Disclaimer:

I don't own the characters that I took from the original stories, I only claim ownership on the

Characters and storytelling that has been invented and added by myself.

If you happen to find any grammatically incorrect phrases, or just have some ideas to improve

what I do here, feel free to message me.

Also be aware that my work might continue content that is not fitted for younger audiences or

might even offend members of certain minorities, genders or communities. If you are not okay

with that, please don't continue reading. Parental advisory is advised.

Mayhem.

The sky lit up for a second while the huge aircraft exploded. He turned his head just to see the mayhem all around him. Hovering only fifty meters from the ground, he could still see the rifle traces, the explosions tearing holes into the ground, the soldiers falling. All this seemed in the wrong place when the first sunbeams enlightened the battlefield. Suddenly yellowy light was everywhere. The desert underneath him was narrowed by mountains in all directions, almost like a huge bowl. And between those mountains, the war was at its peak. Soldiers ran around everywhere, huge cannons fired, Planes covered the sky with noise and the ground with explosions. Untouched by all of this rose the seemingly pristine sky city Zalem. The huge round plate was kept in place by a big metal pillar that reached far into the sky. It was connected to the second city, its big brother, floating far up in space. A rocket passed his plane by only meters. He pulled back his joystick, turning his vehicles nose towards Zalem. The machine started roaring as it quickly picked up speed. His entire world started to distort, his thoughts went faster and faster as if they tried to keep up with the speed of the jet. A loud screech followed by an incredibly annoying beeping disturbed his concentration. A small trail of flames appeared on his left, every lamp inside the cockpit started to rapidly blink. Exactly three seconds later the aircraft exploded and his world was filled with flames and pain.

He started up from his sleep, drenched in sweat and heavily breathing. This had felt way too real. He remembered where he was after just a few seconds. It had been three days since they first came into the cave. The storm outside did not seem to move at all, but in here, everything was peaceful. Right next to him he heard Alita's calm breaths. The young girl was fascinating. Her body was entirely synthetic, everything except her brain had been fully replaced by machine parts. A black top covered up her upper body, leaving only her arms and her neck free of the silicon-like material. Her arms were made from a metal core, surrounded by a perfectly engineered synthetic muscle tissue. You could almost look through the light purple fiber, allowing him to see small electric charges move along the muscles every now and then. Her face was pretty, big brown eyes, a small nose and shoulder-length, night black hair. Of course none of that was real either. Special silicon mixtures allowed her skin to look as natural as any other human, except she never got a sunburn or even a tan. He really wished he knew the person to create such a wonderful piece of tech. These days there was probably no one like that around anymore. Maybe her adopted father, the cyberdoc Ido Daisuke. He had seen his work before but nothing really compared to this girl.

The "Battle Angel"; that was the name they called her down in the slums. One of many of course, especially since she made a name for herself down in the motorball arena. Motorball was the big show that the people of Zalem held off to keep the citizens entertained. He would say it worked quite well, the people might not be happy, but still they did what they were told. Seeing the cyborgs slaughter each other down in that huge arena was the even that everyone waited for again and again. And this inconspicuous girl, yes this girl that was merely five feet tall, had just walked in and made mincemeat out of some of the best fighters in the arena. As interesting as that was it was told her only goal was reaching the skycity Zalem. People still believed that the champion in motorball was going to be sent to Zalem. A small lie told by those that lived in Zalem already. But it kept the motorball players at a short leash. Good for those that lived up in Zalem, bad for those that were controlled by it.

However, her way through the motorball leagues hadn't been unnoticed. Almost everyone down in the slums knew her name, but opinions about her were split. Some people called her a heroine that would save all of them, something he didn't believe while others planned on killing her for a long time. It didn't matter to him either. He was a specialist at surviving not caring about others. Also she was a cyborg, basically the worst kind of person around in this city. If they didn't bully each other they bullied non-augmented people. Something that ended with dead people most of the time. Fortunately the hunter warriors and the Centurion tried to keep the peace within the city walls. Hunter warriors were just bounty hunters, they were paid for killing or catching criminals and therefore rewarded with credits by the factory. Centurions on the other hand were huge autonomous robots that patrolled the slums; fighting those was stupid, something only people that wanted to die would try. He had been a witness once when a Centurion took care of a rebellious cyborg. The man had been torn apart by the machine guns before he had even had time to draw his weapon.

He sat up and loosened his muscles. Great. Underneath his left arm was the blade Alita carried around. No wonder it felt tormented. It had been way too long since he last slept in a real bed. Sometimes he really asked himself why he even left the scrap city with this girl. He didn't even really know her; he just happened to be in Kansas bar, the meetup spot for hunter warriors, when she recruited people to join her. She wanted to go out there and find a better place for everyone to live in. That was the one thing he agreed on. Living in Scrap City had turned into quite a burden lately. Even more than they had before; criminal scum roamed the alleys and the Centurions didn't exactly make things better for anyone. What a shitty place to live in indeed. But really was there even any chance to find something better out here? Only time would tell.

He watched the water throw flecks of light on the wall for a few more minutes until he decided to take a look outside. He picked up his favorite weapons; two specially modified versions of the so called .45's that he bought of a merchant years ago. One of them had the word "Mustang" carved into its handle, the other one was inscripted with the word "Sally". Using a firearm was rather unusual especially since the factory used lethal force again anyone that owned or used one. But for him they had always provided quite useful in combat, be it whilst fighting cyborg combatants or anything else. The only price for this advantage was hiding from Centurions whenever he came across them. On his way towards the exit dirt and small stones slipped underneath his boots, causing noises that echoed through the entire cave. When the exit finally came into sight the first thing he saw was the blazing sun emerging from the horizon. A few steps outside showed him an unexpected picture. The storm had deformed the entire landscape, leaving rocks where there was sand before and small stones where there had been huge rock formations. Nothing moved across the entire plain and everything was covered in silence like a thick blanket. It appeared this storm killed everything that might have still been crawling around. This cave had saved their life without doubt. At least he would be able to navigate using the sun. He pulled a yellowed map and took a look around. A small red dot marked the Iron City on the map, another one was supposed to mark their current location. But it wasn't in the right spot. At this point the marker was already next to the sea. Due to his calculations they should have reached an ocean about 3 days ago, but still there was nothing but desert around. It didn't take him long to figure out the way that was supposed to lead to the ocean. It was their best bet to try and get there before running out of supplies soon. A noise behind him made him spin around, his left on the grip of his weapon. The young cyborg girl stood there, stretched and yawned: "Good morning"

"Good morning. Slept well?"

"Not any worse than last night. You look worried, what happened?" Of course she had noticed his worried expression. He would have to pay more attention to this, keep his thoughts better hidden. Otherwise this girl might even get behind his reason to be here. She was not allowed to know. At least not while he was not yet sure if she could be really trusted.

He forced himself to slightly smile: "We are almost at the ocean by now. It can't be much further now."

"That is great! We should go as soon as possible right?"

He nodded: "Before the temperature rises much further, yes."

The two of them got back on track quickly and over the duration of the midmorning they were able to put quite a distance between them and the cave. But the higher the sun rose the hotter it became. As the sun stood in its zenith the temperature in the wasteland had become unbearable. It had to be at least 30°C and he was running through his water supplies way too fast for his liking. Sweat drenched his clothes while he followed Alita over dunes further into the unknown. In contrast to himself the cyborg girl didn't even seem to notice the heat and the lack of life around them. She denied every time he offered her something to drink. This unbearable heat made thinking unbelievably hard.

The sun made its way further over the sky, slowly sinking towards the horizon but the heat didn't seem to disappear. By now the landscape had changed, instead of the mere infinite red-ish sand fields they were now passing through a rather rocky area. Around them were small stripes of land that might have been green someday ago but now where dried out by the heat. They hadn't travelled through the rocky terrain for long when the hills in front of them came closer. Once on top they gave sight to a small valley, protected by hills from all direction and right next to it was an endless blue surface that stretched far into the horizon. They had actually made it to the ocean. He could feel his blood prickle with mixed emotions. There was a powerful feel, kinda like the rush of adrenaline during a fight. At the same time he felt small, like a flea, as if his existence was only a blink of an eye on this world that had survived and endured so much more than any human ever could. Alita seemed evenly impressed by the view across the Valley: "We are here! This is beautiful! Is that the ocean? It's so much bigger than I expected! Does it even have an end?" "Of course it ends. Just where it ends is something I can't tell you." It seemed his calculations had only been a little off after all.

"What is that out there, that bridge?" Alita pointed towards the ocean, just on the opposite site of the valley. He stared into the direction she pointed in and really, like a grey border splitting the ocean in two halves a massive bridge stretched far into the perfect blue. In fact it went so far he couldn't even see the end of it. "You are right. It is a bridge." "And? Let's go there; I'm sure there are people nearby. I mean someone built this, right?" He laughed a little. Sometimes it was really hard to believe she was actually way older than most people. She just had that way of behaving that reminded him of a curious little child exploring the world for the first time. "Yeah I think so. Let' not waste any more time staring then shall we?"

The way down the hill turned out to be way more interesting than he expected. At first he followed the petite cyborg through the field of big rocks until their surroundings changed again. Now the grass around them was green, flowers bloomed across the field. The girl almost danced along the small path. She really was a kid sometimes. Suddenly some grass loosened underneath her foot and she slipped off. Before he got to grab her hand she slid down the hill in an avalanche of screams and body parts. He watched her sliding down, rolling over until she finally came to a stop at the foot of the hill. She was back on her feet immediately, brushing the dirt off her clothes as if she was ashamed for what just happened. He couldn't help himself of a good laugh. This was turning into quite a fun experience...
It took him almost a quarter of an hour to reach the foot of the hill himself. She waited underneath the shadow of a nearby tree watching him as he came closer. He opened his mouth but she preempted him: "Not a single word or I swear I will..." He raised his hands in surrender and grinned: "My lips are sealed."
They entered the dark forest and made their way further towards the construct they had seen in the distance. Underneath the leaves the temperature was more pleasant. It was quite dark down here as well, the only light falling in beams through the dense leaves. Still everything was humming with life around them. Insects passed through the light in hundreds, birds chirped all around them and smaller animals hid inside the covert as they passed by.
It didn't take long until they came up on a street. An old-fashioned street made from concrete, once well made, now overgrown. The plants growing out of it and the cracks it had told him it hadn't been used in some time. Independent from that, the street seemed to lead into the common direction they wanted in; they decided to follow it. The street took them along for quite a while, eventually passing other second streets that either crossed or merged together with the street they walked on. Slowly the two of them seemed to come towards the end of the street. At first there were a few smaller huts alongside the street, broken down and already reclaimed by nature.
Then a huge gate blocked their path. It was made from metal, almost three meters tall and at least as wide. It stood in between two towers that reached even further into the sky. They were made from quadratic shape, built from massive grey stone bricks. On their other side the towers were accompanied by a huge wall. It was made from the same bricks, leading probably eight meters into the air, just a little smaller than the towers. The entire construct looked old and still it emitted an unbelievable presence. Intimidating just like the hydro walls that surrounded Iron City." (The hydro walls are a construct of electrified water being pressurized a hundred meters into the air in order to protect Iron City and keep the inhabitants inside.) But other than the hydro walls this one didn't feel like a permanent threat and rather like a shield.

"This wall; could this be the place we are looking for?" He turned towards Alita: "I honestly doubt it. This place seems pretty dead to me." he said: "But we can't be sure until we check it out" he added when he noticed her disappointed glance. "Why don't you knock?" The young girl nodded and he watched her as she walked up to the door and knocked. Actually it was more like a cannon beat every time her hand hit the metal. The dull Klong! Klong! Klong! Even caused some animals to flee as fast as they could. For quite a few minutes they waited. Everything kept silent except for the massive hits the gate had to take from Alita. But the gate stood strong, not giving in by a single inch.
At some point they decided to find another way past the wall. They took a right turn along the wall and indeed, Alita quickly found another way in. She just climbed up the granite like a robotic spider, leaving him down at the ground as she disappeared over the top of it. He was not going to wait, instead he started to climb up himself. The small ledges barely held his weight and a few times he almost slipped off. He cursed every single time but still continued. Once up on the cope he was able to see what the wall was protecting.
Cut off by the ocean on one side there laid a small city in here. The houses were built in a rather old fashioned style, made from a bright, almost white material. Most of the houses were covered with red-ish tiles some just had wooden roofs. And this city, which might have been wonderful once was now a devastated area. Holes had been torn into almost every wall, roof and street. Some streets were completely destroyed while others still had remains of makeshift barricades lying around on them. Even the perfectly looking wall was heavily damaged on this side. Shit! Of course the first real city they found had to be destroyed. At least it seemed to have been some time since anyone came here. He drew one of his pistols, checked the magazine and released the safety catch. He would have to find Alita.
With the weapon in his left he moved along the wall towards the tower. In here everything was covered in a thick layer of dust but he was still able to recognize a small controller unit. Most likely required to open the gate. He tried a few buttons; nothing happened. Quickly he made his way down the staircase on the inside. As he left the tower he realized how bad this city had been hit. Nothing was left in its place, bulletholes were spread all across all surfaces. He spotted multiple places around the tower where bigger weapons must have hit, leaving larger holes from the impact. His trusty gun firmly gripped he moved through the houses. He remembered the town being built around a big square, most likely some kind of marketplace. Getting there was his goal for now. On his right hand side he spotted an open door . He took a second to gather his thoughts then he breached in. Nothing inside moved. Furniture was thrown all across the place, most of it completely dismantled. The silence in this city bothered him. There were not even birds in here. And no trace of the Battle Angel either. He exited through the same door he used to enter and moved further towards the cities center. Another turn around a corner and he stood in front of the open plaza.