July 6th, 2486 - Planet Sanctuary, Sanctuary City - Koltura District - Pazzik’s Mechanics

Ichiro Gorkanja was twenty-one years old, and in all twenty-one of his years he had never felt so certain of anything in his life; the elderly mechanic was insane, there were no two ways about it.

‘That just doesn’t make any damn sense…’ he scoffed, nursing his chiselled abdomen with a bag of cold peas. Beads of icy cold water dripped along the grooves between each hardened bump of muscle, and he winced occasionally from the pain shooting through his chest, causing his pectoral muscles to tighten and flex periodically.

‘What’s so hard to understand?’ Angora asked, earnestly. ‘The guy had four arms— and the girl had snake-hair. Of course it was magic.’

‘It’s called Mystik, not magic’, Pazzik reiterated, patiently. ‘It has been misinterpreted as magic for centuries, but it’s a bit more … limited than that. As I said—the Mystik Arts are marital arts, which draw tremendous power from within. It’s not that magical if everyone has a little bit of it—and everyone does.’

Abiona leaned forwards on her chair, intrigued. Chara turned her head aside, tossing her hair. The workshop was spacious, lit by yellow strip-lighting that flickered occasionally. A hover car rested in one corner, and a skylight leaked pale moonlight onto a small mountain of scrap metal that lay across from it. They sat around a small, fold-out table in a little corner of the room that acted as a kitchen, laid out beside a staircase that led to the bedrooms on the second floor. Chara stood, fiddling with a mechanical implement, resting her back against the far wall … watching the new arrivals closely.

‘Can you … teach anyone how to draw out this … Mystik power or whatever?’ Abiona asked, clearly attempting to hide her burning curiosity and remain aloof.

‘I can’, Pazzik confirmed. ‘However, it is easier to do so when the person in question has already tapped into their Mystik energy naturally … for example, Angora and Ichiro here can already utilise their powers unconsciously under certain conditions.’

‘I guess … I am much stronger than the average person’, Angora offered.

‘Fine, I’ll humour you’, Ichiro scoffed. ‘Obviously Angora can use this mystic-magic stuff then, but there’s nothing to suggest that I can.’

Abiona suddenly stood up, placing both hands on the table, and stared at Ichiro, grinning.

‘Ichiro … how do you think we survived that crash landing?’ she asked. ‘The skin of our teeth doesn’t quite cut it for a fall from orbit.’

Pazzik smiled, and reclined in his chair, then he said, ‘Give me and hour, and I promise you won’t regret it.’

‘You’re not serious’, Ichiro replied, raising his voice a little. ‘Angora, you don’t actually believe in this stuff do you?’

Angora shrugged and raised an eyebrow.

‘What’s the worst that could happen?’ he said.

Ichiro sighed and collapsed into his chair, grumbling something about how he had nothing better to do at the present moment anyway.

‘While you’re doing that—why don’t Chara and I get takeout?’ Abiona said, getting to her feet and stretching.

‘I don’t remember offering to go anywhere!’ Chara called from across the room.

‘I take it you aren’t interested in developing your own Mystik energy, then?’ Pazzik asked.

‘I think I’ll leave it until tomorrow’, Abiona replied, yawning. ‘If I don’t have the aptitude for it, then there’s no point jumping in head first on an empty stomach, this late in the evening.’

With that said, Abiona stood and made her way to the door. Pazzik was insistent that Chara follow her, as a professional curtesy, so she did, albeit begrudgingly.

‘Now then’, Pazzik said with a grin. ‘Let us begin.’