The Warrior of Black Chaos
By: Jon 'Volc' Pereira
Chapter 2- Away From It All

The boy walked through the fields of Higara, the thoughts still fresh in his mind. The world seemed as if it wasn't moving. That last conversation, each word burned into his mind like a hot iron…

"Hey there!"
"…Hey…"
"…Is something wrong?"
"You could say that…"
"What is it…?"
"…I'm leaving"
"What? Why? What happened?"
"…I just need to get away for a while…I may be back soon, I may not return at all…"

As the final words exited his thoughts, he awoke from his daydream. He stopped walking; he took his black baseball cap and brushed the sand out of his forest-green hair. No matter what he tried, he couldn't get the thoughts out of his mind. Why did he leave? What was his master plan? Did he want to be alone? No, that wasn't it, but whatever the reason, he knew that he couldn't look back. As he continued to walk, the final memories of his good friends and fierce opponents emptied from his mind.

As he continued walking, he spotted a rickety old roof rising over the horizon. He was almost there, just a little more and his first truly lonely journey would come to an end. The wind around him picked up some of the sand and tossed it through the air. It blew back a tattered brown cloak he was wearing.

It wasn't much longer before he reached the hut he saw in the distance. It was old and seemed to be falling apart. A large tubular chimney sprouted from the top and spewed out a black fog. Oddly enough, the large, metalic door seemed to be new, despite the look of the rest of the building's outer shell. This was his, as he put it, home. He walked into the hut, a customer's bell greeted him. He paid no mind and continued to walk to the back of the room, passing item by item. There was a small storage closet in the back of the store. One panel seemed to be lifted slightly higher out than the rest. He lifted that panel to unveil a keypad. He entered in a code and opened the closet door. Behind the supplies rested a solid steel door. As he stepped into the closet, the door hissed and began to open. Steam emptied out of the second room, followed by beeps and other mechanical sounds; the noises had mixed into a sort of musical melody, which echoed through the store. The boy stepped into the room, and the door closed behind him.

He walked into the room and took off his cloak, hanging it on the nearby coat rack. The electronic sounds drowned out the voices in his head. The thoughts subsided as he began to calm. Now relaxed, he sat on a large leather couch, as an electronic-sounding female voice greeted him.

"Good evening, Volc, a good day, I presume?"
"If only…"He let out a chuckle with the last remark. "…But thank you, Helen."

There was a small laptop computer resting on the table nearby. On the monitor, a digital image of a girl sat. She had bubblegum pink hair and deep blue eyes. 'Helen' watched Volc relax with a cheery grin on her face. The boy looked over at the screen, only to see that warm smile.

"Something good happen today, Helen?" He asked, with a questionable tone.
"Its our anniversary!" Her smile widened as she let out a small giggle.
"Ah, that's right! I can't believe it's been this long already!"

Helen's giggles subsided, her smile continued to radiate the screen.

"That's right!" She replied enthusiastically, "It's been two years to the date that you created me and built this shop!"
"And a special occasion deserves a special gift."

Volc walked over to the computer and began typing in a series of coding. A large 'birthday cake' of sorts appeared on the screen in front of Helen, who was, as if by magic, now wearing a rather large birthday hat. Helen let out a squeal of delight and began to feast on the cake.

"I was saving this for a special occasion…"

He walked over to a counter and took out a small funnel-like contraption from underneath it. He reached up to a cupboard and took out a wire torch. As he walked over, Helen turned herself off to avoid any damage, or as Helen would call it, 'pain'. Volc opened up Helen and added the funnel to her circuits. After closing her back up, Helen turned herself back on. She looked at the funnel contraption, with a confused look on her face.

"What is this…?"
"Here, you turn it on like this…"

Volc typed in another code into the computer. Helen understood and translated the code into tasks to turn it on. When she activated it, a beam of light shot from the contraption and gave a projection of Helen. It looked as if she were human, standing in the room. She let out a giggle of glee.

"Happy anniversary!" He replied.

Helen was a program Volc created exactly two years ago. She was originally a mere laptop that he used as the main programming module of his shop. Loneliness has set in at one time, so he decided to create her. Helen was an amazing enhancement of Artificial Intelligence. Not only did she have the ability to process a virtual form of 'free thought', but also she could eat, sleep and act as a normal human would. Volc loved Helen, and treated her like a daughter. Helen, in turn, also loved Volc like a father.

Helen wasn't the only invention in the house. Sitting on a large tree branch-like metal strip, sat three mechanical birds. The first two birds were painted a dark shade of red, and were labeled with the numbers one and two. The third bird was painted a deep, royal blue, and was labeled with the number '3.5'. It was labeled thusly because of it being rebuilt after being destroyed previously defending the house. These were his Pidgits, mechanized hawk-like messenger birds. Instead of using the traditional telephone, Volc used these robots to pass along messages. These creatures also had an A.I. system, but not nearly as advanced as Helen.

Volc passed by all his other inventions, then reaching a large black generator-looking contraption. In the center was an opening, inside was a small glass cube, it hovered as a black collection of what looked like anti-matter floated inside it. Surrounding the generator was neon yellow caution tape. He looked at it, his smile turned to a depressed frown. He laid his hand on the generator, and looked back over to Helen, who had returned to the computer screen and was face first in the remaining half of cake. He decided to leave it be, and returns to the couch. Seeing Helen enjoying herself so much made him feel left out, he walked over to his refrigerator and took out a quite large piece of chocolate cake. He sat across from Helen and began to eat.

So there the two sat, continuing their anniversary party for the remainder of the day. Finally, he felt truly happy. The burning iron of thoughts in his mind had finally escaped…