the-starbounder-blog

[the-starbounder-blog]

The Starbounder | S: Prologue; E: A Glowing White Ball

A car turned off a highway onto the side streets of Earth, 2472.

“Stop it! You’ve played this song, like, five times already!” a cheerful feminine voice said from the passenger seat.

“Oh c-MON, Bali!” another feminine voice replied in the driver’s seat, “I love this song, no matter if I’m pulling your beak or what!”

“As if you, an ape, can actually cope with physically having their beak pulled, Marth?” Bali stated in return.

Marth seemed slightly offended.

“Ok, then,” she said, “ no need to get overly racist. Oh, here’s a good parking spot!”

They drove into a dark ‘Free parking’ lot along their road. Unbuckling their seatbelts, they got out and sat at the back of a truck. Marth pulled out a pocket-sized vape.

“So, I can’t WAIT to be 18!” Bali the Avian exclaimed cheerfully.

“Yeah,” Marth replied in a puff of smoke, “You wouldn’t stop talking about it. You want to be a Protector. Doesn’t everyone?”

“Everyone, including you.”

“Yeah whatever.”

“Well, I just can’t WAIT! The things we can do, the places we’ll go, and just think, we can…”

Bali continuously talked about being a Protector and basically doing everything, while Marth periodically blew smoke.

“… and, oh, aren’t you EXCITED?!”

“Yeah, whatever.”

“Well, well, well! What do we have here?” a voice said from the darkness of the lot.

“Sarcasm. Two young and lost little girls,” a second, robotic voice stated again from the darkness.

Bali was terrified. “W-who’s there?”

“Slyful. Just the entities who own this terrirory,” the robot said again.

The two figures showed themselves. One was an extremely bulky Human with messy hair and tattoos holding a Ruger P85 in his right hand and a scrap-metal truncheon in his left. The other was a rusty Glitch with a leather flail and a knife.

“Gentlemen,” Marth stated, “please just back away and we’ll get out of yo-“

The Glitch threw the knife into the Apex’s thigh, followed by a sapien howl of pain. “Discouraged. Do not backtalk to us.”

The Human jumped onto the truck and pulled Bali by her feathery crest.

“Well, well, well!” the Human said, “What fine specimens! You’ll sell high on the Dark market!” He pulled a pink feather off of her crest.

“Impatient. Get them off of there and in the car. Let’s move!”

They didn’t last two seconds before somethong happened.

Something so obsurd that not even the most religious and scientific Hylotl could’ve known it was even possible.

A goant ball of sparking, electro-tossing energy appeared in the middle of the parking lot.

Startled, the Human fired his P85 into the orb. The orb pulsed and fired an arc of energy at the Glitch, blowing him towards the side of a nearby building and deactivating him. The Human ran away absentmindedly, dumbfounded at what just happened.

Marth slowly pulled the knife out of her flesh and followed Bali’s gaze at the orb. It just floated there for a while before shrinking quickly and falling.

In the shape of a Human.

Bali jumped and ran at the human, and Marth limped after her. The human had pale skin that slowly regained it’s pink colour, and messy blond hair topped his head. He was completely naked.

“Oh my god, we need to call an ambulance!” Marth shouted, grabbing her phone with her hairy hands and dialed the cops.

While she did that, the body gasped for air coughing.

“He’s awake!” Bali said, helping him up. “Are you okay? What is your name?”

“Bsa guknbg mvca,” was what he replied.

“I don’t understand, what are you saying?”

“Bsa gunknbg mvca. Bsa gunkn’t know. I don’t know! Who am I?! Where am I?! God, please help me, I’m lost, I’m afraid! Where are my friends? Who are my friends? Who is the-“ he passed out, just as the ambulance arrived.

This is his story as a Protector.