Guardians: Chapter 2

Ion thrusters whined to a halt as the transport shuttle came to rest. Between Spire 32 and capitol city, the shuttle had emptied out for the most part, leaving only Matt and Luna on the third floor.

Homeworld's landmass is covered by one massive cityscape which is split into thousands of subdivisions based on culture and economic specialty. Capitol city and, by extension, Spire 1, are the political and military centers of the entire U.I.P. So one can imagine the concentration of wealth.

While descending, capitol cities skyline was breathtaking. Thousands of crystalline glass towers sprouting up to the sky. Every building seemed as though it was a work of art. Marble pillars, anodized durasteel, and wood; wood of so many colors and grains that Matt never would have imagined.

Stepping off the shuttle, it felt as though his body was heavy and sluggish. His feet took just a little more effort to move than they should. Suddenly, it hit him, ‘natural gravity’. He took a deep breath in, and the slightly briney smell of ocean air filled his lungs. As his eyes adjusted to the late summer light, his mouth was left agape for a moment.

In front of him, graceful nimbus clouds tumbled and rolled over a sapphire blue backdrop. From atop the hill on which the space port was built, he could see the city stretching for miles, only coming to end at a golden beach, followed by an ocean that seemed to stretch forever.

In the sky, thousands of starships of all shapes and sizes hummed along on invisible criss crossing highways. Luxury corvettes, hulking cargo haulers, and sleek, heavily armed battleships. Yet his vision became transfixed on another vehicle, sitting on the starport’s blacktop.

Four black rubber tires wrapped around sleek, chrome five spoke wheels. Matte grey steel forged in hard, aggressive lines. Glass tinted so dark Matt could see his reflection as clear as it would be in a mirror.

“A car?” he thought aloud, dumbfounded. The door popped open as a tall figure swung a leg out.

“Not just any car,” a voice rang out from the vehicle, soft yet commanding. “It's the last car, at least on Homeworld’s roads” Rita stood from the driver's seat, then leaned on the car for a moment, giving Matthew and Luna her trademark smile. She stood straight and walked up to the pair, every step carried a powerful presence with it.

She was dressed in plain street clothes. A pair of short denim shorts, a white tee shirt with the U.I.P insignia printed on the front, and a blank white baseball cap. Her hair was pulled back in a single silver ponytail. Despite her obvious attempt to seem less intimidating, her outfit did little to minimize her overpowering presence. Even without her godlike powers on display, her muscular arms and legs made her look as though she could crush Matthew and Luna alike with ease.

She wrapped a friendly arm around Matt's shoulder, shoving her body between Matt and Luna. “Well buddy,” she smiled, bending over to bring her face closer to Matt’s, “we’re going to be seeing a lot of each other, so let's take a drive and get to know one another a little better, hmm?” Before Matt could answer, she turned to Luna.

“First Lieutenant Jones,” she barked, “your transport back to the academy is waiting at dry dock 13C. Inform Captain Briggs that he has a new recruit on his hands.”

“Yes Admiral!” Luna Barked back, suddenly standing to attention.

“Also, Inform Captain Brown that her brother has arrived to begin training.”

Luna nodded, and began to jog towards the Starports main building. Rita smiled at Matt, and gestured for him to get into the car. Matt jogged, struggling to match Rita’s pace. He hadn't realised until now how much taller than him she was. Standing this close, he realized that she stood almost a whole foot taller than him.

After fumbling with the door for a moment, he sat down in the passenger seat. Cool air rushed over his body from several vents in the dash. Rita smiled over at him as she reached up and started the car. The engine roared to life, coming to idle at a low, guttural rumble.

“Well, how are you feeling?” She inquired, pushing down a handle in the centre console and shifting the vehicle into first gear.

“I feel alright, I mean, nothing has changed,” he looked at his hands for a moment, fixated on how normal he still felt. Before he could refocus on the conversation at hand, his body was jammed into the seat. It felt as though his soul had been left behind for a moment. Before he could register what was going on, Rita rolled the windows and sunroof down. Air rushed into the cabin, deafening Matt.

Calmly, Rita reached over Matt, pulling down a seatbelt and clicking it into place around him. “You haven't seen anything yet!” She yelled through maniacal laughter. She whipped the wheel around, breaking the rear tires loose and swinging the vehicle around in a tight donut. As the tires regained traction, she accelerated out of the turn. Punching through a cloud of white smoke she had left in her wake. G-forces pinned Matt into the seat as the speedometer rose ever higher. The edge of the starports blacktop rushing ever closer.

She whipped the car sideways as the pair flew forward, expertly shifting as the car dipped off the smoothe blacktop onto a poorly paved backroad. Tires squealed as she shifted again, slamming the gas pedal to the floor. The car lurched forward, flying down the bumpy pavement which began to rise and merge onto a much wider, better maintained freeway.

Around Matthew, floating transport trucks and low flying personal craft rushed by. Despite the advantage of the air, this earth-bound car was passing all of them, flying down the highway underneath their noses.

As the two crested a hill, leading into the epicentre of capitol city. Matt unbuckled himself and stuck his head out of the sunroof. Skyscrapers reached miles into the sky, as if beckoning to the stars. Small tunnels criss-cross between buildings above the freeway, making safe passage for workers.

The car's engine burbled as Rita shifted into a slower gear. Taking the vehicle off of the main highways, down a backroad and through convoluted inner city streets. As they exited a tight street between two skyscrapers, the capitols legendary golden beach came into view. She pulled up on the side of the road, parking the car and hurriedly exiting the vehicle. As Matt got out of his seat, Rita grabbed him by the arm, dragging him across the street with childlike enthusiasm. She swung the doors open, and pointed Matt to a comfy looking booth next to a huge window overlooking the beach.

He nervously took a seat, unconsciously grabbing a salt shaker to fidget with off of the table. Rita walked to the counter and began whispering to the cashier, making gestures with her fingers and occasionally glancing over her shoulder at Matt. He scooted as close as he could to the window, trying to make himself appear as small as possible. He looked out onto the beach. Earlier in the day the ocean appeared to be a shade of azure but now, up close, it looked darker, angrier. Miles away, dark nimbus clouds brewed, growing ever taller and more vicious. Lightning sparked and snarled between the clouds and the ocean. Wind began to howl over the beach, picking up sand and trash, throwing it towards the city.

“Matthew!” Rita’s voice barged into his thoughts.

He jumped, accidentally popping the cap off of the salt shaker and spilling its contents into his lap. “Yes Ma’am!” His voice was shaky.

“Woah,” she chuckled, “You okay? I didn't mean to scare you there.”

“I'm alright, just overwhelmed,” his gaze drifted back to the incoming storm, “this is all just… a lot to take in. I'm still not sure what's going on.”

“Well, that's why we're here, where would you like me to start?”

Her face was so kind, he thought back to the night that he first met her, when she gave him the amulet sitting around his neck. “Do you have the courage to burn a planet to the ground, or the heart to comfort a grieving mother?” she had said. He focused on the details of her face, Her skin was smooth. Nobody knows how old she really is, but the U.I.P databases have documents of her heroics dating back over a thousand years ago. Yet despite that, she looked only a little older than me, maybe nineteen or twenty. Her face showed no age, but her eyes told the stories of decades, of wars sparking to life and burning out, of families rising to power, and subsequently falling. She turned her head, following the boy’s gaze out to the ocean.

“Do you know why the U.I.P still lets thunderstorms like that form?” she asked. “We do have complete control over the weather after all.”

He sat in silence for a moment, pondering. The thought had been on his mind since he first laid eyes upon the clouds.

“Those clouds, while they may seem scary or inconvenient to the average citizen of Homeworld, they actually make life here possible. Without them constantly cycling water and filtering air, Homeworld would become uninhabitable after only a few months,” she said, zoning out on the incoming weather. ”Our job is similar, we work in the background to keep things running the way they should, but on a much larger scale than one world, and when the average citizen sees what we face, or the battles we fight, they're often terrified and scared.”

“Your drinks ma’am,” A friendly voice chimed into their conversation. An older man laid two large glass mugs filled with fizzing rootbeer and ice cream onto the table between them. Foam lazily bubbled over the edge, flowing onto the table as the old man dipped a spoon into each mug.

Rita Reached into her pocket, pulling out a handful of shiny golden coins. The man pushed her hand to the table

“Please, enjoy,” he smiled,” it's my pleasure.”

As He walked back to the counter Rita turned back to her pupil and smirked, ”Not all who know are terrified.” The two sat for a long while. Watching, and listening to the storm as it rolled into town. Slowly sipping down their drinks as waves crashed against the beach outside.

“You feeling any better yet?” she asked, picking up her mug and swishing its contents around.

“I wasn't feeling bad to begin with,” he tried to muster a smile, gingerly lifting a spoonful of soda to his mouth.

“Don't lie to me,” she chuckled, tapping a finger against her temple, ”I can hear your mind, and it's moving at Mach ten trying to wrap itself around this.”

“Wh- what?” Matt stuttered. “Are you being serious?”

“Of course I am!” She laughed standing up, ”I hear everything that goes through that brilliant little mind of yours buddy, and don't think anything slips past me.”

He stared at her in horror for a moment. Ripping through his own mind, trying to censor anything he thought would be inappropriate for her to hear. She burst out in laughter at his efforts. He felt his face turning red as panic began to set in. He pressed himself even deeper into his corner, trying to hide his face as best he could.

“Hey,” She reached over, putting her finger under his chin, lifting his gaze to meet her own, ”I’ve been alive for a long time bud, I'm not bothered by the way teenage boys think about me, I know how it is to be young.”

He felt as though his face was going to catch on fire. Lightning shot through his mind, destroying any inkling of a comprehensive thought he might have. As his brain turned to mush he began to giggle.

“Oh...you're hopeless,” she purred, ”but we need to be serious for a second.”

“How so?” He did his best to sound flirtatious.

“Oh, shut up,” she said, pulling her finger from under his chin. “Really though, if you decide to become my pupil you will never be the same once training is over. It will be the hardest thing you have ever done.” She looked into his eyes with fire “I...I kill people Matthew, and you will too if you join me. I’ve watched people I love die in front of me in all sorts of gruesome ways. I've fought too hard, I've gotten innocent people caught in the crossfire. But look at me,” she paused, standing and motioning to her heart, “I havent lost my humanity, I've clung to it through the thousands of years. Do you believe, in your heart of hearts, that you can do the same?”

Her gaze was so intense he thought it might burn holes where his eyes should be. His mind was racing once again. Can I do this? Why did she choose me if she's unsure I can do it? What the hell will I even be doing?

“No no no,” she interrupted his thinking, “I never said I was unsure you could do it, I know for a fact you can do it, and I know you have the potential to be stronger than I ever was. You're a goddamn genius and your knack for Mau alchemy is second to none.”

“Wait what?” He snorted, “How did you know about my alchemy?”

She leaned across the table “I know everything about you bud.”

“Do you really believe I can do this? You know everything, so you know you've been one of my heroes since I was a child right?”

“Of course I do.”

“To which-”

“Both of them,” she interrupted.

“Then yes, yes I'll do this, whatever this is.”

Her eyes lit up with excitement as a smile spread across her face. She reached out and roughed up Matt's hair. “Damn right buddy, now let's get that self confidence built up!”

Before he could respond She smirked at him, standing to head for the door. As he got up to follow, she raised her left arm. Blue energy crackled through the air for a moment as a long, grey trench coat materialized.

“Ya know, you'll get this when you finish training.” As she donned the coat, she pointed to a series of lighter grey stripes that stretched from the bottom of the coat, coming to a point at the small of her back. “Every full stripe represents five guardians who lived and died to pass the power on. There are three full ones and four thin ones, that would make you the twenty fifth guardian of time.”

She swung the door open, wind rushed into the building, throwing the jacket into graceful ripples and folds behind her. She's gorgeous, he thought, but she's lost her mind if she believes that I'll ever be as strong as her. She looked back, winked, and beckoned for him to follow her to the car.

As its engine roared to life, Matt felt something awaken within him. A spark, a flame. No...an inferno. It burned and burned, rising ever higher in his soul, lighting up parts of himself he never even knew. Pride, faith, determination. Determination like he had never felt before. In his mind's eye, he grabbed this power by the throat, twisting it and forming it to fit his will. If he was going to become a hero, he was going to be the strongest this universe had ever seen.

Rita looked over at the strange boy she had recruited. His ambition burned just as brightly as hers did when she was granted the power. Poor boy, she thought, you have no idea what you're in for. She peered into his possible futures, happy homes, children, bright careers falling away into the void. Lives of battle, struggle, glory and defeat. The life of a hero rising to take the place of the mundane. As lightning struck the beach, Rita laid into the gas and with a screech of tires, the pair took off.

The Mau: As the Third founding species of the U.I.P, The Mau are on the bottom of the political. Humanoids with feline-like ears, tails, and reflexes. They are evolved especially for the dense rainforests of their home planet. They're seen as shifty and untrustworthy by the rest of the U.I.P.

The Mau have evolved to be immune to most magical attacks and curses, and due to this are unable to use magic themselves. When they found themselves as part of the U.I.P, they had no way to compete with the magic of the Dragons and the Lepomorphs. So, they developed a competing school of science, Mau alchemy. The process of changing the form of molecules or the identity of atoms through controlled fusion or decay. It takes most people lifetimes to master, but some very rare specimens are born with a natural gift for it. Through their alchemy, the Mau were able to eat up fifty percent of the total wealth of the U.I.P, an empire spanning several galaxies. Matthew Brown is the first member of the Mau species to hold the power of the Time Guardian.