Once Upon a Time in a Galaxy Far, Far Away...
In a dark, smoky corner of the Double Dragon, a disreputable bar floating on the edge of the galaxy, a robust, piercing-eyed man known as Dan Diesel was playing an archaic video game. His fingers danced over the worn buttons of a flickering neon-lit arcade terminal. The game, a relic of the past, a vestige of a forgotten world, displayed pixelated backgrounds and images of street fighters locked in brutal duels in the alleys of old Tokyo. The screen flickered. A strange sequence of numbers appeared, glowing ominously: 01101001. Dan frowned. That wasn't part of the game. Then, just as the machine displayed GAME OVER, a digital explosion shook the entire bar. A sharp electric pulse crackled through the air, glasses shattered, and the neon lights above flickered wildly. A vortex of incandescent energy spiraled open before Dan, its gravity pulling at his body. Patrons screamed, ducking behind tables, but Dan was already gone, sucked into the unknown.
Tokyo 2147
Neon lights flickered over Shibuya, a district tangled in suspended cables and digital smog. Drones patrolled the skies like silent sentinels, while the streets pulsed with the chaotic energy of cyborgs, hackers, and mercenaries. In a damp alleyway, Dan Diesel groaned, blinking against the stinging rain. His body felt heavy, his mind struggling to process the shift in reality.
Then, a voice echoed from the darkness.
"You look like a man who just fell from the sky. Hope you didn’t forget your parachute."
Dan turned. A slender figure emerged from the shadows, draped in a Streetfighter-style jacket, eyes glowing with shifting algorithms. But what caught Dan’s attention was something far stranger—the man’s face had canine features, his sharp muzzle barely concealed by the neon glow. His ears twitched, sensing every sound around them, and his clawed fingers adjusted the Renegade Blaster he held casually, but with the certainty of someone who had fired it before.
"Who the hell are you?" Dan muttered, his instincts tensing.
The man smirked, revealing a row of sharp teeth. "Name’s Black Byte. And whether you know it or not, you've just woken up The Edge."
A strange pulse vibrated through the air, as if the world itself were exhaling after centuries of holding its breath. Dan gritted his teeth. "The Edge? What is this, some kind of sci-fi cliché?" He flexed his fingers, still tingling from the transition. Black Byte chuckled. "Oh, it's real. And trust me, pal, it’s worse than any bad movie plot you’ve ever seen. Think Blade Runner meets The Godfather, but with a ticking clock and no second takes." Dan sighed, glancing at his reflection in a nearby puddle. His own face remained unchanged—human, rugged—but standing beside Black Byte, he realized he was the anomaly now. "I used to know a world where the hardest choice was one credit or two. Now, I wake up in a city that smells like burnt circuits and broken promises." Black Byte’s gaze softened for a moment. "Yeah… I miss the old world too. Back when neon meant hope, not surveillance. When the streets were dangerous but still had soul. But those days are gone, and now we’ve got work to do." Dan exhaled, running a hand through his damp hair. "Alright. So what’s the deal?" Black Byte’s face darkened. "The Edge is a temporal anomaly separating two realities: this cyberpunk nightmare… and a steampunk past ruled by elegance and crime. And guess what? You just punched a hole right through it." Dan smirked. "Figures."
Black Byte shifted, his expression serious. "There’s a team. Or at least, there was. The League of Extraodinary Gentledogs : The Sentinels. We’re not just warriors, we’re something more. You may have noticed..." he gestured toward his canine features. "We’re not exactly human anymore. Time changed us. But time also made us legends." Dan raised an eyebrow. "1890? You’re telling me I have to time-jump into a steampunk mafia war… with a pack of dog-faced heroes?" Black Byte grinned, his sharp teeth flashing in the neon light. "That’s exactly what I’m telling you. And trust me, it’s not gonna be a tea party." Dan exhaled. "Alright then. Let’s go find the godfathers of time travel." Black Byte smirked, tapping a small device on his wrist. The air crackled once more as a portal shimmered before them, opening to the gaslit streets of old London. "You ready for this?" Black Byte asked. Dan grinned, stepping forward. "Man, I was born ready."
To be continued...
Their next destination: London, 1890. Their mission: Find Big Rusty and Gearlock Holmes, and reform The Sentinels. Your quest: MINT Episode 1, Part 1 – The Godfather https://opensea.io/collection/at-the-edges-of-two-worlds-the-sentinels-episode-5/overview
The Sentinels had always walked between worlds. Half-man, half-beast, they were echoes of a time lost… and the only ones who could fix what was coming.
