Wow! Quickfire challenges!

Empyrean folds her arms slightly, a smile passing over her normally emotionless features "Ah Ninja Skills, so nice of you to join us finally."

Empyrean glances from trainee to trainee. She knows Mobius has been gone a while, but she expected more effort on their parts. Picking up a remote droid, she tosses it lightly into the air, catching it in her palm before tossing it skyward once more.

"Well since no one wants to train, maybe I should tell Mobius that no one has shown any incentive to do extra remote training to sharpen their skills while he was away. He might decide finding a new apprentice isn't worth it"

More grades are up. Check the first post for scores...

Your final picture challenge before the final challenge. Use this source image and design a paint scheme for your personal ship.

Also, I need suggestions for Sith Titles. Submit them as you would a challenge.

Where is everybody? Does no one want to be part of the fiery climactic battle? I may just crown a winner with the entries I have now...

Oh lord! I'm so sorry, this just plain slipped my mind! I have had a lot of work recently, just ask those in the Monopoly Game... I've been rather sporadic in my updates.

Emperor Inferno:
Do you mean to tell me a game takes precidence over serving the Lord of the Sith and the Dark Side of the Force?! Oh Lord Mobius, please let me dispatch this one, to teach the others a lesson.

Ummmm.... - no? I can update the board in a few minutes, this takes hours to get it right. Unfortunately, I don't have the time. And it would seem that I'm not the only one.

Hmm...Logan may have the right idea. Unless you guys start taking the time to train and do the tasks you have been given

Everyone is to submit a Sith Title as their suggestion. The one I like best will be the mantle I bestow upon my apprentice.

Holy crap. Gone almost a week and no one sees fit to post? At least Higurashi informed me that he is back from Military training. He may win by default if he submits his stuff before everyone else...

Darth Mobius:
Holy crap. Gone almost a week and no one sees fit to post? At least Higurashi informed me that he is back from Military training. He may win by default if he submits his stuff before everyone else...

It would seem that the fizz is gone, bawss. A new incentive perhaps?

NinjaSkills:
I thought I sent my stuff to you, Mobius. I know that Darth Empyrean got the PM cause we had a conversation about it. Do you want me to PM the stuff to you again?

I saw your post Ninja Skills, but I have a 1500 word Essay that NO ONE has done yet. WHERE IS IT?

fish food carl:
It would seem that the fizz is gone, bawss. A new incentive perhaps?

How about this... The winner gets to LIVE!

Just to reiterate:

in 1500 words EXACTLY tell me who the greatest Sith Lord of all time is, what they did that inspired such awe in you, how you attempted to follow in their footsteps, how they have inspired you, and why I should choose you to be my apprentice.

No one STILL? What is this?

All Child Rescue Stories posted, grades to follow.

How it would have gone had I been assigned this mission:

1) Kill Brittany and Troy
2) Kill Brittany and Troy's Parents so no one seeks Justice
3) Infiltrate Grandparents house
4) Kill Grandparents
5) Rescue Daughter.

Grades will be posted shortly, along with Total Scores.

Grades:

Higurashi:
10 Points

The story was the closest to the way it should have played out, as well as having the most use of your new skills

Johnn Johnston:
9 Points

The story was pretty close to accurate, as well as highly entertaining. (The Ford joke definitely earned you more points.)

fish food carl:
8 Points

Not bad, but seemed a little... Off. The whole lost in the mountains thing just worked against you. It made no sense, and wasn't very interesting.

NinjaSkills:
7 Points

Your rapid fire approach to completing the challenges left a whole hell of a lot to be desired. The story was way too short and uninspired. You can still make up ground with the final challenges as you have two left, and the final challenge is worth over 50 points...

Johnn Johnston: Sith Avatar: 8, First Writing Entry: 8, Second Writing Entry: 10, Lightsaber Design: 10, Third Writing Entry: 9 TOTAL POINTS: 45
Fish food Carl: Sith Avatar: 9, First Writing Entry: 10, Second Writing Entry: 8, Lightsaber Design: 8, Third Writing Entry: 8 TOTAL POINTS: 43
Higurashi: Sith Avatar: 10, First Writing Entry: 9 Second Writing Entry: 9, Lightsaber Design: Third Writing Entry: 10 TOTAL POINTS: 38
Ninja Skillz: Sith Avatar: 7, First Writing Entry: 7, Second Writing Entry: 7, Lightsaber Design: 7, Third Writing Entry: 7 TOTAL POINTS: 35

Also, I am missing a Lightsaber hilt from both Higurashi and Ninja Skillz. I think you will still find that it is anyone's battle. I want the essays done by this time next week though.

Empyrean slips up beside Mobius quietly, but even before she's spoken he's wrapped an arm protectively about her waist.

"Well beloved? Who do you think stands the greatest chance at becoming my apprentice in your place?"

Looking thoughtful for a long while, Empyrean finally replies, "I do not know Master Mobius. That is not for me to say. We shall find out when the challenges are over."

Darth Mobius chuckles at her evasive reply and loops his arm around her a bit more to allow his hand to rest on her stomach. With the two of them standing side by side, the pair fall silent, watching the screens as they watch the four attempt for the position of Apprentice to the Dark Lord himself. Keeping Darth Mobius' hand on her stomach, Empyrean shifted enough to glance back at the computer behind her, a brow arching as she watches the screen flash up the scores for the most recently graded task. Higurashi passed with blazing colors, and John Johnston wasn't far behind him. But it was the total points that caught her eye the quickest. John Johnston was in first, but Fish Food Carl wasn't far behind him. As if reading her thoughts, Darth Mobius spoke again. "It will be interesting to see how Higurashi does on his Lightsaber. He is less then Ten points behind John Johnston."

Empyrean nodded her head, and once more before she could reply, the Dark Lord spoke again.

"I was hoping for more effort from Ninja Skills. As I am sure you were as well." Empyrean said nothing but the look on her face was one of agreement.

"If he had put more effort into his tasks, and actually attempted them like the rest, I do not doubt that he could have been in the top three. So far, it is close."

Nothing is said further on the issue, because just then a soft whispered "Daddy?" rose from a small huddled form nearby. Darth Mobius' daughter had woken from her sleep and sat up drowsily from where she'd curled up under her fathers cloak. Darth Mobius released his Fiancee effectively, but not rudely, dismissing her.

Leaving her Master to tend to his daughter, Empyrean slips down to the quarters of the trainees, trying to find one who is practicing. They should be competent by now to have progressed from the sting shots to the numbing bolts if not to the actual laser shots. If they had, she was hoping to catch one of them practicing. The main sitting lounge was empty, and so the Dark Lady of the Sith contented herself with finding one of them, intent on having him show her if he has mastered his blade as of yet.

Erm.... master? Avoiding the issue of my not showing up, I spy a flaw. A major flaw - you have yet to see Higu's lightsaber design, and yet you have graded ours. No matter what he does, he gets a nine. Shouldn't you have waited until after you had received his design to grade ours. Not that it matters intensely to me (as my lazy approach might betray), but it irritates me. In fact - to save myself some face - I'm just going to drop out. See ya master!

fish food carl:
Erm.... master? Avoiding the issue of my not showing up, I spy a flaw. A major flaw - you have yet to see Higu's lightsaber design, and yet you have graded ours. No matter what he does, he gets a nine. Shouldn't you have waited until after you had received his design to grade ours. Not that it matters intensely to me (as my lazy approach might betray), but it irritates me. In fact - to save myself some face - I'm just going to drop out. See ya master!

You were the one who pressed hardest to see grades. If you did not like the way I arbitrarily rated the three entries until Higurashi could add his, you should not have pushed so hard for me to grade your entries prematurely. That is the only reason I did so. Someone (I think it was you, but may have been someone else) Specifically asked for me to submit interim grades. I am sorry to see you go, but if you are upset about the way I grade, you have no one to blame but yourself.

~Darth Mobius

Darth Empyrean:

fish food carl:
Erm.... master? Avoiding the issue of my not showing up, I spy a flaw. A major flaw - you have yet to see Higu's lightsaber design, and yet you have graded ours. No matter what he does, he gets a nine. Shouldn't you have waited until after you had received his design to grade ours. Not that it matters intensely to me (as my lazy approach might betray), but it irritates me. In fact - to save myself some face - I'm just going to drop out. See ya master!

You were the one who pressed hardest to see grades. If you did not like the way I arbitrarily rated the three entries until Higurashi could add his, you should not have pushed so hard for me to grade your entries prematurely. That is the only reason I did so. Someone (I think it was you, but may have been someone else) Specifically asked for me to submit interim grades. I am sorry to see you go, but if you are upset about the way I grade, you have no one to blame but yourself.

~Darth Mobius

Upset? Pushing it there mate. I may have mentioned the same thing to you, about the grading system, I merely thought it a tad redundant, grading some apprentices without even seeing one of the entries. My leaving is based upon more of a desire to... leave. Guess I'm just bored, in my stupor.

How I would have rescued Danika"

I stood on the bridge of my flagship, the Ragnarök, as my fleet came out of hyperspace. 24 glorious Star Destroyers, all painted a glistening gold, escorting my three Executor class Super Star Destroyers, as well as two Interdictor Cruisers.

Many people would assume that a fleet this big was overkill when the mission was simply the elimination of one person. They are probably right, but it is impossible to beat the jaw dropping entrance a fleet this big makes when you want to intimidate someone.

And I was trying to intimidate someone. I knew she would never come out and face me in a spectacular fleet battle, for as conniving and manipulative as she was, I was more cunning in battle than she could ever be. Not to mention that her paltry fleet of three Dreadnaught cruisers was no match for two of my most underpowered escort cruisers.

No, this was going to be a duel of the wits and the blade, and I had a distinct advantage. I was, after all, the man who had trained her in the lightsaber arts, and if she thought I had taught her everything I knew, she was deadly mistaken.

My personal ship, a solid gold plated Lambda shuttle with quantum crystalline armor, was waiting in the main hangar. As I strapped myself in, I began my preflight checks. There is nothing more relaxing to me than a good flight, and I certainly wasn't going to bring another innocent life into this battle. Darth Galvanic's power of corruption and manipulation was the worst I had ever faced.

I engaged the shuttle's repulsorlift drives and backed quickly out of the hangar bay. I flicked the switch that lowered the wings and engaged my main drives as I descended towards the planet.

I was still well above the sound barrier as I screamed over the town of Bloomington, Indiana. I could see the shockwave rippling behind me as I buzzed the town, shattering windows and eardrums with equal disdain. If she couldn't feel me coming by now, she never would. I switched the shuttle from main drives to repulsors again, slowing the shuttle to a nearly sedate 300 kilometers per hour. I stretched out with my senses, searching for that little patch of fear and loathing in the force. In the end, it wasn't her hatred of my me that gave her away, but her boyfriends fear for his life.

I settled the shuttle down on it's landing gear in the trailer park where I had sensed them, taking my time to properly shut down the engines before unstrapping from my seat and lowering the boarding ramp. I unhooked my orange lightsaber from my belt and prepared for the ambush I could sense she had waiting for me.

I dove out of the shuttle with my head tucked between my arms in a quick roll. I felt a hail of blaster fire start ricocheting off the shuttle once I was clear. Obviously, their reaction times weren't the best. I ignited my blade and began deflecting blaster bolts back at the men who were aiming at me. It was quick work to dispatch of them, but I took my time, using their inaccurate fire to warm up as I hadn't while aboard my ship. After about 30 seconds, I grew bored and somersaulted over their heads, turning their own blasters on each other.

Darth Galvanic stood there, her fat face a glare as I turned toward her.

"Ah, long time no see. Put on a bit of weight I see," I said as I dipped my head in a sarcastic show of cordiality. Her glare would have frozen the hearts of lesser beings. I was used to it. We had been married for over two years, after all. Her face froze as she took me in. I had obviously lost a bit of weight since she had last seen me, and it showed in my rippling biceps as I stood there with my lightsaber in hand.

" You are in much better shape than I remembered. You look good." I knew her flattery was simply an attempt to manipulate me into not killing her, but it wouldn't work. Not this time, anyway.

"Where's Danika?" I growled at her. This vendetta was about more than my daughter, but she was the most important part of the vendetta.

"She is somewhere safe, somewhere YOU can never see her! If anything happens to me, you will never find her." Well, so much for that idea...

I lunged at her with my lightsaber, the brilliant orange blade creating a cascade of orange aimed directly at her face. She ignited her red lightsaber just in time to catch my blade inches from her face. Her eyes went wide as she realized I had been holding my orange blade in my left hand, and suddenly a deep purplish blue blade ignited in my right hand, swinging over her head to chop it in half. She backed away as quickly as possible, simply trying to buy herself some time and space. I let her have it because I knew what she intended. I flipped into a reverse cart-wheel and landed beside her trailer. I drove my blade deep into the aluminum wall of the trailer and carved a giant hole in the side. Her boyfriend, who had been leaning against the wall trying to line up a shot with a rifle on me, fell through the hole at my feet. I picked him up by his scrawny little neck and started laughing.

"Ah Brittany, you always had such great taste." Troy started begging and groveling for me not to kill him.

"I see why you like him now. He has no back bone to stand up to you. It must be true love, then." I released my grip on him with my hands, but he floated there in the air still. As he realized what was happening, his eyes grew even wider in fear.

"Where is my daughter?" I asked calmly.

"Don't tell him anything, he won't hurt you!" Brittany called from across the trailer park.

"I wouldn't believe her, she doesn't know me as well as she thought she did." With that I twitched a finger at him and his left hand exploded in agony as his five fingers suddenly went from 15 joints to 25. He screamed in agony, unable to deal with such a large amount of pain. I watched Brittany's face as I did it, and realized she was squeamish. "Having a hard time watching me torture your man-toy, sweetheart?" I asked as Troy's screams of pain subsided into subdued sobs. "Just tell me where Danika is, and I will leave him alone."

"No you won't. You will just kill him, and then me. I will never tell you anything."

"I didn't expect you to. But I have seen his inner strength, and he will talk." I twitched my finger again and now he had three elbows. "Where is Danika?"
He moaned again, but this time he wasn't just struggling to draw breath, he was trying to mutter something under his breath. "Ta..." was all he could get out, though.
Brittany realized what he was doing, and lunged at him, trying to get into killing range. I used the force to deflect her and slammed her into the wall of one of the other trailers as hard as I could. I picked Troy up a little higher, wrapping my hands around his neck.

"Out with it you pansy motherfucker, where is my daughter?"

"Ta... Me," He finally managed to stutter out.

"Tammie? Ah, my mother in law." I turned to Brittany as her boyfriends ear began to drip blood. "Did you really think your Mother could keep Danika from me? You must be dumber than I thought." I tossed Troy to the side as his brain continued to hemorrhage blood from his ear. He lay on the ground whimpering as he clutched his head, unable to withstand the pressure of the blood building in his skull.

"And now, my ex-wife, to deal with YOU!" I ignited my lightsabers again, crossing them in an X before my body, orange blade in my left hand, Purplish-blue in my right. She lunged at me with all of the speed her stubby little legs could manage. For a short, fat, person, she could run pretty fast. Of course, when I leapt five feet over her head, there was little she could do to stop herself from running. I came down right behind her and cut across her ankle. She fell to the ground in a heap.

I picked her up in the force, holding her up about a foot off the ground. She stared at me with a look of fear and despair on her face. I felt the shot coming less than a second before the muzzle flashed. I spun out of the way of the shot, and heard the cry of anguish as Brittany was tossed to the ground. I reached out and pulled the trailer down on top of Troy, knowing without looking that his shot had taken her in the chest.

"Better than either of you deserve," I said as I strode back to my shuttle, leaving them for dead.

My shuttle seemed to fly itself as I made my way towards my ex-mother-in-law's house. I hadn't seen her in months, and my ex had done everything she could to make sure that we hadn't been on good terms. Not that it would matter for much longer, anyway...

My shuttle settled to the ground in a puff of thruster wash, and I strode casually from it. I knocked on the door, and stood waiting patiently as I heard someone come to the door. My ex's Step-Father opened the door and asked me in a gruff voice, "What can I do for you?"

I smiled politely. "Bring Danika to me."

He called out to her and she came padding to the door softly. When she saw me, her face lit up and she cried out in joy, "Daddy!" She ran to me and jumped up into my arms.

"Want to go spend some time with me on my ship, sweetie?"

"Can I, daddy? Can I, please?

I smiled at her softly, "Of course you can sweetheart. Are you ready to go?"

"I just need to put my shoes on!"

As she ran off to put her shoes and gather some of the essentials any almost three year old always needs, her Step-Grandfather turned to me. "Do you have permission to take her?"

"Of course, her mother won't stop me, especially not today."

Danika came up and took my hand. "Let's go Daddy."

I turned my back to the house and walked away. Suddenly the phone rang. I continued walking away casually, but I knew something was wrong, because I could sense the sudden panic in the house. I put Danika safely in the seat of the shuttle, secured her restraints, and lifted off without looking down at the woman who had come out of the house, screaming for me to stop.

I accelerated rapidly out of the atmosphere and hailed my fleet. "Designate positions Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, and Omega 1. Protocol Sigma 7 is in effect. You may proceed when ready."

As my shuttle ascended towards my fleet, a hail of blaster fire descended towards the planet. The state of Indiana was encompassed in a fiery explosion that rivaled a Nuclear Blast for power. In fact, that was what newspapers would claim had happened. A meltdown at one of the nuclear facilities caused a reactor to go critical and immolate the entire state.

Danika looked at me quizzically as she saw the turbolaser blasts pass by. "Daddy, do I have to go back and live with mommy? You love me more and treat me better than she does, and I don't like Troy."

"No sweetie, you will be living with me now. How does that sound?"

"Good. I love you daddy!"

That isn't half as nice as the book he and I were writting when we first met. I was writting the main part of the book, he was writting certain... special sections. He was good enough to make me stare at what he'd written, and most of the time I had to drag myself out of the words long enough to make sure my father wasn't reading over my shoulder!

Finished my story. Also, I am waiting on a few entries before I can post any more grades.

Darth Empyrean shifted her gaze from the lifeless form in front of her to the sounds of blaster bolts echoing from close by. Higurashi stood in the midst of a battle like trance, and his effortless parries with his blade made her brow arch in mild amazement. He'd become good.

Leaving the apprentice that she'd been hoping to criticize, Empyrean made her way over to stand near Higurashi's training space. The remote had long since left the stun bolts behind, but she doubts Higurashi has noticed the change. Not one has hit him. Standing there near the droids outer ring, and just behind Higurashi, Darth Empyrean absently strokes the mild bulge of her stomach, a soft smile on her face as the little one within her flutters at her touch.

As the Remote Droid came around behind Higurashi, Empyrean prepared to intervene, knowing that one shot from the Droid could lay him out in a Bacta tank for several hours. Those blaster bolts hurt on a good day, and on the setting they were on now, they would blow a hole right through him. Her caution was unneeded. Effortlessly, Calmly, Higurashi deflected the bolts and continued his dance with the droid.

"Very good Higurashi. You have quite the talent with your lance."

Darth Empyrean's voice must have startled Higurashi, but if it had, he gave no sign of it. Instead she watched him turn, saw the slight bow of his head in recognition of her status of Dark Lady of the Sith. Behind him the droid dropped from the air to hover inches from the ground.

"Tell me Higurashi, what made you decide to pick the Lance instead of a normal Lightsaber?"

Darth Empyrean walked over to the seat near where Higurashi was training, giving him the option to continue and talk, or just take a while to rest instead.