The Colors And The Deal With Death - Chapter I: Welcome To The Family!

Finally, Watcher Central, the jewel of the sky, or so they say anyway. Built from an ancient airship, suspended in the air, as if completely frozen in time, the city was built in almost no time flat. Impressive, though I’ll probably be dreaming if I think I’m going to find a place there.

I should probably introduce myself. My name is... well, not to sound awful, but the less you know about me, the better. Let’s just say that I’m a homeless girl, chasing after shelter for as long as I can remember. I don’t have many friends and my family... my fist still clenches just to think about them. At least now, I have one more chance to find somewhere I can truly belong, I’m sick of running. I would hate to see what happens when I run out of places to run...

As I look out of the window of the steel elevator, heading towards Watcher Central, I see the world of Vita, and its beautiful towns in multiple biomes, like they are all parts of separate worlds entirely. The grassy plains, flourishing in the springtime. A little mountain town, constantly snowing all year round. The large scale desert, as far as the naked eye can make out. Even a black bubble stands tall, and though I have always wondered about it, chances are I will not return after I enter. After one last look at the world from this high up, the door opens up from behind me, as the glow of the streetlights start to pour in. I finally made it to the supposed capital of Vita itself. Looking upon its modest cityscape, its beauty is easy to see even from a first glance, but it doesn’t strike me as capital-worthy.

The golden sun starts to fall, as I walk through the city streets, giving way to the moon, huge in the sky. The crowds that walk the streets start to diminish and return to their respective homes, while I continue to search for a place to hang my head for the night. Because of the altitude and the spring breeze, the wind is especially fierce tonight, making my tattered black and white checkered scarf flow furiously as if it had a mind of its own. This also makes my search for refuge for the night even more bothersome. I never thought I’d say this, but I wish it was summer already.

As I walk from the entrance, I notice that the entrance to a small nature park, where trees and plant-life thrive. Don’t know how they can even grow on top of a steel air carrier, but I’m sure there’s some kind of science at play here. By the time I walk into the park, the night is completely black, save for the piercing white moon. The park is quite lovely in the dark, where the row of lanterns light the main path. I walk the path, leading to a bridge that overlooks a small pond of water.

I look into the water, checking my reflection. I don’t remember the last time I ever wore make-up, but really, what I never had, I’ll never miss. The purple and pink highlights in my hair are starting to fade, and is just a mess right now, though I keep it neat enough in my mother’s black beret. Suddenly, a black mist appears from behind me in the reflection. From the mist materialises a strange demon-like figure dressed in black ceremonious robes and a goat’s skeletal head upon its head like a mask. It has its hand on my shoulder, edging ever slowly towards my neck. I can feel the chill crawl up my spine. Having enough, I pick up a nearby rock from the ground and throw it into the pond, making the water ripple, and the fish swim away. Thankfully, the demon goes away, for now anyway. I haven’t slept in a few days, so that’s likely the cause.

After a few minutes, I find a wooden bench just outside of the main path, a little cold, but it’s somewhere I can rest my legs for a little while. After a few minutes of rest, I decide to continue on my-

Bang! Bang!

I bring my head up from the hard armrest of the bench, my neck a lot more stiff and sore than I remember. I must have fell asleep back there. I’m not sure how long for, but the sun is starting to slowly rise. I can hear something loud and strange coming towards me.

“Hello? Anyone there?” I ask aloud, looking around the area.

Suddenly, a giant metallic spider comes out from behind the trees like something from a sci-fi horror movie. Am I still dreaming? I pinch myself to check, and sadly, this is reality. I wish I could say that I plan on being a badass and taking that thing down myself, but since I don’t have any weaponry outside of a self-defence pocket knife in my sock, my only option is to run away and try not to cry in panic. I start to run away, screaming in panic, until I reach the main town, where the people are also running and screaming.

I continue to run, looking for a place to hide, but while I wasn’t looking, I trip over a small misaligned piece of pavement stone. I watch as the spider’s titanic leg starts to come down on me. I close my eyes and accept it, before I feel myself lifting up and falling back down, as if by magic. I slowly open my eyes, to see a man with long red hair, a brown jacket and a black shirt, putting me back on the floor.

“Phew, that was close. You alright?” The man asks me, a confident smile on his face.

“You- you saved me. Thanks.” I say, half whimpering, not yet able to really get to grips with the whole situation.

“Anytime, my dear. I couldn’t just leave you to die.” He says, helping me back up to my feet, and petting me on the head like some child. I try not to snarl, but I have always hated that.

“Excuse me, Mr. Hero, but could you be a darling and actually tell me you’ve stopped so I don’t look like a fool next time. That’ll be just peachy.” A woman says the man, with really long blonde hair, wearing a white dress with tiny flowers tied to the frills with red ribbons.

“Oh come on, you don’t need me to look like a fool.” The man says, snickering under his breath.

“Hey, this is no time to be making dumb jokes. If you haven’t noticed, a huge fricker fracking nightmare is loose on the city.” The woman says, lightly hitting the man in the arm.

Though I am thankfully to this guy, I know that my time will only be wasted by standing here. I run away without them even noticing, trying to find out what the hell this thing is.

I walk further down the main street and see just more of the destruction left by this thing. Cars, houses, even people. Continuing down the path, I find another group of people. There is a man with spiky green hair and a anarchist’s style patchwork diy jacket, laying on the floor with a huge open gash in his leg. The next is a young coloured woman with short brunette hair in a white nurses’ outfit, tending to the wound. The last is a shorter woman with shoulder-length blue hair in a blue summer dress, with cute tiny glasses, who is looking over the mess with a worried expression.

“Oh wow. This is so weird. Are you like some kind of witch or something?” The green man asks the nurse, completely mesmerised by what he is seeing.

“Could be, never really thought about it before.” The nurse replies, though I can’t help but notice from this perspective, that she has no equipment with her.

“Is- is he going to be okay?” The other woman asks, in a panicked tone.

Having heard enough to know that he’s probably fine, I continue to-

“There you are!” A familiar voice shouts from across the road.

I turn around and see the woman and man from before, running towards me. To my surprise, they pass by me, the woman deciding to push me with her shoulder as she passes, before they join the other three.

“It’s you. Hey, am I dreaming right now?” The green man asks, strangely happy to see that strange woman.

“Don’t worry, I get that a lot. I could never turn myself away from a fan.” The woman says in an annoying giggle before making a forced winky face.

The woman suddenly turns her attention to me, with an obviously fake smile on her face.

“At least you’re not going to just run out on us, like someone else did.” She says to him, as her eyes and her smile tell two entirely different stories.

“Someone you know?” The green man asks, looking over in my direction.

“Enough, Blanche. Not everyone is going to kiss your feet. Everyone is safe, and that’s all that matters right now.” The man says, pinching her ear.

“Ow. Ugh, fine.” Blanche says, rubbing her ear as she turns her back to me. What did I do to her?

“Alright, all better.” The nurse says, helping the green man up to his feet.

“Thanks, witch girl. You’re alright.” The green man asks, as tactless as his brash accent implies.

“No problem. It’s Poppy, by the way.” Poppy says, with a look on her face I know all too well, the look of a million questions being asked at once in her mind.

Zoning out of the conversation, I see the spider again in the corner of my eye, parked outside of a huge building. I can hear a very faint voice with the screech of a microphone. Wanting to take a closer look out of morbid curiosity, I run towards it, just to know what this is really about.

The closer I get to the scene, the more I can make out what it is saying.

“-Look, I don’t want to have to do this either, but I’ve followed the clues, listened to every piece of information I could find, and the signs all lead here. So you have two choices. Tell me where he is, or I’ll break this place apart to find him myself.”

A group of guards surround him, all pointing guns at the spider. Before I can get caught up in the action that is sure to unfold, I start to slowly slip away from the crowd... that is until I watch as a weird explosive, made from a bottle of booze, flies over our heads and explodes on impact, though the spider doesn’t even show a scratch from it. The spider sharply turns around to face us.

“Who threw that? Come on, step up and be a hero.” The man behind the cockpit says, sounding even more angry.

Someone steps forward, and it’s the green man from before. Why am I not surprised? The rest of the little group come forward too.

“Yeah, that was me. I didn’t want to hurt that brilliant machine, but it’s too cool to be used by a goof like you. So why don’t you just go before we take you-“ The green man says, standing heroically, before the spider shoots a beam at him, only narrowly missing.

“On second thought, I think we should get going. Have fun.” The shy girl says, as she covers the green man’s mouth, slowly walking away.

The two of them start running, followed by everyone else in the crowd. I decide to start running too.

“Watch this, Mr. Mayor. If you don’t comply, I’ll just play with a few of your civilians instead.” The man says, before sending his giant spider after us.

I pick up my pace, eventually catching up with the others.

“You idiot. Why did you have to do that?” Blanche asks, in an angry and panicked tone.

“I honestly thought that was going to work.” The green man says, feeling embarrassed.

“Nuko, I told you that this plan had a 1% chance of working.” The shy woman says, seemingly going through the conversation in her head.

“You gave me false hope with the 1%.” Nuko says, swerving to dodge a beam.

Eventually, we come to a little shrine in the middle of town, surrounded by flowers and written notes of varying lengths. Suddenly, a swipe rings out, followed by a metallic clang. The spider’s leg comes off, leaving it crawling itself across the floor, still coming towards us.

“Quick, in here.” Nuko says, from behind us all.

We all look and see that he is in that shrine, using a controlled explosion to blow out the floorboards. Everyone else looks shocked at him, including some of the crowd that had decided to watch. Some start taking pictures of us. It’s only just turned morning, and already, I get involved with a big scandal.

“Nuko. Do you know what you just did?” The shy woman asks, trying not to burst into tears.

“No time, jump in. We can hide in here until this all blows over.” Nuko says, before jumping into the newly ripped and charred hole.

The other four decide to jump in after him. Seeing that the spider is trying to get us, despite losing limbs by the second, I take my chances with the hole. I walk into the shrine and see lots of drawings of angels and even more notes, of what I can see, are pleas and wishes to some greater being. Did we just deface a worshipped monument? I’m going away for a long time after this, I just know it.

With nothing else to lose, I jump into the hole, which is a lot deeper than I assumed, falling into an abyss of complete darkness. I fall for what feels like an eternity, before... nothing. I don’t feel warmth, nor any breeze. I don’t feel the floor beneath my feet, I don’t feel anything at all, as if time itself has stopped. Looking through an endless darkness, I see a small light in the horizon. I slowly glide myself towards the light.

“Hello? Anyone there?” I hear a small voice screaming into the void.

I go towards the screams, before seeing the nurse from before, sobbing to herself.

“Hey. You alright? Where are we?” I ask, more confused than scared.

Her face peers up at me within a second, as she leaps towards me, flinging her arms around me, still sobbing a little.

“Thank the stars, I thought I’d be here forever. I was trying to find the others and got lost.” The nurse says, holding onto me as tight as she can.

“Come on, let’s get out of here.” I say, getting anxious to find out what’s happening.

“I’m Poppy, by the way. Who are you?” Poppy asks, as politely as she can.

I gulp to myself. I really hate being asked that question. On one hand, what if anyone knows me or worse, what I am? On the other, she looks innocent enough, and those puppy dog eyes aren’t making it easier on me. Fine, just this once.

“It’s Eliza. Lizzie for short.” I say to her, puffing a huge sigh.

“Lizzie? Nice to meet you! Come on, we better go find the others.” Poppy says, taking my hand as we pick up the pace, careening towards the light.

Getting closer to the light, it starts to give off a strange warmth. Are we dead? That’s the only explanation I can think of. Honestly, I’m cool with that, I just want to know for sure.

“Do you think the others are here?” Poppy asks me, looking around for them.

“I think so. Are they your friends?” I ask, wondering why she is worrying so much about them.

“Actually, I just met them. I just can’t leave someone knowing they could be in trouble. I care about people too much.” Poppy says, giving me some insight to why she became a nurse.

Something about her words makes me envious of her in a way, I wish I could go back to that level of innocence and sheer bliss. Getting closer to the light, we can hear disjointed voices.

“Oh, that must be them.” Poppy says, as we continue on our way, as the light starts to slowly envelope us, like a silk cocoon.

Eventually, we see the others, standing in what looks to be an offering shrine. The whole place is painted in the brightest white conceivable, as a giant door stands at the end. We finally touch back down to the ground.

“Hey, it’s those other two.” The red haired man says, who I’m assuming was put on lookout duty while the others look around.

Everyone turns and faces us.

“Ahh, so you joined us. You didn’t happen to find a way out on the way here, did you?” Nuko asks us, still looking around, before noticing a huge pedestal at the end of the room.

“Doubt it. They would be long gone if that was the case. There’s got to be something in here that can get us out of here.” Blanche says, looking around in a panic.

“At last, you are all here!” A booming voice exclaims from around us all.

We all scan our surroundings, but don’t see anyone else around.

“Hello? Where are you?” The shy woman asks, fixing her glasses.

“Approach the door. There is much we have to discuss.” The heavenly voice says, as the rest of the lights go out, leaving the room in darkness again, save for one light at the end of the room.

We all slowly walk over to the giant door, each of us not believing what we see.

“So the day has finally come when a group of six shall walk through these halls. Much as I had anticipated and counted on for time long since passed.” The voice says, surprisingly happy to see us, like he knew we were coming.

“Sorry for asking, but who are you?” The shy girl asks, running her finger on the door and wiping the dust off.

“Oh yes. Pardon my haste. I have seen that not all of you are native to this place. My name is Arc, and I-“ Arc says, while... wait, what?

Surely he can’t be that Arc, the patron saint. For the longest time, my family were obsessed with his teachings and his actions. My father would make us recite his sayings every day to see that we practiced every day. And when we didn’t... I don’t even want to relive it. His little devil, he called me. Makes my blood boil just hearing his voice in my head.

As I get myself angry, Arc is talking on and on about something or other.

“Yeah, yeah. We don’t need to know who you are. Just get on with it, so we can get out of here.” I say, honestly without thinking, like my mouth went into autopilot.

I look around and see a lot of eyes, staring down at me with the grimmest expressions, like I’d just committed the most horrific of sins.

“Very well. I shall stop with the introductions and proceed to the main point. I need you to help me. I need you all to be my heroes.” Arc says, with a hint of sadness in his voice.

“I’m... sorry. What do you need us to do?” I ask, feeling strangely guilty, I mean, I hate him, but it wasn’t his fault, so I shouldn’t judge him too harshly.

“Well, as you know now, I was the guardian angel of this world before I was laid to rest here. The dark forces would often torment the people of this world, which is where I stepped in, and the evil ones were defeated for good. I came here with the intention of passing my powers to my most loyal of followers and friends, even my family. But each of them have either died, given up or simply turned against me. For each power, I bestowed them a ring crafted from my blood made solid, but each of the rings have gone missing. The six of you are such heirs to these powers, and will come across the rings in all due time.” Arc explains, talking as if it is no big deal.

“What? You mean we each should have one of your powers in us?” I ask, having never been given a ring in my life.

“This is so cool. How do we get them?” Nuko asks, excitedly.

“I’m afraid that not all of you are in possession of your birthrights. Only one of you have come to your powers. The Mark of The Star. Poppy Nguyen.” Arc says, shining a light down on her.

We all look at her, as she takes off her ring, a red and gold banded ring with a small insignia of a sun on the ruby, as she looks at it, with a shocked expression on her face.

“This ring? My grandpa’s ring? He gave it to me on his deathbed. He said it was just an heirloom he came across, and should be our little secret. It got me excommunicated from my village when my parents found it.” Poppy says, remembering her childhood, it seems.

“Yes. He was a good man, faithful to the very end. Though his peers worshipped another, he chose to follow me proudly. There are 18 rings in total that were given. Though since my disappearance became known, people from all over the world have been looking fruitless for me. Thanks to the chaos, a new evil has risen to wreak havoc. I fear that this evil will bring ruin upon this world before long, but even with your powers, this foe will be too much to handle, so your task is to seek out these 18 rings, and put them onto this pedestal. Then the door will open once more, and I will be able to rise again and set things right once more.” Arc says, shining a light on the pedestal just by the door, and true to his word, there are 18 circular holes.

“So we have to bring all the rings back here so you can go fight some monster?” The guy in red asks, making the plan sound much simpler than this guy made it seem.

“Come on, Andy, I know you’d want to fight this monster, but I’m pretty sure it’s something really strong to bring down an entire world.” Blanche says, ruffling his hair.

“A monstrous creature, it is. One with the power to rival even the higher-ups of the underworld itself. You are not forced to undertake this task, but I will gladly make it worth your efforts once I am free.” Arc says, in an excited tone.

“Alright, I’m in. I would love to get the chance to get stronger.” Andy says, stepping forward towards the pedestal.

“If you are, I’m in too. People will know my name on all four corners of this fricking planet.” Blanche says, stepping in with him.

“Alright. Roxy and I are in. I would like to find out more about these rings.” Nuko says, stepping in as well.

“Thanks Nuko, appreciate it. Then again, it would be nice to see the world eventually.” Roxy says, sighing as she steps forward.

“I’m in too. I can’t leave this world to die, knowing we could have done something to help.” Poppy says, skipping towards the pedestal.

Just what have I got myself into? A deity that I hated all my life suddenly coming up to me? Did my father have some special power or something? Hard to imagine, it can’t be true.

“Alright, I’ll join too. Got nothing better to do.” I say, deciding to join them, it’s better than dying in a ditch somewhere.

“And so the bond is made. Please find the rings. Please help me save this world. I’ll send you back to your realm. I expect great things from you.” Arc says, as the light goes even brighter.

I suddenly feel myself getting hoisted backwards, and in a flash, I start to open my eyes, though my body feels really weak for some reason, like my heart stopped or something. My blurry vision starts to clear up, though I am not sure where I am right now.

Let’s see; grey walls, a moldy and damp bunkbed, a toilet that is out in the open for some reason, bars that connect this room to the next. Okay, it’s prison, I’m in prison. Mystery solved. What, what?