[First off, since this isn't a Theory RP, here are some links:
The Kiri Twins: http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x222/Frenchthefries/KiriTwins.jpg?t=1301871159
Red-eyed (Left): Maki (Magwalker)
Blue-eyed (Right): Miki (Metashifter)
Evantra Gackt (Blood Flayer)http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x222/Frenchthefries/EvantraGackt.jpg
The City of Chasm: http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x222/Frenchthefries/Chasm.jpg
~~~~~~~~~
~And so began the story of two ordinary boys.~
The sky was clear. The lively city was thoroughly at its peak of activity, as it was mid-noon. Today, a Friday, was a particularly pleasing, easygoing day for the citizens of Chasm. There was little traffic in the skyways, no unruly crime upon the grounded streets, and, obviously, the weekend was here for the hardworking students and laborers of the city. Days like this were rare in this modern-day utopia. It was always uncommon for a mutual feeling of leisure to exist throughout Chasm. Now that it was here, surely some would take it for granted. Some would, on other hand, attempt to make it last for the remaining three days of freedom.
This could be said for the two young twins who walked casually through the lower streets of Radio Alp, which was, essentially, the Times Square of Chasm. The difference here was that it was significantly larger and decorated with numerous electroplasma lights that created a feeling of being a high-tech spacial facility. Many other aspects of the city were capable of doing so, however, as the utopia was about three hundred years ahead of New York's time anyway. As for the twins, crowded terrastreets proved not to be dissatisfying. They had plenty of time to walk home. After all, their homework assignment, for the first time in as long as they can remember, was to simply enjoy the weekend.
Both boys, walking in synchronization of their footfalls, wore nearly the same exact attire; a white and blue school uniform comprised of a long-sleeve shirt and blue shorts. The difference in their apparel was that one of the twins was wearing pale scarlet scarf; the mean of the colors between his eyes and his hair. The other, possessing color properties more along the line of blue, appeared to have his attention consumed with a hand-held gaming device. His scarf-wearing twin turned to him and rolled his eyes, his hands grasping his back-pack straps as he walked.
"Would you pay attention to where you're walking?" He said to his brother just after he received a look from a formally dressed citizen who nearly bumped into the gamer of the two. "Can't you wait to play your silly little game until we get home?" He continued, returning his attention forward with the expectation that his brother was to do the same.
"I don't wanna! I'm about to catch Eevee!" His brother retaliated, a look of sheer excitement plastered on his face. It was as if he was oblivious to all else around him. This was basically the idea. "Come on, come on, come ooooon! ...Oh darn it! Critical hit?!" He brought the game device a few inches away from his face as he stared at it in disbelief. He let out an agitating whine.
"Well, if you're gonna keep playing, could you at least not do that?" The red-eyed boy said as he pressed his thumb and pointer finger into his closed eyes. The two were now standing in front of a large carbon-glass cylinder. Its hatch was closed as the elevator platform was currently in use. Chasm had an entire network of these publicly accessible tube elevators throughout the city. They were primarily utilized for reaching the "second floor" of the city. The second floor, in this case, was an enormous platform which held another section of Chasm. The tallest buildings were on this level, regardless of their added elevation. Disappointed in his failure, the blue-eyed boy remained quiet as the hatch opened, leading to a circular elevator. Five seconds after entering the transporter, one of the system's buttons began glowing a light greenish color. The red-eyed twin pressed this button and the hatches closed quickly, a hissing sound emitting from them as they did so. A low frequency humming started after a few beeps signaled the lifting of the elevator. Slowly, the platformed began upwards as the pitch of the humming rose. Before long, the platform was shooting up at an incredible speed, the lines of the outer carbon glass being passed in rapid succession.
The blue-eyed boy planted one of his palms against the inner glass and gazed upon the quickly descending city of Lower Chasm. His brother eyed him inquisitively. In truth, though he was a bit pushy of his game-enthusiastic twin, he cared deeply for him and was glad his twin was a little bit of a nerd. It had nothing to do with being stronger or better at sports. He simply enjoyed the fact that his brother was a softy. It justified his ordering around of him. Of course, there were other reasons. He felt it was his duty to protect his clumsy, cutesy brother, and if that meant he had to make him put away his gaming toy so that he didn't bump into busy citizens, he would definitely jump to enforcing that. Some days, however, he felt it was healthy letting his twin do what he wanted. He was perpetually thankful to the other for something, after all.
Maki was the red-eyed boy's name. Prior to living in Chasm, he and his brother Miki lived in the more rural areas of Sunfield, which served as the farmer's portion of the big city. And even as the name would suggest, Sunfield was surprisingly more modernized than one would imagine. The entire region was afloat over another outdated farmland. The recent advancements in dark matter and gamma technology made this possible. Growing crops through the manipulation of mild dark energy was a complex process which had proven to be overkill in the industry. Farmer's had undoubtedly struck something beyond gold. Dark energy proved to be far simpler to harness than the newer gamma fluid, which acted as a sort of fuel supply. This incredibly unstable property of spacial elements was capable of disturbing a few physics of the world of Pendulum if neglected to handle with care in its domains, mainly consisting of singularity reverser reactors.
This was the job that the twins' mother and father had: containment and maintenance of this very peculiar property. It was an extremely high-paying job, simply because it was so crucial to society. The danger was accounted for as well. One day at work, the gamma readings spiked to unusually high readings. The system failed due to the immense energies given off by the gamma fluids combined with the heat of the microstar in the singularity chamber. The entire energy plant collapsed, leaking radioactive gamma fluid throughout Sunfield; an industrial and agricultural nightmare for all residents. There were little to no survivors in the incident, save a few lucky souls who were left doomed due to radiation poisoning. There has reportedly been one survivor to this day, and he has experienced dramatic changes in his body functions and abilities because of the surreal effects of gamma fluid. Science has yet to comprehend, or even come close to, these effects.
Ever since the incident, the twins had been understandably scarred. Having only each other for weeks, they were finally brought to the city of Chasm by Pendulum's international police, naturally late to the scene. They guided the boys to their new caretakers, evidently their aunt and uncle, who weren't as attentive to them as their parents, but good guardians, nonetheless. Through these difficulties, Maki became his brother's guardian. The dark period in his life caused him to become incredibly mature for his age. Unlike most children at this point in their lives, Maki was very grateful for his maturity sprung about by Miki. More importantly, he was always grateful that Miki could just simply be there and safe. Without a doubt, Maki would follow his brother to Hell.
And, in a sense, they have seen Hell. Mutated, deteriorated corpses strewn about a dying, contaminated landscape that was still literally burning alive because of the loose microstar. They watched as entropy overtook their home; as Sunfield became nothing more than a toxic wasteland of poisonous death and decomposition.
It was comprehensibly difficult to push these lingering thoughts aside even in a prosperous time such as now. By the city's financial status, the Kiri twins' aunt and uncle were absolutely filthy rich, being the managers of Chasm's gamma energy plants. They gave the twins the best education possible in the city, along with a fabulous home to live in and virtually anything their little hearts desired. Despite it all, Maki was not blind to the love short of their parents'. He could not say the same for Miki, then again he could not tell. Miki was always interested in material possessions, which was completely normal for a boy his age. At this thought, Maki was always glad he could have at least preserved one of their childhoods. And he was even happier it was Miki's.
"At least it's a nice day today." Miki stated as he continued to stare out at the still falling city. The feeling of ascension was a truly marvelous thing to the dreamy boy. He had always wished he was born a bird just for the pleasure of flight. This was, of course, before the calamity at Sunfield. He was happy to have been born Maki's twin brother. Even still, the cliché dream of flying was his greatest desire; and that was something even his aunt and uncle were incapable of providing him with. Maki watched his brother with a warm smile, then turned to face the view Miki was so distracted with. He approached the glass window as well, a palm placed gently to his brother's back. True, it was a pleasant sight. It wasn't as wide open as the ranges of Sunfield in the past, but it was nice to gaze out upon their new home.
A few beeps and the lowering in pitch of the elevator's humming signified the arrival of their destination to Upper Chasm. The hatches opened with another hiss. The boys exited the transporter as a few other citizens, deep in a conversation about something along the lines of barrier ball. Maki did not care much for barrier ball, and neither did Miki, but it was a popular sport at their school. The sport was widely famous in the entire city. Chasm had its own professional team of barrier ball players, but the twins neglected to keep up on what everyone around them thought was the hottest form of entertainment. In Maki's opinion, the sport was brutish and barbaric; definitely outdated to the modern aged they lived in. In was, in no way, progressive, and the majority of the citizens in Chasm reflected on what they enjoyed. Nonetheless, there were those who thought like Maki, and the majority of these citizens lived in Upper Chasm as well.
The two raised their head at the sight of the elevated city's skyways and aerial bridges. The air was abuzz with skycrafts. Everyone was eager to get home and enjoy the rest of their Friday. Maki was intent on beating the brunt of this traffic. He glanced at Miki before motioning his head forward, gesturing for the boys' daily race.
"C'mon, you know the drill, let's go!" Before Miki could even respond, Maki was already off and running, the terrastreets far emptier than those in Lower Chasm.
"Wh--Brother!" Miki called out with an arm extended. At the same time, he tried to get a quick start without falling forward as he had done on more than one occasion in spite of his clumsiness. It was easy to see who won the majority of these races. The two wove through their casual shortcuts until reaching the home stretch: the alleyway to the Grand Line, which was a unique, possibly the largest building in Chasm. It was essentially many mansions stacked atop each other, serving as homes for the richest of the rich. Maki, for a change, decided to let his brother catch up to him today, having stopped for an unneeded breath in the alley. He was surprised to see Miki so close behind him, albeit not surprised to see that he was starting to trip up a bit as he got to the alleyway. It was evident to Maki that his brother would soon be tasting concrete. As aware as he could be, he hastily approached Miki with arms open at the moment the boy lost his balance.
"Waaahh!" "Oomph!" The boys hollered. Luckily enough for Miki, his speedy brother managed to catch him as he fell, sending Maki falling to his rump with his arms around his foolhardy brother. Miki's eyes slowly met Maki's as the rush of the moment eased. "Oh... th--... thank you, Brother..." Miki blushed, suddenly realizing he was sitting on his brother with his hands folded up to Maki's chest, his portable gaming device having fallen in his brother's lap.
"...Well, glad I could help. Now, get off of me, dude. Someone's gonna think we're being dirty. And I don't mean the dirty that is now my uniform, which, by the way, I'm so glad you made that happen." Maki responded with sarcasm, a smirk forming on his face as he watched his brother's blush become brighter. Retrieving his device, Miki moved off of his fallen twin and stood up, offering him help with his free hand. "Oh, why thank you." Maki chuckled to himself as he took the assistance. It was a facetious effort, however, as Maki simply stood up using most of his own strength. He brushed the front of his uniform off, which was to little avail as most of the dirt and dust was on his backside.
"I can't run as fast as you! That's what happens when I do... I always end up falling here." Miki sulked, starting ahead with his brother at a leisurely pace this time. The Grand Line came into sight, portions of it flashing with colorful electroplasma light systems.
"You won't get any better unless you practice." Maki grasped the straps of his backpack again, glancing up at their home.
"Mmph... If I could fly, I'd beat you."
"You'd beat anyone if you could fly, dude. The real question is, could you beat me if I flied too?" He turned to look at the vexed expression in the other's face, almost thrilled to see it. He answered the question himself, however. "I think you could. You fantasize about it more than I do, I guess. So you've already got a little grasp on how it works."
"Oh! Good point! So I could beat you!" Miki giggled softly, skipping a little at the thought of finally being able to beat his brother at something... in his dreams.
"Predicting the results aren't the same as those results." Maki argued, facing ahead as he walked beside his twin. "Besides, our races are strictly ground-based. Flying would defeat the purpose of the course we know so well." He shrugged as he spoke, reaching the escalators that led up to the Grand Line's entrance; a spectacular set of double-doors. Formidable security mechs patrolled the area, immediately recognizing the boys and allowing them to pass. As they reached the doors, a female, robotic voice sounded from the outer security system. Asking for an eye-scan, a panel protruded forth from the door, and, sensing the brain waves from the two boys, identified their height. Maki approached the lowered panel, placing his palms against the door as he allowed the mechanism to scan his corneas.
"First visitor recognized: Maki Kiri. Permission to enter: approved. Second visitor's presence identified. Please step up to the door to be scanned." Maki backed away from the door, a slight tingling sensation in his eyes as he blinked a few times and watched his brother approach the door, doing the same exact thing he had done. "Second visitor recognized: Miki Kiri. Permission to enter: approved. Sequence complete. Opening." Both boys stood back as the doors began to open. In truth, only a small section of the doors opened. They were completely automatic, and only slightly larger than the hatches of the transporter. The boys entered the Grand Line, greeted with friendly waves and smiles from the workers within the enormous, luxurious lobby decorated with small breakfast and dinner restaurants, indoor gardens, and live entertainment. As usual, the Grand Line community was abuzz with livelihood: poker and pool tables were readied as many of the workers were aware of an important barrier ball game tonight. The android maids were cleaning the lobby as usual, prepared for another of the Grand Line's famous after-parties; something both of the boys probably wouldn't even be capable of staying awake through.
"Wow! They really are getting prepared for something, aren't they?!" Miki spun around a few times before realizing his brother was walking ahead without him. He caught up, giggling nervously.
"It's the big barrier ball game. People have been talking about this for too long now, and... Eh, it's all kinda repetitive, really You get the idea." Maki explained as he and his twin stopped in front of an array of clear columns at the eastern side of the lobby. Each of these columns were identical, and looked much like slightly smaller versions the transporter the two took. In essence, this is what they were, albeit far less potent in speed. After all, they were not required to climb three quarters of a mile. These transporters worked more like standard elevators. To the citizens of Chasm, that was what they were. Maki tended to the descend button on the control panel. Instantly, the hatches opened. No one had used this elevator to ascend recently, which was fairly convenient. That in mind, Maki stepped inside, followed by his cheerful blue shadow. Specifying the destination for the elevator, it was not long before the two were ascending again.
The elevator came to a stop at the very top floor, or, in this case, the very top mansion. The computer's voice was heard once again a few seconds following the cease-motion of the elevator.
"Specified destination reached. Initiating eye scan." The control panel rises to the boys' level, replicating another scanning mechanism. Maki was first to have his corneas scanned a second time. He blinked a few times, wiping his eyes as Miki stared into the scanners, seemingly perfectly okay with it. The elevator hatch opened, leading to a short hallway and, ultimately, their house's front door. There was nothing particularly high tech about the front door's security system. The only "obstacle" left to pass before the boys were able to enter the house was a locked door. Maki reached into his left pocket, feeling at a small, sharp metal object; an old, effective device known as a "key".
"Did Auntie or Uncu say they would be working late tonight?" Miki asked, attention half-enveloped by his game once again as Maki moved to unlock the door. "I don't remember what they said..."
"'Cause you were too busy doing that." He replied, having his focus shifted on Miki for a moment. He turned the doorknob and pushed the door in slowly, taking in the scent of a well-cleaned house. Leaving the door open for his brother, Maki entered the mansion, dropped his backpack on one of the foyer's slanted couches near the majestic windows lining the foyer's walls, and simply fell to it, taking a deep breath. "Home, at last... Anyway... They said they'd be working a little late, but they'll be home before dark."
"Oh Good! I'm gonna try and catch Eevee again. And this time, I'll try using Emolga..." With glee, the boy skipped up to the couch and sat gently on top of his brother who didn't seem to mind having his twin on him now that they were in their own privacy. Despite that, he did find it slightly awkward, but uncomfortable by any means. Maki placed his hands behind his head and shifted his focus to his brother, smiling a tad. "But he's kinda rare... It'll be awhile before I see another."
"I don't understand your obsession with this Eevee thing." Maki raised a brow as he spoke, attempting to see the game device's screen. "I thought you liked stuff that could fly."
"I do! But what's wrong with liking little cute fox Pokémon? 'Sides, Eevee can evolve into Aveon!' Miki was swinging his legs as he played now, humming to himself.
"Heh... Alright, well... How long are you going to be sitting on me? I have to go to the bathroom..." He let the statement linger, but it wasn't long before Miki was up and off of his twin, smiling nervously at him.
"Usually going to the bathroom is something you do before laying down!"
"It's one thing to say it," Maki stood up, grunting a tad as he did so. He bent down to pick up his backpack before finishing his statement. "And another to do it." He nodded to his brother before heading to the center of the foyer where another cylindrical elevator was, though this one was significantly smaller and far less complex. The hatch opened as it sensed Maki approaching. After closing, the voice activated elevator responded to Maki's command of "floor three". Within seconds, the boy was within his and Miki's huge bedroom... This bedroom was every child's dream: toys, gizmos, and gadgets of all sorts were strewn about the messy room. On one side, toy guns and robots. On the other side, stuffed animals and Pokémon plushies. One side of the room was painted blue, and another was painted red. The colors of each room correlated to the beds and carpeting of each side. Of course, it also correlated to the twins themselves
Maki set his backpack down on his side of the room before making his way to his and Miki's bathroom. The bedroom itself was about a fifth the size of a football field, and the bathroom was half of that size; about ninety feet in length. It had practically two of everything a bathroom required, and then some. There were two toilets, two sinks, two showers and baths, and a curtain splicing the two bathrooms in half for reasons of privacy. Despite the commendable size of all of this, their room was not the master bedroom. Strangely enough, that was on the second floor. As for the kitchen, the boys possessed a small one in their own bedroom, as did the master bedroom. Despite all of this convenience, the family still sat together in the foyer's dining hall to enjoy dinner.
In that foyer, Miki continued to be enthralled in his gaming. He abruptly let out a loud whine as he failed to do what he had hoped to succeed at in this second attempt.
"Awwwww! Stupid overpowered Quick Attack critical hits! ...Darn it... I need to snuggle with my Eevee plush..." Miki stood from the couch and headed for the elevator, assured that his twin was already within their room. Following the same process as Maki, he called the machine to his level and entered it, his device at his side. He sighed, saying the number of the floor he wished to ascend to... As he reached floor three, he stepped into his room and felt a surge of warmth as he spotted his plushies all over the floor, even creeping a bit into Maki's side of the room. Feeling slightly disappointed in his disability to capture the Pokémon on his game, he dove into his pile of stuffed animals and hugged whichever one was closest. "Mm, comfy..." He said to himself, closing his eyes and rolling around in his pile of plushies; the equivalent of floating in a cloudy dream. At least to the fantasizing boy.
He heard Maki step out of the bathroom and sat up, blushing a tad. His brother seemed to be lacking a shirt. A quick silence was broken by Maki's voice.
"Hey, I told you my shirt was dirty from you falling on me." He stated, his hands on his hips. Despite this explanation, the other's blush did not leave his face. For a moment, Maki became skeptical. He glanced down to make sure he was still wearing his shorts, which he was, thus he gave his brother a confused look. If anyone forgot that he had stripped completely, it would've been Miki. Evidently, that has happened on more than one occasion.
"W--hey! I didn't make ya dirty... did I~?" The boy brought a finger to his lips and shifting his pupils to the corner of his eyes, smiling foolishly. A moment later, one of his own plushies is sent flying into his face. He's knocked over into his pile of stuffed animals before sitting back up and hugging the tossed plushie. "You found my Eevee! Eeeee, I love you, Brother!"
"I know. See? You caught it, just like you wanted." The shirtless boy chuckled a tad, moving to the dresser nearest his own bed and pulling out a more comfortable shirt from that. He raised his arms, working both of them through the sleeves and letting the loose T fall to fit his torso. "I don't know about you, dude, but I'm pretty hungry. C'mon, let's check our inventory." He walked to the compact kitchen near the windows of their enormous bedroom and placed a hand on the refrigerator handle, looking back at his brother... who had apparently been too absorbed in cuddling with his stuffed Pokémon. "...You know, if you snuggle it enough, you'll turn into it."
"That'll be the day..."
"Heh, sure..." Maki shook his head, opening and perusing the fridge for whatever he had been in the mood for, which was anything along the lines of fruit. His eyes widened with pleasure as he discovered a bowl of green grapes, his absolute favorite, on the lowest shelf. Making no question about it, he brought the bowl out and picked a grape from the vine, tossing it into his mouth. "Tight! Oh, I forgot we had these in here!" Closing the fridge with a quick swing of his hip, Maki brought the tupperware bowl to the pile of stuffed animals and dropped himself next to his brother, careful of not losing any grapes. "Here, eat up. I know you don't eat as much fruit as you should." He offered the bowl to Miki.
"I do too!" Letting his plushie drop in front of him, Miki reached for the bowl as his brother instinctively found the wallsceen remote hiding in a small pile of plushies nearby. With the click of a button, the two were doing their usual lazy activities: eating and watching cartoons on Miki's wallscreen...
...
Elsewhere...
"The lesser beings... all of them..." A serene, yet dastardly, voice came from the darkness. Over this voice, the menacing humming of electric machinery was heard. The humming of these machines is clearly distinct from the humming of the transporter's in Chasm. "All of them... they will all feel what it is like to be a neglected soul upon this putrid world... to be monsters... Rejects of nature... My pretties... go forth and sink your teeth into the stars and burn out the lights of hope." A series of disorderly hisses came from the same darkness following this mystifying, horrid voice...
...
Later that night, at the Grand Line...
The twins and their aunt and uncle were in the foyer, enjoying their supper as the game was ablaze with adrenaline and enthusiasm in the Grand Line's lobby. The Kiri twins' aunt and uncle were not particular big fans of barrier ball, but they would occasionally be intrigued in the sport when there was nothing else to watch. It was rare for them to even be watching TV, as both of them had invested in the latest advancements of gamma technology. They were more than just the managers of the company, they were unparalleled inventors. They did, however, know a few other inventors on their level dedicated to avoiding what had happened at Sunfield. In a sense, this was their purpose as well, in memory of the boys' mother and father and for everyone's safety.
Uncle Ashton was a white anthropomorphic fox (human citizens simply called them furries) with a natural businessman's appearance. Of course, he had not even changed out of his suit and tie whilst his wife, Glados, had gotten into something more comfortable, just as the boys had done. Glados herself was a human who had married Ashton a few years before the Sunfield incident. She was loving and caring of the two boys, but it was clear she didn't necessarily know how to be a mother. She had little experience with children in her past. To Miki, he was glad she was at least willing to try. To Maki, she wasn't trying hard enough. Both of the twins knew she was a busy woman, but that was no excuse for not giving her children proper attention. Miki felt she was, but Maki's perspective was different. He was more in favor of Uncle Ash, as he called him. True, Uncle Ash was equally as busy as Aunt Glados, but he was the happy-go-lucky silly, at the same time intellectual and calculating, uncle that Maki loved dearly. Whereas Aunt Glados bought most of Miki's toys, Uncle Ash bought most of Maki's toys.
"So boys! Tells us 'bout school. Anything good and exciting?" Ashton ask after finishing his own conversation with Glados. He figured the boys were quite tired of listening to the quantum physics of a reverse singularity collapse based on the properties of a supernova's explosive configuration.
"Mm, nothing too exciting." The boy, sitting next this twin dressed in a light blue tank top and darker blue shorts, said as he stared into his bowl of pasta. "Well, we have no homework," Maki started, glancing over at his uncle after smirking at Miki. He knew exactly what his brother intended to do with that free time. "So we're pretty much free this weekend."
"Dandy." The twins' aunt began after gently tapping with her napkin at a bit of food residue around her lips. "Your uncle and I won't be too busy this weekend. We will have to go to the power plant to observe a few irregularities in our new system. Would you two like to come?" At first, the suggestion seemed unfit for boys of Miki's and Maki's age. There was, in no possible way, that the two could even come close to comprehending the complexities of gamma technology. It was far beyond their level of understanding. It was far beyond most scientisits understanding. The level of sophistication involved in this sort of thing was off the charts. So why did Glados ask the question. "The project appears to give off a spectacular series of lights. Call it Aurora Borealis with fireworks."
"Glad and I thought you two'd be interested in the 'pretty colors', hm?" Ashton chuckled quietly as he received a tilt-head expression from Miki. He knew Miki would probably be too distracted to enjoy the light show. "And, before you ask, Maki, it's completely harmless. We took every precautionary measure to make sure that nothing would go wrong." "Your uncle and I narrowed it to some very elaborate details in order to provide safety to all of the workers." Glados continued, smiling at Ashton as she received a wink from him. It was his way of telling her that she was his right arm. Nothing could have been more true when it came down to their work. Ashton relied more on his wife than on his own physical and mental capabilities in the face of this technology. He focused mainly on the creative aspect of the deal.
"Sure! I'm not doing anything tomorrow, if that's when it is. What do you think, Miki?" Maki turned to his brother to see that, for a change, he was actually paying legitimate attention to the subject. Even though he lacked possession of his gaming device at the moment, Miki always found a way to tune out everything else around him and simply become lost in his own imagination. It was this sort of thing that Aunt Glados recognized within him and felt he would be more than capable of taking his uncle's place in the business of finding new ways to manipulate gamma matter.
"I wanna go! I haven't seen fireworks in a long time!" The enthusiastic twin replied, sitting straight up as he did so. It warmed his uncle's heart to see him so emphasized about something like this. After all, he, too, recognized the boy's ability to become lost in deep thought. It was not this simple fact that impressed the two "parents". It was what came out of it. After long periods of time following or during the boy's imaginative phases, he developed a habit of writing down his thoughts in a small diary, which he allowed for everyone else to see at their own will. Some of the ideas that Glados and Ashton had seen the boy jot down were, blatantly prodigious in nature. Miki had evidently been interested in transformation of matter, or "things", as he had written it down. A few of the points his idea brought up was the conversion of gamma matter to dark energy; a process that was capable of releasing two exponentially increasing stages of energy. In essence, the boy was onto a process that could double, nay, triple the efficiencies of all energies. Miki, however, was still clearly incapable of understanding the thorough processes which had modern-day scientists perplexed.
Maki, on the other hand, was more dedicated to understanding wormhole technology; an extremely recent development following the discovery of gamma energy. His interested strayed from the gamma matter or dark energy advancements, mostly because of the haunting Sunfield incident. Despite its distance from the two subjects, their were definite similarities. For one, wormhole technology relied on two properties of gamma energy: star energy and gamma fluid. Both of these were significantly more stable than gamma matter, albeit still incredibly harmful to living creatures and, even more so, plant life, which affected food sources; a terrible reminder of Sunfield's meltdown. The idea of wormholes fascinated Maki to an extent that his uncle decided to start a process called solar fission, which created the means necessary to engineer wormholes. The process, however, was tedious and fatigue-inducing. The persistence of the worker's and, in truth, Maki's enthusiasm decided the fate of Chasm's wormhole technology.
In short, both of the twins possessed an interest in the latest advancements revolving around metamorphosis and portals. Little did they know how much this would actually affect their lives later. Personally. And physically.
With a schedule set for tomorrow and, of course, full bellies, the brothers returned to their immense bedroom and, after a long day, readied themselves for bed. Miki, as usual, tossed a myriad of his Pokémon plushies onto his bed before diving into it. Maki preferred plenty of blankets over stuffed animals. He wasn't really able to cuddle with plastic toys... Or throw them at his brother. The twins had a habit of hurling Miki's plushies at one another, which proved to be potentially difficult due to the sheer size of their bedroom and the distance between their beds, which was practically the length of the room. Miki objected to it. He preferred to sleep close to, if not, with his brother in the same bed. The boy enjoyed snuggling his toys, obviously, but he was well aware that being snuggled back was a greater reward. Maki was not necessarily on the same level. While he enjoyed being in the presence of his twin, he also enjoyed elbow room and breathing space. Additionally, he felt it was creepy that his brother was so interested in cuddling. He assumed Miki's habitual actions made him into who he was. This was not to say that Maki did not enjoy an occasional hug.
"Good night, Brother~!" Miki told his twin from across the room, not necessarily having to raise his voice as much as someone might expect. The room was aglow with nightlights--primarily on Miki's side--which served two different purposes for the boys. Miki's case was the typical fear of monsters under the bed, while Maki's was more complex. He enjoyed counting the specks of the ceiling to help him fall asleep.
"'Night. Sleep tight." Maki smirked, glancing at his buried brother for a moment before returning his focus to the ceiling. Silence filled the room with somnolence. At a point, Maki could have sworn he heard an array of sirens below, but he quickly dismissed that as his imagination. It never did go away. Both of the boys fell asleep not long after their initial "good nights!".
...
The sun shined surely through the large row of windows in the boys' room. Maki was the first to awaken to this. He, as he normally did every day, stretched his legs by walking to his brother's bed and nudging him a tad. At first, he received a few groans and complaints until Maki decided to steal one of his plushies. This was a tactic for getting the lazy twin out of bed. From this point, it seemed as if the Saturday was going to be a relaxed, easy day. This was the impression ideal weather and little work gave the boys. They both kept in mind that they would soon be seeing a sort of light show later on. Little did they know how soon that was. The gamma power plant did not stay open very late on the weekends, after all.
The early morning android maids had already come and tended to the foyer. Regardless, the boys' aunt and uncle always managed to awaken before the maids came. Once Miki and Maki arrived to the foyer for breakfast, a grave look on Uncle Ashton's face told them that their Saturday would be set awry. No one was able to predict the true extent of this. Ashton, with a paw rubbing the side of his face, gestured for the two boys to sit down at the dining room table with a flick of his other wrist. The boys sat quietly, giving each other nervous glances. It was that imminent feeling that made them feel they were in trouble. And they had no idea what it was. Worst of all was the absence of Aunt Glados.
"Boys," Ashton began, starting to pace around the table with his arms crossed. It looked for certain now that the two were in trouble. "We had an accident down below. Late at night." As he finished speaking, an unparalleled look of relief was portrayed on Miki's face. Maki, however, showed natural curiosity.
"What happened?"
"Well, as you both know, there was a big barrier ball game that a lot of people came here to see. There were some... minor difference... in opinion. A fight broke out. Five were seriously injured... One was killed. One of them was armed. Another... well..." Ashton paused. It was the sort of thing he did that kept the twins intrigued, albeit disturbed. This was the first time anything this chaotic had erupted at the Grand Line; its first death incident. "The other had something of his own. I've been told that it was something related to 'magic'." Ashton shook his head as he stopped pacing. He turned to face the boys, placing both of the palms of his paws on the table. "And I'm sure the authorities were sober enough to make that conclusion."
Maki and Miki stared at their uncle, speechless. Magic? Who understood magic enough to make the claim that it was actually being used? Understandably incredulous, the two looked at each other with shifty eyes. They had to remind themselves that they weren't dreaming. Here their uncle was, a financial and scientific genius, believing in the use of magic. They have been told two firsts in less than two minutes. Suddenly, a faint bleeping noise caught their attention. It appeared to be a small earphone device respectively located just before one of Ashton's ears.
"Yes, yes? Ashton speaking?" He began, two fingers placed gently against the earphone. The voice on the other line was inaudible to the boys as the simply sat in lingering disbelief. They were clearly still trapped on the subject of magic, and would be for quite some time. "Oh, really? Well it can't be too ba--... ...In the core...? ...Something happened in there...? did you check the unnova processors? I think--...Oh the boys? Yeah, I have them right here. I told them about what happened last night in the lobby... You sure...? ...If you insist. As long as we don't need to prepare for any unforeseen consequences. Alright... Alright. Love you too. B'bye." With a quiet bleeping noise, Ashton returned his attention to his human nephews.
"Was that Auntie?" Miki wondered aloud. He sat on the table with his elbows atop it and his head in his hands.
"Yep. She's waiting for us at the gamma plant. C'mon you two. Get dressed and I'll take you to see that fancy light show. Get away from here until they clear up the mess a little more." With that said, he gave the boys his winning smile; a sign of reassurance. Miki obliged, scurrying up the stairwell that spiraled around the cylindrical elevator in the center of the foyer. He seemed to be content with dismissing the idea of sorcery. Maki, however, was not the same. He persisted.
"Uncle Ash... Was their anything else on this whole magic thing?"
"All I heard was that some form of it was possibly used. As eager as I was, and still am, to understand more about it, the police couldn't tell me much. I venture they knew about as much as I do now. Sorry kiddo." Ashton moved around the table and ruffled Maki's whitish reddish hair a bit. Maki stood from the table, smiling up at his uncle. "I'm glad you're interested though. Maybe we'll learn more about it in time. Right now, go on and get dressed. Don't wanna keep Auntie waitin, hm?" The fox leaned down to kiss the top of the boy's head. Maki nodded in return, the inquisitive fire within him no more doused than a minute ago.
In the boys' room, Miki had already finished changing into his casual collared blue and black shirt and navy blue jeans. Maki entered the room through means of the elevator with his head hung low and his thoughts racing. Parallel to that, his brother raced up to him, jumpy as usual.
"Brother! Magic is real!" He stated, giggling as he spoke.
"Yeah, dude... I know... But still. People got hurt... Someone died. You see? Crime's finally made itself up to the Grand Line. Where is it gonna strike next?" He shook his head as he walked passed his brother, heading for his closet not too distant from his side of the bathroom.
"But... magic!" He pursued his brother with unyielding enthusiasm and excitement. He stood a few feet behind Maki, his arms out to his sides. "Besides, we can't do much about it, you know. The police already got to the scene. 'Member what Uncu said?"
"I know! But still! If they were any better at their job, they would have been able to capture a wizard, dude. And this magic?" He scoffed to himself as he selected a pair of black jeans and a red and black striped T-shirt from his closet. Maki turned to face Miki for a few moments, approaching his bed and laying out his clothes. "For all we know, that 'wizard' could have been the person responsible for the death. Maybe even the injuries. Magic's no laughing matter, dude. The harsh reality is that..." He paused his thought as he removed his shirt to replace it with the newly chosen one. "...Harsh reality is that it's not going to be used to help anyone." He was now adjusting his newly picked jeans on his legs.
"Oh, don't be such a drag, Maki. I'm sure if other people learned how to use it, it would be a good thing!"
"It's one thing to say that, another thing to see it."
...
The gamma power plant was an intimidating place, to say the least. Its interior was considerably dark, albeit lit with streaks of radial fluid throughout the inner corridors and chambers. The entire, surreal building felt like an alien mothership. It was like being inside of a virtual grid. The boys, following their aunt and uncle, were unable to help but sight-see as they were guided through the corridors, noting the scientists that passed them with clipboard holograms containing miscellaneous formulas and equations. They could not understand a thing their aunt and uncle were saying. It was, effectively, another language. After a few more minutes of walking through the spaceship-like building, the four reached a tidy observation chamber with a blinding white impenetrable glass window. At this sight, Glados and Ashton scurried frantically to the scientists desperately attempting to assess the situation.
"Wh-are you guys insane?! Who activated the singularity reverse?!" Ashton's was yelling over the sound of a menacing humming of the monstrous machine on the other side of the glass.
"Mister Kiri, Sir, we are uncertain! It has shown inconsistent results all day! The core is extremely unpredictable. The only assumption I can make is--"
"Assumptions?! We can't work with assumptions!" Ashton interrupted. For the second time today, his demeanor was frightening the boys.
"Y-yes, Sir. It seems that someone has sabotaged the microstar through means unknown."
"Sabotaged the microstar?!" Glados replied to the scientist. Her voice, softer spoken in nature, was significantly more difficult to hear over the increasing noise. "No one should be able to get within a mile's radius of the microstar without being vaporized!"
The situation became overwhelming to the two boys. Miki hugged himself close to Maki as he felt the ground beneath his feet begin to tremble. A rumbling sound came from within the tremendous power chamber. All manner of distortion in the very script of physics was occurring in that one room. Through the thickness of the white light, the occasional black lightning could be seen. This phenomenon was known as "horizon plasma", which could be found upon the event horizon of a black hole. That was definitively not a good sign. The presence of horizon plasma this close to the glass was enough to tell the scientists that not enough the ace up their sleeves--the black hole--was containing the turmoil in the chamber. It had become a part of it. That particular smell of burning ozone and mass alpha decay filled the air. Particles within the chamber were experiencing an accelerated half-life.
"Boys! Get out of the building! We'll take care of things! Just follow the yellow lightstream to the exit!" Ashton shouted. Faced with pressure, Maki hesitated to do anything. He quickly snapped back to reality when Miki tugged lightly on his arm, a look of desperation in his eyes. The two boys nodded to each other and turned around, running out of the observation chamber.
Un-synchronized footsteps served as an extra alert to the already panicked scientists who quickly fled either to assist the efforts or avoid them. Most would have rather avoided the entire thing. It was imperative that the twins had followed the yellow streak of light out of the building, but a quick slip up by Miki had left both of the boys discombobulated. Maki quickly aided his brother to his feet, patted his shoulder once, and made a left. As he ran ahead, Miki stood still at the fork in the corridor path he had fallen upon.
"B-brother! Wait! I don't think--"
"C'mon!!" Maki interrupted, looking back at his brother and waving his hand, telling him to make haste. He did so, soon after looking to the ground and pursuing his brother along a beige-lit path...
The boys continued to follow this path, Maki oblivious to his mistake of veering off course. His instincts were screaming at him that he was simply making a sort of U-turn, but heading nowhere near the observation chamber. The corridor, devoid of personnel, stretched at a slope downward into a sort of arch. The further the twins ran, the louder that horrible humming became. The metal ground quaked beneath them. It felt as if the entire building would collapse at any moment. That would have proven to be disastrous for the continent, let alone the city of Chasm. The two at last reached a section of the corridor where the beige streamlight faded out. Darkness prevailed in this hallway. The two found themselves coming to a stop before a busted set of autodoors. The sound of electricity crackled over the humming.
"Did someone plow their way through here? I-is this the exit?!" Maki did not even realize that he was yelling. The two walked ahead, spotting a white glow around an upcoming corner in the dark hallway. Both of their faces lightened at the same exact moment. Maki and Miki rushed forth into what they assumed to be sunlight...
In truth, they were rushing directly for the hazardous materials gateway placed directly before the singularity chamber. A hissing sound came from behind. The electronic sensors have picked up their presence, having assumed the two were authorized personnel. Electricity continued to crackle as the two were now trapped in this small passage. A robotic voice emitted from an unknown source. It was distorted and malfunctioning from whatever had occurred to sabotage the power.
"Wh-hey!! Let us out of here!" Maki backtracked to the now sealed door, ramming his fists against it vigorously. The effort was to no avail. He turned back to see that his brother was on the verge of tears.
"Brother! Where--what's happening?! Are we gonna--"
"No, Miki!" He closed the distance between he and Miki, firmly grasping his brother's shoulders, a vermilion gaze meeting azure eyes. "Listen to me! We will make it out of this!" It was now nigh impossible to hear Maki's voice over the turmoil that was only increasing in volume. The last thing his normal brother was to ever say was, "Don't give me a reason to believe we're about to relive Sunfield!!"
The solar dark energy glow was now a blinding scintillation. Nearly all sensations left both of the boys in the form of sublimation. It had simple evaporated from them. The only two remaining sensations in that moment were a horrid feeling of being submerged in boiling fluid and their insides imploding, reforming, and imploding again...
...
Nirvana...
...
The sky was dark and cloudy; rain pouring upon the desolate, blackened terrastreets of Lower Chasm... The entire lower city was submerged in gothic darkness...
An unending beeping sounded in what appeared to be a small room... It was a calming beeping. The sound of thunder broke the tranquility. After moments passed, it was apparent that there were, in fact, two sets of the nonstop beeping. As it grew louder and began sounding more natural, a deep, sluggish breathing sound accompanied it. The breathing was an estranged, mask-covered sounding noise, almost as if someone was breathing through a large plastic tube. In essence, that was the truth...
A vision of a white ceiling was the first thing to greet his red eyes. He was able to make out the shapes of nearby machines through his blurred peripheral vision. The boy felt as if he had hot water racing through his veins. His bones felt frozen. His muscles ached with fatigue. At the same time, he felt wonderful. He felt as if he could run a thousand marathons, though he knew that he was exaggerating his own abilities... to the extent of his knowledge. His mind snapped to the present. Maki was laying on his back in a hospital bed, his arms at his sides. Innumerable tubes were latched to his body in particularly uncomfortable places. The high-tech, almost UFO-like, hospital room did not consist of Maki alone. There was another victim of something sharing this room with him. The boy found that turning his head to face this second figure was exponentially more difficult than what his mind had told him. But when he managed to do so, he could have sworn he felt his soul leap out of his body and back again.
Miki lay on his back as well. The same contraptions tethered him to the bed just as it had done to Maki, who was relieved to see that these machines were functioning on a live human being. At least, that's what he hoped the beeping and breathing meant. He had every reason to be skeptical. After all, he did not exactly know if he was really alive.
Was he alive? It was still too early to deduce something like that... And too early to be awake... Silence's membrane formed around Maki once again as he slowly slid back into a curious slumber... In this slumber, he dreamed. It was the most beautiful feeling to dream again. It was the proof he needed. Something so surreal told him that the minuscule moment he was in the hospital was, in fact, real. The dream itself was no more than a what-if scenario having to do with the Grand Line's incident. He was blissfully unaware of the factor of time in this matter. He was unable to determine how long or soon ago the trouble was, let alone able to wake back up... A familiar voice reigned true in his mind.
"Brother...? Ar--... --ou... --ear me? I--... --am--... --m--eta...sh--... if...--ter? ...Brother... you--... --ar--...--e--... m--...--ag--...walk...--er?"
...
Instantaneously, Maki's eyes shot open. He took a quick deep breath as he quickly regathered information of his surroundings. He remained within the hospital bed. His head was focused on his brother's bed now, however, and he felt his heart sank when he failed to locate Miki. He felt as if his chest was compressing... literally. It felt as though there was something soft and light on his chest. The boy turned his head to find an unusual surprise. There, on his own belly, stood a tiny, fluffy brown fox with long ears and a bushy scruff of fur around the neck. It watched Maki closely with a look of anticipation while, at the same time, Maki could have sworn he has seen this creature before...
...But where...?
"Brother!" The creature spoke to Maki in that familiar voice... "Was I really this obsessed with catching him?!"
Maki fought the urge to holler out. Rather, he acquired the sudden strength to sit up, remove the breathing tube from his face, and wrap his arms tightly around the small fox. He closed his eyelids tightly enough to feel the strain begin to press against his eyes. Despite such a tight close, a tear managed to escape. It rolled slowly down his cheek and landed on a curious Eevee's nose, who soon buried his own face in his brother's--yes, his brother's--chest.
"Miki... We're alive..."
...Thunder crashed again as Maki held his brother in his arms...
The Kiri Twins: http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x222/Frenchthefries/KiriTwins.jpg?t=1301871159
Red-eyed (Left): Maki (Magwalker)
Blue-eyed (Right): Miki (Metashifter)
Evantra Gackt (Blood Flayer)http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x222/Frenchthefries/EvantraGackt.jpg
The City of Chasm: http://i186.photobucket.com/albums/x222/Frenchthefries/Chasm.jpg
~~~~~~~~~
~And so began the story of two ordinary boys.~
The sky was clear. The lively city was thoroughly at its peak of activity, as it was mid-noon. Today, a Friday, was a particularly pleasing, easygoing day for the citizens of Chasm. There was little traffic in the skyways, no unruly crime upon the grounded streets, and, obviously, the weekend was here for the hardworking students and laborers of the city. Days like this were rare in this modern-day utopia. It was always uncommon for a mutual feeling of leisure to exist throughout Chasm. Now that it was here, surely some would take it for granted. Some would, on other hand, attempt to make it last for the remaining three days of freedom.
This could be said for the two young twins who walked casually through the lower streets of Radio Alp, which was, essentially, the Times Square of Chasm. The difference here was that it was significantly larger and decorated with numerous electroplasma lights that created a feeling of being a high-tech spacial facility. Many other aspects of the city were capable of doing so, however, as the utopia was about three hundred years ahead of New York's time anyway. As for the twins, crowded terrastreets proved not to be dissatisfying. They had plenty of time to walk home. After all, their homework assignment, for the first time in as long as they can remember, was to simply enjoy the weekend.
Both boys, walking in synchronization of their footfalls, wore nearly the same exact attire; a white and blue school uniform comprised of a long-sleeve shirt and blue shorts. The difference in their apparel was that one of the twins was wearing pale scarlet scarf; the mean of the colors between his eyes and his hair. The other, possessing color properties more along the line of blue, appeared to have his attention consumed with a hand-held gaming device. His scarf-wearing twin turned to him and rolled his eyes, his hands grasping his back-pack straps as he walked.
"Would you pay attention to where you're walking?" He said to his brother just after he received a look from a formally dressed citizen who nearly bumped into the gamer of the two. "Can't you wait to play your silly little game until we get home?" He continued, returning his attention forward with the expectation that his brother was to do the same.
"I don't wanna! I'm about to catch Eevee!" His brother retaliated, a look of sheer excitement plastered on his face. It was as if he was oblivious to all else around him. This was basically the idea. "Come on, come on, come ooooon! ...Oh darn it! Critical hit?!" He brought the game device a few inches away from his face as he stared at it in disbelief. He let out an agitating whine.
"Well, if you're gonna keep playing, could you at least not do that?" The red-eyed boy said as he pressed his thumb and pointer finger into his closed eyes. The two were now standing in front of a large carbon-glass cylinder. Its hatch was closed as the elevator platform was currently in use. Chasm had an entire network of these publicly accessible tube elevators throughout the city. They were primarily utilized for reaching the "second floor" of the city. The second floor, in this case, was an enormous platform which held another section of Chasm. The tallest buildings were on this level, regardless of their added elevation. Disappointed in his failure, the blue-eyed boy remained quiet as the hatch opened, leading to a circular elevator. Five seconds after entering the transporter, one of the system's buttons began glowing a light greenish color. The red-eyed twin pressed this button and the hatches closed quickly, a hissing sound emitting from them as they did so. A low frequency humming started after a few beeps signaled the lifting of the elevator. Slowly, the platformed began upwards as the pitch of the humming rose. Before long, the platform was shooting up at an incredible speed, the lines of the outer carbon glass being passed in rapid succession.
The blue-eyed boy planted one of his palms against the inner glass and gazed upon the quickly descending city of Lower Chasm. His brother eyed him inquisitively. In truth, though he was a bit pushy of his game-enthusiastic twin, he cared deeply for him and was glad his twin was a little bit of a nerd. It had nothing to do with being stronger or better at sports. He simply enjoyed the fact that his brother was a softy. It justified his ordering around of him. Of course, there were other reasons. He felt it was his duty to protect his clumsy, cutesy brother, and if that meant he had to make him put away his gaming toy so that he didn't bump into busy citizens, he would definitely jump to enforcing that. Some days, however, he felt it was healthy letting his twin do what he wanted. He was perpetually thankful to the other for something, after all.
Maki was the red-eyed boy's name. Prior to living in Chasm, he and his brother Miki lived in the more rural areas of Sunfield, which served as the farmer's portion of the big city. And even as the name would suggest, Sunfield was surprisingly more modernized than one would imagine. The entire region was afloat over another outdated farmland. The recent advancements in dark matter and gamma technology made this possible. Growing crops through the manipulation of mild dark energy was a complex process which had proven to be overkill in the industry. Farmer's had undoubtedly struck something beyond gold. Dark energy proved to be far simpler to harness than the newer gamma fluid, which acted as a sort of fuel supply. This incredibly unstable property of spacial elements was capable of disturbing a few physics of the world of Pendulum if neglected to handle with care in its domains, mainly consisting of singularity reverser reactors.
This was the job that the twins' mother and father had: containment and maintenance of this very peculiar property. It was an extremely high-paying job, simply because it was so crucial to society. The danger was accounted for as well. One day at work, the gamma readings spiked to unusually high readings. The system failed due to the immense energies given off by the gamma fluids combined with the heat of the microstar in the singularity chamber. The entire energy plant collapsed, leaking radioactive gamma fluid throughout Sunfield; an industrial and agricultural nightmare for all residents. There were little to no survivors in the incident, save a few lucky souls who were left doomed due to radiation poisoning. There has reportedly been one survivor to this day, and he has experienced dramatic changes in his body functions and abilities because of the surreal effects of gamma fluid. Science has yet to comprehend, or even come close to, these effects.
Ever since the incident, the twins had been understandably scarred. Having only each other for weeks, they were finally brought to the city of Chasm by Pendulum's international police, naturally late to the scene. They guided the boys to their new caretakers, evidently their aunt and uncle, who weren't as attentive to them as their parents, but good guardians, nonetheless. Through these difficulties, Maki became his brother's guardian. The dark period in his life caused him to become incredibly mature for his age. Unlike most children at this point in their lives, Maki was very grateful for his maturity sprung about by Miki. More importantly, he was always grateful that Miki could just simply be there and safe. Without a doubt, Maki would follow his brother to Hell.
And, in a sense, they have seen Hell. Mutated, deteriorated corpses strewn about a dying, contaminated landscape that was still literally burning alive because of the loose microstar. They watched as entropy overtook their home; as Sunfield became nothing more than a toxic wasteland of poisonous death and decomposition.
It was comprehensibly difficult to push these lingering thoughts aside even in a prosperous time such as now. By the city's financial status, the Kiri twins' aunt and uncle were absolutely filthy rich, being the managers of Chasm's gamma energy plants. They gave the twins the best education possible in the city, along with a fabulous home to live in and virtually anything their little hearts desired. Despite it all, Maki was not blind to the love short of their parents'. He could not say the same for Miki, then again he could not tell. Miki was always interested in material possessions, which was completely normal for a boy his age. At this thought, Maki was always glad he could have at least preserved one of their childhoods. And he was even happier it was Miki's.
"At least it's a nice day today." Miki stated as he continued to stare out at the still falling city. The feeling of ascension was a truly marvelous thing to the dreamy boy. He had always wished he was born a bird just for the pleasure of flight. This was, of course, before the calamity at Sunfield. He was happy to have been born Maki's twin brother. Even still, the cliché dream of flying was his greatest desire; and that was something even his aunt and uncle were incapable of providing him with. Maki watched his brother with a warm smile, then turned to face the view Miki was so distracted with. He approached the glass window as well, a palm placed gently to his brother's back. True, it was a pleasant sight. It wasn't as wide open as the ranges of Sunfield in the past, but it was nice to gaze out upon their new home.
A few beeps and the lowering in pitch of the elevator's humming signified the arrival of their destination to Upper Chasm. The hatches opened with another hiss. The boys exited the transporter as a few other citizens, deep in a conversation about something along the lines of barrier ball. Maki did not care much for barrier ball, and neither did Miki, but it was a popular sport at their school. The sport was widely famous in the entire city. Chasm had its own professional team of barrier ball players, but the twins neglected to keep up on what everyone around them thought was the hottest form of entertainment. In Maki's opinion, the sport was brutish and barbaric; definitely outdated to the modern aged they lived in. In was, in no way, progressive, and the majority of the citizens in Chasm reflected on what they enjoyed. Nonetheless, there were those who thought like Maki, and the majority of these citizens lived in Upper Chasm as well.
The two raised their head at the sight of the elevated city's skyways and aerial bridges. The air was abuzz with skycrafts. Everyone was eager to get home and enjoy the rest of their Friday. Maki was intent on beating the brunt of this traffic. He glanced at Miki before motioning his head forward, gesturing for the boys' daily race.
"C'mon, you know the drill, let's go!" Before Miki could even respond, Maki was already off and running, the terrastreets far emptier than those in Lower Chasm.
"Wh--Brother!" Miki called out with an arm extended. At the same time, he tried to get a quick start without falling forward as he had done on more than one occasion in spite of his clumsiness. It was easy to see who won the majority of these races. The two wove through their casual shortcuts until reaching the home stretch: the alleyway to the Grand Line, which was a unique, possibly the largest building in Chasm. It was essentially many mansions stacked atop each other, serving as homes for the richest of the rich. Maki, for a change, decided to let his brother catch up to him today, having stopped for an unneeded breath in the alley. He was surprised to see Miki so close behind him, albeit not surprised to see that he was starting to trip up a bit as he got to the alleyway. It was evident to Maki that his brother would soon be tasting concrete. As aware as he could be, he hastily approached Miki with arms open at the moment the boy lost his balance.
"Waaahh!" "Oomph!" The boys hollered. Luckily enough for Miki, his speedy brother managed to catch him as he fell, sending Maki falling to his rump with his arms around his foolhardy brother. Miki's eyes slowly met Maki's as the rush of the moment eased. "Oh... th--... thank you, Brother..." Miki blushed, suddenly realizing he was sitting on his brother with his hands folded up to Maki's chest, his portable gaming device having fallen in his brother's lap.
"...Well, glad I could help. Now, get off of me, dude. Someone's gonna think we're being dirty. And I don't mean the dirty that is now my uniform, which, by the way, I'm so glad you made that happen." Maki responded with sarcasm, a smirk forming on his face as he watched his brother's blush become brighter. Retrieving his device, Miki moved off of his fallen twin and stood up, offering him help with his free hand. "Oh, why thank you." Maki chuckled to himself as he took the assistance. It was a facetious effort, however, as Maki simply stood up using most of his own strength. He brushed the front of his uniform off, which was to little avail as most of the dirt and dust was on his backside.
"I can't run as fast as you! That's what happens when I do... I always end up falling here." Miki sulked, starting ahead with his brother at a leisurely pace this time. The Grand Line came into sight, portions of it flashing with colorful electroplasma light systems.
"You won't get any better unless you practice." Maki grasped the straps of his backpack again, glancing up at their home.
"Mmph... If I could fly, I'd beat you."
"You'd beat anyone if you could fly, dude. The real question is, could you beat me if I flied too?" He turned to look at the vexed expression in the other's face, almost thrilled to see it. He answered the question himself, however. "I think you could. You fantasize about it more than I do, I guess. So you've already got a little grasp on how it works."
"Oh! Good point! So I could beat you!" Miki giggled softly, skipping a little at the thought of finally being able to beat his brother at something... in his dreams.
"Predicting the results aren't the same as those results." Maki argued, facing ahead as he walked beside his twin. "Besides, our races are strictly ground-based. Flying would defeat the purpose of the course we know so well." He shrugged as he spoke, reaching the escalators that led up to the Grand Line's entrance; a spectacular set of double-doors. Formidable security mechs patrolled the area, immediately recognizing the boys and allowing them to pass. As they reached the doors, a female, robotic voice sounded from the outer security system. Asking for an eye-scan, a panel protruded forth from the door, and, sensing the brain waves from the two boys, identified their height. Maki approached the lowered panel, placing his palms against the door as he allowed the mechanism to scan his corneas.
"First visitor recognized: Maki Kiri. Permission to enter: approved. Second visitor's presence identified. Please step up to the door to be scanned." Maki backed away from the door, a slight tingling sensation in his eyes as he blinked a few times and watched his brother approach the door, doing the same exact thing he had done. "Second visitor recognized: Miki Kiri. Permission to enter: approved. Sequence complete. Opening." Both boys stood back as the doors began to open. In truth, only a small section of the doors opened. They were completely automatic, and only slightly larger than the hatches of the transporter. The boys entered the Grand Line, greeted with friendly waves and smiles from the workers within the enormous, luxurious lobby decorated with small breakfast and dinner restaurants, indoor gardens, and live entertainment. As usual, the Grand Line community was abuzz with livelihood: poker and pool tables were readied as many of the workers were aware of an important barrier ball game tonight. The android maids were cleaning the lobby as usual, prepared for another of the Grand Line's famous after-parties; something both of the boys probably wouldn't even be capable of staying awake through.
"Wow! They really are getting prepared for something, aren't they?!" Miki spun around a few times before realizing his brother was walking ahead without him. He caught up, giggling nervously.
"It's the big barrier ball game. People have been talking about this for too long now, and... Eh, it's all kinda repetitive, really You get the idea." Maki explained as he and his twin stopped in front of an array of clear columns at the eastern side of the lobby. Each of these columns were identical, and looked much like slightly smaller versions the transporter the two took. In essence, this is what they were, albeit far less potent in speed. After all, they were not required to climb three quarters of a mile. These transporters worked more like standard elevators. To the citizens of Chasm, that was what they were. Maki tended to the descend button on the control panel. Instantly, the hatches opened. No one had used this elevator to ascend recently, which was fairly convenient. That in mind, Maki stepped inside, followed by his cheerful blue shadow. Specifying the destination for the elevator, it was not long before the two were ascending again.
The elevator came to a stop at the very top floor, or, in this case, the very top mansion. The computer's voice was heard once again a few seconds following the cease-motion of the elevator.
"Specified destination reached. Initiating eye scan." The control panel rises to the boys' level, replicating another scanning mechanism. Maki was first to have his corneas scanned a second time. He blinked a few times, wiping his eyes as Miki stared into the scanners, seemingly perfectly okay with it. The elevator hatch opened, leading to a short hallway and, ultimately, their house's front door. There was nothing particularly high tech about the front door's security system. The only "obstacle" left to pass before the boys were able to enter the house was a locked door. Maki reached into his left pocket, feeling at a small, sharp metal object; an old, effective device known as a "key".
"Did Auntie or Uncu say they would be working late tonight?" Miki asked, attention half-enveloped by his game once again as Maki moved to unlock the door. "I don't remember what they said..."
"'Cause you were too busy doing that." He replied, having his focus shifted on Miki for a moment. He turned the doorknob and pushed the door in slowly, taking in the scent of a well-cleaned house. Leaving the door open for his brother, Maki entered the mansion, dropped his backpack on one of the foyer's slanted couches near the majestic windows lining the foyer's walls, and simply fell to it, taking a deep breath. "Home, at last... Anyway... They said they'd be working a little late, but they'll be home before dark."
"Oh Good! I'm gonna try and catch Eevee again. And this time, I'll try using Emolga..." With glee, the boy skipped up to the couch and sat gently on top of his brother who didn't seem to mind having his twin on him now that they were in their own privacy. Despite that, he did find it slightly awkward, but uncomfortable by any means. Maki placed his hands behind his head and shifted his focus to his brother, smiling a tad. "But he's kinda rare... It'll be awhile before I see another."
"I don't understand your obsession with this Eevee thing." Maki raised a brow as he spoke, attempting to see the game device's screen. "I thought you liked stuff that could fly."
"I do! But what's wrong with liking little cute fox Pokémon? 'Sides, Eevee can evolve into Aveon!' Miki was swinging his legs as he played now, humming to himself.
"Heh... Alright, well... How long are you going to be sitting on me? I have to go to the bathroom..." He let the statement linger, but it wasn't long before Miki was up and off of his twin, smiling nervously at him.
"Usually going to the bathroom is something you do before laying down!"
"It's one thing to say it," Maki stood up, grunting a tad as he did so. He bent down to pick up his backpack before finishing his statement. "And another to do it." He nodded to his brother before heading to the center of the foyer where another cylindrical elevator was, though this one was significantly smaller and far less complex. The hatch opened as it sensed Maki approaching. After closing, the voice activated elevator responded to Maki's command of "floor three". Within seconds, the boy was within his and Miki's huge bedroom... This bedroom was every child's dream: toys, gizmos, and gadgets of all sorts were strewn about the messy room. On one side, toy guns and robots. On the other side, stuffed animals and Pokémon plushies. One side of the room was painted blue, and another was painted red. The colors of each room correlated to the beds and carpeting of each side. Of course, it also correlated to the twins themselves
Maki set his backpack down on his side of the room before making his way to his and Miki's bathroom. The bedroom itself was about a fifth the size of a football field, and the bathroom was half of that size; about ninety feet in length. It had practically two of everything a bathroom required, and then some. There were two toilets, two sinks, two showers and baths, and a curtain splicing the two bathrooms in half for reasons of privacy. Despite the commendable size of all of this, their room was not the master bedroom. Strangely enough, that was on the second floor. As for the kitchen, the boys possessed a small one in their own bedroom, as did the master bedroom. Despite all of this convenience, the family still sat together in the foyer's dining hall to enjoy dinner.
In that foyer, Miki continued to be enthralled in his gaming. He abruptly let out a loud whine as he failed to do what he had hoped to succeed at in this second attempt.
"Awwwww! Stupid overpowered Quick Attack critical hits! ...Darn it... I need to snuggle with my Eevee plush..." Miki stood from the couch and headed for the elevator, assured that his twin was already within their room. Following the same process as Maki, he called the machine to his level and entered it, his device at his side. He sighed, saying the number of the floor he wished to ascend to... As he reached floor three, he stepped into his room and felt a surge of warmth as he spotted his plushies all over the floor, even creeping a bit into Maki's side of the room. Feeling slightly disappointed in his disability to capture the Pokémon on his game, he dove into his pile of stuffed animals and hugged whichever one was closest. "Mm, comfy..." He said to himself, closing his eyes and rolling around in his pile of plushies; the equivalent of floating in a cloudy dream. At least to the fantasizing boy.
He heard Maki step out of the bathroom and sat up, blushing a tad. His brother seemed to be lacking a shirt. A quick silence was broken by Maki's voice.
"Hey, I told you my shirt was dirty from you falling on me." He stated, his hands on his hips. Despite this explanation, the other's blush did not leave his face. For a moment, Maki became skeptical. He glanced down to make sure he was still wearing his shorts, which he was, thus he gave his brother a confused look. If anyone forgot that he had stripped completely, it would've been Miki. Evidently, that has happened on more than one occasion.
"W--hey! I didn't make ya dirty... did I~?" The boy brought a finger to his lips and shifting his pupils to the corner of his eyes, smiling foolishly. A moment later, one of his own plushies is sent flying into his face. He's knocked over into his pile of stuffed animals before sitting back up and hugging the tossed plushie. "You found my Eevee! Eeeee, I love you, Brother!"
"I know. See? You caught it, just like you wanted." The shirtless boy chuckled a tad, moving to the dresser nearest his own bed and pulling out a more comfortable shirt from that. He raised his arms, working both of them through the sleeves and letting the loose T fall to fit his torso. "I don't know about you, dude, but I'm pretty hungry. C'mon, let's check our inventory." He walked to the compact kitchen near the windows of their enormous bedroom and placed a hand on the refrigerator handle, looking back at his brother... who had apparently been too absorbed in cuddling with his stuffed Pokémon. "...You know, if you snuggle it enough, you'll turn into it."
"That'll be the day..."
"Heh, sure..." Maki shook his head, opening and perusing the fridge for whatever he had been in the mood for, which was anything along the lines of fruit. His eyes widened with pleasure as he discovered a bowl of green grapes, his absolute favorite, on the lowest shelf. Making no question about it, he brought the bowl out and picked a grape from the vine, tossing it into his mouth. "Tight! Oh, I forgot we had these in here!" Closing the fridge with a quick swing of his hip, Maki brought the tupperware bowl to the pile of stuffed animals and dropped himself next to his brother, careful of not losing any grapes. "Here, eat up. I know you don't eat as much fruit as you should." He offered the bowl to Miki.
"I do too!" Letting his plushie drop in front of him, Miki reached for the bowl as his brother instinctively found the wallsceen remote hiding in a small pile of plushies nearby. With the click of a button, the two were doing their usual lazy activities: eating and watching cartoons on Miki's wallscreen...
...
Elsewhere...
"The lesser beings... all of them..." A serene, yet dastardly, voice came from the darkness. Over this voice, the menacing humming of electric machinery was heard. The humming of these machines is clearly distinct from the humming of the transporter's in Chasm. "All of them... they will all feel what it is like to be a neglected soul upon this putrid world... to be monsters... Rejects of nature... My pretties... go forth and sink your teeth into the stars and burn out the lights of hope." A series of disorderly hisses came from the same darkness following this mystifying, horrid voice...
...
Later that night, at the Grand Line...
The twins and their aunt and uncle were in the foyer, enjoying their supper as the game was ablaze with adrenaline and enthusiasm in the Grand Line's lobby. The Kiri twins' aunt and uncle were not particular big fans of barrier ball, but they would occasionally be intrigued in the sport when there was nothing else to watch. It was rare for them to even be watching TV, as both of them had invested in the latest advancements of gamma technology. They were more than just the managers of the company, they were unparalleled inventors. They did, however, know a few other inventors on their level dedicated to avoiding what had happened at Sunfield. In a sense, this was their purpose as well, in memory of the boys' mother and father and for everyone's safety.
Uncle Ashton was a white anthropomorphic fox (human citizens simply called them furries) with a natural businessman's appearance. Of course, he had not even changed out of his suit and tie whilst his wife, Glados, had gotten into something more comfortable, just as the boys had done. Glados herself was a human who had married Ashton a few years before the Sunfield incident. She was loving and caring of the two boys, but it was clear she didn't necessarily know how to be a mother. She had little experience with children in her past. To Miki, he was glad she was at least willing to try. To Maki, she wasn't trying hard enough. Both of the twins knew she was a busy woman, but that was no excuse for not giving her children proper attention. Miki felt she was, but Maki's perspective was different. He was more in favor of Uncle Ash, as he called him. True, Uncle Ash was equally as busy as Aunt Glados, but he was the happy-go-lucky silly, at the same time intellectual and calculating, uncle that Maki loved dearly. Whereas Aunt Glados bought most of Miki's toys, Uncle Ash bought most of Maki's toys.
"So boys! Tells us 'bout school. Anything good and exciting?" Ashton ask after finishing his own conversation with Glados. He figured the boys were quite tired of listening to the quantum physics of a reverse singularity collapse based on the properties of a supernova's explosive configuration.
"Mm, nothing too exciting." The boy, sitting next this twin dressed in a light blue tank top and darker blue shorts, said as he stared into his bowl of pasta. "Well, we have no homework," Maki started, glancing over at his uncle after smirking at Miki. He knew exactly what his brother intended to do with that free time. "So we're pretty much free this weekend."
"Dandy." The twins' aunt began after gently tapping with her napkin at a bit of food residue around her lips. "Your uncle and I won't be too busy this weekend. We will have to go to the power plant to observe a few irregularities in our new system. Would you two like to come?" At first, the suggestion seemed unfit for boys of Miki's and Maki's age. There was, in no possible way, that the two could even come close to comprehending the complexities of gamma technology. It was far beyond their level of understanding. It was far beyond most scientisits understanding. The level of sophistication involved in this sort of thing was off the charts. So why did Glados ask the question. "The project appears to give off a spectacular series of lights. Call it Aurora Borealis with fireworks."
"Glad and I thought you two'd be interested in the 'pretty colors', hm?" Ashton chuckled quietly as he received a tilt-head expression from Miki. He knew Miki would probably be too distracted to enjoy the light show. "And, before you ask, Maki, it's completely harmless. We took every precautionary measure to make sure that nothing would go wrong." "Your uncle and I narrowed it to some very elaborate details in order to provide safety to all of the workers." Glados continued, smiling at Ashton as she received a wink from him. It was his way of telling her that she was his right arm. Nothing could have been more true when it came down to their work. Ashton relied more on his wife than on his own physical and mental capabilities in the face of this technology. He focused mainly on the creative aspect of the deal.
"Sure! I'm not doing anything tomorrow, if that's when it is. What do you think, Miki?" Maki turned to his brother to see that, for a change, he was actually paying legitimate attention to the subject. Even though he lacked possession of his gaming device at the moment, Miki always found a way to tune out everything else around him and simply become lost in his own imagination. It was this sort of thing that Aunt Glados recognized within him and felt he would be more than capable of taking his uncle's place in the business of finding new ways to manipulate gamma matter.
"I wanna go! I haven't seen fireworks in a long time!" The enthusiastic twin replied, sitting straight up as he did so. It warmed his uncle's heart to see him so emphasized about something like this. After all, he, too, recognized the boy's ability to become lost in deep thought. It was not this simple fact that impressed the two "parents". It was what came out of it. After long periods of time following or during the boy's imaginative phases, he developed a habit of writing down his thoughts in a small diary, which he allowed for everyone else to see at their own will. Some of the ideas that Glados and Ashton had seen the boy jot down were, blatantly prodigious in nature. Miki had evidently been interested in transformation of matter, or "things", as he had written it down. A few of the points his idea brought up was the conversion of gamma matter to dark energy; a process that was capable of releasing two exponentially increasing stages of energy. In essence, the boy was onto a process that could double, nay, triple the efficiencies of all energies. Miki, however, was still clearly incapable of understanding the thorough processes which had modern-day scientists perplexed.
Maki, on the other hand, was more dedicated to understanding wormhole technology; an extremely recent development following the discovery of gamma energy. His interested strayed from the gamma matter or dark energy advancements, mostly because of the haunting Sunfield incident. Despite its distance from the two subjects, their were definite similarities. For one, wormhole technology relied on two properties of gamma energy: star energy and gamma fluid. Both of these were significantly more stable than gamma matter, albeit still incredibly harmful to living creatures and, even more so, plant life, which affected food sources; a terrible reminder of Sunfield's meltdown. The idea of wormholes fascinated Maki to an extent that his uncle decided to start a process called solar fission, which created the means necessary to engineer wormholes. The process, however, was tedious and fatigue-inducing. The persistence of the worker's and, in truth, Maki's enthusiasm decided the fate of Chasm's wormhole technology.
In short, both of the twins possessed an interest in the latest advancements revolving around metamorphosis and portals. Little did they know how much this would actually affect their lives later. Personally. And physically.
With a schedule set for tomorrow and, of course, full bellies, the brothers returned to their immense bedroom and, after a long day, readied themselves for bed. Miki, as usual, tossed a myriad of his Pokémon plushies onto his bed before diving into it. Maki preferred plenty of blankets over stuffed animals. He wasn't really able to cuddle with plastic toys... Or throw them at his brother. The twins had a habit of hurling Miki's plushies at one another, which proved to be potentially difficult due to the sheer size of their bedroom and the distance between their beds, which was practically the length of the room. Miki objected to it. He preferred to sleep close to, if not, with his brother in the same bed. The boy enjoyed snuggling his toys, obviously, but he was well aware that being snuggled back was a greater reward. Maki was not necessarily on the same level. While he enjoyed being in the presence of his twin, he also enjoyed elbow room and breathing space. Additionally, he felt it was creepy that his brother was so interested in cuddling. He assumed Miki's habitual actions made him into who he was. This was not to say that Maki did not enjoy an occasional hug.
"Good night, Brother~!" Miki told his twin from across the room, not necessarily having to raise his voice as much as someone might expect. The room was aglow with nightlights--primarily on Miki's side--which served two different purposes for the boys. Miki's case was the typical fear of monsters under the bed, while Maki's was more complex. He enjoyed counting the specks of the ceiling to help him fall asleep.
"'Night. Sleep tight." Maki smirked, glancing at his buried brother for a moment before returning his focus to the ceiling. Silence filled the room with somnolence. At a point, Maki could have sworn he heard an array of sirens below, but he quickly dismissed that as his imagination. It never did go away. Both of the boys fell asleep not long after their initial "good nights!".
...
The sun shined surely through the large row of windows in the boys' room. Maki was the first to awaken to this. He, as he normally did every day, stretched his legs by walking to his brother's bed and nudging him a tad. At first, he received a few groans and complaints until Maki decided to steal one of his plushies. This was a tactic for getting the lazy twin out of bed. From this point, it seemed as if the Saturday was going to be a relaxed, easy day. This was the impression ideal weather and little work gave the boys. They both kept in mind that they would soon be seeing a sort of light show later on. Little did they know how soon that was. The gamma power plant did not stay open very late on the weekends, after all.
The early morning android maids had already come and tended to the foyer. Regardless, the boys' aunt and uncle always managed to awaken before the maids came. Once Miki and Maki arrived to the foyer for breakfast, a grave look on Uncle Ashton's face told them that their Saturday would be set awry. No one was able to predict the true extent of this. Ashton, with a paw rubbing the side of his face, gestured for the two boys to sit down at the dining room table with a flick of his other wrist. The boys sat quietly, giving each other nervous glances. It was that imminent feeling that made them feel they were in trouble. And they had no idea what it was. Worst of all was the absence of Aunt Glados.
"Boys," Ashton began, starting to pace around the table with his arms crossed. It looked for certain now that the two were in trouble. "We had an accident down below. Late at night." As he finished speaking, an unparalleled look of relief was portrayed on Miki's face. Maki, however, showed natural curiosity.
"What happened?"
"Well, as you both know, there was a big barrier ball game that a lot of people came here to see. There were some... minor difference... in opinion. A fight broke out. Five were seriously injured... One was killed. One of them was armed. Another... well..." Ashton paused. It was the sort of thing he did that kept the twins intrigued, albeit disturbed. This was the first time anything this chaotic had erupted at the Grand Line; its first death incident. "The other had something of his own. I've been told that it was something related to 'magic'." Ashton shook his head as he stopped pacing. He turned to face the boys, placing both of the palms of his paws on the table. "And I'm sure the authorities were sober enough to make that conclusion."
Maki and Miki stared at their uncle, speechless. Magic? Who understood magic enough to make the claim that it was actually being used? Understandably incredulous, the two looked at each other with shifty eyes. They had to remind themselves that they weren't dreaming. Here their uncle was, a financial and scientific genius, believing in the use of magic. They have been told two firsts in less than two minutes. Suddenly, a faint bleeping noise caught their attention. It appeared to be a small earphone device respectively located just before one of Ashton's ears.
"Yes, yes? Ashton speaking?" He began, two fingers placed gently against the earphone. The voice on the other line was inaudible to the boys as the simply sat in lingering disbelief. They were clearly still trapped on the subject of magic, and would be for quite some time. "Oh, really? Well it can't be too ba--... ...In the core...? ...Something happened in there...? did you check the unnova processors? I think--...Oh the boys? Yeah, I have them right here. I told them about what happened last night in the lobby... You sure...? ...If you insist. As long as we don't need to prepare for any unforeseen consequences. Alright... Alright. Love you too. B'bye." With a quiet bleeping noise, Ashton returned his attention to his human nephews.
"Was that Auntie?" Miki wondered aloud. He sat on the table with his elbows atop it and his head in his hands.
"Yep. She's waiting for us at the gamma plant. C'mon you two. Get dressed and I'll take you to see that fancy light show. Get away from here until they clear up the mess a little more." With that said, he gave the boys his winning smile; a sign of reassurance. Miki obliged, scurrying up the stairwell that spiraled around the cylindrical elevator in the center of the foyer. He seemed to be content with dismissing the idea of sorcery. Maki, however, was not the same. He persisted.
"Uncle Ash... Was their anything else on this whole magic thing?"
"All I heard was that some form of it was possibly used. As eager as I was, and still am, to understand more about it, the police couldn't tell me much. I venture they knew about as much as I do now. Sorry kiddo." Ashton moved around the table and ruffled Maki's whitish reddish hair a bit. Maki stood from the table, smiling up at his uncle. "I'm glad you're interested though. Maybe we'll learn more about it in time. Right now, go on and get dressed. Don't wanna keep Auntie waitin, hm?" The fox leaned down to kiss the top of the boy's head. Maki nodded in return, the inquisitive fire within him no more doused than a minute ago.
In the boys' room, Miki had already finished changing into his casual collared blue and black shirt and navy blue jeans. Maki entered the room through means of the elevator with his head hung low and his thoughts racing. Parallel to that, his brother raced up to him, jumpy as usual.
"Brother! Magic is real!" He stated, giggling as he spoke.
"Yeah, dude... I know... But still. People got hurt... Someone died. You see? Crime's finally made itself up to the Grand Line. Where is it gonna strike next?" He shook his head as he walked passed his brother, heading for his closet not too distant from his side of the bathroom.
"But... magic!" He pursued his brother with unyielding enthusiasm and excitement. He stood a few feet behind Maki, his arms out to his sides. "Besides, we can't do much about it, you know. The police already got to the scene. 'Member what Uncu said?"
"I know! But still! If they were any better at their job, they would have been able to capture a wizard, dude. And this magic?" He scoffed to himself as he selected a pair of black jeans and a red and black striped T-shirt from his closet. Maki turned to face Miki for a few moments, approaching his bed and laying out his clothes. "For all we know, that 'wizard' could have been the person responsible for the death. Maybe even the injuries. Magic's no laughing matter, dude. The harsh reality is that..." He paused his thought as he removed his shirt to replace it with the newly chosen one. "...Harsh reality is that it's not going to be used to help anyone." He was now adjusting his newly picked jeans on his legs.
"Oh, don't be such a drag, Maki. I'm sure if other people learned how to use it, it would be a good thing!"
"It's one thing to say that, another thing to see it."
...
The gamma power plant was an intimidating place, to say the least. Its interior was considerably dark, albeit lit with streaks of radial fluid throughout the inner corridors and chambers. The entire, surreal building felt like an alien mothership. It was like being inside of a virtual grid. The boys, following their aunt and uncle, were unable to help but sight-see as they were guided through the corridors, noting the scientists that passed them with clipboard holograms containing miscellaneous formulas and equations. They could not understand a thing their aunt and uncle were saying. It was, effectively, another language. After a few more minutes of walking through the spaceship-like building, the four reached a tidy observation chamber with a blinding white impenetrable glass window. At this sight, Glados and Ashton scurried frantically to the scientists desperately attempting to assess the situation.
"Wh-are you guys insane?! Who activated the singularity reverse?!" Ashton's was yelling over the sound of a menacing humming of the monstrous machine on the other side of the glass.
"Mister Kiri, Sir, we are uncertain! It has shown inconsistent results all day! The core is extremely unpredictable. The only assumption I can make is--"
"Assumptions?! We can't work with assumptions!" Ashton interrupted. For the second time today, his demeanor was frightening the boys.
"Y-yes, Sir. It seems that someone has sabotaged the microstar through means unknown."
"Sabotaged the microstar?!" Glados replied to the scientist. Her voice, softer spoken in nature, was significantly more difficult to hear over the increasing noise. "No one should be able to get within a mile's radius of the microstar without being vaporized!"
The situation became overwhelming to the two boys. Miki hugged himself close to Maki as he felt the ground beneath his feet begin to tremble. A rumbling sound came from within the tremendous power chamber. All manner of distortion in the very script of physics was occurring in that one room. Through the thickness of the white light, the occasional black lightning could be seen. This phenomenon was known as "horizon plasma", which could be found upon the event horizon of a black hole. That was definitively not a good sign. The presence of horizon plasma this close to the glass was enough to tell the scientists that not enough the ace up their sleeves--the black hole--was containing the turmoil in the chamber. It had become a part of it. That particular smell of burning ozone and mass alpha decay filled the air. Particles within the chamber were experiencing an accelerated half-life.
"Boys! Get out of the building! We'll take care of things! Just follow the yellow lightstream to the exit!" Ashton shouted. Faced with pressure, Maki hesitated to do anything. He quickly snapped back to reality when Miki tugged lightly on his arm, a look of desperation in his eyes. The two boys nodded to each other and turned around, running out of the observation chamber.
Un-synchronized footsteps served as an extra alert to the already panicked scientists who quickly fled either to assist the efforts or avoid them. Most would have rather avoided the entire thing. It was imperative that the twins had followed the yellow streak of light out of the building, but a quick slip up by Miki had left both of the boys discombobulated. Maki quickly aided his brother to his feet, patted his shoulder once, and made a left. As he ran ahead, Miki stood still at the fork in the corridor path he had fallen upon.
"B-brother! Wait! I don't think--"
"C'mon!!" Maki interrupted, looking back at his brother and waving his hand, telling him to make haste. He did so, soon after looking to the ground and pursuing his brother along a beige-lit path...
The boys continued to follow this path, Maki oblivious to his mistake of veering off course. His instincts were screaming at him that he was simply making a sort of U-turn, but heading nowhere near the observation chamber. The corridor, devoid of personnel, stretched at a slope downward into a sort of arch. The further the twins ran, the louder that horrible humming became. The metal ground quaked beneath them. It felt as if the entire building would collapse at any moment. That would have proven to be disastrous for the continent, let alone the city of Chasm. The two at last reached a section of the corridor where the beige streamlight faded out. Darkness prevailed in this hallway. The two found themselves coming to a stop before a busted set of autodoors. The sound of electricity crackled over the humming.
"Did someone plow their way through here? I-is this the exit?!" Maki did not even realize that he was yelling. The two walked ahead, spotting a white glow around an upcoming corner in the dark hallway. Both of their faces lightened at the same exact moment. Maki and Miki rushed forth into what they assumed to be sunlight...
In truth, they were rushing directly for the hazardous materials gateway placed directly before the singularity chamber. A hissing sound came from behind. The electronic sensors have picked up their presence, having assumed the two were authorized personnel. Electricity continued to crackle as the two were now trapped in this small passage. A robotic voice emitted from an unknown source. It was distorted and malfunctioning from whatever had occurred to sabotage the power.
"Wh-hey!! Let us out of here!" Maki backtracked to the now sealed door, ramming his fists against it vigorously. The effort was to no avail. He turned back to see that his brother was on the verge of tears.
"Brother! Where--what's happening?! Are we gonna--"
"No, Miki!" He closed the distance between he and Miki, firmly grasping his brother's shoulders, a vermilion gaze meeting azure eyes. "Listen to me! We will make it out of this!" It was now nigh impossible to hear Maki's voice over the turmoil that was only increasing in volume. The last thing his normal brother was to ever say was, "Don't give me a reason to believe we're about to relive Sunfield!!"
The solar dark energy glow was now a blinding scintillation. Nearly all sensations left both of the boys in the form of sublimation. It had simple evaporated from them. The only two remaining sensations in that moment were a horrid feeling of being submerged in boiling fluid and their insides imploding, reforming, and imploding again...
...
Nirvana...
...
The sky was dark and cloudy; rain pouring upon the desolate, blackened terrastreets of Lower Chasm... The entire lower city was submerged in gothic darkness...
An unending beeping sounded in what appeared to be a small room... It was a calming beeping. The sound of thunder broke the tranquility. After moments passed, it was apparent that there were, in fact, two sets of the nonstop beeping. As it grew louder and began sounding more natural, a deep, sluggish breathing sound accompanied it. The breathing was an estranged, mask-covered sounding noise, almost as if someone was breathing through a large plastic tube. In essence, that was the truth...
A vision of a white ceiling was the first thing to greet his red eyes. He was able to make out the shapes of nearby machines through his blurred peripheral vision. The boy felt as if he had hot water racing through his veins. His bones felt frozen. His muscles ached with fatigue. At the same time, he felt wonderful. He felt as if he could run a thousand marathons, though he knew that he was exaggerating his own abilities... to the extent of his knowledge. His mind snapped to the present. Maki was laying on his back in a hospital bed, his arms at his sides. Innumerable tubes were latched to his body in particularly uncomfortable places. The high-tech, almost UFO-like, hospital room did not consist of Maki alone. There was another victim of something sharing this room with him. The boy found that turning his head to face this second figure was exponentially more difficult than what his mind had told him. But when he managed to do so, he could have sworn he felt his soul leap out of his body and back again.
Miki lay on his back as well. The same contraptions tethered him to the bed just as it had done to Maki, who was relieved to see that these machines were functioning on a live human being. At least, that's what he hoped the beeping and breathing meant. He had every reason to be skeptical. After all, he did not exactly know if he was really alive.
Was he alive? It was still too early to deduce something like that... And too early to be awake... Silence's membrane formed around Maki once again as he slowly slid back into a curious slumber... In this slumber, he dreamed. It was the most beautiful feeling to dream again. It was the proof he needed. Something so surreal told him that the minuscule moment he was in the hospital was, in fact, real. The dream itself was no more than a what-if scenario having to do with the Grand Line's incident. He was blissfully unaware of the factor of time in this matter. He was unable to determine how long or soon ago the trouble was, let alone able to wake back up... A familiar voice reigned true in his mind.
"Brother...? Ar--... --ou... --ear me? I--... --am--... --m--eta...sh--... if...--ter? ...Brother... you--... --ar--...--e--... m--...--ag--...walk...--er?"
...
Instantaneously, Maki's eyes shot open. He took a quick deep breath as he quickly regathered information of his surroundings. He remained within the hospital bed. His head was focused on his brother's bed now, however, and he felt his heart sank when he failed to locate Miki. He felt as if his chest was compressing... literally. It felt as though there was something soft and light on his chest. The boy turned his head to find an unusual surprise. There, on his own belly, stood a tiny, fluffy brown fox with long ears and a bushy scruff of fur around the neck. It watched Maki closely with a look of anticipation while, at the same time, Maki could have sworn he has seen this creature before...
...But where...?
"Brother!" The creature spoke to Maki in that familiar voice... "Was I really this obsessed with catching him?!"
Maki fought the urge to holler out. Rather, he acquired the sudden strength to sit up, remove the breathing tube from his face, and wrap his arms tightly around the small fox. He closed his eyelids tightly enough to feel the strain begin to press against his eyes. Despite such a tight close, a tear managed to escape. It rolled slowly down his cheek and landed on a curious Eevee's nose, who soon buried his own face in his brother's--yes, his brother's--chest.
"Miki... We're alive..."
...Thunder crashed again as Maki held his brother in his arms...
*THIS HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH THE REFORMATION!
