by PredictedCyborg Sat Apr 13, 2013 8:43 am- Chapter 1: The Egg:
She dropped from the clouds as she finally got her visual below. Ever since the ‘Old World’ had been destroyed one night Ridge had kept his eyes on the activities of both Lalna and Sjin, who had caused the destruction, adding in Rythian later when he realised the mage was also becoming powerful enough to wreck the world if he so chose. Recently Lalnas’s signal had been busy with Thaumcraft, yet every night he journied to a small island off the coast of the biome he’d set his magic lab in and the readings that had been coming in had been… puzzling. Last night Ridge decided it was time to intervene and he’d chosen to send down her, the Predicted Cyborg, to get a better but quiet look. He’d chosen her because she had a built in camera in her cybernetic eye but secretly she wondered if he knew just how much the scientist interested her. On those nights when the ModMob snuck out of the castle to go spy on the residents of the world below, she often hovered around his castle, protected by its forcefield bubble. She didn’t know why she had this interest, she knew that if he ever managed to catch her she’d likely be dismantled by his curious, fact-seeking brain… but maybe she liked danger.
She softly landed on the ground and walked forward towards the door hidden in the side of the hill to mark this little outpost of his. No torches lit the outside but that wasn’t unusual, he was a paranoid man and had good reason to be even if the mage and him had made a pact of non-aggression a few weeks back… She walked forward and gently rested a hand on the door… it swung open easily and that’s when her brain began to run a ‘confused mode’. Surely he’d have locked it? Could it be a trap?
“Best be ready just in case…” she muttered to herself, donning her purple power tool. It had a plasma gun attachment now, that was hazardous to structures but not to people…
Not that the scientist would know that.
She entered inside the hillock and began to quietly descend the ladder, thanking her gods that she’d given her cybereye night-vision too. Sure, it was a strange purple, but it was better than not seeing anything at all. She hit the bottom of the ladder and turned to see… a hollowed out cavern that was… empty? She felt her ‘confused mode’ tick up a notch and shook her head, before engaging her camera eye.
“I’ve reached the location,” she muttered aloud. “Only it seems to have been… deserted? Were we too late?”
She pulled out a torch and held it aloft to get a better clearer view, and thus it became apparant that the scientist had cleared the place out in a hurry. Papers were scattered across the floor, tables were arranged haphazardly around the room and the place had a general air of someone having run around it very quickly. She swore quietly.
“We need to find out how he keeps doing this!” she muttered, walking forward sure that there were no tripwire or hidden pressure plates to avoid.
She ventured through a door on the far side of the room and found it filled with machinery, which she examined closely for the video she was still filming. Eventually it registered there was no more video memory left and she shut it off, with a sigh.
“What were you up to I wonder?”
It was then that she saw the tall cylindrical glass tubes, all empty except… one. She walked closer to it, unable to make out what filled it until she held the torch to it and saw floating in a strange viscious liquid… an egg. Its surface was a bright green and she saw, to her alarm, the symbol often used to symbolise nuclear weapons emblazened on its side.
“Oh please no!” she cried. “Not again! I need to get this back to Ridge, now!”
She looked around the controls to see if there was some way to drain the tube of the liquid and losing her patience instead turned and punched a hole through the glass with her Power Tool, floating up above the floor as it was engulfed in the sticky goo. It was then that the alarm went off…
EEEEET-EEET-EEET!
She looked around quickly as the room began to flash red and yellow, then quickly flew forward, smashing the hole in the tube bigger before scooping out the egg. She then looked down to see that the door had sealed itself.
“Oh no you don’t,” she grinned, turning up to the ceiling and recharging her Power Tool’s plasma gun.
The night’s still air was ripped as she used the plasma weapon to burrow up to the surface, leaving a hole in the roof of Lalna’s hidden facility as she flew off up to the clouds again, egg under her arm.
So much for just taking a quiet look at the place…
- Chapter 2: Suddenly, a Hatching!:
As she flew through the night air Cyborg bit her lip slightly. What if what she’d picked up was a new sort of nuke? They thought after the incident at Blackrock he’d learned… Of course, there was a chance it wasn’t actually a weapon, but probably better to be safe than sorry. Either way, she’d have to go back and fix his roof later…
At first she thought she’d just imagined it, but when the item jolted again she realised that if this was a weapon, it was somehow coming alive! She stopped in mid-air, grabbing the egg-shaped item with both hands and watching it jolt and suddenly she was hit with another thought. What if this wasn’t a weapon but was an actual egg? Oh christ, it was hatching!
“What…? Ahh!!” she muttered as she looked around the nearby mountains for a safe place to set down.
Too steep, too low, valley below with a bit of desert going between the two peaks and… oh no! The egg gave a particularly violent jerk and suddenly it was cartwheeling through the air towards the low peak, it’s sides pockmarked with caves. She dived after it, wondering how an egg could build up such momentum so quickly. In the dark she hadn’t seen the oil spurt that poured over the side of the mountain to pool at the bottom and she swore quietly as the egg landed in it, floating towards the edge of the mountain. She got down quickly and picked the egg up before it disappeared over the edge for good and sighed.
“Good thing you didn’t land on the rocks, I don’t know if you’d have survived such a… HEY!” she tried to grab the egg as it jolted violently again out of her arms.
It began to roll down the side, bouncing as it hit the rocks, Cyborg scrambling after it and flinching every time it hit. Eventually it dropped down into the mouth of a cave, hitting the bottom with a very loud CRACK! Cy slowly hovered down into the cave, before pulling out a piece of Nytor that Sejii had given her and she kept for emergencies. Lying in front of her were the shards that had made up the shell of the egg in a slightly oily puddle.
“No… please, no!” she cried, bending down to move the shards aside. “Oh god, it’s broken! But… shouldn’t there have been something inside…?”
Suddenly she became aware of a slight clicking noise and looked to the side, following the sound. Climbing up the wall was a strange small creature, about the size of the egg. Most of it’s round body was black, with four stubby insectoid limbs on either side of it, the top of it’s head opening up onto a slightly glowing green section that made it look as if the black parts of it were a peel that had already been stripped back from the top of its head. The nuclear symbol from its egg was stamped upon its head and two thin green eyes blinked as it explored the cave walls.
“Hey?” Cyborg tried, slowly approaching it. “Hello? Did you come from the egg?”
The little creature stopped, turning its round body around slowly on its eight legs to stare at her. It hissed and then launched itself at her and she jumped back in surprise as it sailed past her. She turned round to see that it was preparing itself for another leap… but behind it she could see the red eyes of an angry zombie approaching the little creature.
“Down!” she cried, running forward.
The creature ducked as she jumped over it and drew her steel sword, hitting the zombie down a hole with the Knockback II enchantment on it. She waited and heard the satisfying crack as the undead mob died upon impact with the floor below. She breathed a sigh of relief.
“That was close,” she sighed. “Hey, are you okay little…?”
She looked round to where the little insectoid creature had been, but then felt something rubbing against her leg and looked down to see it rubbing itself against her leg like a cat, even purring like one. She smiled and bent down to pick it up.
“What was he doing?” she muttered to herself. “Oh well, I guess you’re with me now little guy. I’ll consider you a reluctant gift from Lalna himself… hopefully he won’t want you back…”
“B-back! Back!” the little creature suddenly chirped somehow, its eyes showing how content it currently was.
“… Oh god, he made you able to talk too,” she muttered, walking towards the exit of the cave with the creature safely snuggled against her. “That brilliant, crazy man… speaking of crazy men… oh god, how on earth do I explain you to Ridge?”
“S-s-‘Spain!” it chirped back at her.
“Yeah, I’ve got a lot of that to do when I get back home…”
- Chapter 3: Egg? What egg?!:
She didn’t quite know what had gotten her up that night, just… a feeling. Maybe one of ‘natural psychic feelings” that her race was meant to have gotten all the time in their past… abilities that were all too often drowned out nowadays by the noise of modern convenience and thus ridiculed as silly elfling tales. Not that Sejii was that cynical about such abilities, less so now since becoming part of the ModMob. As she quietly walked down the high-ceiling’d corridor outside her room something told her to go left, go through the door to the room they often called ‘the Common Room’ although no one could quite remember why. It was really just a room with TVs and game consoles and all sorts of ways for them to waste their time when Ridge didn’t need them for anything. She slowly opened the door and immediately saw the pile of clothing left by the sofa and sighed angrily. How many times had she told…?
Hold on. That pile was… oddly shaped. She quickly walked forward and used an empty stacked chip can to move the dirty clothing aside… revealing a blue-greyish egg, criss-crossed with darker grey lines. She picked it up and held it up to better examine it… it certainly felt real enough. This was no dream…
“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me…” she muttered, scowling at the egg…
Cyborg’s journey back had been a slow and at times frustrating one. Whatever this little thing was, he just wouldn’t stay still (she’d long since decided it must be a ‘he’). Eventually he’d broken free of her restraining arms and tumbled to the ground, almost giving Cyborg a short-circuit. Fortunately he’d landed in the ocean safely, his small light body bobbing on top of the water as he almost skated to the shore with his stubby legs. As Cyborg descended she saw it scitter towards where a zombie had slipped and fallen, killing itself. The rotten flesh it’d left behind was rapidly devoured by the bug.
“No, don’t eat… eww,” she muttered as she landed next to him and he gave a tiny belch.
“Mmmm!” he muttered, his eyes once again settling into happy mode.
“I guess you were hungry…” she sighed, as he came back to her and climbed back up into her arms. “Hope that stuff doesn’t give you a stomach ache although… I guess you might be able to handle it? I wish you could understand me a bit better.”
“Food good,” he muttered. “Full now…”
“Although you are learning fast,” she laughed, as the little creature snuggled against her again. “Wonder if you’ll grow any bigger… guess I’ll find out. Better sneak you in first though…”
By the time she’d returned to Ridge’s realm above, it was about the time when everyone was pretty much guaranteed to be asleep. That made the sneaking in part easier she guessed. She looked down at her little friend.
“If you understand me, please don’t make a peep until I tell you it’s safe to,” she said, looking into its green eyes. “We might get in trouble if you don’t listen. Got me?”
It blinked once in understanding and she smiled at him, before holding him as close as she dared as she entered the castle. She closed the doors softly behind her and floated up the middle of the entrance hall, past corridors until she reached the level mid-way up that was reserved for the ModMob. Ridge had let them have the entire floor, to do with as they wanted. Although a bit crazy and sometimes self-obsessed, he could be a very generous man to his friends and his allies. Of course, he demanded their aid in return which none of them had ever begrudged giving back in exchange for their new life together. Cyborg felt slightly guilty about keeping her new friend from him, but there was plenty of space on this level to house him, and she’d tell Ridge when she felt the time was right to do so. She also knew eventually she’d have to tell her friends about their new level inhabitant but… again, not until she was sure the little guy wasn’t going to try and attack them as he had originally done her. She landed on the wooden balcony and pushed her way through the door onto the main corridor that circled their floor. Quiet as she was she still didn’t hear the elf approaching her and they almost crashed into one another as they came round a corridor. They both froze for a second, shocked, before bursting into a round of quick denial.
“I’m not hiding anything!” Cyborg cried, quickly scooting the spider-creature behind her back, making him give an indignant click.
“Me either, egg? What egg?!” Sejii cried back.
“I… hold on!” Cyborg said, puzzled. “An egg?”
Sejii bit her lip and then slowly and reluctantly showed Cyborg the egg she’d just picked up in the Common Room. Cyborg gently stroked its side before shaking her head. “So he has made more!” she muttered. “This is… confusing. How on earth did he get it up here without any of us seeing him?”
“What?” Sejii asked, confused.
“Remember when Ridge told me to check on Lalna’s activities?” Cyborg said. “Well…”
At this point her pet had had enough and broke free, climbing up Cyborg’s back and onto her shoulder. Sejii gave a gasp when she saw him, hugging her egg close.
“Yeah… I think he’s been making creatures,” Cyborg sighed. “I still don’t know what for though.”
“Oh, I did find a letter with this one,” Sejii said, reaching in her pocket and pulling out a scroll. “I’ve not read it yet though…”
Cyborg took it and unfurled the paper, holding it up so all three sets of eyes could read it.
Greetings residents of the realm of Ridgedog,
I know you’ve been watching me, but this time don’t be alarmed. My latest experiment has been purely to create life instead of taking it as you seem to think I do all the time. I took genetic samples from as many residents as I could and made these eggs… Take care of this egg, I want to see what one of these beings turns out like living up there above the actual world as opposed to the majority who shall reside down here with various people in the sub-dimensions connected to our world.
I might want to come back one day to see the results… but raise it however you see fit, new caretaker(s) of my work.
Lalna
“So, he’s using us for an experiment to see how his new creatures evolve in different places?” Sejii asked.
“Seems that way,” Cyborg shrugged. “In which case…” and she looked over at her spider-friend on her shoulder. “I wonder where he was originally going to put you?”
- Sub-Chapter 1: In My Heart Forever:
She couldn’t have been asleep too long since getting back to her room. Her audio sensors registered something though and she rolled over as she blearily came out of her sleep mode. What was that noise? It sounded like… whimpering? She opened up her organic eye to try and see if she could locate the source of the sad noise.
The room she occupied for sleep was of a decent size and in the corner of the castle’s built boundaries; its shape being almost square but with a corner missing, giving it five walls, one which held the door and its frame being very short and diagonal. Her furniture was strewn about, none of it standing right against the wall making the room seem almost unfinished. Boxes filled with items lay piled up everywhere and in one of the corners near the door was a bag full of snackfood items and drinks. It wasn’t to everyone’s taste sure, but somehow Cyborg had never been very good at settling in one place and even some nights found herself going to bed in another spare bedroom just for a change. She blamed the fact that she’d left her own world many months ago and then had spent a lot of time hopping between different server worlds before Ridgedog found her… she knew that she’d found her place in the world but at night the doubts returned to plague her… Still when she’d brought her little friend into the room earlier he’d seemed very happy with the decor, immediately leaping from her arms to scuttle around on his little legs and explore all the nooks and crannies to hide in. When she’d gotten into bed though she’d felt his weight settling at the end of her bed and she’d opened her organic eye a bit to see that he slept with all his legs tucked under him. Now though… his weight was gone.
“Hmmmm… Hmmm…”
There was that high-pitched whimpering again. Cyborg activated her cybereye and sat up, looking in the direction of the sound. She saw her little friend sitting on the cushion of the windowseat looking out over the garden below through the old-fashioned tall window.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
He gave a start, and quickly turned himself round, looking slightly… guilty? His eyes hadn’t really changed shape that much but somehow she just… knew. She got up and went to sit with him, lifting him onto her lap to stroke him.
“Come on, what’s wrong?” she whispered to him.
“… Bad,” he whimpered. “I… scary evil bad?”
She blinked. “Where on the Realm did you get that idea?”
He pointed one of his frontmost legs at an open book on the floor, obviously in the night he’d gotten bored and had pulled it out of one of the boxes nearby. The book was one of her many journals about her days spent here in the Realm of Ridgedog, and by sheer misfortune it happened to have fallen open on one of the pages in which she’d vented her feelings about nuclear weapons. She’d seen the bombs destroy so many, so much… And even now in the lands below with the ‘Yog inhabitants’ the aftermath of a nuclear explosion still caused tensions among the residents. She herself had visited Lalna that night when Blackrock had been vapourised, on a job. Knowing that he’d forget the encounter she’d felt free to lay into him about how stupid he’d been, how he’d done himself no favours in the little dispute he had with the Endermage. It was the only time she’d ever felt anything but a liking for the scientist… The second page was topped by a quick doodle she’d done, a nuclear symbol on a vividly green background. She sighed and cuddled him.
“You’re not bad,” she said. “Nothing is really an evil thing, no one is really evil… it’s what you choose to do that determines whether you are good or bad.”
“Venopup don’t want be evil…”
Cyborg smiled softly. So, he’d finally decided to tell her what he called himself. She caressed his ridges around his softly glowing centre.
“You’ll never be,” she said. “I’ll never leave you alone long enough to let anything bad happen to you little Nyx…”
“Nyx?” he blinked up at her.
“That’s who you are, you are Nyx,” she replied. “I took your egg from your creator’s laboratory because I was afraid that you might be a dangerous weapon, another thing that could be used to cause harm intentionally or not…”
“Ooohhhhhh…” Nyx seemed to deflate.
“But then you hatched. You showed your will to survive, to be known as your own little life.” she held him up slightly so his legs dangled in midair. “You weren’t originally supposed to be with me, but you are now. I’m not going to leave you behind, or abandon you because of how you look or what you might be. Maybe you do have nuclear capabilities somewhere deep inside, but I can help you make sure that you use them in ways that can only help the world and not destroy it. Just because you might be born of chaos, doesn’t mean that you can’t be good. Doesn’t mean that we can’t channel your chaos into more fun forms… that’s the underlying theme of everyone in this place anyway. Ridge is his own brand of chaos, and we are his helpers… you can be too if you want. He takes in all kinds of strays, of those shunned or seperate and he makes us belong.”
Nyx clicked a little unsurely, and so Cyborg hugged him close again, feeling the points of his legs against her top. She gently kissed his glowing core.
“No matter what happens, no matter who gets in our way, I won’t stop caring about you,” she whispered to him, she felt him start sobbing like any little child would. “You’ll always be in my heart Nyx, I promise…”
- Sub-Chapter 2: Becoming Brothers:
The morning had started early for Cyborg as Nyx had woken her up with his whimpering, causing her to sit up in alarm fearing that he was still feeling down about the things they’d spoken about last night. However it’d only turned out that the little Venopup was hungry and after pulling on her black trousers, crisp white blouse and slipping her tie on around her neck but not tightening it, she’d picked him up and begun the journey downstairs to the kitchen. She’d found Sejii there as the only other person up and they’d had a small talk about what the consequences of Lalna’s being able to get in and leave an egg could be. Cyborg didn’t want to believe that the scientist had any malicious intentions but… he could be unpredictable. As she watched Nyx scuttle around the walls, eating the cobwebs from the corners (really, no one in this place enjoyed cleaning so often left it til they couldn’t bear the dust anymore) Sejii had returned, demanding to know why ‘it’ could fly. When Cy had turned around she’d seen a purple bat-like thing fluttering weakly behind the elf. The other egg had obviously hatched just as expected… what hadn’t been expected by any of them was what Nyx did next. He suddenly launched at the other pet with a hiss, similar to how he’d first attacked Cyborg. Sejii and the other pet dodged the Venopup’s pounce but the purple bat went bouncing to the floor, obviously scared out of his tiny mind. As Nyx climbed the wall again and pounced towards it, Cy stepped forward and caught him in mid-air taking him from the room.
“What was that all about?” she demanded, as she set him down on an ornate sidetable in the entrance hall.
Nyx clickled angrily. “No want replaced. Nyx badder than purpley.”
Cyborg sighed. “I told you last night, I care about you. The creature in there belongs to my friend Sejii, and she cares for it like I do you.”
Nyx turned away slightly, clicking sulkily.
“Besides,” Cy tried, smiling. “I bet that little baby in there will adore you too if you become its big brother.”
“Brovver?”
“Yupyup,” Cyborg grinned. “That’s when you take care of your younger sibling, teach them all you know and make sure they don’t come to any harm. It’s a good way to make sure you’ve a friend for life Nyx. Someone who from the get-go never sees the ‘bad’ that others do and only ever sees the ‘good’. You understand?”
Nyx seemed to be thinking, before turning back to Cyborg.
“Nyx big brother!” he declared determinedly, before putting the tip of one of his frontmost legs to his shell under his right eye. “I look after. Teach.”
“Good,” Cyborg replied before offering her hand to him. “Come on, you can’t possibly be full from just eating webs… and you’ve a little brother to begin building your ‘good’ with.”
- Chapter 4: Welcome to the World Pups!:
“RUN FOR IT!”
Cyborg dashed for the door, grabbing a pup under each arm as she ran. Sejii was already at the door, pulling it open and as Cyborg passed her the elf followed close behind her friend as they ran full pelt for the edge of the realm. As they came to the edge Cy, quickly passed the Tobipup to his owner and leapt off, allowing herself to fall down towards Minecraftia. She heard Sejii following her and they began the fall down to the world below. They didn’t fly as they knew that if they did, they’d likely have their ‘god abilities’ revoked and splatter on the ground below. At least this way was safer, even as they felt the abilities being taken from them; the realm was above a deep lake that the ModMob had dug out especially for these sorts of escapes, they’d done this several times before. Ridge was their leader, their caretaker, their boss… but he wasn’t above playing with or punishing his helpers if he felt they deserved it or was bored. And given what had just happened… yeah. They weren’t getting back into the realm for a day or so at least…
They all hit the water hard, and the two girls kicked their legs to surface with their pups. As they pulled themselves onto land, Sejii looked upwards to the place where she knew the realm hid way above the cloud layer.
“I hate it when this happens,” she muttered, before holding her Tobipup up to look him in the eye. “What happened?”
“Nyx did! Nyx did!” the Tobipup squeaked.
“Nyx do nothing,” the Venopup hissed. “Nyx just think… I try say hello. Boss man frighten us…”
Cyborg sighed. “I was going to introduce you to him later, we wanted to… control it. You two are among a group of new creatures in this world and I think he was… just surprised. Just promise me you didn’t do anything beyong startle him…”
Both of the pups looked anywhere but their owners and they both sighed.
“Guess we’d better think about what we’re going to do until Ridge lets us back,” Sejii said.
“At least it was in the morning, we’ve a lot of time yet to find shelter,” Cyborg replied. “We can show these two the world that we observe and interfere with.”
Sejii laughed and nodded, staanding up and taking her pup to a nearby tree. Cy watched her curiously while still sitting by the lake with Nyx in her arms.
“Flight practice,” Sejii declared, placing the Tobipup on a low branch and moving away from the tree slightly. “Think you can fly to me and back to the branch?”
“Fu’ yeah!” squeaked the pup, bouncing on the branch.
Sejii held out her arms and the little Tobipup launched himself at her, flapping his wings furiously. He began to fall just as he reached his owner and she caught him.
“Good first try, let’s try again,” she said, setting him back on the branch and backing away as the pup began to whine. “Come on I’m just here, you can do it.”
“Can’t.”
“Can,” Sejii said. “Come on.”
The Tobipup tried again, but this time just fluttered straight to the ground. Cyborg finally stood up to come see as Nyx escaped her grasp and scuttled over to sit the other pup up.
“I don’t think he’s quite able to fly yet,” Cyborg said to her friend.
“No harm in practicing though,” Sejii replied, going over to pick her pup up and cuddle it to stop its whimpers. “If only there was some way to get him used to being in the air without the risk of crashing.”
“Hm…” Cy thought.
“Nyx has idea!” and the little Venopup was up the tree spinning thread quickly.
They watched as he tied together some venomless silk together to make a rough harness suspended from the branch. Sejii grinned.
“That’ll work,” she said, popping her pup into it. “Okay, now flap. Concentrate on making them long strokes instead of just… fast frantic flapping this time okay.” And she took hold of each wing, moving them slowly up and down in long even strokes. “Like this, see?”
The Tobipup squeaked as he began to move his wings with her, following her grip first of all then continuing it as she let go. All the while Nyx hovered above them in the tree, watching curiously.
“Wishing you could fly?” Cyborg asked him.
Nyx shook his body intensely and clicked nervously.
“No no,” he clickled. “No no, Nyx have enough falling for one day…”
“Yeah, sorry about the dramatic exit,” Cyborg muttered. “It’s just… best to give Ridge room sometimes when he’s in certain moods. That was… one of them. You’ll get used to it, I promise.”
Nyx gave a shudder which made Cyborg think that he doubted that would ever happen. She frowned, then put her hand out to him.
“Come on, I’ve yet to introduce you to my favourite way to cross the map when we’re not powered up,” she said. “You’ll like it, I promise.”
He stared at her hand for a second before coming to it and climbing up her arm to settle on her shoulder. Cy turned to Sejii who was still watching her Tobipup.
“I’m going for a jump,” she said. “I’ll be back soon, I just want to give Nyx a taster.”
“Nah, I’ll join you in a moment,” Sejii said before grinning. “So don’t go too far, we don’t want to lose each other.”
“Nah I’ll only go as far as the rubber grove over the lake,” Cyborg replied. “See you there!”
She walked away from her friend and towards a hill, as she did Nyx caught sight of a group of people nearby. Humans mingled with testificates, eleves, dwarves and all kinds of sentient species and they all seemed to be awfully riled at something.
“Ignore them Nyx,” Cy whispered to her pet. “They’re not worth staring at.”
“Who they?”
“Just the anti-Ridge commitee,” Cyborg replied. “They don’t think that Minecraftia or its joining sub-worlds needs overseers… they think we spend all our time plotting ways to play with the inhabitants of the world. i mean, we do sometimes but that’s normally just Ridge and we maintain this world’s balance too.” Cyborg scowled. “They don’t see that if we weren’t here the world would be a crater by now… we do so much they never know about…”
“Cy mad?”
“Just minor irritation, nothing to be worried about,” Cyborg said as she began to climb up the hill. “Now, I want you on my back, settle yourself between my shoulder blades, front two legs on either side of my neck.”
Nyx complied, slipping himself quickly into place. He peered over her shoulder but she put a hand up.
“Just hold on tight okay?” she said. “I promise I won’t let you fall.”
Nyx had just a second to register the word ‘fall’ before Cyborg leapt forward, her legs powerful and propelling her far over the edge of the cliff they’d been standing at. As she landed the Shock Absorbers in her invisible powersuit boots absorbed the shock and the Jump Boost in the legs pushed her into another far-reaching high leap, causing Nyx to squeal.
“Just hold on!” Cyborg shouted back to him. “You’ve got a good hold in those little legs of yours. Just… feel the air rushing past you… the thrill of almost flying… this is my favourite way of travelling about anywhere.”
Nyx clung harder to Cyborg’s blazer, unsure about this but as time went by and he got used to the motion of Cyborg’s leaps he began to find it… enjoyable. He opened his eyes and caught sight of the land ahead of them, spread out like a picture and so… beautiful. This was the land they lived over? No wonder they thought it worth looking after.
“Better yet?” Cyborg asked him.
Nyx let out a happy set of clicks and Cy laughed. Suddenly she saw something coming for them and on her next ground hit, leapt to one side, avoiding the laser easily. Nyx clung to her back as she landed safely on top of a tree, looking for her attacker. She didn’t have to look hard, as he too leapt above the trees, then hovered there with his Jetpack.
“Ah, I wondered when you’d come find me,” Cyborg said to him, crossing her arms defiantly as Nyx cringed behind her. “Hello Lalna.”
