I took a deep breath before taking my first steps away from home. I could see Nathan kept his personal exit well hidden behind some boulders. I had worked my way out of the bunch and found myself in a vast land that has seen better days.
"No wonder we hid," I said to myself as I gawked at all the destruction and dead earth that surrounded me. In the distance I could see a group up ahead driving around hazardously in some kind of dune buggy.
"I wonder," I muttered as I tried to see if the visor had a zoom feature. Fortunately it did, the suit activated it the instant I thought of it. With a closer look at the party of piñatas, I saw them for what they truly were, Sours. This suit could see past the shape-shifters like Nathan and expose them. I hid behind the cluster of boulders until the vehicle was out of sight.
"What's an android like you doing here?" A rough and raspy voice caught me off guard. I turned around saw a white fudgehog wearing a headband and holding a large automatic rifle while having an assortment of other gear on hanging off his shoulders.
"Who are you?" I returned the question readying myself to engage him if he had decided to open fire or attack me in a different manner.
"Me? Why are you so interested android?" he avoided answering.
"I'm not an android!" I said as the visor returned inside the helmet.
"Er, well you sure did look like one to me, I'm sorry if I offended you miss," he apologized.
"What are you doing here anyways?" I said, assuming names weren't important to the fudgehog.
"What everyone's doing out here: Trying to survive," Then I remembered, not everyone lived underground. I felt bad for the poor fellow, "I take it you're not from around here huh?"
"I came from the underground," I corrected him.
"The underground? You gotta be shitting me! Let me guess, you came from an underground city that was oblivious to the war that's going on right at this moment just so you could migrate to the surface, sorry to say but this is all your gonna see no matter where you go," the fudgehog assumed.
"No, it's not that, I'm searching for a friend of mine that the sours kidnapped, have you happened to see a blue, yellow pretztail being escorted by a sour mallowolf by any chance?" I said.
"Nope, but I see you're not the only one who has it out for the sours," he said while slapping his rifle.
"Uh…Not really, I just want my friend back," I said awkwardly.
"I see, well if you want, I could help you out to the best of my ability, but I demand a pay for it," the fudgehog said with a smirk. His offer did seem tempting, however I had nothing to pay him with.
"Well…" My mind came up with a backup plan, "if you can help me, I can guarantee you some protection within the underground town I came from,"
"You're serious?" he said in disbelief.
"You can live in my house for as long as you want," I said with a smile.
"Deal!" The fudgehog shook my paw eagerly.
"The name's Pranvera," I informed him.
"Falkor. Nice to meet you Pranvera," he let go of my paw and started walking, "so where are we going exactly, or were you just investigating around aimlessly."
"Actually," I put my visor back on and followed him to stop him, "you're going the wrong way, were going to the sour empire in the mountains," I turned him over to face the north.
"You know how crazy you are for even THINKING of going there?" he stared at me as if I were insane.
"It's where my friend Terrance is, and this suit of mine is the only way I'll be able to save him without much trouble at all," I explained.
"Your suit huh? What's so special about it besides being flashy?" Falkor asked.
"You'll see," I said as I activated the suits strength and speed. It didn't look much different, but I felt like I could take on the world.
"See what?" Falkor tilted his head.
"This!" I shouted as I scooped him up in my arms and ran northwards.
"Slow down!" Falkor shouted.
"There's no time to slow down, Terrance is in trouble," I said as I blazed through the wasteland.
"I think I'm gonna be sick," Falkor said.
"Just a little longer, hold your barf in 'till then okay," I said, not wanting to get the suit dirty just yet.
"Hurry," Falkor gagged.
Soon enough we made our way to the mountains. Stopping on a dime, I put Falkor down on his feet and he ended up puking right in front of me. I stepped away and dared not look at the sight. The revolting act went on for nearly a minute until Falkor finally brought his retching to an end and recollected himself.
"I'm sorry," I felt downright horrible, in just mere moments of meeting someone new I end up making him bring his meal back up.
"I need to rest," his voice gurgled out before he spat up whatever was left behind.
"Then lay down, I'll scout out the area from here," I said as I walked off.
"Wait!" the fudgehog wiped off his mouth before trying to pry himself from the ground, "you can't just leave me here," he took in a deep breath, "What if a sour comes by…? I'm completely defenseless in this state…" Falkor groaned in pain.
"Fine, I'll just bring you with then, but I'm not liable for the bumpy right, okay?" I said.
"Yeah, sure," Falkor said.
I ended up carrying Falkor with one arm and climbing the mountains with the other.
"You feeling okay," I said as we reached a decently wide, flat surface to rest on.
"I still feel like I threw my guts up," Falkor's comment had poured more guilt on me.
"I can't apologize enough for that," I said, feeling hated.
Falkor groaned more as I finished the rest of the climb. Surveying the area from the peak, I could see a base camp in action within the mountains surrounding it. Personally, their fences seemed ridiculous seeing as they had the protection of the mountains.
"So this is there base?" Falkor said silently.
"According to my built-in tracking feature, yes,"
"Pranvera," A voice buzzed inside my helmet. Instinctively, I covered my ear up with my paw to block it out, "Pranvera, are you there? It's Nathan, I found out how to establish communications with you."
"What's that," Falkor asked while trying to find where the sound was coming from on me.
"I think its Nathan, but how…?" I said, tinkering around with the helmet to make it sound clearer.
"This IS Nathan, and it's a long story, I can explain it clearly when you come back," Nathan chuckled at my senselessness.
"Who's Nathan?" Falkor dug into me more, filled with questions.
"He's a friend of mine," I said to Falkor, motioning at him to quiet down.
"Anyways," Nathan started up. "I was able to hack you into the school system there,"
"Hack me into the school system?" I said confusedly as my helmet started to make a hissing sound.
"Uh, Pranvera…" Falkor said.
"Hush Falkor, Nathan's talking to me!" I said, waving him away.
"There's a school system within, I forgot to mention-" Nathan said throught the hissing, but Falkor's chatter was louder than both.
"Pranvera! There's a missile heading right for us, Get off your ass and move!" Falkor shouted at me while grabbing my head and vigorously turning it face back at the camp. The missle was about halfway from meeting us, and I don't think I was planning on staying in place much longer.
"Dammit, why didn't you show me sooner!?" I said, grasping Falkor by the hump on his back and ran to the edge of the cliff, only to have it's steep drop stop me.
"Pranvera, this would be a great time for your suit to do something else useful!" Falkor barked in a slight dry tone.
"There's a flying feature you could make functional," I could hear Nathan's voice again.
Flying… Well here goes nothing…
I leaped into the air in front of me without even giving warning. Most of Falkor's arsenal fell away from us as we plummeted.
Come on, fly already…
I thought to myself through Falkor's shrieking, and fortunately a jet pack sprouted from my back and activated on cue. Falkor and I now were suspended in midair and my grip on Falkor was loosening.
"Don't let go!" Falkor screamed, certainly not wanting the daylights scared out of him a second time. I made the use of my second paw and nearly sunk it into his skin in an effort to keep him from meeting his death.
"I forgot to mention as well," Nathan said fretfully, "when you activate a certain part of the suit, another ceases to function, it was a flaw I never seemed to work out due to lack of materials," The cocoadile let out a nervous laugh.
"Thanks," I said sarcastically as I lifted Falkor up to my chest.
I almost dropped Falkor as the explosion of the missile echoed throughout the area. The massive rocks above started to crumble from the impact. I knew if I stayed in placed, the swarm of oncoming debris would eat us alive.
"Move!" Falkor shouted again. I wasn't able to react, the monstrous avalanche sent paralyzing fear through my whole body.
"Pranvera!" Falkor hollered as he managed to wriggle out of my grasp in his effort to gain my attention, and it worked.
"Falkor!" I screamed, diving down after him. Luckily for him I was able to nab him up in time. However we both knew it was already too late to escape the oncoming bolder storm. I searched my surrounding in hope of finding some shelter. Our luck was still holding out, I was able to spot out a small cave in the mountains and fit Falkor and myself inside and wait the disaster out.
"Is it over?" Falkor asked as the silence soon set in.
"I think so," I crawled over to the opening and gazed downward at the destruction that past us.
"Good, I think I've seen enough action for a lifetime…" Falkor said with a painful groan afterwards.
"You're just gonna give up like that?" I said turning back and facing him.
"I didn't know your trip was going to be THIS hectic, if I had know we'd be traveling near the speed of sound or falling from unbelievable heights, I'd never come in the first place," Falkor said, catching his breath.
"Falkor…" I started, "I know we've gotten off on the wrong foot but… It's not like you're dead yet, we saved each other's life just recently, that's saying something," I said, taking a moment to think about what to say next, "maybe we DO need to rest and take a break, as much as it'll kill me inside to keep Terrance waiting, I'll do it.
"Okay," Falkor said, "but on one condition, we rest on the ground,"
"Sure," I said as I grabbed Falkor and activated the jet pack once again. Nathan greeted us through my helmet once we touched ground.
"By the way Pranvera, you never introduced me to your new friend, who is he?"
"Well I couldn't on the account of a missile, cut me some slack," I said.
"Hey, I had no idea what was happening to you guys until you looked at the missile Pranvera, cut ME some slack,"
"Wait, how'd you know what was happening when I looked at something?" I looked over to Falkor, he seemed to be enjoying sitting on his butt doing nothing but relaxing.
"I get a perfect visual transmission from the camera in your helmet, I can only see things that you see… Only if you allow me to that is," Nathan explained.
"I see now… What's this thing even run on anyways? It's a superhuman device, shouldn't it take some kind of energy source of equal strength?" I said, waving my arms about motioning at the suit.
"Of course, it runs off of it's host's strength, it's amazing you're still standing after all that fuss," Nathan complimented me.
"Really? I'd never think of such a thing," I said admiring Nathan's inventing skills.
"Well… You could still be running off of adrenaline, in that case, don't freak out if you suddenly faint, it just means your body's recharging itself, sleep really,"
"Okay…" I said, hoping that wouldn't happen.
"Anyways, tell me more about your friend, I'd like to meet him too," Nathan returned to the original subject.
"You mean Falkor? I met him moments after leaving home, can you believe that?" I giggled.
"That's hard to believe, but it's great that you've made a friend nonetheless," I could hear Nathan clap a few times.
"It is," I said smiling at Falkor.
"Looks like I'll have to stop by another time to converse with him," Nathan must of notice Falkor napping, "until then remember, stay safe, I want to see you face to face again, got it Pranvera?"
"I got it, I got it, nothing's harmed me yet, there's no reason to worry," Nathan was starting to sound like an overprotective father.
"I long to see you soon, Pranvera, stay safe," Nathan said before the helmet clicked out.
Longing lingered in my heart after Nathan left, then weakness came, flooding all over my body. I dropped to the ground without a fight.
"Nathan…" I said faintly as my eyes slowly shut themselves.