Adrastae

The Adrastael cityscape was majestic. Aeren wandered on the concrete sidewalks, gazing up at the skyline. It was dotted with towering skyscrapers and spires. On the ground, there were thousands of visible lifeforms, almost all sentient. Hydreans, any and all human variants, and even a few independently-evolved sentient creatures. Numerous types of public transport zoomed past. A train passed over her, rattling the airborne tracks. She could hear so many different languages. Her own homeworld, a cracked moon known as Duo, was a very monotone place. Only one human variant, and everyone spoke the same ancient language. It was technologically simple. Fusion power was barely used, and it seemed stuck in the past. She simply hated it. One night, deep in the crevice that encircled the moon, nearly splitting it in two, she discovered a crashed ship. Very, very old and outdated. Aeren fixed it up over a period of two months. She nearly died three times. But, after stealing a nuclear fission engine from her parent's old car, and installing it into the ship's main reactor, it finally began to work again. She flew it out that very night, and soon was picked up by the nomadic Leucosia. She then explained to her parents how a very nice young man had offered her a lift off the moon. They, of course, were furious. They also noted their sabotaged car, yet Aeren simply shrugged. In reality, she had grown tired of her parent's crap, and fully intended to never return. However, the adulthood laws put in place by her variant's nation kept her from that intention. She had hoped that being aboard an Edwardian craft would negate those laws, but it was to no avail. As soon as the cityship would return within 1000 GMs of her moon, she would have been deported back to Duo. But that never happened, thanks to the strange change in the ship's course. Most cityships never left their own general territory. As she was pondering this, someone roughly shoved into her, and muttered, "Meet me outside the Doomsday Chocolatiers in 5 minutes." As she, startled, peered behind her, she realized it was George Stone. She ducked into an alleyway, and tapped her right temple. At once, a circle rotated itself into existence in the very corner of her vision, and a soft "ping" vibrated through her skull. She whispered into the dark air, "Doomsday Chocolatiers, closest known establishment." A glowing trail overlaid her vision, leading out of the alley and back into the crowded city street. However, before she could take a step, a muscled hand grabbed her shoulder. She jumped, and quickly twisted around. A Hydrean stood tall behind her, with a few chuckling humans behind it. The Hydrean opened its mouth, wide, so so wide, and she could see down its pulsating throat, past it's many tongues. Aeren stood, shellshocked, as the Hydrean gently bent down, and began to envelop her head in it's origami mouth. A small silver disk, about the size of a coin, flew at it's head at an incredible speed. Around the area where it would have hit, small, hardened scales turned into place automatically, and the disk pinged harmlessly off of it. The Hydrean turned away from Aeren, and looked up into the open window where it saw a man standing there with a small gun in his hand. The other humans in the alleyway turned up to look there too, and one retrieved a handheld laser cutter from his toolbelt. The Hydrean quickly scattered over to the wall, and began to scale it. The man in the window leaned out of it slightly, to peer at the fast moving creature. He pointed the gun down at it, and pulled the trigger. The only sound was a slight electric whine, a whistle as another disk flew out, and a wet splat as the disk entered one of the Hydrean's eyes and passed into it's skull. As this was happening, the three men in the alleyway were rushing up to Aeren, one of them with a ball gag, the other with a tiny device in his hand. She simply stood there, still unable to comprehend what was going on. As the three men were running up to her, one with a flaring laser cutter, she had a realization. This was a deciding moment in her life. It was either to defend herself now, or either die, put the man in the window in danger, or some other catastrophic situation. As the laser cutter swung towards her, she ducked, and pulled a small canister out of her pocket. The labeling read, "Chapstick". She uncapped it, and underneath was a tiny gamma ray emitter. She quickly snapped the cap onto the back, pointed it up at the man with the laser, squeezed her eyes shut, and pushed the cap down. When she looked back, the man was jumping around, yelling, with his shirt slightly ablaze. A Hydrean fell on top of the flaming man. Two more disks flew into the two other men's skulls. The mysterious person jumped down from the window, and his coat flared around him. He landed gracefully, and placed the gun back into his coat. He pulled off his hood, and underneath was George Stone. He simply said, "Doomsday Chocolatiers. Follow me. You're late." Aeren began to protest, but he put his finger up to her mouth. She stuttered, and then stopped talking altogether. A slight grin caressed Stone's face. He led her back out onto the street, where they were indistinguishable from the crowd once again. A few minutes later, they arrived in front of a small storefront with the words "Doomsday Chocolatiers" written in both Adrastael and Edwardian languages. Aeren, only being educated in Edwardian and the indigenous language of Duo, asked whether this was the correct location. Stone simply walked inside the door, ringing the bell. Aeren followed. Inside the small chocolate shop, the quiet was a marked difference from the hustle and bustle outside. One of the more distant human variants stood at the counter, tapping her right thumb underneath the countertop. "How can we help you?" she asked, in a surprisingly gravelly voice. Stone replied, with a rather flat and monotone voice, similar to the lady at the countertop's, "Do you by any chance sell chocolate from the fine world of Cristenthae, mountainous, cold? The chocolate is well renowned for being of a white color, and yet tasting darker than the blackest common breed." The lady grinned. "Yes. I will bring it to you. Free of charge, of course." Aeren tugged at Stone's sleeve. "But I don't like dark chocolate!" She murmured. "And a cup of heated Algonian chocolate, for my friend here." The lady behind the counter nodded and left. Stone walked over to one of the empty tables, and took a seat. Aeren did likewise. "Why are we here? Also, why did you have to come find me?" Aeren asked. Stone simply shook his head. "I'm here on important business. The reason you are here is because I'm going to need someone's help." Aeren was about to say something else, when the lady stepped up to the table, holding a platter. She set it down. There was a ceramic cup of light brown chocolate on one side, and a plate with a strange, white chocolate that had a hint of green in it. There was also a small, pink pill on the side. Stone glared at the pill for a while, then forced himself to pick it up and pop it into his mouth. He swallowed, and winced at the taste. He then broke off a piece of the Cristenthaen chocolate and put that also into his mouth, chewed it slowly, savoring the smooth, dark, silky taste of it. Aeren sipped at her own, liquid, chocolate. She stared at Stone, who stared down at his exotic chocolate, brow furrowed. Aeren wondered what he was thinking about.