^^ Mad Max ^^

--- Mad Max's POV ---

I blinked my tired eyes, and sat up slowly. The dirt was speaking again. Why did the dirt always wake me up? Annoying...

'Wake up, Takeo. Wake up! Your friend is in danger!'

'What friend? I don't have any friends in this pit of death.'

An image of Wren flashed through my mind, but he looked different. Bigger, buffer, with darker skin, like he'd become a pirate like he always talked about.

'Wren is here? What's it been, two weeks? Three?' I asked.

'Yes, he is here! And being attacked by a dragon!!! Go!'

I tsk'ed and grabbed my bag of chemicals, the only possession I had besides the clothes I had, and dressed quickly. Then I stepped outside my cave, and the door shut of its own accord. I pulled on my Sigil, and became invisible, before darting off in the direction the earth was pointing me.

About twenty minutes later, I came into a meadow, and grinned. 'Like he needed my help!' I laughed mentally, and walked over to the man who stood next to the corpse of the dragon, which then disappeared, dissolving and collecting into a sword in his hand. He sheathed it, and I chuckled.

He disappeared, and I huffed. "Seriously? You stole my tricks and learned how to become invisible? So not cool, man." I became visible, waiting for him to reappear.

He grabbed my shoulder. "Max? Is that you, Mad Max?" He laughed, pretending he hadn't been sneaking onto the island to feed me. Must be that lady next to us didn't know... I'll play along.

"Oi Oi! What'd I tell you about that name? Eh? I ain't crazy, the dirt led me here to you." I huffed.

He laughed again and hugged me. "You wouldn't believe the things I've seen. I can believe the Dirt speaks. Anyway, Oi, Arthur. This is Mad Max, my friend from Council Island. He's not much of a fighter, but he's good with science."

"Interesting." She nodded.

"Anyway, I'm busting you out, now I've found you. I found your clan, and they said they'd take you in. There's dozens of bastards there. The Grand Knight, Shinzo Masa, is a good friend of mine too, she said she'd take you on as a student if ye like." He grinned, stepping away.

I blinked. "You're friends with Shinzo Masa? The Thunder God?! News to me, man!!!"

"Indeed I am. She's my teacher, along with Paladin Pantera and Paladin Arthur and Vice-Captain Alba Polintavich, my aunt from the Tinker Clans." He grinned saucily.

I laughed. "It's so weird to actually talk to people... but good for you, must be nice to have strong allies."

"You should know, you've got the best one! I'm a Silver Knight now, after all." He nodded, bowing sarcastically, then flicked Silver wings, folding them on his back.

I blinked. "How... the hel... did you get wings?"

"Killed my first dragon a few weeks back." He shrugged.

I laughed again. "Alrighty then! Hullo, Paladin Arthur. Just so you know, I'm the only one of the four that came here in chains left that's still alive. The others didn't even get out of their chains before being eaten by the big purple bitch that roams near the gate." I said simply, watching her reaction to the news she'd had several people murdered.

She lowered her head, and nodded. "I had assumed you, too, were dead, or I would've released you. I was only recently awakened to the injustice of my Grand Knights actions. I should've acted sooner. My apologies."

I grinned. "Nah. I got some good chemicals here! Dragon blood is rich in so many acids and chemicals it's actually been quite prolific to my research." I shrugged.

"Oh! I almost managed to create liquid hydrogen this morning! I was trying to create metallic hydrogen, but didn't quite manage it..." Wren hummed.

I smiled. "Metallic Hydrogen? Trying to build your own Rails, eh? Interesting fellow. Anyway, if we's is leaving, now's the time. The other dragons smell their friends blood. They're coming to investigate soon." I warned him.

He nodded. "Alright... let's get you to the port." He picked me up, and snapped open his wings completely.

I grinned and held my bag of chemicals tightly, and the woman, Paladin Arthur, grabbed on as well, as he dropped his wings, and we darted into the sky.

He dove through a little gate, and suddenly we were above a giant castle island. He set down on a rooftop, and grinned. "This is where I've been living for the last few months. Built it meself." He said proudly.

"Thought we were going to the port?" I asked.

"My ship is out on a run, so you'll have to wait until morning for them to return. If you get bored, there's a chemistry workshop in this tower." He sighed.

He opened a window, and then snapped. "OI! Find another place to snog, ye fuckin animals, this is a place of chemistry, not biology!"

The two people squeaked in fear and ran down the stairs.

He started setting to rights the stuff they'd knocked over, and I helped, ignoring the Paladin leaning against the wall for now. Seeing the selection of chemicals, my fingers twitched. "This place is well stocked, that's for sure..." I said.

"Mm. So tell me, Mad Max... do ye want to train with the Lu-Kong, or would ye like to stay with me? I've got some nice digs here, that's true." He hummed.

"You always know what's going on, huh? Yeah... I ain't part of the Lu-Kong anymore, bro. My family was excommunicated. Father is dead, Ma is living in a hospital, halfway to him, halfway with me... you understand. I don't have a place there. And I don't think I can stay here-"

"You're more than welcome. From the potions I see on your hip, you're quite the chemist, just as well as a thief. I'd be very happy to let you stay with Wren up here. This has been dubbed his property now, anyway. I've no right to tell him you can't live here." The Paladin spoke up.

Wren winked at my incredulous look. "I have my ways, Mad Max. Just because I moved Islands, doesn't mean I lost my connections. Anyway. You're free to stay in my house, as I've said." Then he sat down at the desk, and heated up a cosmic forge.

"Is that... really a cosmic forge? Those don't even exist anymore, right?" I asked, examining it.

"I rebuilt one from some old plans." He shrugged. "I'm trying to give the right amount if heat and pressure to the SiH(n). Hopefully, the silicon is a successful binder... ah! Arthur. I got distracted. Do you want to continue our training, or... are we done for the day?"

"Hmph. Six hours a day, that's the deal. Let's go. You don't even have classes anymore, Sir Polisavich." She said mischievously, and he grinned guiltily.

"Oh yeah... ahem. Anyway, I'll be back, Mad Max. The house is right there, just knock twice, then three times, and the door will unlock for you." He patted my shoulder and then jumped out the window, disappearing from my sight.

The Paladin stopped beside me. "I... I don't know how to apologize, so I won't bother... but I'd really like you to consider being a student here. There's so much to learn... you have a few months to decide, before the Test begins."

I nodded. "I'll think about it."

She smiled. "That's all I ask." She leapt out as well, and I smiled, turning back to the chemicals.

I started working the cosmic forge, compressing carbon in a very specific pattern, and soon someone tapped my shoulder.

I didn't look up from the microscope, and held up a finger. "One moment, please..." I increased the pressure, and grinned when the carbon crystallized into a low-quality diamond. I leaned back and looked at the red-orange haired woman who was standing there patiently. "Sorry, thanks for waiting. May I help you?" I asked.

"I'm looking for Lord Paladin Arthur?"

"She just went to train on the Hel Island with Knight Wren a few minutes ago." I smiled.

She sighed. "Figures..."

"Interesting... well. Sorry I couldn't be of more help. Good day." I nodded and turned back to the microscope.

She huffed. "Just like that?"

"Excuse me?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Well? Aren't you going to introduce yourself?" She demanded, placing her hands on her hips.

I blinked slowly, and chuckled. "Why should I? I'm not trying to be rude, but I see no reason to introduce myself to someone I'll likely never see again. Seems like a Waste of Time, like this conversation. I've got things to do, after all." I nodded, and turned back to the microscope.

She stiffened, then hauled back her right fist, and I sighed. "Annoying nobles..." I got ready to dematerialize as as her hand neared my shoulder, but another hand grabbed her fist, and kicked her threw the window, swatting her like a fly.

The man, who was wearing a golden and silver badge nodded to me, and glared at her as she stepped back into the room, unharmed. He disappeared, and she spun around, confused, as he reappeared in front of her, and stood there as she spun back, and found herself nose-to-nose with an extremely stern looking man with silver eyes.

She fainted, and he smirked. His gaze turned to me. "You were remarkably calm... confident. Your wit reminds me of someone else... though I'm not too fond of him, I think that's because of our circumstances. Ah! My apologies. I am Lord-"

"Fallon Ira, Grand Knight and member of the council on the part of the Uruk Order and Archipelago. The man you're comparing me to is my brother, Wren. He's... difficult." I chuckled.

I went back to work on the forge. With further pressure, about 725,000 lb/in^2, and 2,200*F of heat, the diamond completed, and I leaned back, shutting down the forge.

"Ah. I wasn't aware he had any family..." he hummed.

"Not blood, of course. We lived together on the streets. You ordered me kidnapped and killed." I chuckled again, and opened the forge, pulling out the diamond the size of a small chess piece.

It had been supercooled already, so it was lukewarm to the touch. I smiled and tucked it in my pocket he stood there, thinking.

"I'm-"

"Please don't apologize. Despite my life so far and the things I've done to survive, I don't like lies. And besides. You kinda remind me of him to. He would sell his own mother for his goals... I think you're a little like him. Cold inside. I admire the ability to remove your emotions from a decision. I'm not angry that you had me kidnapped. It's all part of his plan." I laughed.

Then I hopped out of the window, and walked to the door that Wren had said led to his house. I knocked twice, then three times, and it unlocked. Upon walking in, I laughed, closing and locking the door behind me. The entire room was covered in wood and a soft mat, exactly like a Dojo.

'I used to have one of these... it's been so long...'

'It is certainly impressive.' The stones underneath the castle replied.

I smiled and found an unoccupied corner, the only one left, and built a desk out of stones that blew in as dust, and then reassembled themselves. The wood also grew, and soon I had an enclosed study with a hidden door.

I set out my chemicals and potions in a set of holders, and nodded. "Interesting... now for a bed." A thick almost-tatami mat immediately wove itself in one corner out of thin leaves, then covered itself in thick moss to make something that looked like a futon.

I grinned and laid down, closing my eyes to finally get some sleep. As soon as my eyes shut, I began to have dreams about my many misadventures with Wren.

---

"-d that's how we get in!" I tapped the small map under our noses.

Wren cracked his knuckles. "Let's do this, then. This guy has a huge stash of rice stashed here, they say. You sure you can get in the Vault if I handle the guards?"

"Yeah!" I grinned.

He grinned and set his feet like a rhino, then charged at the door. He slammed his shoulder into it, and the inch-thick steel shredded like paper. He laughed once, a short, barking laugh, before leaping into the air and breaking one guards jaw.

I dove in after him, invisible, and crept along the edge of the room as he fought the guards, before slipping down the stairs. I almost ran into another guard, running up the stairs, and so I leapt, turning intangible as I went through him. I shivered. 'That always feels weird...'

'ONWARD CHARGE!!! HAHAHAHAHA!' The dirt laughed wildly.

I grinned and sprinted down the stairs silently, and entered the basement. There were six guards staring at the door, and I tsk'ed. 'Dammit... how to get past them... ah!' I threw six different smoke bombs around the room, and darted between the guards as they ran towards them.

I phased through the metal door to the Vault, and grinned. 'Jackpot! This is more than enough food to last us ten years! More, if we sell it! Ha! Dirt, can I have a cave under here, with a tunnel leading to the third ring?'

'Sure.' The dirt shrugged, making the guards fall around and Wren suddenly get the upper hand.

I grabbed as many bags of rice as I could, about half the Vault, (nothing had weight when I was intangible, so that wasn't a problem,) and dropped through the floor.

I landed in a cave, and dropped the rice. Then I grabbed the wall, and started climbing back up, to repeat the process.

Then I grabbed everything else. Some copper bars, some silver coins, and even a jewel of jewels, a jade pendant in the shape of a coiled dragon. I grinned and slipped that around my neck, then took the rest into the cave. Once I was back in the Vault, I breathed deep, and walked through the Vault... or tried.

I whacked into it, bloodying my nose, resulting in a loud gong.

I winced at the loud sound, and flinched when the guards opened the Vault, and looked at me. "Where's all the rice!" They shouted.

I grinned guiltily. "I ate it?"

Before they reached me, Wren appeared with a few other guys, and beat the snot out of the guards. I grinned. "Thanks for the save, Wren!"

He nodded. "Take the rice?"

"Yeah! I'll get it up to the Third Tier when I'm rested enough to go through the walls." I nodded.

"Good. Let's go before they wake up." He nodded, and I grinned, throwing a vial of acid at the Vault doors, laughing as it melted. "Hey! We agreed, no signs we were here!!!" He growled.

"Eh. You know me. I'm a vain bastard. I want them to think it was someone who couldn't just walk through the walls." I shrugged.

"And when the guards wake up?" He asked.

"They won't ever remember what happened." I dropped another vial full of a black liquid, and pulled him out as the narcotic-laced smoke started spreading.

He laughed as purple smoke started drifting out of the windows, and we stopped on a nearby roof. He caught sight of my new necklace, and tsk'ed. "That's gonna get you arrested, man. Guys like us don't have stuff like that." He said.

I shrugged. "Then they won't know I'll have it." It turned invisible, and I grinned. "See? No harm no foul."

He rolled his eyes. "Smartass... anyway. Get some sleep. Shady Jack will sell the rice for us." He grinned.

"You know, you're real mean to him." I said simply.

"He got my parents brutally murdered. I hate him. I'll always hate him, and I'll always want to kill him... but he's useful. I can't destroy someone who's so irreplaceable. It's a waste of good resources. So instead, I'll use him, until he has nothing more to give. Until I don't need him. And then I'll kill him." He leapt down to the streets, smirking as people got out of his way as he strode down to the docks, his hands in his pockets.

I shivered. "I suppose I'll make sure I'm always useful, my friend... not that you actually have any friends."

He stopped, and turned, a confused look on his face. "You're my friend. I don't care if you're useful. I only use people I don't like. You're not someone I can simply replace." He grinned, and whistled a beautiful tune as he walked away.

---

I blocked the kick that was directed at me, but it still threw me into the wall.

"Come on, Runt! Fight back! I heard youse had a sigil. That youse was one a dose... whatchacallem? Ah! Yeah, Bastards. One a dose Knight Bastards. That ya Ma was a whore, and ya dad knocked her up, but didn't pay more than-"

I ripped his throat, my Sigil giving my fingers the ability to pass through his neck, and rip where my fingers had gone.

He dropped, bleeding out in seconds, and wren walked into the alley, cracking his knuckles. "Now... I can't let my only friend go to jail, can I? That means no witnesses." He darted at the two other boys, and broke ones neck. The second tried to run, but I slit his hamstrings, and dragged him back, then slit his throat.

Wren wiped blood off his face, and grinned. "You alright, Max? No... Mad Max. I'll call you Mad Max. You're fucking insane!" He laughed, and then tossed his corpse over the Rail behind us. Then he tossed the rest, and suddenly the wind blew, drying the blood and pulling it off us and the street, leaving it spotless.

"Who..."

"That's my Sigil. Kinda like yours, huh? Crazy stuff." He grinned, and patted my shoulder. "Now let's get lost. We have to show our faces somewhere else in the city to give ourselves an alibi. Do you know how to play Paisho? No? Good." He grabbed my shoulder, and we were suddenly launched up to the rooftops.

We crossed the city and the Rails, and sat down in one of the Third Tier Paisho rooms, playing several games, and generally making ourselves known. People knew us, so when we lost or won, they remembered. Pretty soon, the Plate was shifting over the core, and we returned home.

We never heard about those three boys ever again.

---

I woke up to someone shaking my shoulder, and blinked when I saw a weirdly familiar face above me. "Uhm... hello." I grinned.

"Who are you?" She asked.

"I'm Mad Max. A friend of Wren's. He said I could crash here for a bit. And you?" I replied politely, despite the fact that she was much too close.

She seemed to realize that, and leaned back. "Mm... I'm Shinzo Mei-Fan. I'd like to say I'm a friend of his too, but I think he views me as a troublesome roommate, more like." She hummed.

I chuckled. "He thought the same of me at first. Now we're the best of friends. Doesn't stop him from using me as a Pawn, but I don't begrudge him his vengeance. He's got every right to be angry."

She blinked. "You know about-! Whoa!... you haven't seen him since-"

"Since before he left for his vacation in Gong-Hui with your mother? Yeah. He's brung me food on Hel Island once a week for the past five months." I yawned, and stood, cracking my back.

She blinked, realization dawning on her. "Ooooooh... he's sneaky... how many people know his plans?"

"No one. Literally no one really knows what Wren is planning. He gives out pieces of information, so that if anyone betrays him, they can only give what they know. If they don't know anything... nothing they can give away." I shook my head.

She hummed. "Logical, but... I think I have a pretty good idea. He seemed pretty open when he told his sister his plans... but I can't remember what it's called when you do that-"

I blinked incredulously."HE HAS A-?!?"

"Compartmentalization. That's what it's called. It's also called 'The Web Of Deceit'. And it's supposed to work quite well, if the people you tell aren't... chatty." Wren said in his angry voice, standing with his arms crossed, staring directly at Mei like a man stares at a dog that just shit in his boots.

I gulped, and leaned away from her.