Zardien – The Stones of Silver Ch. 1
Summary: A crossover between Jewel Riders and Silverhawks!
Archival Note from The Jewel Riders Archive: This story is presented as it was originally published on Stormy’s “Avalon” fan site in the late 1990s and early 2000s. It is presented for archival purposes and for the enjoyment of the Jewel Riders fandom. If you are the author of this story and wish to have it removed from the Jewel Riders Archive (or wish to share more!) please email us at archivist@jewelridersarchive.com. Happy Reading!
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Note: “Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders” and “Silverhawks” are
copyrighted by their respective owners. This story crossover was created
by just a fan who wanted to mix the elements of both shows. The
characters in this story are original creations with elements from both
“Silverhawks” and “Princess Gwenevere and the Jewel Riders”, and any
similarity between the new characters in this story and the ones from
either show is purely coincidental.
The Stones of Silver
Chapter One: Inverted Fates
By Zardien
Dawn. The King of New Camelot looks upon the sunrise of a new day. The
fresh air from the newly restored atmosphere…the shining glint of the
metallic overlay as far as the eye can see…the heights of the palace
casting shadows into the brink of machinery below. A modern madness
fused into this futurized world. It was home. It was life; every
breathing moment of it for this world.
Years after the apocalyptic war in that befell Earth, the planet was
devastated. The environment was assimilated, and the atmosphere faded.
Most of the people were killed, except for a select few. The hope of
survival from these people was deteriorating, and their morale was
nearly destroyed. Nothing mattered now except survival. All those petty
differences; those ethnic, political, and other hatreds; they all meant
nothing now. All that mattered now was survival.
Yet amazingly, one thing did not whittle away: technology. State of the
art computers, genetic engineering, cybernetic fusion, and much more; it
was all there, embedded into the survivors’ minds. But what was the use
of all this advancement if they could not even save themselves? Yeesh,
these people would need bloody magic to save their sorry ‘selves.
Perhaps it was fate, maybe destiny interwoven by the stars, possibly
some celestial entity watching over them…who knows? All that is known is
such was to be. Some wandering traveler seeking food out upon the vast
wasteland found six jewels…merged in with the ground from years past
that had been unearthed over time…perhaps it was indeed the destructive
war taking its toll upon the planet’s surface that gave rise to them.
Nevertheless, there they were…glowing…and they were taken at once to the
rest of the survivors…
In such, the jewels were studied, and learned to have fantastic
power…but not just any power…a power no one could explain…an energy
force that even the computers in their current state could not decipher.
Then…the day came, when a figure who wore an old robe. He had a long
beard, and walked with a long walking staff. His eyes seemed to glint,
yet they always remained focused. No one in the group of survivors could
understand why he dressed that way…why, he looked like a relic of the
medieval age…until the hooded man spoke to them, in a very surprisingly
focused yet pleasant voice, saying nothing other than “Let me speak to
you.”
He was brought before the council of the survivors, a small group
delegated to help keep a little order within this madness, though they
had done a very poor job. This was not a group who cared about democracy
anymore…they had lost all faith in government…countries like even the
United States and Britain, which lasted to nearly the end of the war,
had fallen under a democratic rule. No…the concept of the people’s rule
was lost to these survivors…all they cared about now was living on.
The old man seemed to know that when he walked to the council…focused
and very determined…and entered, the council and the entire group of
survivors gathered together to listen to him speak.
“Hear me, friends. I am about to tell you a story…something that may
shock you, but then again, given my choice of clothing, it may not. I
am here to tell you…I am not of this time. I am from a time long
ago…long before technology ruled…before your high-tech weapons and
machinery…I am from a time where the sword ruled the land…where power
was seen through your land and your army…where civil unrest was a
commonplace. I, my friends, am from a land that was only thought to be
in legend…and my practice is something your society would no doubt
consider balderdash…yet I assure you I shall about to show you
otherwise…”
The council looked at each other, and then stared back at the old man
with the common “What on bloody earth are you talking about?”
“I, my friends, am talking about those…”
He points to the stones with his staff, which emanate an eerie glow as
he points to them.
“I, my friends, am talking about a solution to your dilemma…”
The stones glow brighter…
“A thing that could keep you alive…that could rebuild your life…”
There is a great rumbling from the stones, as the people look at the man
even deeper…
“For you see, friends, I once lived in a place known as Camelot…”
The vibrations are so powerful the whole area is shaking…
“There, they called me Merlin…”
The stones flash…
“And this, my friends… this is what I like to call…magic.”
There is food everywhere, in front of everyone. The people, in such
shock and even in their starving state, don’t even bother to eat the
food before staring at the old man, Merlin as he called himself, in
wonder.
He smiled for the moment, but then spoke again rather quickly
afterwards, because he knew these people needed hope above all things.
“I was frozen in ice for many years…and for a time I woke up…for in a
land known as Avalon, my services were needed again…in which jewels of
my own design with magical powers were bonded to chosen people to be
known as the Jewel Riders. However, over time, not even they were needed
anymore.. and forgotten about…and I chose to freeze myself again…this
time by choice and not by force…deep within my cave; burying the jewels
deep within the ground, never thinking they would ever be used again…”
He looks at them deeper.
“But I…was wrong. When you found those jewels…when somehow time
unearthed them…I was awakened…awakened to a different world…a world of
ruin…a world of little hope…I did the only thing I could…followed the
magical trail of the jewels back to here…where I found you people. I now
sense a purpose again…a purpose for living…you are a society that near
extinction…and you need something to help you give rise again…to
survive…that is what I am here for.”
And so it began…why the people believed him; trusted him, was
simple…they wanted to survive…they needed to survive…and right about now
would do anything…even the seemingly impossible…to survive. But Merlin
had not lied to them…he soon began teaching some the arts…the lost arts
of magic…And for the first time, there was a glint of hope in this
dismal existence…yet this was only surviving…Merlin knew in time, they
would need to progress further…but into what? These people weren’t
farmers or knights, not peasants or peddling merchants. These people
were technologically brilliant, and such they could not be without this
advanced technology…no, this time Merlin would have to adapt to a new
age…He sighed often, because this was going to be quite a lot tougher
than uniting Britain under Arthur…
That is, until the day a man named David Simon, the son of a brilliant
genetic scientist and chemist that had died during the great war who
himself had surpassed his father in brilliance in those fields, figured
out a property of magic. He discovered that despite all the mysterious
things it can produce, all magic shares one scientific property: it is
composed of energy. And energy-harnessing was already a thing the
technology of this time could do. So Simon asked the simple question,
what would happen if tried to harness the magical energy? An lo and
behold, after years of research, he got an answer…but one he never
expected…magic and technology can bond…a concept that would further
society in a new age…
It is many generations later. The magic-machinery technology created by
Simon, now considered the father of it, has been used to rebuild the
Earth…and genetics along with cloning techniques used to repopulate it.
Yet now…in a world who could no longer understand democracy…the
inevitable happened…they needed leaders…to guide them. Thus, under
Merlin’s help, gave rise to monarchy again…to kings and nobles…to
knights and land…though in a world of vast technology. Earth’s name was
changed to Avalon, for no one had the desire to look back on the past.
The most prominent kingdom upon Avalon now, New Camelot, named after the
kingdom Merlin spoke of during the age of the Jewel Riders, was where
Merlin resided. Merlin himself did not age as generations went past; he
himself with magic managed to stay a constant old age. It is now the
present day, with the current King of New Camelot looking upon his
kingdom, a monarchy in a highly-technological world with nothing but high
machinery covering the lands…this was his home. New Camelot, as well as
other kingdoms, had colonized many other planets; quite a few out of the
Milky Way galaxy. They had also begun coming in contact with other
races…alien races…whom they allied with. It was now a race for
colonization among the kingdoms…but now it was on a much bigger scale.
And where there is a desire for power…evil always knows how to live,
Merlin knew only too well. For now, among the colonies spread in a
remote galaxy known as the Mordecai Sector, evil had sprung up…and the
colonies had broken away from their original owners to form their own
kingdoms…kingdoms growing more powerful by the weeks, with help from the
local alien population who hated the Avalonians. Soon, after many
generations, the kingdoms came to incredible size…and now threatened
Planet Avalon itself. Something had to be done…something had to defend
Avalon and its kingdoms from these threats, for their armies were not as
technologically powerful as the evil kingdoms. In desperation, the king
had turned to Merlin and Archduke Anthony II, the Head Royal Scientist
of New Camelot and Grand General of the Armies (he was VERY
multi-talented) to the project.
Anthony and Merlin got along very well. Each was fascinated with other’s
practice, and each one was an expert in their field; Anthony in
technology and Merlin in magic. Merlin asked Anthony many questions upon
how modern technology worked, while Anthony wondered about the mysteries
that underlay magic. They did this not only to socialize; that was but
a secondary reason. Their main reason was clear; they had to somehow
find a way to create adequate defenders for the planet of Avalon.
Anthony had already had part of the solution: a top secret he called
“Project Silverhawk,” in which he created a sort of cybernetic flying
warrior with metallic wings connected to their arms and sides to let
them fly. However, Anthony knew this wouldn’t be enough…especially since
he and Merlin agreed that this needed to be an elite force…not just a
hoard of soldiers…a force specially trained with incredible
capabilities…precisely why the king had asked Merlin to help Anthony in
the first place…they would need to use Simon’s magic-machinery
breakthrough to help them through such a dilemma…but how?
The dilemma continued until Merlin struck upon an idea…an idea he could
have smacked himself for not thinking of earlier…the six jewels! What
if…they created a force of six with the cybernetic Silverhawk technology
and bonded the jewels magically with them? What would happen? Merlin
knew with the modern technology, there would be no need to find six
“chosen” people for the jewels to bond to. In this age, the jewels could
be bonded “forcibly” to whatever six people they chose. Not only that,
as Anthony explained to Merlin…but the jewels could not only be bonded
to the six warriors, but they could literally fuse the jewels into a
cyborg’s system, creating weapons for the six warriors that would be
magically enhanced. Thus the concept of the Silverhawk Knights was born…
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