Chronicles Of Astoria

Part II Epsilon

Chapter 1

Chance awoke suddenly; her eyes were wide in shock as she took in the full darkness of the room. She was lying completely flat on her back and covered in sweat from head to toe and she was breathing heavily. At first she could not recall exactly where she was, the darkness was refusing to submit any clues but as her breathing began to slow, so too did her memory begin to return. She lay there for a few moments trying to regain some composure. Taking deep breathes and trying to slow down her heart rate. She tried to think back to recall if she had been dreaming, had she been having a nightmare that had got her all worked up. It frustrated her that she couldn’t remember; more so because she was still feeling that deep routed feeling of dread within her. A wave of unwanted nausea overcame her and she immediately scrambled out of bed and rushed to the washroom. She had no time to turn on the light, squabbling frantically with her hands to find the wash basin before she violently vomited. She could feel the tears well up in her eyes from the reflex action that had just occurred and her vision blurred slightly in the dim light.

This had been the fourth consecutive day this week that she had been sick in this manner. She ran some water and splashed it over her face, washing away the tears and then also rinsing out her mouth. She then slouched down onto the floor of the washroom holding her stomach maternally.

The padding of bare feet could be heard from the bedroom making their way towards her. She splashed some more water onto her face and rinsed her mouth once again. She turned off the tap and turned to face the doorway where Raphael now stood. He was wearing the most ridiculous pair of pyjama bottoms she had ever laid eyes upon. Blue and striped with bright yellow ducks on them. His choice of attire always put a smile on her face although on this morning, she wore her smile on the inside. Other than the ridiculous pyjama bottoms, he was naked from the waist up. There was a dim light shining through the washroom window that lit up his muscular physique perfectly, highlighting every little contour and maximising his definition. This also made her smile but for an entirely different reason to the pyjamas.

She heard him ask in a soft caring voice ‘are you ok?’ but she didn’t answer. She didn’t know how to answer. She looked into his deep brown eyes and hoped he wouldn’t pursue this, she hoped he wouldn’t ask twice. She really was not ready for what was to come and she didn’t want to lie to him but she also couldn’t bring herself to tell him the truth. She held his caring gaze a moment longer still saying nothing. Raphael instinctively took a step slowly into the room and over to where she stood. He then scooped her up and into his arms. She wrapped her arms around his thick muscular neck and rested her head on his chest as he carried her back to bed.

She felt safe in his arms as she let herself sink deeper into his embrace. She knew deep down he would always be here for her like this, always be there when she needed him most and she knew she really needed him now more than ever before.

He carefully laid her onto the bed and spooned in behind her, holding her close to his body and keeping her safe. He was always so gentle with her. As he wrapped her up he placed one of his hands across her belly. She closed her eyes and wondered if he already knew the truth.

Later that morning, just as the sun had come up, Chance was up and out of bed. She sat in front of her mirror and brushed her long blonde hair, carefully combing it straight before tying it up in a knot above her head. She then washed quickly and made to head out. As she reached the door she looked back to the bed where Raphael lay, face down, wearing those ridiculous pyjamas and sucking his thumb as he slept. She shook her head laughing to herself. If the technology laws had allowed it, she would have taken a picture right there and then so that she could ridicule him later with it. As it was, she couldn’t and she hadn’t the time to contact an artist to capture the moment in paint. She made a mental note to herself though to think of a suitable jibe to throw at him later. Holding her gaze on his prone form for a moment longer, she found herself smiling deeply on the inside. She felt so lucky and happy to have him. He was always so kind to her and she really did not know what she would do without him. He knew her better than anyone else; he would stand by her through the thickest situations, as the events of three months ago had proven. She knew deep down she would be lost without him.

She crept slowly over to where he lay; taking careful pointed steps with her soft little feet. As she reached his side she bent down and gently kissed his forehead, being extra careful not to wake him, not for fear of ruining his slumber but more her way of hiding her soft sign of affection.

She had always found it difficult to openly show love, choosing more subtle ways to display her feelings but she knew deep down just how much she cared for Raphael. Up until three months ago, she had never really evaluated the way she treated him. When she had her memory stolen by the old man Kane, she could then see Raphael through a different set of eyes. She had seen how much he cared for her and protected her and most of all, he had stood by her, ignoring her foul treatment towards him and helping her regain her memories. It had been a perilous adventure and one that had taken them all across Astoria, into deep dark temples and facing metallic skeletons and dark doppelgangers’. It had been very dangerous and had nearly cost them both their lives but he had stood by her through it all and this touched her heart deeply.

She made a mental note to try and show her love to him a little more every day, a simple task and yet one that she had found all the more difficult to fulfil.

She stood up straight, turned and left, hurrying her way down the palaces main staircase and out across the courtyard.

There was a growing hype about the up and coming Superfuse championship. A bigger hype than usual as this was the first year in a very long time that Chance herself was not competing in the games. It had been three months since

she had made the decision not to compete, but that is not to say she isn’t involved. Her competitive spirit would never allow her to simply sit by and watch. This year, Chance had opted to organise and run security for the tournament along with coaching a young boy named Gregor to potential victory.

Gregor was a little over eight years old, a good ten years younger than Chance, and had been training hard for the last year or so. She aimed to make him an even better player than she ever was and smash her own record at becoming the youngest Superfuse champion at the age of 8, her record standing respectively at the age of 9 years old.

Gregor had worked hard and had caught on fast. He basically worshipped the ground Chance walked on and was often found talking about her to anyone he came across. Although in recent weeks, Gregor’s devotions had shifted slightly as Chance had regularly heard him mention some girl called ‘Ariana’. It started off subtly with a few mentions here and there but over the weeks, the young lad had been talking about her in almost every conversation. Chance could not recall of anyone of that name that she had met in Astoria and she wasn’t sure if his mother had ever allowed him to leave the city so there was some level of mystery as to where he had met this phantom girl. She had felt a little taken aback that she was no longer his hero, her pride taking a little dent on this occasion although he still worked hard for her and listened well so she cut him some slack. He was always polite and well mannered and would forever be heard owing his gaming talent to her so she let that one go, for now.

She hurried along her way, doing her best not to be late for her arranged training session with young Gregor that

morning. It was still fairly early and the streets remained clear. The market vendors stocking their stalls were the only real signs of noise or commotion and the odd random bird would sing its song and add a pleasant tune to the otherwise beautiful morning. Chance turned down a side street to take a small shortcut and was almost at the edge of the alley when a stream of arrows began to rain down directly in front of her, stopping her in her tracks. Each arrow was fired with precise accuracy and trailed a thin, white string that was attached to its flight. They came sailing down on her location from somewhere up above and it was a wonder none of them struck her. Chance watched as around twenty more arrows were fired in quick succession, attaching themselves to the alley walls and creating a web with the string. It was after about the fourteenth arrow that she began to make out the letter ‘J’ in the centre of the intricate web, weaved from the string itself.

“Very good Jeremy” Chance called out, unsure of his exact whereabouts on the roofs above.

“Finally putting your gift to good use” she added.

She heard a short laugh followed by the scraping of boots and then a light thump as he presumably dropped out of his hiding spot to confront her.

“I got you good didn’t I??” Jeremy said. He stood there merely a few feet in front of her, dressed from head to toe in shining blue Astorian Angel armour. His shoulder pads were slightly smaller than standard but were studded with red coloured bolts. On his back he had stowed a large and shiny golden combi-bow, capable of firing up to five arrows at once and could lace the bolts with all kinds of exotic explosives.

His hair had been slicked back and he stood there wearing an ear-ear grin. Jeremy was one of the senior Angels in Astoria although in recent years he had neglected his duties in pursuit of a drinking habit. There were some that had almost given up on him, tired of his drunken nonsense and inability to function for the majority of the day. Had it not been for the perseverance of Pepsy then Jeremy may not have found purpose in his life at all. He no longer drank but his newfound sense of purpose was now set on creating mischief, all in the line of duty.

“Oh and what have we got here, said the spider to the fly” Jeremy said.

“It seems you may have the spider and the fly simile the wrong way around!” Chance countered.

“Really?” Jeremy asked. Chance took a mere second to conjure up her gift of telekinesis, channelling it through the palms of her hands she felt the surge of power run through her body, growing exponentially before expelling it toward the string web that stood between her and Jeremy. The sheer force of the blast hauled the arrows out from their holdings and sent the entire web hurtling toward Jeremy who had little time to react let alone move out the way. The web wrapped itself around his blue armoured body and sent him tumbling to the ground in a tangled mess. Chance walked over slowly, standing above him she looked down on his now captured and very tangled form. She smiled as she said.

“Yes really” and began to walk off out of the alley and down toward the gaming quadrant. Jeremy struggled as he tried to free himself from the mess he had found himself in. Realising

he was completely stuck in his own trap he called out to Chance.

“Hey a little help here”

Chance didn’t even look back as she turned her hand and launched her other gift, her gift of flash-flare fireworks, hurtling towards his position. He had to quickly shield his eyes from the brightness that was created, lighting up the whole alley like daylight. As his sight slowly returned he saw that some of the string had been burned and frayed allowing him to burst free of its hold. Jumping to his feet he quickly dusted off his armour and also the blow his pride had just taken. He shook his head to clear his mind and focus, the Astorian princess was NOT his target this morning and so he leapt off in the direction of the palace.

It didn’t take him very long to reach his destination, his excitement and eagerness to hunt had spurred him onwards with great speed, a damn site faster than the drunken pace he would regularly have displayed a mere three months earlier.

He smiled to himself at the progress he had made lately; he had really turned himself around. He wasn’t sure what it was exactly that had initiated the change, perhaps it was Pepsys perseverance with him or the events at Sanctuary all those weeks back. Whatever it was, he had certainly made huge changes and hadn’t so much as looked at a bottle of slogan juice since, a massive improvement compared with the four bottles a day he had been consuming before.

Once he reached the palace he carefully began to climb the external wall using the window ledges as footholds and then

pulling him upwards. The palace was situated on the far side of Astoria and dominated the skyline with its beautiful architecture and structure. The palace itself was a symbol of greatness, standing tall and proud and reminding the good people of Astoria that ‘good’ can come out of every situation. The world had been ravaged and yet Astoria had survived and flourished.

Jeremy continued to climb the palace wall. He had a good feeling about this morning. ‘The early bird catches the worm’ he thought as he continued to labour his way up the palace wall. It was quite a climb and he slowly began to curse at his targets choice of domicile. His recently re-conditioned muscles were dealing with the exertion well but were slowly starting to wane. He looked up and felt his morale drop as he realised he was barely halfway up the climb. He persevered upward, reaching up and grabbing each hold and hauling himself higher.

His mind was still questioning his change of heart on life. Perhaps it was the events of the tech-devices, the strange artefacts’ that were secreting a dangerously intoxicating pheromone into the air three months ago. Back then he had been NEEDED once more, a feeling he had not enjoyed for a long time. It was perhaps this same feeling that had motivated him to change his ways from the embarrassing drunk that he was, back into the school hero that he had once been known as. He smiled as his thoughts drifted back to his school days; he truly had been a hero then. Onwards he climbed.

Four floors later and he had finally reached his goal. Gripping tight to his targets window ledge he pulled himself upright and immediately felt delight as he realised his prey had left

their window wide open, the morning breeze lightly blowing the curtains. He carefully crept in through the gap and steadied himself just inside the room. Taking a satchel that had been secured to his back; he cautiously pulled out a specially modified arrow. Unhooking his combo-bow that had slung at his shoulder he then placed this arrow into its holster, steadying his aim as he pulled the string back, feeling the tension increase through the super reinforced Lastic propellant.

He released the arrow and it was propelled at great speed, leaving the bow immediately and sailing towards the un-suspecting target that lay prone on the bed before him. The unique payload in the arrow activated suddenly, the arrow’s head bursting open and releasing a large, ever expanding sticky web. A victorious smile was about to cross his face when suddenly and un-expectantly, the target vanished before his very eyes. He couldn’t quite believe it, he thought he had been careful, he was sure of it; he truly believed that today was the day. His bewildered chain of thought would have to wait as suddenly, the repercussion of his actions was upon him. His intended victim, who had vanished merely seconds before, had now re-appeared directly in front of him and, in an instant, had delivered a sharp kick to his mid section that both knocked the wind out of him and sent him sprawling backwards, tripping on the window ledge and falling straight out of the window, hurtling towards the hard ground some hundred feet below. Thrashing his arms around desperately, his fingers pleading to make purchase on something to break his fall; he fell onwards, down towards his inevitable doom.

Warm and cosy in her luxurious, white linen, super soft queen size bed, Angel Pepsy lay there in a half sleep, enjoying the relaxing tranquillity of the morning. Pepsy was Astoria’s red armoured Angel. Her gift of teleportation made her a difficult and tricky opponent to come up against and her fearless approach to combat usually led to her coming out on top.

It wasn’t often that Pepsy managed the luxury of a long lie in her bed and so she was taking advantage of every minute of this morning, allowing herself to drift in and out of consciousness as the morning sun shone in hard through her open window. Pepsy loved the smell of fresh air and she allowed it to sink deep into her lungs, invigorating and revitalizing her body as she rested.

In her half sleep she had many dreams, none of which made any sense to her. She had heard many people discuss their own dreams, talking about them as if their visions had some influence on their waking life, that they were in some way a link to their potential future and should be studied carefully. Pepsy didn’t believe in such nonsense. She failed to see how dreaming about never-ending shoe racks and large champagne bubble-baths would really have any influence in her day to day tasks. Instead she concluded that dreams were just dreams, nothing more.

Her eyes opened slightly, the morning sun burning gently onto her face and obscuring her vision, filling her view with nothing but brightness. She held them there for a brief moment before closing them and allowing herself to drift back into another dream.

Her latest dream involved her taking a large tub of white paint, a thick brush and then painting EVERY flower that she found around the palace gardens, coating every leaf and petal in the gleaming glossy white of her favourite flower lilies. The past week had been very busy for her and everyday she had been required to use her gift on numerous occasions to transport large numbers of troops to and from the perimeter line. This overuse of her gifts had in turn, left her feeling very tired and in need of some recuperation, recuperation that she would enjoy on this fine morning. She took a deep breath and as she exhaled she sank deeper into her mattress, complete and total calmness descended into her world and she allowed a little smile to form on her lips as she lay there, enjoying the moment, this moment of absolute silence, serenity, the mint...

‘The mint?’ she thought abruptly, why was she dreaming of mint, the sharp, refreshing smell of mint? There was only one person that the smell of mint reminded her of. He would chew on mints to disguise the smell of booze on his breath and although the one in question had been sober for weeks he continued to chew mints and refused to break the habit.

She felt her fingers begin to curl slightly and she no longer felt herself in that calm, lavender environment. Now she was alert, semi awake and questioning the minty stimulus. Perhaps it was her relaxed state that slowed her line of reasoning, or perhaps she wasn’t as sharp thinking as she used to be, regardless, as the penny finally dropped she wasted no time in acting.

‘JEREMY!!’ she thought aloud, instantly shifting away from her bed and out of harm’s way, re-appearing down in her favourite spot in the palace gardens crouched by her lily

patch. She looked around her and to her delight the area was deserted. It was still very early which was very lucky for her as she was out in public wearing only her pyjamas. Pyjamas that, although extremely comfortable, wouldn’t do her street credit any good if anyone laid eyes upon them.

“Argh Jeremy” she growled in irritation, shifting immediately back to her room, appearing directly in front of where her intruder was standing and wasting no time in seeking retribution. She lunged forward, putting all of her weight behind a front kick that she delivered straight to his unguarded stomach.

“I hope you skipped breakfast” she said as she watched his face turn white from the blow. She re-balanced her weight, pulling her guard up and awaiting his return strike, a blow that never came. She watched as he flailed his arms like a startled pigeon, stumbling backwards and then falling straight out the window. She rolled her eyes at his misfortune.

“That boy needs to work on his core” she said, before diving straight out the window after him.

The air was rushing past him at great speeds as he was hurtling ever onwards toward the hard ground below. The momentum of his trip over the windows ledge continued to send him tumbling, end over end, in an uncontrollable spin and he was finding it difficult to determine which way was up, thus preventing him making any further attempt to break his perilous fall. The constant tumbling had, by this stage, started to make him feel nauseous but that didn’t nothing to

squash the ever increasing panic that was growing within, a panic induced by the sheer height of the fall.

This hadn’t been the first time that he had felt this experience. Facing death head on, had become an all too familiar part of an Angel’s life but he had always imagined his demise coming at the hands of some master swordsman, not from the hardened sandstone that made up the palace plaza. It was lucky for Jeremy though that today was not going to be his last, as his avenging Angel teleported in before him, taking her arm around his mid section, breaking his uncontrollable tumble and then teleporting straight down onto the plaza floor and reappearing in a comfortable heap against the stone.

He burst out laughing.

“What is so funny?” Pepsy asked, genuinely irritated at the entire event that had unfolded on this beautiful morning. The strong friendship between Jeremy and Pepsy stemmed back to their school days when she had a relationship with his best friend Lucas. During the bone war, Lucas went missing-presumed dead and Jeremy had taken this quite badly. Pepsy had taken it upon herself to look after him and pull him out of his depressive slumber and back to full Angel duties, although now she was beginning to regret renewing his taste for mischief.

“ahahaha I nearly had you” he replied and continued to laugh. The fear of the near death experience had immediately been forgotten and he was once again feeling much more like his mischief-creating self.

Pepsy snarled briefly, still aware of her bedroom attire she teleported away leaving him laughing away to himself in the morning sun.

A short while later, Pepsy stepped out from her hydro-spray, a super fast and very efficient method of showering the body in deionised water. With a towel wrapped around her body, the window still open and blowing a breeze from earlier, she made her way across to her dressing chamber where she quickly picked out an outfit from the randomiser icon on her wardrobes control panel. She opted for brown suede boots that were lined with a cream and lighter brown soft filling; she wore cream cord trousers and topped off with a white shirt laced with brown suede strings. Her attire mattered very little to her today as she knew she would mostly be in her Angel armour but nonetheless, she would make an effort as always.

She quickly got dressed and then sat in front of her dressing table mirror. From her reflection she could make out the shaggy state of her usually long and golden blonde hair. Reaching into the drawer she pulled out an insta-comb, a small technological brush that was around ten inches long with one end littered with a hundred little Lastic prongs. She had acquired this comb on the black market, a ‘woman’s secret’ was the term the vendor had used and she was forced to swear a pact, never to allow the Allfather to find out about such a device for fear of it getting banned. Knowing all too well how much she needed this device; Pepsy had no qualms about keeping that pact.

Playing around the with combs control panel she set the controls to ‘DRY, STRAIGHT, LAVENDER’ she then let the comb go and it floated there in mid air, before going to work running itself through her straggly wet hair and leaving behind in its wake, long blonde, perfectly dry and perfectly straight hair that smelled of a delicious and relaxing lavender. She smiled at the simplicities in her life.

Once ready she stood up straight, closed her eyes and called upon her Angel armour. Each gifted individual in Astoria who had undergone the trials and passed were given a set of armour to compliment their powers. The armour was very sophisticated and was concealed in ports hidden across the body, small implants that are attached to the body during the armour inauguration. When the wearer commands it, these implants release the armour and it wraps around the body giving them a tough protective layer to protect them from the perils of the world. In Pepsy’s case her armour was red.

Almost instantly there was a bright flash of light and then her body was quickly being covered from head to toe in gleaming, red and sturdy armour complete with medium shoulder guards and thick set gauntlets. Smiling and then activating her gift she ‘shifted’ away.

She shifted into the dark room that she had visited many times before in the last three months. With every visit she made, she found the room all the more intriguing. Sensing that perhaps this area was off-limits to all, she went about her business there quietly and never spoke of it to anyone and yet she longed for nothing more than a deep explanation from either Spanners or the Allfather himself, knowing all too well that such information would most probably come at a price and that price would most certainly be a promise made

never to return to this room. A promise that she wasn’t quite yet prepared to make.

She thought back to the day she had found this room. There had been panic all over Astoria; pheromone devices had been planted all along the city walls emitting toxins that were instigating anger and riots among the good people. Angel Quincy had managed to eliminate them all in one swift strike but then his power had gone out of control, forks of lighting sparking out in all directions. She had been sent to find an artefact that would halt his gift and in her hurry she had tripped and fallen down far more stairs than she had planned, bursting through a door at the bottom and revealing the massive dark room. She had been clever enough to leave one of her armour homer beacons so that she could later return with ease and since that day she had explored the room further and further.

Along the floor Pepsy had carefully left small lumen lamps over the weeks that she had been coming down here. She had linked them all up carefully using copper wire and a simple activation of one lumen glow light would send electricity through them all, energising the glow worms within the lumen lights and bringing the chamber to a dull glow of enlightenment. Glow worms were common place across Astoria and seemed to grow in vast numbers in a valley to the far side of the copper mines. This valley had since been affectionately called the glow valley due to the majority of the creatures that inhabited it. In their natural state, glow worms emit a dull glow that would light a small area. If they have been energised they can glow as bright as any torch light, making them the obvious and easiest choice for cheap lighting.

Once she was sure she was alone, she activated the lights and the lower chamber lit up slightly. She then pulled a small data slate from her pocket and continued to make notes on her findings. She had concluded thus far that the section she had initially found was the nose cone of some larger ship, the rest of which was stored beneath the floor that she was currently standing on. She had yet to find a way down to the lower levels and this part had frustrated her greatly, a puzzle that she hoped would be solved soon.

On the large cone section of what she was convinced was a ship, was a number of various markings that she had puzzled over for weeks. The cone itself was made from a very hard substance and her data slate scan gave a rough estimation that it was constructed some 400 years earlier and designed to withstand temperatures of both extremely hot and also extremely cold. Pepys’s eyes were forever drawn to the ships insignia designation ‘The Astoria’ and she had no doubt now that there was a direct link between this ship and the origins of her city she called home. She just had to find a way to get into it.

She walked her way around the hull as she had done so many times since her discovery. She would always run her hands along its surface and feel its smooth texture, closing her eyes and trying to feel for any memories, any links to her heritage. There were times when she was so overwhelmed with possibilities that she would burst into tears at the mere thought of what she was uncovering here. Today was no different.

As she walked around, keeping her eyes closed she failed to see one of the lumen pods that lay on the floor before her. She clumsily kicked it and sent it sprawling across the base

floor. The capsule had burst under the force of the kick and now the glow worm wriggled free and started to crawl its way along the ground. Pepsy had by this point opened her eyes in shock and was looking around, sensing for any intruder whom had perhaps disturbed her. She scanned left to right and then back again. She could see nothing.

Just as she was about to close her eyes once more she was drawn to the movement of the glow worm as it wriggled its way to freedom. She watched on curiously as it pushed its tail end forwards, sending a wave of movement through its entire body and eventually driving the front end onwards on momentum. It would repeat this over and over and would surprisingly make good pace. Pepsy watched this event carefully and had concluded that the glow worm’s commended effort deserved its release. Just as she went to turn away, the glow worm vanished from view.

Completely vanished.

Pepsy screwed her eyes up a little more and walked closer; she looked around and could not discern where the worm had gone. It took her to look again before she realised that it had fallen down a grating that was built into the floor. She looked closer at the grating and wondered how she had never noticed it before. It was a squared piece of metal grating; each lace was easily a few inches thick and beneath it was sheer blackness, testimony to its depth. She leaned in closer and reached forward with her hand, gripping the spacing between the gratings, she pulled hard. It didn’t move. She then leaned in harder; bringing her legs even closer together and into a very short squat position. Now using the full might of her legs she heaved the metal grating and was able to shift it up slightly, enough to catch the lip of

the grating lid onto the hard flooring. She held it there for a moment while she caught her breath and then proceeded to drag it along the flooring revealing a large square gap. She slowly climbed to her feet, regaining her breath as she did so from the exertion of moving the grating. She then peered into the gap that she had just recently revealed.

Like all of the chambers she had uncovered thus far it was pitch dark and so deep that she could make out absolutely nothing with the naked eye. Wasting no time she used her left gauntlet control panel and activated a torch light on her right hand. Angel armour was generally tailored in many ways to the gifts of the wearer, with many added abilities being accessible through the armour’s gauntlet control panel. Every set of armour came with torch light as standard and Pepsy was immediately grateful of this.

She aimed her hand down into the hole to try and reveal some more of her discovery. The torch light stretched to quite a length down the chamber but even its fierce light hadn’t hit the bottom and once again Pepsy found herself in a room of unfathomable depth. From the edge of the hole that she had made she noticed a steel service ladder that started halfway down the wall and seemed to run all the way into the darkness. She quickly realised that for a human, there would be no way of reaching the ladder with the equipment she had. Luckily with a gift like hers all she needed was a clear view of her intended landing zone. She ‘shifted’

A fraction of a second later she found herself grasping onto the ladder and she quickly began to descend it. Gripping her toes onto the outside of its frame, her hands pressing on

tightly to the ladders edges, she proceeded to release the pressure of her grip and started to slide down at great speed.

After around fifteen minutes of constant descending, she could just about see the outline of a platform coming towards her. Increasing the grip through her gauntlets she slowly came to a halt, two feet from the platform; she then hopped down and fixed her eyes on the surface before her. It was clearly a door of sorts and made from the same material that the cone section higher up was constructed from. A thick seam ran down the middle of the two pieces of the door but gave away no light from the room inside.

Pepsy gripped both lips of the seam and attempted to pull the doors open. They didn’t budge at all. She took a step back in frustration, looking all around the doorway for some release catch or perhaps a door panel, again there was nothing. The door itself seemed lifeless, refusing to move for anyone. Pepsy sunk deeply into her thoughts. She knew Spanners would possibly have a device or a heavy piece of machinery that could open this door but that would mean giving the game away about her exploration down here and she wasn’t entirely sure whether he would even allow her to enter. She pondered a moment longer before her eyes lit up, she had an idea! Wasting no time she ‘shifted’ away.

Chapter 2

Pepsy teleported straight into a warm and cosy domicile with walls painted a feminine pink and a bed that looked fit for a queen stacked high with comfortable looking pillows and various other soft cushions. Upon the bed sat a tanned girl, her head down as she focussed on filing her nails. A slight breeze brought in from the open teleport hole alerted the girls’ attention; lifting her head she seemed unfazed by the intrusion. The girl smiled and revealed a perfect set of gleaming white teeth, made all the whiter against the tanned colour of her skin.

“Hey” the girl said smiling and then dropping her eyes back down to her nails. “I thought it was Tuesday we were to meet?” she added.

“Hi Ariana, yes erm, I kind of need your help with something” Pepsy said, slowly walking to the end of the bed and sitting down on the corner. She kept her eyes on her feet the entire time and felt rather criminal knowing that what she was about to request was bordering on dishonest. Ariana looked up, her eye brows rising slightly with curiosity as she sensed the sheepish behaviour of her friend that had arrived in full battle gear, straight into her bedroom. Pepsy lifted her eyes briefly meeting Ariana’s and smiled before looking back down toward the floor.

Ariana was beautiful. She had long dark shiny hair that she kept tied up on top of her head. She was always

immaculately presented and today she wore a dark blue soft jumper that ran off the ends of her shoulders and she wore black leggings that ran three quarters the length of her legs. In her ears she wore large hooped ear rings that were made of a shiny golden material, her nails were painted a dark blue to match her jumper and she was full of wide welcoming smiles as always.

Ariana’s gift was somewhat unique, she had the power to ghost out, to pass through hard surfaces as if they weren’t there and reappear at the other side. She wasn’t an Angel, a choice she had made long ago but she certainly had all the attributes to be. Her unique gift was exactly what Pepsy required to gain access to the ship but convincing her may be the tricky part.

“There is somewhere I need to go but the path is blocked and I haven’t been there before nor can I see the room beyond so I need you to use your gift to get us through” Pepsy said, still feeling the guilt of what she was asking and this in turn made her request come out like an over explained jumble of words thrown at the poor girl at once. Pepsy shook her head to herself on the inside, she should have just kept it brief and to the point.

“Where is this place? Is it far? There won’t be vampires there will there? I found this book in the old libraries and it has got me hooked, I’m not sure if I am fascinated or just plain scared” Ariana replied.

“This place is in the bottom of the palace and no I don’t think there will be vampires there, at least I think not”

Ariana continued to talk about her book, blissfully unaware that Pepsy had even replied. Her eyes glazed over slightly as her mind played out the events that her lips were explaining. Pepsy stood there for e brief moment wearing a look of confusion. Somewhere between ‘shifting’ here and asking for help she had landed up in what seemed to be a serious conversation about fictional beasts of old.

“Well these vampires, they aren’t all bad and one of them is really nice but he falls in love with a human girl and it is a forbidden love and...” Ariana continued as the momentum of her tale grew.

“So you’ll help me then?” Pepsy cut in, trying her best to steer the conversation back to the original goal. Ariana continued to talk as she stood up, walked to the end of the bed where Pepsy sat and reached her hand out, accepting the mission while awaiting the teleportation to this impassable terrain, all the while chatting about the book she had found.

“So then they fall in love BUT there is this werewolf, that’s a person that turns into a wolf, who is also in love with the human girl and...” Ariana was in full flight of her tale now. Pepsy rolled her eyes and then wasted no time in ‘shifting’ them away, reappearing on the metal walkway that led to the impassable door. They both stepped from the purple tear in reality and walked forwards. Pepsy was about to start her explanation on how she had found this place and what was troubling her but Ariana seemed disinterested, instinctively knowing that the lifeless door was the source of her friends issues, she gripped Pepsys arm gently and activated her gift, ghosting them both out and enabling them to pass through

the closed doors. Ariana continued to talk about her recent find much to the dismay of Pepsy.

“So the were-wolfs naturally fight the vampires but there has been an unsaid truce between both clans and so they have been living in peace for quite some time.” Ariana continued. Pepsy could see her lips moving but couldn’t really hear the words that were leaving Ariana’s lips; she was too fascinated with the room she had now found herself in. It seemed to her that it was some kind of air lock as at either end there were air tight doors clearly designed to purge the occupants clean of any infectious parasites and re-establish pressure before entering the ship. There seemed to be no power however to the ship and so the scanners were lifeless. Her eyes panned around the room as they walked cautiously onward, circling slightly to take in all the wonders that were around her.

The ship was AMAZING, it was the highest concentration of technology she had ever laid eyes upon and she knew that deep down, she would learn so much more about her people from this discovery. As they reached the airlock doors, Pepsy held Ariana’s hand once more and they both ghosted out, passing through the airlock doors and into another, much larger chamber. Once inside, Pepsy let go and became solid once more.

A few seconds later there was this strange whirring sound of something mechanical starting up. Pepsy sensed the danger immediately and was thankful she was wearing her Angel armour. Lunging forward she attempted to push the un-armoured Ariana into the small alcove next to the wall in front of her. Stretching out her hands to push, Pepsy passed straight through her and stumbled forward, landing in the

alcove herself while Ariana still remained out in the open ghosted out. Bullets began to fly at a super high rate straight at Ariana, passing through her ghosted form and tearing holes in the thick walls on the far side. The gun emplacement was relentless and continued to fire.

“So the girl isn’t sure who she likes, the were-wolf or the vampire and so” Ariana continued.

“You aren’t STILL going on about that are you? Can’t you see we are in danger here” Pepsy yelled over the blasting noise of the barrage of bullets that were still peppering up the wall behind them. Ariana paused for a moment looking down at herself and then up at the gun emplacement and then back at Pepsy, bullets still passing through her as she spoke.

“That’s weird that this place has no power but that gun is still working” Ariana said.

“How can you be so calm!!!!” Pepsy yelled, the rate of fire was horrendous and very much had her pinned down, she dare not even poke her head out for fear of taking a hit.

“Well it can’t hurt me” Ariana said swiftly.

“Well since you are so invincible, do you mind disarming it?” Pepsy yelled, the intensity of the situation was starting to get to her and was showing through her irritated voice.

“How? Shouldn’t we just wait until it runs out of ammo? I could tell you more about my book?”

“DISARM IT NOW PLEASE!” Pepsy yelled.

“Okaaaaay” Ariana said turning on her heel and walking straight up to the gun emplacement, a ten barrelled super fast spinning drone gun that was fixed to the wall. She looked it up and down and could see a thick wire cable running up into the main section of the gun. Reaching out, un-ghosting only part of her arm, she pulled hard on the cable and tore it free, the gun slowly whirred down to nothing and fell silent.

Pepsy poked her head out once it was safe and then hopped out of cover and joined Ariana at her side. They both stood there looking at the drone gun as the barrels continued to smoke from the recent fire.

“And you said your gift was useless?” Pepsy said, rhetorically. They turned and explored deeper into the ship.

Pacing back and forth in the command chamber of the palace, the Allfather was lost within his troubled thoughts. His old frame seemed fatigued, worn down with worry and he hadn’t slept properly in weeks. It seemed like a lifetime ago since the Allfather had turned Astoria into the magical and righteous place that it now was. He had commanded respect among the people and had very quickly risen to power, amalgamating the feuding factions and creating a single force of command, his ‘Angels’ who would govern and keep law within the city. For many years he ruled fairly alongside his brother Ganon, keeping the good people of Astoria free from the darkness of chaos and the evils that could corrupt a man’s soul and yet now, all these years later it seemed his good work was slowly being un-done. The events that had occurred three months ago deeply troubled him. A dark force had set about to corrupt his good people,

placing special pheromone emitting devices around the city that would irritate and rouse the anger within anyone that passed by them, creating arguments and fights and instigating a riot across the city. While the city was thrown into chaos, his Angels too had been lured away from the city on false errands and tedious tasks all aimed at leaving the city vulnerable. And on top of it all, his daughter, the Angel Chance, had her memory stolen from her and was also cast away from the city. All of it was beyond coincidence and although Chance had regained her memory and defeated the old man Kane who had instigated it all, he still could not help but feel there was a greater power still at work, that it was all but a small piece in a greater conspiracy.

His thoughts fell once again to the old man Kane, the powerfully gifted being who posed as a cripple to fool all those around him and set about the distribution of the pheromone devices within the city. It still bothered the Allfather that his name was similar to a Kane he had known ten years before. Names were unique in the land of Astoria and no two people shared the same name and yet here was the puzzle that plagued the Allfather’s mind at night.

Kane had been a troublesome boy and had been involved in a dark plot to take control of Astoria; he had worked with the Sarfan Lord and had nearly brought about the end for everyone. Many lives had been lost as the city had been invaded by animated skeletons, marching their bleached bones through the streets and attacking all who came near. Kane’s part in all of that carnage had been huge and yet it just was not possible that the young boy then could have grown so old in such a short space of time. He looked older than the Allfather himself and that was saying something.

He continued to play it all over in his mind, searching for a logical solution.

By now he had stopped his pacing and has simply begun to stare blankly against the wall. The room was the highest technologically advanced place that the whole of Astoria had and was originally designed as a war room although the name suggested too much aggression and so he had it changed to the command chamber.

It was a large room, large enough to easily accommodate fifty people in its perfectly rounded outlay. Its windows were super re-enforced and peered out in all directions, should anything ever be fired upon them they could still hold fort and keep visual on the enemy, in this case though the command chamber had been mostly used to relay the ACG, the audio communications grid that the Angels used to speak with one another instantly over great distances. Each channel was secured so that only the Angels or persons with an ACG device could access its pathways. The Allfather had chosen to keep it active after the subtle attack on the city twelve weeks back, going against everything he had worked for in his attempt to pull his people away from the use of technology which, in his view, had brought about the end of their world as they knew it. Although the Allfather had to admit, the ACG had been far quicker and more useful for rounding up his troops than sending errand boys across the land like he had done in the past.

The room itself had many consoles and all could relay different kinds of information back to the command chamber from various parts of the quadrant. Today he had them all focused on the perimeters and especially on the tribinium crystal fields that encroached these boundaries. One of the

consoles began to pulse a small red light and emit a small bleeping sound which immediately caught the Allfather’s attention. He was the only person in the room and so there was no need to check for privacy. He made his way quickly to the console and activated the panel. There was a visual display that showed one of his Astorian guard troopers, he was high ranking and the Allfather trusted him very well.

“You have information captain?” he said to the small view screen.

“I do Allfather and it does not bode well. It seems your predictions were correct, the buoy markers that were left at the perimeter two weeks ago have been completely over run. It took careful and precise shooting from our Guardsmen to take out the tribinium there and retrieve the buoy. It seems evident that the tribinium crystals have now begun to make their way into the Astorian quadrant.” The captain replied. The Allfather remained silent for a moment; taking in the severity of the information he was being given. If the tribinium crystals continued on in this manner then their beloved city was soon be swamped in the very substance that had forced exodus from this world. It was grave news indeed.

“Thank you captain, I am sending a platoon of Lastic drones to your location, be sure to use them to trim the lines of the tribinium and try stem the flow of it for now. With them I will send the necessary protective clothing to ensure your men remain healthy. This situation is of the utmost importance, we cannot allow the crystals to enter our realm or we will all be doomed, is that understood?”

“It is sir. Over and out” the captain responded. The Allfather stood silent for a moment, taking deep breaths and trying to gather some calm over the situation, He then flicked open a channel on the ACG.

“Spanners, I require your counsel in the command chamber right away.”

“On my way honourable one” was the response. Spanners was the Allfather’s most trusted adviser. His gift of manipulating machines and all manner of equipment made him perfect for the job of lead technician and he was often called upon to discuss matters of technology. In this case his advice and ideas on stemming the flow of the toxic crystals would be vital to the survival of all Astorians.

Just as the Allfather was about to re-start his pacing, a small light on one of the other consoles began to bleep. Bringing up the information quickly onto one of the view screens the Allfather scratched his chin

“Ah Pepsy, just what are you up to this time” he said aloud.

Quincy sat on the end of his reinforced bed staring out of the window. His regular form had been replaced with the bulking hulk of the boomer armour; a sophisticated suit of armour made from Lastic, designed to turn the wearer into an avatar of power. He had been forced to remain in the armour for some time now and he sat ever still in his room, peering out the small window and watching the people below in the courtyard. He had remained like this for weeks and hadn’t left his room since the ‘accident’, a catastrophic incident where his exposure to the tribinium crystals had sent his gift

of electricity spiralling out of control and killing thirty innocent Astorian soldiers in the process. The entire event had been labelled as an accident but he continued to blame himself for it, feeling and knowing that he should have taken better care before unleashing such a power.

Since then, his room had been remodelled, firstly and abruptly by Quincy himself as he had squeezed his armoured bulk through the small door way that led in. His massive shoulders had burst away huge sections of the door and for awhile he had sat without privacy, for any passersby could see directly into his room without much effort. After awhile though, Spanners had reconstructed the doorway to accommodate the larger boomer armour and once again Quincy had his privacy.

They were no further forward with a solution to his problem, his lack of control for his supercharged gifts, although he didn’t much care. Life now had very little meaning for him. When friends had come by and tried to console him he had barely listened to their words. To him it sounded like he was underwater and their voices were muffled and muted. Every now and then he would hear a specific word that would cut through him like a knife, it was the same word he had predicted they would use, ‘accident’ and upon hearing it each time he felt his anger rise.

He had killed 30 men, men with honour, men with families and it was being brushed under the carpet as some freak occurrence. Care was to be taken to ensure it wouldn’t happen again BUT still no justice was served. Quincy loathed himself more now than ever. He had become a monster. His gift was out of control, it had taken lives and what Quincy loathed most was that, before he knew he had taken any

lives, he had actually enjoyed the rush that the newfound powers had given him, he had felt unstoppable. He now realised that power had come at a great price and he had no way of repaying the debt. Some of the families of the dead had come to see him, they had tried to show him their forgiveness but it mattered not. They could ALL forgive him if they so choose to but he was certainly not capable of forgiving himself. And so he sat there, sullen in his room, keeping himself out of everyone’s way so that he wouldn’t harm anyone again.

Chance stood waiting, her hands resting on her hips, in the main gaming arena as Raphael entered via the far end door. The gaming arena was situated on the north east quadrant of Astoria and was mostly used for recreation. It had many halls set up with varying sports for the Astorians to part-take in.

Raphael wasn’t late, as lateness was never really something he believed in but he was walking very strangely Chance noticed, very strangely. Each step was careful and elevated as if he was covered in a substance that too much movement would spill onto the floor. His focus was completely fixed upon his own body like he was juggling some unseen ball and refusing to let it drop. Chance narrowed her eyes; she was finding his behaviour all the more strange these past few days. She wondered if he too had something to tell her, something that he was finding difficult like she was. Or perhaps he already knew about the baby and this was his weird way of dealing with it. She found his behaviour hard to deal with most of the time, he kept his feelings to himself mostly and it was always hard to tell exactly what was wrong, his entrance to the arena today only

added to that strangeness. As he moved closer she could see that his Angel armour had been activated and instead of its usual pristine, white sheen that a chosen Angel usually donned, it was instead a grey smeared colour and covered in food debris that she couldn’t quite make out. She just couldn’t understand it, it looked to her like he had waded through the recycling quadrant to get here and for what reason he would do such a thing was anathema to her. She felt her nostrils flare as the scent of fresh fish flowed through the air and it didn’t take a genius to work out where it was coming from. He arrived at her side and the smell was very potent, so much so that she really had to focus to prevent herself from recoiling at the odour and hurting his feelings.

"What on earth happened to you?" she asked with her eyes wide both with curiosity and confusion.

"Oh just the locals..." he replied looking down at his armour and repulsing at the sight of the mashed fish remains that were smeared all over him. It had always been common knowledge between the Angels that the Astorian civilians were wary of Raphael. Too many dark rumours and stories linking him to the bone war that many felt he could not be trusted. The Angels however trusted him with their lives.

Raphael kept his eyes down, shamed that he had been forced to arrive in such a state; he knew the importance of this meeting, what it meant to her. He knew that being late was not an option, although he sensed that she would have appreciated lateness a little more than she did his current odour.

From the corner of his eye he could see her shaking her head in disbelief and his feelings of shame grew. How could he explain to her what happened? How could he tell her that for reasons unknown to him, the Astorian people had taken a severe disliking to him and not for the first time in his life either. Resentment so strong that anger and abuse coupled with the launching of food projectiles in his direction had become common practice lately. He knew she was distracted with the tournament prep, he knew the last thing she needed was a trivial distraction like the one he had been enduring and so he chose to remain silent on the matter for now. He continued to carefully pick the remains from his armour and place them into his pocket knowing full well the added wraith he would receive for dropping them onto the floor of the arena. Chance eyed him up and down. Now was really not the time to tell him about the baby although looking at his fishy predicament she wondered if she would ever find the right moment. She felt a small murmur of worry creep into her mind seeing him in disarray like this. She wished she had more free time to sit down and talk to him, make sure he was ok but with the tournament prep taking up all her focus and the baby distracting her mind the rest of the time she was finding it hard to make time for his feelings, a fact that too, was bothering her. Choosing to steer the conversation away from the smell that was now lingering in the air between them, she began to speak about their soon to arrive visitor.

"I have spoken with the lady this morning, the one that is going to help organise the Superfuse tournament, she comes well recommended and has a long list of successful events.

She helped..." Chance paused and eyed Raphael carefully, his head was still down and focussed on the chest plate of his armour, both his hands picking away carefully at the fishy remains there.

"Are you listening to me?" she asked. He shot her a look quickly to show he had been paying attention.

"Yep, lady, super fuse, well recommended" he repeated swiftly. Chance nodded slightly, surprised that he HAD actually been listening, she continued.

"She is called Rose" Chance said.

"Her team is or she is?" he replied.

"She is, SHE is the expert!"

"I thought YOU were the expert" he said, a small smile stretching across his lips as he knew he had risked a small level of jesting behaviour.

"In most things dear" she said as she patronisingly tapped his head “in most things" Raphael rolled his eyes and went back to cleaning his armour, pulling large chunks of fish flesh and bones that were lodged in the crevices of his battle plating.

"She said she will make this arena shine like a tournament for Olympians, a place fit for titans.. A.." she paused again "are you LISTENING???"

"Yes, Olympian titans, shiny" he responded. Chance shook her head, she was glad that he had at least made the effort to show up unlike the visit to her mother’s grave that he had still refused to part-take in. She felt her choler grow slightly at the lonely memory from earlier that day and how he hadn’t been there for her, she couldn’t understand why he constantly avoided coming with her. Couldn’t he see that she needed him there by her mother’s grave for support? It had only been a few years since she had passed but Chance felt her loss everyday and had yet to truly come to terms with it all. It angered her that he wasn’t there for her.

She shook the thought free from her head, now was not the time to address the issue, she had to stay focussed and professional.

Fortunately the door to the far end of the arena opened and light shone through the doorway breaking her previous chain of thought and bringing her back to the present. A small figure made its way carefully into the arena and began to take careful methodical steps towards them both. As the door closed behind the figure the outside light was abruptly shut out and they were no longer blinded by its rays. With a clear vision now they could make out quite clearly the figure making their way towards them. It was a small lady of petite build and long blonde hair that flowed freely down her back coupled with it pinned up at the top and held fast by a

clip that resembled a crystal tiara. Chance noted right away that she was beautiful with high cheek bones and a welcoming smile, shining white teeth and stunning green eyes. Chance instantly admired her style as she wore a long fitted black dress that stretched to her knees on one side and all the way to her ankles on the other. Chance awed in absolute jealousy as she noticed the pair of sleek, vainglorian slippers that cupped Rose’s tiny little feet. With each step she took the slippers changed colour and shimmered varying shades of black that complimented her dress. Chance liked her immediately and turned to Raphael, hoping he too would approve. She ground her teeth in irritation as she realised he was still picking away at his armour seemingly disinterested in the approaching visitor. A few steps more and Rose was before them.

"Hi there I am Rose" she said politely and held out her little hand to shake. Chance took it immediately and marvelled at its softness making a note to herself that she must remember to find out what skin products she used. Raphael glanced up and, upon seeing the outstretched hand, reached his own hand out in courtesy; his eyes then focussed on the fishy remains in his fingers and recoiled his arm instantly before his guest had an opportunity to notice it. Instead he smiled and gave her a small bow. Rose seemed not to notice the withdrawn gesture and continued on.

"So I see THIS is the arena that you wish remodelled?" Chance stood and marvelled at her presence. This lady had style and power and she knew she would do well to learn a thing or two from her. She took a moment to compose herself before replying.

"Yes, this is the main hall; there are a few other smaller arenas that also need to be designed hopefully with the same theme?"

"yes I have thought about that, I pondered the theme based on the grandness of the event, I believe a good theme would be ancient Rome, the grand coliseums, we could have sandstone pillars at each intersection, statues and large tapestries depicting the roman gods at their finest. I thought we could layer the arena floor in sand to give an ancient feel to it all. How does that sound?" Chance was awed at Rose's vision. She didn’t really know what ancient Rome was or the coliseums but it all sounded perfect, it would be unique, it would be different and most of all it sounded quite easy to implement.

"That... Sounds... Amazing" was all she could manage. She turned to Raphael who also nodded his approval; he had at least, for now, stopped picking at his armour and had given Rose his full attention. "great, I’ll get to it, ill order the materials in right away" Rose replied and then for the first time that meeting, Raphael’s mouth dropped open in amazement as right before his very eyes, Rose multiplied. An entire copy of her stepped out from where she had stood, wearing exactly the same black dress and shoes that she was wearing, turned and headed out of the arena. A mere moment later and the jaw dropping action happened once again as yet another copy stepped out, turned and also headed for the door. And then a third. And a fourth. Upon the fifth copy appearing, it stepped out and stood beside her, both Chance and Raphael stood there absolutely blown away by the extraordinary uniqueness of her gift.

"Do you want red tapestries, yellow or a mixture?" Rose asked. Chance froze for a moment, oblivious to the question that had been directed at her. It was only when her eyes met those of Rose’s that she broke from her trance and responded.

"A mixture would be nice" she replied. Rose turned and nodded to her copy that then swiftly turned to leave the arena. "Ok I shall get on with the other arrangements; can we meet every day at 4pm to go over any loose ends? I like to make sure everything is perfect for my clients" Rose said. Chance smiled ear to ear, this was definitely her kind of lady.

"Of course that all sounds brilliant. I am very glad I contacted you" Chance replied. Rose merely smiled before turning, saying her farewells and marching swiftly out of the arena. The beam of light once again burst in through the doorway as it opened and neither Chance nor Raphael said a word until the door closed.

"Who says there is no 'I' in team hey!" Raphael stated. Chance burst out laughing.

"How good is she!" she said. Raphael just nodded his approval as Chance spoke again.

"I have a good feeling about all of this" she said. Feeling the happy moment take over she reached her hand up to his cheek, touching it gently and feeling the rugged sharpness of his stubble. Her eyes met his and she once again felt warm, cosy and at peace. She was about to open her mouth and give him a verbal sign of affection when, for reasons

unbeknown to her, she snapped her hand back in abruptly, taking it quickly away from his face and back to her side in a swift movement. Raphael seemed not to notice the withdrawal, perhaps he was used to it. Chance cursed herself on the inside. ‘Why was she so incapable of showing public affection? What was wrong with her?’ she shook her head free of the questions and smiled at him before swiftly turning and heading out of the arena.

As Chance left the arena by the same door as Rose, a blonde figure made her way quietly into the gaming room from the door at the opposite end. She was wearing white tight trousers that displayed her slim physique perfectly and long black boots. On top she wore a light blue long sleeve jumper and her hair sat neatly at her shoulders and as she arrived she drew Raphael a warm caring smile.

“Good morning Crystal” Raphael said as he looked up from where he was sitting. He gave her a soft friendly smile and then went back to cleaning his armour. Crystal was Astoria’s only remaining wielder of ice, her gift allowing her to create and manipulate the frozen substance. Crystal looked in many ways like Chance except where the princess had golden blonde hair flowing down her back; Crystal had platinum blonde hair that stopped at her shoulders. They were similar in almost every other way, same height, same slim athletic physique and they also shared strong feelings for Raphael, although Crystal covered hers up even greater than Chance did.

“What on earth happened to you?” Crystal asked as she then noted the grey mess all over his armour. From her position

she was not sure what the grey material was but there was no doubt that he was covered in it and against the white of his armour it looked bad.

“I made the mistake of coming through the harbour area this morning. A few of the locals there have taken a disliking to me and decided to throw fish products in my direction” he replied.

“Well they must have had really good aim as you are covered!”

“There were quite a few of them” he responded with a small smile that was clearly trying to hide his pain. Crystal instinctively began to help him pick out all the pieces from each of the crevices in his battle armour, there were bones and scales in every place possible.

“But why would they do this?” Crystal asked. Raphael looked at her closely, his brown eyes softened at her question. It touched him deeply that she had his corner instead of automatically accusing him of what HE had done. He looked her deep into her sparkling blue eyes and gave her a small smile of thanks although he doubted if she knew what it was for.

“I have no idea; the people don’t seem to like me very much these days. They accused me of ransacking their stalls the other day and destroying their produce. But I didn’t. I don’t understand it” he replied and then turned his focus back to his armour.

“Has this happened before?” she asked.

“Never this aggressive, they started to shout and heckle at me for a few weeks now, although what they accuse me of each time is ridiculous. On some occasions I am not even in the city at the time of the alleged events. I don’t understand it” he said, shaking his head in a small sadness at his own persecution.

“I hope none of those tech-devices have returned you know how crazy it made the folks last time” she paused and could see the sadness in his eyes as he worked away removing the fish from his armour. She took her hand and placed it softly on his cheek and waited for him to raise his gaze to meet hers.

“I will help you get to the bottom of this so don’t let them get you down. It might be a good idea to avoid the harbour for the time being though” she said and gave him a long caring look to comfort him. Raphael smiled back and then dropped his eyes once more.

“It’s just tough you know. It took years for the people to trust me and ignore those bone war rumours. And now it seems they have lost that hard earned trust that id fought so hard to gain. And I have no idea why. Maybe I don’t belong here in Astoria?” he said sadly.

“Don’t say that Raphael, you have done so much for this city. You have saved it more times than they are aware of. You have put yourself and your life on the line so many times just so they can all sleep at night peacefully in their beds. You have always been honest and true to your word and I for one can vouch for that. Just give them time, these people have always feared you and for reasons I will never fully

understand. Something has them spooked once more but I promise we will get to the bottom of it.”

Picking up the last piece of cooked chicken with his massive paw like hands, Wallace stuffed the drumstick into his mouth and chewed it generously. A smile formed across his face as he enjoyed every inch of the delicious meal that had been prepared for him.

“Now that was DELICIOUS” he said, still smiling from ear to ear and showing off his super white set of teeth. Wallace was an Angel of massive proportions. His love of food coupled with his monstrous appetite made him easily the largest person in the entire land.

“I am glad you approve. You need a nice hearty meal in you to fuel your endeavours for the day” Paulina replied.

Wallace and Paulina had been an item now for a few months, ever since Pepsy had played matchmaker and brought them together. The pair had hit if off instantly and had been a couple of love birds ever since. Paulina was a large woman, very stout and curvy in nature. She had a very grim looking face by nature and yet her warm heart poured out into everything she now did. She was very much suited to Wallace as he too was massive, his big brown coloured frame was easily twice as wide as any of the other Angels in the city and with his gift in motion, his power to absorb all kinds of energy into his body would also allow him to grow to even larger sizes, much to his discomfort the majority of the time.

“ah now my lady, I must thank you for such a fine meal and be on my way, I have a little sparkplug buddy of mine that I must attend to, pull him out of his slumber, but I would very much like to return you this favour, what’s say I fetch us some fine wildagoats steaks from the market today and cook you a nice meal tonight?” Wallace said, his voice booming loudly as always.

“Id say that is a lovely idea and I would look forward to seeing you, what time shall I expect you?” Paulina replied.

“Well I’ll send an errand boy ahead with a message but definitely before it gets dark, watch the sunset together”

“You old romantic you” she said.

“Always” he grinned. Getting up from the table he walked over, kissed her gently on the cheek and turned to head out on his journey towards the palace to see his friend in solitude.

The door slid open as Ariana had activated the emergency release catch from the inside. Pepsy stepped into the room and felt herself unable to blink for the wonders she found inside. The explorative pair had wandered their way into the research laboratory level of the arcology. All around the dull room there were half finished experiments, strange devices of all manners and forms littering the worktops. Pepsy's eyes looked all around and could see there were algorithms and equations scribbled along the walls that looked almost frantic

giving her the feeling of excitement the author must have felt upon scribbling them. She took a few steps into the room and realised there were four adjoining rooms to the main lab they had entered. Each subsequent room was raised slightly and their sealed doorways had three small steps leading up to them. High above the doorways there were de-luminated signs that detailed the rooms contents. Pepsy walked slowly forward, trying to discern the symbols in the poor light. It had just occurred to her that Ariana had finally fallen silent. Pepsy turned slowly to ensure she was ok and for the first time throughout their exploration... Ariana was finally speechless, her eyes locked on the various vials that littered the lab tables. Pepsy noted that one vial in particular was catching her attention "you like that do you?" Pepsy asked, finding Ariana's silence quite amusing. "It’s beautiful" Ariana replied. "I have never seen anything like it" Pepsy walked over to her side, her eyes too were locked on the item held within the thick protective glass vial that sat on the work bench, shining before them.

"One day, a man might buy that for you" Pepsy jested, still enjoying the strange silence that Ariana now displayed. The item was shining in impossible colours, bright and powerful. Radiating lances of every colour struck out from its little mass and Ariana marvelled at its brilliance, her mind was buzzing with the possibilities that wielding such an item would bring. Her eyes never leaving the table she stared on. Pepsy, seemingly disinterested, took a few steps back and turned to examine the room further, conversing with Ariana as she went.

"Oh Ariana, you are like a beautiful little moth... Drawn to bright colours and held there mesmerised, better watch you don’t burn your wings or you’ll never fly again"

"Ha-ha ill be careful but it is beautiful, so rare, I wonder what it does" "put it on and find out"

"Ha-ha, I am not that brave. It’s sealed in a vial for good reason I imagine" Ariana replied.

"You are so sensible..." Pepsy said as she explored the room further, her eyes never once returning to face her friend throughout the entire conversation as she slowly crept her way further down the lab. She noted that most of the tables were tasked with the same experiment; scribbled diagrams and similar apparatus let her know this. But here and there she passed a workbench that had an entirely new project upon it and she marvelled at the wonders she was finding.

Her exploration took her deeper into the room and as she shone her torch directly upon the de-luminted sign above the door she could now read clearly "amorphous alloys" She immediately found herself drawn to the doorway, a sense of curiosity grew from within her, the same curiosity that had been motivating her the last few months since finding the ship. The feeling gave her purpose, it made her feel like she was a teenager again and seeing the world for the first time and most of all she was enjoying it. Upon stepping up the three small stairs made from corrugated steel, Pepsy began to crane her neck around in anticipation of calling for Ariana's assistance. Upon placing her foot on the top step the door before her made a strong

hissing sound, almost like the sound of a pressure being released. A few moments later and without her command, the door slid open.

Inside the room there was a set of workbenches that ran the perimeter of the small room that was no larger than ten feet across in either direction. In the centre of the room there was a single white sturdy bench and while the other benches had chairs stacked neatly beneath them, this bench stood alone. Its white surface was clear from debris other than a single glass vial mounted on a small frame. Pepsy moved closer, her eyes drawn to the metallic contents of the vial that seemed to float lightly amid the centre of the glass container. She looked at the contents long and hard, dropping her knees slightly so that she could bring her head to the worktops level and look at the bottom of the vial and true enough, the silver fluid seemed to be floating. "How peculiar" she said aloud. From behind her in the main lab she heard Ariana call out.

"You say something? You ok?"

"Yes I’m fine, you can go back to your shiny thing" she replied. A smile crossed her face as she realised the irony of mocking Ariana for her moth like tendencies while at the same time she stood, unable to look away from her very own shiny thing. Before her in the vial was a metallic fluid of some description. It seemed to hover in the middle of the vial and she quickly realised that it was animated too as when she brought her finger near the glass, the liquid shifted around in the vial. At first she thought it perhaps a magnetic polar response, concluding that the liquid would always move away from her but the more she familiarised herself with it, the more it became drawn to her.

She giggled to herself like a small child that had befriended a curious mouse. The liquid in the vial began to form shapes and at first the shapes seemed alien to her, strange angles and smooth parts formed on a tiny scale. Until she realised that it had in fact formed mirror images of parts of her armour. The liquid in the vial must be a sentient being of some kind and she giggled all the more. It had been a long long time since she had found herself this happy, not since the days of Lucas had she smiled as much as she was now. She ran her finger across the vial and the metal would follow. She would race her finger back to the side it had come from and the metal would dart to the opposite side. It became like a little game, each time toying a bit more, faking her fingers return and watching the liquid metal do the same. Pepsy’s excitement grew and grew a little too much as when she turned to call our for Ariana’s attention to her discovery, she accidently knocked the frame straight off the workbench and the vial smashed against the lab floor.

"Argh I’m so clumsy" she cursed to herself and leaned over to see the mess she had made. She watched on as the liquid metal then raced along the ground at alarming speed straight toward her. She instinctively backed away and crashed into the back benches on the far wall, sending a clattering sound echoing through the laboratory. She heard Ariana shout words of query but her focus was on the slithering metallic fluid that advanced towards her with blistering speed. She had no time to react; she had no time to scream as the fluid vanished into the boot of her armour. A few minutes passed and all she was aware of was how loud her breathing sounded as her chest panted up and down. She kept trying to make sense of what had just happened. A

moment later Ariana appeared in the doorway, a puzzled look crossing her tanned features as she tried to make sense of the debris on the floor and her friends look or horror.

"Are you ok?" she asked, still studying Pepsy closely looking for any signs of injury. Her eyes then darted to the empty vial and she asked another question before Pepsy had even had a chance to reply to the first "and what was in that.. And... Oh wow look at your arm" Ariana pointed down toward Pepsy's right arm and upon it, on top of her red armour was a glistening shiny silver layer. It looked as if it had been painted thinly on and shimmered in the low lighting. Pepsy’s eyes were drawn to it and she wasn’t sure if she should be fascinated or alarmed. She instinctively lifted the arm up and brought it closer to her face to examine it. It looked, in all essences like her vambrace was made from solid silver, polished to pristine perfection. She brought her other hand across and touched its surface and although it looked fluidic, it was in fact solid. She tapped on it rigorously and nothing happened.

"I don’t know what happened, one minute it was in the vial.. The next it chased me across the room and now it’s on my arm" Pepsy stated. Ariana had now joined her in their fascination of the mysterious new discovery.

"Lets test it on something, hold on, here let’s try burning it" Ariana's excitement was plain to see. Pepsy looked unimpressed as she stood there before her looking at the blow torch that Ariana had found on the other workbench and was now ready to use on her. "Do you really think I am going to let you burn my arm?"

"No not your arm, just that piece, your armour will protect you anyway" Ariana replied, her excitement growing every second. Pepsy’s curiosity too had grown and she eventually nodded her approval. Ariana moved in and, turning on the torch, applied the searing white cone of the burner to the silver surface of Pepsys vambrace. Under the intense heat Pepsy should have expected to feel her arm getting warmer underneath but surprisingly she felt nothing. As Ariana pulled back the torch they both looked on and observed the scorch mark that was left upon its shiny surface from where the white hot tip of the flame has been applied. They then both observed the mark vanish before their very eyes and the gleaming silver remained unblemished and brand new. "Wow" Ariana exclaimed and once again she fell completely silent. Pepsy turned and walked to the door of the room, her every step was slow and careful, lost in thought from the events previously. Out in the main lab she then turned and hurried about, scurrying her way around the lab in search of something that Ariana could not understand. She stood at the doorway of the 'amorphous alloys' lab watching the red angel frantically throwing and clearing the debris from the tops of the lab tables, her eyes darting left and right until she paused and picked something up. Turning quickly she made her way back over to Ariana.

"I want you to hit me with this?" Pepsy said as she produced a solid steel mallet from her hand.

"You want me to hit you with that?" this time it was Ariana with the reluctance to the plans idea. "Hit you where?" she asked. Pepsy rolled her eyes at her friends’ lack of savvy.

"On the toe silly, WHERE DO YOU THINK?"

"Oh, erm ok" Ariana replied, still a little weary of swinging such a heavy tool down upon the wrist area of her friend. She knew angel armour was sturdy but the force of the blow would still cause her pain. She looked Pepsy in the eye and saw a grim look of determination, a look that a scientist must have upon the brink of discovery, the look of raw passion for uncovering the secrets of some mystery. A look that to Ariana said, swing that hard or ill use it on you. And so she did. She lifted her arm up high and brought the hammer head down hard upon the silver section of Pepsy armour. Shooting pain raced straight through her hand as the hammer ricochet and the vibrations from the blow pulsed all the way up her arm. She dropped the hammer instantly and grabbed her shoulder. "Aahhhhh" Ariana yelped and continued to nurse her wounded shoulder. Pepsy looked upon the perfect silver and saw not a single mark left on its surface.

"Oh you didn’t hit it hard enough" Pepsy said, a little disappointed at the outcome.

"I did so!!" Ariana said, defending her hammer strike.

"Hit it again and this time don’t be so girly"

"no!" Ariana replied bluntly and continued to cup her shoulder with her hand. The pain had started to recede but the shock of the self inflicted blow still lay fresh. She wasn’t going to debate it any further; she would not swing the hammer again.

Pepsy, sensing the wounded pride in her friend, picked up the hammer herself and tried to self harm. She quickly found that she was most certainly not ambidextrous and thus her left arm was not nearly as strong with a weapon as her right. Sensing defeat she placed the hammer onto the worktop. A silence descended between them and Ariana could see the disappointment in Pepsy face that the experiment was over. Although she didn’t want to continue any such violence, she did have a suggestion to bring to the table.

"Why don’t you hit the hammer with the silver?" Ariana suggested. Pepsys eyes lit up once more and straightened herself up, lifting her hand back high in the air. Before she swung she realised something didn’t feel right. She looked up and could see that the silver had now engulfed her entire gauntleted hand. From fingertip to elbow was now shiny silver solid. She swung her hand down upon the hammer and made a fist at the last possible moment. The only evidence that her blow had actually connected was when a loud cracking noise filled the room. The force of the blow was completely absorbed by her silver gauntlet and she felt nothing at all. As she lifted her arm up, the silver retracted from her hand and returned to her vambrace, once again simply coating the lower section of her right arm. Ariana’s eyes grew wide in amazement as she saw the shattered remains of the hammers head lying in tiny pieces on the worktops surface.

"Woooow" Ariana exclaimed. "Not bad" countered Pepsy

The apothecary chambers were impossibly white, clean, shiny and smelling of strong anti-bacterial cleaners that when inhaled, stung the nostrils for a brief moment.

The apothecary area of the palace was where hurt, ill or injured Angels of Astoria came. The head apothecarian was none other than the Angel Harmony whose gift allowed her to heal the wounded and ensure they were back on the road to recovery as quickly as possible, her gift making short work of the task. This was Chances second visit here in as many weeks and her nerves were just as high on each occasion. It was a strange feeling and one that she didn’t want to indulge too often. She knew she wasn’t sick but then that was not why she was here. She did have a condition though and one that she hadn’t quite come to terms as of yet. She just wasn’t ready to. She knew that she could be selfish at times and this new arrival would mean she could never put herself first again, a fact that was taking some time to sink in. Harmony stood with her back to the door reading through some notes she had on a data slate before her on the worktop. The room wasn’t by any means large, just big enough to fit three beds with dignity shields around each but it still made Harmony look so tiny where she stood. As Chance walked forwards her careful steps alerted Harmony’s keen hearing as she turned with a smile.

Harmony was fairly small in height with long dark hair that she tied back in a pony tail. She had a small and athletically voluptuous figure and today she was dressed completely in a white surgical gown, fitting for her role as chief apothecarian.

"Hello hunni, how are you feeling?" Harmony’s words were warm and melted away any nerves she had previously been

feeling. "I’m ok, just trying to come to terms with this morning sickness though" Chance replied.

"Oh darling you’ll get through it, try some ginger, it should help with the sickness" Harmony replied and motioned for Chance to hop up onto the bed. The surface of the bed was soft and felt warm. Chance was amazed as just how comfortable this particular bed was and the mischief creating side to her was already plotting a way to swap this one for her own. True Raphael would then have to sleep on the floor but that was a necessary cut back for her comfort.

‘No wait, what was she thinking? she had to stop putting Raphael’s wellbeing to the side like this. She had to start including him and if that meant sharing the single mattress then so be it’ she thought, trying her best to make the changes to her treatment of him and wondering whether such a change was even possible. She certainly hoped so. She placed her hands onto the soft texture of the bed wondering if Harmony would notice given that this bed was a single and hers was an emperor’s class. She smirked as she realised she might actually get away with it. Harmony was not always the most observant and with Raphael’s strength, the switch-over would be fast, it would be a swift operation.

As Harmony spoke next Chance realised that she was actually just creating distractions for herself to avoid the obvious situation that she was in. She was PREGNANT and her world was going to change so much. "Ok Chance I am going to place this data blanket onto your belly, it will scan deep into your stomach and let us know your baby is healthy. The receptors may be cold but should

warm up after a moment" at that Harmony brought out a thin black sheet no bigger than half a yard each way squared. On one side there were tiny metallic nodes, at least a hundred of them littered about the sheet, the other side was simply black. She smiled at Chance and then gently placed it onto her stomach. Chance winced slightly as she realised Harmony hadn’t been exaggerating when she said it would be cold, she felt goose bumps rise on her skin and the small hairs on her arms all stood up. Once the sheet was secured around her mid section Harmony turned on a viewing screen. The apothecarian was the only chamber in the whole of Astoria where technology had NEVER been limited or banned, the Allfather prioritising health over his ideals. In this instance, the scanning device on her belly was so advanced that it gave a full colour, 3d image onto the viewing screen as if the camera was in there with the baby. Chance's mouth was open wide; she was at a loss for words. There before her was their baby. She could see everything, its little closed eyes, its face and hands all curled into a small ball. It was still early days and even the advanced scanner couldn’t pick out the finer details but here it was, her baby. A tear ran down her face and although her belly was full of baby, her stomach felt empty. She HAD to tell Raphael, but she didn’t know how. As if sensing her chain of thought, Harmony then asked.

“Have you told Raph yet?" her voice was soft and gentle as always and every word was perfectly placed to comfort her patient. To a certain extent it worked and Chance felt like opening up. She felt like talking might actually make a difference but then

her heart sank at the mere thought of breaking the news to him. Her shoulders sunk deeper and she shook her head, her eyes now firmly fixed solemnly on the floor. Harmony placed a caring hand on her upper back and rubbed her gently. "In your own time hunni, in your own time" she said.

“Do you think I am mean person?” Chance asked?

“Of course not, why do you ask?” Harmony was a little taken aback by the sudden and unexpected question.

“Well it’s just, up until three months ago; I thought I made Raphael happy. But when I lost my memory I realised just how horrible I am to him, I treat him like a doormat. I am so scared he will one day get sick of me and leave” a tear ran down her face at the thought of losing him. She quickly wiped it off the instant she saw it and tried to get up off the bed, to get out of the room as quickly as she could and hide her upset state of emotions. Harmony placed a hand across her shoulders, an arm that held incredible strength that surprised even Chance as she tried to break through it. She couldn’t budge and sank back into the pillows of the bed sobbing as Harmony used her other hand to slowly stroke Chances hair out of her face.

“Fern once said to me, that she hoped Raphael would see sense and go with Crystal” Chance sniffed “she is so beautiful and nice and caring and NOT pregnant, they could go anywhere they wanted together, he wouldn’t be stuck following me around all day” Chance was full on sobbing by this stage and Harmony no longer had to hold her down. She reached across and took a small slice of tissue from a holder and carefully wiped away her tears.

“Raphael loves you, he always has. Try and find the time to tell him about the baby, I am certain he will be thrilled”

Chance sobbed a little more

“I hope so”

Upon leaving the research laboratory they made their way slowly along the gantry. Pepsys armour torch the only light they had to make use of. Unbeknown to them both was that this vast room was originally a storage facility of epic scale, big enough to stockpile enough food and supplies for a million people to sustain for a minimum of 6 months. The store had since been ransacked and emptied long ago by looters and thieves in a time long forgotten and now the gantries that spiralled down the walls of the chamber were all that remained. All around them there was signs of a struggle, scorch marks on the walls and weapons lay strewn about the floor, even the gantry creaked and moaned as if it too had taken part in whatever has come to pass here. Pepsy moved on cautiously, Ariana however continued to waffle on.

"So then, she fell pregnant but the baby would be half immortal and so she was still human and..." Pepsy did her best to block her voice out. It wasn’t that Ariana was irritating, far from it but Pepsy was trying her best to concentrate, to focus on her surroundings and take as much of it in as she could. She had spent the best part of 12 weeks coming down here and making hypothesis on the nature of the craft and its purpose. Today she was finally inside, she was finally exploring further than she had ever

done before and every time Ariana opened her mouth she was distracting her from her explorations. The gantry creaked beneath them once more and this time it sounded deeper followed by a string scraping sound of reinforced metal against metal. Pepsy found herself naturally pausing to ensure the stability of their platform. She held her breath and listened hard. Behind her, Ariana hadn’t even noticed she had stopped and walked straight into the back of her, giving them both an equal fright and causing the gantry to creak even louder. The shock of the sound forced Pepsy to shine her torch to their feet and she was immediately thankful that she had for before them was a break in the gantry where stairs would have originally led down but now all that remained was a ten ft gap, dropping down onto the next set of gantries.

"Wooo that was close hey" Ariana said as she too noticed the hole in their path.

"A little too close" Pepsy replied, looking around and trying to spot a way around. The darkness of the room was making it nigh on impossible to see too far in front and there was also a strange dusty cloud that seemed to float in the air, limiting the range of the torchlight of her gauntlet. She scanned her eyes around but could see no other alternative. As she looked down she could barely see the next platform. She could just make out the outline but no more; certainly not enough visibility to risk a teleport, such things required a clean view of sight to unknown locations or at least a clear memory of it. She wasn’t even sure if the other gantry was wide enough to support them both, the damage between her location and there was evident.

"We will have to jump across" Pepsy stated, taking command of the situation and concluding that it was the best course of action, well it was the ONLY course of action really. She didn’t turn to see Ariana’s response but she could immediately feel the scrutiny on the back of her neck.

"Jump? Are you kidding?"

"It’s not far, besides there is a bit of a drop which should give us the momentum to make it across"

"a bit of a drop? Should give us? You aren’t filling me with confidence here Pepsy" Ariana scepticism began to bug her and she now realised why the girl hadn’t graduated, she lacked the courage of her convictions.

"Oh come on, it’s not that far"

"its not the distance I’m worried about, it’s the other side... It doesn’t look stable" Ariana had replied a sensible answer that forced Pepsy to rethink. A moment later her eyes lit up and she shifted away, returning instantly with a rope and a hook. Wasting no time she swung the rope up to the gantry above and allowed the hook to serve its purpose and snag itself between the gaps in the steel. She gave a few tugs on the rope to ensure it was secure and then handed it over to Ariana.

"Oh I’m going first then" she said, a statement more than a question. Her words were simply met with a smile from Pepsy as she stood to the side to let her past. Taking the rope, Ariana stood looking over the edge and leering into the blackness before her. Pepsy did her best to shine her torch on the jump spot but the dust in the air limited its range frustratingly.

"There are reasons I didn’t become an angel..." Ariana started. "And today is one of them" she finished and swung herself out off the edge and across to the other side. As the rope sailed through the air she kept her eyes pinned on the area beneath her until she could once again see the steel works of the other gantry, then she let go and landed onto the platform. The gantry rocked and creaked louder than her previous location and at once she felt unbalanced. It took a few seconds before the creaking ceased and silence returned.

"Are you good?" Pepsy shouted, the vibrations from her yell were enough to upset the gantry Ariana now stood upon and she suddenly felt precariously vulnerable underfoot.

"errrm... Maybe you should stay there" she replied.

"Ah nonsense it’ll be fine, I’m quite light anyway" Pepsy shouted as she swung across the expanse, sailing across until she too could see the metal beneath her feet. Releasing her grip on the rope she dropped onto the platform. As she landed on the platform, the platform dropped from its hinges. A loud creaking and scraping could be heard followed by an even louder snap and suddenly they both felt the vertigo as they fell through the air. Pepsy was turning end over end, her vision was dizzying as she tried to right herself but the ever gaining speed was making it impossible to gain any control. Ariana was falling just ahead of her, tumbling headfirst downward. She risked a glance up and could see the ragged remains of a lower gantry as she hurled towards it. In that simple and short glance she immediately clocked the sharp extruding pieces of metal that sprung from the walkways

handles and what would easily impale them both unless they got out of there quickly. She turned over as she fell and stretched out towards Pepsy who was just out of reach but falling fast. She could see that Pepsy was falling severely out of control and each time her straggling leg passed her hand, she tried to grip it but repeatedly missed.

She must have only a fraction of a second left she thought, her stomach was a ball of butterflies from the fall, the dust in the air had also seemed to clear the further they fell. Ariana tried to reach out once more and this time she found purchase on her leg, gripping it tightly she then ghosted out just in time for them to pass through the broken gantry safely and continue their fall. By this point, Ariana’s grip on her leg allowed Pepsy to control the fall, righting herself up. She looked below and could see the ground was fast approaching. They had fallen far and had achieved terminal velocity, hitting the ground now would most certainly mean the end of them both. Thinking quickly she aimed her torch at the ground below, with the dust seemingly only present in the higher areas of the chamber, Pepsy was able to see much further and clearer through her gauntlets torch light On they fell further. Pepsy scanned the ground below, taking in every inch of information and quickly generating a picture of it in her mind’s eye. Just before they met their squishy ending, Pepsy shifted them away and then returned again, landing swiftly onto the floor of the store chamber. They both rolled flat out onto their backs breathing heavily, Pepsy gift of teleportation had taken the momentum out of their fall and they had landed safely in the bottom of the

chamber. They both lay there on their backs completely silent at the ordeal they had just endured. It was Ariana’s humour that first broke the silence "boy am I glad you talked me out of jumping!" she said. The pair of them burst out laughing. Slowly climbing to their feet Pepsy became aware of another presence in the room, somebody watching them, staring at them. She instinctively took a defensive stance. Ariana felt the presence also and balanced her weight between both legs, prepared to flee in any direction if she needed to. They could hear a little weathered breathing coupled with the distinct sound of scratching; the person certainly wasn’t trying to conceal their presence.

“Show yourself!” Pepsy declared into the darkness, the shadows giving nothing away.

“Maybe it’s one of those blood suckers I was telling you about” Ariana whispered into her ear, Pepsy rolled her eyes and said nothing.

“You both really shouldn’t be in here” the voice said and the sound of footsteps moving closer towards them could be heard. “This place is off limits” the voice said.

“Allfather?” Pepsy asked?

“Off limits and yet you have done well to reach this far” the person walked into the torch light of Pepsy’s armour revealing himself to be in fact The Allfather. Pepsy naturally bowed, feeling slightly embarrassed that she had been caught in here. Ariana held her ground; she was indifferent to his presence. The Allfather walked towards Ariana, his old

eyes looking her up and down as he continued to scratch his bearded chin in thought.

“You would make a very good Angel Ariana, you have done well today”

“How do you know my name?”

“Oh I remember you, your potential, you refused to see a purpose for your gift and so gave up...” the Allfather turned his back from them both and started to pace back and forth. “But there is a purpose in all the gifts we receive” he said. Pepsy remained quiet, unsure of whether she was going to be in trouble for what had transpired here. She knew the ship would most certainly be off limits and she knew that her concealment of her visits here would not sit well with him.

“You both must realise that what you have seen here today must not be repeated to any others. Now that you have seen what you have seen I have no qualms about you returning here but on the condition that you tell no-one else.”

Pepsy was quite a taken back by his fairness. She had thought she would most certainly be in deep trouble and yet somehow, they were not.

“Come now, I shall take us back to Astoria. Ariana, why don’t you come to the banquet this evening, feel the presence of the other Angels and see if it inspires you to complete you training?”

“Erm, I guess so, what would I wear?”

“Oh I am sure Pepsy will help you out in that department” the Allfather said, winking at Pepsy and then casting his arms

wide he created a big and brilliant flash of light, teleporting them all back into the palace plaza. There were guardsmen and serfs working away on their business and passing by them, not a single person turned or paid them any attention upon their arrival. Ariana craned her neck around in wonder. It had been a long time since she had been inside to the palace and on each occasion she felt honoured as her eyes fleeted up the golden walls that were covered in paintings of famous Angels and scenes that were important to the history of Astoria. She instinctively looked around frantically, trying to see a painting of a vampire from the stories she had read. Her shoulders sagged slightly in defeat as she realised there were none.

Pepsy kept her gaze on the Allfather, amazed by his random display of his unknown gifts. It was a real mystery as to what the Allfathers gift truly was. Over the years he had displayed so many different powers that it was difficult to say exactly what his birth gift had been and he had certainly been reluctant to explain.

“What? Wow you are a teleporter too?” Pepsy asked.

“Ah my dear Pepsy, there are many secrets here in Astoria and you seem to be more than capable of solving them yourself” he smiled and walked away, leaving them both standing in the plaza, a little shocked and yet feeling relieved.

Chapter 3

Chance made her way into the banquet hall alone, walking swiftly and intently toward the top table. She was wearing a long and beautifully flowing pink dress, her hair was tied up in a silver clasp and on her feet she wore a pair of Vainglorian slippers that changed to a different shade of pink with every step she took. The banquet hall was massive and lined with long tables that stretched from one end of the room to the other. It was quite an honour to be invited to the Astorian banquets and many people envied those that received invitations. It was once hinted at that some invitations were sold off on the black market but this had yet to be proven.

Normally, Chance’s entrance to such a banquet would be aimed at drawing as much attention to herself as possible but on this evening there was only one set of eyes she wished to take notice of her and those belonged to her Raphael. As soon as she met his deep brown eyed gaze she found herself smiling both inside and out as she made her way quickly over to his side where she sat down without saying a single word.

Raphael couldn’t help but smile at her beauty. She was looking absolutely stunning in her long pink dress and he loved nothing more than to see her with her hair all tied up and looking immaculate. He reached forward and took a

bottle of the slogan juice from before him and poured her a glass, again without saying a single word. Chance made eye contact as she took the glass, nodding slightly in appreciation but still saying nothing. Her eyes then focussed on a piece of fruit that sat on the bowl diagonally away from where Raphael sat. Leaning forwards she placed a hand just onto his knee, cupping her fingers into the back of his knee cap and attempting to tickle him as she reached forward with her other hand toward the shiny red apple slice that sat in the bowl. Raphael grimaced as he bit back the urge to burst out laughing. Again he said nothing. Instead he took the pair of serving tongs that were sat in the box on the side of the table. Carefully pinching three pieces of ice and bringing them across towards Chances glass. Holding the tongs above her glass, he carefully dropped each cube directly into her glass.

one

two

The third piece he deliberately adjusted his aim to that it landed into her lap, melting into her dress. Chance’s face hardened in frustration but still she said nothing, holding his gaze and smiling. Raphael picked up his own glass of slogan juice and took a long and slow gulp. Chance took this opportunity to lift her hand and grab the small salt shaker that lay to her left and pour its entire contents generously into his glass as he drank. Raphael spat it out violently!!

“OH COME ON!!!” he said.

“Game, Set, Chance” she replied, as she concluded their competition of silence.“I actually cannot imagine a world

where you can beat me teehee” she said smiling. Raphael growled his frustrations and once again she found herself naturally reaching forward and clasping his cheek, feeling the need to touch his cute little angry face. She held it for a brief second before feeling the embarrassment once again from the open display of affection.

‘argh just what is wrong with me’ she thought, annoyed that she is recoiling from the man she should be so proud to say was her own. Once again Raphael seemed not to notice the withdrawal; either that or he was so used to the rejection that he had become immune to it, an idea that made her sad with guilt.

Raphael’s eyes looked about the table distracted and eager to find a way of beating her. His eyes fell upon a white plate further up the table.

“I bet I can fit more chilli’s in my mouth than you can!” he stated.

“Don’t try it, you’ll choke and I’ll be forced to resuscitate you AGAIN!” she said.

“I bet I can!” he replied.

“You have a bigger mouth than me and besides you have bigger problems, your fork and knife are the wrong way around” she said.

“What does that matter?” he asked

“I just don’t want you embarrassing yourself” she said.

“Or embarrassing YOU more like” he said scornfully.

“Yeah that too...well that mostly really” she said

“DIVA!” he replied

“Well eat with your hands then mucky pup, see if I care” She looked at him for a moment before he smirked and she couldn’t help but return his cheeky smile. She loved his nonsense and as much as he challenged her, she loved how he would always be there for her. She almost blurted out about the baby before she held herself in check, choosing to remain playful instead.

“Ok then, I reckon you won’t fit more than five in your mouth before you start to cry” she said.

“You are on” he replied.

“Five yeah? Don’t wimp out now”

“I won’t” he said.

“And you’ve to eat them all, leave nothing left?”

“Easy” he said, “and my prize, a kiss?”

Chance thought about this for a second, it daunted her slightly but also excited her at the same time.

“Okaaay” she said as she dipped each of the five chilli’s into the super hot green sauce that sat next to them. She smiled as she watched his face turn to a sincere look of worry.

“Here you go cowboy, yum yum burn your tum” she said as she handed him a chilli covered in the super hot sauce. Raphael’s face went a faint colour of red at the mere prospect but he swallowed hard on his fear and threw the

chilli into his mouth. The heat was incredible. His eyes streamed with tears instantly and he felt his nose begin to run as he chomped down hard on the chilli, doing his best to finish it as quickly as he could. Just as he swallowed Chance handed him another, again it was dripping in the hot sauce and the mere scent of it stung his nostrils all the way to the bridge of his nose. He grudgingly chewed on, unwilling to be beaten. Again another chilli and again another one. His eyes were an absolute blur by this stage but he could just about make out Chance dipping the last one completely into the hot sauce before launching it straight into his mouth.

His throat was on fire and he almost felt the need to call out for Crystal to give him something icy but he imagined that wouldn’t go down too well with Chance and so he chewed on, finishing the last chilli and taking a moment to regain some composure before speaking.

“Ok I want my kiss now” he said.

“No you will burn my lips” she replied.

“A deals a deal”

“I’ll kiss you on Tuesday...maybe they will have cooled by then”

“But today is Friday” he said

“That’s right so you have four days to wash that mouth out”

Just as Raphael slipped into a small grump more Angels filtered their way into the room and took their seats at the many tables. Spanners made his way in alone, walking behind Wallace and Paulina who then all sat down at the top of the

main table, Jeremy followed swiftly in behind. Crystal and Fern made their way in from the bottom end of the banquet hall and sat at a table on the far side amongst the other members of the phoenix guard. Three copies of Rose made their way into the hall which Chance waved to immediately and upon setting eyes on the princess, Rose smiled and amalgamated back into one and sat down next to Chance on the far side of Raphael. There was a small level of murmuring and general conversation passing between the occupants of the hall, all of which stopped suddenly at the entrance of the new arrival.

Pepsy walked into the hall wearing a long and floaty red dress, shiny crystal slippers and her hair lying loosely at her shoulders. It wasn’t Pepsy though that had drawn the attention of the crowd, or more specifically the male members of the banquet. Behind Pepsy walked Ariana, her dark hair flowing freely down her back and shining in the candle light. She wore a figure hugging long dark blue dress that showed off her voluptuous curves and around her neck she wore a set of shiny diamonds that twinkled against her tanned skin. Every head in the room was turned to impossible angles and as she walked along the top of the banquet hall, more necks were straining to get a look at the stunning new arrival. Even the lifeless inanimate Lastic drones turned their heads in curiosity, their basic programming still being capable of admiring true beauty when they saw it.

No words left the mouths of anyone present but the silence of their open mouths left ‘WOWS’ screaming loudly around the hall.

Wallace nearly drooled where he sat and were it not for the swift slap from Paulina to bring him back to reality then he might just have done that.

“Who is that?” he voiced what many others were thinking. Spanners as always, seemed immune to the charms of most women, even one as beautiful as Ariana.

“That is Ariana, she was in your year at school Wallace” Spanners said.

“I think I would have remembered her” he said.

“Oi watch it!!!” Paulina said playfully.

“I believe she chose to follow a different path from Angelhood, a path down a more...commercial route but she has remained in Astoria all her days” Spanners added.

“This city never fails to amaze me with the wonders it hides” Wallace said and turned back to focus on Paulina.

Ariana sat down next to Pepsy at the top table feeling very nervous and also very aware that she was drawing attention from all around the room.

“They are all staring at me” she said.

“I know hunni but they are just curious that is all.” Pepsy replied. Ariana had barely sat down for two minutes before Crystal had spotted her. Jumping up quickly the ice princess made her way over to the top table.

“Ariana how are you? I hear you are thinking of starting the trials?”

“Oh hey, erm yes, although I am still not sure what use I will be here” Ariana replied.

“You will be fine, we could use your gift around here, I will look forward to working with you and your dress looks beautiful by the way” Crystal said in her usual soft, genuine and caring voice. Her demeanour calmed Ariana slightly and a smile crossed her face.

“Thank you Crystal” was all that she could muster in reply.

The doorway was left swinging open as a guardsmen walked in and took his seat. Before he sat down his eyes fell upon the blue dress of Ariana’s and he too succumbed to her beauty, his jaw flopping open where he sat. Pepsy clocked this instantly and casually used her finger to slice a tiny hole in reality, a hole just big enough to push her finger through and appear across the room beneath the guardsmen’s jaw. She then flicked his jaw shut and pulled her finger back through her teleport gate. She gave the guardsmen a little smile and he nodded his appreciation of the reality check before he turned away and focussed on the occupants of his own table.

While the door remained ajar a small white gecko slithered its way into the banquet hall, scurrying its way quickly across the floor towards the top table. Within a few seconds, the gecko had scaled the table leg and reached the table top, crawling quickly across to the fruit basket that sat in the middle of the table. The gecko paused briefly, its boggle eyes

taking stock of its surroundings and watching warily as the people conversed all around it blissfully unaware of its intrusion. It turned its head slowly, eyeing up the fruit basket a little more carefully and spying a delicious and ripe looking piece of green grape that hung on the edge of the bowl. Wasting no time the gecko slurped its long tongue out and grabbed the grape, its little felt feeler tongue gripping the fruity skin and sucking the grape at alarming pace towards its mouth. With eyes bigger than its stomach and its usual dimensions shrunk, the gecko was far too small to consume the grape in one go. Much to its folly the grape smacked it straight in the face, knocking it tumbling backwards and clattering off the table and down onto the floor. The sudden noise drew Pepsy’s and Arianas attention. They both peered their eyes over the edge of the table. Peeking down onto the floor they saw the little white gecko sprawling on its back, trying to flip over and right its way up.

“Oh Harmony, you do make me smile” Pepsy said, watching without helping as little gecko Harmony struggled to regain composure. Harmony, along with her gift of healing, was capable of changing her shape into any creature that her little imagination could conjure. In this instance she had taken on the form of a gecko.

Once righted, gecko Harmony looked straight at Pepsy and then took four steps back in absolute horror. Her little lizard mouth wide open she began to make a hissing sound, signalling her discomfort at what she was seeing. Pepsy looked at Ariana, her eyes furrowed in confusion; Ariana wasn’t accustomed to Harmony’s ways and so remained silent, finding the whole experience rather confusing. A moment later and Harmony morphed back into human state,

her green Angel armour on and her guard up and ready. Pepsy continued to look on with confusion.

“Just what HAS got into you today Harmony?” Pepsy asked.

“I....I...I saw something, something on your shoulder, a demon, watching me, watching all of us” Harmony replied, still holding her guard up defensively and refusing to relax.

“What? Where?” Pepsy looked up and around her but could see nothing. “Are you ok?”

“I saw it, it was horrible, it was like it was sitting right on your shoulder, it looked like it had been there for quite some time, just watching” Harmony said, the confusion of the situation starting to set in and she had begun to doubt herself slightly.

“I think I will go sit with Joshua, maybe he will distract me, I am obviously a little tired “she said, turning slowly and making her way off to the other table.

“That was strange, is she always like that?” Ariana asked.

“No, hmm, no she really is not normally like that” Pepsy said as she pondered the event that had just unfolded.

A moment later and The Allfather entered the banquet hall and made his way over to the centre speaker. Rolling his eyes at the thought of having to endure another bold speech, Jeremy muttered under his breath

“Oh here we go”

Spanners shot him a strong look before Jeremy dropped his eyes in shame. The Allfather addressed the crowd before they all began their feast.

Just over two hours later and with their belly’s filled with delicious food and slogan juice, a wine made from the mutated grapes that grew near the tribinium fields, Chance and Raphael left the banquet hall laughing together. Chance felt happy and was smiling ear-ear. So happy that she almost linked arms with him but then stopped, cursing to herself at her constant inability to show him public affection. As per usual, Raphael seemed not to notice. The moment of levity between them encouraged her to ask him the question that had been on her mind lately and so she came right out with it.

“Will you come with me to mothers’ grave?” she asked, getting straight to the point.

“Oh wow, erm” Raphael stalled, his reluctance to go on such a journey was plain to see.

“It would mean a lot to me, there are things that I want to say to her that I would like you to hear”

“Hmm, I’m not so sure you would like the reality that I would bring to such a conversation there” he replied.

“What do you mean?”

“Nothing, just joking around” he said.

“This isn’t funny Raph, will you come with me? I am going again tomorrow before I have my training session with Gregor”

“I will head up there around then” he said, his eyes dropping to the floor. Chance seemed unconvinced and yet there was not much more she could do, she had after all asked.

Chapter 4

Fasterix pushed his way through the crowds of the market, needlessly hurling the unfortunate souls that had got in his way out of his path as he stomped on. He ground his teeth more now than he ever had in sheer frustration to quell his thirst for violence. It had been too long now since he had unleashed his full potential. Having been shackled to a higher cause and bound by his word at the promise of greater violence to come he had held himself in check but even now his patience was growing thin. The people there tried to stay clear of his angry looking form as he cut his way through them, snarling with every step. He was not tall by any means but his extremely muscular physique made him look all the more menacing coupled with his bald tattooed head and the patch over one of his eyes, he had slowly become the epitome of evil. His band of thugs followed closely behind him and they too mimicked his aggressive approach through the crowd but this was more for show than actual true malevolence. At the far end of the market, right in the centre of Sanctuary’s busiest quadrant, Fasterix stopped and turned slowly, sneering at the civilians around him. He spoke; his words were mostly to himself than to his thugs.

"Fools, they are all ignorant for what is to come." his words received obedient nods from his thugs. None of them were intelligent enough to produce an answer or to add to the

statement. "We will raze this place to the ground and beat them into submission... All of this is due to them and yet they wander around their pathetic little lives blissfully unaware, fools!"

The more he spoke his arrogant words the more he could feel his inner demon rouse. It was becoming stronger, of that he was sure and he did consider the implications of unleashing it too often. Would it eventually overcome him? Would he then be sat on the bleachers while his symbiant wreaked terrible and delicious havoc on this world? A smile crossed his face as his arrogance grew. He took great pleasure in holding such a beast at bay and he had no intentions of giving control of this vessel, HIS body over to some spawned demon of wavespace. As if sensing his strengthened resolve the inner demon recoiled further back into his mind, deep into the dark recesses of his thoughts so that it no longer competed for control. He was about to smile at this small victory until he realised that it was not recoiling at him but more hiding from another presence that was flowing around his being. A powerful presence that he knew all too well. Wasting no time Fasterix turned and headed towards the far end of Sanctuary to the old buildings in the decrepit waste sites of the city. To a place that only the low lives would dare to go. His pace quickened as the urgency the sensation brought him surged him onwards, battering his way past all who stood in his path, his thugs mimicking his path of carnage as best they could. He wasn’t afraid of the dark lord, not in the way that he perhaps should have been. Fear wasn’t something that he

dwelled upon. If the situation arose and he was found less than worthy then he had no worries about attempting to go toe-toe with his master knowing full well the outcome of such a showdown, but would face his fate defiantly. He hurried mostly out of a sense of duty and perhaps also a sense of excitement. A meeting would mean new orders and the dark lords orders were always linked to pain and suffering in one way or another, this fact pleased him.

Fasterix had served the dark lord for many years and had been recruited long before the bone war came to be. He had been given the advanced armour and promised the means upon which to wreak havoc upon the land, his path to ruin then led to him being infused with a dark demon, the process incapacitating him from the bone war, much to his frustrations. His steps strode him past the burnt out remains of an old bar and opposite it there was smashed rubble, broken struts and glass lying from where that irritating red knight had dropped the building on him. The air flowed past his bald features as he held back an angry snarl at the recollection of that day. To have been forced to hold back, keeping his malice and rage on a leash had not been easy but his instructions had been clear, plant the device and take defeat, his time would come he was promised. He felt the muscles in his legs pound onwards, adrenalin started to push him further to the meeting spot. Anticipation grew greater within his mind. Was now the time he could finally enact his revenge on that red fool? He most certainly hoped so. A few dark alleys down and his journey came to an end as he pushed open the doors to an old abandoned warehouse. The inside was dusty and dull and the floor was barely visible

through the layer of filth. His thugs stood sentinel at the door ensuring nobody else would be privy to the information that passed between the dark lord and their leader. The dust disturbed by his intrusion began to settle and Fasterix instinctively knelt before the centre of the room. A few moments later and the telltale signs of a tear in reality formed between the world as he knew it and the perils of wavespace, the realm where the chaos demons lurched and waited to prey upon the weak minded fools that dared to stare into its dazzling depths.

Purple swirling air appeared and began to quicken and become thicker before him. A bright light flared followed by a large beam of purple incandescent light that shone down on the black armour that he wore religiously. He kept his head bowed for he knew that to stare into the depths of wavespace would empower the demon trapped within. He could not risk its takeover not unless he voluntarily allowed it. Any other shift in the balance of power and he may not get it back. When the voice in the tear finally spoke, it was with slow and carefully placed words. Each sentence seemed powerful and foreseen, as if he was involved in a grand plan that had all happened before with the outcome methodically inevitable. Fasterix fought the urge to admire his powerful master. "The time is... Drawing near... Fasterix" the voice carried each 's' on longer, deliberately slowing the pace of the conversation and enacting its power over him, reminding him who was in control of the plan that was soon to unfold. Fasterix held his position, patiently awaiting his desired outcome. "When the sea of metal approaches... You must... DEAL with

the king... Capture the main throne chamber and allow no transmissions to leave the city...is this clear... Fasterix?"

"Crystal clear my lord"

"My dark prince will.... Arrive and take command....you would do well not to get in his way... Fasterix" Fasterix resisted the urge to respond to the obvious Insult that his master had just made. Fasterix bows but to one master, this latest addition to the command structure was pouring salt upon his already open wounds.

"Yes my lord" he managed to say, all the while hiding his duplicity on the matter "and what of the red knight?"

"The red knight is serving me very... Well at present. The device you planted on her armour during your last confrontation has been very useful.... when we march for Astoria however... you can consider yourself UNLEASHED" Fasterix finally smiled... Openly

Over in Astoria Rose was making fast work of the tournament preparations down in the gaming quadrant. The main gaming arena was bustling with activity; around forty copies of herself were working away hanging tapestries, shifting seats and sweeping sand evenly across the arena floor. She worked

fast and efficiently, looking at the problem with forty sets of eyes and with eighty hands to administer her work.

There was very little conversation if any at all as each copy was directly linked to her dominant chain of thought that she needed no signal to indicate a completed task.

Her primary self stood in the middle of the main arena and consulted a data slate in front of her. On it were the current dimensions of the floor space and the relevant sand quantities that had been purchased. She very quickly realised that during game time, as each competitor played hard and fast, they would kick and wear away at the sand underfoot. She concluded that they would need thicker flooring so that it wouldn’t be worn away as the tournament went on. Wasting no time and keeping to her ultra efficient work rate, Rose duplicated another copy of herself, stepping out from her little form she turned and headed straight off out of the arena and in search of purchasing more sand. She had a schedule to keep.

Up in the Astorian palace, Spanners met the Allfather out on the balcony of his personal chambers. The Allfather’s eyes were fixed on the purple horizon and he didn’t even turn when Spanners approached.

“The lack of halo is very unsettling Spanners, does the tribinium still encroach on our lands?” he asked.

“Yes my lord, it grows at exponentially fast rates. It is now logical to assume that the halo was in some way limiting the growth rate of the toxic crystals” Spanners replied.

“Yes it would appear so and I wonder then if Wallace unleashing all that electrical energy three months ago has had some detrimental effects on our...” he paused “environmental controls”

“Yes sir, it is logical to assume that the electrical discharge has knocked out the halo launching systems and perhaps overloaded it completely, without access to the ship, I cannot make the necessary repairs” Spanners replied.

“We have a pact with Mobeus; I gave him my word that we would not go there”

“You did lord but then why did he secure the nexus here in Astoria?”

“The ways of Mobeus are complex and based on visions of the future. He has never caused us any harm and I don’t think that would change now, well at least I don’t think it would, although times are very shakey these days. However I will still honour the word that I gave him. What can you do from down here?” The Allfather said.

“Well if I could make my way out to the tribinium line and calculate the exact point that the last halo hit the ground, I could pinpoint its direct point of origin; perhaps we could patch in remotely and reactivate it?” Spanners said.

“Make it happen” he said before he activated his ACG unit from the sleeve of his arm “Harmony, can you report immediately to my chambers, Spanners requires your assistance” he then turned to face Spanners.

“Take Harmony, I am sure she will have some creative method of getting you down there. Be mindful Spanners and

do what you can. If we cannot solve this riddle then the whole of Astoria will be doomed, swamped in those toxic crystals that have plagued our world for generations now.

“I will do sir” and just at that the door slid open and Harmony walked in, her eyes wide and absorbing as much information that the room could give her. She could sense that there was a tense atmosphere but she had no idea as to why, she chose to smile and bring warmth to the situation.

“Ah Harmony, always pleasing to the eye you are” The Allfather said, smiling gently at her.

Spanners remained quiet and yet her beauty could not have gone unnoticed. Harmony could sense the awkward silence that had now descended; something about the look on Spanners face told her that the situation was serious and that it wouldn’t be discussed. Instead she decided to break the silence with a concern of her own.

“Allfather, this may seem like nothing but, well...”

“Go on girl; tell me what is on your mind”

“Well last night at the banquet, I saw something, something that disturbed me”

“An incident?” The Allfather asked, his right hand instinctively reaching for his long grey beard and stroking it gently.

“Well no, I can’t explain it. I was morphed at the time and I had just come into the hall. I met with Pepsy and it seemed to me, well, it looked like she had a demon sitting on her shoulder, that’s the only way I can explain it”

“A demon, hmmm, it is true that when you take the form of animals you gain their sight and scent. I shall look into this for you little one. Do not ever question your sight; let me know if you see anything like this again”

“Ok will do, oh and what do you need me for?” she said as she turned to Spanners, excited to be the centre of his attention. Spanners flustered under her gaze. For a man lacking emotion he certainly couldn’t hide his apparent warm feelings towards her.

“Erm, well the Allfather suggested that you take me down to the tribinium perimeter, he thought you may have an exciting method of taking us there”

Harmony smiled.

“I do” and at that she morphed into this beautifully grand, aesthetically pleasing white horse. Its huge athletic frame was gleaming in a perfect brilliant white and on its chest there was a simple little red heart.

“Neigh neigh” the horse said, trying to tell him to hop on board. The Allfather simply rolled his eyes; he could no longer count the amount of times he had to tell her that they couldn’t speak to animals like she could.

Chance made her way up to the old graveyard carrying a small pink rose in her hands. Her mood was sullen, her eyes were down and she longed for nothing more than to see the sight of him when she finally looked up, a sight she knew would only be a dream. She knew he wouldn’t come, he never had. She tried to think back to the last time she could

ever remember him coming up this way. It was about ten years ago before the bone war. The events that day had clearly scarred Raphael into never coming back but she thought he would at least brave it for her, he was a man now and surely he had outgrown his fear of skeletons by now.

She made her way in through the old iron gates and passed slowly down the long aisles of marked gravestones, pausing slightly at each one to show her respects to the fallen warriors that lay below. Death was a strange concept to her. She had never really considered dying until she had lost her mum. Now it was on her mind regularly, making her respect life all the more. When she was younger she had thought she was invincible, she had even heard rumours of Angels with such gifts and considered herself in such a category. It was only as she grew through her late teens that she realised that humans were in fact, very vulnerable and that life was sacred.

She walked on, reaching her intended grave marker within a few moments. Kneeling down before it she kissed the top of the stone and placed the flower in front of the marker.

On the stone was inscribed.

‘HERE LIES HOPE, LOVING MOTHER AND BELOVED WIFE’

A tear ran down her face which she quickly wiped away.

“Oh mum what am I to do? I am not ready to have a baby yet, I can barely show love and affection to my boyfriend let alone make a child feel wanted” she sobbed slightly and wiped some tears from her face. She had hoped that Raphael had shown up, that he had heard her words, that he now knew about the baby and would help her through this

together. She was being a coward and she knew it, she needed to tell him but she didn’t know how.

“I am trying to be a better person, I really want to be. I sometimes look at Raph and wonder if he would have been happier with Crystal. Maybe I shouldn’t have come between them” she said to the stone, knowing all too well that it wouldn’t and couldn’t reply.

“I was just too competitive. There was a time that I didn’t even want him; I just didn’t want her having him. But it all changed, he grew on me and I soon realised that he was the kind of person that I longed to be. Have I left things too late? I feel like he doesn’t want me anymore, he won’t even come here with me,” She placed a hand on the stone and in her mind it was her mums shoulder, rubbing it gently and feeling comfort in her parental embrace. She let her forehead rest on the top of the stone as she sobbed.

Over by the small wall that ran the length of the graveyard and marked its boundaries, Raphael stood watching and keeping a safe distance. He could see her clearly as she wiped tears from her cheeks and he nearly leapt the wall to go comfort her. It was but a natural instinct for him to want to ease the pain in others and more so in the one he loved. In most cases he would recognise the signs of pain and try his best to catch a tear before it fell. In this instance he was slightly too slow in that regard but would certainly make up for it once he arrived there.

Just as he went to lift his leg to hop the wall, his eyes ran the length of the boundary and focussed on the invisible barrier

that prevented him from crossing into the graveyard. A barrier that was not made from any magic or some unseen power but made simply from common sense, made from experience and knowledge of the consequences of entering such a sacred place. It was like a red light in times of old when motorised vehicles traversed the land and routes were governed by a simple lighting system that when disobeyed, could cost lives.

He felt his frustration grow slightly the longer he lingered. He could see she was upset, he could see she needed him but he knew all too well that if he went to be there for her then she may well get more than she bargained for when she said she wanted to talk to her mother. He dropped his head in shame. He HAD to tell her. These lies could go on no longer. It was a no wonder that she rarely showed him any affection; she could probably sense the half truths he was forever telling. Even last night he had told her he would head up this way around this time, well he wasn’t lying, but he wasn’t exactly there for her either. He HAD to tell her, he knew it was coming between them; he had to tell her before he lost her altogether. He turned and headed back down into the city.

Raphael made his way slowly down from the graveyard at the north end. His head was down and he was deep in thought, thinking hard about the truths he would have to come clean with Chance about. It wasn’t going to be easy, more so because he had kept it hidden from her for so many years but he felt now was the time to come clean, she had to know. With his concentration distracted he walked straight into the north end of the market completely by accident and immediately regretted it.

Four stall vendors hopped straight off their perches and marched straight across to him, poking their fingers into his face and calling him all sorts of names. At first he was startled, thrown off by the sudden and unfriendly reception but after a few more moments of abuse he hardened his resolve. Tightening his brow he focussed hard on the open space that was one of the exits from the market, completely ignoring the harsh words that were being thrown at him. He wondered if there were some of the anger pheromone devices still hidden somewhere in the city that were perhaps driving the locals to such acts of verbal malice that had, on previous occasions, led to physical abuse with him on the receiving end.

He had by this stage blocked out the words that they threw, his mind had forced on a set of ear plugs and he could hear nothing. He did note though that the more he ignored them the worse they got. They seemed even more agitated at his choice of ignorance and he began to count down the footsteps left to escape the tirade. Making a mental note to speak with Spanners and run a search for more tech-devices, Raphael then headed to see his trusting friend. Although he had blocked out the malice, the entire act had left him feeling unwanted and he knew he needed to hear her friendly words to bring him back on par.

Pepsy played with her latest finding like she was a small child with a new toy. She preferred to be alone whilst she examined it and any intrusion was met with a small amount of anger and frustration. She had done well to hide the 'pet' (as she now referred to it) from the Allfather upon his discovery of them in the

Arcology, although much of that concealment was down to the pet hiding itself. Ariana had said nothing and Pepsy found herself respecting the girl all the more for it. She briefly considered giving the pet a name but she was unsure of what would seem fitting. She had never had a pet before and so had never needed to come up with pet names. It was a type of metal after all, cold and hard, so the usual names like 'Sophie' or 'Molly' were out. Was the being even female or in fact male? Whatever the metal sentient being was it certainly had character and she enjoyed nothing more than exploring the depths of that character at every opportunity. Pepsy soon discovered that its presence could only be visible when she adorned her Angel armour and that its abilities were somehow linked with her thoughts and actions, hence the hardening of her gauntlet when attempting the hit with the hammer. She had also found that the being could sense her playful moods, making puzzle games on her forearm by marking out shapes within the silver that she would have to solve and use her finger to mark the rest of the object. She was amazed by the knowledge of the world that the being seemed to have, making the shape of a sword hilt, a slogan fruit and even half a set of bagpipes that took Pepsy a few hours to solve and inscribe the other half. She found every part of this being fascinating and any thoughts of returning to the Astoria had been forgotten for now amongst the distraction of her find.

As she sat on the benches of the main plaza at the front of the palace she became aware of a presence moping its way towards her. Its shadow looked hunched shouldered and was dragging its feet sombrely across the plaza towards her. She risked a glance up and found herself looking upon her close

friend Raphael and immediately she could tell there was something wrong as his usual chirpy, chipmunk face was drooped, sad and solemn, his eyes dragging against the stone of the floor; he looked like a symbol of misery.

"Hey sweetheart, what’s wrong?" she quickly asked, prioritising her friends mood but eagerly awaiting solving the problem so she can get back to her project.

"Oh I don’t know feels like everybody hates me here" he answered. Right away Pepsy rolled her eyes, luckily for her his eyes were still on the ground before him and so didn’t see the gesture. Pepsy’s mood changed slightly, to one of more slight annoyance. She didn’t feel in the mood to be absorbing some melodramatic mood from her friend today that was clearly unfounded. Nobody likes him? Hell everybody does, she just had to get him motivated quickly and out of her hair before he dragged her down too.

"Oh don’t be silly hunni; everyone likes you. What’s made you feel like this?" Pepsy was trying to get to the point as quickly as possible, the quicker he tells her the quicker she can say everything will be ok.

"I don’t know, just lately everyone is being mean, no idea what I’ve done" Great! Pepsy thought, sensitive Raph has had his feeling hurt AGAIN! And now it’s her job to pick up the pieces. She really didn’t have time for this but she reckoned it wouldn’t take much to get him smiling again so she gave it a go

"Oh don’t worry; I am sure that whoever it was, was just having a bad day and took it out on you chin up. Why don’t you go for a nice walk through the market? Clear your head"

"It’s the market I’m trying to avoid "he replied.

"Well head along the harbour quadrant, nice and peaceful there"

"I’m trying to avoid there also" Pepsy’s patience was wearing thin and he wasn’t making any sense, it really was not helping matters at all. She wondered if it was maybe just him who was having a bad day and looking for an ear to complain to. She shook her head free of such thoughts. He was her friend, her good friend after all and if he needed an ear to vent some frustrations then she would be there for him.... Later, She thought. "I tell you what, I’m working on something here but when I’m done we can have a glass of slogan juice and you can tell me all about it. Until then maybe have a walk just outside the city gates, plenty of space out there to think" Raphael mumbled something and she barely heard a word of it as his eyes still on the ground, directing all sound from his lips onto his feet. "Sorry hunni I can’t hear you? What did you say?" Pepsy asked.

"I said it seems everyone wants me out the city, its ok ill go and leave you to it, I won’t bother you anymore" and with that he stood up and wandered off down towards the steps that led toward the market and gaming quadrants.

Pepsy watched him leave with a small feeling of sorrow for her friend. She stared as he went off, scraping his feet and looking every part like the lost soul. Once he was out of sight she turned her attention back to her wrist and within a second the gleaming silver re-appeared and produced a smiling face upon her arm. She realised too that she was smiling and wondered if it was simply mimicking her. "Atomik!" she said aloud "I will call you Atomik"

Raphael’s solemn mood had distracted him so much that he in-avertedly took a wrong turn upon leaving Pepsy and found himself trailing down the top end of the market. With his eyes on the ground and his mind elsewhere, he didn’t see the first missile that struck him squarely in the face, exploding all over him and spraying red matter everywhere. The second missile was slightly larger and struck the back of his head just as his Angel armour was merging on. The second missile exploded and completely covered him in a red mess that smeared his perfectly gleaming white armour.

Bringing his guard up to bear he raised his eyes and could see a large group of market dwellers armed with tomatoes and various other fruits and vegetables, standing ten feet away and hurling their missiles relentlessly. Raphael felt his mood drop and with it his guard fell to his sides. His head juddered in his shoulders as each object struck him violently, most of it hitting him directly in his face. He didn’t even try to defend himself; he didn’t even try to dodge. He had no idea why the people were doing this to him, he had no idea why they were being so nasty towards him but his pride made him stand his

ground and take the beating, hoping that when they got it out of their system they would perhaps just leave him alone.

With the main gaming arenas under refurbishment, Chance was training young Gregor in one of the smaller training rooms. Dressed in her relaxed cotton fatigues Chance stood opposite the young red haired little boy as he took command of the team in blue.

Superfuse was a very popular game in Astoria. It was effectively a game played with two players, each player commanding five handles that were loaded with set players that would cover a set area upon the gaming board. The object was to manipulate the players to navigate the ball into the opposing players score box. The game was made all the more exciting with the ‘Zoom’ mode that allowed the player to travel inside the game and play as the in-animate player with the ball, taking the shots with their own two feet. The best players could tactically know when the best time to zoom in and when it was best to stay above the board, quite a skill to master.

The training session had been intense and Chance was doing her best to mimic the tournaments stressful conditions, putting him under as much pressure as she could and hope that he would hold out.

Unfortunately for Gregor, he didn’t. Instead he felt his core temperature rise, he felt his skin begin to prickle and just when he was aware of what was about to happen, it happened and he burst into flames, melting the entire table and forcing Chance to jump backwards in shock.

“Woooh! When did you learn to do that?”

Gregor felt embarrassed as he stood there, his little frame completely coated in searing hot flames.

“Erm..about three months ago” he replied, thinking back to when he had first displayed his gifts. It was when the city was in turmoil and the anger increasing pheromone devices were rife, instigating bad feelings amongst the civilians. One particular civilian attempted to take Gregor’s bagpipes and when he had lost his temper he erupted in flames. It had taken the swift arrival of the Angel Wallace to extinguish him before he hurt anyone.

“Well you had better learn to control that quick! You know the rules, any use of powers and you are disqualified. Now go grab a shower or do whatever it is you fire people do to, well turn those flames off” Chance scolded as she turned to head out of the arena and fetch someone to clean up the melted remains of the table. Chance had barely left the arena before another presence made her way in through the swinging doorway and walked swiftly over towards where he sat. Gregor still sat with his head in his hands, his eyes blurry with tears. His shoulders were sagged and rounded, his resolve was weakened and beaten and his flames then died away to nothing.

For years he had longed to be an Angel, he had aspired to become much like Chance and then laterally like Ariana but he had never wished such an affliction like the one he now suffered from. With his eyes firmly fixed on the ground, the new arrival was virtually standing right over him before he was even aware of her presence, her shadow casting a dull gloom over his feet.

“I don’t believe that children of the flame should be sat in tears” the voice said. Gregor looked up with his eyes still blurred with tears. He could just about make out the orange Angel armour that was looming over him, could it be...

“ANGEL FERN?” Gregor exclaimed. Fern was the leader of the phoenix guard and had the gift of fire. She took over from Lucas, the founder of the guard, when he had went missing and she had led them to many victories, gaining respect from her troops. She had been a student to Lucas as Gregor would now be to her.

“Yes Gregor, now stand up and dry your eyes” she said. Gregor went to rub his eyes and cheeks with his sleeve when she reached out suddenly, gripping his wrist tightly and causing him a small level of discomfort from the action.

“Not with your hands!” she then said. Gregor looked at her rather confused. He wasn’t entirely sure of what she meant but her grip did indicate that she was sincere enough about not using his hands.

“But how?” he asked. Fern rolled her eyes in cold frustration.

“USE YOUR GIFT!” she said, booming her voice loud and clear. Gregor found himself recoiling in fear. She was very intimidating and forward and he instantly took a dislike to her. He felt more tears welling up and preparing to pour down his cheeks. His day had already been ruined because he couldn’t stop his gift, now it was getting worse as he couldn’t START his gift.

Looming over him, Fern could see the poor boys upset demeanour. He had rounded shoulders, teary eyes and a defeated slump. She thought back to her days, to her

training, when Lucas had taken the time to help her. He was always so calm and patient, so kind to her. She decided to try and implement the same tactic. Softening her voice slightly she let her thoughts drift to Crystal and the way she would interact with others. Mimicking her kind ways, Fern now spoke to Gregor through different lips.

“I want you to relax. I want you to feel the fire, respect the fire and let it flow through you as it wishes” she said. The change in demeanour stunned Gregor at first but he found himself unable to resist her soft yet sturdy commands.

“Your gift is elemental, it is all around you feel it, let it flow” she said calmly.

Gregor’s mind drifted to an open plain, to a wide expanse that was empty for miles. A wind blew slightly and ignited the air, creating a little flame tornado that spiralled its way around the land. The air smelled of burning carbon and ash flew like black snow, floating around the air.

“The flame is not an affliction young Gregor, it is not to be feared nor hated, it is to be liked and respected, you can use this flame, use it to do whatever you wish” Fern added. His mind had created a massive tornado of spiralling flame, the ash had grown and he could feel his heart beat quicken with every second. The tornado grew exponentially, engulfing his entire vision. He found himself holding his breath, his heart racing faster, he didn’t like this, he didn’t want this he...

“Relax....Gregor, let it flow” Fern said again. His entire vision burst into a massive wall of flames, burning so hot that he felt beads of sweat pouring down his forehead. The flames continued to burn, hotter and hotter and hotter.

“Sssshhh, Gregor its ok” Fern had shown the first signs of a soft side to her in many years. Her calming words from such a stone hard person did the trick and they struck Gregors ears and hit home. His vision went black, completely black and then suddenly he was in a dark room with only a tiny flame burning calmly in the middle of the room. Its perfect cone shaped flame stood vertical, not wavering or flickering just burning away. He opened his eyes and looked directly at Fern who returned his gaze. He looked down at his body and was shocked. He was on fire.