Falcon's eyes flew open, his bare chest heaving up and down. He jolted to sit up, but the iron restraints on his wrists and ankles prevented him. With a grunt, he strained harder, but the metallic loops refused to budge. 

After inhaling sharply, the man dropped his head back down on his bed in defeat. He could do nothing but lay there and gasp for breath, waiting for his panic attack to disappear on its own. Periodically, he tugged at his bonds, but always to no avail. 

He sighed after several minutes had passed. The panic attack had subsided, and he was now able to attempt to figure out where in the world he was. The air was warm and humid, and Falcon found himself unsure whether the droplets of moisture on his brow were his own sweat, or liquid byproducts of the surrounding muggy air. 

And the air didn't smell any better than it felt, either. Falcon wrinkled his lip in disgust as he tried to decide whether the unpleasant odor was fecal matter, dank vegetation, or something necrotic. Perhaps even a combination of the three. 

Finally, Falcon turned his head from side to side to see what he could from his unfamiliar environment. The surroundings appeared just dingy and unhygienic as they smelled, starkly contrasted by the pair of men in white medical scrubs who stood in the corner, their backs to the bed he was fastened to. Why do the walls have those brown and green stains? he wondered, Never mind, ignorance is bliss...don't wanna go there. 

However, there were some things he didn't want to be ignorant about. 

Falcon cleared his throat loudly. "Would somebody mind telling me where the heck I am?" 

The two men in the medical scrubs spun on their heels and raised their eyebrows at one another. "What was that, sir?" 

Falcon snarled. "You heard me! Where am I?" 

"You're...in our medical center...?" one of the men answered, his voice wavering and his brow wrinkled. 

"That much is obvious." Falcon replied, glancing down at the man's scrubs. "Now you'd better give me more information than that!" 

"Umm..." 

"What's wrong with you guys? You can't answer a simple question?" a female voice called from somewhere behind the headboard. 

"Well...I dunno." 

Footsteps padded around the corner, and an athletic brunette with stunning green eyes appeared in Falcon's field of vision. She smirked and glanced at the man's well-defined pectorals. "Oh, I see. I think they're intimidated." 

Falcon frowned. "I have no clue what you're talking about. Is anybody gonna answer my question, or—" 

"As he said, you're in the medical center of our base you so rudely assaulted. Oh, and we dragged you out of the bog you were about to drown in. You're welcome." 

Falcon's eyes widened and he moved to sit up. As before, the restraints held him back. "Wait a minute, you mean to tell me, you're the very same rebels I was sent to take down?" 

"You could say that, yes. Now, you need to answer my questions. Who are you? We searched and searched, but couldn't find any identification on you!" 

"Who're you?" 

"I'm Keira. Now, answer my question, or I'll have my brother come and ask you some things." 

"You say that as if it's some sort of threat." 

Keira glared. "Just answer my question! Who are you?" 

"I'm Falcon, god of vision and perception." 

Keira choked on her laughter. "You're kidding, right? God of vision?" 

"Do I look like I have a sense of humor?" 

"Good point. But I still think it's strange that a god could be held back by a few puny bands of iron." 

"That sounds like a challenge." 

"I never said it wasn't." 

Falcon narrowed his eyes. "Well guess what, lady? I feel absolutely no need to oblige your petty challenge. Now I command you to release me this instant!" 

"Why? So you can gather even more men than before, and really mess us up? Yeah, I don't think so." 

One of the medics leaned toward the other's ear. "Yeah, I think we should tranquilize him now, before he gets outta hand." 

Falcon's head snapped over to the pair. "I heard that!" 

"So what?" the other medic retorted, "We're not the ones under restraint." 

Falcon growled, but could do nothing but watch as the men stepped away to a small table off in the corner. They returned moments later, a needle in the first man's hand. Without hesitation, he pricked the man's bicep and injected an orange fluid into his veins. He kicked and struggled against the medic, but with his limited mobility, he accomplished nothing. 

Once the dosage had been emptied into Falcon's bloodstream, all eyes studied him. When about two minutes passed, and he showed no signs of drowsiness, worry started to manifest itself on their features. 

"Would now be a bad time to bring up that you'd need an insane number of those to put me down?" 

The medics sneered at him. "We'll just give ya a higher dosage! We're gonna make sure you go down!" 

"Yeah, good luck with that." 

With that, Falcon gritted his teeth, and with one swift jerk of his arm, he broke the restraint fastening his right wrist to the bed. The two medics rushed to prevent him from removing the second, but their efforts were in vain. Three soldiers bearing no insignia appeared from behind the headboard and moved to prevent him from sitting up, but he swatted them away easily. 

One medic managed to dodge the blow, and he singlehandedly continued his effort to keep Falcon down. Not challenged in the slightest, he rose to a sitting position and grabbed the man by the collar. Then he hurled him aside, knocking Keira over in the process. Two tugs later, he'd removed the bonds holding his ankles down. Then he leapt to his feet atop the bed. 

After rising up from his previous bruising blow, two soldiers slid to one side of the bed to prevent Falcon's escape. With a spinning kick, he knocked one down and landed inches away from the second. He withstood a punch from the anxious man before returning his own, much more devastating blow. The third soldier lunged at his ankles in a ditch effort to stop Falcon's advance. He merely kicked his leg forward, and the man lost his grip. 

Falcon charged toward the door, and a short young woman with brown hair slid over to intercept his path. He raised his fist to punch her, before he met her chocolate eyes. She stared back with innocence, and also determination. 

"Step aside, please." Falcon commanded gently, despite his racing heart, "I don't wanna hurt you, but I will." 

The girl squinted for a second. Then she slid out of Falcon's path and eyed him as he raced out the door. 

"For goodness' sake, Hannah! Why'd you let him go?" Keira cried at the young woman. 

Falcon didn't hear Hannah's response, as he had already dashed halfway down the hallway, and had no intentions of slowing down. 

******************** 

Downstairs, in a large workshop filled to capacity by mechanical projects past and present, Aaron slaved away at an anvil. With incessant blows from a rusty hammer, he pounded a red-hot piece of metal into shape. 

Aaron sighed and paused for a second to wipe his clammy forehead. As if the natural Jasmidianite humidity wasn't unbearable enough, the blistering heat of metalworking added still more to it. For that reason, he had discarded his shirt long ago. 

He smirked and glanced over at his desk, where a blonde woman sat amongst the clutter with folded hands and watched him work. "You enjoying the view, Wendy?" he asked, a teasing glint in his gaze. 

Wendy rolled her eyes. "In your dreams." 

"Yours, more accurately." Aaron corrected, a smirk still lingering on his lips. 

"You're insufferable." 

"Aren't we all?" 

Wendy bit her lip. "Perhaps so, but you're on a whole 'nother bloody level!" 

"I am special, aren't I?" Aaron remarked with a chuckle. 

The blonde opened her mouth to reply, but a sharp beep startled her. She snapped her head over and narrowed her eyes at the device that made the horrid noise. 

Aaron snatched up the beeping widget and clicked a button on the side of its boxy case. "Hey, Aaron here, what's up?" 

"We've got a buff madman running wild up here! You need to come take care of him!" Keira's voice shouted on the other end. 

Aaron raised an eyebrow. "Okay sis, I'll be up." 

With that, he pocketed the black device and snatched up another pronged apparatus. Then he blew Wendy a kiss, smirking at her unamused reaction. He inhaled and shoved the door open. 

Aaron dashed up two flights of stairs with little effort and soon found himself in a brightly-lit central hub, with four corridors to choose from. He slipped the black communicator out of his pocket and clicked the button. "Hey, I'm in Hub B, here. Where's this madman you spoke of?" 

"Last anybody saw, he was in the west wing, headed to Hub A." 

Aaron nodded, chuckling slightly to himself as he realized that the gesture wouldn't carry over the airwaves. "Alright, I'll try and stop him." 

With that, he hurried off down one of the hallways, dodging oblivious personnel as he went. He rounded a corner and skidded to a halt to avoid a towering man with bulging muscles that far exceeded the volume of even his own. 

The man stared at Aaron with piercing blue eyes and clenched his fists. "I'd move if I were you." 

Aaron smirked and tilted his head. "Well, good thing for us, you're not me." 

The man hardened his eyes. "I am Falcon, god of vision and perception, and I command you to move aside!" 

"Nope." 

With that, Aaron jerked his arm to thrust the pronged apparatus at Falcon. The taller man's eyes quickly caught the movement. He snatched his opponent's forearm. Aaron gasped as Falcon twisted his wrist and caused him to drop the device. As it clattered to the ground, Falcon kicked it away and punched his foe in the face. 

Aaron stumbled away, clutching his throbbing jaw. That dude's got a mean swing. he thought to himself, Time to give him my own. He leapt to his feet and threw his own punch at Falcon. His fist connected with his opponent's cheek, but accomplished little more than forcefully turning his head. 

Aaron scrambled to grab his fallen weapon, but Falcon kicked him in the ribs. Not easily deterred, he flinched through the pain and continued on. With a grunt, Falcon snatched Aaron up by the neck and pinned him to the wall. 

"It doesn't befit mortals to meddle with gods." Falcon spat. 

Aaron shrugged. "I'll bet even gods have weak spots." 

With that, he kicked Falcon in the groin. The blue-eyed man grunted and doubled over. Aaron smirked and grabbed his weapon, swiftly touching the prongs to his opponent's flesh. He twitched and convulsed on the ground, electric sparks coursing over his body. 

Aaron grinned as he heard footsteps racing his way. Keira slid to a halt inches from her brother, a quartet of armed soldiers in tow. The men hustled around her to retrieve Falcon's limp form and hoist him up. With many grunts, they bore his immense weight on their shoulders and carried him away. 

Keira sighed. "Our hands are so full these days." 

Aaron nodded and pulled his sister close, holding her head gently against his chest as he embraced her. "I know. But the princess should get here soon, and when she does, this all becomes her problem." 

Keira bit her lip as tears formed in her eyes. "I miss home. I miss when we lived in peace, isolated from all this madness." 

"I do too, Keira, but we're fighting for something worthwhile now. Our selfishness had its season, but now it's time for us to sacrifice something. Whether it be our time, our lives, or just our blood, sweat, and tears. It's the least we can do to honor what Baird did." 

"It's hard to honor a man who hasn't been here for us these two years." Keira contradicted, a bitter undercurrent in her tone. "Where has he been while we've been forming these dangerous alliances, risking our lives, and overall living under the Empire's frown?" 

Aaron sighed and looked off into the distance. "I'm sure he's doing something worthwhile. He must've broke contact for a good reason."

******************** 

A/N: Well, there was chapter one! I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it, and if you did, please remember to vote and comment. Thanks! 

So, instead of asking anything super specific, I'd just like to know, what're your general thoughts on this first chapter? Things you liked, anything I could've done better? 

And as is my custom, I shall ask a completely random question, so lemme think of one... 

Oh yes! Do you prefer to read printed books, or do you like reading on some sort of device better? (I mean, you wouldn't be here if you totally hated electronic reading, but still...😂) 

(For me personally, I can't decide. I love how I can comment on stuff on Wattpad and do more than just be reading, but of course, when I'm reading a printed book, it's probably more of the ultra-focus on the material the author wanted, lol. So I'll have to go with printed, I guess, though I love them both for their own merits.) 

And that's it for me this morning! I'll see you next Friday if you decide to stick around. With that, I'm out! 

*zooming sounds* 

Bye for now!