Chapter 1- Ruined Worlds: A Savior Is Found
A young woman blinked as her eyes started to focus. Rubbing the sleep from their deep brown depths, she tried to imagine that the ugly shade of purple for the sky was again the light blue of her childhood. Looking into the sun, she frowned. No longer did she need to squint into the lazy orange ball that hung in the sky like dead weight. What an ugly planet A soft mumbling sound came from the girl sleeping beside her in the bed of old rags.
"Get up!" She growled, pulling her black trench coat over her blue tanktop. Noticing a slight breeze across her knee she looked down. God Damnit, I must have ripped them last night, and these were my best pair of pants too... "I don't want to have no breakfast again because you took to long to get to market. If all the carts are sold out again I swear I'll break your face."
"Damnit Tempest!" Rubbing her bright blue eyes, the other girl sat up. Long raven hair falling into her face. Her brown T-shirt lay un-tucked from her faded jeans and was creased. "Why the hell don't you just go to market without me?"
"Because I have no intent on killing someone while the jump me for our breakfast money." Standing, Tempest took in their surroundings. After the party in a nearby warehouse, both she and her friend we overly drunk and had decided to crash as close as the could, so as not to break their necks trying to walk back home. Sighing, she yanked on her friend's arm, encouraging her further to get up. Smoothing the folds in her black trenchcoat she reached in her pocket to see how much money they had to buy today's "breakfast". Her face fell as she yawned again to find she only had about 15 credits. "Well it looks like we're going to need to get some more work today Hoshi..."
Hoshi pouted and followed Tempest as they made their way towards the market place. The area was mainly large storehouses that were once full of activity but since the wars have since been cleaned out and abandoned. Turning into an ally way, Tempest and Hoshi both stopped up short.
"Well well, if it isn't the two baddest girls in all of Crystal Tokyo." Tempest took a step and stood in front of Hoshi. She was a bit taller than the dark haired girl, maybe 2 inches, and she certainly was stronger.
"And just what do you want of us this fine day Josh?" Tempest tried her best to sound sweet and sarcastic but she couldn't hide the twinge of seething hate from her voice. Her eyes seemed to turn black at the sight of about 5 men, no boys, in front of them. Josh, their leader with an ego the size of an elephant had for years wanted to date Tempest, but at every turn she had declined his rather obvious come on's. Which had caused him to become quite nasty since he was one of the better looking men around with his sandy-brown hair and bright green eyes. His figure wasn't too bad at all either. "Expecting another black eye and broken leg before breakfast this morning? It seems you have healed quite nicely since our last encounter."
The others snickered as Tempest proceeded to jerk his chain. Josh quickly closed the gap between himself and Tempest, wrapping his hand around her waist, doing his best to draw their heads close together. "No, just a friendly conversation and maybe a good morning kiss. Is that so bad to ask?" Tempest's stomach turned over from their closeness and his breath smelled of alcohol. Great... he's drunk...Pushing at his chest, she attempted to shove him away but his grip was solid. The rancid smell of his breath grew as he placed his lips firmly on hers, bruising them. Her eyes grew wide in fury as she heard the other boys laughing and making catcalls. Hoshi was trying her best to keep her composure, but she knew that she was no match for any of them and did her best to keep hidden. Opening her mouth to try and scold josh, he thrust his tongue into her mouth. Enraged further by his boldness she bit down hard until she tasted blood in her mouth. Hearing Josh's surprised yelp of pain she let go. Backing up, he glared at her, furious.
"You little bitch! You'll pay for that!" he sneered, blood dripping from his chin. Tempest only returned the cold expression.
"Tempest lets go please!" Hoshi's voice trembled with fear. She tried to pull on Tempest's arm but she refused to move.
"Just hang on a sec." Tempest smiled warmly at her frightened friend, but returned her icy gaze towards the obvisouly fuming Josh. "You may want to go get that looked at before you faint from blood loss dear, or do you wish more pain? I'm ready and willing if that's what you're after." With a sudden gurgled yell, he ran foreword. Without even flinching, Tempest spun and planted the heal of her leather boot into his cheek, sending him staggering to regain his balance, now with a bleeding cheek. The other guys immediately stopped cheering.
Stepping closer to the wounded boy she whispered in a low sultry voice. "Might wanna go fix yourself up before you've got nothing left to impress me with." With that she thrust her knee up into his groin watching him wilt to the ground. "C'mon Hoshi." Tempest smiled sweetly at the other four standing guys as she and Hoshi walked through their midst towards the market.
"Tempest!" Hoshi spoke softly once they were out of earshot. "If you keep acting like this, you're going to end up provoking Josh enough to hurt you... Can't you just ignore him for once?" It was all Tempest could do to keep from completely lashing out at her friend.
"Look Hoshi, you saw how he acted just now!" Tempest turned her head and spit out the remaining blood from her mouth. "If I just ignore him and let him carry on like this, I'll be the one that's gonna end up getting hurt. I refuse to let some twenty-year old with raging hormones and a big ego try and force his way into my life." Hoshi only nodded solemnly as they continued on towards the market.
Both girls only looked straight ahead of themselves as they continued to walk. Passing through dirty alleyways covered in graffiti, An occasional beggar would pull on Tempest's coat or plead with Hoshi for the two girls to share some of their already dwindling supply of money with them. Tempest always felt a twinge of pain when conversing with these people. She would give anything to help these poor people, even give them everything to the cloths on her back if it didn't mean her survival as well. As the crowed of beggars got thicker and more and more sounds of people shouting, doing business or simply talking of the most recent events started to linger in the air, both girls smiled slightly, the thought of food made their dismal morning seem not so bad.
"I'm gonna go see if that old lady got my shipment of bell peppers in yet... I swear if they come in rotten I'm gonna be so pissed off..." Hoshi waved quickly and jogged lightly off.
"Yeah I will too, those things were damn expensive!" Tempest jeered. Smiling at her friends' enthusiasm, Tempest continued on her quest for her and her friend's breakfast.
Looking to the rows of carts and crowds of bustling people before her, it reminded her of a picture she saw of an older marketplace in medieval England. Perhaps I can get some more books from the Palace today and sell them. They seem to be in pretty high demand lately. She looked up at what was once obviously a beautiful palace made of crystal, her smile quickly fell to a sneered at what it was now. A crumbling building like all the rest in this bombarded city. Tearing her view from the crumbling building she continued looking through the street side shops for something to eat.
"Aha, I can tell you're a lady of good taste! Why don't you come look at a few of the things I have for sale?" Tempest turned quickly, startled slightly by the sudden outburst. Her attention turned to an older man. He smelled like rotting garbage and from the looks of him, a treadmill wouldn't do him any harm if he could afford one either. He had a few teeth missing from his nasty, sly merchant grin. And his shirt was in defendant need of replacing.
"Unless you got food for cheap, I'm not interested old man." Tempest nearly snarled. She didn't want anything to do with the dirty old man. She was cautious with whom she associated. She learned that much from her father before their home was bombed in this ungodly war.
"No, I'm sorry sweetie, I ain't got no food here. But I do have some nice trinkets from the palace you might like." The old man just kept grinning and Tempest rolled her eyes.
"I doubt there is anything you could have pulled out of there that would impress me old man, but if I look will you just shut up?" She casually walked up to his cart, being sure to keep her distance. The table was covered in various odds and ends from the palace. Pieces of paper, some mismatched earrings, a few hand crafted pens, and a hair clip or two. The old man kept grinning at her like he knew something she didn't. Sighing, she looked the old man in the eye, resting on hand on her hip. "And the something that was supposed to catch my eye is where? Listen bud, I'm not about to blow all my money for food on a trinket from the palace when I can just as easily go get something myself."
"Look again..." She didn't like the tone in his voice. It sounded as if he were a dark demon, tempting her to what appeared as gold, but in reality was a deadly poisin. She again lowered her eyes to the merchandise before her, resting her hands in the pockets of her long black coat. Drifting her eyes over the merchandise again she picked up one pair of earrings. They were tarnished silver studs with black obsidian stones inset into them. Not to impressed, she moved to set them down again when she noticed that there was a ring in the place the earrings had been sitting a moment before.
"Some style, you've got things buried on this table of yours." She had meant for her tone to be sarcastic, but she couldn't help but sound curious because she was dumbfounded as to why she had a sudden feeling of warmth overcome her at the sight of the ring. She knew she wouldn't be able to pay for it, she had to buy her food.
Placing the earrings down to the side, and took hold of the ring. It was just the right size to fit on her middle finger. It was a glossy black band with a silver line outlining the edge of each side. In the center of the black there was a symbol engraved in silver. It looked slightly like a small demon, with a circle at the top, a bat wing like figure to either side, small slivers of silver to either side of the wings and another circle at the bottom. Tempest slipped the ring onto her finger, the strange engraving facing up so she could look at it.
"How much is it?" She asked timidly. Appalled by her sudden lack of self-discipline. She knew she needed to buy for the day but she couldn't bring herself to take off the ring. When she didn't hear a reply she looked up at the old man. "Sir?"
Tempest was surprised to find an empty space of ground in front of her. The old shabby man and his table of mismatched 'junk' had completely disappeared.
"Sir? Sir!? " She called out again. Ring still on her middle finger, she looked around to find a trace of the old scrubby man, but he seemed to have completely disappeared. There wasn't a trace of the man or his cart of wares in the place he once stood or anywhere else that she could see. Shrugging, Tempest continued on through the market place to find breakfast. Hoshi would probably think that she had stolen the ring, or that she was still a bit drunk from the night before with her odd tale.
A young woman blinked as her eyes started to focus. Rubbing the sleep from their deep brown depths, she tried to imagine that the ugly shade of purple for the sky was again the light blue of her childhood. Looking into the sun, she frowned. No longer did she need to squint into the lazy orange ball that hung in the sky like dead weight. What an ugly planet A soft mumbling sound came from the girl sleeping beside her in the bed of old rags.
"Get up!" She growled, pulling her black trench coat over her blue tanktop. Noticing a slight breeze across her knee she looked down. God Damnit, I must have ripped them last night, and these were my best pair of pants too... "I don't want to have no breakfast again because you took to long to get to market. If all the carts are sold out again I swear I'll break your face."
"Damnit Tempest!" Rubbing her bright blue eyes, the other girl sat up. Long raven hair falling into her face. Her brown T-shirt lay un-tucked from her faded jeans and was creased. "Why the hell don't you just go to market without me?"
"Because I have no intent on killing someone while the jump me for our breakfast money." Standing, Tempest took in their surroundings. After the party in a nearby warehouse, both she and her friend we overly drunk and had decided to crash as close as the could, so as not to break their necks trying to walk back home. Sighing, she yanked on her friend's arm, encouraging her further to get up. Smoothing the folds in her black trenchcoat she reached in her pocket to see how much money they had to buy today's "breakfast". Her face fell as she yawned again to find she only had about 15 credits. "Well it looks like we're going to need to get some more work today Hoshi..."
Hoshi pouted and followed Tempest as they made their way towards the market place. The area was mainly large storehouses that were once full of activity but since the wars have since been cleaned out and abandoned. Turning into an ally way, Tempest and Hoshi both stopped up short.
"Well well, if it isn't the two baddest girls in all of Crystal Tokyo." Tempest took a step and stood in front of Hoshi. She was a bit taller than the dark haired girl, maybe 2 inches, and she certainly was stronger.
"And just what do you want of us this fine day Josh?" Tempest tried her best to sound sweet and sarcastic but she couldn't hide the twinge of seething hate from her voice. Her eyes seemed to turn black at the sight of about 5 men, no boys, in front of them. Josh, their leader with an ego the size of an elephant had for years wanted to date Tempest, but at every turn she had declined his rather obvious come on's. Which had caused him to become quite nasty since he was one of the better looking men around with his sandy-brown hair and bright green eyes. His figure wasn't too bad at all either. "Expecting another black eye and broken leg before breakfast this morning? It seems you have healed quite nicely since our last encounter."
The others snickered as Tempest proceeded to jerk his chain. Josh quickly closed the gap between himself and Tempest, wrapping his hand around her waist, doing his best to draw their heads close together. "No, just a friendly conversation and maybe a good morning kiss. Is that so bad to ask?" Tempest's stomach turned over from their closeness and his breath smelled of alcohol. Great... he's drunk...Pushing at his chest, she attempted to shove him away but his grip was solid. The rancid smell of his breath grew as he placed his lips firmly on hers, bruising them. Her eyes grew wide in fury as she heard the other boys laughing and making catcalls. Hoshi was trying her best to keep her composure, but she knew that she was no match for any of them and did her best to keep hidden. Opening her mouth to try and scold josh, he thrust his tongue into her mouth. Enraged further by his boldness she bit down hard until she tasted blood in her mouth. Hearing Josh's surprised yelp of pain she let go. Backing up, he glared at her, furious.
"You little bitch! You'll pay for that!" he sneered, blood dripping from his chin. Tempest only returned the cold expression.
"Tempest lets go please!" Hoshi's voice trembled with fear. She tried to pull on Tempest's arm but she refused to move.
"Just hang on a sec." Tempest smiled warmly at her frightened friend, but returned her icy gaze towards the obvisouly fuming Josh. "You may want to go get that looked at before you faint from blood loss dear, or do you wish more pain? I'm ready and willing if that's what you're after." With a sudden gurgled yell, he ran foreword. Without even flinching, Tempest spun and planted the heal of her leather boot into his cheek, sending him staggering to regain his balance, now with a bleeding cheek. The other guys immediately stopped cheering.
Stepping closer to the wounded boy she whispered in a low sultry voice. "Might wanna go fix yourself up before you've got nothing left to impress me with." With that she thrust her knee up into his groin watching him wilt to the ground. "C'mon Hoshi." Tempest smiled sweetly at the other four standing guys as she and Hoshi walked through their midst towards the market.
"Tempest!" Hoshi spoke softly once they were out of earshot. "If you keep acting like this, you're going to end up provoking Josh enough to hurt you... Can't you just ignore him for once?" It was all Tempest could do to keep from completely lashing out at her friend.
"Look Hoshi, you saw how he acted just now!" Tempest turned her head and spit out the remaining blood from her mouth. "If I just ignore him and let him carry on like this, I'll be the one that's gonna end up getting hurt. I refuse to let some twenty-year old with raging hormones and a big ego try and force his way into my life." Hoshi only nodded solemnly as they continued on towards the market.
Both girls only looked straight ahead of themselves as they continued to walk. Passing through dirty alleyways covered in graffiti, An occasional beggar would pull on Tempest's coat or plead with Hoshi for the two girls to share some of their already dwindling supply of money with them. Tempest always felt a twinge of pain when conversing with these people. She would give anything to help these poor people, even give them everything to the cloths on her back if it didn't mean her survival as well. As the crowed of beggars got thicker and more and more sounds of people shouting, doing business or simply talking of the most recent events started to linger in the air, both girls smiled slightly, the thought of food made their dismal morning seem not so bad.
"I'm gonna go see if that old lady got my shipment of bell peppers in yet... I swear if they come in rotten I'm gonna be so pissed off..." Hoshi waved quickly and jogged lightly off.
"Yeah I will too, those things were damn expensive!" Tempest jeered. Smiling at her friends' enthusiasm, Tempest continued on her quest for her and her friend's breakfast.
Looking to the rows of carts and crowds of bustling people before her, it reminded her of a picture she saw of an older marketplace in medieval England. Perhaps I can get some more books from the Palace today and sell them. They seem to be in pretty high demand lately. She looked up at what was once obviously a beautiful palace made of crystal, her smile quickly fell to a sneered at what it was now. A crumbling building like all the rest in this bombarded city. Tearing her view from the crumbling building she continued looking through the street side shops for something to eat.
"Aha, I can tell you're a lady of good taste! Why don't you come look at a few of the things I have for sale?" Tempest turned quickly, startled slightly by the sudden outburst. Her attention turned to an older man. He smelled like rotting garbage and from the looks of him, a treadmill wouldn't do him any harm if he could afford one either. He had a few teeth missing from his nasty, sly merchant grin. And his shirt was in defendant need of replacing.
"Unless you got food for cheap, I'm not interested old man." Tempest nearly snarled. She didn't want anything to do with the dirty old man. She was cautious with whom she associated. She learned that much from her father before their home was bombed in this ungodly war.
"No, I'm sorry sweetie, I ain't got no food here. But I do have some nice trinkets from the palace you might like." The old man just kept grinning and Tempest rolled her eyes.
"I doubt there is anything you could have pulled out of there that would impress me old man, but if I look will you just shut up?" She casually walked up to his cart, being sure to keep her distance. The table was covered in various odds and ends from the palace. Pieces of paper, some mismatched earrings, a few hand crafted pens, and a hair clip or two. The old man kept grinning at her like he knew something she didn't. Sighing, she looked the old man in the eye, resting on hand on her hip. "And the something that was supposed to catch my eye is where? Listen bud, I'm not about to blow all my money for food on a trinket from the palace when I can just as easily go get something myself."
"Look again..." She didn't like the tone in his voice. It sounded as if he were a dark demon, tempting her to what appeared as gold, but in reality was a deadly poisin. She again lowered her eyes to the merchandise before her, resting her hands in the pockets of her long black coat. Drifting her eyes over the merchandise again she picked up one pair of earrings. They were tarnished silver studs with black obsidian stones inset into them. Not to impressed, she moved to set them down again when she noticed that there was a ring in the place the earrings had been sitting a moment before.
"Some style, you've got things buried on this table of yours." She had meant for her tone to be sarcastic, but she couldn't help but sound curious because she was dumbfounded as to why she had a sudden feeling of warmth overcome her at the sight of the ring. She knew she wouldn't be able to pay for it, she had to buy her food.
Placing the earrings down to the side, and took hold of the ring. It was just the right size to fit on her middle finger. It was a glossy black band with a silver line outlining the edge of each side. In the center of the black there was a symbol engraved in silver. It looked slightly like a small demon, with a circle at the top, a bat wing like figure to either side, small slivers of silver to either side of the wings and another circle at the bottom. Tempest slipped the ring onto her finger, the strange engraving facing up so she could look at it.
"How much is it?" She asked timidly. Appalled by her sudden lack of self-discipline. She knew she needed to buy for the day but she couldn't bring herself to take off the ring. When she didn't hear a reply she looked up at the old man. "Sir?"
Tempest was surprised to find an empty space of ground in front of her. The old shabby man and his table of mismatched 'junk' had completely disappeared.
"Sir? Sir!? " She called out again. Ring still on her middle finger, she looked around to find a trace of the old scrubby man, but he seemed to have completely disappeared. There wasn't a trace of the man or his cart of wares in the place he once stood or anywhere else that she could see. Shrugging, Tempest continued on through the market place to find breakfast. Hoshi would probably think that she had stolen the ring, or that she was still a bit drunk from the night before with her odd tale.