Chronicles of The Omniverse Archived Westeria City: Azure Heights - West Side

T-RIV stared at the strange human for a long minute. Then he took a step forward, and scanned the person. It was an illusion. Instant suspicion shot threw his body from his personality drive, and his stomach unfolded, letting a minigun that had been neatly folded in his chest fall lose, hanging from the spot where his belly button would be. "State your business" he droned in his robotic monotone voice.
 
"Yeeesh, no need to wave that thing around, robot-guy," the illusory Vex waved his hands as though to shoo the weapon away. "Why's it gotta be all business? I make it my business not to have any business, but business implies responsibility and responsibility makes for no fun."

He spun on his heel, pacing across the doorway but keeping the eyes of his mask trained on T-RIV. "I'm just passing through, and I heard a big robot guy blasting out the walls, and so I figured... let's take a look! And here we are, and here you are pointing an oversized gun-dick at me! Is this how you greet all the boys? Because you'd probably have more luck if you bought them a drink before you tried to blow your load all over them."

Giggling, the double turned and hopped a few paces, sticking his arms out for balance. "So what's it gonna be, robot-guy? Are you gonna shoot me?"
 
T-RIV looked the boy up and down, observing him. Finally, he folded back the minigun and said, "No boy simply passes through the streets of current Westeria on a midday stroll. State your business here!". At this T-RIV stopped for a minute, then said, "And state your name as well, boy."
 
"Ah, now there you'd be wrong," Vex said, folding his arms. "I pass through the streets on a morning, noon and night stroll. It's all there is to do these days! Most days, I find something interesting, and that keeps me occupied. But I wouldn't go so far as to call it business... that's way too rigid."

He shrugged. "My name? I'll give you mine, if you give me yours. That's fair, right?"
 
"T-RIV, huh? T-RIV ... Triv ... Trev ... I'll call you Trevor, I think." The masked boy stuck his own hand out ... and then waving it through the machine-man's hand, the insubstantial illusion passing through easily. "Psych! I'm a fake! Wasn't about to risk you shooting the real me, Trevor. But nice to meet ya, all the same! I'm Vex."

He peered past the cyborg and towards the wall where he'd been rummaging. "So, you looking for something specific?"
 
Alena shifted nervously, she couldn't help but feel as though they weren't out of danger yet, instead they were going deeper, she looked at Vex who seemed to be quite calm. He's done this before she thought to herself, negotiation she supposed, the better you are at that the better off you are out here. She peeked around the corner once more before looking at Vex and mouthing the words "We should get out of here." She didn't want to put their lives in more risk than they already were, and if they left now she felt they'd have more time if the Robot somehow caught onto them.
 
"Noope," the illusory Vex shrugged. "Like I said, just passing through, on my way to who knows where? Well, I knows where, but that's not really that important."

Around the corner, the real Vex lifted his mask enough to offer Alena a reassuring smile, mouthing back. 'I got this.'

Returning his focus to the illusion, it spoke again. "You a loner, then?"
 
"Bray... we should have left with the evacuation." Lena frowned.

"What? And risk being seen and locked up for crimes I didn't commit? No way. They were charging me with murder, resisting arrest, and a number of other charges relating to drugs and the slave trade. I'm not risking it. And they'd told me that you would be charged with aiding and abetting a crime with O'Leary's slave ring. That will mean you lose Devon. Do you want that?"

In the few weeks since Bray had escaped prison, he'd tracked Lena and Devon and pretty much kidnapped them to the location they were in now. Lena had been furious at first especially since she now knew that Bray had lied to her. And she was actually afraid of him. The problem was that she also loved him and knew that he wouldn't hurt her or Devon. At least she believed he wouldn't. There was definitely a darker side to him.

"Do you really believe that they'd accuse me of that and take Devon?" Lena was nervous now.

"I was with the police for over 10 years, Lena. I know how it works."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"That I was a cop undercover?"

"Yes."

Bray frowned and sighed. "I couldn't tell you and risk someone overhearing. I had to keep my cover a secret."

Lena frowned. "You could have told me when we left O'Leary. I would have understood if you'd told me as soon as we'd left his grasp."

I couldn't tell you, Lena." Bray ended the topic there because Devon woke up from the nap he'd been having. He came over and hugged his mother crawling into her lap half asleep.

Bray stood up. "I mean going to check that we're safe and not compromised here. Stay here and don't say a word." He ordered them both before he exited the dilapidated building he'd chosen for their home for now. Taking the pistol from the back of his jeans and gripped it tightly before leaving the room. Since his escape, he'd changed his appearance, from short dark brown hair to long shaggy hair. From clean shaven to a thick stubble that was the beginning of a beard giving him a rogueish and wild look. A dangerous look.

He wouldn't be caught or lose his freedom again. Even if that meant doing things that shouldn't be done to protect himself and to keep Lena and Devon with him. Bray was a dangerous man.
 
T-RIV stared the boy down, still untrustingly, but now with a little more ease. "Yes, you could say that. It's been many years since I've journeyed with a companion."
 
"Sounds pretty dull, if you ask me," the illusory Vex shrugged. "Most things are more fun in company. Even if it's only temporary company, y'know? Gotta have someone to bounce off, or things get samey. Predictable. Even when I'm going solo, I like to stop by where other folks are and socialise sometimes. Well, I say socialise, they say 'make a nuisance of myself', but nuisance is in the eye of the beholder, right?"
 
Vex tilted his head curiously. "Wasn't, but you're welcome to. The more the merrier, and all that, right? We're off to find civilisation and safety! Or at least, a vague pretence of it. A thin veneer, if you will. Build a few barricades and put on a badge and it's just like the old days, yeah?"
 
"They Have Forgotten...
Forgotten Fear...
Forgotten Despair...
Forgotten Woe."


As apt an observation as any to be cast on the uncultured masses who now infested Terra, ignorant of the countless sins committed against their hallowed Redeemer, and oblivious to the coming Judgment brought on with His fated return into these immoral and graceless realms. How had it come to be that these insolent children could draw breath absent the thought of consequence? Absent the knowledge of unyielding torment and agony within the embrace of this Hellish King's clutches? Perhaps the inconsistent continuity of realities provided a lapse in memory across the cosmos, robbing from one the memories of such profound revelations, denying these lost souls the necessary guidance needed for them to offer willingly what should have always been denied to them: Life. Their choices, their decisions, their aspirations and desires, their fantasies and dreams, imaginations, relationships, and pleasures; as well as their pains, miseries, strifes, tortures, struggles, and nightmares. Banes and Boons both belonged to the silver-eyed Devil. The very flesh wound about brittle ivory His sustenance- The celestial energy animating dirt and water His dessert.

"Unacceptable. It would be terribly negligent of me to abandon these wayward morsels to their meager and peaceful existences. Unknowingly trapped in a benign prison, designed to provide higher consciousnesses with endless entertainment. I will not allow it..."

This declaration was relinquished to the barren wasteland stretched out before Him, silver eyes dragging from the lifeless corpse of some audacious Hero sprawled out at his feet up to the countless cadavers scattered across the Lachance estate. Humanity's last stand in this realm: A unified force comprised of the last vestiges of life, hope, and order hellbent on overwhelming the Harbinger of The End Times in this final decisive battle. Unfortunately, as the Herald of Chaos had foreseen, the unified alliance had failed, with the last of their forces vanquished. To them, this was their last chance at escape from tyranny and destruction. To Him, this was the final preparation for his departure from this mundane plane and arrival in one much more deserving of Salvation.

"It matters not what powers command these realms; the inhabitants trapped therein are Mine alone, to do with as I please. "

Beyond the lone figure loomed Castle Lachance; a haunting and malevolent acropolis consumed in a swirling cacophony of writhing souls bellowing their mournful lamentations unto a withering husk of a world. Such copious amounts of vis vitalis served as fuel for the massive breach in the heavens above, raw consciousness sacrificed in torment being the final component allowing one to tear the veil betwixt realities asunder. This empty and desolate landscape had been purged of its vile infestation. New lands beckoned, oversaturated in hypocrisy and ignorance, eager for the harvest to come.

"Know Fear."

Vehement tremors consumed the combat zone at that moment, birthing massive chasms outward in every direction, sending upheavals of earth and crust careening skyward. The landscaped had undergone a drastic metamorphosis in which an island of several miles around the estate was violently being ripped from the ground as if the fresh spawn of life from the womb of it's mother. The Herald stood unperturbed by the radical transformation, his nonchalant demeanor laced with a hint of interest- maybe even excitement, betrayed by the slightest of upturns in the corners of his lips. A slender porcelain frame wrapped in embellished robes poised defiantly at the precipice of the rising expanse of territory, his gaze carrying from the immediate vicinity outward across the stretch of terrain enveloped in a mural of death and decay while alive with the chaos of terrible convulsions. The scene itself was beautiful, and the wailing orchestra of souls garnished it perfectly.

"Know Despair."

He turns, his ornate attire swirling about him in exaggerated fashion having been swept into the momentum of the moment. Theatrics were something of a predilection for one so immersed in grace and authority. Returning toward his estate, the Mad King watched as the vessel which carried himself and his palace ascended into the rift in the sky. The gaping maw was a means of transportation, and though a few souls would have sufficed to open up a portal large enough for himself, it was going to take several thousand to move the castle and thousands more for its immediate surroundings. Justification enough for the merciless slaughter of nations, no? Within the celestial tunnel, chaos reigned supreme in its incessant production of wild and unfathomable manifestations. Such was the Realm of Madness, and only those who possessed 'The Key and The Gate' could use its convoluted passageways to traverse the infinite tapestry of realities.

"Know Woe."

And it was so that above the lawless districts of Westeria City another such rift was opened, providing a divide in the heavens large enough to display a glimpse into an infernal depiction of insanity. This was a fleeting sight, as soon after spawning, the portal relinquished an isle several stories over the metropolis. It lingered in the air but a moment before entering freefall. Chaos begets more Chaos. Land met the manmade structures of Westeria City violently, crushing beneath its immense weight the skyscrapers which had until this point threatened to pierce the firmament with their avant-garde architecture. The ground trembled, the agony of the impact riddling terra with seizures, reducing what did not buckle and break beneath the isle's weight to heaps of collapsed rubble around it. This was the beginning. This was the end.​
 
Back
Top