Good morning, My readers! I know the update is late, but understand that decided to go bonkers on Monday and I couldn't do anything about it.

Also there's the fact that I had a lot to do, but now it should be fine.

Another thing I wanted to say before starting this chapter was that from the next one I won't promise stable updates anymore. I knew this day would come eventually.

Anyway, without further ado, let's begin this chapter!

As the sky was dark with huge gray clouds, the rain was impervious and unforgiving. Just like the C class heroes who were chasing down two particular monsters.

They were small and, most importantly, they were children. The one running was a boy, barely the height of a ten year old and the other one, cradled in the boy's tight embrace, was a small girl, almost less than half her older brother's height.

These children were Ariol and Gaia, two inseparable siblings who really loved each other.

Today was an exceptionally bad day for them: rain mercilessly beated on them as them run away from their relentless pursuers.

"Don't worry, Gaia. We're going to be safe, i promise you" Ariol whispered to a shivering Gaia (currently shielded from the rain by her brother's hug), but he was trembling as well from the cold and from the fear. 'Come on, Ariol. The wind you create is just as cold' Ariol thought to himself in order to shake off the fear.

But with Gaia's (and his own) distress and the heroes chasing them, how the hell would he calm himself down?

'Wait, we are those heroes anyway?' Ariol thought, since couldn't hear them anymore. So, begrudgingly, he stopped running and looked behind...to find that the heroes were, in fact, gone. 'I guess my speed really has improved' Ariol thought satisfied and shifted his focus on Gaia: the rain turned her in a bundle of fluff, but apart from being soggy, she didn't look sick. If anything, despite how small and -he shuddered- gaunt she was, she never got sick!

'Gaia is far from weak. She always heals me whenever i got injured or sick...' Ariol thought sadly: Gaia was always cheery and helpful no matter the situation, so he should do anything and beyond to take care of her.

After another twenty minutes of running around, all because Ariol forgot where their 'house' was, the two siblings arrived at their destination: it was a carton box the size of a sofa, placed in a secluded point of an alley. Ariol found it in a dumpster and (in his opinion) it was kind of smelly, but they didn't have any better option, so they had to make do.

'Ugh, i feel so tired' Ariol thought as his mind began to get cloudy "I REALLY feel like sleeping for a week now" he muttered as his vision started to fail him too.

But it didn't matter that much now, because Ariol, along with a sleeping Gaia on his chest, was safe in that closed smelly box.

"Good...night...Gaia..." Ariol said to his little sister as sleep and exhaustion took hold of his mind.

X X X

Gaia awoke slowly, trying to push away her big brother to stand up straight.

After what felt like an eternity (5 minutes, really) she could lift her brother's sleeping form.

Gaia got a good look at him and her eyes began to water: his normally smooth fur was all wet and unruly, there were black rings around his eyes and his back showed a purple marking that she swore wasn't there before those bad people attacked them. Big brother was always the one fighting scary foes, bringing her food and looking out for her. While she did nothing for him, unable to fight as she was.

It didn't sit well with her, so she decided to make up for it! She exited their shelter and went to look at the alley's exit.

There she would find food.

So she sprinted (or better yet skidded) out of the alley and began looking for food. After a bit of looking, Gaia found a stand with apples. To her, who had never seen or even knew about apples, those were weird shiny red orbs, but then she took a bite out of one and then felt better, so they must do the same with Ariol as well, right?

Gaia pondered on it for a grand total of ten seconds, then she strode up to the stand and jumped, barely able to grab the wood plank.

After that, she struggled to pull herself up with her tiny arms and, upon finding the right equilibrium, made a few apples fall on the sidewalk.

Then Gaiawent up to the disorganized pile of apples: she was more than twice as big as them, but the fruits were heavy to her nonetheless.

After stumbling sixteen times, softly hitting the road with her face fourteen, making the apples roll away into an opened manhole thrice (it's a wonder that she hasn't fallen down that thing), Gaia could bring the grand total of four apples to Ariol. She also did all of that in under twenty minutes.

Gaia felt tired from that exercise, but her will was the duress of steel now. She would bring her big brother food, no matter what would happen!

X X X

As Gaia proceeded with her honest labour of bringing apples (though there was much room for improvement), young Ariol was having a dream...or, as some would think upon seeing it, a nightmare...but the correct answer was that Ariol was having a mix of both.

Let's look at it, shall we?

Ariol was in fetal position as a sick feeling was festering in his stomach and extending to all of his body. Despite this horrible sensation, he could see that he was suspended in a colorless, see-through bubble.

The last part didn't make things better, since there was darkness all around him. Until something emerged from the omnipresent void.

Three other "bubbles" came and positioned themselves along Ariol's in a straight, horizontal line. Two were at his right and one was at his left.

"Gaia!" Ariol half-screamed (and almost vomited) at the bubble on his left, where his little sister was in fetal position as well. Except that she wasn't moving. Ariol tried to move away from the centre of the bubble in order to better look at her little sister, but even the slight twitch gave the feelings of his brain becoming jelly and his muscles becoming putrid filth. So, after a minute, he gave up and his curiosity brought his head to rear on the other direction.

Ariol saw two other people who looked like him, but appeared to be older: the one nearest to him was a female, older than him by one year (according to their life cycle, anyway) and her body, looking rather physically fit, looked like it was made out of crimson flesh and orange flames. With her soft figure and slightly sharp thin fleshy blades along her limbs, she also looked pretty cute.

"...Phyra..." a voice whispered to Ariol, but he couldn't pinpoint the location from where it came. Not surprising, since Ariol couldn't even tell where was up and where was down.

He looked again at the farther figure, trying to organize what he knew about her. She was older than him and...Phyra...he'd call her Phyra since it sounded so...right...

ANYWAY!

Ariol painfully moved to see the farthest figure, a male. He was taller and older than the both of them, that was sure. Another particular characteristic of this individual was that his body seemed to be made in large portion by what seemed to be semi-solid water and, despite that, he could maintain a shape...which was oddly similar to Ariol, Gaia and Phyra, even if his snout and other features were sharper.

"...Waterloo..." the voice whispered to him again and a question, among the near endless sea of others, wormed his way to Ariol's subconscious...

...Did he meet these two before?

Or, better yet, was he SUPPOSED to know these people?

Any of these questions, however, would not get answered as the sick feeling within Ariol came along with a vengeance. And it seemed that Gaia, Phyra and Waterloo were feeling it as well.

Ariol's heart clenched at seeing Gaia in pain, but he couldn't do anything...

...but pray.

A humanoid shape emerged from the void, casting a white, blinding and sickly light that didn't reveal the any kind of shape the "room" might have.

That...thing...had long arms and legs, with a featureless torax and a faceless head. That thing seemed to be made of...nerves?.. Ariol imagined it disgusting enough, so it seemed just right.

But it didn't end there, oh no, because the thing SPOKE in an ominous and booming (way too booming) voice.

"You...how could He conceive such flawed creations such as you four? Purposeless, aimless things" it said, then continued "And you" it said, motioning to Gaia (and making Ariol interally die with worry) "The so called 'Embodiment of mother Earth'...that title shouldn't have been given to such a merciful being as you...it should have been given to ME...at least I wouldn't treat these feeble humans, who do nothing but pollute and corrupt, with mercy, but with the cold harshness of justice"

With that, Gaia's bubble began to shrink and Ariol screamed "GAIA!" with all his lungs' might, nearly vomiting his internal organs. He couldn't let his little sister die like that, so, with tears cascading out of his eyes, Ariol kept shaking himself to get out of that DAMN bubble and reach hus little bundle of fluff.

But then, with utter horror, he found his own bubble, along with Phyra's and Waterloo's, shrinking as well.

He kept crying and also began shaking with utter fear. But what else could he do? He was but a little boy who only knew how to flee and, occasionally, fight off opponents weaker than him.

The bubbles were now half their sizes and all seemed to end, but then something else happened: the void, before so still, seemed to gain a will if its own as tentacles shot out of the darkness and latched themselves onto the being.

It an eldritch, booming scream of utter surprise and then, as it was pulled into the void, it squeaked in fear.

A primal cry, eons old yet so familiar, tore through the space, making the four elementals shiver. As the being was completely submerged into the...wall?...Into the kind-of-liquid wall, another voice spoke "Y O U W I L L N O T T O Y W I T H M Y C R E A T I O N S A N Y L O N G E R"

'This new voice was even deeper and scarier than that being's, but at least it seemed to be on our side' Ariol thought with relief.

Then his sight blurred and the young elemental woke up, startled by that dream.

He took a deep breath to calm himself, then looked around. There were a few apples, one especially having a few small bites, but there was no Gaia.

Now in total panic, Ariol hurried himself to find where the heck his little sister had gone to.

X X X

In the grim, rainy streets of G City, heroes and monsters were fighting endlessly. And they were at a disadvantage: not only the monsters were far more numerous than the heroes, but on the scene there were just C class heroes. Basically scrubs too weak to fight monsters properly.

And yet, in an ironic twist, some of the strongest heroes were actually in C class. One of these heroes was helping around just because he happened to be in the area. His name...was Superalloy Darkshine.

This man's strength could hardly be called human, unable to be quantified in numbers, as he's able to defeat any opponent in just one punch and not get a single injury at the same time.

His rippling and toned muscles, along with his herculean stature, attested to that.

'Huh, a lot of monsters seem to be here today...i wonder why were they all gathered here' Darkshine thought as he punched three monsters that were going to attack him.

After leaving some bloody pulps on the side of the road, Darkshine continued to walk, searching for other monsters.

Then, after passing a fruit stand (with some missing apples, Darkshine noted with his peripheral vision), he felt something small and fluffy climb his leg. Thinking nothing of it, Darkshine kept walking, but then felt the same sensation on his upper back, slowly moving forward.

Finally, Darkshine decided to give attention to this strange sensation, so he turned to his left...and found a small, fluffy green monster perched on his shoulder.

The monster was also very small, so small that she could fit in the palm of his hand!

Then she turned as well, looked at him with her big eyes, the right one blue in color while the left one red, and said, in a child-like cheerful voice "Hi mister! I'm Gaia!" then got a better look at him and added "You're VERY big".

Darkshine kind of froze there. Until now all monsters were hostile towards him, so her behavior was an oddity. Also, she was a child (or at least appeared as one) while all the monsters he fought were seemingly adults. Then, to finish, she didn't look all that threatening; she seemed to be a threat level inferior to wolf.

So, the decision the hero Darkshine took was...leaving her on his shoulder for the moment.

It made sense because there were much more dangerous monsters around and, by the bloody corpses of heroes littering the streets, way less heroes remaining to deal with them. Now that's what Darkshine told himself, and that was the truth...

...however there was another reason as well: the way she purred and cuddled aganist his shoulder and neck, it meant she was enthralled by his herculean physique! Coupled with her friendly and cheerful attitude, there was no way she could be evil!

After twenty minutes on his shoulder, however, Gaia decided to hop down near an alley.

"It was fun! Bye big guy!" Gaia said as she hobbled inside that dark, damp place.

Darkshine felt a bit worried about her, but then reassured himself 'Well, she's a monster at the end of the day. She'll be fine'.

The muscular hero then calmly resumed his patrol in G City.

X X X

Ariol was having a mental breakdown: his little sister got out in the rain to get apples, but who knows what would happen to her with all the heroes and monsters around!

He had searched the entire city block, but couldn't find Gaia anywhere!

So he returned to his 'home', shaking uncontrollably and with tears flowing out of his eyes. Then Gaia entered the box and hugged him, saying excitedly "Big brother! I brought apples and met a VERY big guy!"

Ariol's stream of tears intensified as he hugged Gaia with all the strength left in him. Then he calmed down (not really) and said "Oh Gaia, i was so worried for you! Just what did you do!?". Gaia, scared that she made her big brother sad, immediately began narrating the events that transpired while he was asleep and Ariol kept listening to her intently, amazed that his sister was able to brave the horrors of the city, but then he forcibly stopped her because as soon as she started to talk about 'this VERY big guy'...

"Did Gaia make big brother worry?" she asked sadly, thinking that her big brother interrupted her because he was upset. Ariol simply hugged her harder and asked her "No, don't worry about that...but who is this 'VERY big guy'?"

Gaia's demeanor changed suddenly at that and she looked at him with an uncharacteristically serious expression, then she said "Big brother...you gotta build more muscle!" she shouted, making Ariol flinch.

He understood what she meant by that, but that didn't answer his question.

'Oh well, at least i know what to do now' Ariol thought, preparing himself for what would be a long training.

And that was the chapter!

In this prequel chapter, we finally got to know about Ariol's and Gaia's backstories, with Darkshine also making an appearance. His relationship with Gaia will be important later on, trust me on this.

Also, about the creepy guy in the void...don't think too much about him, though he will come back later.

Edit: this is my first time using the official app and if you see the end AN appearing out of nowhere...then you got your answer. For now I will be experimenting with it and if you see this, then my little change went well!

Edit from when I am actually able to write lines of coherent storytelling: Jesus Christ how in hell did I think this chapter was fine for publishing? Anyway, I fixed it so there's that.

Anyway, see you next chapter!