Tabi [city], Jabul [planet], Askus [star system]
15 December; 08:13:09 Hours
Massive sea walls encircled the city of Tabi, with much of the center city consisting of buildings and skyscrapers forged of glass and steel for a twenty-block radius before quickly devolving to more rundown conditions. There was a corner store on nearly every corner, neon signs that hung everywhere, and apartments that were built directly next to one another and on top of each other. The main streets were packed shoulder to shoulder, as people were out and about going to work or running errands. The crowd moved seamlessly around a raven-haired woman who was standing in the middle of the street, talking to herself.
“Come on, dammit,” Amelia hit her Tether off the palm of her left hand, with it still displaying a map that had a highlighted coordinate blinking where she was, “They’re not here, you stupid piece of shit!”
“You might want to watch your language around her, ma’am,” a voice called behind Amelia.
She quickly spun around, seeing a young girl who had a tan and gold shemagh draped over her head. “I’m, I’m sorry?”
“Your language, the natives don’t take well to our kind talking so loudly and foully.”
“Our kind? You, you’re from Earth?” Amelia asked as she tilted her head slightly to the side.
“I’m not supposed to answer those types of questions…”
“Why, Sweetie?”
“Because he’ll get reeeeeeeeeally mad if I do - Especially if I do to strangers.”
“Sweetie, don’t worry, I’m not some ‘bad guy’ who’s gonna kidnap you - I promise.”
The girl’s eyes squinted and her head clocked back ever so slightly as she looked up to Amelia. She took a step back, saying, “Kidnap me?”
“Ah shit, I shouldn’t have said it like that.”
“P-please, please don’t… You’ll get hurt if you try, and then I’ll be in even more trouble.”
“Sweetie, it was just a figure of speech.”
“O-oh-okay.”
“I promise.”
“He told me that you should never make promises you can’t keep.”
“Well, that’s a smart piece of advice,” Amelia chuckled, “Where is ‘he’, by the way? If you’re so concerned about the dangers of the Uni, you shouldn’t be alone.”
The girl glanced over her shoulder before scanning the crowd. “He’s never that far away.”
“Oh, okay,” Amelia stammered as she now glanced around, a bit nervous. “You’re not a part of some kind of, um, some kind of Ripper guild… are you?”
“No… are YOU?”
“Oh God, no.”
The girl smiled. “Good, then we’re friends!”
“Friends? But, Sweetie, I don’t even know your name.”
“Oh, oh, I’m so sorry, where are my manners… My name is Farah, Farah Malka,” she told her and extended her hand with Amelia softly shaking it.
“Farah, nice to meet you. My name’s Amelia Donte, but my friends call me ‘Melia.”
“Okay, ‘Melia,” Farah lowered her shemagh, revealing her long brown hair and ruby red eyes, “What are you doing here, by the way— If, if you don’t mind me asking!”
Amelia’s head tilted slightly, intrigued by Farah’s eyes but she smiled. “N-no, I don’t mind. I’m here looking for some friends. But, my damn Tether must be glitching because it’s saying they should be right here, and they’re not.”
“Ohhhhhhh, I can help you find them!”
“I don’t know, Sweetie. I don’t want you getting in trouble.”
“But friends help each other.”
Amelia smiled. “Okay, okay, I’ll let you help me.”
“Yay! Okay, what’s their names? Maybe I met them!”
“Kyra and Kla—”
“‘Melia!” a woman called from the crowd, as she started to quickly push her way through to Amelia and Farah, while Farah’s eyes opened wide as she heard who Amelia was looking for.
“Kyra?” Amelia called back, a big smile came over her face and she met Kyra halfway where they hugged one another. “I’ve been looking for you and Klaus for the last three hours, where the hell have you been?”
“Trying to keep a low profile,” she said, but then turned to Farah who walked over to them and wrapped her arms around Kyra’s waist. “I see you’ve met Farah already.”
Amelia’s eyes narrowed, she smiled at Farah before looking back to Kyra. “Wait, she’s with you guys? I know you and Klaus didn’t have a kid, it hasn’t been THAT long.”
“No, no, no,” Kyra laughed, rubbing Farah’s head and messing up her hair which caused her to pull away from Kyra and start fixing it.
“Staaaaaahp, Kyra,” she groaned and then turned her back to the two where she crossed her arms in front of her chest.
“Farah isn’t our kid… She’s more important than that.”
Amelia’s eyes narrowed a little further now.
“She’s what I was trying to tell you about.”
“I, I don’t understand, Kyra.”
“Farah has abilities.”
“We all do; Klaus can push things, you can turn your skin into steel, Gabe can analyze things faster than almost anything, Sarah can teleport, Drake can get glimpses into the future, and Theo and I can manipulate Kalber… Soooooo, what’s so important with the kid?”
Kyra was looking at Farah with a subtle smile. “She can manipulate blood.”
“Manipulate blood?”
“Yeah.”
“Wait, like, like blood-blood?”
“No, syrup with red coloring dye—Yes, blood-blood.”
“Oh, okay,” Amelia said barely louder than a whisper, “and, um, and that makes her more important than Hae’Lektaes?”
“‘Melia, you don’t understand,” she turned to Amelia, grabbed her by the wrist, and pulled her close as she said, “Klaus and I found her on Hetro—”
“You broke her out of a GDC supermax station?”
“No, no, no, listen… A couple of months after KOG shattered and we were shooting around from world to world, we came across a couple Rippers who said they walked out of Hetro…”
“No one just walks out of Hetro, especially a couple of Rippers.”
“Exactly, and that got our gears turning. So we headed there and nothing.”
“Nothing?” Amelia asked with her left eye squinting.
“No warnings that we were entering restricted GDC space; no cruisers to intercept us; no Rangers to stop us from docking and entering the supermax - Nothing.”
“What are you telling me?”
“Well, we were searching the station when we came across a couple prisoners who hadn’t been able to make it out. They told us that the Rangers had brought a new prisoner a few weeks earlier, high value, so much so that they blacked out the halls as they transported this newbie to their cell—”
“Kyra, Kyra, please get to the point.”
She rolled her eyes, motioned her hands out in front of herself, and said, “Okay, okay, the prisoners told us that several days after the HVP arrived, they heard commotion before bloodcurdling screams that ripped through the entire station and that were followed by the station going in lockdown.”
“And? Sounds like a normal day in a supermax.”
“True, but does that normal day include Rangers hightailing it?”
“W-what?”
“Yeah, they told us that the Rangers tucked tail and ran… Well, the ones that didn’t die.”
“For the love of God, Kyra.”
“We searched the rest of the facility, mainly because we didn’t believe the prisoners only to find an absolute horror show: blood everywhere, nearly a dozen Rangers with blood having oozed out of every whole, but not only Rangers, numerous prisoners too,” Kyra explained before seeing Amelia fold her arms and tilt her head. “Alright, punchline time - We found the culprit curled up in the fetal position in a cell directly across from the mess.”
“Klaus!” they heard Farah call and they looked to see her run up to and hug Klaus who smiled and gave her a bear hug.
Amelia quickly turned back to Kyra, shaking her head with her mouth a bit agape. “N- no.”
“Yes,” Kyra said as she nodded.
“What the—”
“‘Melia?” Klaus growled as he and Farah came walking over to the two. “What are you doing here? Is Theo and the others with you?”
“Theo?” Farah squealed and looked at Klaus before Amelia and Kyra, and then back to him. “Do I finally get to meet your brother, Klaus? Do I?”
“No, Klaus, it’s just, it’s just me,” Amelia said with a forced smile.
“Oh,” she sighed.
“It’s okay, Farah, Theo ain’t that special anyways,” Kyra said with her eyes rolling and arms folded.
“Okay, then what are you doing here? And better question, how did you find—” but Klaus turned to his fiancée and he exaggeratedly opened his eyes at her.
Kyra quickly smiled, ran her hand through her long blond hair, then rubbed the back of her neck as she chuckled. “Can’t we just appreciate that she’s here? And that she wants to join up?”
“You’re joining us, ‘Melia? Really?” Farah said with a giant smile before she turned to Klaus. “Can she, Klaus! Please! She’s so nice! And she’s so cool! Please!”
“Far,” he said as he got down on his knee in front of Farah, “I don’t think ‘Melia wants to actually join up with us, she’s probably just stopping through to say hi… Right, ‘Melia?”
Amelia’s lips puckered to the side, she shrugged her shoulders and looked at him. “No, I’m game to join.”
“But what about your kids— Hell, what about Wade?”
“It’s all worked out.”
“It’s all worked out?” Klaus stood up, folded his arms, and bluntly said, “Why don’t I believe that’s one hundred percent the truth?”
“No, I’m, I’m serious. It’s all good, Klaus.”
“Well, that settles that,” Kyra smiled and wrapped her arm around Amelia’s shoulders. “That makes us a team of four now!”
“Ooooh! Ooooh! Can I think of a cool name for us?” Farah said as she jumped up and down. “Like how you guys were called the Knights of Old Glory! How, um, how about ‘The Huntresses’? No, wait, how about the ‘Protectors of the Universe’? OH! How about—”
“How about no,” Klaus cut her off, “Let’s just try to keep a low profile for now, okay?”
Farah pouted. “Come onnnnnnn, Klaus! You’re not being fun!”
“Sweetie,” Amelia pushed some strands of Farah’s hair behind her ear, whispering, “I’m sure you’ll think of a good one, just give it some time.”
“Okay, ‘Melia!”
Klaus glanced around at the crowd, his red eyes scanning Astronaut after Astronaut before he pulled Farah close, saying, “Alright, there’s a smuggler who’s gonna give us a ride to Kandok, we gotta meet him in twenty - So let’s go.”
“Feels like the good ol’ days,” Kyra said as they all started making their way through the crowd.
“Yeah, sort of but different, too,” Amelia chuckled.
“OKAY! I got it… The Band of Four!” Farah’s voice could be heard as they slowly disappeared into the thick.
“<What’s the move, Baontun?>” a white-haired and silver-eyed woman asked, as a man who had muttonchops and four claw scars across his face stood up from his chair at the bar just across from where the four were moments ago.
He licked his fangs and turned around to the woman as two other women and a man now stood up from the bar. “<Looks like we’re headed to Kandok.>”