Chapter 2: Not so harmonius

Akira had spent most of his life in the city of New Frandhenven, he could’ve left whenever, he just chose to stay, not like he had anywhere else to go. He was making his way home after a long day of doing nothing.

“ Afternoon Ms. Yue,” Akira waved to Ms. Yue, they were practically best friends at this point, every day he would pass by, occasionally buying something from her store. She simply waved back before going back to reading the paper. Akira enters his apartment through the bedroom window, making sure to lock it behind him. He tosses his bag onto his bed before plopping down on his couch, he lets out an exhausted sigh as he stares at the ceiling. He had spent most of today doing small jobs trying to earn some money for rent, it was due at the end of the month, giving him a few days left and he was short a few bucks. Akira grabs his tablet to see that he had received messages from a friend, CaLl3n, it was his nickname Akira wasn’t sure what his real name was, but he gave dangerous jobs, dangerous jobs that paid well. The one CaLl3n sent was a simple heist job out in the old district of Frandhenven, he was to grab something from the old server building, he could probably do this tonight, the location shown here wasn’t too far from his place. 

Akira bagged a couple of cookies and grabbed the rest of his gear before heading out, he rarely ever visited this part of the city, it was old and frankly, it creeped him out so he made sure to keep a distance, plus the Union had a tight grip over the place, not many people can get past the security. Fortunately for him, he knew how to get past it. It seemed he would be entering from the backside of the building, and he wasn’t alone. Akira quickly and quietly ducks behind a pile of rubble before the Union could see him, CaLl3n hadn’t mentioned that the Union would be here, this made things a whole lot more complicated. It's not that Akira hadn’t dealt the with Union before, he had but that was when it was just foot soldiers, this time they had a Seraphim, and it was one of the more well-known ones. Seraphims were the second highest ranking officials in the Union, just one rank below the leader whom they took orders from, a total of five Seraphims exist within the Union, and they were all crazy powerful. Akira kept low as he snuck around trying to find the right moment to sprint past into the building, they all stopped in their tracks, everyone's attention was focused on a machine that whirred to life above them, it comes landing down kicking up quite the dust storm. Guarding the entrance was an ancient guardian, a very powerful machine from the golden age. Its body had built up a lot of rust but it seemed functional regardless, Akira could only assume its only objective was to guard, which it did.

“ Get back I’ll handle it!” Seraphim Alice yells, she places herself in front of the guard, a gauntlet forms over her arms as she points them at the guard, a bright flash builds up at the base of her palms before firing a blast of intense heat striking the guardian dead on. The heat from the fire scratched it, Guardians from the golden age were something else, they were super powerful but we were never able to find them, they just disappeared one day, which was kinda a good thing. Akira planned on using this thing as a decoy while he went in, grabbed whatever it was he needed to get and left. When the guard swung its fist at Alice, Akira made a run for it, not only did Alice see him but the guard did too. And it had enough time to swing on him as well. Man CaLl3n better pay me double for this, Akira was able to trigger a mechanism within his boots that altered his entire body, it allowed him to move forward in space, kinda like dashing forward? How it worked he wasn’t really sure, some complicated science stuff he didn’t really bother with, as long as it works. He was just barely able to evade the fist from turning him into paste, the impact from the punch still hit, he was able to recover by rolling and slamming into the door which caved in upon impact, landing him inside. Without much more thought Akira ran further inside since the robot was designed to protect, it wouldn’t try to harm him while he's inside already right? Who knows, by the time he stopped running he was already deep within the building so he couldn’t really tell. From the looks of it seemed to be an old server facility from the golden age, grass and other plants had taken over now. The tab indicates the item he needs to get is downward, and the only way down was through the ominous tunnel leading into the earth. 

Something at the end of the tunnel was still active, and it gave off enough light that the tunnel wasn’t entirely dark. Akira eventually reached the end of the tunnel, it opened to a cave that seemed to have been bigger, rocks and other bits of debris covered what seemed to be the rest of the cave, all that was visible was the comically large storage device, the strip in the middle pulsed a deep red every 3 seconds, a low hum was being emitted from the device…It sounded nice? He wasn’t sure how to describe it, normally this kinda sound is annoying but it's…not. The sound of footsteps approaching echoes through the tunnel Akira had come from, he turns to see Alice standing at the mouth of the entrance, panic sets in. If he's caught he’ll get into a lot of trouble, he takes a step back, tripping on a small piece of debris sticking out in the floor. Akira uses the large device to keep himself from falling, The pulsing strip in the middle was no longer pulsing, and then a bright flash of light blinds him and probably everyone else. Akira couldn’t really see but he could feel, and he felt that the floor beneath him was gone, he was falling. He could feel himself going up, only to get thrown out back into the building, his sight had returned as he looked around. He examined his body to make sure nothing weird happened, fortunately he was safe, but what exactly was he supposed to get back there? Eh, no point thinking about it now, it's probably in the Union's hands by now, Akira pushes open the door and finds himself in the facilities lobby, he was SO close to being home free, and then some guy showed up behind him. He was tall, menacing, and just as well known as the Union's Seraphim. The man pushed back his coat and reached for his gun, he kept his hand on it. The Anti-sovereign, Lan. He ruled over Old Frandhenven, he and his faction have been going at it with the Union for a while now, just small skirmishes from time to time. But even then he was able to build quite the rep. Lan had drawn his gun and had it aimed right at him.

“ Don’t mind me.” says a new voice, this startles Akira and he carefully glances around without making much movement. Lan is confused but his aim is still locked on Akira, did he not hear the voice? And then everything went blank.