-The Legend of Dragoon-
--Twin Hope in a Faithless World--
By Ryu Hyuga (Paul Lucas)

-Chapter 1-
-The Purple Tainted Shadow-

It was the dead of night; owls hooted slightly in the pitch-blackness, which surrounded the trees yet hardly, any of the stars filled the sky. Softly, barely audible there was the sound of leaves and random small branches, which littered the floor, emanated from the middle of the it all. Through the branches of the trees hanging outwards, a young boy was pushing his way through at top speed, obviously not determined to let anything slow him down. Hardly visible, he jumped quickly, as if disappearing into the shadows themselves he leaped to the side, two of the Mikado Special Forces running by, beginning to come to a slow near a tree, which coincidentally was the same tree the boy was hiding behind. Breathing slightly heavily, he began to peer towards the side slightly. There was just a slight squeak of leather armour as they flexed themselves; infer-red goggled eyes began to scan slightly, breathing softly, before one nodded to the other, beginning to walk with them down the non-existent pathway through the trees. With a soft sigh of relief, he slid down the trunk slightly, "God, of all the nights it had to be tonight, didn't it? The one day I want a night of, then they come after me." He muttered in his usual, harsh tone, before beginning to walk back to the path. Pushing a slight piece of purple tinted black hair from the front of his faced, taking a small breather before stretching. "Well, those dolts won't exactly know I'm here. They wouldn't know I was here if I came up and smacked them round the face with a fresh, still wet piece of salmon."
"Is that right...?" Came a small, computerised voice from behind him, the impending sound of metallic death. The tall, blonde Elite fighter of the Mikado forces' arm has parted, showing it's true, android nature. Parts of its fake flesh were still clinging to the metal whip, teeming with electricity.
"The Elites? Great, just fucking great." The boy sighed, shaking his head, causing his hair to move in the same motion. "Looks like I will have to do something on my day off." He grinned.
"Yes. It is a good day to die, isn't it?" The robot replied, returning the grin.
"Fine." The boy accepted, pulling a small bandanna, which was tied around his neck to over his mouth, and partly over his nose. "I guess this was unavoidable."
"I shall terminate you as easily as I would a small dog." With his reply, he whipped his hand forward sharply aiming the slightly sharp claws at him. He shot from his feet quickly, disappearing into the shadows of the trees, the hand harmlessly hitting the floor, retracting back. "How is this possible?" It mumbled to itself.
"Behind you, 'mate'." Came the boy's voice from behind him. A sharp, burning pain shot through the android, causing it to stumble forward. The boy was standing in a slightly slumped position, obviously from the attack. In his hand, was a tiny blade, barely the size of his middle finger. "You shouldn't judge someone on the way they look. Even if you are an android." He slowly turned around, flicking the blade back into his sleeve.
"That is impossible... I am PD-04 of the seventh squad of the Spriggen Forces." The android mumbled.
"And I am Kayin Itami, only known Dragoon in existence. Also known as the one who kicked your arse." Kayin laughed slightly, just turning around. "I'll give you a glimpse, before I finish you off." Kayin slowly began to lower his arms to his side, closing his eyes.
"..." The android blinked, slowly recovering from his injury.
"Aggh... Ahhhh..." Kayin growled softly, the shadows seemed to move gently across the floor, dragging themselves gracefully across the floor, covering up to his ankles in a black, viscous substance. They continued to cover him, in a slightly aggressive manner. After a few seconds, it had covered his torso, and his face disappearing totally. Straight after, the treacly substance went rock solid, two large blades shooting from the shoulder pads, beginning to form a large set of beautifully decorated plate armour. Soft purples, dark purples and patches of black covered him, with random yellow outlines on each part. The small blades up his sleeve became more like large, dark set of blades, totally blade, apart from the white colour, radiating what seemed to be a purple gas from them. They had also grew longer in size, and from his back had sprouted a pair of long, purple hardened supports for green, crystal like feathers, creating a set of wings on his back. Floating in mid-air, he began to lower himself downwards, floating just above the broken twigs and crisp, brown leaves. "That is always such a damned good rush." Kayin snickered softly, raising his hand slowly.
"No. This cannot be... Your kind are dead...!" The android mumbled in disbelief. Kayin raised his hand, spinning his blade slowly. His hand became engulfed in a black ball, concentrating.
"From the darkest corners of my heart... Mirror Coffin!" He let out a yell, crushing the dark blob of purplish light in his hand. Around the android, two pieces of shiny, ebony glass appeared, crushing the android in their grasp. "Now... this ends!" He clicked his fingers, suddenly, two daggers shot through the glass, causing it to shatter, taking the android with it. The daggers disappeared, reappearing in his hand. "Well... that takes care of that." He slowly began to relax. The armour and weapons shattering like a mirror hitting a wall at top speed, turning back to his original self. He begun to walk down the pathway, yawning as he came out of the forest, what must have been at least five hours later from when he had fought his little skirmish with the mechanically engineered 'biofreaks' as he liked to refer to them as. "Great... and its morning, the best time of the Goddamned, fucking day!" He praised sarcastically, putting his hands in his pockets. "I guess I better get some sleep then, can't fight when your tired..." He admitted to himself, "So... where's the next village then?" Kayin looked downwards to his Dragoon Spirit, a purple Dragons eye in the slot on the front of his normal armour. In the light, it was easy to see what he looked like now. His skin was a slightly pale pink, with a normal set of hardened, leather armour on with the slightly glowing purple Dragon Spirit in the centre. His hair was black, down to his shoulders and neatly combed, certain strands were coloured purple with a small, white bandanna tied around his forehead in a 'roguish' style with the two back parts blowing in the wind, with a red bandanna put around his mouth like a bandit, his trousers were a set of long jeans, bagging at the bottom, and a pair of leather boots, reaching just above his ankles. Not visible, was a pair of small throwing daggers, hidden in the inside of his sleeves, ready for quick and easy battle stances. His blue eyes shone in the morning sun. To a normal person, he would be quite handsome, if it wasn't for his emotionless and uncaring personality. He looked upwards to the sun which was quite high in the sky. As he looked back down again, his eyes laid apon the visage of the nearby village. "Hmmm..." Kayin blinked, slowly drawing from his pocket a map of the nearby area with it on. "I'm guessing this place is..." He looked downwards at the small, unfolded map, then back upwards. "Some place called... Nijero. Better get going." He re-rolled up the map, sliding it into his backpack, which was a brown leather small bag on his back. With a shake of his head, he jumped off the small part of the hillside near the forest exit, beginning to head down the pathway.