Have the girl sing and the guy play & sing. The magic of music... Pan across an industrial wastland of several skyscrapers and the surrounding slum. Though the view from the higher floors of the skyscrapers (which extend above the dense layer of smog that paints the sky a dull brown) might be nice, undernieth that layer is decay and dispair. People gloomily make their march to and from work. Although it's late at night, the sky is still a dull brown, illuminated nearly as brightly during the night by the lights of the factories as during the day by that same light. After all, little sunlight actually gets through. The dusty streets hold a dirty, grimy appearance except in the central area around the tallest buildings, the reason for their dust being the smog coated rain, when it does rain, and the grime the same. The buildings were long ago covered with soot from their own polution, though it didn't matter, if the soot wasn't there, the acidlike rain would burn through the buildings. The city had an eerie glow to it, a surreal, eternal dusk. The sky was dark, but at the same time light, the city's own light reflecting off of the ever present gloom in the sky. Seeing as it was never really day or night, the factories were always going, supplied with a stream of workers who took over as the previous shift went home for sleep. No one would really know what time of the day it was if it weren't for clocks, but no one really cared anymore. Once they got out of their teens or early twenties, most people's internal clock had adjusted to their work schedual. Education was a commodity, the schools only taught four to six grades worth of information, just enough so people could work the plants somewhat effectively. Few people born in the city leave simply because they can't really. Most don't have the money to afford it and those that do don't have the training to do anything elsewhere. However, as grungy and decrepid as the city nestled in the ring of mountains was, there was another side to it. The city was owned and controled by...well, that's something that would give a lot away, wouldn't it? This story starts on a lot more uncertain ground than that. This tale starts with a young woman. A young woman dressed in a suit red down the middle front and up the back and black on either side. A girl with long, silver hair and deep blue eyes... The old man's words held sway over her, echoing in her ears: "You must run. I will be killed, but you must escape. I have done a great evil and because of how late the hour I realized it, I must pay with my life. The I have rid the world of the plans, and I would of the prototype too except that I cannot. There is no time, and I doubt very much if I could bring myself to do it if I chose to." The image in her mind as he was gunned down, the man that would take over his position calously ordering the three sodiers in their green armor to take the life of an old, unarmed man. His labcoat turned from white to red as it soaked the blood seaping from his bullet riddled body. The smirk and dark gleam in the green eyes of the man who gave the order, even as the body was violently jerking under the force of three streams of bullets fired from fully automatic combat rifles. So she ran. Quick footsteps through dark alleys, her running, followed by the many louder sounds from the soldiers with their heavy, thick soled combat boots. She huffed a few times as she ran, wondering why she had to run, knowing only partially why they were after her. She tilted to her right as she rounded a corner, a loud splash of water as her lead foot stepped into a puddle on the other side. Soon many heavy boots would also loudly splash in that small pool. Her shoes with their high grip soles made light thuds with each step, gripping the pavement and dust benieth her and kicking the loose top layer of dust back each time her feet rose for the next step. Her eyes wandered upward, looking at the illuminated, ever-present cloud that hung over the city of dusk, wondering if dawn would ever break, wondering how many other people had looked at the sky and thought the same thing, how many of them had stopped looking after years of waiting. She rounded another corner, this time to her left. As she ran in this new direction, she could hear men in the distance from her left two intersections down. She also heard the sound of machinery to her left, but not as far down. She cut right at the next opening, a T-junction. As she did so, she heard the loud sound of whatever machine it was again, this time behind her. Moments later, the brick wall of the alley burst from its morder seams, the bricks flying forward and clattering on the walls and dust covered pavement. The brickdust and powder from the shattered morder made a cloud as she looked over her shoulder. Out of the cloud shot a powerful floodlight, and moments later, a large mecha that it was attached to. The mecha was a monstrous machine, piloted by a highly trained soldier. The mecha had four legs, each high strength metal in three sections. The lower section tapered to a point, but the points could open four ways making a foot of sorts. The four prongs each had three sections as well, thus they were able to grasp things, coaless together to jab through things, or spread flat in order to act as a wider base of support for the mecha. The middle section of the leg contained servos to move the lower section and acted mostly to give the legs more maneuverability. The upper section was the longest and connected the leg to the base of the mecha. Above this flat base, a leg extending out of each corner, was the body of the mecha. The body had a forward cockpit, two vertical bars that bent at two joints where cross bars were placed, and the open area in between covered with thick glass and metal plating. The pilot could be seen behind this. The cockpit was afixed to a solid metal backing that had two missile and gun pods where shoulders might be, the top left and right sides. The floodlight was placed in the top center, between the two pods. Below the pods extended an arm, one on each side, which were constructed similar to the legs, except that they only had two main sections and the ends only seperated into three prongs instead of the four for the feet. She turned her head back forward and, leaning forward shifting her weight, continued dashing on, her arms in well executed running form, her fingers together and straight, making her hands pointed instead of balled up into fists. Her hair, long enough to hang several inches below her waste if she was standing still, moved in waves as the air rushed past her running body, making the appearance of a strong wind blowing her hair. The mecha gave chase, smashing through or stepping on and crushing anything that happened to be along the side of the alley. The mecha itself wasn't all that wide, but the legs made it cover the breadth of the alleyway. She was coming upon another T-junction, but heard the sounds of soldiers coming from either side. Behind her she could hear the loud noise of the mecha's servos and joint motors as the legs were moving in high gear. Then she saw them, the two groups of soldiers meet at the junction. They all turned to face her and the mecha chasing her. She could hear them radioing their commanders, the smirks on some of their faces. They had her. Shocked gasps filled the alley as a window shattered on the second floor of the building, a red and black blur shooting through. She had waited until she was almost upon them and then, shifting all her weight forward, stepped hard on her forward foot, brought her other foot down beside it, bent her knees slightly as her body rocked forward on her momentum, then quickly and fully extended her legs as her body reached the right angle, rocketing her upward and forward. She crossed her arms in front of her face as she crashed through the second floor window of the building. In the air once she crashed through, she extended her arms directly out to her sides and rolled forward. She bent at the waist, her legs together and extended straight, her back curving and her head rotating downward toward the ground. Her legs went over above her as she jackknifed in the air and then pulled at her waist bringing her legs back out and below her. She landed on her legs, first her left foot from the ankle rotating to the ball of her foot, then pushing off of that, her right foot touched down on the ground and she continued running in a smooth, constant motion, as if she had never jumped at all. While she had gone through a second floor level window, it happend that the building was one of the older factories that had been shut down but then left to rot and decay. There were old machines and convayer belts all around, but no real light. She could see everything overlayed in a shade of red, sharp, but also dark, as her head looked first to her left then arched to look right. She could hear yells behind her through the window and then the loud crashing of the mecha breaking through the wall, its floodlight sweeping across the room and landing on her. She pushed through the doors on the far side of the room as she ran out of the factory, the mecha crashing through that whole wall moments later in hot persuit. She found herself being chased by three identical mechs as she ran down a long, straight alley. A fourth spotlight shown down on her, but it was from a much higher vantagepoint and accompanied by the sound of whirling hellicopter blades. She didn't even look in that direction, already knowing what was there. Besides that, there were several squads of soldiers on foot constantly trying to out maneuver and out flank her. They were becoming more difficult to anticipate and avoid, even though she could hear them coming well in advance. The whole section of the city they were in had long been abandoned, so the military forces trying to catch her had free reign of the streets and skies, although she was able to use the buildings to her advantage. Still, that was a small advantage only useful in eluding the footsoldiers, the mecha were able to follow right after her through solid walls and the hellicopter would always have its spotlight waiting when she emerged. It was a massive chase, and one she would inevitably loose if she didn't get some outside intervention. That intervention did come. It came in the form of a dust storm. She had just exited the long alley she had been leading them down which opened into a wide expanse of nothing. There had once been several buildings there, but they had long been destroyed by something crashing from above. The rouble had strangly and quickly been cleared, although to where, no one knew. The expanse was now just a large opening of dust, slight indentions here and there littering the field from impact craters from the disaster which had happened long before. It was wide enough that even with the eerie light reflecting off of the clouds, she couldn't see to the other three sides of it, her vision disappearing into darkness and a cloud of dust that was comming upon her from farther out in the field, from the darkness. She slowed her pace, the mecha slowing as well, the two in back catching up to the lead and taking positions on either side of it. The hellicopter slowed too, coming to a gentle landing just on the edge of the darkness. The soldiers caught up to the mecha and took positions behind them, their guns at the ready even though the had orders not to harm her. She slowed her pace even more, to a slow walk, then finally to a complete stop. Her persuers did the same just outside of the reaching distance of the mecha. The three spotlights illuminated her from directly behind, over her left shoulder, and over her right, three shadows being cast before her from the individual floodlights. She saw the two shadows that slowly spit from the center one as the mecha had taken their positions on the side of their leader and their lights now shining from three different positions. Her head lifted from the shadows on the ground to the feeling of wind on her face and blowing her hair. "Surrender now. Lift your hands directly upward above you and turn around slowly. If you do this and come willingly, you will not be harmed. I repeat..." The message over the loudspeaker from the lead mech was repeated once more. She continued standing perfectly straight, her hands hanging straight at either side. Her body didn't move, but her hair slowly started flapping behind her, a cape of silver strands. The loose hair that came down on the right and left sides of her forehead in a total of four tufts, two on equidistent sides of her central part, also began to gently wave. She did not move. "I repeat, surrender now and you will not be harmed. Extend your arms upward over your head and turn around slowly. You have no..." The voice, so sure and confident wavered. Her hair lifted further from her back as it caught a stronger wind. The tufts over her forehead began to move more, less gently now. The wind was picking up. Her center shadow began to shrink as the spotlight shining from directly behind her lifted. Her eyes saw what all those behind her saw. The spotlight met with a wall of sand and dust. A moving, spinning wall that was moving toward them slowly at first, but speeding up with each passing moment. She heard the shuffling of feet as the footsoldiers began to shift at seeing the moving wall of dust. She did not move. A voice called out from above; "Hold your positions! Don't pull back, move forward! Apprehend the girl!" But the sound of the voice was drowned out by the now strong wind. Her hair blew wildly behind her, extending horizontally back. The tufts over her forehead were blown to the corners of her forehead, and held there instead of being allowed to shift back. The ever increasing wind pushed against her body but she held fast. The dust before her was now being kicked up, that closest to the wall swirling in an arch from her left to her right and joining the cloud, the rest being blown back at her and her persuers. Vision began to cloud as the streams of dust burst from the wall upon them. It parted as it bet with her suit and her face leaving an open air pocket behind her, but that pocket closed fast as the dust flew by and into the mecha and soldiers. The soldiers were blown back, first just sliding along the ground and the loose dust, and then as the wind picked up and the cloud came near, lifted from the ground and flung back into the darkness behind them. The mecha shifted, the twelve legs each lifting one by one and stabbing several feet into the ground. There the feet extended, firmly rooting the mecha to their spots. Then the six arms did the same, adding to the anchoring force of the three massive machines. In the distance, she could barely hear over the winds the sound of the hellicopter's motor starting and lifting it into the turbulent sky and away from the chaos and the cloud. She did not move. Finally, the wall was upon her. She closed her eyes. Then she heard it, faint, but clearly present. She wondered why she hadn't heard it before. It was a voice, a calm, soothing voice. It sounded like it came from a young man, but it seemed to be coming from behind the wind. She could hear it saying something, but she couldn't make out what it was. Her eyes closed, she continued listening. She then realized it wasn't speaking, it was singing. In soft but powerful notes, it was singing, but she still couldn't make out the words. Then she heard something she could make out. It was calling to her. Her eyes slowly opened, and she lifted her right foot. Leaning forward, she plodded into the sand and the darkness. She was going to see where the voice was coming from. She was going to see where the singing was coming from. She moved. "Those clouds...one day they will break and the long dusk will be over, the city and its people will finally see the dawn of a new day." She regarded him skeptically, but he continued looking at the sky with his joyful, brown eyes. "We'll see it happen," he said, "I know we will. And everyone will be glad. They'll finally see the way things really are, finally see the sunrise of the true day. They'll finally see what the truth is, what it's really like. They'll feel the warmth and see the light of the sun." "The son?" He looked at her and smiled. Taking her left hand in his, he patted it gently with his right hand. "The sun. I guess you haven't seen it either. Don't worry. One day, you will. I promise." His eyes seemed to hold an luminescent glow, the soft brown warm and comforting. She felt that if anyone could, he would keep that promise. She felt that he meant it, and she trusted him.