Prologue

"You can't try to play God…!" Notch growled quietly at his brother after he peered from the bottom edge of their camouflage covering.
Notch and his brother, Dagger, were living in an altered dimension, plastered with demonic creatures of which looked like mutated humans after a large handful of DNA experiment had gone horribly wrong. The brothers were part of a Clan who were fighting the mutations to bring peace to their world, but during their fighting strife, they had lost plenty of fighters and innocent people. Notch and Dagger were some of the few fighters remaining, and they were trying to find a way to infiltrate the base of the mutant creatures, but were having quite a hard time finding the base.
Dagger, just scowled and shrugged. "It's part of the game." he retorted softly.
Notch scowled too. "You know, some choices are not yours to make!" he hissed a little louder than Dagger.
A heavy, eardrum-ripping sound reverberated through the air once Notch finished his retaliation. Before either brother could make a move, the camouflage covering was ripped away from above the brothers' heads by one of the mutant creatures who had heard.
Before it could land its attack, Notch and Dagger managed to leap out of the way. They were cornered by the tree behind them, with the gang of four mutants gradually increasing in front of them.
"Great, now because of your carelessness, we've been spotted!" Dagger barked at Notch before he grabbed his gun and shot at one of the closest creature in front of them.
Notch shot his brother a dark scowl. "Hey, you're just as much to blame, dipstick!" he retaliated as he unsheathed his sword and swung it at the attacking mutants, pretending they had the head of his brother to increase his strength in his anger.
Through the midst of the battle, something made a peculiar screech in the sky, which triggered everyone to pause and look up at where the sound had come from and what had caused it. Suddenly, some kind of chilled blue warp hole opened up in the clouds and spat something out. Everyone just watched in sheer confusion as they watched the thing the vortex spat up hurtle down to the earth… which had fallen right before Notch and Dagger, in a large group of the mutant creatures, causing a mild explosion of dust and a possibly five foot deep crater in dead grass and dirt.
By the time the fog of dust cleared up, the mutants were quickly trying to stagger away. Notch and Dagger approached the crater to check out what had created it. In the center of the crater lay a young child, no older than either brother, face-up and unconscious.
"…Hey Dagger, do you think she's okay?" Notch asked his brother worriedly as he agilely leapt down into the crater to catch a closer look.
Dagger scoffed. "Only if the sun would ever rise within the next million millennia!" he barked. "That kid just hurtled from who knows how high, there's no way she'd be alive!"
Notch tried to ignore his rude, sassy brother as he held the girl in his arms. He noticed she was still breathing! "Dagger! She's still alive! We need to get her to the Medic!" Notch howled as he jumped out of the crater with the child in his arms.
Notch didn't wait for Dagger. "Hey, you better not be pulling my chain! Don't leave me here!" he barked.

"Medic!" Notch called.
The medic was a pretty young lady named Cloud, but when she was on duty she'd prefer to be called medic.
Cloud turned her attention to the brothers as they burst through the curtain of huge leaves. "Oh hi Notch, Dagger. What brings you here today?" she asked.
"No time for greetings!" Notch exclaimed. "This girl was just randomly thrown out of the sky while we were in the middle of our mission, but she's still breathing!" he explained as he gently put the girl down on the stretcher bed.
Cloud looked at Notch with wide brown eyes. "That's awful! I'll get right on it!" she replied as she whipped around to her herb cabinet to find the right herbs. Notch and Dagger decided to wait outside while Cloud was busy in the hospital.

It didn't take Cloud too long to poke her head out from the leaf curtains. "It's alright you two, she's doing just fine. You can come in now." she said to the brothers as she stepped back into her fairly large workspace, with Notch and Dagger following behind.
The child was laying on her back, sleeping with the most blissful expression anyone in the Clan had ever seen since the beginning of their horrid battle with those demons. The girl yawned and stretched, but winced and coughed once she did, so she opened her blue eyes.
"I'm sorry, but you shouldn't be moving like that." Cloud told the girl.
The girl looked around with curiosity. "Where am I? What just happened…?" she asked as she attempted to sit up, but winced again. "And why am I hurting so bad…?!"
"I'd hate to break in, but you fell from the sky, causing a four or five foot deep crater in the ground!" Notch said, stepping closer. He smiled. "But don't worry, you're okay, you're in the hospital. Our Medic is taking good care of you."
The girl looked totally dumbstruck. "But this isn't even my hometown, the hospital is far different from what I know… How'd I get here? And who're you?" she asked persistently.
"Well, I'm Notch." Notch introduced. "And this is Cloud, the Medic." he said, directing his attention to the Medic, who was glaring at him. "She just prefers to be called Medic when she's on her job." he added. "And this is my big brother--" Notch began.
Dagger just cut Notch off as he sat beside the stretcher bed, his head almost level with the girl's. "I'm Dagger, my dear," Dagger began as he bowed his head. "I work as a fighter for our Clan, so if you have any problems, I'd be glad to fight them off for you." he added with a wink at her.
The only thing anyone could read on the girl's face was "…Is he always like this?"
"Dagger, she needs her space…" Cloud said as she grabbed the collar of Dagger's shirt and dragged him away from the girl. "Seriously, you should learn to stop hitting on every chick you see…" she sighed as they brushed past the curtains.
Notch tried to laugh it off a little. "Don't mind him, he's just obnoxious like that…" he said. "Anyway, what's your name? Do you remember?"
The girl tapped her chin a little as she tried to remember. She snapped her fingers as it came back to her. "Now I remember! I'm Thistle! Nice to meet you, Notch!" she introduced proudly.
"Thistle…" Notch began. "Our sister was named Thistle…"
Thistle blinked in confusion. "Your sister was named Thistle? What happened to is?" she asked.
Notch let out a sigh of grief once he sat down. "Well, there's been this apocalypse going on for a long time now, and…most of our remaining people have been split into two groups; Fighters and Defenders. My siblings and I wanted to be Fighters, but on one of our missions…" he explained. It took him a little time to finish his sentence. "…Thistle was killed…and Dagger and I were forced to watch with wide, helpless eyes… Luckily, we managed to escape alive…"
Thistle was silent for a while. "Oh…I-I'm sorry about her…" she started. She then snapped her fingers again. "Hey! Maybe once I recover, I could fight alongside you two, like your sister!" she offered.
Notch looked surprised. "But…you're just a girl, you're no more than a kid! No offence." he told her.
Thistle's determination didn't dim at all. "So? The Thistle you knew first was a girl, but she battled! And in the life I lived before I came here, I've always dreamed of an adventure to happen! I'd be glad to fight with you, whether you want me to or not!" Thistle persisted.
Notch smiled. "Not only do you remind me of my sister, but you share her determination and pride. I'll talk over it with my brother once you get better." he said before he left the hospital.
And that's how it all began…