UNTITLED: Book One

DAY 135

I’m sorry, it’s not my intention

You know,

I’m just intent on my own thoughts

“Aiye, what the fuck is Earth?” Thema grills, with her blade still to his throat.

She’s not wearing a battle skin. Instead, she has on baggy joggers and a skin tight short-sleeve that outlines the definition of her muscles around her shoulders, abs and back. Her silk black hair drapes down behind her like a cape, even closer to the ground now. Her blackened, burnt arms looking like a part of the outfit. And oh, she’s still wearing those damned sunglasses?

Aiye rolls his eyes at the sight of them, as he certainly plans to do every time he catches her wearing them.

“I slept for a damn-near day, thinking I’d wake up to all this shit being over and done with. Instead, I wake up to more problems Aiye.” She turns back around towards Gold and Carbon, removing her blade from his throat.

“Sorry to disappoint. And it’s a planet. The planet I was born on. It’s the place we all call the Dark State.” Aiye grunts as he stands up, still shaken by the immense pressure he initially endured from Gold’s attack.

“By the way, you bump into Sol down there, by any chance?”

“Solara? No? What happened to her? And wait, you’re from the Dark State??… Huh.” Thema’s voice grows suspicious and there’s a subtle shift in her stance.

Aiye quickly replies, “Stop. Chill with all that. I was taken as a baby. I don’t know shit about the place. Also, Sol’s down there.”

He then points to the massive hole Gold made when she knocked Solara down and through the city in the sky. Thema looks over at it, shifting her mood back to normal. Whatever that means between her and Aiye anyways.

“Oh. Tch. Nah. I definitely didn’t bump into her. I was in The Eye. Maybe Tozi and Junaid have-”

“-Tozi and who?”

“No.3 and No.4.”

“Ah.”

Aiye follows up “But also, hold up. If you were in the Eye, then you should already know what’s up?”

“I was asleep most of the time. I literally just said that? I only woke up when your- …Uncle? When he was giving his little speech.”

Aiye is annoyed by that. “So exactly. You already fucking knew what was going on…”

Thema shrugs. “Just wanted to see what you’d say, But also, I was watching other things too,” she weirdly replies. Her tone and intensions inscrutable.

Aiye nods his head for a moment, stuck in deep thought before finally deciding to move on from this, “I’ll take the golden one. She’s very strong, but I’ve figured her out. The Silver was easy. You can take—”

“Good for you, but no. I’ll take both your Uncle and the Gold one. I need the warmup, and the practice. Besides, the silver one is getting back up.”

“What?” Aiye whirls around to look in the direction of Silver’s body.

Sure enough, Silver is standing up, using her weapon as a support. Her suit glowing brightly while she’s grimacing and grunting in pain. Aiye leans in and squints his eyes in frustration and disbelief. It’s healing her! Her suit is healing her!? Wait, is it? He looks harder, and sees it. It’s not healing her, it’s basically just acting as life support. She’s basically dead without that suit now, unless they have some super advanced medical tech.

“Permission to use full power!?” Silver shouts over to Carbon.

Carbon looks Aiye up and down one more time—a look of sadness flashes across his face, then he glances back at the war still raging on in the distance. He then looks at Thema, until his eyes fall upon the sword. He clenches his fist and his jaw, silently fuming at the sight of it. He never forgot.

“Sollar truly is dead… Shame.” Carbon says to Thema.

That peaks her interest as she wonders about their connection, but she tries not to show it, “Why, friend of yours?”

“He murdered thousands, almost got my sister and I, and he and The Warden killed my parents—all in the same day. So, no child. I was just hoping to have killed him myself.” He solemnly replies.

“Shame.” Thema replies half mockingly, half sincere.

Carbon winces and then looks at Aiye once more, this time sorrowful. “You really do look like your Mother.”

He then raises his fist in the air and all three of their suits start shining brightly. Silver and Gold get in a lower fighting stance. Then he opens his fist and they all attack.

—

Solara holds on tightly to the landing gear of the transport that caught her. Turns out that she didn’t fall straight down into the city, but rather through a couple levels and then right out the side of the city. It seems the Dark States cage was just around the top of the city.

Luckily for her, while falling, a transport caught her. Well, she grabbed on to it and refused to let go—reasonably so. Unlucky for her, it was No.3 and No.4—and some random New Wave pilot. So she decided to remain hanging on to the outside of the transport while they all flew towards the island.

At first Solara aggressively demanded that they go back to the top of the city—threatening to punch a hole through the cockpit, but they desperately insisted that Thema would be at the top of the city to help Aiye. When they realized that wasn’t enough, they then mentioned that the Dark State Hero AND The Warden were both on Isi-Iyi. So Solara, excited at the idea of facing both the Hero and Warden at the same time, decided to go along with them—“just real quick”.

As they zoom through the sky, they dodge fire from enemy fighters and the defense systems on the cruisers and carriers. They try to stay out of range, sometimes grouping up with a cluster of their own people’s ships whenever they can, but ultimately they end up spending most of the ride dodging fire.

Solara, enjoying the ride, climbs her way to the top of the transport trying to surf it through the sky. She quickly discovers that it’s a stupid idea and ends up flat on her stomach, clinging to both sides of the transport for her life. The g-force of the transport is enough to kill a regular person so it’s got her feeling extremely nauseated with a headache. Then, suddenly any enemy fighter trio is on their tail.

The enemy fighters take formation just when the transport is beginning to near the island. This causes the transport pilot to pull away, narrowly avoiding a missile flying overhead. Solara catches a glimpse of it as it flies past her face as if in slow motion. Her eyes widen as she mouths, “Fuckkkk this.” Then she proceeds to climb her way to the back to entrance of the transport.

“OPEN UP.” She bangs and shouts through the hatch door, over all the fighting and explosions around them. She presses her ear to the door to listen.

“Ms. Solara! I- I don’t think right now is the best time!” The timid New Wave pilot replies while she continues to maneuver them through the ongoing air battle, avoid fire from the enemy trio.

Solara, with her New Wave hearing catches Tozi whispering to the pilot, “Miss? Don’t call her that!? She doesn’t deserve all that!”

“I’m sorry. I know you’re ranked three, but THAT’S Solara. As in ‘Aiye and Solara’. I do NOT want to die when we land!”

“How about blowing motherfuckers outta the sky then!?” Solara shouts back. “All this running is making me feel sicknwndjs!”

Solara throws up.

“HAH. Nice.” Junaid laughs, enjoying seeing her defeated by gravity.

“Oh nooo…” the pilot groans, her eyes still darting around the battlefield, locked in.

Her hands move across the controls, maneuvering the transport with lightning precision, but still she refuses to kill, so the enemy trio continue shooting at them. A couple shots slam against the back of the transport, just barely missing Solara. She’s getting tired holding on. The amount of strength and endurance it’s taking her to avoid flying off this very fast moving vehicle is massive. She’s getting a bit tired and very frustrated. She’s had it with waiting.

Solara bangs again, repeatedly. Bang bang smack bang-bang, bang smack. Bang bang smack bang-bang, bang smack. Bang bang smack bang-bang, bang smack. Bang bang smack bang-bang, bang smack. Bang bang smack bang-bang, bang smack:

{

“When this shit lands just know that imma kill you. So open this door so that I could fucking get through—I want outta this mess. You need to open this door before I do it myself. I’ll punch a hole in the cockpit. Watch me, turn this from ship into a rocket. Then drop it, to watch it explode and smoke on the island. Blown to pieces on Isi-Iyi is where they’ll find you. Where your legs’ll be, farrr from what your legacy—”

}

The the door opens and Solara crawls in, with a smirk on her face, just as a shot hits where she was just previously standing.

“Oh my goodness! Did you just use our way to speak murder towards another New Wave?? I thought that was like our one sacred thing!?” The pilot asks, genuinely shocked, clearly not completely familiar with how Aiye and Solara move.

Solara ignores her and braces herself as she stands up in front of the seats rather than sitting down, directly in front of Tozi and Junaid. They uncomfortably scoot over not wanting to be so close to her like that. Unclear if this is some power play, or Solara just being her oblivious self. They watch her stare silently out of the cockpit windshield while the pilot desperately continues to evade the enemy trio.

“Open the hatch again.” Solara blurts out.

“WHAT?” The other three all shout in unison.

“Yes… I don’t think we’re gonna make it to the island like this because this one won’t fight back,” she demonstratively points at the pilot. “So open the hatch and I’ll handle this.”

“How will you—?” A curious Junaid begins to ask before he is cut off.

“No!” Tozi interrupts, putting her arm across Junaid’s chest as if protecting him from Solara’s fuckery, “No you won’t! You’ll just ditch us and find a different way to get to the island!” She accuses.

“Absolutely, yes. It’s definitely one way of handling things?” Solara shrugs. “I’m the one we need on the island. I mean, you’ve got one arm?” Solara then points again at the pilot, “She doesn’t even fight! And—hm…Maybe this guy, though.” She points to Junaid. “But I can do what he would do anyways, so really it’s just me that needs to get up outta here? Open the hatch!”

“No one’s doing anything! I suggest you strap in!” The pilot says, her voice no longer timid, but locked in.

She tightens her grip around the control sphere and the transport suddenly jolts as it speeds up.

“Oh, a change of heart, nice.” Solara says with a hint of sarcasm, but also meaning it because she doesn’t want to die because of this girl who won’t fight back.

She finally sits down and all three of them—her, Tozi and Junaid— fasten their seatbelts in unison.

The pilot glances back at them, flashing a grin, then faces forward, “Yeah. Let’s do this.”

Her hands flash across the controls and the transport does a nosedive directly towards an enemy carrier. The enemy trio follows them and continues firing. The transport twists and turns on its way down towards the large carrier. It’s already under heavy fire from the city’s defense system and the few fighter ships they have, so its guns are preoccupied.

The enemy trio trailing them attacks again and they take more fire. Their shields are dropping quickly, below 10% now, the pilot shouts out. Just as the transport looks as though it’s about to crash into the carrier from its nosedive, the pilot makes the ship thrust parallel with the carrier at the last moment.

Even though their bodies are enhanced, the G-force still smacks them all back against the wall and Solara looks sick again, not completely over her early nausea. Her mouth is expanded like someone who ate too much too fast and has yet to swallow. She looks at Junaid as her mouth and cheeks expand with what likely is throw up. Junaid doesn’t notice her looking at him at first, but when he does his head snaps back with surprise and disgust, trying to create any type of distance he can while they’re both strapped in to their seats this close together. Frowning, worried she’ll throw up on him, he quickly shakes his head ‘No’.

After being rejected by Junaid, her mouth still full, she begins to turn her head towards Tozi who stops Solara before she can fully look her way by turning her cheeks back using just two fingers.

Solara then gulps it down. Tozi never bothers to even look away from the cockpit windshield, where all the action is happening.

Also, Solara awkwardly chose to sit directly in between Junaid and Tozi, completely oblivious or uncaring about they meant to one another.

The ship skims across the length of the carrier now, through the heavy fire it is both receiving and dishing out, dodging its large guns and the debris fly from it. The enemy trio is a duo now.

“…The fuck are they so determined for?” Solara, looking out the window, muttering to herself, genuinely bewildered and disgusted by their high level of effort…as if they would just get bored and quit in the middle of a war.

Tozi, on her other side, simply stares at her in disbelief with an incredulous look across her face. “And what… do you expect them, to do?”

Solara is slightly startled, as if remembering suddenly she’s not the only person in the transport. She nonchalantly looks over and replies, “Fly away? I don’t know?”

“Fly awa- what…?”

Solara scowls. “I remember you... You’re the one who twirls sticks and swords. The epitome of relying on weapons. Since when were you so fucking talkative? Or so bold.”

“Ohhh, I don’t know Solara. I guess something about going one-on-one with a zombie-old-guard-fallen-star-maniac, with a weapon that easily destroys entire landscapes, just…changes you.”

“Huh.” Solara replies after looking her up and down. “Aight then…No.3. Shame about your arm though. I would’ve enjoyed testing this new-look you if you actually looked new.”

“Fuck you.”

Junaid just sits awkwardly on the other side, just listening. His body remains still and he dares not speak, but his eyes move back and forth between the two as they send jabs at one another.

Solara smirks, “Well, at least you sound the part-”

The ship takes a direct hit.

“We’ve lost a main engine and shields are now completely gone! Hold on!” The pilot shouts back towards them. “I’m gonna get us around this carrier after I take out one more of these guys!”

Solara rolls her eyes and throws her head back in frustration, “UGH. Can you you just fucking take me to the island already! Drop me off and do your flying thing afterwards, I still need to get back! This was supposed to be real quick!”

“I’m sorry! I would’ve if I could’ve! The airspace along the most direct path was the most dangerous and clogged. Just going near it picked up these three, well two, enemies!” The pilot continues shouting for them to hear.

She plays chicken with one of the large guns on the carrier, now aimed at them. The moment it fires she banks to the side, dodging it and taking out another enemy. “One enemy,” she mutters to herself as she makes the transport graze the carrier as they loop around from the top of it to its underside.

“One more! Also, there’s something really crazy happening on that island!”

“Of course there’s something crazy happening! A Dark State Hero is fighting the motherfucking Warden!” Solara shouts back.

Junaid chuckles and mumbles to himself, “It’s funny, because for you, he is a mother—.” But he wisely stops himself, hoping she wasn’t paying attention despite them all having very good hearing. He decides not to look Solara’s way despite feeling her staring. Hmph. Can’t use my fists in here any way, he justifies to himself, still not looking her way.

Tozi defends the pilot, “Get off her like that and let her focus!” Then she turns directly to Solara and asks, “Wait. What do you mean by ‘one of’ the heroes, plural?”

“There’s like three more on top of the city where me and Aiye were.”

Tozi and Junaid look at one each other, panic across their faces. Tozi looks back at Solara after realizing, “AND YOU LEFT HIM?? Shit! WE left Thema and the entire city unprotected!”

“Y’all insisted Thema would arrive and handle it! I know Aiye can survive long enough for her to arrive. She was probably in The Eye, I’m willing to bet.” Solara defends.

Although that answer doesn’t wipe away her worries, Tozi tries to relax and refocus. Especially since they have their own problems right now.

The transport rattles as they take on more damage. The pilot’s focus impossible to interrupt at this point. She has them flying-falling, through the air battle, barreling towards the island that’s giving off bright flashes.

Junaid calmly speaks up for the first time since Solara entered the ship, “How would you know that she was in The Eye?”

“It’s where I’d be. It’s where I’d like to be, soon.” Solara responds.

“What exactly is in there? I’ve always wondered.” He continues.

Solara looks at him briefly, then back in front of her, “Don’t worry about it. Let’s just hurry up and finish this. Aiye needs me.”

“You say that as if this is going to be easy.” Tozi interjects.

“…Very talkative. And very bold.” Solara simply responds, reiterating her earlier observation.

Tozi brushes it off, “I’m just saying. It won’t be that easy, not even for you. I’m also worried about getting back to the city you know.”

“You’ve been sayin’ a lot. And Thema has the same type of weapon as The Warden, she’ll be fine for as long as she is fine. And if not, she can teleport, apparently. But now that i think about it more, it actually is Aiye who I’m worried about. Like, he can definitely hang with those three for a while, but he doesn’t use weapons, just like me. Unlike me, however, he’s not aggressive when he needs to be. He doesn’t like going for the kill. So even though he could win, he’ll drag it out and get himself too tired. That’s usually when I come in to finish things if it’s serious. But I’m not there so this will give them an opening if he’s not careful. ThUs, I’m worried. The enemy up there is no pushover.”

Tozi and Junaid exchange looks of confusion.

Tozi looks directly at Solara and scoffs before asking skeptically, “You’re joking right?”

“Are you stupid? Why would I be joking about this?? It’s Aiye I’m talking about!” Solara snaps at Tozi.

The ship rattles again from some narrow misses and their now-failing second engine, catching their attention momentarily before Tozi probes further.

“Do- do you not know?”

“Know. What!? Speakkkk!”

Tozi holds her hand up in response, but continues, “Solara, there’s a reason why we all dislike Aiye way, WAY more than we dislike you. I mean, you’re an asshole and daddy’s little girl-”

Solara clenches her fist and glares at Tozi who now raises both her hands in surrender and continues.

“-Hey, it’s just how it is. But yeah, Aiye... Aiye’s different Solara. You stopped showing up to the ranking trials as we got older and that’s when his thing started popping up. In fact, I’m starting to think now that it only pops up when you’re not around, or close enough. He’s scary…”

“His thing?” Solara asks, ignoring the rest.

“Yeah, his thing. Wait, do you also not know about our things??” A bewildered Tozi asks as she looks at an equally bewildered Junaid.

Confused, Solara tries, “What…? Like our thing? Where we gotta talk like this, rhyming shit to relate to one another with our messag—?”

Tozi interrupts, “Noo. Everyone has their thing? Ring a bell? No? Wow, you are so out of touch with everything around you... Okay. So check this out, we all have our thing. Mine is, I can hear weapons and talk to them. Not like, literally, but yeah, it’s like a sixth sense I suppose. I’ve got a good feel for them and their flow basically, is all that means.”

“Useless.” Solara innocently asserts her honest opinion while nodding and gesturing for Tozi to continue, listening intently to her words.

“Again, fuck you. Whatever. Anyways, Ju’s thing is he goes from a fun-loving, fight-loving guy, to being essentially a mute whenever he’s too stressed—still always ready to fight everyone. But he gets silent and it can last a while. He communicates with his fists, refuses to use weapons, and understands people emotionally based on their fight style. Except, unlike you, he has morals.”

“Okay, well first off, respect to No.4 for being the only one of you with some heart. Secondly, seems like we share the same thing. Simple. What’s the big deal?” Solara says while gesturing between her and Junaid.

“Fuck you yet again, and no you definitely don’t.” Tozi simply replies.

“We do? You literally just described me?? That’s MY thing?”

“Except it’s not.” Tozi responds in her most patronizingly fake-polite voice possible, hoping to annoy the shit out of Solara.

“THEN WHA-” Solara catches herself after realizing Tozi’s enjoyment in seeing her get flustered. She asks again, attempting to keep her cool and appear more calm, “Then, what the fuck is?”

“You’re a predator.” Junaid simply says.

“You have that other you, that hunter you. Like a split personality that only shows up when you’re around something strong. And also you start sniffing people like a weirdo and you give off very dense murderous intent. It’s very creepy. But also, kinda weird.” Tozi follows up.

Junaid grunts in agreement, then echoes, “Quite chilling. Quite weird.”

“I’m not werid you’re weird,” a suddenly self-conscious Solara quickly defends.

Solara then ponders for a moment, remembering Aiye mentioning something like this. She always thought he just stopped her from getting pissed. She never really thought much of it before, but she brushes the thought off for a moment to get to the point of all this.

“Okayyy. So what’s Aiye’s thing?”

“…He’s a psychopath.” Tozi, Junaid, and even the pilot say in unison. This causes Solara to be taken aback and look between all three of them—skeptical. And possibly more annoyed than shocked.

Tozi persists, “Solara, when he’s in his mode—his ‘thing’, Aiye is a genuine. Fucking. Psychopath. It doesn’t even come out as often as everyone else’s. For some of us it’s on all the time and for others it needs a trigger. A clear one. But no one knows his trigger! It has no consistency. We thought it was whenever you’re not around, yet even that wasn’t consistent. Some times he’ll be the calmest person in the world. Most times, really. Which made it that much more of a mindfuck and that much scarier. I didn’t often match up against him during trials, but when the two of you and The Broker jumped us not long ago, I felt it first hand. And you were nearby that time. It never makes sense! I'd even go as far to say that when he’s like that, he might actually be stronger than you.”

“Might be.” Junaid echoes with a nod.

“Huh.” Solara can’t find words as her mind races with this new information. She tries to remember things from the past, clues to corroborate what they’re telling her, but she’s interrupted.

“Uhmmm. So I have some good news and some bad news!” The pilot says, not taking her eyes off what’s in front of her. “The good news is I got rid of the last enemy fighter on our tail and we’re heading for the island. Pretty close now.”

“The bad news is the other engine is busted now too, I’m assuming?” Tozi asks.

“Welllll, yes. But also, an enemy battleship has just gotten in our way and I can’t really maneuver much anymore. We’re basically just falling fast, but now we’re falling fast towards the battleship. If we jump out at this speed, maybe No.4 and Solara can survive with some broken bones, but it’s not looking good for you and me. I’m going to try to get us lower, but we’re basically gonna need a miracle.”

Just she says that, a barrage of blasts crash through the battleship in their way, blowing it out of the sky.

“Ohh, wow. Maybe manifesting is my thing now,” The pilot says half-joking. She then begins scanning back-and-forth between the radar and out of the windshield. “Hmm. This is someone else that’s not our people, and I can’t actually tell if this is a miracle, or an even bigger problem.”

“Where are they coming from?” Tozi asks.

“They’re coming from the continents…in the direction of the surface cities?”

Solara scoffs with a chuckle, “Brokerrrrrrr!”

The thunderous drum strikes once…