Chapter 2

April 1, 2018 0845 PST

Joe awoke to dogs whining. “Food, food, food, squeaker”. “What the hell?” Joe looked around. He was laying on the floor in the living room of his three bedroom house and all four of his dogs were sitting in a line staring at him. Milo, 75 a pound black Lab, barked ”Food!” Grace a 40 pound grey and black mutt, and Daisy, a 45 pound Great Pyrenees mix, both started barking “Food!”, “Food!”. Charlie, a 90 pound black Lab Rottweiler mix, barked “Squeaker, food”. He knew Charlie was addicted to chasing a rubber ball, but damn. It was all a bit much for Joe. He shouted “Quiet!!” and then felt bad as they all looked at him like he had just hit them. Sigh... His dogs excelled at guilt tripping before but now that he could somehow understand them, they would take it to a whole new level. He looked around and his house was fucked up, holes everywhere and his plasma TV was gone, except for the line of powder where his TV used to be on the tv stand. Then he remembered.

The prior day's events came back to him with surprising clarity - the fog, the blue boxes and his class, Beastmaster. Explains the dogs he thought to himself. Okay before anything else he needed to get them fed. As Joe sat up he got his first good look at his body, and damn, he had some big hands. A wave of dizziness came over him as he slowly got to his feet and he was able to direct his fall towards the couch. Joe tried to get up again and was able to slowly come to his feet. As he did so, he realized not only was he wider but he was also shorter. He said “Status”, and a blue screen appeared in front of him. He had lost six inches in height, got broader and but somehow his clothes still fit him. His age hadn’t changed but the screen said young adult. Joe waved a hand through the screen, curious as to what would happen, and it vanished. He started to head toward the bathroom and a mirror when the his dogs started with the food barks again. He went over to the dog food storage and quickly dumped food into the dog bowls.

Now Joe was going to go to the bathroom and see what he looked like. As he headed through the kitchen he noticed all of his appliances were just piles of powder and his windows looked odd, he reached out and lightly touched one, it felt thin. Turning away from another mystery, he continued on to the bathroom. He stood in front of the mirror, he was relieved the face still looked like him, sort of. His nose was broader, his eyes appeared to be green emeralds, he had a full head of hair, and his beard had grown from a well groomed quarter inch length to just short of his belt, an impressive length. As he ran a hand through his now shoulder length hair, he realized his hair was different. The individual hairs were thicker and somehow he knew they were fire resistant to a high degree. There were few lines on his face and except for the eyes he looked like he had just graduated from high school. So maybe a system apocalypse wasn’t all bad. Thinking about everything happening he needed to grab one of his rifles. His rifles, ah fuck. Joe ran to his bedroom, slamming into two door jams on the way, and stared at his gun safe. The door stood slightly open, the titanium locking bolts had been eaten through. He slowly opened the gun safe, and almost broke into tears. He had only purchased one gun in his life, but he had inherited over a dozen. They were all badly damaged by whatever hit his house. He was interrupted from inspecting the remains of his firearms by a scream from outside, and it seemed to be coming from above?

Flight 1141 northbound from Fresno to Sacramento. Time approximately 0900 PST

Twenty one year old Sarah Stivers was visiting the bathroom one last time before returning to her seat. Sarah was having a bad day, her flight was delayed two hours, and before boarding she overheard one of the security guards mentioning a missing flight. She needed to think positive, flying was safe, and two planes going down in the same day was unheard of. Maybe if she kept repeating it her stomach would settle down. Nope wasn’t helping. Normally she would drive to her parents for the weekend, but she was determined to get over her fear of flying.

The plane was a fairly small Embraer 175, it had two sets of seats on each side of the plane, while she hated smaller planes she loved the fact she couldn’t get stuck between two people. The seatbelt light came on and they were told to buckle their seatbelts due to some unexpected turbulence. “Great”, Sarah thought “just what I needed.” “That is some weird lightning” said the man sitting next to her. Sarah had been ignoring him in the hopes of getting through a flight without getting hit on. She glanced over at him taking in the sight of a white, blond, overweight male with a receding hairline sporting a gray and orange tracksuit.. The man noticing he finally had the attention of the attractive brunette sitting next to him, started to go on about how the lightning seemed to be blue. Before she could regret looking at him the plane started to shake, badly. Then a white mist seemed to seep into the plane from all sides. Sarah at first thought the plane was filling with smoke, but it moved all wrong, bunching up briefly near passengers before sinking in. Before she could say or do anything, time seemed to slow and a blue screen appeared in front of her.

Welcome to Earth 2.0

Time left to full implementation 28 days, 14 hrs. 20 mins 55 secs.

That faded quickly away to be replaced by another.

Congratulations and welcome to Earth 2.0. This is Administrator Aonea, it appears your character creation process will take place at 20,000 feet. I will be adjusting the available character choices to flying races to compensate for this. However to take advantage of this you must accept the race restriction. If you fail to take this option a random character from the full range available will generated for you. You have 10 adjusted seconds to decide.

9

8

7

Overcoming her disbelief at the weirdness of the situation she found herself in Sarah said “I accept!” Another screen popped up.

Generating

Sarah Silver

Race: Valkyrie(winged) Sex: Female Age:40 Height: 5'10" Weight: 165

Class: Fighter Profession: None

Strength: 12 Constitution 12: Dexterity: 12 Agility: 14

Intelligence: 10 Wisdom: 10 Charisma:12

Languages: Common, Valkera.

Skills: Flight I, Acrobatics II, First Aide II

Class Skills: Sword II, Shield I, Unarmed I

Profession Skills: None

Abilities: Eagle Vision, Direction Sense

Bonuses: Weapon Ticket (common)

Titels:

Life: 120 Mana: 100 Stamina: 130

Experience: 0 Level: 1

Applying

Memories began to flood into her head. Sarah saw herself flying, and memories of her days as a gymnast became fresh in her mind. The rush of knowledge was starting to give her a headache, but before it became to much the pressure faded. Looking up it appeared as if some of the mist was flowing into her and the passengers around her. The man next to her started screaming, his skin was turning green, and his hair was falling out. Then Sarah felt the muscles in her torso began to shift and something seemed to be growing out of her back, before she could do anything the plane came apart around her. The outside of the plane rippled, like water after throwing a stone in it. The effect started at the front of the plane and quickly spread as the wind tore as the now liquified metal began turning into a silver mist. The wind tore at the exposed structure of the plane, chairs started coming out of the floor and one of the empty ones slammed into her, tearing her own chair free and spinning her around.

Damage -10 Life

Sarah was grateful for the other chair as the plane came apart around her, parts of the plane impacted into the chair instead of her. She felt a heavy blow and then she was free of the wreckage. She automatically fell into what her recently acquired knowledge on flying defined as the box man position. Sarah was not sure what happened to her seat but looking back, it appeared as if the remains of the plane was dissolving like ice in hot water. There were other people falling from the plane, the orange track suit guy stood out and as he fell past her a short distance away she got a good look at him. As she stared at him a screen appeared.

Skill acquired analyze I

Goblin level 1

Looking around she spotted another person falling near her. It was easy to spot considering it seemed to be on fire. Looking closely she got.

Vampire Level 1

Even as she watched it fall it seemed to explode into a cloud of gas and vanished.

Instincts she didn’t know she had told her she was falling to fast, her wings would not last long if she tried to slow her fall. Looking down she could see a forested area below her with somewhat clear areas near some homes. She needed to avoid the trees, and the power lines near the road. She stared down at the oncoming ground and tried to see through the tears in her eyes from the wind. She blinked her eyes to clear the tears and something seemed to cover her eyes and she could suddenly see fine. She scanned the ground for a grassy area to land in and spotted a fairly open area near one of the homes, some trees but better than anything else she could reach. She turned her body to try and position herself over the grassy area and looked over shoulder to check on the condition of her wings, it felt like they were still growing. As she stared at the rapidly approaching ground she didn’t know why she wasn't freaking out more. Sarah knew it would be a race between learning to fly, her growing wings and going splat on the ground.

Sarah knew she was still going to land hard and tried to aim for the green grass. She was still falling to fast, but something in her told her it was now or never and she flung her wings out in an attempt to break her fall. PAIN!! She felt the muscles in her torso start to tear and some of her feathers were ripped out, but she was slowing. As the ground rushed to meet her, she couldn't help but scream as she and the ground finally became acquainted.

Damage -65 Life, left wing major bone fracture. Flight impossible until repaired.

Sarah was laying on her back in the grass glaring at the small box as it faded away, and tried to take stock of her situation. Not trusting the blue box, she slowly moved her legs, then her arms and nothing appeared to be broken, but as she carefully shifted her newly acquired wings pain flared up and she thought “Yep, broken.” Sarah focused and fought off the pain, she needed to stay conscious, and then a small message popped up in front of her.

Skill acquired: Pain tolerance I

She blew at it in disgust and the screen seemed to blow away in a cloud of blue sparks. Sarah decided she could just lay here a minute and think before she tried to move her wings again. Before she could make any decision, she heard a deep male voice say “Hold on there lass, don't move, that wing is broke something fierce. Let me get my med kit.” Sarah turned her head to where the voice was coming from and saw an odd looking man. He was maybe five and a half feet tall with broad shoulders, thick arms and legs, and one hell of a beard. “You understand?” “Yes! I got it.” Sarah snapped. Oddly looking or no, she really hoped he had a clue at to what was going on, and the med kit had pain killers. Staring at him another screen opened.

Mountain Dwarf level 1

Joe ran back into the house, glad he had put the dogs into the backyard before coming out since the last thing that women needed was four dogs sniffing at her. After ramming his shoulder into the door jam at least three times, he managed to get the large med kit out from under the bathroom sink. “Stupid shoulders” Joe muttered “and what’s with my language? I’ve never called a girl lass in my life.” Maneuvering quickly with his new body was literally a pain. Joe made it outside without injuring himself too badly and ran out to where the women was laying. “She is pretty.” Joe thought to himself as he ran up to her. She was laying on her back in the green grass, her right wing was spread out in the classic snow angel, but the other was folded back and a bloody bone was sticking out at the bend. Setting the med kit down, he asked her “What’s your name?”

“Sarah, Sarah Stivers.” she said.

“Mine’s Joe Martin, or Joe Ironhand now, I guess.” Joe opened up the med kit and could only just stare at its contents. Where once was a tub full of bandages and other paraphernalia of modern medicine, there now was a bunch of cloth wrapped vials, rolls of bandages, and some ivory rods. Joe seemed to automatically understand what the vials were, but he was unsure of the two ivory wands. He picked them up to study them more closely. Joe muttered, “This is so weird.” As Joe stared at the ivory rods a blue box appeared.

Skill check First Aid II. Success!

Rod of bone mending Identified

“What’s wrong?” Sarah asked?

Joe sighed and looked at her. “From your wings I assume you have seen those blue screens?”

“Yes, It happened while I was flying from Fresno to Sacramento.” She said while staring up at the sky. “A white mist flooded the plane, The blue box appeared, changed my race and the plane just fell apart." Sara paused and looked up at him. "I looked back as I fell, most of the plane just seemed to dissolve into gas. How does that even happen?" Even that small movement seemed to cause her pain. "Now do you have something in there for pain? Taking a deep breath Sarah said, “Sorry to be so abrupt, but, My... wing hurts. A lot.”

Joe looked at her, then into the large white med kit. As he had been talking to Sarah the information on rods just appeared in his mind. Joe said “Well, it changed more than just people.” Joe looked through the vials which were separated by color and labelled. He had two vials of major healing, four vials of healing, eight of minor healing, one vial of regeneration, about 12 bandages and two white finger width rods about 8 inches long of bone mending.

Joe said “I think I can help with your wing but you need to hold very still.” He took one of vials of healing and handed it to her. “Hold on to that and drink it when I tell you to.” Joe took the ivory rod and moved around to her broken. The wing was a bloody mess and she was missing a lot of feathers. “I’m going to need to touch your wing. Hold still.” He set the bone rod next to the protruding bone and said “Drink!” The rod sank into her wing and he watched as the wing straightened itself and the bone pull itself back into her skin.

Warning bone wand unable to completely heal wing due to incompatibility. Valkyrie bones require the Advanced Bone Wand. The wing will require an addition 10 day to fully heal. No, the other bone wand won't help.

Hit points recovered +40

Joe looked at the heavily panting Sarah and told her the bad news, before he could say anything else a large crashing sound came from the woods on the other side of his property line. It sounded like something large was moving through the trees, they were mostly oak and pine trees. Joe could see clearly maybe 40 feet into the woods. Joe whispered “Maybe we should get inside.” He reached down to help her up, Sarah took his hand and he pulled her to her feet. Sarah seemed to sway a bit so Joe held on to her, “Let me know when you can stand on yer own.”

Sarah took a deep breath and nodded her head, “I’m good.”

Joe bent down closed the Medkit, tucked in under one arm and quietly said “Follow me, don’t mind the dogs and watch your wings."