The ambient temperature of the environment became warmer as Pax approached the smoldering object in the woods. He had slipped away earlier, easily avoiding any suspicion as he silently trekked into the woods.

As much as Pax would have enjoyed ignoring the commotion as everyone else had, he wouldn’t be content unless he confirmed that the object was not housing anything dangerous. Or anyone dangerous, for that matter. As he grew closer and closer, he could see the frost on the vegetation melting, with the temperature becoming almost pleasantly warm as the creature approached the smoking crater.

Eventually, Pax found himself standing on the edge of the crater, peering into the smoke and fire as he tried to make out anything, but the smoke was just too thick. He sighed, taking a step forward before sliding down the rim of the crater. Pax could have easily flown, but doing so would have blatantly alerted his presence to anyone who was similar to him, others who possessed the abilities he did. As the creature slid to a stop, his eyes widened upon realizing exactly what the object was.

Pax had a rule of thumb he preferred to follow in his travels. If he didn’t recognize a piece of tech or equipment, it was bad news. Some might consider it paranoia, but his paranoia was what had kept him alive and out of sight. At least, until now. Pax saw a somewhat large metallic craft that was vaguely sphere shaped lodged into the bottom of the crater, still smoking and burning as its engines pathetically sputtered their final breaths.

There were no windows or visible cabin, usually indicating that it was an escape pod. Pax knew this was no escape pod, though. Escape pods had markings on them. Indicating the ship it belonged to, the number of passengers it could hold, serial number, registration, and various other kinds of information. This craft had absolutely nothing. No markings, no symbols, no indications of any kind.

Another rule of thumb. If something has no markings or indications, it’s even worse news.

Because it means only one thing.

Pax could hear the door slowly hiss open, releasing more billowing smoke out of the craft and obscuring the creature’s vision even more. Pax no longer cared about concealing himself. His body quickly began to glow and distort the air around him like before, but a new expression appeared on his face as the door ceased hissing.

Pax’s hands were shaking.

Several moments passed, and the creature found himself slowly taking steps backwards.

But then he felt it.

The energy of another person like him.

The energy of someone he recognized.

His heart sank.

“No…”

His heart was threatening to beat out of his chest as he felt the other source of energy flaring with Pax realizing the other source of energy had recognized him as well.

Out from the smoking door, a vicious light purple liquid began to flow from the opening, pooling around in the dirt in front of Pax. The liquid wasn’t flowing naturally, it moved as if it was being controlled by some force. It seemed almost like goo, or a non-Newtonian fluid as more of it made its way out of the crashed vessel, seemingly changing thickness and viscosity constantly as a large purple puddle formed in front of him, once all of the liquid had flowed out of the vessel, the liquid remained perfectly still in a large puddle.

For a moment, a bit of hope glimmered within Pax’s heart. Perhaps he didn’t survive after all. All of that hope was quickly dashed as the liquid began to rise into a familiar shape. The purple fluid quickly rose up, twisting and morphing into a vaguely humanoid featureless mass that rapidly began taking shape as if it was being molded by an invisible force.

As the seconds passed, more features were added. The liquid was shaped to look like fur, a bushy tail grew out of the lower back, the head grew a pronounced snout, and the rest of the body took on a much more defined and muscular shape. If someone else could see this, they would think that the puddle of goo was copying Pax’s body.

Which wasn’t far from the truth.

The liquid body rapidly began hardening, making itself seem much more solid and less shiny, all while clothes appeared to be growing out of the body to cover certain parts of it. First, a pair of pants. They appeared to be something similar to chaps over tight leggings, with both being very tight against the legs and showing the large and powerful muscles the body has developed.

The only other article of clothing was a cowl over the head. It rested on the creature’s shoulders while obscuring most of the head, leaving only the face peeking out as two pointy ears poked through the top of it. Eventually, the body finished shifting, revealing a vaguely canine creature with light purple fur covering most of his body and dark cream colored fur along his stomach, neck, and chin. His chaps became a shiny metallic purple color with the tights underneath becoming a slick and shiny black. His hood also became purple and black as well, bringing back all-too-familiar memories for Pax as he remained almost perfectly still.

The deep purple eyes blinked a few times, staring directly at Pax while the owner of them remained motionless and still with a neutral expression.

If that someone else was still watching, they would’ve noticed how the goo creature’s body seemed to appear exactly the same as Pax, aside from fur and eye coloring.

The flight or fight response is a very well-known and well-documented psychological reaction that can occur when a creature perceives a possible threat. However, there is a lesser known third option that Pax’s body has seemingly chosen.

Instead of fighting or flying, he froze.

He wanted to move, but he couldn’t. He wanted to scream, thrash out, throw a punch, and run away all at once, but his body simply wouldn’t obey his commands as he came face to face with his past. A past that he could’ve sworn he had escaped from and defeated.

“Hah…”

Pax let out a short exhale, accompanied by his breath condensating in front of his face as a small involuntary grunt escaped from between his lips. As if on cue, the goo creature several feet away from him began to animate. His lips curled upwards into a smile that at first, seemed rather sweet. However, the smile continued to grow until it became unsettling, further emphasized by the viciously sharp teeth behind the curling lips. The rest of the creature’s body began to move as well, with him throwing his head back in a fit of shrill laughter, nearly howling with it before pointing a clawed finger at Pax.

“Nyehehehehahahaha! Loooooong time noooo see!”

The shrill laughter rang out through the forest, sending chills down Pax’s spine, but also snapping him out of his near-frozen state as he grunted and took a step back, raising both of his hands in a defensive posture.

“What… what are you doing here? Why are you here?!”

Pax gritted his teeth as his fear was slowly being replaced by anger, already realizing he was dealing with the worst case scenario.

“Hah! They said that I wouldn’t be able to find you, but look at me now!”

The creature gestured to himself, wearing a smug smile as he seemingly waited for Pax’s response. Pax, meanwhile, was putting two and two together as he groaned and clenched his raised fists even more.

“Let’s just get this over with, Nox…”

The goo creature, Nox, had a confused expression on his face as Pax prepared to battle.

“Whaaaaaat? Why aren’t you happy to see me?”

At this point, Nox’s unsettling facial expression had fully morphed into something that seemed confused and rather concerned as well.

“I’ve spent years looking for you, but it was all worth it! After they see that I brought you back, they’ll finally think that I’m the best!”

Pax froze. Everything was now fitting into place.

“So…”

Pax relaxed his fists, lowering his arms as his voice became low and even more serious, with Pax’s gaze drifting towards the ground.

“After all this time, they still just use you for errands?”

His gaze was raised upwards, drilling into Nox’s visage as he narrowed his eyes.

“Guess they only need you for one thing. And that’s just to get me.”

Now it was Nox’s turn to have his gaze drift off into the distance as he pondered Pax’s words. He grit his teeth and then jabbed another finger towards the other creature.

“That doesn’t matter! They’re gonna see that I can bring you back! And you’re gonna see that I can finally beat you!”

Nox’s lips began curling up into the menacing smile from earlier as he chuckled, flashing his dangerously sharp teeth once more.

“This is just payback for you leaving me behind, brother! You promised, remember?”

Pax didn’t respond at first. He simply turned his head to look directly into the other creature’s eyes. His own deep blue eyes were fierce and unrelenting and a low growl began rumbling in throat as he took a step forward.

“I…”

Pax narrowed his eyes as he took another step forward, smelling blood in the water as he saw Nox take a step back. The creature’s body began to glow blue once more, with the air distorting around him as his breathing grew heavy.

“I don’t have anything left to say to you.”

Nox appeared stunned, taking a few more steps back before bumping into the crashed craft he had landed in.

“What?! What do you mean?! I’ve spent years looking-”

“I don’t care.”

Pax cut his brother off and took another step forward.

“I’m not going back with you.”

Nox was perfectly silent for a few moments, then his voice erupted into a shrill cry of pain that resembled a mix between an injured animal and a screaming child.

“Y-You… you!”

The purple creature was choking on his words, with his voice cracking like a pubescent teenager as his face distorted into an expression of pure unadulterated anger.

“Why do you hate m-”

Nox’s voice was suddenly cut off, mainly due to Pax’s fist slamming into it with tremendous force. The shockwave that resulted nearly flattened a few still-standing trees in their vicinity as Nox was sent careening back into a tree and literally splattering everywhere. Pax’s fist was still smoking, now glowing a deep blue as before while he readied himself.

Part of him felt sorry for his brother, but part of him still didn’t consider Nox his brother.

Nevertheless, he still felt rather conflicted as he stood his ground and took deep breaths. He wasn’t partially tired or exhausted, but he knew that what lay ahead would be both mentally and physically taxing. Where Nox had splattered into a purple liquid against the tree, a deep purple light began to glow in the darkness. It slowly grew brighter until the form of Nox suddenly and quickly sprang up from the puddle of goo, with deep purple and glowing tears streaming down his face.

“WHYYYYYYYY?!!”

Nox’s shrill voice tore through the momentary silence, causing Pax to flinch. The purple creature cried out once again as his own energy began flowing around his body, concentrating in his left hand in particular.

“YOU… PROOOOMIIIIIIIISED!

Nox slung his left arm in an arc towards Pax, with the limb stretching a bit and cracking like a whip as it did so. The maneuver launched an arc of powerful energy that moved at incredible speed through the forest. It sliced right through trees and the crashed vessel, but Pax quickly countered with his own maneuver. Digging his clawed hand into the ground, he quickly ripped it out upwards, creating a geyser of energy out of the ground that completely nullified Nox’s attack.

This was all very familiar for Pax. In fact, he had been in an identical combat scenario years ago with his own brother. It may have been very familiar, but it was definitely not nostalgic. As Nox rushed through the dust that had been blown up into the air by the energy and stretched his leg in an arc to deliver a powerful hook kick to the back of his brother’s head, Pax caught it effortlessly, which elicited another shocked expression from Nox.

No matter how many times Pax wanted to forget and put everything from his home behind him, he couldn’t help but be brought back to where it all began.



Chapter two of the story staring the galaxy’s most dysfunctional family! Thank you very much for reading and there will be more to come soon!