Chapter 2: Hi Helen! (1)

EXT. IMPERIAL INTERSTELLAR PORT - DAY (2)

Helen Arkwing Flamewing is the daughter of Arther Flamewing and Jen Arkwing, a 3 year old toddler with a lot of imagination and a kind heart. She is small, has short brown hair, tanned skin and beautiful blue eyes, and even her raggedy clothes couldn’t make her less cute. The daughter of the hero grew up in the agrarian world of Stardust, too far away from the Fafnirian Empire and even the Coalition of Free Nations, so when her father and her uncle took her on a journey through space that ended in a magnificent city full of so many people and amazing machines she became excited as a kid that goes for the first time to an amusement park. (3)

For the past few hours she and her uncle have been waiting for her father’s return and she was grateful to see him return, but to her surprise he had his nose stuffed with bloodied cotton.

Helen: “Daddy, your nose!” (4)

Flamewing: “Daddy just had an accident.”

???: “ACCIDENT?”

Flamewing lifted his 3 year old daughter and gave her a hug to show her that he was fine, but in reality he was in pain both physically and mentally. Well, more physically.

Helen: “Daddy, where were you? Uncle Karsh said you went to see Miss Ex.” (5)

Karsh: “THE WOMAN YOU ABAN-”

Flamewing glared at the cloaked figure that was his “brother-in-law” and then put his child back on the floor.

Flamewing: “Well, I did go to meet ‘Miss Ex’, and guess what Little Wing? Daddy got us a new home!”

Helen: “Yay!” (6)

Helen walked around in circles and cheered about not having to sleep on an old ship again. Helen hoped her new home would be like the comfy cabin where she lived before her mother died.

Karsh: “DID MORKANA REALLY GIVE YOU A JOB?”

Flamewing: “Yes.”

Karsh: “SHE IS GOING TO MAKE YOU SUFFER AND CLAIMED SHE IS GOING TO USE HELEN AS LEVERAGE TO MAKE YOU SUFFER MORE, DIDN’T SHE?” (7)

Flamewing: “Yes…”

EXT. IMPERIAL CAPITAL CITY - DAY

Aliens! Every civilization that has looked at the sky wonders if there’s life out there, and yes there is life out there, and alien people can be nice, or mean, like the people at home. The capital of the Fafnirian Empire has been a melting pot of different cultures since the beginning years of the Empire, and with the arrival of people from the Coalition and the Frontier the demography of the city has become more diverse. There’s the dreiks, the native population of Fafniria that look like humans, but with draconic traits like horns, fangs, scaly skin and sometimes wings, and they are really tall. The niix were the first alien species to arrive at Fafniria, and they are characterized by their reptilian appearance and their great magical potential that surpasses that of the dreiks. Humans used to be enemies of the dreiks, but after the Cataclysm many human colonies became vassals of the Empire, and during Morkana’s new government there was an increase of human immigration to Fafniria because of better work opportunities. The basteans are the smartest known species in the Known Worlds, and nobody should underestimate these cat looking people. The cretans are newcomers to interstellar civilization, but sadly because their world was subjected to colonialism, and the tribal behaviors of these orc looking people can confuse many dreiks. Androids, incorporeal AIs and other cybernetic life forms have created their own communities and are guided either by the purposes with which they were created before the Cataclysm, or by new purposes that they made themselves; there are other species that are as amazing as the ones I just mentioned, but to describe so many of them would require too much text, so we better return to the story. (8)

Helen: “Dady, look! Horned lady!” ? (9)

Flamewing: “Don’t point at people, Helen. That is rude. Sorry miss.”

The dreik merchant walked away with disgust. To many dreiks in the capital of the Empire seeing humans walking through the cosmopolitans streets of the city is confusing, or an act of heresy, but they can’t complain since multiculturalism is the result of one of Morkana’s plans to improve the quality of life in Fafniria. Morkana’s immigration program allowed people with useful science and technology skills to live with their families in a provisional district, and these scientists and engineers helped solve many of the problems caused by the bad administration of the Almensch family during the absence of the previous emperor. This provisional district that started with 275 families 4 years ago is now a booming community that is casually named the “Human District”, even though there are some basteans, niix and androids that live there too. It’s a bit bittersweet that this successful small community was created over what used to be the “ghetto”, where niix and a few humans lived while they worked as servants of the old nobles. (10)

Karsh: “THAT WAS A LONG LORE EXPOSITION.” (11)

Flamewing: “Huh?”

Helen: “Daddy, look!”

Flamewing: “Helen, I told you not to-OH MY GODDESS!” (12)

Flamewing had seen how big the dreiks could be considering he met Morkana’s family, but this was his first time seeing the cretans. They were not only as tall as the dreiks, but were also really muscular and some had horns that looked intimidating. Flamewing and his family watched as 5 mighty cretan policemen marched through the street while being commanded at the front by an intimidating dreik policewoman. Flamewing now realized a lot has changed after his 6 years absence. (13)

Helen: “Daddy, I am tired!”

Flamewing: “We are almost at home, Helen. See that golden building over there? That’s where we will live now.” (14)

Helen saw the Imperial Palace and she immediately thought it was like the castle of a princess.

Helen: “A princess castle?! Yay!!!”

Helen wondered what kind of princess lived there and if she would play with her. (15)

Flamewing: “It’s the imperial palace, and I will work there for Empress Morkana.”

Helen: “Empress Morkana?”

Flamewing: “She’s… like a princess.”

Cloaked figure: “WITH BAD ATTITUDE AND OBSESSION WITH GOVERNMENT CONTROL.” (16)

Flamewing: “Yeah, but she is actually a good person.”

Helen: “Is she pretty?”

Flamewing: “She is… really pretty… Oh hey, those are my friends!”

Before arriving at the capital, Flamewing had contacted his old friend JC to help him settle in a safe place in the capital in case his plans to get Morkana’s help failed. The plan worked, so now JC and his wife AQ were just there to give Flamewing some basic supplies and clothes. (17)

JC: “Flame, mi hermano!”

AQ: “My second favorite hero is back!”

Flamewing: “JC! AQ!”

JC: “It’s so good to see you again, bro!” (18)

The two male friends hugged each other for the first time in 6 years and began crying. For the past 6 years JC got worried that his friend may have died, and even considered putting a photo of Flamewing in a funerary altar, next to Oskar Icefang’s, who apparently died during the “Jen Incident”. The calling from Flamewing through his old Mage Squad communication device made him feel so happy about the return of his friend. (19)

JC: “Pense que habias muerto, tarado!”

Flamewing: “I can’t die easily, bro. I have so much to tell you.”

AQ: “Hey, who is the little miss?”

The former assassin kneeled to face Helen.

Helen: “Baby!”

AQ: “Wha-What?! Is it already noticeable? Damn kid! I am trying to keep a low profile! Hahaha!” (20)

Flamewing: “Helen, these are JC and AQ. They are some of my friends from before…” (21)

Flamewing remembered when he took Morkana to a double date with these two friends. That memory just added more guilt to Flamewing’s conscience.

JC: “Hi… big guy…”

Karsh: “...”

The former soldier looked with fear at the dreadful cloaked figure that towered over him. Most of his encounters with Karsh have left him with a feeling of horror, and now that this nightmarish being was so close he felt that feeling returning. (22)

Flamewing: “Don’t worry, he is a good guy now.”

Karsh: “I NO LONGER DO THINGS THAT YOUR ETHICS SYSTEM CONSIDERS WRONG.” (23)

Helen: “Uncle Karsh is good!”

The two families conversed for hours at a local cafe and agreed to be in contact and meet with the other members of the former Mage Squad in the future. Flamewing wanted to catch up with what his friends have been doing for the past 6 years, and he also wanted to make amends with Icefang’s family after what Jen did to him and many other people. (24)

INT. THRONE ROOM - DAY (25)

Meanwhile, Morkana was having a serious conversation with her son, Prince Crimson Alfrau. (26) Prince was a small dreik child that inherited many of his mother’s traits, like her black hair, yellow irises, whitish skin and two pointy canine teeth, though some birthmarks only Morkana knew belonged to the father of her kid. Prince was wearing some comfy green pajamas and holding a plushie of a fox.

Prince: “But mommy!”

The little heir was crying so much that his mother felt she was making a mistake, but she told to herself this was for his own good. (27)

Morkana: “That man is no longer your father. He is an evil man deserves to be punished for what he did.” (28)

The dreik child didn’t understand what his mother was saying. The man they waited for years for wasn’t his father? How is that possible? Just a few nights before his mother had told him a story about one of the adventures of him, Captain Arther Flamewing of the Coalition of Free Nations. How can such a man be evil?

Morkana: “Prince…” (29)

The monarch kneeled as much as she could to hug her crying son. She wanted to do the best for her son, but was this right? (30)

Morkana: “That man hurt mommy and left us for 6 years. Even if he was a hero, he did something that mommy can’t forgive.”

Prince: “If he is so bad why is he coming here? Bad people go to jail.”

Morkana cleared the tears in her son’s face and tried to contain her own tears.

Morkana: “Well… He wants to atone for what he did.”

Prince: “Atone?”

Morkana: “When someone does something bad, but feels bad about it, they must work to fix their mistakes. Your fa-Captain Flamewing must work to make things right.” (31)

Prince: “But if he makes things right, he can-”

Morkana: “He can’t. What he did can’t be fixed and he will work until he gives up.”

Prince wanted to protest, to ask why all this was happening, but he loved his mother so much he wanted to make her happy. All he had to do was not talk to this man, right? If he ignored this evil person his mom wouldn’t be sad, right?

Sparrow (as a voice coming from a communicator): “The asshole is at the front door again, your highness, and he is with a small girl and the eldritch monster.” (32)

Morkana: “He brought that monster too?!”

Prince: “Huh?”

Morkana: “Sparrow, signal the guards to allow them to enter.”

Sparrow: “Roger that.” (33)

Morkana: “And order the Birds of the palace to protect that girl with the same level of security as with Prince. If something happens to that girl Karsh will become angry, and we don’t want that monster to be angry.” (34)

Tyrant Notes:

1)Hi, Helen, welcome to this nonsense.

2)The Day of Reckoning.

3)But don't try the carousel, it sucks.

4)You are an abused husband, get that asshole to jail!

5)Flamewing: "I am finished. I am more worried about meeting Miss ExE. They always think that they are god."

6)Flamewing: "The bad news is, it is the home of a rich anime antihero that owns a company of collectable card games and he banned me from participating in official tournaments.”

7)You should demand extra pay for this, Flamey. Also I didn't know you would work in marketing.

8)This scenario was the perfect background for the Sitcom "My Daughter, my Rabbie and the chronic masturbator who steals plastic out of my recycling bin."

9)Better than "Horny Lady", he he he he.

10)It is like the Bronx, but with less rap battles. "Tango Fights" are more popular there.

11)Karsh, I do the commenting here, shut up.

12)I miss that anime. The goddesses from that story are cool.

13)For example: The rule book was finally brown and not grey anymore.

14)Golden Building?Crap! Did the old Almensch family take inspiration from Donald Trump?!

15)No Princess, but a rather moody queen.

16)I am still the riff-le-woman Karsh.

17)JC: "It's dangerous to go alone! Take this!"

Flamewing: "A chainsword?"

18)Flamewing: "Now let’s go some GTAing motherfucker!"

19)Is nobody here able to use phones, social media, or the Internet?

20)You are not good at stealth pregnancy AQ.

21)The pasta in the restaurant was burned, Morkana beat up half the staff of a Disko and the evening ended with the Siege of Palos X.

22)I am more intimidated by 3D animated rescue puppies.

23)Karsh: "FOR EXAMPLE I STOPPED USING DOING INAPPROPRIATE SEXUAL ACTS IN PUBLIC WHILE RECITING QUOTES FROM ADAM SANDLER."

24)Jen recommended to them to buy video games with lots of microtransactions.

25)The Hairstyle is stable.

26)Morkana: "For the last time: The red zone is for immediate loading and unloading of passengers only. There is no stopping in the white zone."

27)As he started to beat down delegates just to spite her she would learn that her tactics were garbage.

28)Morkana: "He did not eat any meat and now he can't have any cookies!"

29)Morkana: "One day you will be known as ‘The Prince formerly known as Prince’.”

30)No, you moron.

31)A redemption quest? Okay, just let him kill ten wolves and bring their pelts to Morkana, that should be enough.

32)Sparrow: "Will we film a Sitcom or what?"

33)Roger, Roger what is your vector Victor?

34)Morkana: "He then dresses only in purple trunks, paints his entire body green and quotes Lou Ferrigno non-stop.