Hey everyone!
If you have not read Ravage yet, please do not read this until you finish Ravage as there are spoilers, thank you.
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"All things truly wicked start from an innocence." Ernest Hemingway
Chapter 1, Arrivals
Angela groaned as she exited the portal Max had led her through. She sat up and looked around to gauge their situation. She was sitting on crimson dirt, and a pale yellow sky hung overhead. The terrain was obviously that of a desert, the air was hot, the sun was blazing, and rock formations dotted the landscape. She looked to her side and saw a city not too far off. W-wait... lombaxes? There are lombaxes here? She thought as Max groaned.
"Miss Cross, are you alright?" Max said as he got up and helped her to her feet.
"Ugh, yeah Max, I'm fine... just a bit groggy. That portal was a trip."
"Yeah it was, and we're safe from that rat Tachyon, the only problem is we don't know where we are."
Angela pointed in the direction of the city, "I think we're in luck. And from what I can tell, it looks like a lombax city!"
Max smiled a bit, along with Angela, "Seems like the lombaxes aren't gone after all!"
"What are we waiting for? Let's go!" she shouted as she took off towards the city, Max was right on her heels.
As the duo neared the city, their excitement grew. The city was teeming with life, most of them were lombaxes. Sprinkled among the crowds was a species that bore similarity to Max's race. The prospect of meeting a new race, and discovering that the lombaxes were a live and well, made each of them practically jump with glee.
As they drew near to the city, they saw that it was quite large; with quite a few skyscrapers filling up its skyline. Weaving around and through the buildings was a rail system. It reminded her of the rails back on Metropolis, but smaller. Every now and then, she'd see a person zip down them. The city, wile obviously new and young, had a bit of a rustic feel to it. The buildings weren't as sleek and curvy as the ruins on Fastoon. They were instead more metallic, with rivets that could be seen in them. Some buildings had that rustic look, while others were a tad more elegant.
The lombaxes themselves wore a variety of different clothes. Some of which Angela recognized were from back home; while others bore a slightly older style. She and Max entered the city and looked around in awe. A whole city... how could we have not known about this place? It is obvious that some of these lombaxes at least came from Fastoon, so why didn't we find any records of it?
"Funny, how come we didn't find any mention of this place back on Fastoon?" Angela asked aloud.
"From what I can tell, they established this colony a while ago. I'm betting there were records of it, however many of the lombaxes, for good reason, distrusted Tachyon and decided to make sure he never learned of this settlement. Then when Tachyon attacked, those that knew of this place fled here."
Angela nodded and continued to look around and take in the sights and sounds of the city.
"I suppose we should find a place to stay," Max said right before someone on the street approached him.
"Hey! You're Max Apogee aren't you?" The young lombax asked with an obviously intrigued tone.
"Uh, yes I am."
"Oh wow! We all thought... it's great to see you! Can I have your autograph?!" He asked eagerly and retrieved a pen and a piece of paper.
Within minutes, a small crowd had gathered around him. Many were begging for autographs and asking a myriad of questions. Max struggled in trying to sate the crowd's curiosity and it didn't take long for a news crew to arrive on the scene. Max was trying his best to be polite and courteous, but was quite unprepared for the onslaught.
"Hey! Back off! Give us some space!" Angela shouted as she tried to get free of the crowd. She mostly ignored the reporters, only telling them to get back. Eventually, she was able to force a way out of the crowd and she pulled Max along.
Meanwhile, in the capital of Velocity, Chief Kaden sat at his desk. He was reading the daily reports when he received a call on his communicator. "Hello? ...yes this is he... no, what's going on? ...are you sure? ...well that is interesting... yes I'd very much like to speak with him... get them some breathing room and invite them here... yes you can tell them who wishes to see them... thank you." Kaden hung up and looked out the window. Max Apogee, glad to see you're still alive old friend.
Angela looked up as a pair of big, official-looking lombaxes stood before them. They each wore black, sleeveless armor with a symbol in the chest-plates. They were also armed with battle wrenches, though those were secured to their backs. Each one was quite thick and dwarfed most of the crowd.
One of the troops looked at Max, "Are you Mister Apogee?"
Max nodded, "I am."
"I and my friend are Praetorian Guards, Chief Ellipse wants to speak with you."
"Kaden Ellipse?"
The guard nodded, "Yes sir."
Max smiled, "As long as Miss Cross can come with me."
The guard nodded again, "Yes sir."
"Lead on."
The guards led Max and Angela onto a ship and flew them to the capital. The guards then led them towards Kaden's office. Angela took in the size and scale of the building. It was quite large and ornate, gold leaf accented the railing on the stairs and decorative carvings in the walls. The walls themselves seemed to be made of a black rock mixed with swirls of white and the gold accented them. The place looked like it could rival an art museum, yet still had the same feel and overall design as the buildings on Fastoon.
"Wow... you guys aren't hurting..." Angela observed as they arrived at Kaden's office.
"No kidding," Max agreed as the door to Kaden's office swung open.
Angela couldn't believe it, Kaden was the spitting image of Ratchet only... older. He looked to be in his early forties and had a few grey hairs around his mouth. He smiled at them as he shook Max's hand. "Max, it's so good to see you're alive!"
Max also smiled and hugged Kaden, "I thought you were dead! I mean, after Tachyon..."
Kaden sighed, "I tried to kill him... but he overwhelmed me. I managed to make him think I was dead and escaped here..."
"Do you... have any children, sir?" Angela asked, she couldn't hold back her curiosity any more.
Kaden looked at her, a sad look on his face. "I-I did... twin boys, I sent them to Veldin before I went to face Tachyon... do you know anything about them?" He asked with a hopeful glint in his eyes.
"Well... I think that at least one of them is fine... I haven't seen him for a few weeks but he looks just like you and I don't know any other lombaxes. He's known as Ratchet."
Kaden smiled, "Does he have one eye a different color?"
Angela shook her head, "No, both green eyes."
"Oh, so he must've been the one I originally named Chase then... I would give anything to see him again." Kaden looked up with a happy yet longing face.
"Maybe you will," Max said, "He's very well-known, many consider him a hero. Plus it sounds like he has a knack for getting into mischief, maybe he'll find a portal here like we did."
Kaden nodded with a happy look, "This is a great day... come on in, I'll show you around and you two can stay with me for a bit."
Angela smiled and nodded, "Thank you. It has been a long day and a shower sounds amazing."
Kaden chuckled, "No problem, I'll tell my assistant that I'm heading out and then we'll go."
They both nodded and soon they were heading to Kaden's house. It was more of a small mansion really and looked a bit more reminiscent of the buildings on Fastoon than the capital building.
"Help yourselves to food, drink, anything you need. I have plenty of space and more than enough food." Kaden said as he took his shoes off at the door.
"Whoa," Angela said as she looked around. "Thanks again!" She said as she began to explore a bit. The place was decked out with lombax tech that she had never seen. It looked similar to the ruins and artifacts on Fastoon, only a bit more rustic. In the living room was a big workbench with various gizmos and technical parts strewn all about it. On the ground next to it were boxes of parts and tools.
Kaden went into the kitchen with Max to get something to for them to drink.
As they did that, Angela walked around and saw what looked like a wanted poster sitting on the workbench. She looked at it with a slightly frightened yet curious expression; as the drawn picture depicted what looked like one of those from that new race. However, he looked very different; he had grey skin, glowing eyes with white pupils, white hair, a bronze-colored piece of armor on his chest, and a crimson cape hanging from it. Underneath his picture read, "Calamity." There was also another picture, this one of a pale figure with white hair. However, what stood out to Angela was his eyes. The part which normally was white, was black. He had glowing, yellow irises surrounding a black pupil as well. Under his picture read, "Virgil."
She thought as she read, Calamity? What kind of monsters are these? Let's see... highly dangerous... they have killed... how many people?! Of course there's psychos here... figures, run from a galaxy one psychotic maniac into a world with two... at least they don't seem to have a genocidal plan in mind... She sighed, Oh well, guess there'll always be wackos no matter where you go. She set the paper down and joined Kaden and Max.
Meanwhile...
A small group of lombaxes emerged from a portal and groaned as they landed on one another. Of course, the largest of the bunch landed on top of everyone else.
"Snake, you have your foot in my face!" Breach grunted.
"Sorry! At least you don't have Brick's tail in yours!" The red-furred lombax snapped as he struggled to get free of the huge lombax.
"Would you guys calm down?!" Bryn yelled as he was on the bottom, "Brick, can you please get up?"
Brick groaned and stood up, "Oi'm sorry, goin' trough dat ting felt very weird!"
"You can say that again," Luka rubbed his head, "Never felt anything like that before..."
After a bit, the gang managed to get to their feet and looked around.
"This doesn't look like Fastoon guys..." Snake stated.
"No kidding, Mr. Obvious," Slick remarked, "The sky isn't even blue!"
Snake punched his cousin in the arm, "Don't start..."
Slick rubbed his sore arm and glared lightly.
"Come on guys, we need to find the king." Breach said and looked around, "See any tracks?"
Shooter pointed to some, "Here, and it looks like they go East." He looked in the direction the tracks went and saw crimson rock formations in the distance. "We should go after him, but we also need to make sure we're not going to get stranded. Wouldn't want to be out here for too long."
Bryn nodded, "Agreed, this place looks very desolate... besides the king, our main goal is water and food. Since we have no better direction to go, let's follow the tracks." The rest of The Hand also agreed and started marching off, following the tracks.
Whatcha think?
Also, thanks to my good friend, EvilRatchet96 for letting me implement his characters into this fictional universe.
I am still doing Alter, just wanted to pick this up as it does tie in with both Ravage and Alter, and shows a story which I think has potential.
Anyways, thanks for reading and let me know what you think in a review!
Stay Tuned!
