An Enigmatic Past (Part 3. Before the Organization: 4 years before current time)
Inside a small village located on the outskirts of the Mystic Ruins jungle, a young Rane is packing away his personal items and preparing to leave at what is now 4 o'clock in the morning. Nobody in the village is awake except for the local watch. In Rane's bag are a laptop, 500 dollars in standard currency, and a couple of sandwiches. Before he leaves, the hedgehog drops a small note on his mother's bed stand.
"Sorry mom, but I have to do this for both our sakes." Rane says to himself as he walks out the front door.
The hedgehog is alerted first to a young guardsman, he is barely older then Rane and also a hedgehog, but he is also smaller and inexperienced at his job. The guard draws his spear and holds it to Rane's face, looking to threaten the young hedgehog.
"Where do you plan on going, you know no one younger than 16 is permitted to be outside after the 10-6 curfew or even leave the village. Do you understand the penalty for being outside right now and attempting to leave?" The guard says as he holds the spear with a tighter grip.
"Yes, I know. I can be thrown in jail for two months for being out beyond curfew and exiled if I leave the village." Rane says with an arrogant tone, "But you know what, I'm going to leave and you aren't going to stop me."
Rane pulls the spear away from his face and throws the guard with his weapon to the ground. He then walks away, not worrying about the consequence for his actions. All he knows is his goal comes first and that's to save his dying mother and his possible future. He continues to walk, listening for the bell to start ringing, but it never comes. The inexperienced guard was too afraid to let the others' in his section know that he had failed at his job.
Only five hours out Rane decided to take a break, knowing that the mine cart that will lead him to the Mystic Ruins' train station isn't far away. As he's taking his break he pulls out a sandwich from his bag and begins eating it while still listening for any possible disturbance. Knowing the guard had probably got up and already told the others after being in shock for so long at what had happened. Knowing that his village had to protect their secrecy, they would send the top of the village soldiers to find Rane. They would definitely send elite soldiers, but not the Hyperior Clan. He knew they would do only what was necessary to take out someone like him. Halfway through his sandwich, a throwing knife whizzed past Rane's ears.
"So I see, you're finally here." Rane said aloud while dropping into his fighting stance while putting his bag inside a hollow log, "Well come on, I don't have all day for you to screw around."
Three hedgehogs come outside from the woods, each forming in a triangle around Rane. All of them are dressed in a black jumpsuit, along with that each carries a short katana and handful of throwing type weapons. The leader stands in front of Rane, a long robe over his jumpsuit. He is a yellow hedgehog with red eyes and is 7 years older than Rane.
"Come back to the village and you'll only serve half of your sentence." The leader says while clutching his katana.
"You speak lies, your only goal is to protect Cidjad." Rane says knowing that the fight he is about to be put in is putting his life in danger. Knowing that he can't win Rane thinks of a way in which he can escape his pursuers. Remembering the cave entrance with the mine cart is up a ladder only 2 miles north, Rane grabs his bag in which he'd put under the log earlier and hurls it over his back and begins making a sprint for the ladder.
One of the Cidjad elite jumps in front of Rane and tries to grapple onto the young hedgehog, but barely misses. Rane throws a punch to this member's face and knocks the hedgehog down giving a bloody nose. Knowing that he can't outrun the their leader, Rane throws himself behind a rock formation that is next to thick foliage. Watching as the other two pass him, Rane takes off northwest and towards his goal. Not wanting to get caught a second time Rane keeps low while moving.
Nearing the ladder Rane jumps into a pile of leaves nearby and waits for the clan members to pass by the way. Lying hidden for almost ten minutes, Rane finds it to be safe enough to get up. Just as he gets up, two balls of bluish purple chaos energy fly over his shoulders.
"This is your last chance, give yourself up or face an early death." Their leader says while powering up another ball of chaos.
"I think I'll take my chances." Rane says as he runs to his left side to avoid a future attack. Unable to fully avoid the blast of the oncoming chaos, Rane is thrown through a small tree and behind a large rock formation along with his belongings falling elsewhere in the jungle. Battered and bruised Rane falls over and passes out. Unable to see where the hedgehog had been thrown, the clan members accepted the fate he'd died and move back to help their fallen comrade.
Only an hour later, the young hedgehog woke up feeling battered and bruised. Though he ached, he got on his feet and began moving in the opposite direction he'd been thrown and back to the ladder. Finding his bag only ten feet away, Rane picked it up. It was torn up a little and the laptop appeared slightly damage, but the important thing was the money, which was virtually unaffected from the blast. He picked up the bag and slung it over his shoulder and continued to the ladder.
It only took him twenty minutes to get to where he'd thrown from and he was back at the ladder. It was a tall ladder that scaled a 75-foot cliff. Rane quickly clutched onto a bar on the ladder and began climbing. Half way up, Rane decided to take a look. He could see the treetops, but couldn't find Cidjad and that was because Cidjad had been strategically built on the outskirts and right on the edge of the tree line on the eastern side of the jungle. The only way to find the small village of only a 1,000 would be to roam the intense jungle of the Mystic Ruins until finding it by luck. Only those who'd lived there knew of it's existence could find it so easily. After seeing the sights for a few minutes, Rane continued his climb.
Making the final the step Rane was finally on top of the cliff. It was now noon and much time had been wasted fighting the elite soldiers. Rane saw the tunnel; it was large and on the edge stood a mine cart on a one-way track. Quickly Rane walked over to the cart and jumped in and hit a lever.
Soon he was carried through a series of twisting turns and taken through the dark tunnels at a speed of only twenty miles per hour. There was a quick dip in the ground as the cart went down a hill and rose back up. Only twenty minutes later Rane was brought to light and could see lake and towering cliffs on his left, but on his right he could groups of people standing outside a station. It was the Mystic Ruins train station; it was set on a wooden platform along with a brick support for the railroad tracks.
Rane climbed out of the cart and walked slowly to the station, it was only 500 yards out from his location. As he walked, a person stopped him by grabbing him on the shoulder.
"Hey you're a hedgehog too." The unknown figure said to him.
Rane turned around to see a blue hedgehog in red sneakers with green eyes. He was only an inch taller than Rane and look to be about his age, maybe a year younger.
"Yeah, so?" Rane said wanting to get over this conversation and head to his city of goal, Westopolis.
"Nothing, just that I've never seen another hedgehog before. Well nice meeting you and hope to see you again." He said taking off.
Rane kept moving onto the train station, it was weird though. Running into another hedgehog about his age, but he decided to ignore it and continue on with his mission. He was nearing the station and could see a vending machine. Reaching into his bag Rane grabbed a dollar put it into the machine and selected water. Out came a bottle of pure water. Twisting the cap off Rane took a drink and put the cap on and put the bottle in his bag. Next Rane climbed the stairs to the train station. He then went over to the booth and bought a ticket for 20 dollars to Westopolis and waited for the train to arrive.