“Hey, Akah! Grab your stuff, you’re coming with us!”
Akah yawned as he paced around his sleeping quarters, looking for a fresh set of armour to put on. He’d admittedly been up all night playing games and had only slept for about half an hour, but that was fine. What was more annoying was that Akah couldn’t decide what armour to wear. At least Akah HAD more than one set of armour now – he’d only been able to afford new, fitted armour now that he was a Decay Lord. Up until then, Akah had been diligently washing and maintaining the armour he had been found in, and had been doing so in secret because he didn’t want anyone seeing his naked body.
Really, although everyone considered Akah to be very different, compared to everyone else, he wasn’t that strange. He was a Lanex, and they were a strange evolutionary gap between a myriad of other species, and they were much less biomechanical than their fellow Nexian races. What made Akah stand out was that he was thropic, human-shaped. No large jaws or claws, no tail and flat feet. But he also had armour plating very similar to the Rethavok and Skyavok he lived with, covering his arms, chest, legs and groin, and he also had smaller plates running across his face and neck. The real difference was that Akah covered his (in his opinion, hideous) face with a white mask, and he had various mechanical augmentations all over him, to extend his senses and make him stronger.
Or, at least, Akah used to, outside of the augments in his mask. When Akah became a Divine Guardian, given divinity by the old Allmaker Kinisis, all his augmentations had been ripped out, and the ones that allowed Akah to manipulate ice had been fused into him. Sure, it was nice that Akah’s blinded eye had been fixed, but Akah had made those augments himself and it somewhat annoyed him that all his hard work had been made worthless. They had also left some nasty scars on Akah’s chest and right shoulder. But Akah covered himself in armour all the time anyway so it didn’t matter.
Either way, Koh was calling him, clearly the Cleansers needed him for something important. So Akah just threw on his default armour, picked up his scythe and (admittedly still rather battered) shield and headed to the door.
“Hello, Koh!” Akah smiled, but the smile wasn’t that visible beneath his mask. “What’s going on?”
“We got a house call. Nuh, Pah and I wanted to bring you along.”
“Uh, why?”
Koh clicked, but it was one of those chirpier clicks. Akah was the only person who picked up on Kal’s different clicks, mostly because Akah made clicking noises himself.
“Well, first off, you’re our first choice when it comes to security, even if Nuh is technically all-powerful. Secondly, we think you need to get out more. Thirdly, we enjoy your company.”
“Oh…” Akah shrugged, then followed Koh as he clomped off, making his way to the parking areas, where Tah was doing final ship checks on Shield Six, the ancient silver ship that Kal had been using for years. Koh and Tah both clicked at each other briefly before switching to telepathic communications.
“Alright, all sorted, have a good trip!” Tah suddenly announced.
“You’re not coming?” Akah asked.
Tah shrugged. “It’s a check-up for Voidborn influence. Doesn’t need all six of us. Really, you don’t need Pah either but we’ve got two and two thirds Flames here now.”
“Well, alright then…” Akah muttered as Koh grabbed him by the hand and dragged him on board. Tah buzzed briefly, then teleported off in a puff of electric sparks.
The flight wasn’t particularly long, and no one really said anything. Akah found this rather suspicious. Then again, the Cleansers had spent pretty much their entire existences together and regularly had telepathic conversations (and occasionally conversations in their weird, impossible-to-follow clicking language) so Akah assumed that Nuh, Pah and Koh were just doing that. Despite the age of their ship, which was apparently built from salvaged parts from old Metrum fighter ships, Shield Six was pretty quick. They did need to repaint the coloured stripes on the side though, and Nuh muttered that maybe they’d pick up some new paint.
They eventually slowed down and parked at a small Decay Lord pit stop, protected by an asteroid field. On closer inspection, the asteroids were actually made out of large, oddly shaped pieces of metal. Koh switched off the engines and Nuh and Pah immediately made their way to the cargo bay to pick up their equipment. However, Koh briefly turned to Akah.
“So, uh, quick thing. Tah wanted to kinda be secretive, but I feel I should let you know, because I don’t want to shock you. These guys here, they’re Matanaiai. They’re similar to Melek Glatorans, and we actually mistook them for Imperators like Kaunva the first time we met them. But we thought you could do with properly meeting someone like yourself, and these guys are very friendly.”
Akah crossed his arms. “I don’t appreciate being match-made.”
“We’re not matchmaking you, we just thought you might like some familiarity for once.”
“Oh.”
Koh patted Akah on the leg, then led him outside. Nuh was already rushing around and scanning the parking area, where the remains of a Voidborn ship littered the path. Pah was standing nearby, talking with a being that was definitely Lanex-shaped, but was the same colours as Nuh. Koh waved at them all, then dragged Akah into the main building, which was split into two halves, one being a garage, the other being a small shop.
“Heya, lil guy! Heya… Uh… what?”
The being behind the bar froze completely. Akah found himself freezing too. This person, they weren’t a Lanex. That was certain. A metal-plated body with purple organic bits in their joints. But they looked exactly like a mechanical version of Akah’s long dead brother. Dark grey skin and brown and tan plating, with a brown mask and green eyes.
“Please, please don’t tell me your name is Atuho…” Akah found himself accidentally saying out loud.
“Well, uh, yeah, it is. Ya’name ain’t Akah, is it?”
Akah frowned, then nodded.
“Huh. Ya look just like m’old lil brotha. Who’s, uh, kinda… dead.”
“I’m sorry. You… look like my long gone older brother.”
Atuho made an odd, creaking sound, then turned to Koh. “Mate, ya Cleanser guys up t’somethin’?”
Koh’s eyes briefly dimmed. “No, this is complete and utter coincidence in pretty much every way possible.”
“Ya brought a squishy version o’my dead brother t’see us.”
“Like I said, complete and utter coincidence. I’m going to run away now.”
Just as stated, Koh darted out of the shop and back to the ship. Atuho frowned, then vaulted over the counter and held out his hand to Akah.
“Well, mate, this ‘ere is weird as all heck, but, uh, nice t’meet ya. I’m Atuho, Guardian o’the Sands, codename Stonecrusher.”
Akah shook Atuho’s hand. “I’m Akah Icebreaker, codename Shattershield.”
Atuho nodded with approval. “That there’s a pretty good codename. Ya got ice powers I assume, though? Ya seem the sort. T’be honest, while it’s totally REALLY weird seein’ someone who looks just like my brother… it’s nice seein’ someone a bit like us. Do ya or did ya have four other siblings?”
“Uh, no. I just had the one brother. I think this is much more coincidental than anything else. Retvik mentioned once about how he, Litvir and Arkay somehow found themselves fighting what looked like weirdly similar versions of themselves.”
“Huh…” Atuho trailed off. “I coulda guessed. Ya’re pretty darn squishy. Most folks in the Phovon Gap are… Hm… The name Arkay rings a bell… Ah, ya’re with them Thantir, right?”
Akah nodded.
“Good folks. How’s ol’Galyn and lil’Arkay doing? Ain’t seen the tiny thing in ages. Lil’Arkay stopped the place gettin’ wrecked by a rogue moon a few year-strings back!”
“Um…” Akah hesitated, not sure how to answer. “He’s… kinda… uh…”
“Dead?”
“No. Trapped inside a universe.”
Atuho shook his head from side to side in confusion. “Thought ‘e was just a Decay Lord, why would someone trap ‘im inside a universe?”
“I don’t know. Every other member of the Thantir is fine though. Do you belong to a sect or something?”
Atuho clicked, then tutted. He lifted up a small panel underneath his armour, showing off a small, golden, wing-shaped metal badge. “We’re all former Ventra. We, uh, lost our Akah durin’ the stupid Voidborn/Kronothrax conflict there, and not long after, the Ventra disbanded. Those who weren’t dead, we all just kinda scattered ‘n’ set up little shops ‘n’ pit stops around the local pentacluster. It’s peaceful now. We all don’t mind…” Atuho trailed off, then flipped the panel back into its normal position. “Ya mind if I introduce ya t’my mates? They’d love t’meet you. And I know ya can’t stick around, ya Thantir’re busy with ya new purification stuff, but we could totally chat on Wyvern. Dunno if ya play video games, but I’m sure we can find somethin’ to do.”
Akah couldn’t help but smile. “I’d love that, actually. And I do play video games.”
Atuho smiled back. He opened a new panel on his arm and pulled out a communicator. Akah did the same, pulling his communicator from his belt. They quickly exchanged contact details, before putting their communicators away and smiling once more.
“I know ya ain’t actually my lil brotha, Akah, but, well, it’s… it’s good t’see you again.”
“It’s weird but… yes, it’s good to see some version of you too, Atuho.”
Atuho put an arm around Akah, then led him into the garage, where some of his mates were working. “Heh. We’re gonna have a good time bein’ friends. Ya gotta tell me all about yaself.”