Chapter 001 - Beginning
“There are many beings in this world that strive for bigger and greater heights that they would be better off without. Day in, day out humans hurt and kill each other for such heights and greatness, never thinking of the consequences. I too am one of these pests, pushing towards his goals no matter what happens. But I won’t stop at petty theft and murder, I will push the world myself with my own doing. I will bend every rule of the world to my way, even if it means selling my soul to unlock the ancient ones. The infernal spawn looked down upon from long ago, and their children living today in hiding somewhere.”“I will proceed to my destiny.”
~Child 06~
Codename
“Phantom”
Year 3073
20 years since the first disaster
The world these days is, let's just say, hectic. No, not hectic because of horrible crisis or wars, but technology. Todays planet Earth is devoted to the use of technology, it surrounds us and makes up our very ecosystem. Even the people themselves are fused with technology, cyborgs old books would call them or robots with some biological will to live. There are even fully living AI controlled humans walking around with their own will, neither breathing nor living. But me? I’m just a normal teenage kid who's all one hundred percent human and proud of it, ranking high in the top gun royale tournaments. It's a living and everybody walks away in the end, but it's never pretty to do. I always lived on my own, never knowing where my parents were or who they even who they were. But other then that, nothing ever happens really……
“This sectoral tournament of the Gun Royale goes to Blue!!!!!!!”
I heard my name be screamed over loud speakers as I appeared in front of a large crowd, all cheering for me as a robotic looking man quickly handed a trophy to me and a data card full of my winnings. “Smile and wave kid.” He grunted to me as he smiled into the crowd. Obeying him, I put on my usual fake smile for the crowd, pretending to enjoy the spotlight. Just as soon as it had begun, it was over, the quiet rushing over me like a wave of water. I stood alone with a new trophy and a meager prize to help me get along for another day.
“Sigh, another day's work done.” I muttered to myself as I walked to the nearest exit, feeling empty as usual. Its not that I didn’t like winning tournaments, it's just that it never made me feel whole. As I walked out the door, a wave of fresh air met me as I gazed at the city before me. I lived in sector 11 of the major New Tokyo area, a completely new city made in the place of the previous one that was wiped out nearly twenty years ago. But not a trace of the old disassaster remained, now being replaced by a sprawling city above and below me with many layers. I walked along the walkway I was on, every now and then gazing over the edge into the lower levels of the world I lived in. “What am I even meant for anymore?” I quietly asked the dark murky depths of the lower city, but I silently laughed. “Heh, I keep asking that all the time and you never answer back. I shouldn’t be surprised anyways, you’re not a sentient city...yet.” As I talked like a mad person, I couldn’t help but notice a girl near my age with long dark air looking at me from a corner of building, but shook it off as nothing. “I got to stop doing these talks outloud to myself and rather keep ‘em up here in my head.” I thought to myself now, not wanted to make too much of an embarrassment to myself then I already have done. As I walked along my way, the street lights along the sides of the roads came to life, illuminating the world for the next phase of its life. Just as they did I came to a dead stop, frozen in place from what I saw. “Hey boy, we got business with you alright?” said a masked and fully armored figure in front of me, a pulse rifle pointed at me. Shaking my jitters, I spoke to him. “W-Whats this all about? Have I done something wrong?”
Annoyed at me, the man angrily shook his rifle, beckoning me to follow him. “Yeah yeah, cut the smart talk kid and come with me. Piss me off and I might as well deliver you dead.” Tilting his masked head, he added, “And I lose half my pay if you show up as a corpse, I don’t want that. We both don’t want that right kid?”
Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.
My body not responding to my brain, I just shook my head rapidly. I didn’t want to die, but I wasn't fully afraid of death. I faced the worst odds in all the tournaments I won, but now I could do nothing but stand still. No special gun to help me out, not that I could do much anyways if I even had one on me. Just as I began to step forward to him, a loud shot rang out from nowhere. Just as he had been standing there, the masked man sank to his knees, blood flowing from a gaping wound in his chest. As I stared at him, a figure grabbed my hand and ran with me past the dying man on the street, making me jerk in fear. A voice spoke in a very soft and feminine matter, as if to sooth and relax me. “Keep calm, I’m saving you right now.”
We turned a dark and wet corner into a narrow alley and I caught a glimpse of my savior's face and realized it was the girl I had passed before. “Y-You, I saw you earlier! Whats going on here?!”
Still running forward with me in tow like some damsel in distress, she spoke to me in a calm emotionless tone. “I was just sent to pick you up, nothing more then that. And if you don’t stay quiet, we might die here.”
“Die, but why? I’ve never done anything in my life to attract any of this attention my way, I’m just lonely guy with nothing.” I whined, hoping she would tell me more to help ease me, but she only gave me a quick look and kept silent. Every now and then we would turn a new corner, going deeper and deeper into the city, only our loud breathing seemed to be heard as we ran. “What is even going on any longer? I don’t get a bit of it, but maybe I will just have to wait to find out. Maybe there's more to this for me, maybe I’m not a complete loser after all.” I let out a slight sigh of contempt as I thought to myself, drawing another quick glance from the girl saving me. Further we plunged into the city, the world seeming darker and darker with every footfall.
xXx
Sector 11, Lower levels B22
Just as much as we had been running on the higher floors, we now had come to level B22 of Sector 11. I never had been in this area ever, nor do I think most people living in the sector did either. It was mostly filled with vagabonds, drunks or rusting outdated AI units and it smelled of musty old machinery, humming lowly in the background as they droned to their massive tasks. We had finally stopped near an old gigantic pipe and I spoke again to the girl, completely exhausted from what we had just been doing for what seemed to be the past half hour. “H-ho’kay, now why have we stopped running from one guy that most likely died when you shot him in the freaking chest?!” I wheezed to her as she looked at me emotionlessly as ever, responded as such as well. “He’s not working alone, he was hired by the Phantom. And the Phantom never hires just one person to do a job, she he most likely has backup after us.” She walked a bit behind me and looked around, searching for anything that might be watching. “The Phantom must have finally found you, and he won’t stop searching until he catches you. How you show up never matters to him, he can always use the body for creative things.”
As emotionless as she was, I could tell when someone had a distaste for someone and she certainly had it for this “Phantom.”
“Who is he?” I asked in wonder, having never heard of such a man in my whole life in New Tokyo. The girl grabbed my arm and took me with her into an opening of the old pipe, the feeling of water greeting my pants as we walked. “Not even I know who he is or what he is that is, no one really knows in the Draco Organization. He could be a person or a net virus that grew sentient and dark. I’ve never seen him or it, but I have met those that he hurt, many of them old friends of mine. Once his use for you has elapsed, you never return the same.”
“But why does the Phantom want me now? I’m a nobody in this world.” I told her as we walked in the slightly cramped spaces of the pipe. “When we get to HQ you will remember as fast as you can who you are Blue.”
My eyes widened as I heard her say those words, not being able to comprehend what she was saying to me. “Remember. Remember what? This is all too weird….” I lost myself in my thoughts as we walked in the wet pipe that took us to who the hell knows where, awaiting some kind of destiny. But how was I to know it was deeper then I thought?
xXx
Location, Unknown. Sector ???
From its, or rather his location, a dark figure smirked to themselves as he watched a girl rescue his prey. He was not surprised such a thing could happen, after all he face great odds from other organizations in New Tokyo, as well as the rest of the world. But he was not sad or angry, but very pleased with the situation. Sure he had paid a fortune worth of credits to the mercenaries he had hired, but it did not worry him that they had failed so far. In fact he didn’t even care what happened, that his prey get locked up and protected if a far off location he had yet to discover. All he knew that the boy would be some sort of key, and the more the key learned, the greater his reward. His plans are only just now beginning to fall into place, and it would take the boy and this girl to help steer them further. He was the Phantom of the Net, and he decided he could take a rest pursuing a child. He had other plans to work on with the Fallen and the old men in charge of certain organizations. The Phantom could only laugh, because things were only just beginning fall into place.
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