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Chapter 5 - Down The Hole We Go!

Selene found herself falling through various landscapes, feeling like crashing through water after a dive. From what she could make out, there was a land with vast fields of people lying on the ground, a world with several landscapes that went on for as far as she could and something told her there was even more, and another world with high buildings on the ocean.

"Oomph, oww" she found herself face first on some solid surface.

Selene got up and found herself standing in the air. She panicked and attempted to grab something nearby, before realizing there was nothing and she was standing just fine. Despite that though she refused to move an inch. Not seeing solid ground directly beneath her feet terrified her.

She was so fixed on finding a fixed surface she had missed something very important about her location.

***

A somewhat tall man wearing strange armor was walking about when he felt that he was being watched. It wouldn't be the first time this has happened, he'd lived a long life and become infamous over the centuries. Now aware that someone was watching him, he tried to pinpoint where they were. After a few moments without pausing his stride, he began to frown realizing he could not pinpoint the person.

***

While Selene was still searching for the ground that belonged under her feet, a flashing light in her peripheral grew in intensity and luminance until she finally looked at the source. The source of the flashing light turned out to be a man wearing a strange suit of armor like a second-skin. The armor stuck so tightly to his body that if not for the difference between the natural skin color on his face and the armor on his body, she would've thought he was nude.

As soon as she looked at him she couldn't pull her eyes away. She tried, but something other than herself was keeping her eyes locked on him and it didn't take her much to figure out what it was.

"Dammit, that damn spider again. I am so sick and tired of having my freedom stripped away by you people," Selene roared, but it fell on deaf ears.

Regardless of how much she tried to thrash around or shouted nothing changed she was forced to watch the man.

***

Since he couldn't figure out where the person was watching him from he decided to smoke them out one way or another. First, he had to determine whether or not the person following him was male or female.

'In my experience keeping this kind of distance and not tripping the psionic threat detection in the suit... It's either a female or a Skirmisher.'

The man thought to himself. Oddly though Selene was aware of what he was thinking. His thoughts appeared in writing above his head. She was floored when she saw this.

As the man grew further away, Selene like the other end of a rubberband was dragged right to him.

***

Feeling the eyes on him rapidly approaching, the man spun around drawing a pistol from who knows where. His movements attracted the attention of other people on the street. Looking left and right still ready to shoot he saw no one.

Selene on the other hand was still as a statue with the weapon just centimeters away from her stomach. She had no knowledge of what the weapon could do but, if the man drew it while believing he was under attack then it would likely do the job of getting rid of the attacker.

Being so close to him though she could see him much better. He had bright red eyes with a verticle pupil, black hair with patches of grey, and slightly tanned skin, which was normal for her people. He had many signs of aging on his face but, somehow he still gave the feeling of being very youthful and near in age to herself.

***

Seeing that no one was there and no one was suspiciously moving about he holstered his weapon which disappeared into his armor and continued walking.

'Either whoever this has Vahrian special ops stealth tech or I'm being haunted by a ghost.'

He walked for a few more steps before arriving outside of a building. The building was beautiful, it was pure white, and there were neon pink and red lights flashing displaying the name of the establishment and depicting the image of angel wings.

'Erogelic'

He stepped into the establishment and Selene was dragged inside with him.

***

Selene had lived for nearly two hundred years, while she was still young among her people, equal to around twenty years old in Terran time. She was well learned and far from innocent. Establishments like this one didn't exist in her homeworld.

Inside the establishment just like the outside was beautiful. The white and gold designs on the walls and floor gave the place a clean and extravagant look. But what really stood out were the people. Selene's people did not view nudity as anything special. One of the largest rituals her people performed required them to be nude and usually, everyone in the clan gathered to watch the ritual. So seeing the naked men and women walking around was nothing to her.

But the ones wearing clothes were the ones she found unique. While nudity was nothing special to her, the idea that a person would wear clothing that revealed themselves was illogical to her. The point of clothing was to be covered to protect from the elements or the claws of animals, even the man's armor made more sense to her than the see-through or cutout cloth some of the people in the building wore.

The action of observing and scrutinizing the people's attire came so naturally that she hadn't realized that she managed to take her eyes off of the man.

Soon one of them will wish that she could do it again.