It had been a couple of weeks since I had joined the cafe, I had gotten used to the routine of waking up early so I can get changed without rushing and attending the cafe, ever since the news got out that I was dating IF the advances from other girls had suddenly stopped for some mysterious reason.
Clambering out of my bed I was already halfway getting changed when I heard a knock at my door, cracking the door open I saw IF standing there.
"Heya Iffy, what's up?" I asked her, it was unusual for IF to be up this early.
"We've got a problem" She replied, her eyes were like steel so this had to be serious.
"Right let me get into something a bit more appropriate than a suit" I replied, as I moved away from the door she held it open.
"No time you need to come now" She almost ordered as she pulled open the door and dragged me out of the room towards the elevator.
"Could I at least get a weapon?" I whined, I wasn't used to her being this serious and I felt like a child in her vice-like grip.
"No because you'll take too long, I'll lend you one of mine" IF said as she successfully pulled me into the elevator and pressed the button for the top floor, the elevator shooting away as if it could sense IF's urgency.
Standing up I straightened out the collar of my suit while IF fiddled with something, she turned around holding out her hand, in her hand was a black object.
"Here, you know how to use these right?" IF asked, her eyes had lost a bit of the steel they had in them before but they were still filled with worry and urgency.
"No I have never seen one in my life" I said taking it from her, "What is it some kind of switchblade or something?"
"No silly it's a gun, didn't the dimension you came from have guns?" IF sighed.
"Used to have guns, by the time I was born they were made obsolete and therefore were smelted down to make other useful items like swords" I replied, casting a appreciate eye over the design, it was smooth and fit my hand perfectly, not too big, not too small.
"The switch on the side is the safety, if you are going to shoot you pull it down and when you are in a place where firing could hurt a friend you put the safety back on. It stops the trigger being pulled" IF instructed, pointing out the various parts.
"Right..." I muttered desperately trying to take it all in.
"If you hear a clicking sound means you've ran out of bullets, if that happens give the gun to me and I'll refill it for you" IF finished as the elevator came to a stop. The moment the doors opened she shot out and I had to sprint to keep up with her, she moves ridiculously fast when she wants too. Sliding to a halt we had arrived at one of the windows overlooking the city.
"If you've gotten me all worked up to look out of the window..." I muttered
"Look at the mountains" She said, her eyes transfixed on something.
Following her gaze there was an unnatural thunder cloud beside them, sparks of lightening flicking around inside the cloud, what made it unnatural was the fact that it was a clear day.
"What the hell..." I muttered, staring at this cloud when Kar'zul spoke up.
"That cloud has not been made by any dragon, that reeks of something out of this world" He growled, if that cloud worried him then it was a problem.
"We need to check this out, where are the other girls?" I asked, already moving towards the elevator.
"They are securing the borders and calming the citizens, its up to us." IF replied, getting into the elevator and hitting a button labelled "G"
"Where are we going? We need to start running now" I argued.
"I've got something that'll get us there in no time" IF replied, a grin on her face again.
"Right well it better be fast" I replied, going over the instructions for the gun again.
"Oh right you are gonna want to put this on under your jacket" IF replied, handing me a bunch of leather straps from her coat.
"And this is?" I asked, pulling of my jacket, more confused that enlightened about what it is.
"It's a harness, let me put it on you" IF said, moving close and began to pull it over my arms and slotting my arms into various loops.
"There. There should be a holster under you left arm for the gun, saves you from holding it all the time" IF said. Sure enough there was one just under my arm.
"Did you make this for me?" I asked, a flush appeared on her face as I said this.
"Yes but then this happened so the surprise has been ruined" IF muttered, looking away while playing with a strand of hair.
"Well thank you, it fits perfectly" I replied, patting her head as the door opened, revealing a bright green bike, it's wheels shining in anticipation to get on the road
"Ready to go fast?" IF grinned jogging towards the bike before hopping on.
"This can't be good" I muttered getting on myself.
"It'll be fine, just remember" IF replied, her smug grin settling on her face "Hold on tight"
Suddenly a door opened up in front of us and it revealed a ramp and what looked like a way out, IF twisted the handle and we shot forward without a moments delay, flying out of the room and onto the streets of Planeptune, within minutes we were out of the gates and flying along the road towards the mountain as the thunder clouds loomed.
"S So much wind in my face!" I managed to shout, my lips flapping in the wind as I squinted towards the cloud.
"Try not to talk or you'll swallow a bug" IF laughed, she had something over her mouth allowing her to speak just fine.
All of a sudden there was a loud Crack! the Thunder cloud tore open and out rushed two ships, one had the other almost impaled on it as they slammed into the mountain, breaking into four pieces, all going separate directions, two of them exploded on contact with the ground while the other two were launched on either side of the mountains, the closest on to us digging a massive trench as it came to a stop close to the mountains slope, comepletly destroying a small forest.
"Go for the closer one" I managed to say into IF's ear, the wind making my lips crack as they dried up.
"Gotcha, hang on!" She shouted as she made the bike go even faster, the surroundings becoming a blur as we ate up the distance between us and the remains.
Coming to a halt I jumped off the bike and ran towards the wreck, heading to the torn open end and jumping in.
"Where are you going!?" IF shouted from outside, her voice full of worry.
"Looking for survivors!" I shouted back as I tore a door of it's hinges, Kar'zul's addiontional strength coming handy.
"No-one could of survived this!" She shouted back.
"Maybe they could of, stay outside and get the girls!" I shouted back.
The inside of the ship as a crimson red, coolant falling from pipes as I tore open door after door, stepping over corpses of mangled people, sometimes just body parts were left. As I tore open a door I peered in, inside were what looked to be more guns, some were massive while other were like the one I had.
Behind me I heard the soft sounds of footsteps, turning I could see a man standing there, he had a cloak over his shoulder but the hood was down revealing messy brown hair and bright blue eyes, he had little facial hair on his face. He wore what looked like a mixture of leather armour and some metal pieces on his body, a holster was attached to his leg by small straps, inside the holster lay a pistol like mine and at his side was a sword with a curved blade, it's ebony colour shone dully as he looked up at me, a small smile on his face. The colour red dominated his clothing except for his cloak which was a light brown
"Damn I actually survived that?" He grinned, his voice was hoarse as he spat out a bit of blood before collapsing.
My heart was beating like a jack-hammer as I ran over and checked his pulse, he was still alive and from how hard it was pounding he wasn't going to die anytime soon. Picking him up I made my way outside to see IF just put her phone away.
"We've got a survivor!" I shouted catching her attention.
"What!?" She shouted turning around suddenly.
"He's alive just unconscious!" I replied, setting him down against a nearby tree "you need to keep an eye on him while you look around here for anything else we could use, I'm going back in there"
IF nodded and started exploring around the wreck while keeping an eye on the perimeter and the man.
Jumping back inside I made my way through the ship checking everywhere for someone who is still alive, so far I had no luck as I pulled open the door to the bridge. It was a mess, bodies lay strewn about the place, the captain had a snarl of defiance on his face while he sat in his chair, impaled to it with by a steel girder. Moving over I closed his eyes and closed his mouth slowly.
"What the hell happened here..." I muttered. Seeing no survivors I began to gather the corpses outside, stripping them of their armour and weapons, putting them in a pile close to IF's bike.
"What are you doing?" IF asked, she didn't get too close to the bodies due to the smell.
"Giving them a proper send off, we can't just leave them here rotting." I replied, my voice had grown steely and gave no room for argument. This was how warriors in my dimension were sent off and I was going to give them the same send off. Thankfully I found some fuel canisters in what looked like a storage compartment that hadn't been broken so I poured it over the bodies before checking which way the wind was facing.
"Good it's not coming towards us" I muttered before taking one of the many lighters I found and throwing it onto the pile of corpses, setting them ablaze.
"You seem experienced in doing this" IF noted, it wasn't a compliment or a insult.
"I have had to carry out this grim task for many people who were close to me, my master included" I replied, feeling a wave of sadness wash over me.
"Oh..." IF mumbled "I'm sorry to hear that"
"It's fine, I was not with anyone before you if that's what you were worrying about" I said, smiling slightly before moving towards the man, so far no response has came from him "Where are the girls?"
"They've gone over to the other site to see if there is anything left over there" IF replied, going through the weapons she sorted out which looked broken beyond repair and which could be used. Majority of them were smashed and snapped into pieces but there were a few guns that were able to be used.
"Heard anything yet?" I replied, checking the man's pulse again to check he hadn't died, his pulse was still strong.
"Not yet" IF replied before her phone began ringing.
"You were saying?" I grinned
"Shush you" IF stuck her tongue out at me before answering the phone.
After a short conversation IF turned back to me.
"Apparently there was nothing when they got there" IF said, sounding confused.
"Great now we are going to need to solve the mystery of the vanishing wreck" I replied.
"Should I ask them to come over here?" IF said, worry still in her voice.
"No let's not get anyone's hopes up yet" I replied, getting up. "You should head back and inform them I am checking a few things out about this and will be back as soon as I can"
"But I can't just leave you alone!" IF shouted, desperation in her voice.
"You have to or they'll start worrying too much" I replied, "Trust me if this guy wakes up I think he'd rather talk to the guy he saw after the crash, not a stranger"
"Fine but you owe me for this!" IF growled getting on her bike and sending a quick message to the others before shooting off.
"Jesus she's going to have my ass for this" I mumbled before going through what supplies I had been able to find. Guns, medicine, food and water. Enough supplies to get us back to the city without needing to worry about running out before then.
"Ugh my head..." I heard a voice behind me mutter as I turned around, the man had his hand to his head as he looked up, taking in who I am "Hey you are that guy from before I passed out!"
"Yeah how are you feeling?" I asked, moving over to check on him.
"Well considering all that's happened" He muttered, looking over to the wreck before looking back at me. "Who are you?"
"My name is Thomas Fletcher, and you are?" I replied, offering him a hand up which he took gratefully
"Ethan. Ethan Smith"
"Well Ethan we have a lot to talk about but before that we need to go through what we have here" I said indicating towards the piles of equipment. "I'm surprised you can trust me though"
"If you were out to kill me I wouldn't of woken up from passing out" He replied taking shaky steps towards the equipment, I hovered close by in case he fell.
"True, true" I said a small smile on my face. "You ready to get through some paperwork?"
"Oh god no" Ethan smiled jokingly. I could tell this was the beginning of a beautiful friendship with the only other man alive right now.
Hey it's the author again!
Things are starting to get a bit interesting eh?
Who is this mysterious man?
Where did he come from?
What happened to the other wreck?
Now enough joking around I must apologize for this chapter being late as it is, my laptop outright refused to work yesterday so I couldn't write up this chapter. Hopefully something like this won't happen again. Once again thank you to those leaving reviews on my chapters, they really help me out and I appreciate all of them.
Bye for now!
WretchedSpectre