Project: Sols
Chapter Two
Trys
The light from the candles danced across the Dojo’s walls. Twelve
students sat with their legs crossed meditating. They were lost,
confused with the recent death of their instructor, the great
swordsman Zoke. The light and shadow intricately flickering across
the faces of the students. They had been in deep meditation for
more than 4 days, the loss of the master was a great blow to the
students. The surviving master, Anze, sat with them. A small elderly
man, Anze had once been Zoke’s master, and had only agreed to
join Zoke in the Dojo after learning of the dangers on Ragol.
Zoke had taken three of the four great swords and journeyed to
Ragol. He had sensed a great evil beneath the soil. A hunter from
the guild had found his body deep within the uncharted ruins,
all of Pioneer 2 mourned the loss.
The sole female of the group, a light blue haired Newman woman,
suddenly screamed as if in tremendous pain. Sitting to her left,
the group’s sole Android, a short white hunter model, activated
his eyes. He looked the woman over, scanning her with his eyes
to ensure there was no physical harm. Once he had determined there
was none, he tuned his head and deactivated his eyes. This event
seemed all too common to the others of the group, and it was a
surprise when Anze spoke.
“Trys...”, the elder spoke softly, “You are troubled? Your meditation
brings you no solace?”
Her face obscured by her hair, Trys replied without opening
her eyes. “I saw something that troubles me master, but think
nothing of it.”
The wrinkles on the elder’s brow compounded appearing more weighty
than they actually were. “You cannot deny these visions any longer
Trys, they are a message, you must listen to what they are telling
you.” The elder opened his eyes and raised his chin. He stared
Trys straight in the eyes. After only a few seconds trys could
not stand this and abruptly stood up. She turned away from the
master and began to walk towards the door on the far side of the
Dojo. “You cannot run forever girl, and until you face your inner
demons, I forbid you from returning.” The other students opened
their eyes and looked upon the elder with a myriad of surprised
faces. Trys turned her head and looked at the elder out of the
corner of her eye. without saying a word she once again faced
the door. A few moments later she had left the Dojo. The white
Android, still sitting with his eyes disengaged, once again activated
them.
“You’re making a mistake master”, the Android spoke, “sending
her away like that...” Anze interrupted the Android’s words with
a stern look. Realizing his disrespect the Android lowered his
head. “I... I apoligize master, please forgive my lack of respect.”
v “What was Zoke thinking?” Anze wondered to himself. “Accepting
a machine into his school, how absurd.”
The students looked upon the elder’s silence and slowly returned
to their meditation. The Android slowly stood up. “I am sorry
master,” he spoke, “but I cannot allow her to combat this alone.”
The android turned and faced the door.
“By the wishes of Zoke I allowed you to remain in this school
BWS-1, but know this: If you walk through those doors now you
may never return. I will indulge no such fancies as androids studying
the arts.”
Angered by the elders words, BWS-1 spoke, “I refuse to allow
my friends to face peril alone. If you will not help her, then
I will. Goodbye.” BWS-1 took several quick strides toward the
door and exited the Dojo.
Trys fired a bolt of Zonde in the direction of Tygrin, it had
no effect. Iris and Tear were safely outside the lab now, and
all that was standing between Trys and her freedom was 2.2 meters
of angry red android. She sprinted for the nearest door only to
be cut off by the faster moving red behemoth. She desperately
tried to maneuver around him, but it was no use. He was fully
covering the door. Tygrin’s eyes glowed brightly as he slammed
his fist into Trys’ lower abdomen. Trys violently exhaled and
began desperately trying to draw in breath. Tygrin clutched Trys’
by the neck and lifted her off the ground to his eye level. Trys’
grabbed his wrist with her hands and tried unsuccessfully to pry
herself loose. If he had been capable of doing so, Tygrin would
have smiled. Then he was shot in the back.
Startled, Tygrin dropped Trys and quickly turned around to see
two black androids and several humans in dark clothes, all holding
photon guns pointed at him. The front most human spoke.
“You have nowhere to run Tygrin, this is your curtain call.”
As he violently charged the group of government soldiers, Tygrin’s
eyes glowed brightly. His speed caught them by surprise. The human
who had spoken was greeted by a fist to the face, which was dealt
with such strength, that it knocked him back several meters into
the humans standing behind him. They all stumbled and began to
fire their weapons in the general direction of the ceiling. The
two androids were not so easily surprised, they fired several
volleys at Tygrin, who despite being impervious to techniques,
was not at all impervious to photon bullets. Tygrin stumbled back,
several well aimed shots had come very close to his critical systems.
The humans were getting up, and the androids were reloading. Realizing
he could not win, Tygrin did the only sensible thing possible.
He detached his head and threw it out the nearest window, and
while the military was busy trying to figure out what the &#%$
had just happened, Tygrin’s head rolled away from the lab complex
to safety. Inside, Tygrin’s left arm raised up, and from the hand
the middle finger extended. A loud beep was heard seconds before
the headless body exploded.
From the doorway to the teleporter room, Trys watched the government
soldiers recover from the odd scene they had just been party to.
The lead human looked directly at Trys, he had a large indent
in the shape of a fist in his face,
“Ouch” he said.
Trys stood holding the railing looking over the edge of the
shopping district to the massive city within Pioneer 2. Lost in
thought, she barely noticed the crowds walking past her in all
directions. The white android from the Dojo, BWS-1, walked up
beside her. “How are you holding up?” , he asked.
Without looking at him, Trys responded coldly, “fine”.
“Look Trys, I only want to help. You’re my friend, we’ve known
each other for years. If you can’t trust me, then who can you
trust?”
Trys remained quiet for several minutes, then spoke, “I’m afraid
B...” she said with a dry emotionless tone. “Iris is up to something,
I can feel it, but I don’t know what... I’m worried.”
“Are you still having the dreams?”
“Yes, but... they’re different, and they’re faster now. I don’t
know what to do, Lyca hasn’t had a single one, and Iris and Tear
are out of reach. I need to know what they were doing to me in
that lab, I... I...” Trys’ voice trailed off.
“It’s okay” BWS-1 said reassuringly. He turned his head to face
the city beyond the edge of the balcony. “You’ll find out, you
know you will.”
“...yeah, eventually, I know B, but...”
“Hey, by the way, speaking of the little minx, where is Lyca?
Weren’t you supposed to pick her up after training today?”
Trys abruptly pushed off the railing, her eyes open wide. BWS-1
looked at Trys, “so” he said “it’s one of those days eh? 100 meseta
says she’s skipped her meds had 2 already, and probably working
on the third.” Trys glared at BWS-1.
“Hey, she’s only 16 you ass, what do you think she is? Some
kind of slut?”
“Trys, I’ve seen her when she doesn’t take her medication before
you remember? I don’t think... I know.”
“Oh just shutup and c’mon.”
Trys and BWS-1 were walking to the inner district teleporter,
on their way to the Purplenum sector to pickup Trys’ younger sister
Lyca from school. The message indicator light on Trys’ Datalink
flashed indicating she had received mail. “Hold up B”, she said,
“I’ve got mail... it’s from Lyca.” Trys briefly read the message
on the screen of her Datalink. “She’s gone down to the forest
with Anim, they’re going to hunt rappies. She says ‘Don’t worry,
I took my medication at lunch’.” Trys looked at BWS-1, and rolled
her eyes.
“I guess”, said BWS-1, “She’ll be fine then, there’s no danger
in the forest anyway.” As he finished speaking, BWS-1’s Datalink
flashed. through his direct connection to it, he read the message.
“Oops, sorry Trys, I forgot I was supposed to meet Haruka after
we finished training today. She’s a little mad, I’d better go.”
“All right B, tell her I say hello. And... thanks, for everything...”
“My pleasure Trys, I’ll mail you tomorrow, we need to work out
this... situation.”
“Yeah, later B.” BWS-1 turned to his left and quickly walked
off into the crowd in the direction of the dining district. Trys
watched as BWS-1 walked away, and just as she was about to start
for the teleporter again, she was taped on the shoulder from behind.
She quickly turned to see two army soldiers standing in front
of her.
“Are you Trys Sols?” The closest soldier asked her.
“Solstrys”, she corrected, “Family name first if you please.
Yes, I am her. What is this about?”
“My apologies, approximately 10 minutes ago someone using your
Hunters Guild ID caused quite a commotion in the Bluefull sector
before teleporting to Ragol. The initial DNA scan verified the
perpetrator as you, however...”
Trys’ mind raced. There was only one person who could fake her
DNA signature. Trys knew even before the soldier said the words,
Iris had made her move, she was now on Ragol.
“...a secondary scan of the DNA signature using archived guild
data confirmed it was in fact a rogue hunter known as Solsiris.”
The soldier continued, “We have orders to bring you to our commander,
if you’ll follow us miss...”
The color drained from Trys’ face, when she spoke it was barely
above a whisper. Her mind was working to furiously to contemplate
any kind of complex answer, she managed to say “Okay”, as the
soldiers escorted her to the teleporter.
Back to the PSPages
Have any comments? Send them to [email protected]
Any and all trademarks copyright their respective owners.