A/N: So, as I said, I believe the rest of the story should go smoother than the last chapter, so please bear with me. A lot of things sprang up after the completion of the first chapter, so I'm a little more stressed than usual at the moment. I'm attempting to find the time and peace of mind to make this story a good one, and an easy one to read, but it is, much like myself, a work in progress, so again, any advice anybody can give would be great. So, here we go. So everyone knows, I'm suffering from a bit of a lack of muse at the moment, so I'm subjecting myself to lots of music in an attempt to revive it. Hopefully, my muse will return stronger than ever. But I plan to finish this story, muse or not.
The song for this chapter is "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen.
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My heart is broken into two. The catalyst for this split was none other than the woman I loved. Serena lay before me. But her beauty was invisible now. Now I only saw a shattered spirit, racked with grief, sprawled like a stricken child on the bed in front of me, granted a few hours of sleep only by the tears that had no doubt poured from her. Her mother had died just a few days ago, after all. Serena's mom was one of the unlucky ones who did not escape the ill-fated building prior to the climax of Caleb and I's battle with the enigmatic man. He had overpowered us, there was no way around it, but returning to the matter at hand, Serena looked worse than I'd ever seen her. I had awoken around an hour ago after being in a coma for a few days. In that time, I had spied several of the townspeople in their homes. They all looked like ghosts. But nothing broke me more than her.
The two halves into which my heart was broken were quite distinctive of each other. One half urged me to stay, to comfort Serena and the others who had lost loved ones a few days prior, and be a solace in their time of grief. But the other half said to me that this was futile, that I was the one who would be blamed for those deaths, along with Caleb. I could never be accepted here again, that was what the other half attempted to convince me of. But why, I wondered? Why should I have to choose? This was my home. I had lived here my whole life.
I held the delicate piece of paper in my hand. It told me what I needed to do. I had written it as soon as I woke up. My intent was clear. This was not like many years ago, when my grandparents died. It was different. Those victims did not leave the people of the town, they were taken, taken by him. And as long as he roamed, more would become scarred like Serena and the other townspeople. I would not accept that. I knew what I was going to do.
I would become strong, and when I did, I would confront that man. When that time came, he would see me and remember all that he had done, and in those moments, he would know justice. Whether I was ready to kill a man in cold blood, I didn't know. But one way or the other, I would make him regret it.
So until I was ready, I would leave them. They may hurt at first, but in time, they would grow stronger again, as they always did. I was going to miss them. All of them, most of all Serena.
So, with time, I must recover as well.
--
Serena awoke the next morning from yet another dreamless sleep. The feeling of residual shock from the disaster still took it's toll on her, and would most likely haunt her for the rest of her life. She got up and wiped the tears from her face again, but as she rose, she became aware of something at the foot of her bed. Walking to it, she took the old-looking piece of paper in her hands and read it to herself.
"Dear Serena,
By the time you read this, I will be gone. I will have fled to find a path leading to the one who did this. You should know that I've always felt strongly about you, and that I will continue to choose this path until it has been seen through. He devastated our lives, and I will get back at him. I don't know if I will kill him or not, but what I do know is that when all is said and done, justice will be had, or I will be dead, in either case, know that I've loved you for as long as I can remember. Tell my mom I tried, and tell dad that I'm sorry, as well as the other members of the town. Maybe one day, I'll be back. Until then, I'll see you around.
-Signed, Louie"
Mama ooo,
Didnt mean to make you cry-
If Im not back again this time tomorrow-
Carry on,carry on,as if nothing really matters-
--
I awoke to the rude jabbing and jeering of the truck driver as he shooed me from the back of his truck. I didn't catch much of what he said, but apparently, we had arrived in my destination, Hartman City, and it was time for us to part ways. After leaping over the side, I shook the hand of the hefty bull and thanked him for his service to me and promptly set off toward the city, the beginning of my great pilgrimage.
The city seemed bigger than I remembered from a few days prior, but perhaps that was more because of the darker nature of my visit this time. I walked until I found what seemed like a suitable place to take a break. That place happened to be a sports bar, but it was a restaurant as well, so I found it a suitable place anyway. Looking at my watch, I found it was around 2:00, a good time to stop for lunch in any case. Stepping away from the busy crowd of people coating the sidewalks, I found myself inside the place. It seemed good enough, not too classy nor too seedy. A number of male middle-class patrons crowded most of the tables, chattering about this and that as they booed, jeered, laughed, and cheered at the multitude of holo-vid screens adorning the room, which depicted various sports events.
One in particular caught my eye. It was, of course, a baseball game occurring in a distant place. The IPBL, or Interplanetary Baseball League, had become one of my most closely followed sports in recent years. I usually didn't care for sports, but I found something about the sport charming, as I always had. The screen in question right now portrayed a game between Zoness and Aquas, my favorite team. Katina had a team, but their baseball team, the Katina Hounddogs, were less than stellar.
Im just a poor boy,i need no sympathy-
Because Im easy come,easy go,
A little high,little low,
Anyway the wind blows,doesnt really matter to me,
To me
As I took a seat, I soon found myself jeering at the screen with the others. My cheers fell into a boo as the Zoness Thunderbirds scored a home run, putting them two points ahead of Aquas. But just as my voice fell, a loud and raucous cheer came from a patron sitting next to me. I looked curiously at the man. I had to lean forward to see past the concubines on either side of the guy, but when he came into sight, it became clearer why he was cheering.
He was a falcon, probably from Zoness judging by his accent. He looked to be in his early twenties or so, same age as me, clearly confirmed by the brilliant, youthful blue shine his feathers gave off in the dim lighting. His beak was narrow, sharp, and lethal-looking, with red feathers adorning the areas around his eyes. The black leather jacket, fingerless gloves, and sunglasses he was wearing made it difficult not to see that he probably knew how to handle himself in a fight, too. Unfortunately, he noticed my curiosity and cast a careless glance in my direction.
"Hey, buddy, your froggy-boy pals from Aquas are gettin' pounded." He said. I blinked. Was he taunting me?
"You've got room to talk. Your bird-brain team didn't even qualify for finals last year."
"Bird brain? Where you from, swanny-boy? 'Cause last time I checked, you was a bird too."
"Glad to see you figured out your animals."
The immature exchange went on for a while more, before the bird of prey, now looking rather irked, received a message on his phone. He pulled it out and took a glance at it, being careful for no-one to see it, and as he did, the arrogant smirk that had constantly been on his face vanished, replaced with a look of concern. He quickly dismissed his two disappointed-looking 'companions' and urgently made his way to the entrance. Before leaving in his hurry, he said something inaudible to the bartender, who, with a curious expression, took up the remote to the vid-screens and switched to the news, much to the chagrin of many of the bar patrons.
I should have expected it, but there it was. I watched closely as images and videos of my hometown flooded the screen, with commentary from several news reporters. Adorning the bottom part of the screen to boot were the words "Venomian Agent Attacks Small Town". That guy was a Venomian? Thoughts and suspicions flooded my brain as I tried to listen to what they were saying. After they reviewed some of the stuff I already knew, including but not limited to me screwing up the whole situation, they showed a photograph of the guy. It was him, without a doubt. I listened intently to what they were saying.
"The perpetrator appears to be 42-year-old Johnathan Phillips, a high-ranking officer in the Venomian military. Unity officials are still debating whether or not this was an act of war by Venom, but it is almost certain that open war will be declared by the end of next month."
So this guy Phillips was the one responsible for everything. He was the one I'd be on the lookout for, in case I got a chance at him. But who was that falcon guy? He sure seemed to get quick word of the news broadcast. I'd have to think about it later, because for now, I was on my way to pay a visit to the local military base. After all, what better way to get at a military officer than joining the opposing army? I would pay back those Venomians, and then some.
Mama ooo- (any way the wind blows)
I dont want to die,
I sometimes wish Id never been born at all-
--
A swan in a military base wasn't very common. Mostly because of our media image as being feminine creatures. This, of course, wasn't true. A lot of the people I knew back home were some of the most masculine people I knew. Yeah, but we were kind of a rare breed, so most people had never seen a real swan. Most had died out some time ago. Now the only ones lived on Katina and sometimes Corneria. There were also said to be some who lived on the ice world of Fichina, constantly keeping tabs on any activity there like white ghosts. They called themselves "Cygnii Phasmatii", literally "ghost swans" in one of the old languages.
But, in any case, I was at that point invariably a swan in a military base. The Hartman City Unity Army Recruiting Station, but that being the mouthful it was, it tended by the locals to just be called the Recruiting Station. The inside of the lobby was pretty generic for something with such a long title. Silver walls and floors gave it a neo-futuristic look. A few potted plants and some couches adorned the sides of the room, but other than that, the room's only defining feature was the reception desk sitting opposite the entrance to the long hall. A massive number of people waited in the line extending from the desk to the door. And guess where I was in the line.
Sitting in a line like that for so long gives you some serious time to think about stuff. I sat pondering why all these people were showing up to enlist for service in the armed forces. In the times I had been here in the past, it had seemed like a pretty peaceful place. The fact that troops were this in demand was most likely due to Venom's increasingly invasive maneuvers over the past few months and, in a broader scope, years. They had already pounced on several planets on the outer rim of the system, including Macbeth, Titania, and Zoness. Most theorized that it would only be a matter of time before Andross Oikonny, Venom's unscrupulous totalitarian dictator, laid his evil hands on the Lylatian Unity: Corneria, Katina, Aquas, and Fichina. That in conjunction with the Venomian involvement in the attack on Redrock must have meant the Unity needed soldiers now more than ever.
The current occupant of the reception desk, an old, very irritated-looking hound dog, looked at me with a startling lack of interest when after several hours I finally reached the front of the line.
"Name?" Came the simple request. I promptly told him "Louie Swan" which caused what I could have sworn was a wry smile to pass his lips.
"Nice name." He commented sarcastically. I rolled my eyes. Ever since one famous Cornerian pilot had named his son "Fox", it had become a popular trend. What most people didn't realize was that "Swan" was a surname passed down in my family for generations. After that, he asked me my age, height, and prior education. After he entered all my information into the computer at his left, he pointed a thumb toward a door on his right.
"Everything else is through that door." He said. I looked at it. Cold, unfeeling, unwelcoming. But everything else lay beyond it. I had to go through it. I nodded nonchalantly and walked toward the door. As I reached toward the knob, I realized there was no turning back after I passed through here. I pondered it and made my choice. I took the knob and turned it. This was my place in the world.
This was my future.
Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me,for me,for me-
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And another chapter is down. My muse seemed to come back after I finished the first version of the sports bar scene, so this should be getting a little bit better soon. Plus we're getting into the action now, so things should be looking up from here. Come on, I need some reviews, people! Help me out here! I might have to be doing away with the songs for some chapters ahead, as I simply don't have enough songs that fit each situation. I'll keep working on it, though. Thanks to everyone who's read, and to Snake Of The Rose for reviewing! Keep it all coming, or I'll never get better!