The Revelers (Serial 1)

Act 1 - Chapter 1: Ari

Soot, rubble, and debris clouds the center of the arena battlegrounds. Instead of a deathmatch, we have one hell of a mess. Spectators scream in shock and terror, scrambling and panicking away from the scene. Chaos!

The haze clears. I spot silhouettes of three distinct figures, two people and... a bird-woman? No freaking way! I think the Sirens' mind-gas grenade is still messing with my head. Still, that monster can't be legit, are they?

The silhouettes form and materialize, but the bird-woman figure disappears.

My vision is still fuzzy, but I can spot two figures, a boy and a girl.

Both of them are identical in outfit, save for the color of their loose-fitting informal neckties. They wear sunglasses over their eyes and an unzipped black trench coat with a white untucked buttoned shirt underneath, baggy gray slacks, and black street shoes with white laces. The girl has a red necktie with orange flame motifs while the boy wears a blue one with white snowflake motifs. She also has a black baseball cap with the foil stickers still on it and white earmuffs that resemble drooping rabbit ears. The boy has coiling goat-like horns protruding from the sides of his head. What a peculiar cybernetic augment, I ponder.

A metal sleeve-like contraption augments an arm of the two. The girl's sleeve is on her right arm. The boy's sleeve, on his left. Two actual hardcover books, not reader tablets, appeared attached to pocket-like compartments. One tome on the bicep and another on the forearm. Holding with their unaugmented arms is an ornate black binder with a third hardcover book attached to it.

"Who the hell are you?" Rayne asks with glaring skepticism, lurching forward to the two mysterious children.

"Are you Ari Kagura?" the boy asks Rayne, a sense of urgency coating his voice.

"No, that would be her." Rayne gestures to me.

"Excuse me?" I peer into the face of this strange boy.

The girl jerks her head, gazing at me. "Yo, you look like an Ari. At least based on the description The Doc gave us."

"The Doc?" I scratch the back of my head in confusion. I've met many scientists and other scholarly individuals at the CrystalCorp campus where the Valkyries stay and train. That could be anybody!

"We don't have a lot of time to explain." The boy gasps. "You need to come with us."

My mouth opens, but no words come out.

Instead, hooded Eyes cultists barge into the arena, guns and blades at the ready.

"Stop right there, Remnants scum!" a cultist yells.

"Proceed no further and surrender!" another one demands.

Remnants scum? I wonder.

The girl turns her head to the boy and chuckles. "These guys don't give up, do they, bro?"

"Nope!" the boy says as he opens a book, and, with a whirl and a twirl of his fingers, a rift opens. He dunks his hand into the portal and pulls out an ornate canister-like object. He slams the item right on to the ground. On impact, the canister shatters and spews a thick purple smog, hampering our visibility.

A blade flashes, followed by screams of pain.

Something taps my foot. I glance down and notice the head of a dead Eyes cultist next to my boot. "Shit!" I mutter, almost retching. I activate the heat sensors on my cybernetic eye, and I can't believe what I'm seeing.

The cultists are dropping dead. Their limbs and heads dismembering from the boy's expert swordsmanship. With one dashing cut, five guards split in half, disconnecting torso from the waist. Like a legendary samurai of ancient times.