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Chapter 1:

The Correlative Empire

Kane Velars sighed as he slid his I.D. card through the card reader. “Another day done, another day wasted, and another day I’ve done absolutely nothing productive.” He placed the card back into his wallet and put the wallet in his back pocket. Seriously, though, I’ve been stuck in this job now for two and a half years. If only I could get out there and do something.

‘Then why don’t you do it right now?’ a voice in his head asked. ‘After all, it’s only five o’clock. There’s still plenty of daytime left to do something fun.’

Simple. Because it’ll take me an hour and a half to drive home as it is, and I need to get to sleep early enough so that I can wake up and live this dull day all over again tomorrow. Pulling his small book bag over his shoulder, Kane sighed again and headed out the front door of the office. He walked to the unattached parking lot of the building, waving nonchalantly at one of the many unrecognizable faces of co-workers that passed by. Besides, the minute I plan to do something, that’s when there’ll be traffic or a fire or some other such disaster that will simply ruin the entire thing. Of course, I’ll be miles and miles away from the root of all of it, keeping any and all excitement away from me.

Sometimes I just wish that this boring life wasn’t so boring… “A little excitement never hurt anyone!” he shouted to no one in particular. Much to his clichéd surprise, a man ran into him from the side, knocking him over and sending him sprawling to the ground. The man stood up quickly, grabbed Kane by the arm and ripped him to his feet. Kane started to apologize and then noted that the man hadn’t let go of his arm once the two had made it to their feet. Instead, he was looking left and right, darting his head back and forth in each direction very rapidly. “What are you––” was all Kane had time to say before the man took off running, practically dragging the confused worker behind him.

The man’s footsteps began to sound faster and harder, as if he were digging into the ground itself and moving his feet faster and faster at the same time. Kane felt his weight shift into his feet and then literally went horizontal, flapping behind the man in some comical reproduction of a common cartoon happening. The wind rushed by, and he could barely glimpse the faces of a few surprised bystanders as he and his new acquaintance whizzed past.

While enthralled in the wonderful excitement of the whole ordeal, Kane got a detailed look at his would-be kidnapper. He was a tall man with shoddy black hair that was as messy as any Kane had ever seen. His shoulders were draped in a loose, gray overcoat that was presently caked in mud, and it sat atop a moldy brown shirt underneath that had a few too many holes in it. For trousers he wore an odd set of grey-brown jeans that looked to be as thick as tissue paper. And yet somehow, adorned in these clothes, the man was able to achieve a speed that Kane would have never thought possible.

The two were out of the metropolitan area (which was rather large) in under a minute. They breezed past the suburbs and out onto the fields on the border of the city in another five. Once they passed the “Welcome to Mayberry” sign, the man suddenly stopped, leaving Kane to continue forward as momentum saw fit. When it seemed that Kane was going to fly on ahead without his captor, the man yanked his arm back and brought Kane to the ground. Amidst stars and birds that intertwined above his head, Kane made out a deep, overly-masculine voice speaking some peculiar words. And these words were not directed to Kane. “This is Zero Two; the package has been received. Repeat, the package has been received.”

Kane shook the disorientation from his head and stared up at the man from his place on the ground. He seemed to be having some form of conversation with himself. After speaking