Malak darted through the air, easily avoiding the birds and drones around him. Beneath him the city just seemed to disappear in a blur of colors, with the giant vehicles on the roads looking like tiny bugs scuttling for shelter. The scene was so familiar for the young Mar'kel, yet so different that it was still a new sensation.

Eons ago, on his home planet of Infinity, the heads of civilization had long realized that they would eventually run out o space to expand their cities, and would eventually have to look vertically to ensure the survival of their people. Unlike many civilizations, both on Earth and across the cosmos, they had gone both ways in designing vertical cities: while old buildings were torn down or reinforced so that new growth could be built on top of them, tunnels were excavated to allow underground settlements to be erected. Eventually, the result was best described as a vertical urban jungle, with the tallest building towering hundreds of meters into the air, often above pits that could go a equal length into the ground.

Those who had adapted best to the vertical cities were the ones who had learned to navigate these cities the swiftest - those who could navigate the rooftops and the walls of these mountains of metal.

These people would hop from roof to roof, or from roof to street, often living in homes that provided easy access to the open rooftops. Though dangers were ever-present, by and large these people did very well on Infinity, and were among the last of the surface dwellers on the planet, as most of the inhabitants chosen to live inside the cities completely, which were self-sufficient to the point of being arcologies. Though the two different types of inhabitants did not always see eye to eye, they still respected one another and would help each other out in times of need.

Among these times were when the Darkspore had invaded. The sudden attack had decimated the roof-dwellers, and had forced the remainder to move back into the arcologies. Malak and his family were among these: his mother, father, their parents, his aunt, two of his uncles, their families, and his sister were all able to seek shelter, something many others could not say the same about. It had been a tight fit in the home they had been assigned, but otherwise, it had been manageable. To his surprise, food and water had been much easier to obtain than expected, with the rations paradoxically strict and generous at the same time. Malak didn't exactly feel happy about it, though, for he knew the only reason that was true was that the Darkspore had racked up quite a body count during the invasion.

Eventually, Malak had decided to help the resistance. A skilled engineer, like many on Infinity, he had initially helped the arcology he had dwelt within by repairing the perimeter sensors hooked up around the edge of the city, which helped determine when the Darkspore would launch attacks. Eventually, he'd applied his skill in engineering towards demolition, sabotaging key factories the Darkspore needed to maintain their mechanical armies. He had been preparing to attack one of the many assembly plants when they had launched an attack on his home arcology, forcing him to take part in its defense. After ensuring that his family and several others were safe, he had taken the fight to the Darkspore, setting up mines and other defenses in the inner-most hallways that they needed to take before the city would fall. Yet their unstoppable onslaught had managed to breakthrough the defenses, but not without casualties. Still, it appeared the city was about to fall.

It was around this time that the strange machine had arrived and launched its assault on the Darkspore, ultimately breaking their might and slaying the Destructor presiding over Infinity. After this victory, the machine had moved on to Scaldron, where it had destroyed the Corruptor, which left the Darkspore only one step away from being vanquished forever: without their leader, the Darkspore descended into chaos, making it a simple task of sending armies to hunt them down and wipe them out. Soon, the greatest menace the galaxy had ever known would be gone.

Malak, however, did not desire to see his savior leave without saying goodbye, so he had joined up with the fleets sent by his fellow citizens of Infinity to greet their liberator. When they had located the machine, they were surprised to learn that it was merely a war-mech controlled by a creature only slightly taller than he was.

More surprising, though, was that the creature had revealed what its plans were: it wished to travel to the edges of creation and uplift beings of all walks of life to grander levels than they had thought imaginable. It had also offered those who wished to join it the chance to follow it across the cosmos aboard its ship and live on its home planet, if that was what they desired.

Malak was one of the first to volunteer, and was able to secure passage for his whole family. Among the first to arrive at the new world, they were surprised to see so many other species already inhabiting it; they claimed that the being piloting the war-mech was a god and that they (the 'native' creatures) were created to be its servants. Malak doubted this, but seeing how high a standard of living they had made him wonder if what they said was true.

But that was behind him now. At the moment, he was free to do as he wanted, so he was back to running across roof-tops, enjoying life as best he could. Occasionally, he would pass by hanging laundry, or people watching a television. Though Malak himself would not know it, the scene would resemble urban life in Brazil.

Still, though, Malak wondered about his savior. He wondered why he chose to name this city Genesis; perhaps it was meant to be the beginning of his crusade of advancement, or the start of a stellar empire. He had been surprised when he had met his savior's son, who had barely been able to avoid hiding behind his father's legs during the ceremony to celebrate his arrival. Why would such a powerful being choose to be so caring toward such a fragile creature?

But one question continued to repeat itself within Malak's mind, in regards to his savior.

What would he do next?

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AN: This interlude was mostly just to show off what's been happening back on Flame's homeworld, as well as to show how Malak is doing. He won't appear again for a while, so I just wanted to give him a good send off.

The roof-top running scenes and culture of the roof-top runners was something I thought up when I looked both at sci-fi cities and Brazilian favelas and thought, hey, why not put them together. Plus I am addicted to games with free-running, such as Warframe and a lot of Ubisoft products.

So, Read and Review. This is Flamwal15k, signing off.