Welcome to the bright lights
A.K.A Chapter 14
Quake was confused.
He was really, really confused.
He looked out the window as the train passed by the space between portals. A fantastical world of nonsense looked back at him. Blues bled into fives and fives turned inside out, becoming smells that looked like stars. Nothing made sense, and it was only due to field he knew was surrounding the train that he wasn’t more confused. A world of imaginary numbers, or so Jeck said after taking a glance at it. But his headache was subsiding the more he looked at it. In fact, he was sort of beginning to understand it a little, if only for a second.
Then the moment was over, the steam engine passing through the other portal to their destination.
The grassy fields under the night sky that replaced the fantastical realm was not nearly as interesting, so he decided to play a game he invented in the Dragonfly.
Imagining a small Mechanimal or Wraith running along-side the train, cutting down trees and leaping over rocks. This kept him entertained for a few minutes until Jeck interrupted his daydream.
Jeck nudged him and nodded his back toward the window. Quake got up and turned around, needing to stand on his knees to look over the seats.
His jaw dropped at the sight before his eyes.
‘Woah.’
Quake stared out the window at the approaching skyline in amazement.
Buildings, big buildings, way bigger than the Quarry fore-man’s dinky little shack could ever hope to be, stretching into the sky. Bright lights, pinks, yellows and a dozen other colors he’d never seen before twinkled, reflecting off his black eyes. A veritable jungle of glass and metal and concrete extending in all directions as far as the eye could see. Buildings rose up and twisted around themselves, all different shapes and sizes, architecture taking a life of its own and warping the city to conform with its visions.
Jeck watched Quake with a soft smile on his face. Twisting around in his seat, he rested one hand on Quake’s head and gently scratched behind his ears.
“Amazing view, isn’t it?”
No answer came, Quake was too enchanted by the scale and luminosity of the city before him to answer. He didn’t even try to bite Jecks hand off for scratching him.
‘Progress on that front is going smoothly.’ Jeck thought to himself with a small snort.
Though he couldn’t see color anymore, just looking at the city with his enhanced senses, he could tell that it was radically different from earths, it was honestly impressive how the architects had managed to make several buildings defy gravity by floating upside down, hanging in the sky like bats on a cave ceiling.
‘But is it practical though?’ He mused.
He continued ‘looking’ over the city skyline as the train grew closer and closer to its destination. The lack of doors on the floating building really made him doubt the efficacy of it all.
It did look cool as hell though.
What really stood out, was the tower smack-dab in the middle of the city. It was obvious that the tower had been built first, and the rest of the city was built around it. Was still being built, actually. Hundreds of buildings had begun construction on the opposite side of the city. The top of the tower bloomed outward like a flower into an observation deck. The main pole that the tower was built around had five thinner poles around it like a pentagram. The rose out of the tower and up through the clouds and up past the range of Jecks senses.
‘Huh, wonder what that is?’ He could have used [Comprehension] to figure it out, but that would be way too easy.
‘What’s life without a little mystery, right?’
The side of the city the train was speeding towards had practically no buildings being built on it at all.
‘This portal must be limiting the number of buildings being built on this side of the city.’
‘For good reason too, If the portal behind us blows up, the fallout would be immense.’
‘Must be hard to get permission to build in this direction.’
He looked outside the opposite window. There wasn’t much, just some flat fields with an ocean on the other side.
‘I haven’t seen the ocean in years, I’ve seen lakes that come close in terms of scope, but never a proper ocean. That drained ocean thing must encompass the entire continent I was on. I wonder what Quake thinks of this?’
He moved to show Quake, then remembered Quake’s freak-out at the showers in the Outpost.
‘Yeah, never mind.’
The rest of the ride passed in comfortable silence between the two. Quake never took his eyes, twinkling with the lights of the city, not even to distractedly bat away Jecks hand.
***
The train rolled smoothly into the station located just on the outskirts of the city. Upon exiting the carriage, the two were met by a bored looking security officer who led them into a small office room.
“I’ve heard about your circumstances. We’re going to get you two set up with some form of identification. ID is required for a lot of things that you might need or want, like hotels and alcohol.” He paced about the room, setting up a camera, lights and a tape recorder.
He flipped a switch on the recorder.
“Alright, I’m going to need your full names please.
“Jeck.”
“Quake.”
“No last names? Any strange spelling that I should be aware of?”
Jeck shook his head. “Nope.”
“I see, age?”
“Twenty-three.”
“Thirteen.”
Jeck mentally raised an eyebrow in surprise. He knew he was young, but it was hard to pinpoint exactly how old.
“Species?
“Wraith.”
“…Mechanimal.” Muttered Quake with poorly veiled distaste.
“Mmhm, eye color and height?”
“Black and…..”
Seeing Quake struggle to answer the question Jeck cut in.
“He’s about 4’3. My eyes are purple and I’m…ugh, 6’3.”
The security guard raised an eyebrow, which was the most emotion he’d shown this whole time.
“You don’t sound too pleased about that.”
Jeck nodded emphatically. “I used to be 6’6. Then I got shrunk and now I don’t know if I’m gonna grow again. I’m already past my species growth stage, I think.”
The security guard nodded. “That’s sucks man, anyway,” He walked over to the small printer sitting in the corner of the room and pulled two laminated cards out.
“These are yours. Take care of them, as it isn’t cheap to replace them. Now, follow me to the warp panel.”
Quake looked at Jeck for clarification but he just shrugged. The guard lead them over to another dull office room with a glowing green panel. It looked like it could hold around ten people, or three really fat ones.
“This warp panel,” He gestured with an open hand, “will take you directly into the base of the Spel, that’s the big tower you seen on the way here.”
“I noticed that, what is it exactly?” Asked Quake curiously.
“Oh right, you guys aren’t familiar with anything. The Spel is short for ‘Space Elevator’, the bottom of which serves as a sort of embassy for Nuvalt. Anyone moving in from off planet or another country has to go through official channels, like you two do.”
An excited grin split Jecks white face. “That things a space elevator? That is so cool! You guys have aliens and stuff? Is ther-“
“Yes, yes, yes, you’ll find out all that when you go through the panel, now go.” The officer interrupted, eager to get them out of his sight. Guess he wasn’t big on actually having to do anything during the night shift. They both jumped on the warp panel faster than he thought was possible.
“Cheers, lad.” Yelled Jeck as they vanished without a trace.
***
The embassy was a relatively short affair. The only memorable bits were repeatedly telling the officer that, no, he did not want a job, and when an officer who’s ‘Impressionable Teenager’ instincts had been honed from years of high-school recruitment stands, had spotted Quake in the hallway and thought he’d be an easy target. Um, that was Jeck’s impressionable teenager, thank you very much.
James had requested that a bank account be set up in their names, with a decent amount of money, enough to last them a week, or two if they rationed, or until they got a job. His way of thanking them for stopping Gillian. Luckily Jeck didn’t need to eat, so pretty much all of it would be going towards Quake’s food budget. While he could still eat normal food, metal was an integral part of his diet. So where would he be able to buy metal for consumption?
He mentally shrugged. If they really couldn’t find anything then he’d just [stealth] his way into a construction site and steal a girder or something.
‘Don’t be silly Jeck. They probably have abandoned construction sites on the outskirts of town, those would be much less likely to be noticed when they go missing.’
‘Why are you giving me suggestions? I thought you were supposed to be the voice of reason between us?’ Jeck asked sarcastically
‘I’m not a voice of reason by any stretch of the imagination. I’m just fond of Quake. He reminds of the childhood memories within me.’
He let out a small chuckle.
‘So inexperienced about the world. It’s precious.’
Walking down the lobby corridor and over to the heavy wooden doors that separated them and the rest of this new world. Jeck tilted his head down.
“Ya ready?”
Quake gulped nervously, but nodded his head viciously.
“That’s the spirit!” Jeck cheered as he threw open the door.
The door flew open and the bright lights of the streets blinded Quake momentarily. His sight returned and he felt his mouth fall open again as a sense of wonder he was quickly becoming accustomed to threatened to overwhelm him. Beside him Jeck let out a quiet “Damn.”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
The street in front of them was covered in lights. Lights from restaurants, lights from street lamps, lights from glowing metal walls, lights from glowing logo signs, lights from every source imaginable. This is not what amazed Quake.
It was the people. Aliens, of all shapes and sizes, wandering up and down the crowded streets. A stout creature made of stone stopped to talk to a thin, green alien with an uneven number of arms and a small trunk. Over beside an ice cream parlor, a small child that looked to be comprised out of pure thought was begging his mother, a fish-like alien with a beak, for an extra scoop. Three single-eyed men with pink skin loitered around smoking cigars. Aliens with wings, and those flying by other means, flitted about overhead. Luminescent octopus’ things with far more tentacles than necessary floated around from place to place, picking up trash with its adhesive tentacles, where it then dumped it into the nearest trash cans. Sentient moss crawled up the sides of buildings, eating away at graffiti. Some aliens were incorporeal, spiritual in nature, and only loosely interacted with the environment. Robots, of all shapes and sizes, walked around the night market, going about their business.
Quake’s ears twitched in annoyance at the noise.
Jeck nudged Quake out of his stupor.
“Ice cream?”
“What?”
“Ice cream?” He repeated, a little louder this time.
“…Yeah” He muttered, distracted by all the new sights.
He wasn’t alone there, Jeck thought to himself. It had been a while since he’d encountered anything distinctly non-human, but there had been a few of them. Hopefully the ice cream would help center Quake and stop his brain from frying itself trying to comprehend everything at once. Plus, he was a little curious about this new world as well.
‘A little?’ A voice echoed teasingly.
Okay, maybe he was literally about to die from curiosity, but they wouldn’t learn anything just standing here and looking at it. They needed to go out and interact with them.
Jeck grabbed the distracted Quakes shoulder and steered him through the crowd, only marginally paying attention himself. A small twitch of his senses and the whole city bloomed into view. Goddamn, and he thought he was strong. Some of the people here were crazy powerful.
He shook his head. Now wasn’t the time to be distracted.
Was there anywhere else that they could go?
Down that street? Nah.
Up that road? Empty.
Through that side street? Not until Quake was eighteen.
Ahead of them in the line, the fish-beak women pulled her purse out of her handbag. She brought her arm up and gasped as the purse was wrenched out her hand by an unseen force. Unseen to her, Jeck could see the thin strand of mental energy wrapped around the purse, dragging it back a figure who really couldn’t have looked more shady if he tried. Dark, forgettable clothes, sweater with the hood pulled up, face-mask obscuring most of his identifying features. Really, he should have just worn a glowing neon sign with “I steal stuff!” written on it. The bright lights would have ironically made him blend in with the surroundings better than any black hoodie.
The bag flew into his hand and he turned and started running up the street, away from the embassy. The woman let out an ear-piercing screech and pointed at the sprinting man.
“Thief! Someone help, he stole my purse!”
Jeck and Quake watched him run in slow motion, their perception of time was just faster than everyone elses. They looked around the street. People just ignored her. A couple of people looked at the scene with mild curiosity, yet didn’t move a muscle. The only ones who moved were the pink skinned men loitering around, but they were so slow that the thief would be around the corner by the time they got up.
‘Man, people here are assholes.’
‘And you aren’t?’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘Yet you’re going to help her right?’
‘Duh, I may not be a paragon of virtue but I still don’t like seeing other people be assholes.’
“Quake, stay here and don’t lose our place in line.” He commanded.
Quake gave him a thumbs up and returned to staring at the multitude of flavors displayed by the glass freezer.
***
The thief let out a groan as he ran into a solid wall. Falling to the ground, clutched his nose in pain. He scrambled to his feet and looked at the wall in front of him. Said wall was glaring back down with baleful purple eyes. He didn’t have time for this.
“Watch it!”
He tried running past him but was blocked by an arm across the chest that shoved him backwards.
“What the hell man?! Get out of the fucking way.”
Everyone on the street was looking at him now. Oh god, oh god he could feel everyone’s eyes on him now, like insects crawling across his skin. He felt his adrenaline spike. A glance around told him that everyone was getting up and walking towards him.
Fuck, fuck, fuck!
If he got caught here…
No.
He couldn’t, they’d lock him away and throw away the key. It was hard enough just being homeless in Dello-Worl. They’d show no mercy if anyone dared to tarnish the reputation of their precious tourist trap.
He pulled out a knife and brandished it menacingly.
“C’mon man, don’t be a hero. Just walk away and let me go.”
Heroes? Bah, where were the heroes when you were slowly starving to death on a park bench? Where were they when you were being evicted from your home? Where were they when your inventions were all stolen by your so called ‘business partners’? What good were they when they dismissed you as nothing more than the garbage you slept amongst?
The purple eyed man said nothing, just kept staring at him with those terrible purple eyes. The thief looked deeper into those eyes and came to a realization. There wasn’t just one person watching him. There was billions, trillions, maybe even quadrillions, staring him down. He could feel the weight of their gaze, pressing down on him, judging him, mocking him. He began to sweat.
The man, no, a kid, he was actually younger than him, spoke.
“Stop.”
Stop? STOP? He couldn’t just stop now. If he stopped he’d be killed. What did some brat like that know about him? Nothing.
He tightened his grip on the knife and charged.
Time slowed down, not metaphorically, literally. A strange quirk of living in the city. A ‘gift’ from Sábháilte, if one could call it that. It sorta helpful, occasionally. All it did was slow down time when two people started fighting. No matter how fast you were moving, you were slowed down to the speed of a normal civilian. If you were somehow slower than a civilian then you actually sped up.
The kids purple eyes widened in shock as everything sped up. Still, he managed to duck the thief’s wild swing. He stepped back and relaxed as the knife stabbed into his throat and shattered on his skin.
What? But he was just a ki-
A swing of the kids arm into his diaphragm drove the wind out of his lungs and any thoughts he may have had out of his mind.
He crumpled to the ground like a doll with his strings cut. The pink skinned, mono-eyed Kuvotians all surrounded him. The ringleader began talking to the kid.
“We’ll take it from here.”
“And you are?”
The Kuvotian gave what he probably thought was a reassuring smile. It could be used as a weapon of torture if directed at the right people.
“We’re part of the, ah… neighborhood association. We hang around certain areas of town and take care of any issues the residents have.”
‘Issues my ass. You are the issues.’
“We’ll make sure this guy ends up where he belongs, you two get him to the police station.”
The other two Kuvotians grabbed him by the arm and dragged him off down one of the side alleys.
He tried to protest but no air reached his lungs. He reached out with his telekinesis. They carried him to a secluded alleyway that he knew was in between two rival convenience stores. Concrete jumped up to meet his face painfully as they threw him to the dirty ground.
“You piece of shit.”
An expensive leather shoe crumpled his nose. He let out a cry like a wounded animal. Another boot met his spine.
“Always skulking around, stinking up the place, driving down the value of our neighborhoods. Don’t you know you people don’t. belong. in. these. streets?”
Each word was punctuated by a stomp or a kick.
He curled up into a ball, trying vainly to protect himself. These stupid gangsters. If only they’d just disappear. If only this whole damn city would just disappear. He’d tried for years make it, to make something of himself, and yet he was beaten, chewed up and spit out onto the streets. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a piece of moss, eating its way across a piece of graffiti, leaving a clean, untouched surface behind it. If only he could do the same. Eat away at this city until nothing was left, until nobody was left.
Then he felt it, manifesting, just beneath the surface. He reached out and touched it. He couldn’t help himself.
He giggled.
The Kuvotian stopped grinding his face into the grimy street.
“What’s so fucking funny?”
The thief said nothing, just kept giggling.
“God, you people are a scourge on this goddamn city.”
“Correct.”
The Kuvotians mouth opened in surprise as the beaten down thief lunged upward and grabbed his face. Bacteria spawned from the tips of the thief’s hands. In less than nanosecond of real time, the man had been erased. His clothes dropped to the ground, empty.
The other jumped back with a cry of fear and pulled out his knife.
“Stay back! I’ll cut you.”
The thief tilted his head, smiled gently and held up two fingers in ‘peace’ sign.
“Actually, I think it’s the other way around. Didn’t you know? Broken steel can still cut.”
A steel shard ripped its way through his skull from back to front where it was caught between the thief’s waiting fingers. A shard from where his knife had shattered against the kid’s throat. He had been slowly dragging it towards them via the building tops as they dragged him to the alley.
He pointed a finger at the bleeding corpse and bacteria, invisible and deadly, shot out and immediately dissolved him.
He slowly sauntered over to the clothes left behind. He should have been shocked at his ability to hurt, even kill others, but that sort of naivety was stripped from him after a few months on the street. He rifled through their clothes for any cash and valuables, and was pleasantly surprised to find a decent amount on them. He quickly changed out of the old filthy clothes he’d been wearing for the last week now, and used his bacteria to rid the fabric of any bloodstains. Smoothing out the wrinkles and dusting off the dirt as best he could, he casually strolled out of the alley.
Inside the convenience store, the radio was on full blast.
“And tonight’s lucky numbers are 67, 83, 3, 25 and 41, for ten million credits.”
Something in his breast pocket rubbed against his chest. He fished it out. A crumpled lottery ticket stared back at him. He glanced at the numbers on it.
67, 83, 03, 25 and 41.
He glanced at the ticket again.
And again.
And again.
The fourth time he kept staring at the ticket in disbelief.
No way. There’s no way this is happening, it’s too lucky, far too lucky.
The numbers on the ticket didn’t change.
Excitement grew within him as a grin threatened to split his face.
What was it they called me again?
Oh right, I remember now.
Scourge grinned as he walked in to the convenience store.
He was going to be the scourge of this city alright.
***
Jeck watched as the two pink men dragged off the thief.
Hah, neighborhood association my ass.
That thief was probably in for beating, oh well.
The pink man in front of him looked him up and down.
“Say, the way that blade shattered on you, you must be one tough nut to crack.”
Jeck shrugged. “This wouldn’t be my first rodeo. I’ve been in a few scraps.”
‘Pinky’ as Jeck had mentally dubbed him, nodded. “Win any of them?”
“I wouldn’t be standing here if I didn’t.”
Pinky laughed.
“Well, if you’re confident enough, I know a place where you can make some money doing it.”
“Really now?” Jeck said, allowing intrigue, some of it genuine, to enter his tone.
“Oh yeah, strong guys like you can make a killing there.”
As Jeck and Pinky continued to allude to the underground fighting ring, Quake was panicking. The line was shortening, it was almost his turn to order and Jeck had the money they needed to pay with.
“…So I’ll meet you there tomorrow and give this a shot.”
“Right.”
Pinky stuck out his hand and Jeck shook it. Not that he intended to keep his word if things went south like they were often inclined to do, but he was that wasn’t going to be the case.
Jeck turned around and rescued Quake from his panicking by paying for his ice cream. He also handed the purse back to a grateful mother and child. He was so busy fending off ‘thank you’s and ‘Are you a superhero?’s from the duo that he didn’t actually see what Quake had bought.
Quake couldn’t help himself and ordered a precariously balanced tower of ten scoops, one for each flavor on display.
Jeck glared disapprovingly.
“No.”
Quake shielded the ice cream with his body.
“Yes!” He hissed. He quickly began furiously licking the treat, as though Jeck would stop reprimanding him if he ate it fast enough.
Jeck felt the power of his ancestor’s flow through him, a trick his dad used on him, and his grandpa used on dad. This particular combat technique, the ‘What’s that?’ technique, was used extensively in situations where a young child would not share something, usually food, with their elders.
His head snapped to the left and his eyes narrowed.
“What’s that?” He said as he pointed off in the distance
Quake turned his head.
He realized his mistake at once.
Half of his ice cream was gone, sliding down Jecks gullet.
Jeck gave him a smug look and licked his finger tip.
Quake took a single bite and devoured the rest of the ice cream.
The claws came out.
Jecks smug expression faded slightly.
“Run.”
The two of them ran all over the inner-city circle, until even the bright lights of the night market started to die down. Quake had started yawn and slow down.
We’ll never get a hotel at this hour.
The two of them eventually ended up on top of an apartment building. It was quieter up here. Something he was sure Quake was thankful for. Away from the hustle and bustle of late-night traffic. It was similar to New York, not only in scale, but that it never seemed to sleep either.
“Why are we here?”
“We need to sleep for the night.”
“M’not tired. I wanna explore the city more.”
His body betrayed him by choosing that moment to let out a huge yawn. Jeck smiled at him. That was cute as hell. He began removing his cloak.
Quake tried to speak more, but kept yawning and rubbing his closing eyes. Jeck scooped him into his arms and wrapped his cloak around him like a blanket, then sat down cross-legged on the ground and set Quake down beside him, allowing him to use his leg as pillow.
He leaned his head back against the wall he was resting on and closed his eyes.
How long had it been? Three years, give or take a couple of months.
It’s been three years. I’m twenty-three now.
It was a sobering thought. Intellectually he’d always known that time was passing, but it had always been….immaterial. Except for the year he’d spent with Alva, Yasha and the rest of the tribe, time hadn’t really meant much to him. But now?
36 whole months. God, I wonder what’s been happening at home. I hope they’ve moved on, or at least have gotten over me. I wonder if they’d be excited to see me again. Would they want to see me after all I’ve done?
He cut off that train of thought.
Enough of the self-depreciation Jeck. You left that back on Earth. There’s only looking forward now.
He listened to the sounds of the city, took in the smells and let the faint aftertaste of ice cream roll over his tongue as the distant city lights sparkled behind him. Sensations he’d almost forgotten about.
I can’t believe I made it.
He almost didn’t. His mind conjured memories of every close call and brush with death he’d had.
Having his arm literally ripped off by a drunken asshole on a power trip.
So much poison being shoved into his blood stream that it was actually still there to this day. He wasn’t sure if it had stopped hurting or if it just became his new normal.
Throwing up the immolated slag of what used to be his internal organs, resulting in the white paste replacing whatever was burned off.
A hand reaching toward his face and then his entire world became [Pain]. That incident was the one that took his sight.
The Infection.
It was all so terrifying at the time, but he’d never felt so alive in his life. He was one finally one step closer to meeting his family again.
He just wasn’t sure how he was going to tell them that he didn’t want to stay.
He’d cross that bridge when he came to it.
It was going to be a long journey, even now that he’d reached the rest of the world, he could feel it.
He glanced down at the head in his lap and felt a mental touch of reassurance.
‘At least I’m not alone this time.’ He thought to himself, happily.