Golden: The Collection

Chapter I: I, Zombie

Once upon a time, in a land known as Zomburbia, the truth was beginning to be brought to light.

In Zomburbia lies a man known as Doctor Zomboss, the supreme ruler of the zombies. In one of the smaller sections of Zomburbia lay a quaint little town.

Right now, our story is one of an astronomer's. He was a Top Zombie, but decided to settle for a subdivision in Zomburbia, a little town called Spectral Springs instead of living in the bigger areas, as that type of life was simply too much for him. He was currently recounting a story to a small crowd. He told it with such fluidity, it was clear he'd told it before. Unfortunately, a stumble broke the spell. He'd messed up a line!

The audience chuckled and gently scolded our dear astronomer, and shortly thereafter, his story came to a quick conclusion. Deciding enough slacking was enough, it was time for him to report to the leader of Zomburbia, Zomboss himself, and give a report on how Spectral had been faring.

For years now, there'd been a war going on between Top Zombies and Variants. Top Zombies were the best of the bunch, and handpicked by Zomboss to serve as the most elite force of zombies out there. Meanwhile, Variants rebelled against Zomboss' iron grip over Zomburbia, and that included quarrying with the Top Zombies.

Variants were different subclasses of every class. For example, an ice variant of a foot soldier would be a subclass of the soldier class. Hence the name of their group, the Variants. Most zombies don't seem to know how the fight between the Top Zombies and Variants began in the first place. It was yet another thing lost to the sands of time.

Our astronomer was on the side of the Top Zombies, of course. The side of justice. Why don't we see what he's up to right now?

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Zomburbia, late April

Astrophelle was almost having a bad day. Getting clowned by one's audience for forgetting a line of a story he knew by heart was only a mild bump in the road, however, as they quite enjoyed his small mistakes. And if the zombies of Spectral were happy, so was he.. or at least, that was what he told himself.

Astrophelle had a thick head of white hair with several strands that simply wouldn't lay flat, so he'd styled the entire cut to make it look like the strands sticking out was purposeful. On his forehead, a pair of goggles were strapped right above a pair of violet eyes. Below, he wore a dark gray, nearly black raincoat, white pants, and (rather large) boots the same color as the coat.

Beneath his raincoat, he normally wore a pajama shirt. It wasn't like he was planning to take it off, so what was the point of getting all dressed up underneath it?

To top it all off, from his ear hung a singular golden earring, and he wore a thick yellow scarf to match.

Astrophelle suppressed a sigh as he took his leave and began to make for Spectral Springs' exit. Though, he did have to take a moment to pause, as he'd suddenly been captured.

There were a few Variants in the town's streets, going on and on about not trusting Zomboss, all that nonsense, to a few townsfolk. They didn't appear to be threatening, so Astrophelle was keen on simply watching from a short distance for the time being.

"Y-Y-You people don't know what he did to us! To us Variants!" One of them was saying. A soldier zombie—a fire variant, by the looks of it. The soldier's fire variant was called the Centurion, Astrophelle knew, and they were far from strong. He had nothing to worry about.

"He tried to purge us, and no doubt he'll do the same to you all should the time come!" he continued, dramatically waving around his crossbow as he did so.