Everybody looked up after a moment. "Now that's odd," murmered Skan.
The sky was like a quilt of patches. Part of it was green, part of it was orange, part blue, part black, etc. None of the colors were odd. Depending on the time of the day and climate conditions, each color could work. But the sun was not up, though there was light, which was an odd thing in itself, and the colors looked very odd together. They did not blend in at all. On one part the sky might be black, then right next to it would be the color green.
"Wonder what it is?" Ittou asked. Nobody had an answer for it, not even Jedra.
The town was further than anyone had thought. After a few hours of walking, it came into view, but for hours after that, it didn't appear to be any closer no matter how much they walked. Then a few mere minutes later, it seemed to loom high above them. Everybody dismissed it as tricks of the mind and didn't talk about it.
Everybody in the town were running frantically back and forth. There were several kinds of people, there. Too many kinds.
"A Namek!" said Ittou, when a tall green fellow with antannae rushed by.
"What's a Namek?" asked Z.
"It's a creature from the planet Namek. They share the same name as there planet," explained Jedra. Ittou glanced at Jedra, annoyined.
"That's right."
"Whoa, one second," said Skan. "From another planet? Aliens!" Skan shook his head, and another being caught his eye. "Hey, another Reploid!"
Z noticed it, too. "Not a Maverick hunter. And not a Meverick either! But he has an arm-cannon. Why is that? Everybody who can fight is on one side or the other, or else they are shot down by either side!"
Skan was confused. "OK, and there are several humans, too. Z, if you've never heard of a Namek and Ittou's never heard of a Reploid, and I've never heard of either exactly, what are all these people doing together?"
"I don't know," said Ittou. "But they look busy."
"Excuse me, sir!" said Skan, grabbing a fat, middle-aged man by the arm. "We're new here, were are we?"
The man looked at Skan oddly. "Why, we're at the Capsule Corporation devision of the Engineer's Guild! The Maverick Hunters department, of course, the country Wayrest."
The man shook off Skan's arm and went about his business. The four started talking all at once, about the different names of where they were.
"Capsule Corp? I work there..."
"The Engineer's Guild doesn't..."
"Since when does Wayrest...?"
"Maverick...?"
"OK, OK," said Skan, stopping everyone from talking. "Something is really screwed up here. Let's get our priorities straight and find a hotel or soemthing. We might need to stay the night."
"Yeah," said Z.
"Hey!" said Ittou, stopping a Namek. "Do you know where we can find a hotel?"
The Namek looked at Ittou like he was an idiot. "A hotel?? Night is coming! NIGHT! All hotel's are booked, you should know that! Get inside, now!!"
The Namek didn't say anything moer and hurried away. Everybody exchanged glances.
"Either he is deathly afraid of the dark," said Ittou slowly, "or something is up that happens tonight."
"Not just tonight," said Skan thoughtfully. "He said NIGHT, not TOnight. Therefore, something happens here every night. If something happens that often, then there is obviously some sort of daily kind of routine to prevent, or hide from it."
"Well, what do WE do?" asked Ittou.
Skan sighed. "There are no hotels, and no way of getting a place to sleep, unless one of these paranoid freaks happens to have four extra beds. I guess we just camp outside of town."
"I agree," said Z. "Though we will need to keep our weapons at our side and a gaurd up."
"OK," said Skan. "It was my idea, so I'll keep first watch."
No one had any money to buy any supplies, so they just sat out near one of the few trees, waiting for darkness. No one talked too much, everybody was too different to find a topic to talk about. After an hour or two, Skan noticed something in the sky.
"Hey! There's the sun!"
"Yeah.... and?" asked Jedra.
"Well, it wasn't there before!" said Ittou, coming to Skan's defense.
"Yes it was!" said Jedra. "It was just blending in with the sky. It was in that bright white... patch over there." Jedra waved over, and sure enough, there was a 'patch' in the sky the same color as the sun.
"Ohhh...." said Skan. He sighed. "Well, it's almost night time. You guys should go to sleep, and I'll wake Ittou up after three hours."
"OK," said Ittou. He and Jedra curled up and after a few minutes, fell asleep. Z took a while longer. Obviously he was used to sleeping in different conditions. But soon, he fell asleep.
Skan pulled out his gun and layed it on the ground. Then he took out his whip and put it in his lap. He passed the time by wondering what was going on, about the sky and the time, and the different people. Soon, the sun went down and the moon came up, a light twilight covering Skan.
Nothing happened after a while. There were no street lights, so the moon was the only thing giving off light. Then, after about an hour of Skan's waiting, he began to hear sounds.
Almost like a cricket, but louder, deeper, and more or a rasping sound. Skan stood up, the gun in one hand. He didn't want to wake anybody up yet, not until it was needed. It could just be some sort of native animal.
Then he heard the rasping again, and from all sides this time. Slowly, Skan bent down to wake up Ittou, when... something... burst into view.
It was about six feet long, almost like a leech or a snake. It slithered along the ground at an alarming speed. Skan could see two scythe like arms at either side. The thing stopped slithering and looked up at Skan, half of it's body rising. It had two small eyes and several rows of tiny, but sharp, teeth. It looked directly at Skan, and made the rasping noise again. Seconsd later, several more of the brown creatures slithered up next to it. Skan took an involuntary step back, remembering about Ixtchil, the Zodiac Demon. It looked very similar.
Before Skan could wake anybody up, they all launched themselves directly at him. Skan fired several shots involuntarily, not even aiming. Two of them fell, but the other bullets missed.
The loud shots woke everybody else up. Instantly, Z and Ittou were at there feet. Jedra was a little slower to rise, but still got up. The creatures were right in their faces, now, and Skan abandoned using his gun for his close ranged whip.
Everybody was fighting now, yelling out, and everything was hectic. Skan noticed that the creatures were very, very weak. There scythes hurt, of course, but didn't do anything more than a small gash. And it took nothing more than one crack of the whip for one to fall, and stay down. However, there were dozens, hundred of them. There numbers were overwhelming.
Suddenly, Jedra cried out something, that Skan didn't hear. He said it again, which Skan understood. "Slivers!!"
Skan wracked his mind for information on slivers, and despire the situation, remembered something he had read. No, played. In a card game, they were creatures that shared traits. If just ONE could fly, then all other slivers could fly, too. If just ONE had the ability to grow there arms, all did. Weak at first, but overwhelming.
To prove the point, one Sliver flew down at Skan from the tree, Skan fended it off, but all the others' began to fly, too. Coming down from all sides, up down, left and right. Then, one of them latched itself to Z and exploded. Z screamed and fell, his blue and black armor ripped open from his left shoulder to his left leg, machinery poking out. He didn't get back up, and Skan feared the worst.
Then one of the Slivers attached itself to Skan. Skan, knowing what would happen if it exploded, struggled to get free. But he hardly had anytime before it exploded, completely blacking Skan out.