Foreword
Everything changed after they started bridging universes. People were no longer limited to one life. They could live many lives. War was assumed to happen, and there had been rumors, but there was no proof of amassing armies. In the matter of space technology, it could currently get us to three stars in all the universes thus bridged. These were at the time twenty. Interestingly enough, these universes all had incredible differences. In advancement, energy types, even the basic structure of the laws of physics. Some people were adept at harnessing the natural energies of these universes. These energies had interesting effects, from effective "Magic", to the ability to control elements and even fly. "Magic" manipulation was considered a true gift, as it was the only energy that worked in almost any universe.
CHAPTER ONE…
I walked up to the town of Gremahan "The city of night". Dusk was settling over the hills and bathing everything in its inky, silken darkness. The little town was lit up by streetlights, providing enough illumination to find a hotel by, preferably one with low rates, but I had amassed a small fortune, so I wasn't too worried. Olevov, a well off gambling fool of a blue mushroom dotted toad wearing a full suit and carrying a glass dragon adorned staff, Moses, a very calm looking, simple-souled koopa with former hammer bro training that still wore the standard uniform and carried a really heavy hammer, Plats, a distraught boo with an eye ring around his cat-like left eye, and my best friend Mainad, a green yoshi with a small cape on his back and a device on his arm called the E.V.A.P.S. walked with me.
As we walked up the deserted main street, pale yellow lights leading the way, I had a singular goal in mind until I saw something like a motion blur outside one of the buildings. It happened outside the circles of light cast by the lamps over my head, so I couldn't make it out, but I thought I saw a hatch open and something move out the left side of a building and fall.
"You go on ahead", I said to my companions, "I want to check something out."
"Okay, we'll meet you at the nearest inn." Said Mainad, and they all walked on.
Now, I'm no fool, as I'm sure you know, but I am a very curious person, and so I went to check it out, which was not the brightest idea in The City of Night as I am sure you conclude as well. When I got there, I had to squat down facing away from the vent to see anything at all, let alone what I wanted to see. It was a man, maybe, I really couldn't tell at the time, but I knew that it would die unless I helped it, because it was bleeding badly from its neck and the back of its head.
I felt a small gust of air, and realized that someone had opened the hatch behind me, and a click told me of the cocking of a small caliber pistol.
"Don't move", said the man behind me.
"Easy enough", I replied.
"Drop your… Sword? For a second I thought you were a threat to our operation.", Said the man behind me.
"You'd better believe it.", I said.
"Wha-", the man began, but I cut him off.
"Put the gun away, turn around, go back inside, and tell your boss not to mess with me.", I said.
I stood up and drew Demonscar.
"Now why would I-", he began, but this time was cut off by Demonscar's blade at his throat.
"I'd do what I'm asking, after all, It's not too hard now, is it?", I said
I had finally gotten a good look at the man, he was wearing a black jacket, white sweatpants, a black cap, and a white t-shirt with a red R on the front. Obviously from team rocket.
"Alright, but-", he said, but was a third time cut off.
"What?", I asked threateningly.
He pointed at the thing on the ground and said, "That comes with me".
"No, It doesn't, and if I find out that someone followed me, you will become a sword swallower all the way to the hilt of this sword. Understand?", I barked at the, now shaking man.
"Y-yes… Okay. D-do you have a message for my superiors?" he asked.
"Yes, whatever this thing is, it means something to them, and they tried to kill it, so I'm assuming it means information about something you don't want people to know about. If you are killing people to achieve your goals, you count yourselves dead now and save yourselves the trouble of even trying to escape. Do you understand me?", I calmly whispered to the man.
"I-I-I'll-I… I'll just go and tell them then, does that mean-", He said, a fourth time cut off by me.
"Yes, it means you should get out of my sight, get out of this operation, get out of the town, possibly the province, because if you don't and you were a part of this operation, I will make sure that you personally get the same treatment as this thing. AM I CLEAR?", I roared the last part at the man.
"Yes.", said the man.
"Name?", I said.
"Edward Dimeol", Said the man.
"If that is a lie, and I find out who you really are, you should run.", I said.
"I know.", Said Dimeol.
He ran back inside after that, through the air vent. I picked up the poor creature lying behind me and dragged it into the street, now desperate to find a hotel to maybe save this creatures life. I dragged its sorry hide to the nearest place that I could find, the Up and Inn. I walked right up to the counter, dodging around tables, attracting way to much attention for my own good. I dropped myself across the counter and asked, "How much for a room for two?"
"I would say for you and thatwould be $200 a night.", said the barkeep.
"Here, take it.", I said after I slammed the money down on the table.
I grabbed the card-key and ran upstairs to my room. I threw the thing that I was carrying onto the bed facedown, dropped my pack onto the counter, flung it open, and got out the last of my medical supplies. I had a lot of work to do, first off I had to stop the bleeding, and worry about the bigger problems later, I picked out my bandages and scalpel, this was going to be a long night. I started with the head wound. I first bandaged up the neck, the cloth soaking until red immediately. I reached for my scalpel and made a vertical incision from the base of the head to the middle of the back of the head. I put on the last pair of sterilized gloves and got to work using a direct nerve stimulator to repair severed nerve connections, one, two, three…
One-hundred thirty-eight, done. Okay, when I was finally done with that, I cauterized the incision closed and bandaged the head. I moved on to the neck wound, watching out not to move the head in any way, and, making sure that it wasn't too serious, cauterized the cuts and set a restraining harness around the neck, this one wouldn't be waking up for a few days, so I felt that I would be able to get it off before it wakes up… now… What was it?... well, for one, it was NOT human, nor anything I'd ever seen before to be sure. It had many of the qualities of a pokemon, such as a snout, three toed paws for feet, yellow and navy blue fur, hands with four claws on them and so on, but it also had long green hair, a bipedal body type, and a human basic body frame It hit me right about then. It was a Quilava… Anthropomorphized? But how? I took off my surgical gear, noting that I needed to get more. I looked out the window. The sun was just peeking over the horizon. 'Chalk up another all nighter for me.', I thought to myself, looking out there... I thought of Mainad… Olevov… All of them… and I fell asleep.
I woke up to the sound of busting glass, and I looked around to find the Quilava-thing trying to escape from the harness. It was spewing small jets of flame and kicking at things
"Stop!", I cried at the Quilava-thing
"Let me go!", It yelled back. It had a high, slightly nasalish voice, so it was a girl.
"Calm down, it's obvious you have been hurt by people in the past, right?", I asked.
"No, I had escaped, I don't want to go back to that place!", She said.
"I'M NOT GOING TO HURT YOU, I JUST SAVED YOUR LIFE!", I bellowed.
She stopped thrashing after that and said, "But… You're human…"
I replied, "Yes, I am, but what are you?"
She started to speak and got this out, "I was a girl, but then these people came upon my friend and I in a field, and one of them had a gun… and my friend fell, and it was all so confusing. After a while spent in a cave, I was brought to a room, knocked out, and when I woke up, I was this…".
She started to sob, and I softly said, "Who was your friend?"
"Albert Derring.", Came the reply.
"I see, and your name is?", I asked with as much compassion as was humanly possible.
She looked up at me and said, "Icial…"
My jaw dropped open and I asked, "What did you say?", completely shocked by hearing this.
"I said my name is Enflare… Why, was that wrong?", asked Enflare, who was very puzzled.
"Nothing, I… Never mind…" I said, still puzzled, "So… Why did they try to kill you?"
She replied, "They didn't… What the people did to us… it was all of the torture that made me try to escape, I made it halfway when it felt like a thunderbolt smacked the back of my head, then there were some pains from my neck, but I just kept running toward the smell of fresh air, I felt the hatch door, I used my new hands to open it up, then I fell, and knocked myself out." She said, "I woke up here, and I still don't trust you."
"How about this… I get some blueprints on that building right over there and kill everything in sight?" , I said, really ticked off at this point, knowing what was going on now.
"I-I… I just want my friends to be free.", Enflare said, on the verge of tears.
"Okay, so a search and rescue mission… I can do that with minimal deaths.", I said, as angry as I could possibly be, "Look at what they've done… to you, maybe many others."
"… Okay." She said, "Let's get this done with."
"It's settled then.", I said.
Enflare asked, "What's your name?"
I flashed a quick smiled and turned on the spot for dramatic flair so that my cape swirled around and the sun was now at my back and was silhouetting my figure slightly, drew Demonscar, tilted my hand down and placed the tip on the ground so that the blade reflected light across only my face, and said, "Zephyter."
AUTHOR NOTES
Only comment this time is that I'm sorry that it took so long to get it posted. I had some internet trouble and I sincerely hope you can forgive my (no longer) barren profile.