Zeo. It was the word I had become obsessed with and wanted to know more about after I saw the man in blue. He wore a mask with a triangle pointed downwards over his eyes. I took them to be some sort of black lenses. His body suit was skin tight but made electrical noises if you got close enough to hear it. Golden circuitry ran around his neck and on his chest. The speed which he moved was incredible. His strength was inhuman. Holsters hugged his hips and on either side was a blade and pistol with such a strange design it had to have been technology from Kendor or maybe Irnlava. No one can create things like that here on Arpolik.

Maybe he's an alien himself. I told my sister, Landra that someone would save us one day. Someone would come and destroy Catastrophe and his sentinel droids. His advantage over us is due to his strength, speed, and ability to create disciples by the use of his hammer staff, a weapon he never let out of his sight. Every time I see that thing glow, I shiver inside and pray he won't inflict it on Landara or I. But I think that's why the Blue man is here. I believe he is our prayers finally answered.

Line after line after line of conveyor belts lined up all around us and the other slaves. We did what we always do for seventeen hours of the day; assemble more droids and weapons so that Catastrophe and his men can go and conquer other planets. If one were to ever disrupt the flow of the work on the assembly line, you were beaten to the point of paralysis. They didn't kill you because there was always the chance you could heal. If you did, they could put you right back to work.

But faster production was being enforced as of late. Due to that, we were told no accidents would be tolerated under penalty of death. Needless to say, this made many tremble when working or lapse into uncontrollable attacks of panic. One man bit down on his lip so hard, he pierced right through his skin. He hadn't even realized it until drops of his own blood rained upon the droid limbs he was supposed to insert screws into. Another woman had sliced her arm with the factory's needle shifter calibrator. She held onto her scream and tears streamed down her cheeks. She continued on working the rest of that day and wound up dying soon after from an infection.

Landra fell today when she had to carry a crate of silver and gold droid arms and legs by herself. She tripped on a fallen metallic limb and keeled over, dropping all that she carried. Everyone paused to look at her and when they did, the droids marched with such stern determination; I knew they were on their way to killing her. I ran to Landra before the droids did and tried getting her back up on her feet. I turned to the oncoming droids and tried to explain that she was going to be reprimanded by me. I may as well have been a cardboard cutout with how they grabbed my shoulder and threw me to the side, over three conveyor belts and I landed on my back, hitting my head against the concrete floor.

Landra screamed and tried running away but was not quick enough before one of the droids grabbed her arm and raised its gleaming axe over its head.

"Let her go!" I heard the yell from above me. The workers and I looked upwards in unison and there he was--the blue man descending upon us with his shrill war cry and two blades in his hands over his head. He swung them and cut right down the middle of the droid, immobilizing it for just a few seconds before it parted down the middle and lightning sparks danced between its two halves.

"Couldn't put him back together again," said the blue man.

Everyone stood in awe and restrained jubilance at the sight of this costumed man. He proceeded to kick one of the droids in the neck and then sweeped it off its metallic stilts of a leg. It fell to the ground with a large clanging noise and just as it tried to get up, the blue man sliced down the middle of the droid and then right across.

"Who else needs to a cut?" he said with an excitement in his voice I hadn't heard in years.

The two last droids ran towards the blue man who then jumped onto one of the moving conveyor belts. He ran away from the two droids who followed a few feet behind him. They swung their axes towards him and what seemed just by pure instinct alone, he ducked without even looking. The first passed over his head and he reached up into the air and grabbed the second one. In one swift motion, he spun and threw the axe right back at its previous owner and it chopped its head off right from its body. Fuses shorted out from the droid's neck until finally it fell backwards.

The last droid climbed up onto the conveyor belt, marching faster than before over to the ocean blue warrior who just stood where he was, waiting for the robot to come after him. I almost yelled to tell him to move but before I could say anything, the man leapt up into the air. Had I not been there, I wouldn't have believed how high up he had gotten. He flipped over the droid and ended up on the other side of it. He tapped it on its shoulder and the droid turned to meet the two blades. They sliced horizontally through its torso. The sparks ignited in front of the masked hero but he stood there, almost waiting for the droid to explode and when it did, the man turned around nonchalantly to face us, the slaves, the onlookers, the spectators, and the hopefuls.

He jumped off the conveyor belt and went for Landra who had been watching the whole thing on her side from the floor with a look of complete disbelief. The man in blue stood before her and placed his hand to the side of her head.

"Are you okay?" he asked in a whisper so low that had it not been for the deafening silence from us all, I could not hear.

Landra nodded and gulped. Her eyes coalesced a pool of saline and the river fell down her cheeks. "Thank you," she cried. "Thank you so so so much." She hugged him tightly and it was obvious, he was not used to praise by how his hands did not immediately hug her right back.

I ran over to the two along with everyone now who wanted to crowd around the mysterious stranger. They cheered and cried and gathered before him. Our new messiah, my new hope. He looked around the crowd and simply nodded in recognition of their thanks. They patted him on the back while others simply wanted to touch his arm, hand or whatever part of his body they could graze their fingers upon. I managed to push my way through the crowd and stood in front of the stranger for a moment. And in that moment, I could swear he was staring at me behind those black lenses. Not in a negative way or even confrontational but just more—curious.

"She should be okay," he said to me. He put his white gloved hand out and I paused for a moment. What would happen if I shook his hand? I reached out and grabbed his hand and shook.

I turned to my sister and asked if she was okay. She smile and nodded then hugged me tight.

"I'm sorry folks, I should go," the blue warrior said.

They wailed for him not to leave them. Cries of the elder women outweighed those of the younger ones. Our savior incarnate did not know how to leave the surrounding mob around him.

"Don't worry," he said. "I'll be watchful over all of you and make sure order is brought back to the way it should be."

"What is your name, champion?" said a small woman with a beat up old rosary held tight within her hands.

"My name. My name is—Zeo Ranger Blue."

The crowd whispered Zeo and others yelled, "Hail, ZEO!"

And with that, he jumped in the air with his arms stretched up above him. A streak of blue light arced over the crowd and out into the gray dim sky. Everyone continued to look up as did my sister who called out to me, "Wasn't that amazing?"

I, however was the only one not looking up but down at my palm, the one that shook Zeo Ranger Blue's. My sister looked over my shoulder and read the ink left in my hand.

"Sail dock, two hours."

Landra shook her head. "What does it mean, Jacob?"

"I—I think he wants to meet me."