The Ways of the Worlds

Chapter One- On a Mountain on Ionts

The tip of the mountain almost pierced through the cloud spiraling around it. Sage hardly noticed this as she talked to the boy sitting next to her, Anshe. They were both famed interstellar fugitives, and their popularity rivaled the stars from the next galaxy over. Sage and Anshe were wanted for various reasons- theft, time travel, unauthorized vaporization of planets, the usual- but here was a safe place.

The clouds faded in and out of the navy sky, and every now and then a glimpse of a moon could be caught. A thumping sound came from the rings around ionts if you raised your antenna and stood very still.

"...so now I have 10 thousand wrapped around my finger, and if anyone says anything the whole planet will randomly make its way over to a star. It's this genius plan, they will never know it's me. You see, I set up-"

"Wait," Sage had to interrupt. "Why are you so caught up with not being caught up? Hell, you probably have more of a record than I do, they already have capital punishment planned for you, what's one more planet?"

Anshe paused. For every crime he committed, he tried not to get caught. It didn't matter now, for his punishment if he was caught was already the highest form, but...

"Remember what got me on the wanted list, when that rich bitch said I had vaporized her planet? Yeah, well she did that for insurance money cause her pathetic business was bankrupt. I was there, and she was rich. Now the Galaxy Association just blames their corruption on me, and I do what I can to piss them off. Looking back, I haven't killed anyone except that rich bitch. The only reason those 10 thousand planets are fighting back the G.A. minions there is because I told them to. If they don't, their planet is a goner."

The clouds seemed to hear the young boy, and they moved aside to show all the beautiful moons of Ionts.

Sage sat for a minute. It was unexpected when the person you look to as an equal actually hasn't done hardly anything they are credited with. It was more to process that they had valid intentions.

"Sage, you there? What's your tragic backstory? How much has the G.A. screwed you over?"

"They... haven't. I just started doing stuff, and as time went on, things just got worse and worse. Just yesterday i assassinated some big time president of this country, and it was fun. Sure, he screwed over the entire state, and was extremely self centered, but I still just did it for fun."

A few distant lights dotted the sky, and they disappeared a moment later. Neither Anshe or Sage spoke, as they realized how different the opposite was. Then a disaster of sorts happened. The mountain started shaking with the force of a Pterlans anger. It could only be a Pterlans anger, because the Pterle planet started flashing.

"I thought we were alone!" yelled Anshe. The pair started running to Sage's space cruiser- it was the closest vehicle to get away from the mountain, get away from the whole planet.

"Why won't this damn thing- START!" Sage was screaming, she was not going to die at the hands of a pterlan's anger. Finally she got the cruiser to zip into space, and as Anshe screamed from the passenger seat, she sped towards pterle.

"That damn planet has got to GO! Get ready, cause that planet is going down!" yelled Sage. Anshe calmed down enough to look back. His whole cruiser was going to be completely demolished by the Pterlan. He noticed Sage pulling out a vaporizing beam almost too late. She started to aim when she heard her friend whisper a desperate pleas.

"Don't do it." Anshe was soft, he had to admit. Sage's searching pink eyes had turned a dark, angry red. He had never seen a planet being vaporized, and he didn't want to. He could never live with himself if he at least didn't try to stop Sage.

This made her put down the gun. She usually just did- she didn't think about her actions, if she wanted to do some, it would happen. Anshe grabbed the gun and took out the star that was fueling it. He threw it out the window so it could return to its spot in the sky.

"Hey! That star took me forever to catch! Now my gun is useless!" said Sage. She could catch another star, but that would take another forever.

"Sage, you can't just vaporize a whole planet because someone made you mad!"

"Of course I can! He shouldn't have been there listening to us! We finally found a safe place with no other organisms. Now it'll be covered with G.A. agents."

"That's not how it works! were you seriously planning on murdering an entire race of creatures because one pissed you off?"

Sage fidgeted uncomfortably in her seat. She was going to do it. The pterlans were an ancient race, and when they got mad it was destructive. They were tied to their home planet, pterle, so when they got mad it would blink rapidly. Thankfully, after they got mad they would shrivel up and die, so the race learned to isolate themselves far across the universe so they never interacted with anyone.

"Maybe I was. Now your cruiser is gone, and The G.A. will be there soon to make sure nobody got hurt. We could check for your cruiser i suppose, but we could get caught, how badly do you need it"

"Seeing as it is my transportation and my house, i need it pretty bad! Lets go check real quick, or else I'll have to bunk with you."

She realized what that meant- having someone she met hours ago, someone with a conscience, move in with her.

She sped back to to mountain, which had a large crack right down the middle. The only clouds left were made of dust. Anshe's cruiser was charred. Sirens from G.A. inspectors were growing louder in the distance. Sage needed to leave, and she needed to leave fast. Anshe did too, but he was too focused on the fact his home had been destroyed.

"I'm really sorry dude, but we really need to go, like right now."

"I know, I know. Just give me a minute"