The Bellators

1:8:1

  When the sun is out and the day is alive, that's when the human spirit is at its peak. When the origin's light is touching the inhabitants that orbit about, that's when they're most alive, out and about, interacting within their ecosystem and beyond. When the sky is blue and the crevices of the modern world are lit up, that's when people feel the most at home, calm and familiar to the place they've grown up and lived in since their birth. When the sun is up, the world is warm and forgiving.

But the sun isn't out, for the soul of the night instead harbors the black, lifeless sky. In the depth of the night, there is silence, an absence of human spirit where it once prospered. Deep within the blackness lacks the familiarity that offers comfort, and thus out in the vast space is not a sound of humanity, not a spoken sound, not a footstep, not a creak. With no gentle touch of light, there is no warmth in the air, but rather it's chill, sharp, raw. It's unforgiving.

Below the void resides a desert devoid of presence, an extensive space colorless but for the bland golden of the sand, flat if not for the dunes that make the pits ever deeper. There are no plants, no animals, no water, nothing, nothing but sand for as far as the average naked eye could see, nothing but the vacant crevices of the world absent of life.

Yet the eyes that view the land were optics of no ordinary being, nor were they naked, but rather behind the parallelogram-shaped goggles that exude a cool blue hue. The goggles, pressed on the black carbon fiber-textured mask, stalk the desert beneath the hood, silent, as though there was no life behind it, as though only a mannequin was beneath the mask.

The silent man in the mask stares forth, his arms by his side, covered in the sleeves of his antique leather jacket. He stands still for a few moments, contemplating in the middle of seemingly nowhere, standing at the peak of a dune. His soles sit on the surface of the soft sand, yet unsunk, seemingly weightless like a phantom for they leave no tracks.

Emerging from the state of paralysis, the man raises his right hand slowly, seemingly cautiously, with his fingers loosely held out. As his arm extends farther, his entire hand flashes in an odd variety of blues, cobalt and indigo, before seemingly vanishing, eliminating the sight of human flesh from his arm, leaving behind only the covered sleeve.

Upon full extension of the arm, an odd green glow illuminates where his wrist would've been, a flat barrier pulsating in a bubbly effect. The glow is minimal, most intense where his hand would be yet tapering off farther away until vanishing, leaving a small radius of the glow. The vibrations emit a soft hum as though the wall is alive, but at the same time warning the man to refrain from continuing like a boundary attempting to keep him out.

Instead, the man's entire body flashes in a similar array of blues before vanishing as well, and for a moment, the green wall grows with greater luminescence. However, only moments after the enlargement, the wall vanishes too, shrinking into a spec before it evaporates, leaving behind no trace.

On the other side, a flash of blues emerges seemingly from thin air before the man's body does as well, walking forth in a calm yet cautious fashion. He then slows down and begins lowering his body, bringing his knee to the ground as his blue eyes stalk the site ahead.

Below the dune where once was no greater presence but more dull dunes rising from the pits, now appears an expansive facility, a rectangular building low to the ground yet covering great space. The surrounding area too is flattened, where there appear to be more constructs, cubical structures lined up like tents. All of the buildings have a golden body, the same shade as the sand, with a lack of texture to blend in.

Leaning forwards, the man in the mask stalks the facility, his view being zoomed in aided by the blue goggles, which supply an artificial luminescence to better let him see in the dark. He observes the space as though standing on the low ground, to which he notices a collection of people, some speaking to one another and others patrolling back and forth.