2 CHAPTER 2:THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

CHAPTER 2: THE CALM BEFORE THE STORM

After traveling for a few days out in the desert district, Nicholas and Oliver stopped to rest up for the night. Nicholas unsheathed his sword on his back, a large, curved sword. The scabbard and handle wrapped similarly in the skin of a giant diamondhead speartooth rattlesnake. The light shined off the blade and when he pulled the sword all the way out of his sheath and pointed it at the ground, the reflection of the moon on the sword shined on the sand. He threw his sword into the sand. He then started to set up camp.

"Is this going to be a good spot to set up Oliver?" I said before setting up the campfire.

"Yeah, should be." Oliver said. A rustling in the sand drew my attention. I looked at Oliver and put my finger up to my lips signaling silence. He stood straight up and pulled out one of his revolvers. I remove my sword from the loose sand and watch as a small spider-mole crawls out of the sand and scurrys away and back into the sand.

We both relaxed at the sight of such a harmless creature. His face was completely in disbelief. I glance at him and chuckle. He looked at me with the same look of disbelief on his face. I blush and laugh, turning around to walk back to the camp. Midway back to the camp setup the ground began to shake. I tried to stabilize myself when I noticed that Oliver was still by where the spider-mole was.

"Oliver! Run!" He looked at me and tried to run as the mother of the baby spider-mole breaks through the sand, ahorrible spider-like mammal that has huge claws and eight massive legs. It's fangs were the size of a man's arm. Oliver jumps into a roll to evade a strike from the spider-moles leg. The spider-mole slams its first claw on the right side into Oliver's back dragging him through the sand and up into the air. I stopped running and watched in horror as Oliver fired his guns aimlessly. I managed to jump into the air and swing my sword, sending a blade of energy through the air, cutting into the spider-mole. I landed and slid in the sand before cutting the claw that was clasping tightly onto Oliver. He fell to the ground and tried to orientate himself. I began to run towards him to at least try to help him.

A loud noise echoed from the sky. It was like a jet had come down to land right before them. It was a roar of speed. The spider-mole had reared up to strike us both down but before it could something had sliced it in twain, cleaved apart with one swing. When the female spider-mole began to slide apart the figure of a man with dark black wings became visible from behind it. His essence was pure evil. Nicholas had known this with his whole heart. The man had a dark aura surrounding him.

"Something isn't right here." I had said to myself.

"How very astute of you, Nicholas," the man said. "My name is Xavior and I'm The Fallen Angel." He lands softly in the sand. His wings folded into his back before they dissipated. He was wearing ruffled up pants with a tattered jacket around his waist, tied in the center. He had no shirt on, revealing scars and burns. He had a cocky grin on his face. His eyes were closed but he never lost confidence in himself.

"You seem nervous," His smile grew into an evil smirk and a purely unsettling laugh emerged between his gritted grin, he opened his eyes and they grew dull and red from his familiar silver eyes.

"Cousin." What did he just say.. Is he really related to me? My family was killed when I was young. He can't be related to me. There's no way this guy could possibly be related to me! He got into a ready position and raced towards me. His hair was long, black and slicked back. His eyes illuminated with a pure and indescribable hatred that was noticeable from a mile away. Inscribed in his eyes were a pattern that I recognized but couldn't figure out how. I was in shock. I had to prepare myself. He got there before I could do anything other than ground myself. He grabbed me by my throat and suspended me in the air with ease, restricting my ability to breath.

"You see Nicholas, I'd kill you now if it were up to me," his arm hardened into rock. It was practically a blade. "But that'd spoil my fun. I still have so much to put you through." He laughed and stabbed his arm into my stomach. My body wrenched at the pain of his arm stabbing ruthlessly into my stomach. He pulled out just as suddenly as he stabbed into me, pulling out a trail of my blood. He returned his arm to normal and shook off the blood that was on his hand with disgust. He was still holding me in the air while my body was suspended , almost completely limp. All Oliver could do was sit and watch. Even he understood the power Xavior wielded. He dropped me on the floor and scoffed at me.

"I would've thought you were stronger, little cousin, but I guess against an opponent like me you never really stood a chance." He turned his back, reveavling the ancestral tattoos of my family. His tattoos were of wings. They unfurled and expanded as he took off, leaving sand falling from the sky.

Oliver ran to me as soon as he was sure everything was safe. My sight was blurring. What I remember last was Oliver standing above me holding my wound closed. I awoke what felt like days later in a lightly lit cave. I rubbed my head and looked for Oliver. Oliver! I looked around worriedly and shot up onto my feet.

"Oliver? Oliver! Where are you?" No response.

"Ollie?" I ran toward the entrance when Oliver came running from around the corner.

"Nick? What are you doing awake?" He was concerned. I could tell by the way he spoke. I couldn't even utter any words. I pulled him into a hug and just held him. I held him close to me and so tight I thought I'd hurt him accidentally.

"I was so worried…" He said with the most sensitive and caring tone I had ever heard from someone.

"Me too.." I managed to choke out, just before having to hold back my tears. This is the first time since as soon as I could remember caring about someone and being as worried about someone as I did with Oliver. I won't let him get hurt like I did.. Like my family did.

Once Oliver and I had let eachother go I had sat down on the floor.

"Okay so first things first, who was that Xavior guy and why did he have so many powers?" Oliver had broken the silence that I had been afraid to break.

"I don't know. We need to keep moving towards the Sky City." I pointed out.

"It's too late to move from this location now but by dawn we should be in the clear to start." He made sure to pull out the holo-map to show me where we were in relation to the edge of the Gamora Desert.

"Second, do you think you could maybe stop passing out? I couldn't heal you right away. My powers have restrictions. I had to wait until nightfall."

"Yeah I'll try not getting attacked by my murderous cousin with freaky powers, thank you very much."

"You can thank me by not dying. I can't heal corpses." He put his hands up with his palms facing me and shrugged.

We both ended up falling asleep and by dawn I could feel my power being drawn like blood straight from my body. It was odd. Awakening wasn't going to be the hardest part of today. It would be the seemingly endless walking Oliver and I will have to do now that our horses were destroyed. No simple fix. Just had to be done.

That morning Oliver and I had set off to the City district, Sky City. The sun hadn't been out too long so the sand was just heating up. They had walked for a good two hours before the edge of the Desert District had come into sight.

"How are we doing this?" Oliver said as we walked quickly to the edge.

"Uhh.. Haven't really thought about it?" After saying that an idea had appeared in my head. If we both run at the same time I could cut out a chunk of the City District's support, giving us a way up, but it needs to be timed perfectly. The districts are just made up of rock and earth so it gives way easily under my Point Breaker slice.

"Okay I have an idea! Do you trust me?" I started running towards the edge and unsheathed my sword. He ran towards me and I grabbed his hand. I used my Point Breaker slice to break parts of the base down into the abyss before throwing Oliver as far as I could. I jumped following him. We both were in freefall and gathering ourselves. After I got myself together I found the nearest rock that was falling next to me, I positioned myself to push off, sending myself just to the top of the City District. I grabbed the ledge and held on with my whole strength. Oliver wasn't far behind, but instead of one large push, he was bouncing off of smaller rocks. He was at the same ledge as I was before long. I pulled myself up and offered my hand to help him up. By that time though he had already started pulling himself up.

"Can we please never do that again?" He was out of breath and struggling to regain it.

"Fine by me. We need to find a better way to travel between districts don't we."

"Yeah. Yeah we do." He stood up straight after regaining his breath and laughed a little bit.

"Well there's plenty of places for shelter, that won't be a problem at least." Oliver said sarcastically.

"Yeah. Let's head to the nearest tavern. See what we can get out of the locals." I said while sheathing my sword. As we walk down the roads of the City District we notice a brightly lit tavern that had loud enjoyable music.

"How about there?" I suggest kindheartedly.

"Nick I don't really think it's a good idea to be drawing attention to ourselves in a place like this." Oliver said hesitantly.

"Ollie, it's just one night. I'm sure we'll be fine in there. Please?"

"Fine but we need to keep our heads down. We don't have much gold to pay for nanite spritz sour drinks."

"Fine by me." I smiled and walked towards the tavern and when I reached the door and went to open the door but my hand was stopped by Olivers.

"Be careful Nick." He made strong and direct eye contact with me.

"Then you need to be extra careful. Stop worrying about me. Enjoy the night." I said putting a hand on his shoulder and opening the door. The tavern was energy filled.

"Looks like we've got company boys," A cyborg woman in all black and red said.

"They look strong. I like their energy," A large man with blonde hair and blue eyes said.

"Leave them to enjoy their night together, they look like love birds to me." A slender man wearing black and green, but fully covering his body with clothing had said.

"The names Sloane." The lady in black and red spoke. She was confident in herself. She was wearing mostly black clothes with red accents. Her hair was completely shaved on one side. She was missing part of her jaw and it was replaced with metal. She was missing some fingers on her left hand and her whole right hand was gone, replaced with a metal hand and each finger individually replaced with sharp metal claws.

"The big blondie is Aleksi and the dude in green is Cyclone. Relax and have a beer or two. It's on the house for tonight."