[b]The Gadgeteer (Hits: N/A)[/b]
[b][i]Mk.II Armor[/i][/b]
[b]PsyCoins: N/A[/b]
[b]Aether: N/A[/b]
[b]Inventory: GamePlayer X+, 5 GamePlayer cartridges[/b]

In a back alley in Metrobelt-2 (known as the west coast before The Change) a flash of light occurred, caught by a security camera. The Gadgeteer looked around, and then up, to see that drab skyscrapers went up for about 11 stories before meeting a sky polluted with thick black smoke clouds...

"Well, this certainly doesn't look inviting..." The Gadgeteer said to nobody in particular.

But the cameras heard everything. They always did after The Change.

The Gadgeteer walked out of the alley to find small, dirty shops staffed mostly by foreigners. Of course, after encountering a few universes where the Natives of North America never met the colonial Europeans, his definition of "foreigners" had shrunk a bit. They didn't appear to own any motor vehicles either. All he saw nearby for transportation was roller skates (and not even in-line) and bicycles.

After looking around carefully, he retreated back into the alley. The Mk.II's adaptive camouflage changed to portray him as a young person similar to one of those street vendors. He continued further into the alley, intending to come out at a different spot.

Suddenly, a pair of thugs came out from behind a dumpster and pointed pistols of an unknown make and model at him. They said something to him, but it was in a strange street slang that seemed to borrow words from Russian, English, Chinese and Korean, according to the universal translator, and some of those borrowed words were being used in a different context.

The Gadgeteer knew better than to open his mouth at this stage. He ignored their angry voices and prepared for what would come next. Sure enough, a shot to his knee was the response to his lack of any. He pretended that he was in extreme pain and knelt down, gritting his teeth beneath his breathing mask and shouting gibberish through it as if in agony. Unfortunately they weren't as stupid as they seemed, shooting him again, this time in the head.

Of course, that wouldn't penetrate the Mk.II's defenses. It was designed with the best tech that the Scribe industrial empire could buy and/or reverse engineer, and though powerful weapons like sustained machine gun fire or a grenade could do significant damage, and magic was something the Mk.II's creators never expected, a gunpowder bullet fired from a pistol was one of the first things the designers and engineers protected against.

The bullet ricocheted off the titanium-alloy armor conspicuously, and the adaptive camouflage was disrupted. Obviously the jig was up. Looking at each other, the two would-be muggers each shot at one of his knees in the vain hope that the pain the Gadgeteer had faked was a sign of an Achilles heel, only for those to ricochet off as well.

The Gadgeteer pointed his arms at them, and a ring of panels extended outwards from both his wrists. The laser gatling barrels began rotating menacingly, and the failed muggers turned and ran in fear. Once they were no longer in sight, the barrels stopped rotating and retracted back into his wrists, the panels neatly fittingly back in place. [i]"The best fights are always the ones where you don't even have to fire a shot..."[/i] the Gadgeteer thought, smiling beneath his breathing apparatus.

He turned to return to the main street to see a clueless shopkeeper closing off the alley with a mechanical gate. Turning back the other way, the alley faded into darkness beneath a structure of indeterminate purpose. He turned night-vision on momentarily, but it seemed the attempted muggers had pulled several heavy crates down to aid their hasty escape. Looking around for any other route, the Gadgeteer spotted a door to his left with its window boarded up. Seeing no other option, he jiggled the doorknob and was surprised to have it come off in his hand. Using the hole left behind as a makeshift handle, he pulled the door open to find a pair of stairwells, one leading upward and the other downward.

Deciding to get a clear view of the area, he headed upwards. Despite only seeing 11 stories from the outside, he must have climbed about 20 before arriving at a door at the top of the stairwell. It was unlocked, so he went through onto the roof of the building. The view was... disconcerting. In every direction for miles were buildings, arranged in a slipshod fashion that just screamed "fire hazard", separated in spots by low-lying thick black smoke which obscured the smaller structures.

His quantum computer didn't detect any wireless transmissions, but judging by the power lines the amount of wiring was impressive. It was likely that the density of the buildings did not allow for reliable radio communications. Not knowing what he could possibly do, he looked around and spotted a metal shipping container, similar but not identical to the intermodal containers of Timeline 1.

Although the container itself was locked shut, there was a tarp draped over the side of it and onto a few wooden crates in a tent-like manner. He crawled into a small nook in the arrangement and waited, hoping he could spend the next 23 hours and 35 minutes in peace. Little did he know he was being watched...

[i](Don't feel daunted by the wall of text. I just wanted to give a good picture of what this place is like. You, as players, only need to post 2-3 paragraphs. If you can think of more, then go ahead, as long as you don't steal the spotlight and you're not in a fight!)[/i]