Rekke was disappointed in life. Everyone, everywhere seemed so flat, like a 2-D soul without the extra dimension needed to make life complete. She had no faith left in this world. Technology was at its peak, yet the population retained its dull, monotonous lifestyle of food, social media, and sleep. She was itching for an adventure.
“Rekke!” The primal scream of her brother, Exxe, erupted through the sheen, lucid plasma walls that separated their bedrooms. She jittered jerkily out of her bed and drowsily shuffled to the wall opposite hers. “Whaaaat,” griped Rekke. One side of the plasma wall shimmered for a moment, and then disappeared. Rekke clicked her own switch, and her section of the plasma wall melted away as well.
The bewildered figure of Exxe was glancing at a masked, black-clad figure that was dangerously spinning a fire sword. Rekke cast a worried glance at Exxe and jumped through the gaping hole. Exxe glanced apathetically at the stone-faced figure. The male’s eyes glowed maliciously as rasped in a whispery, harsh, dry voice, “Lady Lie has requested your presence.”
“Go,” scoffed Exxe, motioning his head towards the window. The figure strode darkly towards Exxe and swung his sword against Exxe’s throat. In a guttural voice, he cackled, “Never should’ve played the Game.” Rekke kicked the fire sword away from the man and began to attack him. Bursting into motion, the snake-like man adeptly slammed Exxe across his back, grabbed the fire sword, and swung his arm up in an arc, about to bring the sword down. Exxe intercepted him with a roar and nimbly blocked his attempts at an attack. Rekke twisted in between the dancing figures of Exxe and the male. Bending, twisting, and jumping, she finally ejected the fire sword from the man’s grip and impaled him with it. Exxe and Rekke swaggered towards the derailed assailant and cornered him across the rooftop. Exxe peered into his eyes and etched a smile onto the assailant’s face with his fingers. Exxe was now a skeleton, the deep coals of his eyes burned black, and the shadows of the night sculpted his face into jagged, crude structures. Rekke glanced imperiously at the cornered man, and struck him with the hilt of the fire sword. Recognizing the rare occurrence of Exxe about to blow, Rekke clapped Exxe on the back. Exxe kicked the slumped body. Rekke smacked the man’s eyes close. She swept up the figure and leapt onto her lee-es, a metalloid animal companion that wasere bonded to humans who had been selected by the Gods to be a player of the Game. Her dragon lee-es sped off towards the inner dwellings of the city, scouring for somewhere to dispose of the body.
“That’s what he said, Penn,” affirmed Rekke, as she gulped spoonfuls of fried rice into her clamoring mouth, “I don’t think we’re in for anything good.” “Penn? Forthe?” urged Rekke, “Why do we need to meet Lady Lie?”
“They’re thinking, Rekke,” grumbled Exxe as he spooned a patch of rice from Rekke’s bowl. Rekke glared at Exxe and promptly stole his last gulp of water. Suddenly, Rekke’s chewing slowed and her eyes widened. Alarmed, she turned to Exxe. “They’ve discovered we’re playing the Ggame, haven’t they?” Penn’s rough hands rose to her mouth as she exclaimed, “The clues! They want our clues!” Forthe’s thin eyebrows frowned. “That’s against the laws that the Gods have decreed. They would be expelled from the Game right away.”
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Rekke’s lee-es floated cautiously along the sides of the soaring, grey spiral. On her every side were the shining, flashing surfaces of the skyscrapers, and the looming interfaces of spiral hovercraft docks. Rekke and Silver team lived on Lie planet. It was a chilly, pristine planet that shone with eerie, turquoise blues, pale greys, lively greens, and soft yellows during the night. Lie displayed a seemingly calm and uneventful exterior. However, Lie only unveiled its true, exciting secrets during the night. Rekke had traveled all over the city, collecting clues for the game, and escaping from rival players. Tonight, however, the city seemed secretive and dangerous. “I feel like there are cameras,” hissed Rekke
Forthe gave her a pointed look and murmured, “You know I triple-checked the area.” Penn tapped furiously onto her holo-pad. “No-one’s arrived at our base so far.” Exxe nodded, “All traps are ready to go if someone enters.” Exxe looked at Rekke, shocked. “Are you listening to music? Right now?” he demanded, “We are trying to escape, successfully, right now, in case you hadn’t noticed!” Rekke grimaced. “Calm down, nothing’s playing. The parade is almost here, guys. Make sure that you enter into the crowd as inconspicuously as possible,” Rekke whispered. “I’ll go first,” said Forthe. “Oka-hey!” whispered Penn fiercely, “You better not be listening to music! The headphones are for communicating, not entertainment!” There was no response as Forthe and his lee-es slowly drifted into a floating, clamoring crowd of dancers, food-vendors, and spectators. Then, Forthe’s crackly voice drifted into Rekke’s headphones. “I’ll enter the safe house from the West sector. I’ll get to see more of the parade that way.” Penn shrugged, “I guess I’m taking South sector then.” She veered away from the parade and plunged deep into the depths of the bustling city. Exxe clapped his sister on the back. “We got this, we can do this.”
“We must,” stated Rekke, as she, too, descended deeper into the city.
Rekke gulped nervously; Forthe who had already arrived at the safe-house had just informed her that she was being followed. Rekke hated the feeling of unease when she didn’t know when someone would suddenly jump out at her. The night was cold, yet exciting. She loved how imperceptible she was amongst the crowd of busy, stressed people. Nobody knew who she was; she was an enigma to all of them, a mysterious hooded figure. Hopefully, she would go unnoticed on the streets. A high-pitched vroom of another lee-es came screaming through the air. A nimble, gold-clad Player was hovering, circling the city. Rekke ditched her jacket, and ducked into a market. People were peacefully picking through groceries and drifting through wafts of warm, delicious goods. Rekke, heart beating tremulously, forced herself to walk calmly to the exit door. Suddenly, someone shoved her against the wall. Her focus sharpened. Whirling around, she found herself nose to nose with the golden assailant. He beamed triumphantly, as he shot out his fist against her stomach. Rekke eyes glistened with pain, yet she gave a grunt of anger and kicked up at his solar plexus before dashing away into the streets. Rekke jumped onto her lee-es and began to rise above the city lights. The enemy’s lee-es began to speed against Rekke, attempting to throw her off. Rekke grimaced in annoyance and braked abruptly before racing backwards and dropping lower into the hectic passages of civilian life. The golden foe was left to wander helplessly. Rekke smirked triumphantly, and raced quickly up the sides of a sleek, black tower and hovered above the wallowing gold lee-es. She pulled out her stun-gun, and aimed at the intruder. Then, a harsh, intruding light encapsulated Rekke. Her eyes burned from the pain. “Hands up!” roared a familiar, snide, voice. There was Forthe, fully donning a red police uniform, gun pointed at her. Besides him were Penn, who was struggling to escape from her laser cuffs, and Exxe, whose eyes were glistening with tears of betrayal.
The trio were thrown into a watery, dank cell that echoed with the rustles of long forgotten insects. The guard leered at them through the tiny window. He spat out in a low, vile voice, “Player scum. You think you’re all so high and mighty, being chosen by the Gods to help the citizens of Lie rise up against Lady Lie.” He paused, heaving for breath, before exploding into a vehement fervor. “You can’t! Your Gods are nothing against Lady Lie and her race!” He pounded and jeered at the huddled trio before being interrupted- “Excuse me, sir. Lady Lie has requested to meet the prisoners.” Forthe’s voice jutted sharply against the iron door. The iron door slid smoothly away. Forthe pointed a gun at Exxe. “Start walking,” he ordered. As the door slammed shut, Forthe promptly smashed his gun down upon the guards oily scalp. Rekke caught the man before he crashed loudly against the floor. Exxe and Penn looked at each other confusedly. Rekke put her finger to her lip. “This is all part of the plan,” she assured them, as she wiped her fingers against her pockets.
“Right, so Forthe and I went to dispose of the man from last night. We went to the river, and riding along the current was a package- a clue from the Gods. It ordered us to escape from Lie planet. But as you know, there’s no way to leave Lie planet-”
“Unless,” Forthe butted in, “we use a portal that resides inside of Lie Castle.”
“That’s why Forthe had to steal the police uniform and turn us in. How else would we break into this fortress?
“There’s one problem though,” Forthe muttered.
Rekke swung her arms around Exxe and Penn and nodded slowly. “The shuttle that goes through the portal- it’s only big enough for one person.”
“It’s called co-bonding,” explained Rekke, slowly, and carefully. “You and your lee’es bond together, forming a tablet that contains both of your living soul. Our clue told us to fly to a “truthful” planet. It can’t be the next planet, because they’re allied with Lady Lie. It has to be planet Liobal- the first planet to allow freedom of speech. “Okay,” stuttered Exxe, “I’ll do it. I’ll bond with my lee-es.” Forthe patted Exxe and Penn on the back. “If this goes well, Rekke will be able to extract us safely. If not… we will be stuck inside our lee-eses, becoming a mesh between metalloid and human. We may never… be able to become fully human ever again. We may die in this process. Us and our lee-eses may never move again…”
Rekke’s eyes glistened with tears. “I’ve read about this process before, but I’ve never done it before.
“We have no choice,” asserted Penn forcefully.
Rekke’s eyes, usually devoid of emotion glimmered compassionately.
She gestured to the cold metal around them.
“I need you and your lee-eses to sit face to face.”
Rekke sobbed quietly into her sleeves. She couldn’t help but feel horrified but what she had just done. Glancing emotionlessly at her from the grass were three brown tablets. One had the picture of a grey haired boy and a metalloid tiger facing opposite each other, eyes closed. Forthe and his lee-es, Lux.The other displayed a olive-skinned girl and an eagle. Penn and Kane. And lastly, Exxe and Doudia, his dove lee-es. Rekke gingerly placed the tablets into a secure compartment in the left side of her own, fox lee-es and sped urgently through the clammy dungeons.
She paused behind a corner, and then willed herself to move forward. Rekke’s lee-es zoomed directly to the top of the starship. Freedom and safety seemed to be just across the morning horizon. She laughed as she reached out her hands to the dawning sky. The panel doors zoomed open with a soft whir. The starship was floating upwards Rekke assumed her position at the helm and hurriedly punched directions into the panel. Rekke grinned. The wind flowing through the starship streaked past her hair, allowing the soft slivers of her brown hair to protrude defiantly into the wind. Her sharp, black leather jacket defined her noble aura against the dreamy and soft, pink horizon; she was a martyr, boldly defining her fate against the behemoth crags of the insidious city skyline. A bemused grimace danced around her mouth as she nonchalantly grappled with the rough, stiff toggle in her hand and accelerated the engine.
An awed silence filled the room. Sighs of relief, gasps of happiness, and tears of poured out of Rekke. Her heart had been pounding before, but now, as the lovely black sky stretched out in silence before her, she could only be amazed at the mysterious beauty of the universe she had never known. Simply living had never been more enthralling. Rekke swung around in her seat, smiling triumphantly, her bright eyes flashing. The night was dark, yet she was not scared. She felt excited; the night allowed her imagination and hopes to soar seamlessly. Her whole body tingled with adrenaline. Finally, it seemed, the stars dotted the sky, compared to its usual desolateness on Lie planet. She watched with a heart brimming with happiness and excitement at what freedom and adventure the quad were to have now that they were separated from Lie. Rekke grabbed her holo-pad from the depths of her pockets and slowly, but surely opened it. She took a picture of the sky that surrounded her as she traveled space. Fate may have given them this exhilarating, dangerous life, but it was up to them to make what they wanted of their destiny.