Chapter 1
Day 26, Month 5, Year 3193
Aelfric was an Air Racer. Best in the business. Bets weren't on whether he would win or not, but on who he'd would demolish next. His competitors dreamed of the day he'd retire. Unfortunately for them, he was younger than most.
Air Racing was his passion. He knew all the secrets of racing, and the best places to upgrade his favourite mech, the Air 5; the High Plains (where the water plant used to be), and the city tunnels.
Emergence City was, at one point, a small mining town on the bay. Now, it's a huge port city, sprawling several miles. The Miners, or Kirbophers, as they called themselves, used to craft large, slow carts to carry things and injured people in and out. As the mining slowed down, the Miners would modify and race these carts, sometimes making completely new, smaller ones, and making them faster and faster. Eventually, this turned into an industry, making those few Kirbophers that were alive extremely rich and Emergence City a tourist destination. Stadiums were built, and Air Racing became the official sport of Ablivon.
Aelfric always got up before dawn to search for upgrades in the tunnels. Today seemed different. He had repeatedly found what appeared to be scraps, but when together, reacted with a violent swiftness, and they glowed vividly. From thin air, a gravely, buckshot voice with a drawl, rang out in the chilly morning air,"You seem t'be int'rested in these here pieces. From no where, a Kirbopher materialized in front of Ael.
Miners (Kirbopher and a lesser used term Wulfer were considered their archaic, politically incorrect name, and was used as a derogatory term between youths of the Kirbian race) were usually brown all over, with a soft, creamy tan mantle of fur running from shoulder to shoulder along their back, but this stranger was different. Scarlet, with grey slashes of fur, and a pure black mane, he stood several inches taller then Ael, who was taller than most. This made for an easily distinguishable figure. His claws were stained, with what appeared to be blood, but Ael couldn't be sure, because the sun hadn't risen, and they were underground.
"Wan' t' know 'bout them?" the stranger continued.
"…Yes, please." replied a frightened Ael.
The outsider positioned the pieces into piles. The pieces shifted, and what appeared to be mechs formed. "You have mine and my pard'ner's mechs.
"The soft pink, blood red, and rainbow one here is -er was my mech. I called 'im Dragoon."
"Dragoon? I've heard of it! I thought he was only a myth, though?"
"Naw, He's real, and sittin' right here."
"Wow. How was he yours?"
"I built him."
"No way! That's amazing"
"May not seem like it, but I us't to craft the fin'st mechs this rejin's ever seen. Then, I was drafted int'a a resurch lab to build military mechs. I, naturilly, didn't like this, so I built ones for ment fer racin'. This ment I worked alone. The lab then formed the Projict R racin' division, and I was the hed resercher, 'long with a long-time friend.
"'Bout 6 months in, I formed this theory. Based on the then current stats, even the fastest mech, at boosted speeds, culdn't break 50. I tried telling my assistants, but they laughed at me. They told me that '50 is the time-space barrier limit. You can't break that.' But, we culd and still can."
"How? They all say you can't. Theoretically, you'd be erasing yourself into oblivion."
"Oh, but ya can. The Others did, and didn't get killed."
"Who are the Others?"
"Well, as I was researching in the Tunnels, and I found records. Of another civilization. One that lived before us. They lived longer years, 'bout 20-30 of ours. And they lived about 80 of their years. 'Pparently they had huge, fossil eating, gas spewing, envir'nment killing machines. We use this metal to build our mechs. But their mechs, they went faster than ours can ever go. Apparently these cre'tures were overcrowded, and lots got killed every day by their mechs. I'm glad we don't have mechs that go that fast, otherwise, we'd all be dead. But the point is, people can go that fast. And I built Dragoon fer that perpuse.
"The thing is, only mah friend believed me. He built one that culd stand years of abuse, fer the derbies that were more popular then. He built his out of what's believed to be the strongest thing in the world. Diamond. He named his Hydra, but in prototype stage, it was called Type H. Mine was called Type D. Eventually, when I was done with Dragoon, I showed my partner. He showed me his. He had fogged up the diamond, making it look like metal. We both agreed, 'All that's missing is the spark' he said. We attached the atomic sparks, and I jumped on mine. We shot off, and I tell ya, kid, We flew above the moon! But, when I checked the speedometer, it showed at least 100! When I got back, and my partner was done with his test ride also, we tried each other's. Hydra was slow, but then I charged her up, and she went like hellfire." finished the Kirbopher, whose accent faded as Ael got used to hearing it.
"Amazing. Truly Amazing. Do you know where your partner is, mister...?"
"Just call me Deb. My name is Deb Anaire, but just call me Deb."
"Deb Anaire. Sounds familiar…"
"You got that right, kiddo. It might. I was all over the news because of Dragoon."
"Seriously?"
"Yup. But that's a story for another day. The sun's coming up. I gotta go. They don't want people like me talking to people like you. Crazy laws…"
"Deb?"
"Yeah, kid?"
"Two things. One, my name is Aelfric. Two, will I ever see you again?"
"Ok Ael, to answer your question, I don't know. If you like, we can meet up at a certain place…"
"Ok, but I don't like Ael as a nickname. Call me 'Fric'. Oh yeah, and where?"
"Y'know Heat Top? There's a special rail that puts you in the hollow volcano next to it. Meet me there, around 4:30 in the morning."
"What day?"
"Oh, uhhh... three days from now?"
"Ok. See you then!" Ael waved to the old miner turned researcher. He turned, and with an expertly placed Triple Aerial leap, jumped on the Air 5. He flew off, to upgrade his mech, content on knowing a legendary man. When he would see the Wulfer next, he didn't know.
End Chapter 1.
3