Myths of the Forgotten Part II: Penance

[OmegaMasterDeath]

Introduction

It has been 97 years since the sealing of Rome. It is now called 'Serpent Rome'. The reason is because various serpentine creatures of type and size have been seen on the station which can be seen from the planet's surface from a telescope. Many hoped to reclaim it, but none knew how to break the seal. Only by breaking the seal can humans be able to get back to the station. One man, the man in black whom people have seen on the surface of the station, as well as on the planet surface, has been able to slip past the seal as he pleased. Every time they approached the man, he either killed them or simply vanished. Now, two young ones are about to be involved in something beyond their comprehension.

[OmegaMasterDeath]

Chapter 1: Break In

The city was known as Kyoto. Many skyscrapers and other very tall buildings filled the area. It was hard to believe that only 90 years ago this city was nothing but ancient ruins. Documents and artifacts recovered from various parts of this city revealed it to have once been the capital city of the planet known as Atlantis.

Atlantis itself was nearly destroyed long ago because of Earth's greedy big businessmen eager to tap the natural oil and gold Atlantis had abundance of. The humans that settled Atlantis about 50 years before the 'Final World War', saw more potential as a farm planet. The 'Dark Soil' as it was called made plants bigger and more nutritious than any that could be made on Earth. If only the big businessmen saw this. They instead saw Atlanthians as a hinderence. They lied to the governments. Telling them that the Atlanthians were going to destroy Earth. The governments got involved and used nuclear warheads and other genocide tactics to make the Atlanthians all but extinct.

A 'Love born from a lie' tactic was used. That ploy nearly destroyed all of the universe when the 'One With No Name' had an 'Evil Awakening'. An 'Evil Awakening' is an awakening of inner powers of a Chosen One, one chosen by fate to protect the universe, into forcing that individual down the path to destroy the universe by any means necessary.

The night air was brink and cool on the rooftops of the city. All was calm. The moon shown bright as ever in the Last Quarter phase. The stars were breathtaking. The silence broke with a clink on a chimney. It was a harpoon with a rope embedded in it. The rope became tight. Two black clothed individuals with black hooded capes came down the rope. They made it to the rooftop and slipped into the shadows. They went to a door. They hacked the digital door lock and were inside in meer moments. No logs were filed due to the hack.

One individual was male and the other was female. The female had green eyes while the male had brown. Both wore mask to hide their faces.

The male grabbed his partner by the arm. "Try not to get yourself killed m'lady."

She shook his grip off and slapped him. "Enough of that you fool." She then quietly slipped down the staircase.

The man jumped over the railing. He fell and grabbed a guard by the neck. The guard's neck was snapped before he could react. The guard had positioned himself as if looking down anyway and this gave the man the anchor he needed to keep from hitting the bottom.

The woman got down to the man and saw the dead guard. She gave him a dirty look.

All he did was look at her and shrug. He had no idea what he did wrong. He got slapped again.

The woman took point and slowly opened the nearby door. On the other side, was a hallway that was well lit. Doors littered the walls of the hallway and a few hallway intersections could be found. The woman used a dentist's mirror to look around the corners. There were many guards. Too many. She didn't like it as they were all facing her through the mirror. She slowly closed it.

She turned to her partner. "Something's wrong. All the guards are here as if they are expecting us."

The man nodded. "Time to go."

Someone sneezed above them. They looked up and saw more guards.

The man said, "Not good."

The woman said, "Set up."

They jumped over the railing. They grabbed it every now and then so they wouldn't die upon getting to the ground floor. Once they got to the ground floor, they burst open the door and found even more guards waiting for them. They used a flash bomb to stun the guards and bolt past them and out the front door. They ran into an alley and took off the black clothes and capes. They had street clothes underneath the black clothes. He wore blue jeans and a red long sleeve shirt while she wore a white v-neck and black capris.

The man took off his mask. His crew cut look was not phased by the motions of his body. "Kathryn."

The woman took off her mask.  She rolled her eyes in annoyance. Her long curly red hair went all over the place. "What?"

"That was way too calculated back there. They had to have had someone on the inside for this to be pulled off."

"Agreed."

They walked through a few alleys and into the busy section of town aptly named 'Vegas'.  Casinos lined the streets. Many casinos were still in the works. The two blended into the crowd and vanished.

[OmegaMasterDeath]

Chapter 2: Imprisonment

Kathryn, knowing full well that she is somehow still being followed, slips into the darkened tree park between the Sahara 2 and Luxor 5 casinos. She frisks herself thinking she has a tracking device. Her partner, Kyle Kingsley, put the change of clothing in near the dumpster. Only he touched the clothing since it was cleared from HQ before the assignment.

Sure enough, she found several. She got them out and scattered them throughout the park. She sent the last one down a steep hill and hid in a tree. She watched as the would-be captor tripped over a root hanging above the ground and tumble down the slope. It took a minute, but he soon crashed into a tree and made no more sounds. She chuckled. "Amateur."

She got out of the tree and slipped back into the lighted and crowded street. She scooted past a light post and found a wanted poster with her picture on it. It looked like it was put there within the last 5 minutes. The reward was extremely high. 10,000 marks. She ducked into a dark alley. She knew she could not be seen in public as people here always looked at such posters.

She darted and dashed quickly and quietly through the alleys. She sensed someone was following her. She knew this presence well. It was Damion Phobos, top notch bounty hunter on Atlantis. He only was seen by those who he wanted to be seen by.

Kathryn herself was a highly skilled thief and could elude anyone with enough time. She had to evade Damion a few times and was caught once a few months ago. She only got away as it was the New Year's Day festival and several drunks forced him into a conga-line before he could collect his reward. She had a bad feeling that she was not to be so lucky this time. She was right.

She rounded a corner and ran right into is waiting left hand. He grabbed her by the throat and slammed her head against a wall before she could react. The pain knocked her out cold.

When she woke up, it was daylight and she was shackled. Heavy steel chains bound her hands and feet. She was in a van of some sort. Her vision was still a little blurry, but she could tell she was no longer in the city. She moaned. When her vision became clear again, she saw Kyle and Damion sitting on the other side of the van from her. Damion gave Kyle a slight nudge and only his right half fell down. Kathryn gasped in shock.

Damion only gave her a hateful stare. "I told you that you'd never get away from me."

Kathryn glared back at him. "Did you have to kill him?"

Damion laughed. "This fool killed himself while trying to run away from a rival bounty hunter on a blader race course." He whipped out a remote control of some sort and pressed the green button on it.

The events of the latest Blader Racer, a Nascar upgrade where the vehicles speed through race tracks 500 meters above the ground with every turn that can be done without causing the vehicle to flip in any direction. The exhaust of energy was sent downward and resembled a sword's blade. Hence why it was called Blader Racer. She watched in horror as Kyle was sliced in half by a blade as it passed by. The announcer then was heard on the loudspeaker. "And that is why you don't set foot on the tracks while a race is underway."

Damion turned it off. He then turned his attention to the driver and passenger up front on the other side of a steel wall with a few smal holes in it. "Hey, Jockalyn?"

The passenger responded. "It's Jonathan."

Damion shrugged. "Whatever. When do I get paid?"

The passenger spun around. "What?"

"You heard me. When do I get paid?"

Jonathan ordered the driver to stop the van. The driver did so, violently. The van shook for a minute after it came to a complete stop. Jonathan made a call on his cell phone. He got double what Damion was to be paid since the fool that Jonathan put in charge of finances failed to do so. He then fired that person and voided all that person's actions that Jonathan did not authorize. The van then sped off. She never saw the faces of the driver or Jonathan.

Once the van reached its destination, Damion unbound her and threw her out of the van. They were in front of a pyramid in the middle of a desert. She knew the place. She hid an item there that Jonathan, several government officials, and gang lord had an interest in.

Jonathan spoke through a radio that Damion violently shoved into her ear. "You know why we are here."

Damion pushed her up to the entrance of the pyramid. "Behave and you will live. So will your friends at the shop."

Kathryn knew that her family of thieves, just orphans rejected by every orphanage in the city and theft was their only way to survive, was in danger. She knew not who Jonathan was, but he was well connected. She looked around and saw many heavily armed guards with multi-light goggles. Escape was not an option. There were too many to kill.

[OmegaMasterDeath]

Chapter 3: Personal Nature

Kathryn walked through the vast ruins trying to stall for time. She had them search every room they came to because she had 'trouble remembering which artifact they were looking for'. Damion slamming her head against the wall every now and then did not help Jonathan's dilemma. Kathryn also verbally provoked several of the slams just to make Jonathan mad. She hoped Jonathan would give up sooner or later. However, even though the hours made everyone else weary, Jonathan's focus on the artifact he sought, did not waver.

She went to activate a few of the traps that ran throughout the ruins, only to find them disabled already. She just about given up hope as she walked into the Outer Soul Sanctuary of the ruins where she hid two artifacts. One was an important staff that was to be held only by the Chancellor of Parliament, and the other was a mere locket. She took them to the locket after a bit of a runaround in circles to annoy Damion.

Jonathan cracked over the radio. "That's it."

The guards and Damion began to withdraw. They left Kathryn alone after taking her radio away from her.

She was stunned. "You mean you had enough and are giving up, right?"

Damion turned around. "Wrong. This locket was what we were looking for."

She shook her head dumbfounded. "I don't..."

Damion cut her off. "Understand?" He laughed hysterically for a moment. "Fool. The staff you hid here has been moved by my employer."

She stepped forward. "Why?"

"You think after what happened last week that we don't want payback for what they put into law?"

She had no idea what he was talking about and let him know it. She used a choice 'forbidden insult' in her reply. The word used meant an existence that was never supposed to be.

Damion turned to her. "You are more correct that you think you are." He left her in deep shock.

She remembered what happened the last time this happened just before the 'Exile Flight'. The Atlanthians were hunted and slain on sight. As a result, various monsters started to appear and attack those who hunted the Atlanthians. It happened again three years ago. Have those fools not learned their lesson? She then realized that several of her friends were Atlanthians and in grave danger. It took her several minutes to snap back into reality. When she did, she raced out of the ruins. Everyone else was leaving by aircraft in various directions, save Damion who rode off to the north on his trademark motorcycle. She said a choice cuss word and ran off in the direction she thought was the way to the city. She followed the tracks of the only other vehicle that made tracks on the desert sand, the one from the van.

She ran day and night. It took three straight Atlanthian days to get out of the desert. An Atlanthian day was 20 Earth hours of daylight and 20 Earth hours of darkness. She got out of the desert into a grassy plains. She lost the tracks made by the van. She stopped to rest for a bit. She had no food or water, but her survival training forced her body to conserve energy and water in ways that made ordinary people die after a few mere days.

She could have lasted 3 Earth weeks out in the desert little food or water because of her extensive survival training when she first helped make the guild she was currently in. She ate the bugs she found for food and water. Certain bugs held water inside themselves just to survive long walks through the desert. Not many people knew how to et the water out of those bugs because those bugs consumed the water if startled or nervous. The consumption was very fast. Only proper timing and stealth skills could have gotten the water out of the bugs.

Once she finished her break, she walked into the very high grass slowly. Even though the grass had fruits and seeds on them, those fruits and seeds were poisonous to humans by nature.

She walked for about an hour and found a small ruin. In ancient times, this could have been a farmer's house. Now, it was a one room ruin with not that much for treasure hunters to bother with. She slipped in through the open window and collapsed on what she thought as either a table or bed. She looked over and saw someone she knew.

The girl in the room was the latest member of the guild. She had short bowl-cut brown hair, blue eyes, a red druid's cloak, and somewhat tan skin. Her name was Liola. What she wore under the cloak, Kathryn could not see.

Kathryn saw that Liola saw her.  Liola got up. Kathryn saw what she wore underneath, a brownish red tunic and white cargo jeans. Liola rushed over to Kathryn and hugged her, thanking the stars for Kathryn's safety.

Later, Kathryn explained where she had been and Liola revealed the truth, Parliament did pass a law to hunt down Atlanthians with a bare majority as many members were absent when voting for the law took place. The Chancellor and his supporters shot it down a few days ago, but not before the damage was done. Word of a civil war being ready to begin was heard and over 90% of the civilians fled the capital. The sun had gone down and the girls did not start a fire out of fear of being spotted by a patrol.

They were interrupted by a young man's voice. "This is the place."

The girls jumped and ducked into jars to hide. As they hid, Kathryn looked at the bottom of her right shoe. It had dust on it. She made the classic 'oh crap' face. The young man was talking to a few other men about the place. It was the first one they found where everything was intact. His voice got closer and closer to the jars. He then opened them up. He had black hair slicked up nicely, green eyes, Benjamin Franklyn style glasses, and a gray tuxedo.

"Would you like to help us, or have you arrested for vagrancy. The girls blused and got out of the jars.

[OmegaMasterDeath]

Chapter 4: Despair and Hope

The man introduced himself as Tyrone. The ladies introduced themselves to him. He instructed the girls to help catalog the items of the house and to get them ready for transport. The girls did as they were told. Going to jail was not an option, especially for Liola. For her, it was guaranteed that she would die. Possibly on the way to the jail itself.

Meanwhile, in a forest far away from the ruins, on the other side of the city, a young boy wakes up in an abandoned castle. He had gone to sleep with his sister and her best friend close by. Where they went, he did not know.

Although the sister was 16 years old and one heck of an adventurer, he was only 8 years old with very little knowledge outside of his somewhat safe home in the slums on the south side of the city. He was scared as all the supplies were also taken, even the blanket he covered himself with before falling asleep. "April?" He called out thinking she was just playing hide and seek with him. He hoped she was. No response came. He got up and walked around calling for April, his sister.

It took a few hours, but he realized that his sister abandoned him. He had no idea where he was, nor any idea on how to get back home. He started to cry. The hopelessness consumed him. He sat down on an ancient chair made of stone and cried loudly. He was lost and left for dead.

He heard noises coming from upstairs. He stopped crying. He looked toward the direction of the noises in sheer fright. He did not move. A few more noises were heard. He slowly got up and went up the creaky steps. The noises were heard more and more. It was a group of humans talking about something the boy did not understand. The boy followed the voices to a door. Light came from under the door. The boy pressed his ear to the door to try to hear better. Someone opened the door on the other side and the boy fell onto his face. The boy looked up to see several men and women in full war armor with assault rifles pointed at him. There was a person in a chair that had its back to the boy. The only thing the boy saw was the left hand of the man. It was pale in color and had a white dragon head ring with blue eyes on the ring finger.

The boy was picked up. The soldiers started yelling at the boy. "SILENCE!!!" The voice was loud and full of thunder. The man in the chair got up and turned to face the boy. This man was young. His red hair was very short, he was clean shaved, had dark gray eyes. He was about 2 meters tall and looked very light in build. He wore a yellow satin short sleeve shirt and camo green cargo pants. His boots were as if made of metal. He had a katana on his back. This man gave the boy the creeps. The man stared a hole through the child. "Who is this boy?"

The boy tried to talk, but was too scared to do so. He fainted.

The man walked over to the boy who was held by a female soldier. He thrust his right hand into pockets of the boy's gray cotton pants. He soon pulled out what he was looking for, the boy's ID card. Like in the photo of the ID card, the boy wore a blue long sleeve shirt. The boy's name was Sean Typhon.

The man then looked the boy over and inhaled the air deeply while he closed his eyes. After a few moments, he exhaled and opened his eyes. He did not take his eyes off the boy. "Take him back to his mother."

The female guard bowed. "Right away, sir." She left with the boy and his ID card in tow.

The man looked toward the ground and shook his head.

She used her motorcycle's GPS system to locate the boy's house and properly deliver the boy to his ailing mother. She left without saying a word.

When the boy awoke, he was in his mother's arms. He told her what happened. The mother was overcome with grief with the news of what her own daughter had done. The grief caused her illness to finally consume her. She passed away. The boy was left in disbelief. He was now alone. The only loving family member he had, was now forever gone. His father left them for another, 10 year younger woman and died a few years later to several STDs the woman gave him. His sister left him in a castle to die. The others, aunts and uncles refused to acknowledge that he was part of the family.

The man Sean saw in the castle was at the door. Sean froze. The man walked over and hugged the kid. Sean hugged back and cried a river. This man was his family now. the man took Sean to an adoption agency and filled out the proper paperwork to adopt the child. Once all was done, he took Sean to an undisclosed location.

By now, Tyrone and the girls were done. Tyrone got a call on his cell phone and perpared to depart with the artifacts and the girls. He needed their help to unload the artifacts. Tyrone told the other person about the girls. The person on the other line was interested in talking to Liola in person. Tyrone and the girls left for an undisclosed location. When they got there, Tyrone's friend, the man from the castle, as well as his adopted son, were there.

As was someone dressed in a black satin shirt with matching cargo pants, short brown hair, dark brown eyes, and average build. His left hand had a black dragon head ring with red eyes. "So we are all here."

Kathryn recognized the man's voice instantly. It was Jonathan.

[OmegaMasterDeath]

{Anybody want to put in some feedback?}

[OmegaMasterDeath]

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