Warm sunlight streamed into the room spilling onto the floor in a golden cascade. As the sun moved, the golden pool crept its way across the floor and up the side of the untidy bed. Sometime during the night sheets and pillows had been thrown to the floor by the rows of a restless sleeper, and now the occupant lay face down atop a small mound of pillows face partially obscured. The light continued its creeping trail upwards, sliding onto the bed and across the occupant's face.

It was only a little at first, but it wasn't long before light was spilling down with full force, and the occupant of the bed groaned and turned his head inward. At the far end of the room the door opened a crack allowing two furry forms access to the room. The first dog was large, with glowing blue eyes and a coat as black as tar. The second was no more than a puppy, still trying to wrangle in its huge paws and oversized ears. Its fur was as silver as gunmetal, almost blue in the light and unusually uniform. Together they trotted across the room, tongues lolling and leaped onto the bed.

Their mission was clear.

The first dog proceeded to step onto the bed's occupant with some amount of gusto, while the other just went straight for the face, pink tongue lolling and flapping with excitement, tail sweeping back and forth with enthusiasm as it licked the occupant from hairline to chin.

With a muffled shout of protest, the figure flailed, grabbing a dog with each set of arms to try and force them away, but the enthusiasm was simply too much to contain. The younger of the two dogs lunged forward, the thick skin at the scruff of its neck affording it just enough wiggle room to lick the bed's occupant across the eye socket.

"HEY Pancake! Doughnut!!" The shout was not one of anger, but laughter, the dog's tails wagged even harder, "Alright I'm up I'm up."

Ka'Leen sat up, shaking himself and shooed the dogs off the bed eyeing them both reproachfully, "Did dad let you in here? I bet he did" The dogs didn't answer, but danced around his feet looking for ear scratches, which Kay happily gave to them. There was no better reason to have two sets of arms, than being fully able to pet two dogs with equal gusto at the same time. Eventually they grew tired of him, and he let them out into the hall, going back into his room to get dressed.

Kay was Sixteen almost seventeen and didn't remember Armageddon though it was the one greatest defining moment of their generation.

He hopped into the shower, music on in the background singing loudly without fear of anyone being bothered, he was usually the last to get up anyway.

As far as most things went, he was mostly average for his age.... Well maybe that wasn't quite right.

He was anything but average, but he mostly blamed his parents for that.

Kay was nearly six two at sixteen, his father was a human and his mother was a Drev. What resulted was a tall, lanky teenage boy with four arms instead of two, or at least he had been lanky. Arcadia offered an endless supply of weapons training in its public schools, and what Resulted was hours of physical training and discipline taught by the most brutal of Neospartains and Drev warriors.

Over the past year or so he had finally started packing on the pounds, and fancied himself a little in the mirror as he looked.

Not bad.

Not bad at all.

He stepped out of the shower and flexed at his reflection glad that the door was locked so no one could catch and make fun of him. Again, Kay was tall, a trait he got more from his father than his mother, and short cropped golden hair that he kept in a way that he personally thought was artfully messy. His skin glowed gold, and his mother said he looked a bit like his grandfather. His eyes were green just like his father. He didn't look much like his mother, but he had a couple octaves of human vocal range others would kill for. He could sing anything from bass to soprano without batting an eye: both the men and women's parts.

Puberty had been a real bitch.

After messing with his hair to give it that intentionally unintentionally messy look, he hurried into the other room and pulled on some pants, grabbing his weapon before heading out the door and into the hallway. He ran into Nyx on his way out walking down the hallway. She had her head bent low over her handheld arms tucked tight into her sides.

Nyx, like mom, had never gotten that tall. At only around five five she was the shortest one in the family and the shyest. She looked more like their grandmother, a fact that Nyx hated, its not exactly easy to be told your whole life that you kind of resemble space Hitler, because that's what Kazna was.

She had even tried to kill Kay on one or two occasions at least though he didn't remember that.

Nyx didn't actually look much like Kazna, just her coloring, a carapace that was a sort of cosmic looking purple shot through with tones of deep blue and red. She also had only two arms, one of which had been missing the hand since she was a baby, though she had a whole wall full of cool attachments courtesy of their mother.

Walking past his younger sister Kay plucked the handheld from her hands and then held it high over her head as she protested.

"Give it back"

"Sure, go on, take it." He stopped trying to keep it away from her but instead stood still holding it high over her head where she couldn't reach leaning back when she tried to jump for it.

"Kayyyy, give it back!" She jumped for it again, but she was simply too short.

He tossed it from one hand to the other, slipping it behind his back when she tried to reach for it, "Go on take it."

Nyx was just starting to get mad, to kay's amusement, when something hard and fast drove itself into his stomach, doubling him over and causing him to drop the handheld. A hand darted from nowhere plucking the game from the air, mid fall with contemptuous ease. Kay grunted and looked up to find his other sister Astra standing in front of him with a smirk on her face.

She was tall, pearly white where he was gold. She had short spiky hair, less hair and more like chitin in some places. She wore black tactical pants and a men's black T shirt, an ensemble that lended her a rather androgynous appearance, one that she intentionally cultivated. At nearly five eight and still growing, she was on her way to being very tall.

"Here Nyx, I think kay dropped this."

"Hey, you three, what did I say about non consensual violence."

The three of them turned abruptly to find their father looming at the end of the hall, hand resting on one hip, the other currently occupied holding their six year old baby brother, still sleepy in the early morning. Despite the fact that he was holding a baby, Adam Vir could cut a rather intimidating figure. Kay and he were about the same height, but their father had years of physical training behind him. a fact well documented through the simple cotton t-shirt. Not only that but he had the look of a grizzled space pirate with his messy snow white hair, eyepatch, scars, and visible prosthetic leg.

He claimed that he HAD been a space pirate for a time, though none of his kids believed him.

He had plenty of stories that were just too good not to be made up.

"Astra started it." Kay protested

"I did not start it, but I definitely finished it." She pronounced

Their father raised an eyebrow, "Uh huh, ill be living in an igloo in hell before I believe that. Anyway, breakfast is almost ready." he walked into the other room, gently depositing Tana on the couch with a cup of juice before heading into the kitchen.

His three other children followed, sitting down at the table just as their mother swept into the room. She was wearing her Saint's armor and carried a massive spear in the palm of one hand. It looked like she had just come back from training, golden light rolling off the electric surface of her chitin. Their father turned to look at her, a small smirk crossing his face.

Kay sighed, "Oh here we go."

Their dad frowned at him, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"You guys are about to get all weird, aren't you." Nyx mumbled.

"My apologies for appreciating the aesthetic appeal of my wife." he said, brandishing the spatula like it was a weapon.

Their mother walked across the room, sliding both sets of arms around him, and resting her chin atop his head humming softly as she did.

Kay rolled his eyes.

"Be glad your parents like each other." Their mother commented, "Not everyone is that lucky."

The three of them mumbled incoherently, but perked up as soon as dinner was served.

The three of them ate with gusto, finished, put their dishes away and were halfway to the door when Sunny called over, "Hey, where are you three going."

Kay turned to look at her, "We were going to hang out with the triplets."

"Okay just don't forget to bring a weapon, and call me if you need help with a body-" She said, like she always did though kay was never sure if she was being facetious or not.

Just as they were about to leave, the front door was thrown wide, and a small crowd of people burst into the room, headed by Uncle Ramirez who threw his hands wide, "¡Buenos días, mis sobrinas y sobrinos favoritos!"

"Buenos días tío Ramírez" They chorused

He grinned at them stepping aside to allow Aunt Maverick in through the door. Despite how small she was, Kay had always thought she looked a bit like a viking. She raised an eyebrow at him and he raised an eyebrow back by way of greeting, breaking into a grin just as Uncle Conn sailed through the door, "Oh Honey, I'm home!"

Their father sighed, "Honey is a term reserved only for people who are allowed to kiss me on the lips."

Conn tilted his head, pitch dark eyes glimmering, "Well in that case-" He lifted his pale arms and began to chase their father around the room making kissy noises as he did. Adam brandished the spatula and swatted t him.

"Back foul demon."

Following them was uncle Celex in all his technicolor glory. Kay was surprised he didn't have a new lady friend on his arm as he seemed to have a new one every other week. He ruffled Kay's hair despite being shorter than him, which he only ever did to Astra and kay but never Nyx, "You three don't cause any more trouble than I would." he said with a wink.

Astra smirked.

"And don't forget the first rule." Ramirez said.

Kay frowned, "Don't try to use your heelies on the stairs."

Their father winced visibly

Ramirez shook his head, "Not that one."

"Don't add to the population and don't subtract from the population?" Nyx offered.

"No, not that one either. By the way, your dad was actually terrible with that roll back in the day."

Adam frowned again, "half of that is not my fault."

Ramirez just shook his head, "no no,, the BIG rule."

They had to pause for a minute before, "Oh, don't chuck Marshmallows at neutron stars/" Nyx finished.

Ramirez grinned, "Alright, out of here you crazy kids-"

They would have if Riss and krill hadn't showed up just then, scuttling through the door mid argument. It didn't seem to be about anything important, specifically the correct way to put toilet paper on the toilet paper roller which was an odd argument to have for two people who didn't need toilet paper.

Uncle Krill frowned at them suppling his best grouchy expression from a creature that was always grumpy, "Rule number one-"

"Don't chuck marshmallows at-"

"No! Don't stick anything in any body cavity that doesn't have a flared base." Nyx blushed while Astra and Kay howled with laughter, stepping out the door and into the hallway. Nyx was just like their father like that, she got embarrassed at almost everything which was hilarious for everyone else.

They made their way down, and out into the cool morning air, scrubbed clean by the scents of the forest, which had been integrated seamlessly into the Noxumber metropolitan landscape. All around them water features, flower beds, and small huddles of trees clustered in the main square below the spiral tower.

Dr Katie, waved at them, holding hands with her partner on the way up Accompanied by Narobi and her husband and wife.

Massive billboards played 24 hour GA news reels showing plenty of footage of their quarter sister Eris, who had been chairwoman of the GA for over a decade now.

Grandpa and Grandma Vir waved at them from across the square on their morning walk.

They stopped in the central square, in the shade of the Armageddon memorial.

Kay craned his neck back staring solemnly up at their family legacy.

The memorial was large, a tall landscape of rock and moss, around which were placed several strategic statues all with their own plaques. He had read them all, had read them multiple times since his childhood. At the base, old and wise, but wise in her weathered stone, Hijan, motherly and thoughtful.

To the other side Dzara, raising the weak from the ashes.

Above her Kanan, the stalwart poet soldier.

On the other side, a black statue sat in cross legged repose, deep in mediation, Naktan keeper of the mountain, and at the very pinnacle, a massive statue reaching towards the sky in triumph, his spear brandished, his cape billowing behind him, Lanus, the saint of light, the saint of gold.

The savior of the universe.

A figure that in the past decade had been nearly deified.

Their grandfather.

A man none of them had ever met but one Kay personally, deeply respected, and whose loss he mourned.

He stared at it for a long while feeling a lump come into his throat, and was glad to look away when someone called his name, and he turned to see the triplets, and the rest of their little bad hurrying up the square, an eclectic group of alien and hybrids, they were they were the perfect mix to make trouble.

And so they made their way from the square, out from under the watchful eye of Lanus's statue, standing vigil high above.

The End