Light, blinding light. This light that was bringing with it the true last judgement of humanity filled the world. The cold and dark void of the outerspace was filled with the sinister warmness and overbearing brightness of the light. The stars themselves were overshadowed by it, and everything that existed was slowly penetrated, subjugated and replaced by this irresistible shine.

Throughout the dead and the living, every being burnt from the absolute whiteness, as the cold and dark pile of galaxies the universe was turned from a colorless infinite to one of pure radiance.

But as everyone and everything was touched by this apocalyptic brillance that seemed like it could even make gods themeselves feel powerless, one single being managed to escape the end of everything, carrying with them the last hope of a better ending.

The threads of Fate moved, as a new one was inserted right in the middle of their complex weave, the hands of the world's clock started spinning backward and just like this, with the motion of this single, insignificant thread, everything started over again.

.

.

.

And a few years later, in an unsignificant place on an unimportant planet, a simple chase was happening.

The pursuit itself was unimportant, just as much as the two individuals participating in it. It was simply another one of those ordinary events that happened everyday in sector V's, the land of beggars and street rats:

"Hey! Come back here you bastard!"

As the cop shouted, he fired a bullet forward. Because of the obscurity of the alley where they were, he missed his target by an inch, which used this opportunity to put more distance between the two of them.

"Why would I come back only to get shot, you braindead dumbass!" the target, a person wearing a grey mask and a black coat, replied as they accelerated even more.

The mask had a function that blurred their voice while the obscurity prevented the cop from discerning their figure, so it was imposible to know if they were a man or a woman. But independently, the cop was still bent on making them suffer.

"You rat, when I catch you and I take back my wallet, I'll make sure you'll give me your teeth as interest!" the cop threatened.

The figure kept running from alley to alley, until finally coming back in the main street. A bit later, the cop arrived too, breathless, and didn't see anybody wearing a mask or a coat around, only bystanders with a regular appearance. Grinding his teeth, he prepared to call for backup, however his attention turned to two men that were having an argument.

One of them was pretty tall, had strong features with dark green eyes, and had short-mid straight black hair along with a growing beard. He was wearing a clean shirt with jeans and a backpack, showing a calm attitude. He looked like the definition of a clean person, at least in the sector V.

It was a total contrast with the second man, a tramp wearing chaotic rags, somehow had both a hollow, thin face and a round belly, and was screaming at the tall man.

"Hey, you two! The hell's happeni-"

The cop couldn't even finish his sentence as the tramp pushed the tall man on the ground. Then, as by coincidence, he turned his gaze toward him. His eyes widened and, without any hesitation, he started running in the opposite direction as fast as his unfit body allowed him. Understanding it was probably the person from earlier, the one who stole his wallet, he started running again, agitating his gun while shouting.

Once they were gone, the tall man scoffed and started walking toward the easter part of the district, the grey mask and the black coat hidden in his backpack, a slight smile on his face.

A moment later, in the pub at the easter part of the sector V, the tall man was sat in front of the bar, laughing as he was relating the scene from earlier to the rest of the people in the bar, mostly men that were already half drunk.

"And then, this dumbass ended up running after the wrong guy!" he shouted while laughing.

"Damn you, Tyler, you truly have no fear, what kind of crazy bastard would go for it and still a fucking cop's wallet? Even in sector S, they'd still people shoot you for that, in sector V if he actually managed to catch you, you would've wished you were dead" one of the few men still sober said.

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"Hehe, you're just jalous you don't have either the balls or the skills to do it" the tall man, Tyler, replied. "And anyway, my plan to run away was perfect!"

"Hey, you just provoked a bad-looking guy and pretexted you had a cop relative, and then said he wouldn't have the guts to reply, so he would push you and run after seeing the cop arriving" another man, this one drunk, said.

"Yeah, that's what I said, a perfect plan!" Tyler replied, faking anger. "The guy thought it was my relative and ran away while the cop thought the guy was me and ran after him, aren't I a damn genius ? Also explain how did you manage to understand and repeat everything I said when you're so drunk your nose is more red than what you're drinking".

"Hey, I don't allow you!" the drunk man said.

"Come on, I didn't want to be mean, frankly this little touch of color makes your ass-looking face a lot more supportable to see, haha" mocked Tyler.

Seeing that a fight was likely to happen, the barman decided to create a distraction:

"So, Tyler, just to be sure, you didn't keep his credit card, right? Even if we're in district V and everything is cheap, we still at least have trackers in our cards, especially a cop. I hope there won't be any police intervention- or shooting- here, 'cause... ehm, ya'know, death and stuff"

"Hehe, fear not, I slided it in the other guy's pocket before he pushed me. Happily, in this magnificent trashbin that is sector V, material money still exists, so I still had enough profit" Tyler said.

"How much?" The barman couldn't help but ask, curious.

Tyler smirked :

"Enough to pay the first guy who slams his head on his table in front of everyone a free drink, I guess"

Some seconds passed before the sober man slammed his head on his table, groaning miserably short after.

"Haha, you really did it!" Tyler said bursting in laughters.

"Instead of mocking me, pay me my drink so I can forget the pain" grumbled the sober man

"Wow, that sounded depressing, but sure. Munch, a beer 3891 for me and a 3893 for this idiot" Tyler said to the barman, Munch.

He dropped some coins on the bar.

"Here you go" replied Munch as he took the coins at an astonishing speed before serving each their drink, putting a single ice cube in Tyler's drink and none in the other one.

"Hey, I made my nose bleed for your shit, at least pay me some good drink!" protested the sober man.

It resulted into Tyler smacking him behind the head:

"Stop acting as if you don't drink even less pricey while you're the one paying, you cheapskate" Tyler scoffed. "Aight, enough chit chat, now that everyone has a drink..."

He jumped on the bar:

"Let's fucking drink! WOO!"

He lifted his glass as high as he could, only some inches below the ceilling before pulling it to his lips and drinking it all in one go, making a good quarter of it dripping on his shirt. Everybody else followed him, starting to drink as if their lives depended on it. Tyler dropped more coins and ordonned more drinks and kept going for a good hour before blacking out.

Many hours later, he woke up in the small room he called his home, feeling dizzy. He quickly noticed that his wallet got stolen, but only smirked, taking out a second one from his shoe.

'Hehe, sorry guys, I'm the one stealing stuff, not you' he thought

Now what was he going to do? Tyler thought for some seconds before making his decision.

"Let's go for another drink" he concluded out loud.

But as he got up, a voice stopped him:

"This fast? Well well, look like someone isn't afraid of hangover"

Tyler turned his head, and wondered for a second if he wasn't hallucinating because of the alcohol as he occasionnaly did. In the opposite corner of his small room, a woman with black hair and eyes was leaning against the thin wall, looking straight at him.

She had a smile on her delicate and beautiful pale face, wasn't wearing any weapon and didn't seem to have any bad intent toward him but he couldn't help feeling wary. His sense of danger saved him more than once so he didn't try to ignore it, and slowly walked backward toward the exit as he started talking in an attempt to distract her:

"Ok, usually I wouldn't be against a sexy girl sneaking in my room, but my guts tell me you're not here for the good reasons" he said. "So, uh, do you want anything? I'm a gentleman, y'know, so I'd be really happy to help and-"

"Oh, trying to distract me so you can run away? That's a bit cowardly for a big man like you to fear a fragile lady as me... but I give you that it's cute, I'm already starting to like you" the woman interrupted him with a smile. "But don't worry, I'm not here to hurt you... well, however, that'll probably be different for the special agent that will arrive here in, let's say..."

She looked at her watch on her wrist:

"Five minutes maybe?"

Tyler's brain almost crashed :

"Wait wait wait! Wait a damn minute, by special agent, you don't mean those mad cyborgs that are trained and enhanced specially to catch the mutants, do you?" he asked.

The woman smiled:

"Yes I do" she replied. "Oh, by the way, we probably shouldn't stay here. Originally, he was only after me but, since you've been in contact with me, you probably won't have a good ending either if this guy puts his hands on you"

"Wait! What the hell is happening and- no, to begin with, who the fuck are you?" Tyler asked in panic.

As he said that, the old, rotten building they were in started shaking slightly.

"Oh, look like he's here a bit sooner than expected" the woman said before jumping through the window and landing perfectly on the floor two stories below. "My name is Erica, I hope you like it because if you don't get out of here quickly, it'll probably be the last one you hear"

Tyler was still dealing with the panic, the confusion and his hangover when a mechanical arm pierced through his rusty door with a terrifying noise.

"Dammit!"

Cursing both internally and externally, he too jumped through the window, and managed to land without harming himself, though not near as graciously as Erica. Seeing him landing close to her, she smiled and started running.

Tyler started running too, but in the opposite direction. However, he quickly stopped, realizing he had nowhere to hide anyway, and would probably be catched sooner or later if he escaped on his own.

Cursing once again, he changed his course, following Erica's trails.