"My body aches, I need sleep."
A white haired man with dark circles and blood shot eyes, a clear sign of lacking sleep, stood in front of a shop.
"I really need sleep." Lukas stared at his reflection in the show-glass of the fashion shop. He put his hand in his pocket pulling out a gold-rimmed glasses and putting it on. He looked around taking in his environment. He was standing on the sidewalk of a busy street. High tech Cars and bikes zoomed past. The sidewalk was mildly crowded with people and robots going back and forth on hover boards. Across the sky snaking between tall, high-rise buildings and floating bridges was a glowing train. On the side of the train, typed in huge Letters were the words "Hub Train - the 21st"
'Hub train? So this is a port town. This works for me. Port towns are very small sized planets that serve as stations if someone wants to go from one dimension to another. A train though, last time I was in a port town it was a spaceship. I guess they upgraded. Anyway this should work for me because of that 'appellation' any portal I try to open gets messed up.'
"Tsk"
Lukas clicked his tongue as he walked, blending in with the crowd.
-----------
"Appellation?" Nathan asked the dark-skinned man walking infront of him."
"It's a title, more like a brand. It's like an identity that the cosmos gives you and it will affect you. We don't understand it completely but we have a few theories. The cosmos gives an Appellation when it notices something constant in your life. For example, once, a man that had a bounty on him, managed to escape each bounty hunters 24 times in a row. He got the appellation 'the one chased by death'."
"Hm... Doesn't sound too bad, it's like the cosmos is acknowledging your efforts." Nathan said.
"He died that same day."
"What?!" Nathan stopped before quickly catching up to Noah again.
"He began getting chased by... Things other than bounty Hunters."
"What does that mean?"
"If he passed by a construction site, metal bars would fall off and try to kill him. If he crossed the road, a car would malfunction and try to kill him. He died when he fell and hit his head while trying to avoid his own chopping knife that flew out of his hands while he was cooking."
"That feels too-"
"Coincidental? Like I said, the appellation will affect you." Noah said as they rounded a corner leading to a flight of stairs.
"So it's a curse."
"Not necessarily. I have an Appellation."
Noah stopped, then slowly turned backwards to face Nathan.
"The war's echo, 400 years in a warzone gave me that. The appellation gives me focus during a fight, allows me to see my opponents weaknesses. And it also lets me do this."
Boom!
The sudden feeling of fear fell on Nathan as he looked into Noah's eyes. He felt like he could see piles of bodies and pools of blood in them. The feeling suddenly disappeared. "Appellations aren't blessings but they aren't curses either, but if I had to chose. I'd say we're better off without them."
Noah's gazed lingered on Nathan for a while before he turned around and continued going up the stairs.
"So Luke has an Appellation?" Nathan asked after a while.
"He has more than one." Noah said as he stopped infront of a door at the end of the stairs.
"Listen here Country bumpkin, from here on out forget everything you know. You're about to witness the other side of the cosmos, and that guy you keep calling Luke, his name is Lukas. It's better you don't portray yourself has being associated with him. This whole new part of the universe you're about to see is huge and trust me from the little I've seen. He occupies a huge part of it."
Clank!!
Noah slowly opened the door. Nathan noticed that they were now on the top of the building. The tower guards stood around as if guarding something, and what they were guarding soon came into view, a huge, spaceship covering the sky.
"It's huge" Nathan muttered.
Noah looked at him.
" I know. Country bumpkin, Welcome aboard the 'Comet'. "
-----------
"Ahhhh!!!!!"
A loud shout drew the attention of people. In the small cyber city of Port town the 21st, Robot guards with plasma guns were chasing after a white haired guy on a hoverboard.
"Wait I can explain!!" Lukas shouted as he surfed through the narrow streets at breakneck speed.
A robotic sound came from one of the robots that had begun shooting.
"Stop! You are not registered. Your information is not in our database. Unauthorised entry. Do not resist arrest, or we will be forced to use force."
"Will be forced my ass!! You're already using force." Lukas replied dodging a shot that almost took his head off.
"I knew I couldn't trust anywhere the appellation sends me. There are billions of free zones across the universe where no one would penalised me for opening a portal. Why couldn't it send me there!. Hah... I really don't want to go jail again." Lukas lamented.
"Ha. So you have been to jail before you criminal."
"Screw you! And why are you listening to me while I'm talking to myself."
Toot toot!
Lukas looked up and passing above him, snaking between buildings was the 21st train.
'I need to get on that train. If I had known that I would get arrested for illegal portal entry. I wouldn't have gone to the Train station. I have to lose these guys first and think of another way to get on the train.' Lukas thought as he looked at the robots chasing him.
------------
Two men in Black suits stood on the beach in which Lukas has fallen out of the portal.
One of them held a phone-like device that was beeping continuously. Standing around them were robot guards like the ones chasing Lukas.
"The spatial distortion happened here." One of the men said. "What's the reading?"
The first man tapped on the device before a look of shock appeared on his face.
"What is it?" The second man asked.
"The readings... It says there is Void Essence."
"Void Esse-"
"Sir, there's report. We've found the cause of the portal distortion. Its a white haired young man, pursuit is underway."
One of the robots said, facing the two men. The two men looked at each other before exclaiming.
"Shit! it's him!!"
"Call the tower! Tell them he's here. The traveller is in Port town!!"
------------
Nathan stood in the middle of a large Hall. In the air, floating around him where huge holograms of different people with covered faces. Noah stood beside him unmoving. He looked around cautiously as he remembered his earlier conversation with Noah.
"Who is Luke exactly." Nathan asked.
"I told you his name is Lukas and that's classified information." Noah replied.
"I guess he really is a big shot." Nathan muttered.
"So who am I going to meet?" He asked again.
"The council"
"Sounds like very important people."
"They are. You can call them the power behind the tower."
Nathan stopped on his track.
"Wait I'm going to meet the heads of the tower?"
"Relax bumpkin, even I haven't met the heads of the tower. Think about it like this, if the heads of the tower are final bosses in a game, You can see this guys as third rate villains, mini bosses." Noah replied without stopping.
"That's a very weird description." Nathan said catching up to Noah.
"..."
"So they're big shots but not really the biggest"
"Yes you can think of them like that." Noah stopped infront of a giant door.
"Listen bumpkin, the guys in there are not to be offended. Whatever happens in there will determine if you get your answers. Screw it up and you can kiss your answers goodbye."
Nathan looked at Noah. "I understand."
"Good"
"Are you gonna stop calling me bumpkin?"
"No"
Noah placed on hand on the door and pushed it opened.
The silence was suffocating. The council had not said anything since Noah and Nathan entered the hall. Finally someone spoke. A hologram that looked like a woman with a veil covering her face.
"He's a Pheonix?"
"Yes." Noah replied.
"What's wrong with a Pheonix?" Another hologram with the voice of a man asked slightly displeased.
"Nothing." The first woman answered with a sigh.
"All that is not important, can he help us find 'him'."
A hologram with a fat masked man asked.
"Yes, he has spent the last eight years with him and has an understanding of him, he'll be very helpful in our pursuits." Noah replied again.
"Hmph! Understanding? That crazy bastard cannot be understood. He probably lied to them for the entire eight years." The fat man mocked.
"Watch your language. You know who he is." Another hologram spoke rebuking the fat man who clicked his tongue.
"Does he know what he signed up for?" The veil woman spoke again, this time to Noah
"Not yet" Noah answered.
"Do well to let him know."
"Yes ma'am."
"Well, welcome to the tower, Pheonix. We hope to hear good results from you."
The holograms disappeared as Noah and Nathan exited the room.
"Follow me." Noah said.
Nathan and Noah walked in silence for a while.
"The poeple in there... Luke... They talked about him like he's some kind of monster, an abomination or something." Nathan said.
"Because he is."
"What?!"
Noah stopped and turned to face Nathan.
"You're now part of the tower, you work for the tower. You cannot let your own feelings get in the way of the work. The tower's purpose is the safety of the cosmos, and your friend Lukas is a threat."
Noah let his words sink in before he continued
"I've worked in the tower for two hundred years now. And never have I seen the tower so invested in one man like this. The tower is a cosmic organisation, even constellations have to be polite when asking for our help. Yet a little brat is turning even the council on its head. Did you know they've been after him even before I got here? I guess I can't really call him a brat. He's an enigma. The council, they don't like him but at the same time it's like they can't touch him or insult him even. Did you notice? None of them could mention his name even once. In my two hundred years in the tower, I've never heard a single council member mention his name once. Not just that in even record we have of him which is alot. There's a whole archive just for him and yet his surname is never mentioned." Noah paused again.
"Do you know why that woman asked if you knew what you were signing up for? You're now an enforcer, confidential information are no longer confidential. Come, I'll show you what kind of person Lukas really is."
----------------
A signboard with the words 'Port town the 21st stood in front of an old bookshop. The same one with the weird book that wrote by itself. The bell at the door ring and a golden haired young man entered.
-----------------
In a dark alley, the floor was littered with metal arms, legs, screws. Plasma guns laid by the side too. Robot parts scattered around as if they had been forcefully ripped apart. In the middle of this machine brutality was a white haired man with gold rimmed glassed in a black shirt and a pristine white trouser.
"Eh?" A playful voice sounded in the alley.
Lukas looked up. Standing on the air with his hands in his pocket was a Black and White haired man in a black double-breasted suit. He had a wide grin on his face as he looked down at Lukas.
"Fuck" Lukas muttered under his breath. The young man's smile widened as he said.
"That's bad language... Little brother."