On a distant world, in a country known as Aquia, down a castle hall, a girl was running. She wore a decorative dress of frills and sleek space-age fabric. It hung down to her ankles, making her sprint difficult, but it did not stop her completely. She, in reality, had no desire to stop as several of the castle guards, two in total, chased after her, or so it seemed as they also ran from a cloud of green smoke.

"Princess!" one of the guards shouted in fear.

"I'm sorry, I didn't think that would blow up!" the girl shouted from in front of the other two.

"The button was labeled with 'do not push'!" the second guard shouted.

In the hall's distance, some other castle guards had noticed the plume of smoke with its three targets in front of it. They sighed as the smoke began to take the shape of a vast beast and swiped at the back of the guard the furthest behind the sprinting trio.

A large door in front of them began to close. While the two guards with the princess shouted out for help, the other castle guards simply looked away. The large door shut tightly.

"What do we do now!" the guard closest to the princess shouted.

"We fight!"

The princess reached the recently closed door that now made the hallway a dead end. She spun on her heel and faced the smoke beast. It had continued to take shape and collected into a more solid creature. Its skin was green, and its eyes a fearsome yellow. It had round ears like a rat and a tail equally similar. The rest of the beast would be best compared with a feline. Not that any of the inhabitants in this strange world were familiar with rats or cats.

"We fight? We can't beat–" One guard began to complain in a whiny voice.

The princess chuckled.

"That is where you are wrong! We were indeed helpless in its smoke form, but once solid these beasts can be knocked out just as well as anything else!"

The guards looked at each other after the princess made her claim. The first guard shook his head to indicate they shouldn't go along, but the princess fired up the second. He drew a chrome blade from a sheath at his side. The reluctant guard sighed and pulled a matching blade from his sheath. The princess simply held up two fists, one of which wore a yellow, mechanical gauntlet.

In a flash of red light, she appeared on the other side of the green beast. The creature hastily looked around the hallway. It finally spun around to see the princess running down the hallway the way they just came.

"You should be able to knock that thing out now that it's distracted! Good luck!" she yelled to the guards as she waved goodbye.

The reluctant guard swiftly moved next to the creature. He smacked the hilt of his blade into the creature's head with as much force as he could muster. The beast only looked over to him with a look of mild annoyance.

"Yeah, I figured that might happen..." the reluctant guard sighed.

"Don't let it get you!" the eager guard shouted as he smashed his hilt into the beast's side.

The ensuing battle would be talked about for several days to come within the castle, with both guards narrowly knocking the beast unconscious and escaping with matching scars on their faces, albeit on opposite sides.

The princess kept running through the castle halls. She turned several corners and ran through many more corridors until she finally stopped in front of a large window that overlooked a central courtyard. As she stopped to catch her breath, she stared out the window. Light gleamed off her light sapphire blue face as a gentle wind shook the trees.

She reached down and brushed out the wrinkles that had accumulated on her dress, then smoothed out her silky jet-black hair.

Isn't it about time to get going? A mechanical voice echoed in her head.

"Not yet; I think we can wait a little longer," she softly answered before beginning to walk away from the window. "Let's see what else we can find today."

Just don't go pushing any strange buttons again.

The princess ignored the comments that echoed in her mind and began to walk around the castle some more. She passed by some sleeping quarters and exited into the main hall filled with towering pillars.

"Princess Fiona!" someone shouted as she entered the hall. She sighed as she looked at who called to her. One of the King's advisors, she didn't know his name, but he was tall and slender with purple eyes and a mint alabaster skin that shined with no hair on his head.

"Oh, hey. What brings you here?" Fiona asked as she tried to seem casual.

"Your father sent me to find you, your beyond late for the assembly!"

"Oh, am I... sorry...." Fiona feigned innocence, which was abundantly clear to the advisor. He sighed and rubbed between his eyes.

"Please, just come with me," he said through exasperated sighs.

Fiona let her head hang and walked after the advisor. Now that she had run into someone so close to the king, she could not expect to get away so easily.

She was taken straight from the main hall through several corridors to the throne room where a royal assembly was to take place. Two overly large doors slowly and automatically swung open to grant her entrance.

A vast and empty throne room awaited Fiona. It was a wide expanse that gave an awkward feeling opposite to claustrophobia. Round, spiral columns filled space throughout the room, and the two thrones were against the wall opposite the door. Several lights lined the walls but did not give off enough light to brightly illuminate the whole space.

The thrones sat on a platform high in the air and were fashioned out of large, chrome-colored frames. To an unknowing observer, it would seem the thrones hovered in midair with no support. The platform had some lights underneath it, but they served more for decoration than practical purposes.

Fiona walked up to the throne next to three others and dropped down on one knee. They were all blue like the princess, and each had some gauntlet on one of their arms. The advisor who had brought her slipped over to stand next to others who stood on the side. Some of the other advisors like him had a green complexion, while others were shades of blue. The people were about the only splash of color in the otherwise dark and chrome throne room.

"You summoned me, father, she said.

Fiona's father sat on the left throne from her position. He leaned his elbow on one of the throne's arms and his head on his balled fist. A mechanical-looking bird sat on his right shoulder. He sighed when Fiona addressed him but didn't say anything more. Though he had heard about the beast incident released in the castle, he didn't have the time or concern to scold her for it.

Fiona's mother, the queen, elbowed her father in the side, prompting him to sit up straight and clear his throat. He looked around the large room. The four directly in front of him were his children, and around the room stood a small crowd of other advisors.

"With the conference just around the corner, it is time to delegate the tasks you all will be doing. I expect we have guests arriving here in Quenth in a matter of days."

"Dast father!" the four said in unison.

"Donn, you will be in charge of entertaining the military heads."

"Of course, father, I take it the recent expedition and capture would be a suitable story to tell?" the eldest of the four answered. He was the tallest of the four siblings with broad shoulders and an impressive build. Donn's silver hair was spiked in a fashion that should have been considered messy, but for some reason, it never came off that way.

"Very good. Hermina, I'd like you to take care of greeting the guest as they arrive and seeing them off, but don't strain yourself too much."

"I will be careful, father," The second oldest answered. She had long black hair, much like Fiona, and a slender build. Unlike the rest of her siblings, Hermina was sitting in a chair that hovered above the ground.

"Fiona... just stay away from as many guests as you can. I'll find some busy work for you later."

"Dast, father," Fiona said with a slight frown.

"Asha, I am putting you in charge of the servers."

"I will make sure everything runs smoothly." The youngest of the four siblings said. In comparison to his siblings, he was the shortest of the bunch. His hair was silver like his elder brother's, but unlike Donn's, Asha's hair stayed neatly combed.

The king nodded. He was about to wave his hand to dismiss his children but was suddenly interrupted as purple energy appeared right behind the crowd of advisors.

The advisors naturally scattered away from the growing energy. They ran to different corners of the throne room and looked back in terror. The princes and princess all stood up from their bows, and the siblings slowly moved farther apart from each other. None took their eyes off the suspicious energy. The King also stood up and held out his arm. The mechanical bird flew out of the shadows and landed on it. In a flash, the robotic creature grafted to the King's arm. In the end, it looked like a similar gauntlet his children all wore. He looked down from his high platform with a furrowed brow.

A machine that none of them recognized burst through the energy. It swerved and scraped along the side of one of the many columns spread around the room. The side got scarred, but it did not stop. Instead, it continued its out-of-control path directly at Fiona.

"Fiona!" Donn yelled out, but she reacted before he could do anything. In the blink of an eye, she disappeared in a red flash. The machine harmlessly flew past where she had stood and directly collided with one of the columns. The front of it wrapped around the column, and from within, large bags suddenly inflated. In a blue flash, Fiona appeared next to the window and looked in. The large bag of fabric was deflating, and the driver was unconscious.

"It's a Netzian; he seems to be out cold!" she yelled to the others in the room.

The king took a slow seat down and shook his head.

"Of all the times, what are they plotting now?" the king said to himself.

Donn walked up and peered into the window as well.

"Father, I think we might have a different problem on our hands than what you are thinking."

The king stood back up from his throne. He stepped off the platform and landed on the ground with a thud. The impact did no damage, and he walked across the room, his mechanical arm still at the ready. His children took a step aside so he could look inside the machine as well.

The king's big eyes grew larger, and his face turned a paler shade of blue. He stared for a moment before shaking his head and regaining his composure.

"Fiona, I have a new task for you. Take this one to the infirmary, and when he wakes, make him tell you everything. If he doesn't, kill him."

"Dast father," Fiona said with an unenthusiastic sigh.