*Chip* *Chip*
"Black is night, an unlit room is even more concealed."
*Chip* *Chip*
"A sane one shirks to search its chambers for fear of what it truly veils."
*Chip* *Chip*
"While the mad and frustrated walk in head first, with insouciance or ignorance."
*Chip* *Chip*
"A solution!"
*Chip!*
"If the sane never know what is in the light...
... Then they would never fear it even if it exists in the dark."
*Chip*
"Alas, death must remain on the end of rejection, a sacrifice to make life beautiful.
And who am I to quash that selflessness, and smother the white page...
... Withal, there are beautiful black dots it has already revealed."
*Chip* *Chip* *Chip*
"Aye, what should I have expected from a man who uses shovels to dig graves?" As the man reciting finished the last sentence of his poem, he looked down from the sky, only to find a nag staring at him weirdly.
"Sorry boss." Akuji's eyes seemed dead and lifeless, but ironically, only the morgue filled him with more light than anywhere else.
"But seeing something like that provokes inspiration."
The onlooker, his boss, followed Akuji's cold finger to the sky. "My core."
The man's arms fell to the side as he peered through the unhappy black trees and the mist of the forest. The sky had been rend asunder, leaving a trail of a long black crack in the middle of the white clouds and blue sky.
Akuji smiled as he continued poking the sand. "Eventually, everybody will become beautiful black dots."
———
BOOM!!!
'Faster, I need to go faster.' Asher controlled the wind to thrust him further through the sky. His eyebrows were straight and pointing down to his nose as a trickle of cold sweat fell down his face.
Nova's cracks were growing wider and more rampant, and whilst he could do nothing to help, he hoped Lucius would be different.
He was already going to fast, fast as not to be able to control his own momentum. His face was burning a bit from the unyielding air resistance. He could avoid it by activating a certain ghostly ability, however, he wanted to focus mainly on his wind ability as he could protect Nova better that way.
It was because of his careless speed however, that he couldn't make his body stop in time as the space in front of him suddenly tore open.
Asher flew into the tear, alone.
"No!" As he looked behind, he couldn't find the space tear he had passed through, it had disappeared.
But Asher knowing how to move through the tears calmed himself a little. He summoned his black flames and clawed open the space in front of him.
However, as he plunged his body into it, he found himself in a different place than what he was expecting. Or rather, in the same environment, but a different place.
He made another hole, and another, nevertheless, to the same vain results.
Withal, he didn't stop. Asher was like a madman, clawing multiple holes and and making the barrier's condition even worse, only to come back to this damned desert.
"Hey! Are you the one who's making this whole place weird?"
"Wait, really?! Can you get us outta here?"
Asher turned his head over his shoulder to glance at the two people on the ground, one in white, the other, black.
It was just a glance however, as he soon continued with his business. Asher was thinking of many ways to get out of the current mess, however, he couldn't find a solution. He had tried his communicator earlier, but it didn't work under the conditions of whatever was happening, he had tried flying out of the desert, but it seemed endless. He had even tried removing his black flames from the barrier, alas, he couldn't control the loose ones at this point because they had already gained full independence.
The Void Flame is a hard to control ability that seemed to have a mind of its own. If Asher summons it, it had to be fed with energy before it would agree to go back into his soul.
Asher cut open another space and disappeared from the boys' sights.
"Son of a —"
"He's still in the desert Enzo, so let's go report back to Yenn and Apocalyph."
"Tch." Enzo reluctantly followed his friend closely. Jiten could navigate around the desert, but somehow not find a way out. It was mystifying, but it was all they had for now.
At least until Yenn finished her master escape plan.
"Hey Yenn! Guess what we found— butt?"
"You mean, 'what?'" Jiten corrected as he too stared dazedly at the sight in front of him.
Apocalyph was standing with his arms stretched out, while Yenn peered from behind him. Apocalyph wasn't hugging Yenn, a relief to Enzo, even if he did think they were related by blood; Apocalyph was hugging a black car instead.
The man in the black car blinked confusingly as he unknowingly muttered,
"Butt?"
———
On the ninth day of Asher's visit to STAR's training room...
The morning in Neath province was just like any other normal Monday morning.
The blue outlined white sun in the sky was shining with gentle light, the birds, flying fishes and occasionally, winged horses with horns were adorning the beautiful sky along with little kids playing with their little hover crafts.
And on the roads were cars, bikes and other vehicles in a traffic jam as it was a work day. But, the traffic jam wasn't really being caused by the many vehicles on the road. No, credit for that belonged to the road safety police.
———
"Um, sir, are you sure this is a good idea?"
Inside a white vehicle parked in an alley, a dark green clothed man looked at his superior beside him.
"Are you doubting my judgement Manny?" His superior officer asked back. This man had dark bags under his eyes as he held a coffee mug in one hand and a digital screen tablet way too close to his face.
In the condition he was in now, it was likely that this superior officer would fall asleep anytime soon from exhaustion, but officer Diaz didn't care about that.
That was because he had spent a whole month coming up with this plan, so he just needed to stay conscious for a little while to see it through.
"No!" Manny took his hands off the wheel and waved them in front of his face. "I'm just not sure it's a great idea to force people to stay in their vehicles just to block the road—"
"It's a great idea!" The man suddenly jolted up as if he had just been woken up by an electric shock. This also 'electrified' the lieutenant beside him.
"All junctions leading in or out of Dane road have to be blocked. All except one, the racing path." The man said while twitching.
"That dang kid has always found ways to escape. I heard he could even drive through a key hole if he had to..."
"But not today, Hahaha! No, I've got him now Manny. They just might put my photo on the platform. Ha! Haha! Hahaha!"
Manny looked at his superior, a drop of nervous sweat sliding down his face. 'He wasn't like this when he got transferred here a month ago, what the heck tripped his balls?'
"Ha, ha, ha." Manny laughed nervously along with his superior.
All of a sudden, a voice sounded from the car's radio. "Chief Diaz, lieutenant Shane, we have movement on the south road going to Dane's."
"Is it him?" The excited chief placed his head on the radio.
"I... I think so. The motion monitor picked up a blurry black image." The man behind the radio sounded unsure.
"And that's from the advanced grade cameras right?" Chief Diaz asked.
"Yes sir, I'm sending the photographed picture to you now."
"It's actually surprising that a car could move that fast, I —"
"No! If the monitors picked up this much detail then it means he's mocking us. You don't make two chiefs turn in their resignation letters with this kind of speed." The hysterical man interrupted as he pressed his eyes on the tab.
Hearing what the Chief had just said, Manny's mouth turned agape. 'Mocking us? The motion cameras couldn't pick up a clear image and he was just mocking us?'
"What kind of car moves that fast?"
"Boy you ain't seen nothing yet."
While in his dazed state, Manny heard his superior say to the man on the other side of the radio, when suddenly, he felt something soft and warm touching his face, like a pillow.
Getting back his consciousness, Manny soon realized that it wasn't a pillow. Pillows didn't smell like fart.
"Scoot over Manny, let me drive." Chief Diaz wiggled his butt in front of Manny's face as he held the wheels.
"Hm!!! Guk!!!" Manny pushed the sleep deprived old man back to his seat.
"I don't think it's a good idea for you to drive sir!" Manny screamed.
"What? What do you mean?!" The chief screamed back.
———
The white sports car drove out of the alley at full speed, leaving, not even a trail of dust or smoke as it zoomed off.
"Manny!!!" Chief Diaz yelled as he watched the white car drive into the distance while crawling out of the alley.
"Manny you wimp! So what if I can't see two feet in front of me? Can't you sacrifice a little safety for the sake of speed?!!!"
"You'll never be able to catch that fiend with your sissy driving skills you know? You, you need... Wait, he can't hear me now, I'll yell at him through the phone."
Sergeant Diaz pulled out his phone from his pocket, but just as he dialed the number on his phone, he fell on his face, straight to dream land.
———
Manny answered the incoming call on the radio, but all he heard from the other side were heavy snores.
Manny sighed.
"My driving isn't that bad. And with the crazy amount of horse power this baby has, I'll catch that guy for you sergeant."
At that moment, Manny saw a thick black line zooming right past him. "Wha—"
Manny stepped on the acceleration pedal, and soon his car also blasted off, trailing that line. There was no time to be surprised.
Manny placed his index finger on the center of the car wheel when a horizontal bar popped up in front of it.
He swiped at the horizontal acceleration bar from the left to right, making it change color from green all the way to orange.
*Screech*
The car's wheels drew violent tyre marks on the road as Manny increased it's speed rapidly.
"There we go." At the speed Manny's car and the one he was chasing after were now moving, he could finally see the clear image of what he was chasing.
"Pheeew." Manny whistled in admiration as he stared at the jet black car in front of him. With wheels like the ones he was seeing, Manny could totally see why this person was breaking the law by speeding excessively.
Just a look at the sharp edges and straight exterior design of the car, one could easily tell that it was meant for speed, a crazy amount of speed. Any less, and it would be an insult to the brand.
'Brand.' Manny looked at the back of the car. But all he saw was 'NVR!' written on it's octagonal shaped plate.
'Wait, what am I thinking!' Manny shook his head. He couldn't believe that he was actually thinking of buying a car like that.
Apart from it probably being worth more than five years of his salary, the black sports car was probably illegal.
Suddenly, Manny got a radio transmission from an unknown source.
"Yo!" The voice from the radio was one of a man, a young man.
"What?" Manny was surprised. He didn't pick the call nor does he recognize this person's voice. The only explanation to why this person was able to speak to a him, unannounced must be that his vehicle was hacked.
'But, how?' The technology the white road vehicle comprised of was foreign to Manny, but it had been scrutinized by a special technical team as very safe. So how did it get hacked so easily?
'I can see why the sergeant's been so worked up about—.'
"Sharp turn!"
In The middle of his thoughts, Manny had almost unknowingly crashed into the road borders and fallen off the road bridge they were on.
Only by an inch did he avoid hitting the borders, as he made a sharp turn.
But crazy enough, the car he was tailing was now behind him.
"Wow, you're a clumsy one aren't you?"
The man in the black car spoke through the radio.
Manny watched the car behind him with a little screen floating beside his right hand.
And as the black car got to the turn, it just took a smooth curve, like it was moving on a straight road.
There was no decrease in speed nor break, it just continued to move as if the road was straight.
"What the!" A drop of sweat slid down Manny's nervous face.
If this mysterious person's automobile could defy physics to that extent, then all Manny could do was pray that the traps the Chief had set up would work, because there was no way Manny would be able to catch that car.
Manny tapped on a button on the tablet beside him, activating the traps his boss had set up.
———
Inside the mysterious black car was a man, not above the age of eighteen.
He wasn't eighteen years old yet, but Neven didn't like to be referred by any number less.
This man (teenage boy) had straight and neck lengthed, black hair with two thick braids by the side, tying up behind his head and some strands falling down both sides of his face.
His eyes were dark, but they looked like they were glittering because of the two four pointed stars lying on the sides of his limbal rings.
Those eyes were full of happiness and innocence at the moment, and it was only when Neven drove that they would twinkle this brightly.
"Hope you're not gonna bore me old man."Neven smiled confidently as he said through the radio.
"I'm so in the zone right now, I feel like I could tear through space."
Today, he would probably remember a popular quote from his Ancient Languages teacher,
"Neven, mind what you say."