She woke up in the middle of a bck sea, everything was burning, and her hands were bathed in bck fmes, but they didn't hurt. Looking down at herself she found that she was dressed in rags with rips here and there, she was barefoot.
"What?" She didn't have any memories of how she had found herself there.
She mao stand up and take stock of her situation, a headache like the one she had the first time he had goo drink hit her as soon as she finished looking around.
No wait, that was wrong. She had never drank an ounce of alcohol, why had she thought about that? Also, her pronoun was wrong, she had thought as if she was a male...
She wasn't male, she was female.
Looking down herself she firmed that fact, a pair of bulges in her chest were evidenough, but a strand of her silky blonde hair was as good firmation as she could get without taking off her clothes... And that didn't seem like a good idea.
Either way, she walked to the outside of the room that was in the midst of this bck fire, it didn't hurt her, nor did it seem to erode or burn the building she had found herself in. Instead...It was like it art of the pce.
She noticed how her feet didn't seem to be hurt even though she was walking over the debris of a ruined building, and while she thought someone should be around... She didn't find it weird that the pce was desoted.
Something withiold her that the pce would be empty, but she wasn't sure from where that feeling was ing from. The pce seemed to have been before some kind of administrative building, the pce she had woken up looked more like a ft turned into office. The hallway ended in aor that somehow still had lights on (And she didn't trust to use) and a stairwell at the end...
She ended up walking towards the stairs and found herself at the top end of the stairwell, and a small golden number on a bck pte that read [165]. A look at the stairwell showed her the ruins of a city ed in the same bck fmes that followed around.
In the sky, she could see a night witouth stars with the only thing shining down into the city was a full moon, a bloody red full moon.
"To down a little with the dramatics will you..." Mumbled the blonde girl while w if it would be worth risking her life in the elevator.
On one hand, she could risk her life in the elevator...Oher, she could risk her legs on these stairs till she arrived at ground level... et tired enough that she would risk her life in the elevator twenty floors down.
Something within her made that choice obvious, if she could ze away she would do so. So with renewed vigor, she walked to the elevator and...
["Please pce hand within the panel for firmation, if you aren't meant to be here security will be deployed...You have five seds to prove your identity."]
The stupid thing not only spoke, but threatened her, and then took the choice of running to the stairs from her in one swift move. Whoever was the owner of this thing had a sick sense of humor.
She thought what to do for half a sed before the tdown started moving to three, and pced her hand iupid thing.
["Sing...firmed authority, thank you for your hard work Boss."]
And opeself to her, after calling her [Boss], the thing thought she was the boss?
That felt...Right?
But als?
Her mind was a mess, she couldn't even remember why she was there nor what her name was, but she was sure that she wasn't the boss of this thing. ["Floor?"] Even so, the thing asked her, and since she didn't see any button around she tried to speak to a.
"Ground floor." It was a girl's voice obviously.
She was female, it was obvious her voice would be girly. But it still surprised her, the high pitd almost singing to her wide-eyed, but that wasn't the only surprise, when the doors closed the elevator's wall turned into crystals that showed the exterior.
Or parts of the exterior, some crystals were broken and showed the normal ruined city...Others...Others showed the same city but without the wounds of destru. A metropolis full of movement and skyscrapers that wao defy the heavens, some type of vehicles flew here and there even!
The buildings held ads for different products and a small monitor even showed ads for a new product from some big corpo ["The Saintsworth's glomerate always thinks of you!"] it said while it moved to a new product. Some kind of e-wallet that you could use as a bracelet or something.
But no, that wasn't the big surprise, her the wallet nor the full glory of this city before whatever had destroyed it. No.
The surprise was her, literally her.
One of the broken panels was clear enough that it could be used as a mirror, and the girl who looked back at her was as surprised as her, "Pretty..." Her singing voice rang true to her as the girl in the mirror touched her face.
She touched her face, it was the face of a girl who seemed to be about 17 or 18 years old, with blonde hair and sky-blue eyes, her face youthful and radiant. Her plexion was what you would call fwless but even so, it had some traces of a natural por-like skin, those that seemed soft but firm at the same time. High cheekbones and a soft jawlihat didn't take elegance away from her.
Casg over her shoulders was her blonde hair, she of course knew she had it si had been one of the ways to prove her womanhood before, but seeing it in the refle just resalted how beautiful it was. It almost looked as if the hair was trying t attention down to her exposed shoulder and her graceful neck.
And while dressed in rags that exposed flesh here and there, her figure still seemed to shihrough!
A well-proportioned figure, elegant poise, graceful movements of her hands that tracked down her body and toucher here and there to make sure it was her body, she had o pinch herself if only to make sure it was.
And even with the silly pinches she did to herself, the giggles the girl in the refleade were captivating enough "Am I a narcissist?" worried aloud the girl in the mirror.
She examined herself up and down and noticed she was dressed in cargo shorts uhe drags with a simple sports tank top over the ruined gown she was wearing.
But looking at it from the outside...This was closer to what a b coat would look like if someone didn't wash it and instead dragged it aud...She didn't though it smelled weird, but she would definitely ge it as soon as she could, but for now it would serve as a c for her wonderful body.
Now if only she could find a o that face...
["Ground level...Thank you for your hard work Alexanders."]
The elevator said opening the doors to a reception area, it seemed the thing was bugged or something. That expined why it had called her [Boss], it was reading her data as some guy called Alexander...s?
Why the extra S?
No way she was that guy, she hadn't checked her body fully but she was sure that she was female...At the very least she didn't feel anything press against her underwear, a quick peek under her cargo shorts proved that yes. She was female.
And yes she was wearing cute underwear, that wasn't relevant to her current problems though. So it shall be ignored.
The reception oher hand, was obnoxiously big, with a single big reception desk in the middle of the room, some chairs and sofas on the side, a big ass nuclear missile as a fountain (Who does that?).
This pce reeked of someone having a big ego and showg it to the world, only the small nondescript purse in the reception desk seemed out of pce. Above the reception desk was a statue of an eagle carrying a scroll in his talons.
The same emblem could be seen in a metallic pte in the middle of the room and once more above the double crystal door that showed the outside...Wait.
"What the hell is doing that purse there?" The blonde girl said aloud recalling how that was the only normal thing in this building so far.
Granted, she had skipped hundreds of floors and probably some extra ohat went down. But a girl only do so much you know?
So with trepidation and some apprehension she walked towards the purse... Nothing happehe bck fire kept burning, and the pce was still silent with only the sound of her bare feet hitting the debris on the floor. Soon enough she was standing in front of the reception desk, no one was manning it, there were some papers around, but most were charred bck.
And with some fear in her heart, she grabbed the purse and closed her eyes...
"That was anti-climatic." She said while opening the purse aying its tents on the reception desk she had taken it from.
Afterwards, some personal articles fell into it, a cellphone, a cracked obsidian bracelet, a charred silver bracelet (Why two bracelets), a school ID (It read institute on it), some s, and a nib...
That was it, she examined first the bracelets sihey could be used as barter if she found someone else in the ruined city...They seemed to be made out of some kind of weird metal, but on the inside some cables and circuits seemed to be charred bck, some kind of shortcut probably. Shoody made if they could end in this state only after one fail.
The cellphone was dead, and she hadn't seen a charger on the purse either, she would save it for ter and maybe charge it back, but with some luck, the poor idiot that lost it didn't put a password on it...
The b was nid fit in her hand quite nicely, so she would keep it and pretend she didn't know should her owner show up...Well, maybe she would return it after finding more people, but only after doing so!
And for the st article, she grabbed the ID and tur around, "Elizabeth Starbright...[Hero Trainee]..." The sucker that lost her things seemed to have quite a weird name.
Who even would use Starbright as a st name?
Then after notig the photo was somewhat charred she tried to wipe it with her thumbs and found soon enough the face of said sucker, a blonde hair that was takereme care if the silky look was something to go by, hers was silky too of course, but it didn't shine like the girl in the picture.
A pair of sky blue eyes and a pcid smile, a well-defined face, and a posture that would make queehe in anger si held more prestige than them...
"Oh...I was that sucker..." She khat face, it was the same face she had seen in the elevator, it was her face. "Well, there is something about being called Starbright..."
She was Elizabeth Starbright...And she didn't know where she was.
After having a small breakdown about her own name and how while it felt right, it also didn't feel right for her. She ended accepting it, if nothing it meant that she didn't o feel bad about stealing someone's else properties. It irked her wrong though.
The purse just didn't feel right, it was like someoook her belongings and threw them into the first purse they found, the thing didn't feel right in her hand.
So she decided to throw it away!
She was wearing cargo shorts and those had plenty of pockets in them after all!
So she threw the broken parts in one pocket, the cell phone in another (With her ID) and after making sure her treasured b had its own pocket, she threw the purse away!
It even made a nice sound while hitting the windows of ay building.
*dooooooooooooong*
Maybe she had hit a bell?
Now...You may think that doing this kind of thing in a city that was destroyed and was stantly burning was bad right?
That this would attrae kind of beast or enemy right?
I mean, burning city ruins? Blood moon? Starless night?
Those are the things that mean something was wrong with the world after all!
"AHIS PLACE IS EMPTY!" She screamed at the top of her lungs.
Yes, this pce was empty.
She had been walking and searg around for almost half a day, going in and out of buildings, first methodically...One by one, making sure no one was around, searg for supplies, ons, and clothes (Boots).
Then prioritizing those that seemed to be important, those that looked sturdy enough to hees...
Then only going at those that seemed to be markets and malls...
Then ght to a tourist-looking kind of shop searg for a map and use it to ght to the hospital...
But even after doing that for the whole day she found nothing, the bloody moon didn't move, the city kept burning, and she was still alone. Without a single shred of an idea or memory about how she had ended here.
"What did you do to end here Elizabeth?" She asked to a mirror.
She had started resting near mirrors, looking at her refle and speaking to herself, "I know you don't remember, I was there when you found out about it." And it made her feel better.
She was getting to terms with her refle, her appearance didn't stun her as much as before, and she was getting fortable with herself, that was a weird feeling to have.
Why wasn't she fortable with her oearance?
She just didn't know, her dusty b coat now was her impromptu piiket, the dark fmes seemed to avoid the thing like the pgue and it was o be able to sit on the floor without being bathed in dark fmes.
Those...didn't hurt her, and they actually felt kinda cozy, but something withiold her that it was dangerous to be in them for long, she was half tempted to return to that building she had awoken and searore clothes to use, sihe b coat seemed to repeal the fmes, maybe something was there that could help her?
And while thinking about that lying down in her dirty b coat...That happened.
A single drop of water hit her in the face waking her up "Rain?" She said aloud while toug her face, her fingers found the culprit soon enough, but...It was different?
It didn't feel like water, somehow she k wasn't water, and it burned away in her hands, turning into motes of golden light that flew into her.
"W-what?" She almost stumbled back, but she threw her hand to try and grab something.
Her hand found purchase and so she didn't fall into the ground...Only to be fused once more as to what she had grabbed, it felt cold to the toud firm, looking at her hand she found that she had grabbed the handle of something that was stuto a wall.
It seemed to be an overly ornated handle of...A broom? A stick? A tube?
She pulled on it and it seemed to e out of the wall smoothly enough, almost as if it wasn't stu said wall, and when it was fully oside the wall wasn't worse for wear.
On her hands now ear, a very pointy, very sharp, and very very dangerous spear. The dark fmes seemed to want to jump at the thing, and when she moved the spear hem the thing sucked the dark fmes and made itself more [Solid].
"What the hell...?" She somehow khat the spear should be heavy, a on her hand, it was as if it weighed nothing as if she knew how to move it and that the thing would move following her will.
Then another drop of water fell into her fad she dropped the spear, the thing sank into the floor without leaving any evidehat it had been on her hands before, and like before, the drop of water turned into motes of light that sank into her body.
This time, however, she was ready...And she didn't fall back at that feeling, it was...Warmth, as if someone was hugging her very [Soul] and soothing her.
But at the same time...It was the feeling of mencholy.
The warmth energy felt sad, and it longed for something, it prodded at her as if she had whatever this warmth energy wanted, but she didn't know how to answer or what it was.
She only had an inkling of a dire, but even that...Even that she wasn't sure.
Instead, she waited, she didn't sit down into her dirty b coat, she didn't try to pry the spear from the floor (She didn't even know where the thing had sunk down), instead she turned her face towards the night sky.
Towards the bloody moon. And waited.
Because right now, that was the only clue she had about who she was, maybe that would allow her to find more people too?
Either way, she at least now had one more dire to move forward, the first one was the building she had awoken in, and the sed was...Whatever those motes of light wanted from her.
Her name was Elizabeth Starbright, and she would find whatever that warmth light motes wanted from her, and she would deliver it.