Above the Clouds

The being known as Jeraph has been doing odd jobs around Central City for days. He did dish washing for several cafe's, he helped with carpentry work, he helped with some construction, he even tried his hand at baking, and cooking. Nothing seemed to fit him, or work out to well. He kept burning food, breaking dishes and instead of construction it turned out to be more deconstruction.

Having made a little money though he is sitting on a hill outside of the city, looking towards the west, the hill isn't large, but it's high enough to give a grand view of the area. The rolling hills and trees, the beautiful flowers in bloom in all shades and colors. The smells of the city blowing in from behind him.

Everything he loves about this planet can be seen or smelled from this
spot, there is even some fauna running in the area near where he is, some squirrels, rabbits, and deer. As always there is a plethora of birds singing in the trees, each with their own song, each bird's voice as different as a snowflake. Jeraph is enjoying all of this when something odd catches his eye. A vast, and still growing storm on the horizon.

He begins to watch the encroaching storm when a book from the library entitled
Legends of Earth comes to mind and the words "A storm looms on the horizon. Far above Earth in the heavens themselves, resides a cloud created by the gods. But one can not simply fly up and claim their prize. The clouds that surround the artifact are almost impenetrable by mortals. Find a way through and you will be rewarded."

Jeraph watches the storm, and mentally thinking about the legend from the book. Indeed this storm seems different, it's growing rapidly and seems different from any earth storm he has seen, but is this the legendary storm?
Standing up, he speaks to himself "The legend says mortal, well I'm not a mortal, and might as well find out if this legend is true."

With that Jeraph blasts into the sky activating flight and powered flight simultaneously. As he approaches the storm he flies directly in, and to his disappointment its easy and like flying into a normal cloud. As he continues to fly higher lightning begins moving cloud to cloud, and the moisture in the cloud becomes frozen. Then suddenly a mass of clouds that look different catches his eye, within the storm clouds there is a mass of clouds touching that are a blue in color and seem to almost be guarding something.

"That must be it" Jeraph thought to himself as he continues flying, he decides then to be safe and use speed burst right as he is about to hit the wall of clouds. As he hits the clouds, he is bounced back as if by an invisible force. He tries again, this time putting a shoulder foreward like striking a door. He again gets the same response as he is repelled back by the clouds.

He then flies slowly forward waiting to feel the repelling force, as soon as he feels it he backs off a few inches and looks inside the clouds. From his perspective he can now see that there is a cloud inside the clouds, this one a deeper blue than the outer clouds. The clouds and inner cloud seem strangely familiar to him. The outer clouds would camoflauge it during a clear sky, and no one would notice.

"I was lucky it gathered a storm around it, or I would have never seen it" Jeraph noted to himself."Now how do I get inside to the cloud of the gods, I really want to see what it is, and just touch it" Jeraph said out loud to no one but himself.


He floats there just propelling himself backward matching his speed to that of the cloud. He continues to watch, the interior and the cloud that is his target. He sits there thinking for a while, watching and waiting, thinking that it may open up for him, since he isn't a mortal, also that patience my be rewarded, but alas after several hours it is not.

"Time for plan two" Jeraph thought, playfully.

From his distance he could punch the mass of clouds, so striking it with his sword should be no problem. He reaches to the hilt letting his fingers wrap around and grasp it slowly to ensure the best grip possible. Finally satisfied he unsheathes the blade, and brings it in front of him. Looking for a weak spot in the wall of clouds he waits, and he studies for another ten or fifteen minutes.

Once again not finding anything discernible to pin point a weakness, Jeraph finally just swings the blade with all his strength he can. It hits the cloud and an electrical charge shoots through the blade into him, almost causing him to black out. He maintains consciousness, and pulls the sword back after the shock is finished.

"Well I messed that up. That would have killed me had I passed out" Jeraph thought to himself concerned now for his well being.

Once again he begins to study the cloud wall, this time trying to sense any ki it may possess. Hours go by of sensing and watching, smelling and feeling, and nothing changes, not the speed, not the density, nothing.

"Its beginning to look like the legend was wrong, not practically impenetrable but fully impenetrable is what it should say" Jeraph said aloud to himself and the clouds.

Having a few more tricks up his sleeve, he replaces the sword in its sheath, having done no good. He concentrates Ki energy into the hand that was gripping the sword, which is always his right hand. He sits there and charges the hand with ki for several minutes, letting it get a complete charge. Finally satisfied with the ki, and distance he watches the cloud again closely.

"This had better work." He thought inwardly.

With that he raises his hand and slices at the cloud wall releasing a fully charged Rank III Ki Blade. As the blade hits the clouds, the clouds seem to grow instead of open. Then nothing, the clouds absorbed the Ki Blade and grew in size. That's when the force begins pushing Jeraph again. Minutes ago he was at a safe distance now it seems like the force gained power from his Ki Blade.

"What in the heck, that was my strongest attack, and it absorbed it like it was nothing. This seriously better be worth it" Jeraph thinks to himself slightly angry, more tired, and getting more worn out every moment.

"I have one more thing I can try this better work or I give up" Jeraph thinks calmly trying not to let the anger consume him.

This time he floats back to a safe distance again, but instead of studying the wall of clouds he begins studying the inner cloud and its surrounding area. The first thing he takes note of is that the wall of guardian clouds has left roughly 10 feet between them and the Cloud from The Gods. The second thing he notes is that there is no lightning with the mass of clouds.

He continues to watch and notices little things like the air is warmer near these clouds than the surrounding area, that now that his ki was absorbed he can actually feel a ki signature from the guardian wall of clouds. Several other details are there as well, the lack of precipitation in this area of the clouds, being a major one.

Finally he closes his eyes and begins to try to recreate the entire scene inside the cloud wall from memory. The space in between clouds, the feel of the air around the clouds. The lack of moisture in the air, the smells from all around him, then he tries to envision the cloud itself in its almost midnight blue hue, the cloud being roughly the size of a single person space ship.

The cloud in all it's beauty and wonder begins to slowly form, followed by the space around it free from any lightning and rain or ice. Then the guardian clouds, as he has been calling them, form next in the mental image. Finally the smells and feeling of the air, the fact that he seems almost weightless, that the smell is sweet, better than anything he can recall, but almost like he knows the smell.

He continues to envision this for several minutes, before he notices the same strange sensation he feels when he is in battle and suddenly is behind his opponent, the tingling from scalp to toe. He knows what this sensation means, it means he is using his ability granted from being a Shin to teleport to any place he can imagine. As he feels the sensation fade, he continues to focus so not to lose sight of his target and his teleportation fail.

Knowing this is his last chance to get close to the cloud he doesn't want anything that he does to mess it up. He continues to concentrate with his eyes shut until well after the sensation fades. Finally he opens his eyes and takes a look, he is inside the mass of guardian clouds, and next to the cloud he was attempting to reach.

The sheer shock of making it inside blinds him to something wrong though.

WC 1596