Melody and Harmony: Page 8

Foster didn't go home. His older brother was most likely already drunk but not passed out yet and Foster had no desire to be the dumping ground for the last twenty four hours of disappointment that was his brothers life.

Not far from his family's apartment there was an all night diner. Foster has seem many dusty sun rises from behind the diner's dirty shielded windows. It was the closest thing to home he could think of.

With time to kill he took the booth furthest back in the corner of the diner. He ordered a soda and a slice of artificial cherry pie, set his pack on the table, pulled the main compartment zipper open and grabbed the med kit. He shoved his bag under the table. "Hey Pops!" The line cook and owner of the diner stuck his head out of the kitchen. "lock the door would'ya? I'm leaving my stuff out here while I get cleaned up." Pop nodded and pressed his hand into a command console on the wall, locking the doors.

Foster ducked into the bathroom tenderly. The adrenaline from his daring escape was wearing off and he was starting to feel the effects of the cuts and bruises the guards had gifted him. He carefully took his jacket and shirt off, and tried not to look at himself in the mirror. He thin in a generally unhealthy way, which didn't really bother him because everyone in the fringes was. he took a quick assessment of his wounds and opened up the med kit. First things first he sprayed each wound with bath'n'a'can. Antiseptic spray that burned more than any bath that he could ever remember taking.

Once the burning faded, he sealed each wound with skin tape. He rolled the applicator back and forth like a tiny vacuum cleaner. He'd done this more times than he could count and watching the artificial skin cover up the bloody mess of his actual body fascinated him every time. In less than a month it would flake off like real skin and in the case of minor wound he likely wouldn't even have a scar, Some of the large slashes would be nothing more than permanent brush strokes of forgotten pain. Lastly he dry swallowed his last two pain pills and then closed up his kit. he dropped his shirt back onto his body and slid into his jacket carefully so as not to aggravate the wounds underneath their bandages. Once he was dressed he exited the bathroom and went back to his table. Not long after Pops brought out the soda and pie, and unlocked the door on his way back into the kitchen.

By the time Daniel arrived the pie was a distant memory. He sat across from Foster and waved pop off as he came out of the kitchen. He looked Foster over in silence. "You look tired." He finally offered.

Foster nodded. "Better to be tired and alive, than dead and well rested." He replied.

Daniel nodded. "Where's the package." he asked. Foster wiggled his left leg which had both straps of his backpack wrapped around it. Daniel nodded again. "All right then, hand it over and you can go get some sleep." He held out his hand.

Foster shook his head slightly. "Did you know the building was the Shadow Church?" He asked. Daniel looked at the decor on the walls of the cafe, avoiding Foster's gaze. Foster felt the pain meds dulling his rage. "Daniel! The ONLY reason I made it out of there alive was because of lucky door timing!" He snapped.

Spoonerville: page 6

They had added Vivian to Mario Kart once the pizza was done cooking and she turned out to be way better than either of them, she also enjoyed pointing it out. By the time they reached Rainbow Road she was far and away ahead of both of them combined.

Rodney got knocked off the course by a chomp chomp for the third time “So, how do you know my grandmother?” He asked while he waited for the cloud turtle to fish him back onto the track.

Vivan finished the race and dropped her controller onto the table In front of the TV. “We work at the library together.” She answered while standing up to stretch.

An alarm sounded on Derek’s phone. He stood up as well and shut the alarm off. “Whelp, another successful day.” He said without even a hint of sarcasm as he went back out into the restaurant.

Rodney scoffed. “You had two customers.” He said grabbing his jacket and following Derek back into the main building.

Derek nodded and locked the front door. “In this town you can’t measure success by the amount of money that you make.” He clarified, shut off the pizza sign and flipped the open/closed sign over.

Rodney nodded with a dopey smile. “Is it me? Was friendship the secret to success all along?” he faked a bashful shrug.

Dereck laughed. “Yup, you never needed the balet slippers at all! The magic was in you the whole time!” He carried the joke.

Rodney’s phone pinged a few times. He checked it. “While I appreciate the boost to my self-confidence, I gotta jet.” He said.

Vivan came out of the back room. “Awe, don’t like us anymore?” She asked.

Rodney shook his head. “Not even close, my grandmother bought a cell phone, and learned not only to text but to use Facebook for the express purpose of making sure I come home by nine o’clock every night.” He explained as he dropped his phone back in his pocket. “So unless you plan on murdering me and using me for pizza toppings, I gotta go make sure she doesn’t have a heart attack.” He looked at the front door. “That statement was genuinely less scary before I realized you just locked the front door.” He said flatly.

Vivan stepped up behind Rodney. “Derek, how many times have I told you to stop telling your victims about your plans in advance?” She asked.

Derek shrugged. “So I’ll order more sausage, sue me!” He playfully snapped. He held up his keys. “Come on employee entrance is in the back of the kitchen.” He smiled putting Rodney at ease. Derek and Vivian led him through the kitchen. Her big black knee high boots echoed off the walls. “So obviously you’re welcome by any time. We’re open 9am to 9pm.” Derek explained.

Rodney nodded. “Considering the fact that you two are the first normal people I’ve met in this town I’ll prolly be around a lot.” He said with a smile as they exited out the back of the shop.

Vivian shook her head. “We’re less normal than you think.” She said as Derek locked the door behind him.

Rodney nodded. “Almost everyone is, but your store isn’t covered in Blood Night posters and you play a mean game of Mario Kart so I’ll take my chances.” He replied specifically to her.

They shared and awkward moment of silence before Derek playfully punched Vivian. “ No! Bad sister! My friend! Shoo! Shoo! Get your own!” He grabbed her and turned her away from Rodney and then turned to look over his shoulder. “Have a good night man, see you tomorrow.” He said with a smile.

Rodney nodded, turned and waved without looking back. 

Shades of Justic: Page 38

They finished cutting themselves a door and Gordon summoned his suit, activated his boots and kicked the section of wall in, letting light flood into the pitch black of the storage area.

They each turned the spot lights in their glasses on to see what they were looking at. Warren came to a large wall and put his hand on it. ‘Great another wall.” He grumbled.

Mark shook his head. “Not a wall.” They looked at him as he pointed up. The group followed his finger and realized there were standing at the feet of a mecha that wasn’t Blinding Light.

Warren took a step back. “How many of them are there?” He asked in surprise.

Mark shrugged. “Don’t know, never asked.” He admitted.

Kelly squinted at the head of the mecha in front of them. “Any idea what this one is called?” She asked.

Dante stepped away from the feet of the unknown mecha. “Look as cool as this is, we’ve got one friend in critical condition and one in total shutdown, let’s take care of them and take the underground tour later.” He commanded.

The others followed his lead. When they were passing the fourth mecha Gordon finally spoke up. “How are we supposed to find Technarious’ spare parts?” He asked.

Mark put his glasses on. “Quicksilver search and display the location of any Fabristeel. He commanded. “Woah.” He said in surprise.

The others looked at him. “Woah, what?” Gordon asked.

Mark pointed the lights on his glasses toward a far wall in the distance. “There is  a LOT of fabristeel about a hundred yards in that direction.

They carefully moved as a group with Mark in the lead. He led them to another wall they had to cut through. Once Kelly and Warren had cut through the wall, Gordon kicked it down to reveal a room filled with easily a dozen different bodies for Technarious. From bodies with jet packs, heavily armored bodies, bodies that had propeller feet for transport under water there were back up bodies for every situation.

They spread out to find the most basic one. Kelly found one that was nearly identical. “Guy’s” She called out. “Let’s take this one.” She said.

The others joined her and inspected the clasps holding the body to the wall. 

Bood and Profit: Page 61

Kepi spent four days learning how to and helping to make books for the Starseeds. Within that four day period the seriousness of the situation became clear when the inky blackness of the collective unconsciousness had begun to grow closer to the tree ship. There was no way of knowing what they would lose when they started to push back the darkness so if a Starseed wasn’t helping grow the tree ship they were working obsessively building or filling books.

The darkness entered the grove of the tree ship. It wasn’t hard to destroy it, all a Starseed needed to do was touch it. And the inky blackness just, faded away along with whatever knowledge that part of the cloud contained.

Once the first part of the cloud had to be dissolved the Starseeds were instantly aware that something had been lost, but none of them could tell what it was. After that they became practically obsessed with the books.

Her phone buzzed on the fourth day. She was being summoned back to the capitol. The message didn’t say for what, it was a basic text that had gone out to each representative. She finished sealing the covers of the six books she had been working on and stood up to stretch. A Starseed took her place almost instantly.

She had expected a summons but not this soon. She expected it to be some time wasting check in and considering the fact that she had not seen any updates from her staff concerning the ship count from her district she expected it to be bureaucratic nonsense.

She updated Eamon and took her cruiser back to the capital.

On the outskirts of the city she received a call from skyline command. She opened the channel and was greeted by a young air traffic controller that looked very tired. “Good afternoon representative.”

Kepi nodded. “Is there something wrong?” She asked.

The air traffic controller shook his head. “Wrong isn’t the correct word. We’ve got about twenty four thousand zone 2 contacts coming into the city over the next three days and that’s on top of the ten thousand that we’ve have arrive in the last two. So I apologize but I have to ask you to maintain the course and speed I just sent your computer until your spot in the landing pattern comes up.” He explained.

She looked at the computer and realized there were going to have her basically fly in a circle. “Any idea of an estimated time table for landing?” She asked.

The air traffic controller shrugged. “When I know, you’ll know.” He offered.

The channel went blank and kepi encoded the course and speed into the navigation system.

Lidarion: Page 33

The first and most important thing to understand is that even for Gods, creating a world is no easy task. Existence is an internetworked set of complex systems that must constantly be checked and balanced. Creation is not just an act of will, it is a mental and emotional endurance trial.

The second most important thing is that to create something like life on a planet is not a short term act. The process undertaken by the beings that reached out and touched this planet did not do so under the impression that they would set into motion a series of events that would outlast them.

It is not known if the guiding hands that shaped life on this planet fully understood the complexity of the undertaking, or if the creation of conscious life was part of their plan from the very beginning. What is known is what the Titans recorded of their one and only meeting with their creators.

The titans were designed to be the stewards and overseers of the planet. They were to live on and take care of their home all the ages that it would exist. Time was not something the titans had any interest in quantifying but their creators bred into them an understanding of its passage. It was not until the creators disappeared that the Titans felt they had anything worthy of recording or remembering. The first record created by the Titans is a simple rudimentary comment.

Today, for the first time, we are truly alone.

Once this observation had been made. The titans saw a need to protect and oversee history in the same way they had safeguarded the planet. Even still, it is not known exactly how much time passed between the disappearance of the creators and the evolution of the elven race.

What is known down to the minute is the date the elves killed the first titan.

The Elven record of the titan war is a never ending nightmare of blood and fire. The titan record is nothing more than a list of names and their date of death. There are several recordings that detail how the war ended. The elder elves claim that the death of the king’s son turned his stomach and heart away from the desire for war. The wild elves records claim that their exodus from their ancient homeland reduced the elven numbers so low that they could not sustain the fight against the titans.

What is known is that ultimately the war caused the Titans to lose the desire to pursue the very purpose they were created to fulfill. Even the titans records post war were fewer and farer between.

As the Titans recorded less, the Elves recorded more, and one of the things they took note of was the constantly decreasing numbers of titans wandering the planet.

It was in these final years of the titans that the paragons were created. So like their creators before them, they created life.

It was in the pursuit of this final goal that the world entered its second age.

Melody and Harmony: Page 7

Aaron saw his best friend in the world, Vince sit down next to his girlfriend.  And turn the filter on his headphones so they could talk. “And where have you been?” He asked Vince.

Vince pointed at his girlfriend. “Calliope had to finish out your transition set.” He said.

Calliope blew Aaron an exaggerated kiss. “You’re an artist!” She complimented. “Unlike the guy who took over.” She glared at the DJ currently working as the dance floor continued to lose people.

Aaron turned his headphones for a second to hear what the DJ was playing, grimaced and turned his music filter back on. Vince pulled a folded up paper out of his pocket and tossed it over to Aaron. “Thought you’d want to see that.” he said.

Aaron picked up the flyer and unfolded it. It was a flier for a music festival headlined by DJ Sorcha. There were a ton of other names on the flier but the biggest shock was that it wasn’t just a Goth festival, it was a pirate metal, industrial goth, and new wave retro festival. DJ Sorcha, Setting Sail, and Neon Halo. He looked up from the flier. “What are these numbers?” He asked Vince.

Vince smiled. “Co-ordinates. That’s where the party is.” Vince explained.

Aaron glanced back at the flier. “Why not just tell people which club this is happening at?” He asked.

Vince laughed. “Because it’s not happening in a club, hell, it’s not happening in the city.” He said with a smile.

Aaron looked up from the flier in surprise. “You’re kidding.” He said.

Calliope nodded. “I looked them up myself. It’s a patch of desert about twenty five miles outside the city.” She said clapping her hands. “You know what that means.” She was bouncing. “Road Trip!” she practically squealed.

Aaron looked back down at the flier. “I can’t go.” He said handing the flier back to Vince.

Vince was shocked. “We have to go!” He said.

Aaron nodded. “I’d love to go but I just got a job here at the club. I don’t want to lose my spot.” He admitted.

Vince’s face lit up. ‘They picked you up!” He almost shouted. Aaron nodded. Vince waved a waitress over. “Drinks on me! My buddy just became a paid DJ. We’re getting screwed up tonight!” The waitress nodded and wandered back to the bar.

The rest of the evening was a blur of music, light, and the fuzzy company of his closest friends.

Spoonerville: Page 5

By the time the Pizza was ready Derek and Rodney were deep into a Grand Prix on Mario Kart. They paused long enough to get the pizza out of the oven and refill sodas but then it was back to the intense rivalry that had become very important in the last twenty minutes.

Well into their eleventh race the counter bell rang. “Derek quit playing your stupid games! I’m hungry!” A woman’s voice forced its way into the back room.

Derek paused the game and got out of his ancient bean bag chair. Rodney got up as well and followed him out. “About time lazy. How do you afford this place? I never see anyone in here other than me.” She asked as Derek made his way into the back. “Is this a mob front?” She asked.

Derek laughed as he worked the dough for her pizza. Rodney looked up from the soda he had just finished. He and the girl noticed each other for the first time. She pointed at him. “I’m your only friend and amazon doesn’t sell people so who the hell is this?” She asked Derek.

Normally Rodney wouldn’t have been able to utter a word, girls were not his strong suit. The counselor he had been seeing at his previous school said he was painfully shy. Rodney felt more like he was painfully a dumbass. So he was as surprised as anyone when he stuck his hand out and introduced himself. “Rodney, actual human resident of Spoonerville.” He said with a dopey smile.

She took his hand and tried not to laugh. “Vivian Brooks.” She said with a smile. “And just because you live here doesn’t mean he didn’t order you out of a Russian catalog.” She pulled a straw out of its paper wrapper. “You know you’re free to leave at any time right? You’re in America now.” She said as she threw the crumpled up straw wrapper into the kitchen. “He can’t keep you here against your will!” She yelled so Derek could hear her as he worked.

Rodney shook his head. “I don’t think Russian mail order does husbands.” He said laughing. He walked around the counter and filled his cup. “You want?” he asked.

She shook her head and pulled a flask out of her tiny purse. “So Rodney, actual human resident.” She took a drink. “What brings you to Spoonerville?” She raised an eyebrow.

He shrugged. “You’d think with all the free time I’ve had the last week, I would have come up with a better story than the real one.” He said with a smile.

She shook her head. “Nah, stick with the truth, even if it sucks.” She replied.

He shrugged again. “Parent’s died in a car crash and I got shipped here to live with my grandmother.” He admitted quickly.

She nodded. “So you’re old lady Edgar’s grandson.” She said.

He nodded. There was silence for a moment. Vivian stuffed her flask back into her purse. “Bummer about your parents.” She said finally. Rodney nodded and fidgeted with his cup.

Derek stuck his head out of the kitchen. “Jalapeno’s or no?” he asked.

She looked at Rodney. “Are we interested in hot and spicy this evening?” She asked bluntly.

Rodney’s chin dropped an inch and no sound came out of his mouth.

Derek threw a towel at Vivian. “Leave him alone Viv, thanks to him I’m one more customer closer to my millionth customer celebration!” He said ducking back into the kitchen.

She caught and folded the towel nicely. “Yeah, only nine hundred thousand nine hundred and ninety eight more to go!” She yelled back.