It was yet another beautiful day in Krukow; the sun was shining, the temperature was perfect, a refreshing breeze was blowing... and Isaac was completely oblivious to it. During his last visit to Kuiper, he had managed to get his hands on a portable box that could use electricity to cook food. There was only one problem with it, and it was the same as most of the other gadgets that Isaac managed to get his hands on: it was busted. Now, the device was no marvel of modern technology, so the electrician was able to fix it with relative ease. The dilemma now was that the rural town he lived in didn't exactly have any generators standing by with enough juice to power the thing. He thought of some alternative energy sources, but solar panels would eliminate the portability of the device, and powering it by a crank would probably make somebody pass out from exhaustion before the device could even power a pork chop. He was about ready to just scrap the project, coming to the conclusion that his town simply didn't have the infrastructure for portable cooking devices, but then he got one last idea.

If he could make a stronger, long-lasting, rechargeable battery, then his device would become practical again. And so, Isaac had been holed up in his little garage for the bast couple of days, tinkering with the batteries from spare devices, and crunching numbers to see how much power he could get out of them. Of course, he would still help people as they came by with their broken gadgets, but since he was so absorbed in his current project, he finished all the "boring" jobs with remarkable expediency so he could plunge back into his work. Unfortunately, he now hit another all-too-common wall that came with living in a rural community. "Out of stuff," he said with a sigh. He would need to take a trip to Kuiper and pick up a whole bunch of supplies if he was going to get anywhere with this project. The spare batteries he had lying around just wouldn't generate enough power, even if he connected every last one of them. 

So, with nothing left to do at the moment, Isaac stood up, stretched his arms and legs, ventured out of his little nook. He had to shield his eyes for a moment as they adjusted to the sunlight, but it didn't take him long to realize that something wasn't quite right. As he walked down the street, lots of people seemed on edge, and he even saw a few rift hunters about. [i]Well this is a bit ominous,[/i] he thought, but he wasn't exactly worried. No monsters had ever gotten inside the town, so he was pretty sure that he was safe as long as he didn't get in anybody's way. However, he [i]was[/i] curious as to what he had missed -- and clearly he had missed something -- so he decided to continue walking until he ran into someone who seemed inclined to talk.

It wasn't long before he did run into somebody, very nearly literally; it was a familiar girl barreling down the street like she was being chased by a pack of wolves or something, and she was on a collision course for Isaac. "Whoa, careful there Emery," he said putting his hands up to buffer the impact. Fortunately, there wasn't much force left, so he probably saved the town clutz from another fall, which she likely already had given her disheveled appearance. "What's the hurry?" he asked, as he politely placed his hands on the girl's shoulders and stabilized her balance to prevent any near-future mishaps. "Did a rift open up or something? I see hunters and guards all over the place."