"Are we there yet?" John asked his two older siblings. They had already been running for about twenty minutes, a good distance away from their old house. He was starting to run out of gas. For a child around the age of six, to run so far without rest was already exceptional enough.
"We'll be there soon." Lucan tried to console his younger brother, but he knew that they weren't out of the danger zone yet. They were still in the town, and anywhere within the town, the mayor could reach.
Lucan turned around to see John starting to lag behind. He stopped and turned to John. "Give me those bags."
John handed him everything except for the small cloth bag carrying the cat.
"How about letting the cat go? He's just extra baggage." Alicia cautiously asked John, to which he shook his head. Alicia sighed in defeat before continuing to move.
After another ten minutes of moving, they were close to the outskirts of the town. The outskirts were filled with debris and ruins of what was once a thriving city. They just kept running without any certain destination in mind.
They heard sounds coming from behind them, and then, they saw lights coming from behind them, then wheels roaring. Two trucks were chasing after them and one of the trucks sped up to cut off their path.
A pampered young man jumped down from the truck, his clear skin made the bruise on his cheek much more obvious. "How dare you hit me. I'll make you pay for this." He pointed at a spot in his mouth with a missing tooth.
"You even shot my guy in the stomach." He clicked his tongue in annoyance.
The three huddled up, with John in the middle. John was extremely confused and frightened, the cat felt uncomfortable in his hands and so it kept trying to push his hands away. Alicia noticed him trembling and hugged him to comfort him as much as she could.
There were 8 men encircling them, waiting for their young master's signal. They were smiling, confident of their success. Some were even catcalling, looking at Alicia, daydreaming in the middle of the stand off about what they would do if they got their hands on her.
Alicia's stomach sank, even so, she held John as tight as she could. Lucan's glare was sharp enough to cut metal. If looks could kill, they'd already be dead multiple times over.
"This would've been so easy, I just wanted you to fight for me in the arena. I'd even pay you. But no… no, you think you were too good. You punched me, but you know what? I'll give you one last chance, fight for me and I'll let you go without a scratch." The young master spoke, feeling like the trio were already in the palm of his hands. He waited for Lucan's answer in silence. 'Heh, the moment you land in my hands, I'll let you suffer this humiliation ten times over. Who told you to lay your dirty, garbage-picking hands on me?' His sinister thoughts were hidden by his sweet smile.
Lucan stared at him, and thought for a moment. He then looked at his brother and sister, before nodding without a word.
Seeing this, Alicia's heart dropped. She grabbed his arms, desperate. "He's lying!" Alicia shouted. John also rushed, clinging to him from behind, keeping him from moving away.
This made Lucan stop in his tracks. He hesitated just for a moment. He held John in his arms, he tried to show a smile and tousled his hair before continuing to move. This made the young master smile even more, trying to keep the laughter deep inside.
He stood in front of the mayor's son and bowed. "If you would let my family go, I will fight for you." He bit his lip until it started to bleed, regretting the fact that he ever went fighting that night.
"I'm letting you go, I didn't say anything about my men letting you and your friends go." He laughed and his men acted as if they received a signal and started moving. They immediately grabbed Lucan and tied his hand with a rope before kicking him in the stomach to get him to kneel.
Their actions woke Lucan up and he instinctively tried to fight back, but two adults were too much even for him. They made him face his siblings and watch.
The other six didn't fail their expectations, they immediately went for Alicia and John. Alicia fought back and tried to kick a man in his groin but it was caught and he held her leg up, causing her to fall off balance. John was kicked aside, flying back from the kick. The cat flew farther and rolled off the ground.
John rolled on the ground as he landed. A soft whimper escaped his lips before he fell unconscious.
Someone grabbed Alicia by the throat and she tried to bite the hand but someone pulled her by the hair. "Easy there, girl. Feisty, aren't you, I'll let you have a good time later."
Revulsion and dread coursed through her making her blood run cold.
They did all of that as they laughed, and this made Lucan's blood boil with rage. His eyes were tearing up and his whole face was red as a tomato. "STOP!" He kept shouting, and all they did was laugh and continue what they were doing. One grabbed Alicia's dress and tried to tear it away.
The moment that they did this, Lucan's rage peaked. In his rage, he dislocated one of his arms to get out of the rope, this caught the two off-guard and one of them caught a punch with Lucan's full force to his face. His right hand was broken, and his left was dislocated. The pain was enough to knock him unconscious but he didn't care, seeing his little brother kicked and his little sister about to be assaulted were enough to completely remove all his sense of reason. He kept pummelling the man to the ground. If his fist was broken, he used his elbow, until he couldn't lift them anymore.
Lucan's action made the others stop whatever they were doing. The young master smiled, as if he knew about this all along.
***
Some distance away from the chaos, the town of Korall, where the trio lived bordered the ruined Gredam City. It was a city that vanished as quickly as it rose. It was built to survive a nuclear war, with an underground sector designed to house the city's population.
As much as it promised, it disappointed. It was one of the first cities to fall victim to the Nuclear war. Some speculations say that traitors detonated the bombs inside as the underground wall itself was impregnable to even Nuclear Bunker Busters. A mystery still hangs over it: despite its large population, there were no survivors, and no corpses.
The underground city is now home to one of the largest black markets in the world. It was jointly managed by three factions, namely, Dark Hand Society, Ice Moon Palace, and the Merchant Guild.
Two figures clad in black robes were walking along the border, when they suddenly heard a boy shouting stop. They didn't give it much attention as it wasn't under their jurisdiction, and they were patrolling for a different reason.
That was until they felt something, a Resonant energy from that same direction. The three looked at each other before one spoke, no information can be gleaned from the voice as it neither sounded male nor female. "Daydreamer, go check it." One of the figures disappeared without a sound, as if blending in the surrounding, neither of the two gave further attention to whatever was happening in that direction and continued patrolling the border.
***
'Why would a Signwalker be here? The places in this direction are basically the slums of society.' Daydreamer thought as she was speeding to check what the commotion was all about.
She arrived in the midst of chaos. Three men were on the ground, groaning in pain. The others were fighting this one kid and behind him were another girl and a boy. The girl was quickly rummaging through the bags on the floor. She fished out a handgun and pointed it at the smug young man watching the battle unfold.
She could feel the resonant energy coming from the fighting kid. As she closely observed the fight, she grimaced as she noticed that the kid's arms were basically broken and tattered, it hung limp on his sides, so he resorted to kicking but nothing landed.
'Bang!' The girl shot the smug young man but he didn't even flinch. She kept shooting but her bullets disappeared in mid-air, as if swallowed by the world itself.
Daydreamer saw the truth though, the bullets were blocked by a thin translucent film on the young man's body, absorbing the impact of the bullet and disintegrating what was left of it.
'Hoh! Who'd have thought I'd see a Resonant Artifact here.' Daydreamer felt amused by what she was seeing.
She raised her right hand palm open and faced it towards the group fighting. When she closed it, silence enveloped the entire area.
It felt like everything inside the area froze. When she opened her hand, people started dropping. Leaving only the three kids and the smug young man unaffected.
The young man quickly looked around in panic, and shouted. "Who's out there? I'm the young master of Korall Town. My father is the mayor, why are you interfering with my business?"
Daydreamer appeared out of nowhere, standing in between him and the three kids.
The young man saw her appear suddenly and understood immediately. "What is a cave dweller like you doing here? Scurry back to your cave down there and leave here immediately."
Daydreamer, though her face was covered by the robe, was irked by his words. Even through the robe, she was visibly trembling with rage. "I just wanted to see who here is a Signwalker. But your words are truly hurtful to my ears. Even if I can't kill you, let's see if you'll leave this place unscathed." She disappeared once more, blended into her surroundings.
The young man clutched his necklace and nervously looked around him. "If you dare touch me, my father won't let this go!"
"I just wanted that necklace yet you had to go say all those words. I planned to let you go unharmed, oh how I'll make you wish you could take those words back." Her voice sounded from behind him.
He quickly turned around when he felt a force from behind him knocking him down to the ground. Daydreamer appeared over him, and stomped on his knee. The translucent film appeared once more, mitigating some of the damage.
Daydreamer didn't care and kept stomping, and stomping. Moments later, a crack rang through the air. That crack felt like the noisiest and worst sound that the young man would ever hear in his lifetime.
"You just had to go running your mouth, didn't you." Daydreamer spoke with noticeable annoyance. She stomped one last time, breaking the young man's leg.
"ARHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" His hoarse scream rang through the night sky and woke up some wild animals that scurried off to the distance.
Daydreamer just stared at him as he rolled around and tried his best to hold his knee, after some time, he finally stopped screaming, she then just reached out her hands.
He thought she was offering help and reached out for her hand, only for her to quickly swat it away. "The necklace!" She said, noticeably more annoyed now.
The young man just stared at her, tears in the corner of his eyes. His eyes were red and full of defiance, but without the power to do anything, he could only give up. He resolutely removed the necklace and handed it to her.
After doing so, she threw him into the truck before turning around.
The young man glared at the trio and Daydreamer before speeding off, wanting to get as far away as possible.
The trio were just watching everything unfold, unwilling to believe that a single person could do whatever happened.
She approached Lucan who was on the ground, to which he reactively tried to stand up and raise his hands. She raised her hands covered in gloves to tell him to stand down. "I'm not here to fight you. I'm actually here for you. Do you want to work for my Dark Hand Society? If you do, I'll help you and your siblings."
Alicia, who was mostly unscathed, quickly ran in front of Lucan to cover him.
"You're the oldest, but I'm guessing she's the one who decides. So what say you, little girl? The closest town or settlement from here will take you about three days. I don't think the little sleeping prince over there can take that."
Alicia turned around to look at Lucan, he paused for a moment, they both looked at John before he just nodded to answer her.
"Good, so I guess you've decided." Daydreamer clapped her hands in glee.
With John and Lucan in her arms, and Alicia trailing behind with the cat, Daydreamer led the way towards the underground Black Market. Unaware her actions had already begun to shift the world's fate.