Monday, 17 January, 2017. 1931hrs.

Australia

“You two know each other?” were the shocked replies of both blond people (by the way, Celine‘s also blonde) after two minutes, where they just stood and gazed at the two lovers’ reunion.

“Long story,” Arche muttered to the guy, and introduced him to them. “Celine, Catherine, this is Uthares Stormwrath, my right-hand man. Uthares, this is Catherine, and that is Celine.”

“So she’s the one attracting all those trouble,” Uthares said jokingly to Catherine, his blue eyes sparkling, as if it was charged with electricity.

“We really shouldn’t stand here like this. At this rate, they are gonna send more reinforcements to deal with us.” Arche said sensibly and impatiently, and directed the two girls to the carpark, where after the impromptu evacuation after the Voids, was empty save an oversized black sports car. At first, it seems to look like any other fancy car, but running through similar models and makes, Celine, an avid sports car fan, realised that it was not of any model that she had known of. In fact, there wasn’t even a licence plate on!

‘Private-owned, self made car. Pretty sleek, right?” Arche said to the currently befuddled Celine, as if he could read her mind. That made her even more bewildered. Is the guy psychic? It made her even more curious on who this guy is, and how did he become her best friend’s boyfriend and holding hands now.

“You two, hop in.” Arche commanded Celine and Uthares, telling them to go to the back seat. After a few shoves and jostles to get the best position, Arche and Catherine hopped in, with Catherine at the right. As soon as Arche sat into the car, it powered up on itself, and it lighted up a spacious, velvet-seated interior, with gadgets, buttons, notches and switches lining the sides and the dashboard, making the whole thing looking more like a spaceship than an actual car.

Slamming the ergonomic gear into reverse and hitting the throttle fully, the car forcefully lurched backwards, and Arche confidently served the wheel to the left, and just before they hit the pillar from the prestigious archway of their university, he shifted his gear to forward and the car blasted away, into the night sky.

Even though the whole process might seem fast and disorientating, the passengers in the car seems not to feel like so, due to the G-force absorbers present around the car and on the seats, so as to reduce shock when it gets up to speed. He was already doing eighty kilometres on the street, and he was only in third gear. The tachometer was digital, showing both the numerical numbers and the bar gauge itself on a LCD screen. When Catherine caught a glimpse of it, she suddenly felt afraid that the speed might be too much, when suddenly, a small alarm beeped somewhere in the car.

“What is that?” Celine asked, awe still present in her voice.

“Bad news.” Arche said, brows creasing together, and tugging at a never-seen before ponytail. “Very bad news.”

Catherine, Celine and Uthares took a look from the rear windscreen. What they saw were a fleet of flying Voids, all headed towards them. Celine gulped. Suddenly, the car did not feel very big anymore.