Ch. 1: Between Worlds

 

Inside of a large thick forest, a large beast stomps around, covered in a thick layer of completely white fur with a single glowing red eye, it marches closer and closer towards the edge of the forest towards a small village. As it stomps around a trio of figures looks through the forest hiding behind the large trees as they stalk the beast attempting to keep visuals on it.

            “Kaito, what’s your location?” A voice says over a radio.

            “I’m on the left, I’m moving towards a hill for a better vantage point.”

            “Okay, Martillo where are you? Martillo”

The beast edges out of the forest where a tall young woman stands around holding a large hammer with a large grin on her face. “Well now, the big beasty came out of the forest. How about I smash you into tiny pieces as a reward?”

The creature roars out loudly before leaping into the air charging towards her as it raises its claws. The girl leaps into the air after it swinging her large hammer into its eye using the force to knock it into the ground forming a large hole.

            “Is that Martillo?”

            “Yes, she’s engaging the beast.”

Martillo lands with a large grin as her wild pink hair flows with the wind. “That wasn’t so hard; those two were over blowing how tough this thing was.”

The creature springs to life swinging its overly large claw slashing into her and slashing her to ribbons as her remains melt into mush. It climbs out of the hole roaring out loudly as it stomps on the ground looking towards the nearby village.

            “Damn it Martillo, this is why you listen to people before you rush into fights, you idiot.” A girl with long red hair leaps out of the forest with a long katana in her hand swinging it wildly as fire forms around her as she gets the creature's attention. Suddenly a shot echoes across the forest with a bullet hitting the side of the beast as it roars out in pain.

            “I’ve marked the spot, just get in there and hit it hard Flamma.”

            “Right, I’ll bake this thing from the inside out!” Flamma yells out excitedly.

She leaps up into the air looking for the spot where the bullet hit as the beast roars attempting to follow her movements. Getting behind the beast she sees a spot with blood flowing out onto the white fur marking it red.

            “This is it!” She jumps up stabbing the creature through its thick skin and shooting an intense blast of fire into its body.

The beast roars out in pain as it burns from within shaking around rapidly and knocking Flamma off of her back. Suddenly Martillo leaps up forming out of the sludge and leaping into the air slamming her hammer yet again through the creature’s eye as another shot echoes across the area. The beast yells out in pain one last moment before its body fades away into nothingness as the two girls stand around looking around blankly.

            “Yay, we beat it!” Martillo yells out excitedly.

            “Martillo, you almost got yourself killed back there, so don’t get too excited,” Flamma says harshly glaring towards Martillo. “Hey, Kaito it’s over come out already and get over here.”

            “I’ll be there in a minute, just don’t leave without me.”

On top of a tall hill in the middle of the forest, a figure reveals itself as a young man with unkempt black hair stands on top of the hill clutching a large sniper rifle. “Well thankfully this job is over; well at least Martillo didn’t cause too many issues.”

 

A moment later the trio stand around in the spot the beast once stood as Martillo walks around in the hole the creature made when it fell to the ground. “Look, guys, I found it!” She holds out a small stone in the air with a large grin on her face.

            “Well, at least this trip wasn’t a total waste.” Flamma looks on seriously taking the stone. “We should have just enough fuel to be able to top us off.”

            “Well, at least engineer will be happy with this amount of Paradox,” Kaito says with a grin on his face.

            “Whatever, let’s just get outta here and head home I’m ready to take a nap,” Flamma says stretching.

Kaito looks back into the village as the figure of a young woman appears on the edge of the village. He quickly turns his head back as a beam of light comes down from above hitting the three in the as their forms fade away as the light disappears.

 

A moment later the three appear in a large white room on a large platform in the center of the room. On the other end of the room an older man, with slick black hair and wearing a large black suit walks up to the three with a slight grin on his face.

            “Did you three find it?” He asks happily.

            “Yes, Magister.” Flamma leaps off of the platform handing the small stone to the man with a serious look on her face. “This is as much as we could get, but it should at least push us further down the quadrant.”

            “Let me see that!” A voice yells out from behind the man.

A short young man in a jumpsuit with goggles covering his face and bright orange hair on his head leaps ahead and grabs the stone away from the man. “This is enough for a little bit, but we should find some way to increase our Paradox stores before too long.”

            “We know Engineer, but getting more Paradox is a bit difficult in this area,” Flamma says annoyed by the situation. “We have to move to a new quadrant and find more Errors for harvesting or else we’ll run out of fuel soon.”

            “Well, we can’t leave this area until we find the source of the Error signal,” Engineer says seriously. “If we find the source in this area we can harvest a ton of Paradox to last for quite a while.”

            “Enough both of you.” Magister snatches up the stone and looks on seriously. “We cannot leave as of yet, and we can’t stay in this area for so long so let’s gather everyone and take a vote.”

            “Fine,” Flamma says seriously walking off.

            “She needs to calm down; we have to get to finish up our work in this area soon because she does have a point,” Engineer says seriously as he takes the stone and walks off. “I’ll put this with our usual stores and then I’ll get back to work in the engine room.”

            “Thank you for your hard work,” Magister says seriously. “Now you two take a break and relax for a bit, we’ve got some work to finish up in this area.”

            “Right.” Kaito and Martillo say seriously.

            “And Kaito, you’ve come a long way since you’ve joined us.”

            “Thank you, sir,” Kaito says nervously.

            “That’s right; you were such a shy little idiot before and now you’re slowly becoming quite the warrior,” Martillo says grabbing Kaito with a large grin on her face. “But you’ve still got a long way to go.”

            “Yes he does and so do you Martillo, I watched your actions today and while you did help you also nearly killed yourself today,” Magister says seriously glaring at her. “You have to stop being so reckless, and for that, you have two hours worth of farming duty.”

Martillo looks on stunned before lowering her face to the ground. “Fine, but I got the kill today shouldn’t that count for something.”

            “Somewhat, but if we’re being pedantic, Kaito got the kill today.”

            “What?”

            “Well Kaito’s last shot hit the Error’s brain so he was the one who fell the beast, but you did help your last attack did put him in the right position.”

            “What?”

            “That means you only get an award for assisting, and that has no impact on your punishment for recklessness,” Magister says seriously.

Martillo leaps down dejected as she walks off. “Fine, but I’m not happy about this.”

            “Noted,” Magister says before looking towards Kaito. “Kaito, I know you’re not used to being here yet but just relax for now and get used to everything.”

            “Right,” Kaito says nervously coming down from the platform. “I should go clean my gun.”

            “Right, well don’t work too hard.”

Kaito walks through the halls of the ship nervously looking around at the odd symbols pulsing with energy etched into the walls. Holding onto his gun he looks on as an old man, with his head covered in white hair, walking steadily on holding onto his staff as he walks around wandering the halls.

            “Ah, Kaito was it? You seem to be adjusting well.”

            “Yes,” Kaito says nervously. “This is all a little overwhelming, but I think I’m getting used to it.”

            “That’s good, that’s what’s so good about being young, you can adapt easily to new things.” He says happily. “Oh yes if you don’t remember my name it’s, Salvus, like the plant.”

            “I remember it, you can use magic right?”

The old man holds out his hand and gathers energy until a small light sits in the middle of his palm. “Yes I know a great many magic spells and abilities, I don’t even have to rely on Paradox Skills like the rest of you lot.”

            “That seems very convenient.”

            “It is, but it’s also a bit of a burden.” He says sighing slightly.

            “Salva, are you over there? We have to go over these test results.” A voice says around the corner.

A tall woman with long blond hair wrapped into a bun walks around the corner with her long lab coat flowing behind her. “Kaito, where is Salva?”

Kaito looks around to see not a trace of Salva as the pair stand around in the hall. “I don’t know, he was here a moment ago.”

            “That old man, he’s been avoiding me since his last physical.” She says seriously clenching her teeth.”

            “Um, Doctor?”

            “Please Kaito, call me Heiler, although they do mean the same thing, in the end, don’t they?” She says joking happily. “Anyway, Kaito you need to take your own physical.”

            “What?”

            “Well you just came back from a mission on the ground; we have to be aware of any contagions or pathogens you may have picked up while you were down there.” She pulls out a clipboard and pen before clicking the pen. “Now when would you like to schedule it?”

            “I’ll get back to you on that.” He says nervously slinking away past her.

            “Alright, but tell me if you see Salva anywhere.”

            “Yes Maim.”

Kaito walks down the halls before arriving in a large room with various tables and chairs lined up with a door leading towards the kitchen. He looks around the room and notices a young woman with short blue hair and a pair of cat ears and a cat tail sitting at one of the tables eating a sandwich happily.

            “Ah Kaito, did you finish the mission?” She asks happily.

            “Yeah, we beat the Error but we didn’t get that much Paradox from the fight.”

            “That’s a shame; it would suck if we have to leave this area before we finished our job.” She says getting up from the table. “Oh well that just means we have to conserve for a bit longer, I know Engineer is stressing out everyone about the energy use.”

            “Yeah, he snatched up the Paradox quickly as soon as we got back.”

            “That’s because I’m the one in charge of keeping this boat running.” Suddenly Engineer leaps down from above landing between the two. “If I don’t we’d be set adrift in between worlds, and if that happened then we’d be screwed with no way to get to another world.”

            “We know, geez, stressing out about everything isn’t cool you know.” She says jokingly.

            “Not cool...Well, this is a serious matter so I don’t care about being cool Azure!”

            “You’re so easy to tease, that’s what makes you fun.”

            “Fun? I’m fun?”

            “Totally, even if you’re incredibly lame.”

            “I’m fun and lame?” He says somewhat dejected.

A large man in a mask covering the top half of his face and long red hair flowing from his head walks in as he closes the door behind him with his cat tail. “Engineer don’t let her get you flustered.”

            “Ah Master, right right, I have to be calm and composed at all times right?” Engineer says excitedly.

            “No, it’s just that you should be aware of when people are messing with you.” He says calmly.

            “You’re always right, of course, Master Cobalt! I’ll take that into consideration for my behavior.” Engineer yells out excitedly.

            “Geez, just calm down,” Azure says jokingly.

Kaito slips away from the group as they stand around happily walking through the room and walking towards an upper layer. Inside he finds a large atrium with a thick glass with a swirling energy and multiple earths between the swirling chaos of energy.

            “Hey, Kaito,” Flamma says walking towards him as she looks up into the sky. “Came to watch?”

            “I guess? I really just wanted to clear my head a bit.”

            “Well come on and let’s just watch the chaos.” She says with a slight grin on her face. “Better enjoy the quiet while it lasts because soon we’re going to dealing with some chaos of our own.”

            “Of course.”

Kaito sits down next to Flamma as the pair stare up into the swirling chaos in between worlds. How did I end up here? Sometimes I ask myself that a lot when I have a quiet moment, I’m on a ship in the middle of the space between spaces going between worlds to fight monsters. This scenario is crazy, but this is where I belong now. It’s only been a few weeks since I left home and I’ll never forget what lead me here and I’ll never forget my old friends no matter what worlds I come across.