"ELIM! ELIM, WAKE UP NOW!" The voice was harsh and gruff, which added with the shouting was easily able of waking up Elim.
With a start Elim shot up and turned to the voice. The man and the voice that came from him were stark contracts of each other. He did look gruff enough with a long beard and a face that looked like he was constantly angry. No, the only thing contrasting his voice was his height. Elim was a rather normally looking guy, he had short blonde hair with some orange spots here or there, an angular face that complemented his light amber eyes, and was average height. Though the man that stood in front of him now only slightly made it past his navel, he had hair that was evenly brown and red with eyes like two burning coals.
"Sorry sir, it won't happen again." Elim had been given this job only after he agreed to work with a less than comfortable wage. He had sadly been rejected by just about all of the other factories in his district. He was forger, but an abysmal one at that. Compared to his peers he could only condense a fraction of the power cells they could.
"It better not! I hired you as a charity case, ok?"
"Yes sir."
"So if you fail to perform to the standard I'm paying you for. I'll have to let you go"
"Understood sir." A cold sweat started climbing up Elim's neck. Even though the pay was awful he needed it all the same. At 17 he little to nothing, only a small apartment along with some belongings that where either necessities or had sentimental value. He hadn't tried to fall asleep, it only happened because he couldn't get back home the night before and instead snuck into the factory and curled up next to a dying powercell for warmth. Which left him in this situation because there he was, sleeping in as his boss was still entirely unaware that he had been lying there since the night before.
After gathering himself up Elim stood, brushed off his pants, tucked in his shirt, put on his hat and then finally entered the floor for another day straining himself to the brink of exhaustion. Factories are essentially warehouses jammed with people for the purpose of generating powercells. Burners would generate a large ball of light and energy, general guiders would then move the power to stations where structure guiders, would shape the energy and finally forgers would condense the power-saturated light into power cells. The cells themselves were crystalline blocks around the size of one's fist. They came in many colors as each person used to create the powercell have different color, color mattered little when it came to the the power of the cell except for one color, white as it is simply pure energy. If Elim were to generate, shape and condense a cell all by himself it would be a pale translucent yellow, very weak. It may take longer for him to forge the cells in the factory but they were good quality, he wasn't the one generating the light.
Today he was condensing a bright pink light, which in turn told him that Uhlra generated this light. This was a small factory so you could pretty easily tell who's light you were condensing.
"Hey El!" the voice made Elim jump but it was only Ravsh he was maybe two years Elim's senior but acted like a child so much that Elim sometimes thought he was the older of the two.
"Morning Ravsh" Elim said with a yawn, "and again please don't call me El, not only is it not my name but it's also it makes me sound like a kid."
"Ah, but when you become my age everyone seems like a kid." Ravish responded in a mocking tone, "And I told you to call me Rav." not only did he act like a kid, Rav looked like one too. With shaggy chrome hair with no other colors, big faded green eyes, and small stature he looked like he should still be in school, his freckles don't help either.
"Okay Rav." Elim said, again with a yawn.
A small light flickered in Rav's eyes as he noticed Elim lawn, "You seem tired, when did you get home?"
After a few breaths of not saying anything a smile slowly stretches across Rav's face, "You never made it home did you?"
"And what if I didn't."
"They were there, weren't they?" The light behind his eyes almost seemed manic now.
"And what if they were, I don't mind sleeping here."
"Yes yes, but I can be there for you" his smile said enough that he wanted nothing to do with helping. If there was anything Rav liked more it was fighting. Ravsh Ulma was what is known as a Luxxer, meaning that he was very gifted and well rounded in all three disciplines of light. Why does he even bother with this job Elim thought to himself. As a Luxxer, Ravsh could work so many jobs with much well paying wages. Elim was the only one at the factory who knows Ravsh's identity and only recently at that. What was most shocking of all about Ravsh choosing to work at this trash heap was that he easily out classed not only all of the floor workers but even the old supervisor Nulam himself. He could rather easily buy this place if he wanted to with only a month or two working in one of the inner rings. Was it the excitement of the danger of the outskirts of The City that made him stay?
With a sigh and in defeat Elim responded "You can come tonight."
"Realy." he honestly sounded way too eager.
"But," and he wanted to make his extensions very clear. "Under two conditions."
"Of course my wonderful friend."
"First, if it seems too dangerous at any point, we run."
"Naturally."
"And second, no matter what, don't kill them okay?"
"Tha-"
"Okay?!"
"I agree to your terms, though I do not like how these people have treated you. Not only have they extorted you countless times but now they stock your own home, now that is just plain lazy."
"I'm glad you're on my side?"
"As you should."
"Now let me work. I have a lot of cells to make or else our wonderful friend Nulam is going to deduct my salary."