(On the main island.)From atop a high hill overlooking the village, a lone figure stood. They were adorned in a black trenchcoat, their face obscured by shadows beneath a drawn up hood. Only the occasional pacing broke their statue-like stillness as they scanned across the village, and out to the smaller island in the distance. Though their elevation was prominent and their position exposed, they seemed to go unnoticed by the busying villagers below.
The figure broke their stride when the soft sound of a portal opening behind them filled their air. They halted on the spot and turned in time to see two other hooded figures step through the Darkness. One had a rather thin and lanky looking form, while the other was broader in build and a small bit shorter than the thin one. Both emerged and flanked the first, posturing a clear superiority in authority.
"About time you showed up," the first said sarcastically.
"Mind your words boy!" The broad built figure lashed out in a slight accent.
"Don't forget your place Kid." The third spoke up in a smooth surfer-type drawl.
"Joking. Joking." The first put his hands up trying to calm the other two. "You are sure this is the place?"
"That's what the boss said." Surf-voice shrugged his shoulders. "Not on us to argue."
"This world is fated to fall to Darkness like the others." The English accent spoke almost somberly on the matter.
"And the people?" The first figure looked over his shoulder at the unsuspecting village below.
"What ABOUT them?" The third figure snapped. "Wait... don't tell me you're getting soft on us HERE of all places?" He pressed his finger and thumb into hia temples. "Don't forget what we're working towards."
His partner nodded. "The mission must be completed, no matter the cost."
The first man turned around to look out to the small island. In the distance he could see children playing, and teenagers sparring along the beachfront. A warm feeling resonated from there, causing him to pull his hand to his chest.
"If it suits your sudden softness," the third figure mocked, "we won't hurt anyone."
"But we shall not interfere with the natural course beyond setting things into motion," the other added. "You may act as you see fit once your task is done."
"I..."
"Listen kid! Lose whatever this new sense of pity is. All you need to do is go in there, and open the door. Simple as that. If you think you've gotta save a few people to keep your head clean, then whatever. As long as we get what we came here for, the boss couldn't care less."
"There will be no further discussion." The broader one folded his hands behind his back. A portal opened behind the pair. "We'll be watching." The two stepped through, vanishing as the portal closed.
"Well then. Guess I have no choice. Too late to go back now... I'm so--"
A loud crackle and boom pulled his attention towards the sky. Wreathed in atmospheric flamed, a ship descended from space on a collision course with the smaller island. The hooded man watched in anticipation as the ship leveled and vanished behind the island. "Well... that might complicate things..." the man summoned a portal and swiftly stepped through it.
(Meanwhile...)Hoshi had just returned to the raft with Alias with quiet diligence she set to work, suring up the cloth they had procured as a sail. She fastened the sail to the ‘T’ shaped mast they had built the day before. Certain it was properly taught to catch the wind, she knelt down and began to inspect the ‘helm.’ Far from the ornate and intricate devices of the massive ships from the stories and tall tales, it was a simple shaft attached to the mast just below the sail. The mast itself was fixed to swivel a full 360 degrees; the design and execution of this had been mostly to Levi’s credit, though Hoshi and Alias had, of course, helped install it. Hoshi had pitched the idea of a proper rudder, but they hadn’t been able to find the right material for one that would function. Her final touch to the design would be a rope to tie off of the shaft, which would run to one of several ‘hitching points’ on the deck, the hope being that it would allow them to not have to commit someone to steering for long periods.
As she went about tending to these last adjustments and additions, her attention and focus were shattered by a thunderous explosion from the skies. Jumping and dropping the line of rope she was handling, she whipped her head upward to see a massive fireball tearing down from far above the ocean. “WHAT’S THAT?!” she yelled. Almost as if to answer her question, the flames parted, revealing a large, and oddly shaped… thing… plummeting down from somewhere beyond the clouds. As it fell ever closer, she could begin to make out what looked like a set of wings on either side, and a trail of smoke billowing from its backside.
The object rapidly approached, and Hoshi realized, in horror, that it was on a collision course straight for where they were all standing. “EVERYONE GET DOWN!” she shouted, rushing to take cover behind a sizable rock nearby.
Hoping the others had cleared away in time, she shuddered and stumbled as the winged mass crashed into the sand not far from the raft. The chaotic chorus of displaced earth, breaking stones and splintering trees filled the air. Then, in an instant, all of the noise ended, leaving nothing but a ringing in her ears, and a low humming sound coming from the crash landed heap that had collided with the island. There’s no way anyone in the village missed that, Hoshi thought to herself as she poked her head out from behind the rock. The whole population of Destiny Islands would be on alert; some, perhaps even the mayor himself, might soon be taking their boats out to see what had happened.
“Everyone alright?” she asked, looking through a haze of dust and smoke. She stepped out from her cover and began to walk in the direction of the grounded flying thing. She didn’t know what it was, or anything about its construction, but even she could tell by the look of it that it had seen better times. She let out an audible, gasping ‘yelp’ as the form of a person emerged from the clearing dust. Before her was a dark-haired man, dressed in long pants, and heavy looking boots, with goggles worn just above his eyes. He seemed messy, but otherwise unbothered by the crash of what Hoshi could only presume was his ship of some kind.
Hoshi recoiled as he spoke: “Hey.”
She could only stare at him, mouth agape and eyes widened to almost perfect circles. ‘Hey?’ The guy drops like a meteor, almost killing five people and all he can say is ‘hey?’ Hoshi looked around, frantically trying to find Alias, or Levi, or even Morgan… anyone that might share her startled disposition. One stranger quietly happening upon the Islands was one thing, and in recent years a common enough event that most people had stopped thinking of it. But slamming tons worth of a flying machine into the Cove was an entirely different matter. “Uh… What? Who? Where? How? WHY?” She sputtered the words, throwing her arms forward in disbelief.
Theyra,
Bacon,
AtomicEmperor,
Soldat Elf,
Becboc,
Chronic,
King Kindred,
Master EffeX,
Snowdrops,
BlazingBark
