The streets of Rages were crowded at least today and the azure rays of the foreign sun beat down on me. I ran through the sandy cobble-stone streets, jumping over vendors, pushing people out of the way. This was nothing less than a high-speed chase. I was in flaming pursuit of a woman with green skin and dark brownish-green hair. Her dress was white and she seemed to know where she was going.

The girl (who looked not much older than me from here.) had ran as soon as she had seen something . . . I wasn't quite sure what made her run. I lost sight of her for a moment than I saw her. She wasn't running from me. She was running from someone else. Someone I would probably find myself running from if I got involved . . . well I couldn't resist the prospect of danger.

I sped up, red dust flying filling the streets and making the natives choke. My mission still in the back of my mind (completing that would be ultimately essential seeing as how that ITG would be my saving grace. Otherwise I'm stuck on this garbage pit of a planet for Thanos-knows-how-long) I tripped onto the stone. Cursing under my breath and ignoring the blood that I knew was leaking from my knees, I scrambled up, but before I could resume my pursuance I was lifted off the ground by someone and thrown into one of the vendors. Ragese fruit was crushed under my weight. "Sorry." I muttered to the merchant who owned the structure.

Five people dressed in black with gray masks and armed to the teeth were chasing down the young girl. So that's who she was running from. I continued the chase and climbed up the wall and started using the roofs. Once I had passed the men wearing black I leaped down, grabbed the girl by the waist, (covering her mouth muffling her surprised shriek) and pulled her into an abandoned alleyway. It's purple stone walls were plastered in graffiti.

I looked into her light green eyes as she panicked struggling to escape my grip. "hey, hey, hey it's okay. We lost them, you're safe now."

"wh-who are you?" she stammered.

"My name's Peter."

"I'm Mantis."

'Who were those guys?"

"They're enemy soldiers. I come from a really complicated history."

"Are you okay?"

She nodded, still badly shaken. Mantis was beautiful and slender. This was no place for a belle like her. This was a place for criminals and trash. Not scared little girls who are being chased down by evil beings.

"I think you've just saved my life."

"They were going to kill you?!" I exclaimed.

"No. Something worse."

"You can tell me I know how to keep a secret I'm a freakin ravage-" I stopped myself right there.

"Ravager?"

"Yeah that. You weren't supposed to know that but hey whatever. You look like I could trust you."

"Oh don't worry I knew you were one before you gave it away."

"The clothes?"

"Something like that." she replied uncertainly.

"Okay. Since you saved me you deserve to know the truth. I'm a psychic. Those people work for a galactic corporation which want to use my abilities for evil."

"Holy ssshhhhhhheep! I'm in real deep aren't I?" I stopped myself from cursing in front of a pretty girl. (just some old Texas standards.)

I reminded myself that I already had a girlfriend, even though she currently hated me. It was hard to remember with Mantis' gorgeous face staring back at me. I stared around at the marketplace in the city of Shale. Anyone who had seen Rages knew the planet was going down. It was one rampage away from burning into oblivion. Becoming a barren, blackened moon. For a loser like me? It was perfect. I shouldn't have dragged Karlee into it. A juvenile bachelor and junker was all I was supposed to be. Getting actually attached to the girls has never been in the description. In fact the whole thing about it was to make sure they got attached to me without getting attached to them.

I kept having to remind myself that the Felye princess was still my ultimate goal.

"I'm not gonna let them hurt you." she embraced me and cried into my shoulder as I said these words.