The City of Lothargien.
The capital city of the Neo Biome, Aeternitas.
The Neo Biomes are artificial landmasses that were created after the war that engulfed the world near the end of the 21st century. These were created with the intention of creating living space for the people whose homelands were devastated by the nuclear weapons that were used during the war and has yet to recover.
The process in which they were built are considered secret by the world's governments and most expansions made by them are performed in complete secrecy to the point that no one from the general public has actually seen it.
Currently, there are 100 of these so-called Neo Biomes and they vary in shape and size; with some even being as large as Australia or have mountains almost as high as Mt. Everest.
Now, in a city within one of these lands, an unlikely trio is running around evading bullets and law enforcement.
"Why the hell are we also running from the police boy?!", Jack wheezed as he tried to catch his breath behind a dumpster in an alley.
"Come on old man! We have to keep moving!", Ashen who passed him by motioned for Jack to get up but then another hail of bullets came at them forcing Ashen to also jump behind the dumpster, "Goddamit! Look out Nitwit!", with an exasperated grunt he pulls Rosseweisse towards him.
"Ah!"
"Good thing I had you change into your casual clothes!", Ashen said in relief.
"But! Those clothes of mine were given to me by the Roman clergy! It was a sacred cloth!", Rosseweisse however, voiced her thoughts only to be hit by a light headbutt by Ashen.
"Fool! If you had been wearing that while we were running, not only will you be dead tired after 5 minutes, everyone else will notice you and will pretty much give us away to our pursuers! Be thankful I even let you keep your scapular and cowl since it looks fashionable with Jack's trash clothing!", Ashen barked.
"Oi!"
Ashen ignored Jack's cry of complaint.
As he said, he had Rosseweisse change her clothes back at Jack's shack. Having her trade her conspicuous embroidered robe to a white turtle neck cardigan and a long skirt. How Jack got his hands on such clothing was beyond Ashen's imagination so he just didn't mind it too much and just decided to have Rosseweisse wear them.
Of course Rosseweisse refused. Saying that she is not allowed to abandon her cloth nor to show her skin to any other.
Fortunately, Jack understood her situation so he crawled away before quickly going out the shack to distract the gunmen.
Unfortunately-
'What you say Nitwit?'
-Ashen was not the understanding sort of person.
Annoyed by her refusal to cooperate, Ashen decides to take the matter into his own hand and so with gritted teeth, adjusts himself on the floor and then in one fluid motion, pops back his dislocated shoulder. Surprising Rosseweisse in the process.
Not wasting anytime, he checks if he can move his arm and hand and after confirming it, looks at Rosseweisse with utter vexation causing Rosseweisse to visibly tremble and then all hell broke loose as she was disrobed and then immediately dressed by Ashen.
Thus the current fashion that Rosseweisse the Saint is currently in; her clothing being a mix of secular and religious.
"Anyhow, we have to get out of here!", Ashen looks around, "Hey Jack! Hand me that bottle beside you!", he ordered.
"This one? Here!"
Ashen receives the proffered bottle and then he quickly pulls out a piece of cloth from his pocket and then inserts it inside the bottle's mouth, "Now we do this...", next he pulls out a lighter and starts to ignite it.
"Hey! That's mine!"
"Shut up! Be grateful I even brought it with me!", brushing off Jack's cry, Ashen lights up the cloth. Finally completing a makeshift molotov bomb.
"Go in! Kill the Saint!"
He heard one of the gunmen say as hurried steps echoed through the alleyway. But instead of panicking, Ashen took a deep breath and closed his eyes and continued to listen.
*Tap!*, *Tap!*, *Tap!*
He could hear the gunmen patter through the damp alleyway and when he confirmed that they were close enough, he threw a different bottle above him and immediately, the gunmen fired at the bottle that was rising. Not a moment later, he got out of the dumpster and then saw two of the gunmen looking up as they tried to shoot down the bottle then without hesitation, threw the molotov not on the ground, but on the gunmen themselves.
"GAAAAAH!!!!"
"AAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
The gunmen screamed in pain as they flailed around trying to put out the flames that covered them.
Afterwhich, Ashen grabs Rosseweisse and then motions Jack to get up and follow them. The two hapless non-combatants obviously rendered speechless by his actions as they went out the other end of the alley and into the busy streets of the city.
*****
The city of Lothargien is a relatively prosperous city. Everything was clean and the people were quite well-off. Even the area which Jack refers to as the slums wasn't that bad and security was good. A little too good for Ashen's preference.
"Ah damn! Police again!", his disgruntled complaint rang in the air as he pulls Rosseweisse back towards him, "Old man! Let's go through the park! We can lose both of them there!", he motioned towards a dark and open park.
"Are you serious boy?! Can't we just go and talk to them coppers to get them gunmen off our backs?!", Jack asked as he caught up to the two.
"Not a good idea. We don't know who we can trust right now so go on! To the park!"
Without waiting for Jack to reply, he rushes off towards the park with Rosseweisse in tow. Jack, who was already an old man, shrugged as he followed Ashen reluctantly.
Entering the park, Ashen takes note of the area and soon notices that not too many people are around. Probably because it was already night and the moon was not shining over the city.
Good thing he had good nightvision which allowed him to run through without hitting anything or tripping over something.
"Mr. Ashen, why do we not just seek help from the law enforcement of this city? I believe it is in their duty to protect us from harm.", Rosseweisse inquired as they moved.
"Tsk! How many times to I have to tell you?", Ashen clicks his tongue and then stops and shoves Rosseweisse inside a bush. Ignoring her yelp, he took out a boxcutter he had taken from Jack's shack and then threw it forward in the dark.
Not long after, the sound of something hitting the ground and the grunt of Ashen was heard.
Ashen then pulls Rosseweisse out of the bush then resumes running after he sees Jack catch up to them.
"I told you before, right now, we don't know who will help us out of sheer goodwill like Jack has or with a hidden agenda like others. Humans are inherently evil so get that in your head already!"
As he said that, the two passed by a body bleeding on the ground with a boxcutter stuck on in its neck.
"It's been proven since ancient times that people in power tend to be easily swayed into betrayal. In this era, it takes just a single word to cause someone to betray another. That's doubly true for people in law enforcement."
After that, he remained silent as he pulled Rosseweisse along without looking back.
'Maybe I should teach this nitwit the common sense of normal humans or maybe just literal common sense? Tch! This stupid Mother Nature just keeps adding to my problems!'
Minutes into their run, they encounter a couple of policemen Ashen presumes to be on patrol. Since they were following the cobbled pathway, it was inevitable that they they would end up passing them by.
Plus, Ashen and Rosseweisse (and most probably, even Jack) were not exactly being too subtle by running around the city. For one thing, they were being chased by 'trigger-happy' gunmen and the other thing being-
"Hey! Are you alright there kid?!", one of the policemen notices them and points his flashlight towards Ashen and revealing his injured body.
-his injured body was plain for the world to see.
But before the policeman could ask Ashen to stop, Ashen had already let fly a kick to the policeman's gut and sent the poor man flying backwards.
"What-"
"Get out of the fucking way!!", Ashen then quickly tackles the other one and sends the man tumbling on the ground.
Ashen then pushes forward without pause. Rosseweisse however, uttered an apology in complete embarrassment towards the policemen who was left groaning on the ground before letting herself be dragged away by Ashen.
Jack who was lagging right behind his two companions did not notice the two policemen on the ground and so he accidentally stepped on both as he passed through.
*****
After a rather arduous rush through the park where Ashen presumes he had left at least 15 corpses of the trigger-happy gunmen and at least 9 groaning policemen which is twice of the original number of their pursuers, the trio then find themselves taking shelter in yet another alleyway. Only this time, they were staying on one of the fire escape platforms above attached to the side of the walls.
"Haaa...haaa..."
All three of them were gasping for breath as they leaned on the railings completely out of energy.
"That...that was not part of the plan boy...why'd you make an old man like meself run that far? Meself almost had a heart attack!", Jack wheezed.
"But you managed to keep up right, so who cares?"
Ashen retorted while trying to steady his breathing while Rosseweisse was basically lying on his lap completely drained. Noticing that, he tried to move her away but then,
'G****, I****, take some rest. You have been up since the break of dawn. Hmm? You wish to rest on my lap? Very well, I shall allow you but not for long okay or my legs will fall asleep.'
The same weird voice echoes out in his mind and his hand stopped as all desire to push Rosseweisse away somehow disappeared from his mind further bewildering him.
"Tsk...I might be already going crazy...damn it."
Jack notices Ashen's exasperated mutter and chuckles, "You sure do hate the girlie eh?"
"Hmph. Of course. I hate humanity in general. First time I hear someone never ask me why though.", with his breathing now stable, Ashen returns to his grumpy and brusque demeanor as he was already fed up with having to put up with other humans.
"Hey if your gonna tell then meself is alright with it. Meself is aged enough to understand things like that.", Jack said with a chuckle, "But seriously boy. You don't look like them common youngsters who wander around the city, gallivanting like there's no tomorrow."
Ashen shrugged, "Isn't that normal for kids in this day and age? I recall some kids also choose not to go horsing around outside their homes and instead just stay inside and play some video games or read some books."
Jack gives Ashen a weird look then a moment later, laughs out loud.
"What?", Ashen felt a little insulted by that and so he responded rather grumpily.
"Hahahaha! Nothing! Meself was just totally finds it funny to see a boy like you again in this day and age!", Jack brushes away the tears from the corners of his eyes.
"What is so damned amusing about me answering like 'that'?"
Ashen was beginning to get pissed.
"Well...Let's just say meself met someone much like yourself long ago. He was an avid hater of people as well.", Jack made a wry smile as he said that.
Ashen was a little surprised by Jack's answer and immediately thought,
'I might get along with him if we met...'
"Oho? Where is this man now?"
"Hm? Oh him? He's dead. Has been for a few decades now."
Ashen felt disappointed at Jack's nonchalant answer thinking that it was a shame that he did not get to meet Jack's acquaintance. But that got Ashen thinking...
"You say he's been dead for a few decades now. That would mean he was alive during the End-of-the-Century War. How old was he when he died?"
Jack made a pondering face and then answered, "Well...he was pretty young when meself met him back in Singapore...if me brain is working right, he should've been 25 that time."
"That's pretty young...was he killed in a crossfire or something?", Ashen somehow felt a little more curious than normal as he listened to Jack.
"Uh...well you could say that."
"What's with the vague answer? What was he anyway?", somehow he found it hard to believe the young man died just like that if he hated other people like Ashen.
Ashen thought that since the young man did, he would've avoided interacting with others as much as possible which in turn reduces the chances of him getting involved in human conflicts.
"Oh that meself clearly remembers..."
"Oh really?"
"Yeah. He was a soldier for a certain country who was killed defending the first Revealed Saint during the war...and let me tell you this boy, you and that girlie's situation is almost completely identical to him and the Saint he was guarding."
"Wha-"
"And not just that! Meself believes that if this follows what meself think it follows...you...and girlie...would be-"
"Don't say it!", Ashen tried to stop Jack as he felt an ominous sense of foreboding wash over him.
He felt that if he let Jack finish, he would be doomed to something far worse than death by bullets.
"-ending as-"
"I said sto-!"
"-star-crossed lovers!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOOOHOOO!!!!!"
"SHUUUUUUUT UUUUUUP!!"