors that forced all this grief on Lia. She said that he gave her an odd sense of comfort and safety when he was around, a sense that she never got when around Casey. This was one of the main reasons why she didn't like how Darren kept off to the side when in Pocket D. Darren guessed that it was mainly because they were connected ever since he kept her alive with the last of his Energy. Now that the Energy was corrupting Lia's body, they were initially the same person. They now had the exact same powers, albeit Darren was much more experienced with them than Lia. She may not have been an Elemental, but he felt very close to her knowing that they could really relate to something.
Darren asked her if she was happy with the choice that she made. She said that while she was relatively glad that a majority of the drama had ended, she still felt empty knowing Darren would most likely no longer be around her. She said that she regretted choosing Casey mainly because she only chose him over guilt, when she could have chosen Darren because she was in love with him. Darren then took a very large metaphorical leap and suggested that, maybe, she could revoke her last decision and be with him. Lia paused for a minute and agreed. She said that she liked the idea, and she would very much like to be with Darren. She said that she would go to Casey and tell him that she decided to be with Darren when he got back, although she was very reluctant to do so. Darren and Lia then began dating, and Darren could only hope that this meant that the majority of the drama and conflicts would soon end.
But, it didn't. While a very large portion of the drama had come to an end, there were still things to be done. Ones that wouldn't be very enjoyable at that. While Darren and Lia were on a rooftop, talking, Lia got a phone call from Casey's brother, James, saying that Casey wanted to talk to her. Lia then called Casey, and she grew quiet, walking back and forth on the roof whispering into the phone and showing a very clear expression of anxiety and guilt on her face.
She talked into the phone for about twenty minutes, stopping every now and again to pull the phone away, sigh, and wipe her eyes. Darren couldn't make out anything she was saying, but at this point, all he wanted to do was comfort her. A few more minutes passed and Lia finally closed her cell phone, still looking very guilty. She told Darren that she had broken it off with Casey, and that she was afraid of what he'd do.
They spent about another hour on the roof. Darren held and comforted her, promising her that everything would be alright, but Darren could barely trust himself enough to believe that things would be alright. After that, Darren and Lia went to Pocket D, but they stayed out of sight because they knew Casey was around, and neither of them wanted to be around if he was. They heard him talking on the second floor of the 'Blueside' bar. He was obviously acting paranoid and going crazy over the fact that Lia had broken up with him. Several others––Darren could only make out Chris, or Xeden, and Raykera's voices––were comforting him and promising that he would recover and feel better sooner or later.
Darren and Lia waited until everyone seemed to have left, or at least Casey. When the finally went up to the second floor they noticed that their friends were completely ignoring and avoiding them. They wouldn't say a word to them and the most they'd give them was a slight glare. Of course, everyone knew what had happened, and they guessed that everyone deeply loathed them. There were a couple people who didn't care about what happened, and as such still talked to them. Darren and Lia tried to get those people to talk to the rest of their friends, and convince them to let them apologize, to no avail. Nobody would say anything to them.
Things went on like this for a few days, which made Darren and Lia feel very unwelcome. They decided that the best thing to do would be to avoid them as well, even though they didn't enjoy doing so in the least. Darren guessed that Casey had picked up on this, and mainly because he still most likely cared about Lia, he got a small group of Warehousians together and explained to them that they had no reason to be mad at Lia just because she chose Darren over him. He explained that he had given Lia the option to be with who she wanted to be with, and that he knew full well one of them would end up getting the short end of the stick. He made everyone agree to forgive Lia and talk to her again, as if nothing had happened to begin with. Darren quickly noticed that Casey hadn't acknowledged him in the matter, but he couldn't blame him. Darren had a strong feeling that Casey just really didn't want him around. It was because of this that for several weeks even after all of this, Darren still usually avoided Casey.
Resolution
Now that people began talking to Darren and Lia again, this marked the end of just about all of the drama that had gone around between the three. Darren and Lia are currently happily dating and very much in love. At the same time, Casey began dating another Warehousian that Darren personally doesn't know much about, Raykera. As far as he knows, they're also in love, which is very comforting for Darren, knowing that Casey has for the most part moved on. Still, he feels a bit awkward getting too close to Lia when Casey's around. He blames it on his guilty conscience, but he just won't lose the idea that Casey doesn't like the fact that Darren and Lia are dating. Perhaps this will change in the near future, but for now, Darren is just happy to be able to openly express his feelings to Lia.
Sub-Scenario I: Energy's Edge
A bit after Darren and Lia began dating, in his free time, Darren played quite a bit of the game 'Devil May Cry'. This is currently one of his favorite games––he was always the type of gamer that liked the 'hack n' slash' sub-genre. Darren thought of the main character, Dante, as a total badass. He loved the idea of a guy in a long red trench-coat wielding twin pistols and a big sword going around and mercilessly annihilating hordes of demons. It just seemed like one of the coolest things. Then, Darren got an idea. He could easily manipulate Energy in any way he pleased. So why not manipulate the Energy in such a way as to create his very own sword? Darren quickly did so, creating a finely crafted blade dyed in a blood red shade. It looked like a masterpiece, one of the finest looking swords he'd ever seen (though at this point, Darren had only seen about two other swords in his lifetime).
Although this whole 'sword' idea most likely wouldn't stick for very long, Darren occasionally uses a sword to defeat his enemies, usually sending out waves of Energy in an arc that follows the blade when he swings instead of just slashing at people. He's quickly learned to be very creative with what he does with his sword although he doesn't completely rely on it. He prefers his fists over any weapon.
Part VI: A New Reason
Mundane Traveling
Over time, although it had not been too much of an issue to Darren as it could have been, he started to become more and more agitated over Erik's choices. He was the leader of The Abandoned Warehouse, and Darren felt that he should have acted as such. Darren felt that Erik did not possess the characteristics of a good leader. Erik was arrogant, ignorant, and unfair. On top of that, Erik believed that he was better than everyone else just because he had invited everyone else into the group.
One day, Erik suddenly announced that he was leaving the Warehouse for a week on some personal business as he called it. While he was gone, he personally elected Chris to take over as leader. Now, Darren hadn't personally thought much of this. So Erik was leaving. Good riddance. So Chris would take his place. Good for him. Darren hadn't paid much attention to any of it either. While Erik was absent, Chris apparently did a very good job at handling the issues that the other members had. He worked to stay on top of them, did his best to solve them, and even managed to do a damned good job of keeping everyone relatively happy and content. All of this was of course news to Darren. In fact he wasn't even aware of this until Erik had returned.
Since Erik was gone, and there really wasn't much else to do, Darren decided to do a little bit of traveling. He hadn't decided out of nowhere, however. Since there were so many dramatic events occurring all around him, he became rather stressed. Though at the same time he noticed that he was involving himself in the events just a little bit more. He actually tried to help people he didn't relatively know. It surprised even him. Even so, the stress grew to the point where Darren was usually out of it and found it hard to concentrate. Lia quickly picked up on this fact, and attempted to convince him to find somewhere to go and something to do just for the sake of alone time. Darren quickly refused. After all, it hadn't been that long since he and Lia had began dating. The last thing he wanted was to be away from her. At the same time, however, the idea of taking time to sit back and relax for a while while still seeing new things didn't seem like that bad of an idea.
After a few days, Darren decided that going off to travel a little bit wouldn't be too bad of an idea after all. That night, he went and told Lia that he was going to go someplace to have his alone time. Lia was happy for him, and encouraged him to go. A bit later, Darren announced to several of his friends that he was going for a little while, and that he promised he'd be back. After he said his goodbyes, he left.
((At this point, I took a few days to try Champions Online with Erik's player. Almost two weeks had passed between when I took a break and when I came back. Darren was actually ICly in the world of Champions Online. So that the plot made a bit more sense, I decided that at least in my head the world of Champions Online was an alternate dimension, though I know this isn't relevant to the canon plot. But I wanted Darren to be in CO, what else could I have done at the time?))
Return to Bad Tidings
While Darren was gone, apparently a lot had happened. The only thing that really caught his eye was that Lia was hurt while he was away. Badly. Her adopted son Collin was also killed, though his soul managed to find another body later. Darren still wasn't quite sure what the whole deal with Collin was. Lia was still the main thing on his mind. Someone had attacked her and brutally beat her.
Now, when it comes to Darren, him being a very protective person of his friends, hurting his girlfriend of all people is probably one of the worst things you could do. If you do happen to do something along these lines, he won't pull his punches. He will seriously hurt you, and he won't feel any remorse for doing so, no matter who you are.
The whole story on Lia being attacked was that Collin had gotten himself involved in a group called The Abyss (a group that Darren had never personally cared for). Lia did what she could to save him when someone suddenly attacked her and basically left her for dead. All of this was apparently just to look good for The Abyss. It was the person's way of trying to impress the leader and get him into the group. Darren doesn't know if this worked or not, but it didn't matter to him. About a day after this happened, Lia found out that the person who attacked her was Kyle.
Kyle Valor. Darren figured he was pretty harmless, and pretty stupid too. But he attacked Lia? Did he have any idea what would happen to him if he did something like this? Apparently not. This was obviously a terrible move for him, and Darren swore that he'd show Kyle what happens when you fuck with someone that close to him.
When Darren returned, the first thing he did was go to Lia. She was wearing long black clothes: a robe, a cloak, and a hood. Darren immediately figured she was hiding from someone, but he didn't know what. When they began to talk, however, she said that it was the best way to stay away from everyone since nobody really knew who was behind the clothes. The only reason Darren could was because of his and Lia's connection. They're much closer than one might think, all because Darren sacrificed himself for her one night. Lia explained to Darren that she had had a horrible time while he was gone, which obviously made Darren quickly regret leaving, much like every other time he decides to leave somewhere. He promised her that he'd fix everything that was done to her, and for the rest of that night he stayed as close to her as he could, making sure she was out of harm.
The day after Darren went to Kyle. Or rather, he told Kyle to go to him. The first thing Darren did was demand that Kyle explain why he hurt Lia, and give several acceptable reasons as to why he shouldn't kill him then and there. Kyle explained that he was trying to get into The Abyss so he could save Lia's son, and he felt that the best way to do it was to hurt Lia. Darren worked really hard to process this. He really did. But he couldn't. It just didn't make enough sense. Darren decided that he'd just rip one of Kyle's arms from his body and be done with it.
Before he could do so, however, Kyle said that he was fine if Darren decided to kill him. He said that it wouldn't be the first time. He even said that he probably deserved it. Darren may have been deeply pissed off at the time, but he tries not to harm the defenseless. He doesn't enjoy unfair fights. Even if he's the one with the advantage he feels that the fight is either less fun or too easy. Darren decided to just leave it at the fact that he wouldn't hesitate to kill Kyle if he hurt Lia again.
Warehousian No More
Soon after, Darren had heard that Erik returned, and that he was fighting for leadership over the Warehouse. Many of the Warehousians believed that Chris was a much better leader than Erik was, and that Chris should remain leader permanently. According to Darren, Erik proceeded to attack Chris and several other Warehousians by saying that the Warehouse would fall without him, and that he's the one thing they need to survive. After much senseless arguing, Darren guessed that everyone had given up and returned leadership to Erik.
Though, that wasn't the end of it. Lia, Jordan Murphy (another Warehousian), and Chris had decided to make a separate group. One that would be free of constant drama and free of Erik. Lia came to Darren and offered to have Darren join the group, now known as The Midnight Refuge. Although Darren at first felt that he couldn't because he had put too much work in the group, he joined. Not long after, a majority of the Warehouse had migrated over to The Midnight Refuge as well. That was, as far as Darren knew, the end of The Abandoned Warehouse.
A Child For An Elemental
Darren had been a member of the Refuge for about a week when he was informed of news he never thought he would hear. He was working diligently in the base building a pool for the other refugees when he was interrupted by Lia and Shimmer-Strike––also known as Sylvia Rumare––and told that there was something he and Lia needed to talk about. When he questioned what it was, Lia tossed a pregnancy test at his feet.
It was positive.
Darren's mind stopped. It took a breath. It considered what it might do next Thursday if it gets off of work early. It took another breath. And then it imploded. Several times. Darren was left falling over onto his back and quietly mumbling gibberish to himself. He had been waiting almost his entire life for the day that he would have a child of his own, and this was that day. He couldn't do anything. He literally couldn't even think straight. He was going to have a son. Or maybe a daughter. It was one of his life goals. And it was going to happen.
While Darren was laying there trying to process everything, his reaction didn't look very pleasant to Lia. She thought that the way he acted was because a child was something he didn't want. She ran off into another room while Sylvia was left to try and convince Darren to get his head straight and go to Lia. This took a small amount of time before Darren managed to move to his feet and trudge off to Lia, explaining to Sylvia that he could have sworn there was a large blue unicorn on the ceiling just five minutes ago.
When he reached Lia, she was surrounded by several other refugees, all trying to comfort her. Darren sat down and began to comfort her as well, when he quickly realized it would be far too difficult to talk inbetween everyone else. He took Lia in his arms, concentrated, and teleported the two of them into that same scarlet abyss he had known so well.
After reappearing in the abyss, they talked for nearly an hour. Darren explained to her in detail how much he had wanted his own child and how blessed he felt to have that child with Lia. Lia told him that she was afraid Darren didn't want this, and that her being pregnant would get in the way. She felt that Darren wasn't happy about what happened and that the reason he wasn't thinking straight was because he was horrified that this would happen. This was not the case in the least. Darren managed to convince Lia that this was what he had wanted for the longest time. Darren felt closer to Lia than ever, and he found a new reason to continue living.
Part VII: Threat
An Unnecessarily Large Family
Things calmed down quite a bit, even after the news had spread that Lia was pregnant. When Darren had finished building the pool in the Midnight Refuge's base, the group decided to immediately have a pool party which spanned for the rest of the night. Darren had had fun up until a majority of the refugees decided to head off to bed. All that was left was Chris, Sylvia, Darren, Lia, and Jordan. Lia jumped and told Darren that she had forgot to mention something to him about Chris. She explained to him that Chris had done some research and learned that he was Lia's brother. The two were very pleased at this fact, as they were relatively close friends already. Darren, however, wasn't as excited as they were.
Throughout nearly all of Darren's life, he had lived in a very large family. A simple wedding ceremony required nearly three-fourths of a large restaurant to be reserved for the family. This had caused Darren to be very shy and unease as a child, and after growing up around such large groups of people, he realized that he just had trouble dealing with groups larger than about eight people in general. As he grew up, he began to fantasize about what his family would be like when he was older. It would be a much smaller family. Much simpler. It wasn't necessarily a goal for him to have such a small family, but it was just what he always imagined when he thought of his own family. When he began dating Lia, he wanted nothing more than to start that same kind of family with her. One or two children, a few siblings, parents (if they were still around), and that was it. But the problem with that was that Lia was in theory starting a family of her own. She had an adopted son and a newfound brother as well as being pregnant. Darren was afraid that their family, when put together, would be just as large as his when he was younger, or possibly even larger. This scared Darren, and he proceeded to quickly leave the Refuge's base and head home.
Lia soon followed, curious as to why Darren left in such a hurry after learning that Chris was her brother. When she reached their apartment, she questioned him about what was wrong. Darren then explained to her about his views of a large family, and what learning about Chris' relationship to her made him consider. Lia didn't take this very well, as she quickly left and headed to Pocket D. Darren felt like an idiot, there was no real reason for feeling the way that he did. After all, large families was something that bothered him as a child. And most children are very shy. This was a problem that should have left him long ago. And worse, he had basically explained to Lia that he didn't want to be related to Chris or Collin as well as explaining how selfish he felt about it. Darren wondered if he had just completely pushed Lia away from him.
After about an hour of waiting for Lia to return (as she told Darren she would), Darren decided to head to Pocket D to find and apologize to her. When he got there, Sylvia immediately came up to him and demanded that he find Lia and apologize to her, which he in turn told her that that was exactly what he planned to do. After a little bit of searching, Darren had no luck of finding Lia and decided to stand around and wait for her to show up at the bar. A few moments had passed and Lia walked up and greeted him. Darren asked her if they could talk, and when the two went over to one of the large windows in the center of Pocket D, the first thing Darren did was apologize. He explained to her how he felt stupid for feeling anxious over something that bothered him when he was younger, among other things. Lia then explained to Darren how she was afraid that Darren decided that he didn't want to be with Lia after all, and run away. She also mentioned that she began to have second thoughts about her pregnancy. This scared Darren even more, and he quickly explained to her that he would never run away from her. He loved her, and wanted nothing more than to have a baby with her. Lia, now sure that Darren was alright with everything, agreed to forgive him and the two returned to the bar to mingle with their friends.
Walking Battery
A few days had passed and Darren had been relatively at ease, content with the fact that he was going to be a father one day and that he was deeply in love with the most beautiful woman he'd ever met. The news that Lia was pregnant had spread across almost all of the refugees and a few other friends of theirs. It had also spread to man that called himself the Dark Vizir, a man who also would become an enemy of Darren's.
Dark Vizir had been keeping his eye on Darren for a while now at this point, casually threatening to capture him and use him. It hadn't been up until this point in time when Vizir actually made a move. While Darren was standing around in Pocket D, Vizir walked up to him with several of his men––that seemed like just regular soldiers to Darren, who would have been very easily defeated by him––and explained to him what his plans were. He wanted to capture Darren and leech the Energy from his body to use as a weapon. Apparently, he had managed to defeat Tim a few months before, which made him seem like a much more powerful person than Darren had figured. Obviously, Darren refused to just let Vizir take him away, so Vizir, in turn, stabbed Darren with a strange spear-looking device that slowly leeched Energy from Darren's body. Darren had noticed that he was becoming lightheaded and dizzy until he managed to gather enough Energy to press a hand to Vizir's chest and shove him back with a small coil.
Quickly giving up, Vizir told him that he could make a choice, leave with him to his base and have the Energy completely absorbed from him or Vizir could take Lia instead. Darren quickly threatened him that if he even touched her he would find him and kill him. Vizir scoffed and told him that he'd give Darren a couple of days to think about the offer, and left. A few moments later, a couple of his friends Petite and Mark, also known as the Red Komodo came up to him and warned him about how Vizir isn't someone he should take lightly. They explained to him that the Dark Vizir is a very powerful man and will go to very far lengths to get what he wants.
Darren decided to shrug it off. While Vizir did threaten to harm Lia, he still seemed like an easy target, and Darren wasn't too worried about him at the time. Although, he did begin to devise a plan that he could use to beat Vizir. After thinking for a little while, Darren decided that the best thing to do was to act like he was under Vizir's control for a small amount of time, and when the time came, to attack him and hopefully beat him.
But another problem arose. Vizir wanted to involve Lia in this. Darren knew Vizir knew about Lia's pregnancy, and because Lia was so important to Darren, Vizir had more than enough reason to use her as bait. Darren had to make sure Lia would keep her distance about the whole thing. If she remained uninvolved, she would remain safe. First, Darren needed to explain to her what was going on.
At the time that Vizir came up to Darren, Lia was luckily nowhere to be found. As such, she had no idea that Vizir was planning to capture Darren and in turn that meant she was more vulnerable when it came to being attacked. Darren waited around Pocket D for a little while until Lia showed up. After exchanging greetings, Darren asked her if she could come to Talos Island with him to talk. She agreed, and they left.
Darren then explained to Lia what Vizir's plans were, and that he needed Lia to keep her distance so Vizir couldn't get to her. She refused. Like Darren did before, she refused to let Vizir take him away. Lia told Darren that she needed him, and that she didn't know what she'd do if he was gone. This made Darren feel guilty, but at the same time, her words were heartwarming. He hated the fact that he was forcing her to let him go off with someone that wanted to hurt him, but hearing her say that she needed him made his heart skip a beat. She hadn't said this to him before, and it was because of this that Darren felt the need to hold her. So he did, promising her that he'd be alright. But he didn't know if he'd be alright. This could have been the last time he saw her. He needed to make it last. Darren held and comforted Lia for a while longer until the two decided to head back to Pocket D and keep their minds off of the subject until Vizir showed up again.
Captivity
It was only up until three days afterward that Darren had met up with Vizir again. He showed up suddenly while Darren was talking with a few of his friends, including Lia. He went directly to the point, he was taking Darren and that was the end of it. Reluctantly, Darren volunteered himself to go with him and told everyone else around him to stay out of the event. Among them was Chris, and being the leader of the Refuge, attempted to involve himself in the ordeal and settle it himself. To Darren, this wasn't his problem in any way and figured Chris might as well have kept himself out of it to begin with.
Vizir continued, as long as nobody else interfered, he would simply leave with Darren and refrain from harming anyone else. Naturally, Lia refused, telling Vizir that she wasn't going to let him take Darren. Darren told her and everybody else that he knew what he was doing, and that everyone needed to stay away. Vizir seemed pleased that Darren was so willing to leave, and promptly decided to leave then and there. Before going, however, Vizir attached a wire to Darren's shoulder to act as a leash, should Darren attempt to flee. As they left, Darren gave a final glance to Lia. He gave her a weak smile in an attempt to assure her that it wouldn't be the last time she'd see him. But he wasn't even sure himself.
Darren and Vizir walked out of Pocket D and entered a large building that, from the inside, was very dank and cold. Darren swore he could hear someone crying below him––perhaps the trapped female Elemental that still resided there? They continued down the halls, passing by several rooms that contained both computers and weapons alike. They finally stopped in a room that contained a large set of computers in front of computer desks and chairs. On the other side of the room was a large machine that seemed to power the terminal in front of it, and standing before that was a device made up of three arms that had a number of different knives and blades attached to the ends of each.
Vizir ordered Darren to step inside, and while he began to power the machine up, he asked him a number of questions involving how he received his powers, how strong his child may end up being, whether or not Lia was a meta-human (which Darren lied about, saying she was powerless), and if Darren knew what kind of limits his powers could reach. Darren did. He fully understood the lengths his powers could go, and while he didn't underestimate them or overestimate them, he was still afraid of them. Over time he's become more and more anxious about using them, while he's growing to become very experienced with controlling them, he is afraid that one day they will still manage to overpower him. He'll never know for sure until that day comes.
As the machine powered up, several wires attached themselves violently to Darren's arms and legs and immediately began to slowly leech Energy from him at a much more alarming rate than the last device Vizir had used. Darren quickly began to grow a bit faint and staggered a little, struggling to stand his ground as the life was extracted from him. As the device neared its completion, Vizir received a message through his communicator. He yelled into it, telling someone that he ordered them to have it finished. As he finished his argument, he turned to Darren––who was fairly see-through at the time––that the device was not nearly complete, and that they needed to leech Energy from him in two parts to fill two separate batteries. When Darren questioned him what the batteries were for, Vizir ordered a few of his men to bring out the "models".
His men rolled out a small model of Paragon City, and soon after an equally small model of Spider City. They were near perfect replicas. Moments afterward a few more men pulled out a small cannon-looking device. Vizir moved to the device that was wired to Darren's body and connected it to the Cannon with a few cords. After a few seconds of setting the weapon up, Vizir turned it on and it immediately shot a large beam of Energy at both of the models, destroying them entirely. Vizir was pleased, his plan had worked near-perfectly.
Vizir then quickly moved back to the terminals, turning them on and leeching more of Darren's Energy from him to recharge the first battery. When that was done, Darren had fallen to his knees. He was in a great amount of pain and found himself having tunnel-vision. Vizir pulled up his comm and spoke into it, ordering someone to prepare the second battery. While doing so, he began to press several buttons and turn several switches on the terminal, almost completely ignoring Darren.
Darren, however, had already had about enough. He pulled himself from his knees and pressed a hand onto the machine, trying as hard as he could to do the exact same thing the device was built for––he began leeching the device of its Energy. As he was usurping the machine's power, his emotions flared, and in turn that same organic shell that he hadn't used in the longest time began to crawl over his skin and clothing, encasing him completely. However, they were unable to fully cover his body, as the wires that connected Darren to the machine were blocking the shell and were unable to move any farther than his thighs.
Meanwhile, a lackey of Vizir's appeared, asking him what was going on. Vizir was quickly becoming anxious and paranoid, ordering the woman to back away and cover him. Vizir then moved to keep the wires connected to Darren in place so as to continue the draining process. Vizir returned to the terminal and started it back up, leeching more Energy from Darren by the second. At this point, however, the Energy in Darren's body was reproducing at a very high rate and was moving too fast for Darren to become even relatively tired. Darren quickly ripped the wires from his body and focused his attention completely on Vizir. The material around his legs continued to crawl up his body, arms, and finally, his head. Darren seemed to stop breathing. He was completely silent. Vizir backed away from the terminal and moved away from Darren completely, standing a ways behind his lackey.
Darren hadn't paid any attention to the woman working for Vizir, he was completely focused on killing Vizir. Slowly walking toward him, the Energy built up in Darren's body flared, creating a large bright red aura around his being. This seemed to scare Vizir, as he fled leaving his men to handle Darren. The men were nothing to Darren. With a swipe of his hand, a single wave of Energy killed a portion of them while knocking the others off of their feet.
Darren then began following Vizir around a corner and into a room mostly occupied by a large machine that seemed to be powering up. Vizir and the female lackey that had appeared earlier were both standing and waiting, Vizir visibly shaking. Darren charged at them, firstly sending a wide arc of Energy toward them and following the arc with a very powerful clenched fist. Both Vizir and his lackey were knocked off of their feet, and in the confusion Vizir had turned on a small electricity generator. Quickly getting an idea, Vizir led Darren to the generator and coaxed him into using the generator to gain even more Energy in the hopes that it would cause Darren to overload and kill him.
This did not work as Darren continued to grow in size and gain even more power. Running out of ideas, Vizir's last choice was to use the hulking device that was almost finished powering up on the other side of the room. As soon as it was ready to begin doing whatever it was built for, Vizir moved to one of the two panels that were connected to the machine and ordered his lackey to move to the second one. In near-perfect synchronization, they started up the machine. Vizir then moved inside and waited for Darren to follow.
Without thinking, Darren walked inside of the machine and moved to attack Vizir yet again. Before he managed to land a punch, however, Vizir quickly ran out of the machine and began a process that forcefully and painfully leeched Darren's Energy from him. The machine was obviously not built for such a process, but with the right configurations it seemed to work just as well. Very well compared to the machine Vizir had used only minutes before. Within seconds, Darren was about ready to fall to his knees. Vizir and his lackey just stood and watched.
However, all was not lost. Just before Darren had completely lost all of the Energy in his being, Lia had broken into Vizir's base of operations and quickly began charging at the two, Vizir's lackey in particular. Lia seemed to have turned into that monster that overcame her being when Lia had first realized she shared Darren's powers. She was furious, blinded with rage. When she threw a punch, an aura of Energy was visibly forced out from her body, pulsating and glowing. As the three in front of him continued their brawl, Darren forced himself to move to his feet before it was too late, but to no avail. Darren couldn't even sit up or move to his knees.
Lia had noticed this, and although she was blinded by her fury, she did manage to move to the generators and panels and destroy them, ultimately shutting off the machine. Darren still was not ready to fight, as he had lost multitudes of his Energy. All he could do at this point was watch Lia lose the fight. She was quickly running out of Energy and becoming weak, while the two she had been fighting were still able.
Darren stretched out an arm, whimpered Lia's name and began seeing everything as if he were in a tunnel. However, subconsciously, the Energy in Darren's body refused to lose the fight, and used the machine's own sole-purpose against it. It slowly but gradually began usurping the machine's power and converting it to a compatible form of Energy that Darren was physically able to communicate with. Within seconds, Darren was able enough to move to his knees. His eyes flaring with Energy and his fists clenched harder than he could imagine, he roared with anger, throwing both of his arms forward and launching two massive beams of Energy––one toward Vizir and the other toward Vizir's lackey. The two flew into the wall, quickly being knocked unconscious (or semi-unconscious, Darren couldn't tell). Darren spent the seconds of peace he had to regain his Energy, but the fight still wasn't over. The machine was set to detonate somehow. Darren never found out what did it, but it must have been one of the three that were fighting knocking into it, or it must have been the machine being set to detonate whenever something goes wrong––perhaps a poorly programmed fail-safe.
Darren and Lia were both very wounded and tired, but Darren took the initiative and propelled himself off of the ground, scooping Lia up in his arms and escaping Vizir's lair. After reaching a safe enough location, the two took time to rest for about an hour. Once they woke up, Darren explained how deeply grateful and glad he was that Lia had come to his rescue, especially after all of the times he'd done the same for her. The two went home and took the time to be as laidback as they could, taking short naps, watching TV, and the whole time, cuddling. Darren hadn't felt so loved in a long time.
After a while, they went to Pocket D to meet with their friends again, all being overjoyed to see the two in good shape. At this point, Darren had nothing left to fear.
Leaving Paragon
Of course, the typical drama that the Midnight Refuge was so prone to had caught up with Darren and Lia, and they quickly grew a horrible distaste for it all. On top of that, something seemed to be wrong with Lia's pregnancy. All of the side-effects of being pregnant had begun, but at a much faster and more violent rate than usual. None of the doctors in Paragon City were sure of what was happening to her, but Darren had an idea of who might. And it was only in a world that he had been to once before.
So Darren used the same method of inter-dimensional transporting that he had used to get to the Energy Dimension and took Lia with him to a separate universe, one that was very much like Paragon City, only far more advanced in science and technology. The place coined Millennium City had always reminded Darren of back home, at least until he saw the massive, colorful towers that couldn't have been anything less than one-thousand feet high. Lia, however, immediately fell in love with the new city. She was amazed at the views, the amount of actually heroic superheroes, everything. She even mentioned how it was all exactly how you would picture a comic book.
The two found a new club to spend their time at, Club Caprice. They had both met a handful of decent people there, but Darren quickly noticed that it never filled the void that his old friends had made. Despite that fact, the couple spent about two weeks in Millennium City, spending most of their time enjoying the views and the rest of the time making sure the baby was alright. After going to about three different hospitals and a handful of different doctors, they had pieced together that the baby was doing fine, but because it was an Elemental after all, it was a bit more difficult to handle. They gave Lia large amounts of medicine to take and sent her off, the two deciding to head back home not long after that.
Once they got back home, they agreed that they had missed everyone, but they also agreed that they missed Millennium City even more. They definitely wanted a change. So, ultimately, they decided to move to Millennium, leaving behind everyone in Paragon City to start a new life, and perhaps give the baby a better home. This was a very sore goodbye, however, as both Darren and Lia had very close friends they were reluctant to lose. They gathered most of the Refugees together and bitterly told them their plan. As they had guessed, every one of the Refugees had negative thoughts on the idea––some were sad, some were angry, others refused to show their emotion. Not one of them liked the idea at all.
Afterward, they began packing and reminiscing on their favorite times in Paragon. Darren had even noticed Lia crying at certain points. He promised her it was all for the better, and that they would find friends that were either the same or perhaps better than the ones they were leaving behind. They spent their last few days saying their goodbyes and packing.
Once they actually left and found their new home (an apartment, no less), they spent the majority of their time either alone or at Club Caprice, just like when they were in Paragon City. Everything was much more laidback and the two were enjoying their new home and the time they spent there.
Part VIII: Gone For Good
Losing Everything
After nine long months of waiting, the day that Lia finally went into labor had come. Darren was pacing around in the lobby, waiting for the doctor to come out and assure him that Lia and the baby were going to be fine. About forty-five minutes had passed until the doctor finally did approach Darren. Unfortunately, the doctor was a bearer of bad news. Something had gone wrong with the pregnancy, and he didn't expect them both to live. It was only a matter of who Darren would lose.
Another twenty minutes passed and the doctor approached Darren yet again. He informed Darren that Lia was perfectly fine, however the baby had died of asphyxiation. The Energy in Darren's body flared. He had waited his entire life to be a father, and to have his only child taken from him before he could even see it was a loss far greater than any he had ever experienced. Darren charged down the hallways, ramming into anyone and anything in his path. Within thirty seconds, Darren had destroyed a quarter of the first floor of the hospital, and killed nearly ten people, including the ones that worked at the hospital, were patients, or only visiting. When Darren had reached Lia's room, the first thing he noticed about her was the large amount of tears streaming down her face. She seemed to have cried herself to sleep.
Immediately, Darren ripped the cords and plugs attached to Lia from her and carried her out of the hospital. The police had begun chasing them down, but in the midst of Darren's blind rage, they didn't stand a chance. As he raced down the streets toward his home, all Darren could do was hold onto Lia as tightly as possible. She was the last thing he had, after all.
After several minutes of stampeding through the streets of Millennium City and leaving a trail of destruction in his wake, Darren reached his and Lia's apartment. Without thinking, Darren went inside and laid Lia down in their bed. After a few moments of sitting next to her and promising her under his breath that things would get better for her, Darren found himself growing tired of hearing his own voice and left the apartment. The first thing he did upon leaving the apartment was sprint directly to the large groups of police still searching for him. He needed to let off steam, and he sure as hell had a lot of it.
Darren was so enveloped with rage that the Energy in his body had taken a form that he hadn't seen before. It first began to glow a very deep shade of red, much like that of blood. But in the center of the red aura he could see the color black. Within seconds, that black shade grew larger and overcame every bit of red on Darren's body. And within minutes, Darren had become a huge, infuriated, hulking monster of an Elemental. The only thing visibly red about his entire being was his eyes. Darren's eyes glowed a very bright red, making him look extremely menacing compared to almost any of the villains Millennium City had seen.
Darren relentlessly demolished everything he saw, leveling every building he came in contact with. He was practically unstoppable. Until he had consumed to much of his Energy, anyway. Darren had more than enough reason to push himself this far past his limits, but that does not mean it was a good idea. By pushing himself this far, he had come very close to killing himself. In fact, he was going to die. After using up that much Energy there was no way he would be able to regain enough to keep himself alive.
Darren had noticed this early on, and after focusing hard enough to pull himself out of his rage, ran to one of the taller buildings in the Millennium City plaza and hid there, slowly shifting back to his human form instead of the large colossus he was moments before. He was lucky enough to have lost the police, and although there were countless tanks and helicopters scoping the entire city for him, Darren found a small area on the rooftop of one of the buildings that no helicopter was able to see.
Catching his breath and regaining his senses, Darren spent the rest of his being mentally apologizing to Lia and thinking back on his life, all the way back from the day he had first realized he had powers. He'd come a long way. Met a large sum of great people. Ones that he would never forget. Realizing that he was reaching the border of his lifetime, Darren gave a final wave to everyone he knew, and vanished into the air, Energy dissipating in all directions.
Elemental, No More
This next part is going to be read like a book, where everything is explained in more detail than you would read something on Wikipedia (like a summary).
The first thing Darren noticed was the endless red abyss that he had seen so many times. After that, the second thing he'd noticed was the circle of men in red robes sitting in hovering chairs around him. The chairs seemed to be about five or six feet in the air, and the men were wearing large hoods that hid the majority of their faces.
"...What?" Darren had said, spinning around and trying to see which one would talk first. A man slightly to Darren's right was first to speak. He raised an arm and spoke loudly, his voice thundering throughout the circle.
"Darren Astor. Elemental of Energy." He said. Darren nodded, a puzzled look on his face.
"Yes." Darren spun around, looking all of the men directly in the face. None of their facial expressions differed in any way from each other. "...Yes."
"You are not dead," Darren sighed with relief. "You have been taken from your world on purpose."
"For what purpose..?" Darren asked, blinking a couple times and trying to sound as cool as possible. It didn't go so well.
"You are being corrupted by your own Energy. Using it for destruction and terror. We did not expect you to grow so accustomed to your abilities as to use them in such a monstrous manner." The man's voice echoed as far as Darren could hear, it even rumbled against his chest.
"Look, I didn't even know I was that powerful. I've never done something like that in my life, I––"
The man roared, breaking Darren off, "We understand that you were not aware of your capabilities, but you did not try to stop yourself in any way. This is where you falter. A crime this great against any civilization goes beyond almost all punishments we can give. You have no family save your brother, the only one that understands what you're going through. We have decided that because you have been left alone that you have served your purpose here and are no longer needed."
Darren jumped, flailing his arms, "The hell does that mean?! No longer needed! You never needed me for anything!"
"You were to be our mentor, Darren. The one that all of the other Elementals looked up to. You are not ready for this responsibility, nor will you ever be. Because you have nothing holding us back from doing so, you are to be stripped of your powers and taken from this world. These are your consequences."
Darren couldn't believe his own ears.
"This is our only option, you were becoming corrupted by your own powers. Any longer and you would have been unstoppable."
Darren jumped, for a split second, he felt he knew more about his powers than they did, "Weren't you paying attention? I was going to die! My body can't take that much use of Energy in that small amount of time! I had seconds to live before I disappeared."
The man slowly shook his head, "That is not entirely how your body works. You would not have died. You only would have become invisible for a small period of time until the Energy was able to reproduce and reform. It would only take twenty-four hours, at most."
"Isn't there some way I can just have one more chance?! I've never done anything like this before. I might have killed a couple.. uh.. almost a-hundred.. innocent people––but that doesn't mean I'm going to do it again! I'm not a bad person! You all should know this much if you've spent that much time studying my every move! Come on!" At this point Darren was practically screaming at them. He'd even noticed one of the men slightly leaning back in his chair at the noise.
The man stroked his chin and paused, "Darren. We can give you one last choice. You can return to your home and friends, or you can start a new life. A life in a completely new world with completely new possibilities. You would lose your powers, but not your memories."
The first thing that came to Darren's mind was, "Of course I want to go back! I have to! Why the hell wouldn't I?!" but instead the first thing he'd said was, "Well, I... I don't know." Darren could feel his head spinning. He almost fell backward until he caught himself with a foot.
The man broke the silence, "We've paid quite a bit of time studying you and your latest endeavors. You don't consider any of the people you've met as friends, and as such you would not be losing anything if you'd left, save for Lia. And even she has already moved on."
Darren paused, "Huh? How long has it been?"
The man spoke clearly and quickly, as if he was rushing through the sentence, "Three weeks."
"What?! What happened to her!?" Darren flailed again, his stomach turning over.
"She has left your apartment with Collin and gone back to Paragon City. Not only that, but she has come in contact with an old friend of hers and grown feelings for him. She had thought he killed himself until she met him again––"
Darren broke the man off this time, "Robin."
The man quickly continued, "Robin Fenix. He has confessed his feelings to her and the two are together. Have you anything left in your world? Would you not want to start over again and find new friends without any kind of label?"
Darren closed his eyes, trying to think. When he opened them again, he found himself in Pocket D, leaning on the railing adjacent to the stairs. Around him was Brad, Casey, Chris, Tim, Allen, Lucy, Jack, Kyle, Ethan, Erik, and right next to him, hugging his arm, Lia. They were all staring intently at him.
Brad was the first to talk, "So what's it gonna be, Darren? You gonna stay with us or what?"
Allen stepped in, cheerful as ever, "Yeah, what're you gonna do, Dare-Bear? We'd sooort of like to know."
Darren felt a surge of happiness just seeing all of his friends again. He grinned, but he wanted to cry. After several minutes of smiling, looking between their waiting faces, and just looking like a complete dumbass, he finally made his decision and spoke, "You guys are the best friends I've ever had, I love every one of you to death, and I would love to spend the rest of my life fucking around with you all," They all smiled and moved to welcome him, but Darren stopped them, tears welling up in his eyes, "But... I gotta go." Darren looked puzzled for a few seconds, as if he didn't understand his own decision. Within seconds, he'd pushed Lia from his arm and walked a small ways from the group. He gave the best smile he could.
"Bye guys." Everyone waving at him and almost cheering, Darren took a few steps backward and turned around. He found himself back within the circle of the men in long, draping red cloaks and hoods that covered their faces.
That same man spoke one last time, "You have made your decision. And you have chosen well." Immediately, he shot both hands forward at Darren, a beam of electricity-looking Energy flying directly into his body. Within seconds, a surge of pain had enveloped his entire body. This kind of pain was a feeling Darren had never experienced in his life. It felt as if his skin was being both burnt and ripped from every part of his body. Darren spread his arms and legs out and screamed as loudly as he could muster. This had lasted for about five minutes until Darren felt completely drained of his entire life. The last thing he had heard was the echo of the man's voice: "You have made your decision. And you have chosen well. You are now fully human. You may start anew." Those simple words echoed countless times throughout Darren's head, and by the time they faded away, Darren was lying on his back, eyes closed. He was completely drained, and yet, he felt normal. As if that pain had made him feel more like a human than he could ever imagine.
Opening his eyes, Darren saw a clear sky framed by over a dozen green, lively trees. Dazedly looking around, he noticed a wooden fence, a large cathedral-looking building, and a tall knight in shining silver and blue plated armor.
The knight bent down and offered Darren a hand. As Darren took his hand and was pulled to his feet, the knight quickly began talking, "I hope you have your belt strapped on tight, young warrior, because there is work to be done here in Northshire Valley. And I don't mean farming. The Stormwind guards are hard pressed to keep the peace here, with so many of us in distant lands and so many threats pressing close. And so we're enlisting the aid of anyone willing to defend their home. And their alliance. If you're here to answer the call, then speak with my superior, Marshal McBride. He's inside the abbey behind me."
Part IX: Epilogue
Deceit
Darren's stay in the world of Azeroth lasted for a very short three months. During that time, he had met a handful of people, most of which quickly became enemies to him. Darren's knowledge of the future and of technology was mundane to all of the people he had met, and because of that fact they shunned him under terms of being a crazed man who "thinks" he knows of the future. Some people had even gone as far as physically harming him to get him to keep his mouth shut about things that didn't exist. Seeing as Darren lacked his abilities, he was defenseless.
Darren spent a majority of his time reminiscing in his past and thinking about all of the things he'd left behind. He'd even attempted to focus his body in an attempt to recreate the Energy he still felt that he had. All of this, however, was to no avail. He was stuck as a human in a world that could never accept him because of what he knew. He was too stubborn to live in a medieval world of might and magic while pretending to not have any idea of the lengths he'd seen technology go to. After those three months had passed, Darren made a shocking discovery.
The city coined "Stormwind" was very oddly constructed in Darren's opinion. It was split into six different sections that were all separated by a single stream of water, and connected by stone bridges. While Darren was sitting on the side of one of these bridges and staring at the water, he decided to begin concentrating and tensing up his body in yet another attempt to call forth the Energy that, in any other situation several months ago, would have taken less than a second to conjure. Suddenly, there was a flash before Darren's eyes, and a very familiar one at that. He found himself thrust into the red abyss that was so staggeringly familiar and now amazingly bizarre to him. He floated there for several moments, spinning around to see the swirling shades of red at multiple different angles. Before he knew it, there was yet another flash in front of him.
A bright yellow figure emerged from the flash, and seemed to walk toward Darren (however, seeing as the abyss lacked a physical form of gravity, the figure was obviously walking on air). As far as Darren could tell from the way the figure was built, it was a man. Once he had walked within ten meters of him, Darren recognized a face that he had not seen for a very long time——Tim.
Tim did not say a single word, and just before Darren was able to open his mouth, Tim shot a hand forward and clutched Darren's face. Within seconds, a string of visions emerged and flew through Darren's mind. While he could only see flickering images, his mind was somehow able to comprehend every part of the visions in great detail. At first, Darren saw himself in the middle of the small circle of Ancients that decided he was to be stripped of everything he had. It was as if he were watching it through a screen, but toward the end of the situation. Darren spectated himself as he closed his eyes, considering his options——life as an Elemental or as a human. One of the Ancients raised a hand and a glow emitted around Darren's body, enveloping him and causing him to disappear into thin air. Just after, Darren's mind was thrust into what he guessed was the future, a short time after being sent into Azeroth.
He watched as the same circle of Ancients who he now realized called themselves a Council discussed several subjects; one being solely about Darren's life. They argued over whether Darren was a true threat or just another Elemental believing himself to be far more powerful than he really was. They then argued on how sending him to a different world and "removing" his powers would actually cause him to change, or whether he would realize that he still had abilities and just believed that he lacked them, which in turn was what caused his disconnection with them in the first place. Their conversation on the subject of Darren's fate ended with their decision to keep him barred in his mundane world so as to keep him from becoming any more powerful than he already was.
On top of that, the Council discussed the fact that the citizens of DE——the name of the world in which most Elementals resided in, it has been speculated that it stands for Dimension Elemental, or the Elemental Dimension——had become greatly unsettled and anxious due to the great number of devastating events that took place there, all of which were destructive to the people and their homes. The Council decided that they needed to extricate all of the citizens by removing or possibly exterminating all threats towards them. One of the Ancients quietly mentioned one of them being Darren. Another Ancient quickly mentioned that he had already been taken care of due to being sent into that "other technologically handicapped world". A third Ancient mentioned that "it was a good thing, too, of course having him believe he was taken only to give him another chance to live his life was a complete fabrication".
Before Darren could take in what he had seen, his mind was sent into another vision, showing what he could only imagine was the present, wherein his past friends were living their lives on their own. He watched as Lia had become a much darker, tense, and physical person. He watched as her brother seemed to go off on his own and disappear, only to follow him to the Rikti Warzone and get shot by a pylon that she had dashed quite too close to. Even as his mind watched all of these events, one directly after another, Darren felt nothing. No remorse, no pain, no shock. It was as if his mind not only comprehended the sudden surge of truth, but accepted it as well.
Yet another string of visions coursed through his head, and before he knew it, he found himself floating around in the Abyss in the exact same position he was in just before Tim had gotten ahold of him. Again, without a single word, Tim was gone. It was only then that the feelings Darren should have felt earlier came into play. Anger, fear, shock, disgust, pain. There was only one thing Darren could think about: finding the Ancients that had lied to him. As he quickly realized where he was, he knew that he did indeed have his abilities after all, and before he could blink his eyes the Energy that he had known and grown so attached to after such a long time flared throughout his body and propelled him into the air. Darren was lied to, and he was going to get the revenge he deserved.
A Fitting Final Battle
It only took a matter of minutes for Darren to charge into the hall that the Council resided in at the speed he was going. He propelled himself at staggering speeds with every step. His emotions flaring just as much as the Energy coursing through his body did. He rammed into the Ancients with little to no effort. Within seconds, one was already dead. He crouched down, lifted the corpse off of the ground and threw it at another Ancient. It was at this point that the remaining Ancients realized what was happening and they themselves began to fight back. Almost at the same time, the elements that each Ancient possessed flared and took effect, lighting each one up with amazing power. An Ancient engulfed in flame rose off of the ground, a fiery blade rising from his palm. As soon as the sword took shape, the Ancient that was once covered only by a blood red robe was now completely enveloped in flames. It was possible that the robe was burned away from the intense heat. The elemental thrust his arm forward and tossed the sword downward at Darren, who quickly raised his arm up and crossed them, as if to form an "X" with his forearms. He ducked his head a bit to avoid the brightness of the fire just as a barrier of Energy formed in front of his arms, blocking the blade from coming in contact with his skin and causing it to ricochet and fall to the ground. The sword then slowly evaporated into smoke, which dissipated into the air.
At that point, Darren didn't lower his arms, he thrust them forward. The layer of Energy that was once a barrier was now a wave which flew directly into the Ancient's midsection and caused him to fly into the wall. At the angle he was sent at, his head managed to be the first thing to come in contact with the wall, which caused him to lose consciousness. It was already clear to Darren that the Ancients were more consulars than fighters, if one were to relate them to Star Wars terms, which Darren always found himself subconsciously doing.
After two of the Ancients were already out of the way, the remaining eleven were seconds from also charging at Darren, and once they finally did, they did so in perfect simultaneity. All of the men had caught Darren off guard, and were quickly overpowering him. Even then, the men weren't even physically touching Darren. It was the force of their powers that had him pinned to the ground. Just a few minutes longer and they will have Darren defeated, begging for mercy.
But Darren hadn't even gotten started. As the pressure from all of the different elements grew more and more intense, Darren waited. He waited as long as he could. The entire time, the Energy coursing through his body built its own force. It pushed Darren from his knees and to his feet, and fought against the number of different forces going against his being. In a flash, Darren spread his arms out and sent a shockwave of Energy into every one of the Ancients around him. He then sent another wave, and another, and another. Several different waves of Energy pushed against each of the Ancients and thrust them backward, and just as he let out every inch of blood red Energy he could, he lifted himself off of the ground and hugged himself, each wave quickly returning back toward him and enveloping him in a bright, blinding red glow. Immediately afterward, Darren stretched his arms out yet again and tossed the same amount of Energy that had enveloped him back out into those around him. But it didn't end there; even after the Energy slammed into anything it could find, it dissipated into thousands of smaller waves with such great force it was almost like a nuclear explosion that just kept pushing and pushing against anything alive. That single wave of Energy grew to such massive lengths that it demolished anything within a fifteen mile radius. Thousands of Elemental civilians were quickly hit with the blast which either thrust them into the air or caused their homes to cave in and crush them.
The Ancients were the first to be murdered by Darren's blast. Darren had his revenge, but at the cost of a great number of civilians that he never truly wanted to kill, even through his blind rage. The Energy he'd given out caused him to lose almost every amount of Energy that he had. It was quickly obvious that it would take quite a long time for him to regain himself. Little did he know there was still one more person he would have to fight.
As Darren walked away from the ruins that he had created, he noticed a small flash in the distance, and the same one that he had seen just before he was shown the truth about why he was locked away in Azeroth. He rushed to go and tell Tim what had happened, but he quickly realized Tim had already known. Just as Tim had come within range, he charged at Darren with a fist reeled behind his waist. His entire arm crackled with electricity as he sent it forward into Darren's face. As soon as it came in contact, the amount of electricity stored in his arm was thrust outward, knocking Darren off of his feet and onto his back.
Darren moved off of his back and supported himself by his elbows. Before he could say anything, Tim knelt down and almost screamed at him, "Do you have any idea how pissed I am?!" he'd said. He didn't let Darren answer him, either. He just proceeded to grip Darren by his shirt and lift him off of the ground. Another surge of electricity coursed through his arm and was led to Darren's body. As Tim stood there and watched, Darren felt a wave of electricity throughout his body which gradually increased in voltage over time. Darren let out a scream and attempted to bring a foot up to Tim's chest and push off of him, but to no avail. Tim however tossed Darren into the air and tossed a ball of spark in his direction, at just the right angle to zap him in mid-air. Immediately after that, Tim propelled himself into the air at a speed that could easily have been mistaken as teleportation toward Darren. As the arc Darren was sent in was slowly causing him to fall downward, Tim grabbed his legs and spun around, tossing him even further into the air. Seeing as Darren lacked just about every portion of Energy he had, he was defenseless.
Darren spiraled through the air and landed just out of the vicinity of the blast that he'd created moments earlier. A number of recovering but unwounded civilians gasped in surprise. Darren skidded to a stop, still convulsing from the electricity that was now calming itself down and fading from him body. Seeing as he'd landed on his stomach, Darren pushed himself off of the ground with his hands, shifting his weight to his knees and pulling himself upright. Tim landed behind him and placed a hand on Darren's shoulder, who then quickly reached behind himself and grasped the arm, moving to his feet and pulling forward. He lifted himself a bit more and arched his back, pulling Tim off of the ground and tossing him forward and onto his back. Darren still grasped Tim's forearm and stood up, slamming a foot down onto Tim's chest, demanding that he tell him what the hell his problem was.
Tim screamed up at him, "You want to know what my problem is?! All you've ever done here was screw up everything these people have. Their homes, their family, their own lives! You and your personal business that I don't give a fuck about! All it's ever done to these people is hurt them, and for what? For you to solve one little problem you may have. I've had to do nothing but cleaning up around here. Fixing the problems that you have caused all on your own! Well I for one have had enough of it, and I'm putting an end to it! I'm putting an end to you... brother."
Darren paused, sliding his foot from Tim's chest. He squinted his eyes, remembering all of the damage he had done to DE. He'd never noticed it before, but the impact he had caused on DE made the civilians fear him more than anything else. He had never meant to harm any of them. After all, he had hoped to protect them more than anything; protect them from the threat of Negative Energy, his father, the Council. But all it had done was destroy their homes, their lives, and their hope. To them, he was nothing more than a selfish, unprotective, thoughtless bastard. To them, he was nothing more than a monster.
Darren was quickly brought back to reality, however, as Tim moved to his feet and flared with electricity. Within a split second, he had thrust his arms forward and placed his open palms onto Darren's chest, supercharging him and causing him to fly backward. He landed on his back for the second time, but this time pulled his legs up and rolled backward, pushing himself with his hands and moving to his feet. Tim quickly propelled himself toward Darren again, however Darren saw it coming this time around. He held his arms up in the same "X" formation as he had earlier, yelping as he sent a moderately large wave of Energy back into Tim. It had managed to bring him to a stop, but not much else.
Tim quickly propelled himself into the air, rather than directly toward Darren. Electricity channeling itself all around him, Tim raised an arm and shouted down, "This ends, here!". As Tim quickly lowered his hand, a massive bolt of lightning shot down from the sky, seeking to strike Darren down. Darren had no time to think or move, the bolt quickly hit him and sent thousands of volts through his body. The electricity enveloped him completely, and without thinking, Darren took advantage of it. He began to filter the electricity in his body and remove all of the raw Energy coursing inside of it. He then took that Energy and redirected it from his body, outward toward Tim's. In a massive blast that was almost like a ray of Energy, it charged directly at Tim.
Tim, unlike Darren, managed to think quickly enough to vanish into a spark of electricity, which floated in mid-air awaiting the oncoming ray of Energy. As soon as the two made contact, the amount of Energy redirected from the massive bolt sent at Darren combined with the spark and charged it until it overloaded in itself, and created a brilliant explosion that demolished several buildings and twice as many civilians spectating the battle. But it didn't end there. Tim didn't just disappear, he teleported, right in front of Darren. He immediately shot a hand forward and stabbed it into Darren's chest, ready to absorb all of the Energy Darren had to offer.
Darren managed to realize what was happening just before he let out too much Energy into Tim's waiting being. Without many other options, Darren did the one thing he thought of first: he unleashed every bit of Energy he had, but just enough to be sure he still had some left over. At the same time, however, the electricity in Tim's body combined with the Energy being let out, and a second massive explosion was caused. Both explosions demolished a number of structures and killed an even greater number of people. Tim and Darren were in the middle of all of the commotion, and just before either one of them made another move, Darren propelled himself backward and picked up on the fact that he and Tim had already quickly killed dozens of innocent civilians. Yet another time his personal business cost the lives of everyone around him.
The smoke around the two cleared, and just as Tim prepared to use his newfound Energy against his own brother, Darren shouted forth at him: "Tim! Look at us! Look at what we've already done to these people! Look at what we've... what we've become! We're not saviors, we're not protectors, we're not heroes! We're monsters... It's all we are. It's all we've ever been! You think I'm the only one at fault for doing all of this damage, but you're at fault too! I've lost everything because of these goddamn powers. They're good for nothing! They only cause destruction and pain. I'm not evil! I don't want to do this anymore!"
Darren fell to his knees, and it seemed Tim had come to his senses as well. He lowered his arms and took a deep breath, unclenching his fists. He walked over to Darren and nodded, "...You're right. We're monsters to these people. We've become so dangerous to everyone we know ever since we became Elementals. I don't want this either. I don't think I could bare it if I kept hurting others. I might have my moments, but I'm not truly that kind of person. We... we have to stop."
Looking up at Tim, Darren felt tears in his eyes begin to show, "These powers aren't safe with us. We aren't responsible. We need to... to end this. We need to end ourselves. Fighting won't solve this." Tim held out a hand, and Darren grasped it, pulling himself to his feet, but didn't let go of his brother's hand. Darren twisted his hand upward, his fingers wrapping around the top of Tim's hand. He nodded to Tim, and Tim nodded to him. Within seconds a bright glow emitted from their hands and engulfed the two. As the glow slowly faded and disappeared, Darren and Tim were nowhere to be seen.
It was at this point that nobody had ever seen either Darren or Tim. DE slowly began to rebuild itself and thrive just as much as it had before Darren first found himself there. The two Elementals had endured more than anyone could imagine.
From that point on Darren and Tim had forever disappeared from existence... as far as anyone else could tell.
Acquaintances
Darren knows a lot more people than just what are listed here, but the people in this list are the people that have either greatly influenced him, or just people he's around a lot.
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Friends
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Neutrals
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Enemies
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Powers/Abilities
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I know some of his stats are maxed and it makes me look like a godmodder, but honestly his powers are ICly supposed to be like that. Mind you, Darren very rarely uses his full capacity so it shouldn't make much of a difference.
Darren's powers come from an odd source. His robotic right arm. The arm has a source of Energy that flows through it; it's purpose is to take over and kill anyone that the arm is connected to. When the arm was attached to Darren by the man that took his arm in the first place, the man's plan was to kill Darren immediately after removing his arm. That plan had failed because of both the willpower of Darren himself, and Darren's blood. For unknown reasons, the robotic arm was unable to completely take over Darren's immune system and then kill him.
Energy completely flows through Darren, mainly his arm. Darren used to have to gather Energy from certain places, but now he retrieves it from an alternate dimension made entirely of raw Energy. This has boosted Darren's capacity of gathering Energy tenfold, as well as increasing his strength unbelievably. His agility, endurance, and strength have all been doubled ever since he has gained complete control over his powers. You really don't want to get on his bad side.
Darren has complete control over his powers, meaning he can vary the amount of Energy he uses to whatever level he wants. The way you can tell how much Energy he's using is pretty straightforward, and if you fight him enough times, you should know when to keep your distance.
Light/Faded Pink: Darren's using little to no Energy at all, even at this level, he's strong enough to send you across a typical gymnasium.
Clear Pink: Darren's at about 1/4 of his capacity, and this is pretty fucking powerful. At this point, a simple smack could make you stagger to your knees.
Pink Fades To Red: This is at about half of Darren's Energy capacity, after this point Darren would have to put special armor on made of concentrated Energy to be able to withstand and control any more Energy than this. Oh, and, at this point, Darren could kill Chuck Norris with one punch.
Faded Red: Darren's using quite a bit of Energy, this is very hard for him to reach if he's not using his armor to focus this much Energy. Darren will only go this far if he's really mad. And by really mad I mean you must have hurt whatever girlfriend he may have at the time.
Clear Red: Darren's at the peak of the amount of Energy he can use. This is insanely powerful, and Darren can only concentrate this much Energy temporarily ((This is also because I don't want to seem like a godmodder)). If he focused enough, Darren could plow through several skyscrapers without a scratch.
Dark/Deep Red: Okay, so. If you ever see him at this point, I'd suggest you flee. Honestly, before he was at the peak, now imagine if he pushed himself past his limits. This is bad. At this point, Darren could kill himself. If you were the one who pushed him this far, you're going to get hurt. A lot. With one wave of Energy, Darren could demolish half the planet. However, as strong as this is, Darren's consuming so much Energy that he'd only be able to get in one or two punches without completely running out. If you manage to survive after this point, you'd probably come out victorious against him since Darren would be too weary to even sit up.
Blood Red: Run. Darren hasn't even attempted to imagine being at this capacity of his abilities. If at any point in his entire life he pushes himself this far, he WILL die. A more accurate explanation of this color is blood red, with a black hue in the center of it. Imagine a red lightsaber, where the white part of the saber is black. Okay, just look at this.
Personal Soundtrack
- Darren's Current Themesong
- Darren's Alternate Themesong
- Darren's Favorite Song
- Darren's Second Favorite Song
- Darren's Third Favorite Song
- Darren's Fourth Favorite Song
- Darren's Fifth Favorite Song (He's not afraid to say it, he loves this song to death. It's made of awesome.)
- Darren's Sixth Favorite Song
- Darren's Asskicking Song (AKA, the song you play when Darren's really pissed off.)
- Darren's Second Asskicking Song (Because the song is just that badass.)
- Darren's Third Asskicking Song
- Darren's Fourth Asskicking Song
- Darren's Fifth Asskicking Song
OOC
This is here to explain exactly how I like to Role Play and/or how I Role Play in general, as well as some notes for Darren himself; in no particular order. I don't expect you to agree with me or follow along with everything I do, but there's a good chance that I won't really want to RP with you if you do something different than I. Nothing personal, just. Yeah.
- 1.) I don't RP by level. Ever. The way I see it, is if a Level 50 Superman walked up to a Level 1 Kid-With-Kryptonite, Superman should NOT be able to kick the Level 1's ass. I RP by the abilities that a character has. Just because their Security/Threat Level is higher than another person's, that doesn't mean they should automatically be stronger. It isn't realistic, guys.
- 2.) I love textfighting, and as such, I will ONLY textfight you. I used to PvP, but it was recently nerfed and I couldn't stand it. I grew a taste for textfights, and I fucking love them now. To me, it's a great way to see how well a person RPs. Bottom line, I VERY RARELY PvP.
- 3.) As far as this character goes, all you need to do to start an RP with me is talk to me. Even if I'm playing a character that's quiet and shady, I'll still gladly RP with you if you say "Hi". Trust me, I'll never turn down an RP invitation. I'll die if I don't RP at least once a day. No, seriously.
- 4.) Dear God, PLEASE have decent grammar. it maeks it vry hrad 4 me 2 tlak 2 u if u talk liek dis. If you spell out everything you say, like all RPers should, then that's a plus for you. People who know how to spell are always welcome to RP with me. If you want to talk like an eleven-year-old, then I suggest you don't RP with me. On a side note, I may talk like an idiot OOCly, but that's only to be stupid. I'm never seriously typing like that if you ever see me do it. I'm not a hypocrite. Most of the time.
- 5.) I expect you to know how the RP mechanics work here. Don't shoot me and expect my arm to go flying off; every action in the game is chance. You'll never get a definite shot unless both you and the character you're attacking agrees on it OOCly.
- 6.) As you may know, Darren is a singer. And he's pretty damn good. Now, singing, is a HUGE pain in the ass. This is how I do it: I bind every lyric in a song to a key, normally "control + r" or "shift + o" and I play out the song by hitting a certain key. That's pretty damn hard if you imagine doing a full song like that. You could easily run out of keys. But, the main problem with this, is that I like to sing in public, and I'm spamming the song, in a sense. I want you to know that while I'm singing you might want me to shut up. I won't; not until the song's over. Thus, I honestly have no problem with you putting me on your ignore list. I don't think you should go as far as reporting me, though. It's not that big of a deal. I'm only doing it for a course of three to four minutes, that's not that bad. If it's really that hard for you to concentrate while I sing, just put me on your ignore list or move somewhere else. Darren enjoys singing in public, I'm not gonna change that.
- 7.) If you attempt to enter his mind when he's fairly calm and not using a lot of Energy, you can get through to him fairly easily. But if he's stressed and/or gathering loads of Energy then it's hard to enter his mind. Those that still manage to get through to him will see several shades of red, slowly swirling and glowing around each other. Sort of like a liquid or gas.
- 8.) I wouldn't suggest insulting him. Especially if he's peeved. See, Darren takes insults or threats in different ways, depending on his mood. If he's happy or cheerful or excited, he'll take insults as compliments, or something around there. For example:
Random Person: You are a complete dumbass, the fact that you have friends appalls me.
Darren: Oh! Thanks! You got any more insults you wanna throw at me?
Random Person: Your jacket makes you look like you're from the movie Grease.
Darren: Ah, nice! But come on, you can do better than that, I know it!
Now, if he's mad or something, it'll be something like:
Random Person: You're a weak coward who probably can't even break a twig.
Darren: *Rips legs off*
Mind you, when he's cheerful, he's just taking them as compliments to get a rise out of you. I wouldn't suggest trying to threaten him in this case, because, well, you won't get anywhere. You'll probably just get even more pissed off. Until you punch him. And even then he probably won't do anything about it. But if he's mad then I wouldn't suggest it because he'll probably take out his anger on you. And that's never fun. No.
- 9.) WHAT DOES DARREN LIKE IN WOMEN YOU ASK!? WELL I'LL TELL YOU. HE LIKES GIRLS WITH MASSIVE BOOBS AND CAT EARS/TAILS. YEAH!
Not really. Darren's normally an idiot, he has a sense of humor, but he makes a fool of himself regularly. If you actually manage to look past all that and get to know Darren, you'll learn he's a decent person. He's protective of the people he cares about, and loves to make people laugh. But I digress, what Darren likes in a girl is mainly a sense of humor. Darren imagining himself married to or dating a girl that makes him laugh everyday is the one thing he hopes he'll finally be able to do someday. I keep digressing. Fuck it, I'm making a list (Listed by priority):
1. Has a sense of humor. - I explained this up there.
2. Has the ability to kick someone's ass if needed. - If a girl can kick ass, Darren respects that. A girl that's always the damsel in distress is alright, but Darren would really prefer a girl that will fight alongside him and seriously beat the shit out of an enemy.
3. Is relatively nice. - Darren won't date a bitch. Well, not many people will. Darren also won't date a girl who is the nicest person he'd ever meet. A girl who is nice for the most part, but won't hesitate to get pissed at someone is the kind of girl Darren likes.
4. Isn't afraid to talk about personal events. - Darren doesn't like when people keep things from him; guy or girl. If he's going to date you, he'll want you to talk to him and not be afraid that he'll respect you less or something similar for doing so.
5. Is typically happy. - Darren's not dating a gothic/emo girl. A happy person that enjoys laughing and making others laugh is a plus for Darren. Mainly because that's what he's like.
6. Can sing. - Darren's a damn good singer. If he had a girlfriend that was also a damn good singer, that'd be great.
7. Doesn't have an extremely low self-esteem. - Darren doesn't want to date person who'll put herself down a lot. It makes things awkward for him, and he'd rather be with a girl who considers herself attractive and whatnot.
8. Knows and doesn't mind that Darren really isn't a hero. At all. - Darren really isn't a hero. The only people he'll fight for are the people he cares about. Dating someone who wants to protect every person alive from evil really isn't a good mix for him.
9. Has her hair down. - Hairstyle isn't THAT big of a deal for Darren, but he prefers long hair over ponytails or buns or something. It just seems more attractive to him.
<Will add more later. If I'm bored enough>
- 10.) Darren is hated by just about everyone in the Vanguard. Why does everyone hate him? One day, Darren was joking around while on the battlefield. Nothing was going on, everyone was just standing around and talking. In the middle of a joke Darren was trying to tell, some guy walked up to him and called him out on how insensitive he is for telling jokes while people elsewhere on the battlefield were dying. Darren tried to explain to him how although people were dying, he was never told to go off and help them. The man continued to call him out and insult him, and Darren finally decided enough was enough, and told him off. The man walked off and Darren felt that he had won. However, a couple days after, everyone in the Vanguard suddenly loathed him. When he tried to ask around, the only answer he ever got was some variation of "how could you be such an asshole?" Later, Darren finally figured out what was going on. That guy he told off took the insults he received way too far, and told everyone a majority of lies on how Darren was such a bad person. This turned everyone against Darren, because apparently the guy lying to them was a very trusted person. Everyone took his word over Darren's. Darren is now distrusted, loathed, and ignored by everyone in the Vanguard. He's constantly been kicked out of the Vanguard base for very minor and stupid things. The only way he can get in the base is if he sneaks in. Even then, someone always manages to see him in the corner of their eye, and kicks him out. ((If your character is in the Vanguard, and you see Darren either in the base or Pocket D, feel free to pretend you know him. Make up stories as to why you think he's such a bad person, I don't care. It's all in good fun.))
- 11.) Something I've recently noticed is that not many people like Darren. At all. Not just the Vanguard, but a large amount of people that he hangs around. I mean, this isn't a problem to me, this is honestly the reaction I'm typically going for with Darren. He is, always has been, and always will be somewhat of an asshole. At least, to anyone that he doesn't consider a friend of his. To me, as the player, this doesn't bother me. All RP is fun RP. Except ERP, that shit's hilarious. But to Darren, this can irritate him. He knows full well that people don't like them, and for the most part he's okay with it. But if you ignore him and don't TELL him that you don't like him, he'll get very agitated and will probably end up screaming at you. Now, back on the original subject, Darren is an asshole to everyone, at first glance, but if you decide to get to know him and end up actually being a friend of his, you'll quickly learn that he's not the idiot everyone would usually think he is. He can be a very kind and protective person when the time calls for it. So get to know him, especially if you or your character considers him a douchebag.
- 12.) Both Darren and I have OCD. The main thing OCD-wise that gets him is if someone brings something up, but doesn't finish what they're talking about. Say, for example, if you told him you had a secret but in mid-sentence decided not to tell him. This would probably end up bugging him forever, trying to think of what it could be. So much so that he wouldn't go to sleep. I'm the same way, things can easily annoy the shit out of me. If something isn't correctly aligned, I'll probably flip out until someone fixes it.
- 13.) Darren has become relatively well-known throughout several areas of the internet and the east coast of America as a DJ/techno artist. He uses the alias x!sor when at a club or posting something on the internet and whatnot, but he isn't anonymous either. He has pictures of himself up on the internet and everything, so feel free to recognize him. Also, just because I feel like it's pretty stupid to have your character as a DJ while not really giving him music to play, I've decided that the easiest thing to do was to shamefully rip off other people's music and say that it's his. I know it's stupid and makes me a complete douchebag, but I'm not saying that it's MY music. I'll always give credit to whoever really made the music OOCly, but still. I can make techno, but I'm not yet experienced enough to make decent techno. Anyway, if you want, let me know if you'd like to know what kind of music Darren makes, and I'll happily link a random song to you for future reference or whatever.
Comments
((Post your thoughts on Darren or his player here! If it's OOC, give some kind of indication.))
"This guy's an asshole. Don't talk to him." - Darren Astor
"OM NOM NOM!" - Lia MacKay
"You know how many times I've wanted to kill this guy?" - Shadeweb
"This guy is amazing in his badassery. Too bad he's a guy." - Artificial Intel
VirtueVerse page completed on April 24, 2010.
