• Section 1
    Destan was walking along with Balthazar through the desert when they both realized they were running low on whiskey. Balthazar stared a Destan, “Ye had been carrying the whiskey this entire time. Have ye been guzzling the whole thing for yourself?” Destan barked back, “Are you kidding? You’re the one with the alcohol stained breath!” They both then looked at the barrel. The barrels broken face was crying, spilling its whiskey tears everywhere. They both looked at each other with a saddened face, knowing it would be a long way to the next town. Balthazar then stared at the ground where the whiskey had spilled, his face twisted in agony. He spoke, “H-how are we going to survive the desert without liquor? How shall we survive?!” He took Destan by the shoulders and started shaking him violently with a crazed look yelling, “That was the first drink I’ve had in three days! Your careless walking has cost us all our drink!” Destan was shocked by Balthazar’s behavior that his face was completely blank as he was being shaken by this crazed warrior. Suddenly the sand shifted beneath them and the sand arose upwards in a stream the shock of the blast knocked Balthazar off his feet. Destan could feel the sand about to blast up beneath him but he evaded the blast entirely. He looked around and couldn’t see anything that could be causing these eruptions when he felt another one beneath him. He leapt for dear life in order to dodge the sand and the blasts kept on coming one after another as Balthazar stared amazed at Destan’s acrobatic movements. Destan kept on dodging the mile high blasts until he landed on a large rock. Suddenly a loud voice broke out and bellowed, “I see you have some moves tomato head. But let’s see if you can survive in these holy grounds.” Suddenly flames spouted from the ground violently roaring at Destan as if were alive.
    Then emerging from the flames was a young man with long blue hair dressed in robes colored like the bright orange flames he had stepped out of. He spoke, “I see you have some moves kid, what’s your name? Then again maybe I should make sure you are good enough.” Destan stared at this odd man and thought, “Good enough for what?” When he had finished speaking he made a movement with his hand, his index and middle finger pointing upwards. Suddenly Destan could feel the sand beneath him as it did before only this time it was stronger. Destan made a valiant effort to escape the blast however he was not fast enough to dodge the blast and was sent flying into the sky. He was sent soaring up high and as Destan looked down he saw Balthazar yelling, “Try to use the momentum of your fall to hit him!” Destan then kicked the air aiming at the blue haired oddball. Sure enough the force of his kick was enough to change the direction of his fall and began descending towards his opponent. The young man suddenly realized he was in grave danger of being done in by the force Destan’s kick he moved his hand again and this time he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
    Destan crash landed into a large soft mound of sand. He looked several feet in front of him and there was his opponent, snickering at the failed attempt of kicking him. Destan stood back up brushed the sand off of his black slacks. He glared at his opponent wondering if he was good with physical combat. The man started to speak in what sounded like a foreign tongue. He was chanting, “bashura, crashura, mashura, metorius.” Destan started dashing towards the man in a zigzag pattern dashing with the agility and speed of a cheetah. The young man just laughed and said, “Look out from above, If you survive this one you may be good enough.” Destan stopped running and looked upwards and saw that a group of large meteorites were hurling towards both him and Balthazar. Balthazar saw the meteorites hurling towards himself and Destan, he hastily stuck his sword into the sand and had begun chanting. Destan spread his legs equally apart, clutched his right arm with his left, and pictured fire enveloping his arm. Suddenly, a red streak of light came from Destan’s right hand and fire had enveloped his whole arm like a gauntlet.
    Destan charged straight at the man and the blue haired man charged directly back at him. The man spoke with a stutter, “L-l-let’s see if you are g-g-good enough.” with an in human voice. Suddenly the flesh on the young man dissipates and a mechanical limb emerges from his shoulder, the flesh from his face has melted away revealing a mechanized face which resembles the face of a cybernetic woman. Destan came to a halt, scattering the sand around him. The machine had begun to reveal itself and was screeching, “LETUSSEEIFYOURGOODENOUGHLETUSSEEIFYOURGOODENOUGH” Hissing steam rose from the inside of the mechanized horror. Limbs outstretched from the beast and the body expanded into the shape of a centipede. It’s face was shaped as a dolls, unable to move it’s own mouth or even its eyes. The torso of the being rose high above Destan and wrapped around him.
    The fire on Destan’s arm had intensified greatly and another fire began to envelope his left arm. The machine screamed out in a roar, “GIVE… ME… YOUR… ESSENCE!!!!” Destan grasped its face firmly with his right hand and spoke, “A MIMIC interface in these parts huh? Well I know how to deal with this particular model.” The heat in his hand began to rise greatly and the flames from his left arm gathered in his fist. He screamed, “Get to hell you mistakes of man!” He struck the monstrosity square in the face and its body progressively lit up in an enormous crimson flame. He stood aside assuming the machine was destroyed, however its tail suddenly rose and struck him hard. The machine was engulfed in flames yet was not destroyed yet. Balthazar suddenly rushed in and cleaved its head off spraying oil and gasoline everywhere. The being sputtered for a moment and then ceased function. Destan rose to his feet, clutched his chest in pain for he has never been stricken so hard in his life. He fell back over onto the ground breathing heavily. Blood Started Leaking from his side.
    Balthazar rushed to his side and spoke, “Try not to move so much, your ribcage must be broken. I must apply proper bandaging. Keep your hand on that wound.” He took out his bottle of wine and with his cape he created strips for bandaging. He poured the wine in Destan’s wound and bandaged his chest up. While he was doing this he simply asked, “Destan, what was that monstrosity of a mechanism we witnessed back there?”
    For a moment Destan remained silent, remembering something from his past. He then spoke, “It is called a MIMIC. Mach Identification Modification of Initial Chromozoid . They are unable to think on their own and they copy the appearance of creatures they see, as well as repeating words they hear. That Last one was a centipede model. By the way Balthazar, where are we exactly?”
    Balthazar looked around quickly, he began to have a rather agitated look on his face. Destan then asked again, “Ok Balthazar, where are we?”
    Balthazar shook his head, “I haven’t the slightest clue.”