Wings of Salvation

Chapter 2- Adventures and Explanations

Second Earth

As the mystical high notes began to settle down, and the bright flash of light seemed to fade away, Zandro was left standing in a small tunnel that seemed to go on forever into the darkness. He quickly checked his surroundings and made sure that nothing was waiting for him, and began to change into the clothes of a Second Earthling that were left for him.

One of the most important rules of the traveler was that you weren't allowed to bring things from your own territory. That was the purpose of the acolytes; they aided the travelers by leaving clothes and equipment at the flumes.

Zandro pulled on the denim pants and red sweater that were left for him, along with a black winter coat. As he folded his own cloths and set them down near the wall, he saw something else that was left for him. It was a small package wrapped in brown paper.

He slowly and suspiciously walked over to the package and picked it up, then proceeding to slowly and suspiciously unwrap it. He finaly tore off the last piece of brown paper and found a large cut of meat.

"What is this for," he muttered to himself. "Well, if its here, it must be here for a reason."

With steak in hand, Zandro opened the old looking wooden door and stepped out of the gate. He emerged into another tunnel, a subway tunnel this time. After looking both ways down the long tracks, as if he were crossing the street, he began to walk in the direction of the station were he could exit into the city, and find Press. Hopefully before Saint Dane got to him...

It wasn't long until he hit his first obstacle though. Zandro stopped dead in his tracks as he heard a loud growling from behind him. He turned his head to see two sets of yellow eyes staring directly at him. He tried to back away slowly, without having what he now guessed were the quigs fallowing him, but it was too late. The two animals barreled down the tracks at him. As they got closer, Zandro remembered the large piece of meat in his hand.

Zandro backed away slowly, trying to time his actions right. He wanted to make sure the quigs saw it.

It was then that his situation became worse. In the distance behind him, he heard an ear-shattering horn. It was the train.

Zandro looked behind him and saw that he was only about 25 yards from the platform. He could make it their in one quick burst. He was now trapped between to viscous quigs who wanted to tear him to bits, and a gigantic metal vehicle traveling at high speeds about to crush him. It was now or never.

The quigs were still charging at him, they didn't seem to be worried about the train. Zandro hurled the steak through the air, and the quigs stopped dead. They stared at the meat as it flew through the air and began to fall toward them. As it got close, both quigs jumped and tried to grab it. Soon they were wrapped up in a literal dog fight, attacking each other over the steak.

But Zandro didn't see any of this. The second he had thrown the meat, he was off charging towards the platform, trying to get there before the train cut his mission short. Zandro heard the blasts of the train's horns, but kept moving. He was almost there, but there was no way he could make it up the stairs, he had to jump.

As the train blasted its horn once more, Zandro threw himself up onto the platform and rolled away from the tracks. If he were a second slower, the train would have caught him halfway between the platform and the wall, and Zandro shuttered at the thought.

But before Zandro had time to even settle down, he heard the train's horn fill the air once more. This time though, it was combined with the sound of two wailing quigs. "Perfect," Zandro muttered to himself. He then let loose and sprawled out on the platform floor, letting himself take a moment to breathe and stop his heart from exploding in his chest.

---- ---- ----

Zandro stepped out of the abandoned subway station into the cold New York City air. It was the dead of winter, the month of January, and the chilly wind cut at Zandro's face.

Last time he was on Second Earth, Press had given him a number that he could be contacted by. He had just told him to go to what they call a phone booth and punch in the number on the pad and put the receiver up to his ear.

After walking all the way to the area of the city were Press lived, a place called Manhattan, Zandro quickly found a phone booth and jogged up to it, going inside and dialing the number. After about five rings Press Tilton's voice came through the receiver. "Hi, I am not home at the moment..."

"Hello," said Zandro.

"Please leave your name and number..." continued the recording.

"Hello! Hello, Press!" Zandro began to yell, as he tried to talk to the recording. He then looked at the receiver and slammed it down back on the hook. He looked nervously around the booth trying to think of what to do next, when he noticed a book lying from a long cord under the phone. He picked it up and began to thumb through it, when he realized it was filled with people's names, their place's of residence, and their contact numbers. He then began to search through it, looking for the name Press Tilton. Yet the more he searched, Zandro began to realize he wasn't listed.

He stopped to think, and decided he would have to go with the second option. He vaguely remembered were Press lived the last time he was here, but that was at least a year ago, and he couldn't stay in one place if you cemented his feet into the sidewalk.

Zandro stepped out of the phone booth and began to walk in the direction that he thought Press' home was in. "I can only hope that I can find him first."

As Zandro walked away, he had the strangest feeling that he was being fallowed.

---- ---- ----

"That's it, I have been wandering around long enough," said Zandro to no one in particular. "I have to take a break."

Zandro leaned against the wall of the nearest building and stared up at the sky. He was amazed at the size of the buildings around him, and began to realize that he was lost.

"Oh, this is just great. By now Saint Dane could have already gotten Press and went back to destroy Valoss. The whole territory will be on fire by the time I get there."

As Zandro stood up again to continue his hopeless quest to find Press, he realized were he was. He turned around and saw that the building was awfully familiar. He walked to the door and looked at the list of its occupants and quickly found the room that Press supposedly lived in. It was blank.

"This has to be it, I'm sure of it." said Zandro to himself. He pressed the button to be buzzed in to the apartment, and no reply came back. He pulled on the door, and it was open. He looked at it oddly and walked inside the building.

He was hoping that the building was heated, as he had already begun to take of his coat when he realized it wasn't. In fact, it had to be colder inside than it was out. He pulled his coat back over his shoulders and crossed his arms, trying to keep warm. With his luck, Press was a block of ice sitting up in his apartment.

Zandro headed for the stairs, and began to climb the three floors to Press' room. The apartment building really wasn't very luxurious. Actually, luxurious was about as far as you could get form this building. The walls were covered with peeling wall paper. The bottoms of the walls looked as if a flood had run through the halls, for they were old and yellow. Half of the light fixtures were broken and the carpet was ripping in multiple places.

As Zandro emerged into the floor of Press' room, he began to walk slowly and take in his surroundings. It was a long hallway with three doors leading off of it; however, one was a janitor's closet. On either end of the hallway there was a large, full length window that reached almost to the ceiling, but stopped about an inch before it.

The traveler walked quietly as if someone were sleeping in the rooms, and walked up to what he remembered to be Press' door. He slowly brought his hand up and knocked on the door. Just as his knuckles made contact with the wood of the door, he heard a voice besides him. "Look's like were looking for the same guy."

Zandro Quickly turned and backed away from the door in surprise, preparing himself to fight. What he saw was a short teenager with a greasy face wearing an oddly colored uniform and carrying a large box. "Pizza delivery," he said, bearing his teeth in a friendly smile trying to calm Zandro down.

"Oh..., sorry. You just kind of snuck up on me there. I don't think he's home anyway," said Zandro to the delivery man.

It was then that his voice changed. It seemed to have gotten... deeper. "Well," he replied, "it wasn't him that I came for anyway." The man then threw that box straight at Zandro, which he quickly threw out of the way, though the stumbled back and almost fell in the process. When he could see clearly again, he saw the last thing that he expected. The delivery man that had stood in front of him before was now changing; he began to first grow taller. He kept growing until he was nearly seven feet tall. His hair then began to grow longer, and his off-colored uniform became an all black suit. And then the most important, his eyes. His eyes turned into a soul shattering icy blue. As the transformation stopped, Saint Dane stepped forward. "It's too late, I have already gotten Press, and you are next."

With that, the giant charged forward and soared into Zandro with his right arm. He caught him off guard, and Zandro was hurled through the air, landing on his back. He got up quickly, preparing himself for another hit.

Saint Dane came back at him, swinging for his stomach this time with his left. Zandro jumped to the right to dodge it while the demon kept moving forward. Zandro attacked by extending his elbow and catching him right in the nose. Saint Dane stood straight up, and Zandro backed away, as he let out a scream more of aggravation than pain. Zandro noticed his nose was bleeding, and took the chance to mount an offensive.

He ran forward with his right and hit Saint Dane in his chest while he was leaning over holding his nose. This caused him to shoot up straight and walk backwards, exactly what Zandro wanted. He then came forward again and hit him in the chest again, this time with his left. He then started a rhythm, knocking him backwards with blows to the chest.

As Saint Dane found his pattern, he caught Zandro's right wrist, and lifted him straight into the air. "You can't fight me boy," he snarled. While he held him in the air, he punched with his other hand, letting him go and sending him hard into the floor.

Zandro realized what he said was true. He couldn't fight him. When he started to take the lead, Saint Dane came back and hit him even harder. He couldn't keep this up. He had to try it.

Zandro jumped up to his feet and shook his head to bring him back to his senses. "Now your mine," yelled Saint Dane as he charged forward. This brought Zandro into action. When he had gotten the demon on the run earlier, he was getting him closer to the window. Now he started the second part of his attack plan. Just before his enemy's fist was to collide with his face, he ducked and charged forward into his stomach, and ran full blast to the window.

With every bit of power he had, Zandro pushed him straight into the window, shattering the glass and sending him towards the concrete below.

Zandro quickly stuck his head out the window to see what had become of his opponent, but he saw nothing. All he could see was bits of glass, and a large black raven flying off into the sky.

As Zandro knelt down onto his knees, he heard the sounds of someone running up the stairs. As he turned to see who it was that he might have to fight next, he saw Press emerge from the top of the stairs, fallowed by a dark skinned woman with concerned looks on their faces.

"What just happened hear!" he yelled. "Zandro, what are you doing here?"

Zandro flashed a large smile through his heavy breaths, glad to see his friend, "Just settle Press... I'll explain in a moment. Just give me... a moment... to breath."

---- ---- ----

Valoss

With the familiar lights and high pitched notes, Zandro, Press, and Osa appeared at the flume gate on Valoss with very little trouble from the quigs of Second Earth. Zandro had made sure of that earlier.

As the three began to change out of their Second Earth clothes, Zandro stopped them to explain the wings that everyone on Valoss wore under their clothes

"For each of you, there is a black body suit. Simply slip it on and fasten the front zipper. Now there is also a small, metallic backpack for each of you, just slide that on for me, and finish dressing with the other cloths left for you." As each of them finished respectively, Zandro stopped and continued his explanation.

"Now what you didn't realize when you slipped that back pack on was how it reacted to the material of the body suit. There is special coding in the material that tells the back pack to activate when it is in place. What it does, is inject around five, small nerve receptors into your spinal column, so small you can't even feel them, they don't even leave holes. Not that you can see anyway." With that remark, Zandro caught two odd from his fellow travelers. "Now there is a small red button on the top of these back packs, please press it. If you were wondering why you clothes had to slats in the back, this is why."

As each of them pressed the button, a set of realistic looking wings sprouted form the sides of the back pack. "Almost everyone on Valoss wears one of these back packs, and you will soon see why.

The flume gate was a small cavern built into some kind of rock. Zandro escorted them to the far end of the cavern were a tunnel, about large enough that they all had to bend down to get through, led to a very cold and crisp atmosphere. As they emerged from the tunnel, the two visitors were amazed two see that they were on a small cliff of an extremely large mountain. They looked out into the skies around them, and saw that they were above the clouds themselves, for they glided lazily through the air around them.

"Welcome to Valoss my friends, and don't worry, flying is easy," he said with a smirk to his companions.

AN: Well that explains the wings. Cool, huh? Hopefully I can have Chapter 3 up in about 4 days.