A shadowy figure stepped out of the darkness that night at Hope, Nevada. No one really noticed him, it was a small town and it was far too late for most of the locals to be up. The teens were out at the fields playing with the cows and the parents had all gone to bed. The figure stepped out from the darkness that night to a world that was not his own. The moon was full and the streets were dimly lit by the moon’s glow. The town wasn’t one to have a need to use street lights that late at night so the figure stepped into the middle of the street without fear of being seen. This figure was apparently cloaked. It reached a hand up towards the moon for a moment, then it fell to the ground on it’s knees, finally collapsing to being on his hands and knees trying to stand back up. Off in the distance a cry was heard as one of the street lights suddenly turned on and proceeded to explode. The figure regained composure and in an instant was back in the darkness of the shadows that it identified with.
Jack looked up as he saw the explosion in the corner of his eye. "What now?" he thought. The others around him had their girlfriends around their arms as they all stargazed. He was alone and simply went to make sure his friends didn’t do anything stupid. He shrugged it off as nothing to worry about as the rest got up from lying on the grassy hills and joined him at looking towards town. None of them really mattered to him that much, yet ever so often he did feel a nagging feeling that they would prove to be worthy friends to have if ever times became necessary for him to rely on friends. Jack was not a very open person to start with, and he didn’t usually express much opinion on anything either. He continued to stare towards town as the rest prodded him to go back to stargazing. He did not hear their pleas, nor did he notice their attempts to pull him back by force. He did not react and so finally they gave up. Jack just stood as still as a statue and looked hard into town with an expressionless look on his face. Thoughts started to run through his mind, "Is…it possible?" "Have they found me?" "They wouldn’t try and find me, NO! They didn’t care enough." The wind kicked up around him a bit as his muscles tensed up and his breathing became irregular. The moon beamed down on him and he looked up and realized something different. "Oh…no, they’ve come"
The next day began and Jack rose from bed with a headache. The phone was ringing as he gained consciousness and he reached to pick it up. He was stopped by a swift push from something from behind as he crashed to the floor. Jack got up furiously and looked around back and forth, nothing. The phone was still ringing and he reached down to grab it but was hit with some force bluntly in the head. He hit the ground and his vision began to blur as the last thing he remembered was the phone ringing. He came to and leapt out of bed. "Aww man, whatta dream!" He found himself griping his sheets fiercely and got up to take a shower. As he walked towards the bathroom a pain in the back of his head. "Was I really dreaming, or did that actually happen?" Jack wondered. After a while he decided he most likely hit his head on the wall or something like that during the dream.
"Zed" Zack Moby knocked on Jack’s door around noon Pacific Standard Time. Jack regarded him as a nuisance at times, but also was someone who he learned a lot from about what Jack referred to as "a normal life." Zed had come over to return a shirt and some socks Jack had left over at Zed’s house a few nights prior. Zed was one of the less popular people within the school and found comfort helping Jack with getting used to town. You see, Jack moved in a mere month ago from who knows where. What the people around him think is that he’s just an army brat who moves around all the time. The truth is something very much different than such a simple concept, one that no one around him knows about or would even fathom. Yet, the problem is that Jack doesn’t know it either. Some event in his past wiped out any recollection of his true history. "Hey Jackie!" Jack flinched at the sound of Zed’s voice after some substantial amount of silence had passed while the two were looking over the other’s report to see how the other matched up to their work. Zed and Jack had become quite competitive and usually took pride in fighting for the top spot, but never let that deter their friendship.
Zed rummaged through Jack’s closet for a while, disappointed not to find anything overly exciting, then moved on to his cabinet full of papers. Zed had a slight look of pain on his face when he turned towards Jack and remarked, "You wrote all of this stuff in this cabinet? Man, you need a girlfriend!" Jack grimaced and chucked a nearby book at Zed’s head, hitting on target as usual. Zed laughed and decided to continue on the subject. "Man, you never show interest in any of those girls in our class, they always seem to be entranced on you." Jack looked up, cringed momentarily, then went back to reading. "They don’t faze me, so if they don’t impact me, I don’t care about them," Jack replied after a minute of silence. Again, another few minutes passed and Jack continued, "It’s just that…I’ve had something racking in my mind recently; it’s this dream, it’s the same every time and I have to every week it seems." Zed seemed distracted a moment but then shook it off and said, "Well, the world is a strange place, Jack." Jack just stood there…his fist was clenched and his muscles flexed. "When I think of that ‘certain someone’ I just think that they’ll be waiting for me, ya know? That one day I’m going to find her and that we will be happy, or maybe that I’m the one who is waiting, and she will find me." Zed smiled wanly, "Sounds like you’ve been reading too many books, my friend."
Zed left after a couple of hours and Jack readied some soup for later that evening, yet Zed wasn’t heading home. Zed headed into downtown and picked up a phone in one of the telephone booths and closed the door. He looked around cautiously to make sure he hadn’t been followed and made a call, "Yes, it’s me…the sky looks great today, like a blue sea…all clear for today, nothing new…questioned a recurring dream, yet didn’t seem to worried about it…no…no…yes, I checked the place out again while he was reading…no evidence of any interference…right…good bye." Zed left the phone booth and headed home. A few minutes later a tall figure stepped into the same phone booth and picks up a small button-like object that was laying on the roof of the booth and the quickly leaves. Night breaks as the sun retires for the day and the figure disappears as quickly as it showed up as it came.
The TV flickered back and forth between clear and fussy reception at Jack’s house. "Blasted TV," Jack muttered to himself. The life outside was silent and the sound of cars could only be heard coming from far off in the distance. Jack never questioned his past, he just assumed that he was too young to remember anything, and the past 5 years nothing very exciting happened, so he never questioned that either. He always wondered about that dream and the night prior to it being with friends and stargazing, yet Jack wasn’t going to become paranoid just yet. He wandered off to the bathroom to wash up for the night and was heading into bed when he heard something, something that felt like it reached all the way down to his inner being and grabbed him, it said, "Embrace your destiny…embrace your destiny." Jack shot up like an ice cube had just made contact with his neck. He stood up, as did every hair on his body, and he took a breath of relief, "Oh, it must have been the TV, I forgot to turn it off." He went into the living room and turned it off and returned to bed.
It was dark once more and Zed could be seen in his house by the window from outside. He was pacing back and forth with the phone to his ear and Zed seemed to be having an argument with someone on the phone. Once more the shadowy figure appeared, watching Zed’s every move. Zed was still talking when suddenly he stopped, his mouth ajar and his eyes wide open. The figure noticed Zed’s instant shock and vanished into the dark once more. Zed picked up the phone again, "Yes, I’m sorry, we need to hurry up the operation, things have become much more dire…I know that…Are you sure he is ready?…fine, it’s your call…goodbye."
Jack slept fitfully the night before, taunted by the usual dreams, and met up with Zed at the local pizza joint. "Why do we always order our food here? There are other restaurants in the area," Jack said with slight disdain. Zed laughed and explained, "Yes, that’s true, but weren’t you the one who wanted pizza today? This is the best place for pizzas last time I checked." The two downed a few drinks and their pizza and then headed out for the local park. The sun was struggling to stay up above the horizon and the moon slowly came into view as the two walked around on the trail. "Jack, I got a question for you," Zed continued, "have you ever felt some sort of energy within you that you felt you could just reach in and grab?" Jack stopped walking and nervously replied, "Heh, what are you talking about? You think I’m a super hero? Hah, that’s a laugh." Zed’s face tightened and his eyes shaped to thin ovals; Jack noticing this took a step back. "Why the evil face, bro? What, are you serious?" Jack asked breathlessly. Zed didn’t move, didn’t even blink, he just stood there with one hand in his pocket and the other reached out towards Jack. "It’s time you remember your past," Zed started, "You have something special about you that we need." Jack was shaking, "Zed, what do you mean we? You’re starting to scare me, cut it out!" Zed shook his head and started again, "Now, be serious, have you ever felt a power surging in you that you felt you could just release?" Jack’s mind was ablaze with thoughts, not just on the question, but what was going on, why they were having this conversation, who was this "we," and whether this was all a dream. "I…I’ve felt something like that, but it’d only come and go, usually uncontrollable and temporary…but I’d usually pass out at the end, not remembering anything when I came to. I just assumed it was a form of adrenaline though." Zed let free a smile, "That’s better. Jack, that’s not adrenaline, you and I have some training to do." Jack shook his head slowly, "I’m not a freak if that’s what you think." Zed grabbed him by the shoulders, "You are not a freak, you just need to learn how to control this power." Jack smiled and said, "Fine, but the ice cream’s on you tonight."
Zed and Jack parted ways, promising each other not to mutter a word to anyone about this. Jack’s mind continued to work on overdrive for the rest of the night as he went to bed, unable to sleep. "Maybe he’s just kidding me, yeah, that’s probably it, man, I’m so gullible…but then again, what if he’s right? What if those bursts of fury are really something uncommon…oh man, no sleep for me tonight," Jack thought. As Jack was about to fall asleep he heard something in his house and he leapt up from the covers. Something rushed past him with such great speed all he felt was the wind blasting past him, just as Jack was turning around the intruder took a swing at him; Jack barely evaded the large, massive blade, a scant 4 inches above his head. Jack managed to drop kick who or whatever it was that was attacking him and ran from his house to Zed’s.
Zed’s house seemed like miles away as Jack ran every step of the way, continually looking over his shoulder to make sure…whatever that thing was wasn’t still on his trail. Jack got to Zed’s and pounded on the door with such force, the lights from a house 3 doors down came on to find out what was going on. As Zed opened the door Jack forced his way in and closed the door immediately. "What is going on, Jack?" Zed asked hurriedly. "I was…attacked by…someone…or something…in my house…big sword…barely escaped," Jack said breathlessly. "Oh by the Ryha’s Flood…okay no more time for pleasantries, Jack. Follow me," Zed said while gathering some supplies. The two headed into Zed’s basement, and just as soon as they got down there a small, cybernetic creature came out and greeted them. "No time for the usual chit chat, 14, open the blast door, code heero…scythe…O’mally…Spalding. The little robot complied and a large part of Zed’s basement floor moved away to reveal what seemed to be endless stairs. They headed in.
Jack didn’t know just what to expect next, first he was told he had some hidden power, the he was attacked, now he’s going deep underground to train with someone he thought was just his friend. They went down at least a hundred flights of steps or more, finally reaching a large opening, coming to a place that was softly lit with multiple candles and a firepit. The area started to wear on Jack’s sanity as he thought, "Man, this seems way too like Batman to me." The candles flickered off a moment and then mystically came back to life after a good minute or so. Jack wasn’t going to question anything now, his sense of what was real anymore was blown out of his head long ago. He felt weak and sat down while Zed busied himself with some task just out of Jack’s sight, he could see some form of a glow on Zed’s face and just assumed it to be a computer of some sort.
Zed returned with a blade in his hand and another at his side in a scabbard. "Get up and fight me," Zed said with a tone that was as dead serious as the tornado signal is out in the east. "I’m tired from all that running down here," Jack said with a wry smile, "Can we break for just a moment or so?" Zed thrust the sword he was holding up into the air, grabbing the other blade from the scabbard with lightning speed, holding the second blade at Jack’s throat. "Don’t move," Zed said slowly. A second later the other blade landed a mere foot away from Jack. Zed took a sigh of relief, "You have to trust me, no matter what the case, it’s the only way you’ll stay alive." Jack got up and took the weapon from Zed’s hand briskly. Zed walked over casually to his blade and picked it up. It was apparent that the blade Jack had taken was far more bulky than the blade Zed now had and Jack remarked on it, "This sword I have is at least three times larger than yours, I’ll snap that one into pieces." Jack said while swinging his blade around for practice. Zed only smiled briefly and mentioned, "Will you? I don’t think so." The two collided, blade and blade, meeting quickly then separating, like a secret romance where only the two know about it. The battle was in it’s own way a form of love, the blades made such a sound when the two came together, it is almost like poetic song and dance. One might even say that battle is like an endless waltz, but then again, that might just be a saying. Jack pulled back and was ready to put all his strength into one swing and as he came down he found himself at a loss. Zed’s sword was already at his stomach, ready to finish him off. "You see, a big blade does not make a person stronger unless they can wield it correctly, for your build, that sword is way too big for you. I’m not saying you could handle it, it’s just that you have to have a blade that’s light to you so that you can move quickly and efficiently while in battle. They started again, this time Zed knocked the large blade from Jack’s hands with a simple swing. Jack grimaced and picked up his blade a moment and then looked around a second, "Can I get a new one?"
Jack threw his blade to the side and Zed tossed him another blade, much like his own. Jack winced and made a quick remark, "I can take you now." Zed rushed forward and knocked the blade from Jack’s grip with ease. "This is going to take some time," Zed said under a moody tone. Jack picked up his sword, nothing more than his pride, but he was ready. The two came together once more, these blades much better matched for one another. Each were holding their own, trying to find a weakness in the other’s fighting techniques. "In this day and age, being good with your sword will become very important when it comes to survival for where we are going," said Zed as they continued to battle, "eventually you will outgrow the need for a blade, but right now it will become like a lost love to you. The two of you coexist together, keeping each other healthy and happy. If the two of you separate, much pain will come about from the separation." Zed had a killer stare in his eyes as they continued trying to one-step the other’s moves. "Why are you telling me all this, you make it sound as if this is going to be something I’ll do for the rest of my life!" Jack said while defending Zed’s offensive. "It’s because you will be doing this for the rest of your life!" Zed replied with each word being said along with each swing. Jack caught an opening and let loose a fake swing to the mid-section then attacked at the front, catching Zed off guard. Jack had made the point and dropped his sword, "I don’t understand…I’ve never wielded a sword before, yet it all comes so naturally," Jack said while looking down at his hands. "That’s because these things are forged into your subconscious. They are dormant powers that merely need to be brought to the surface, and with a little training, can be refined into a masterful art." Zed said while getting them some water from a running brook nearby in this underground realm.
"There are a few rules I have always followed: somewhere along the line you will find the blade that is perfect for you, once you do never let another touch it unless they are feeling it’s bite, when in battle do not worry about anything other than the person you are fighting, one at a time, if you try to focus on more than one, you will lose your edge and they will bring you down once you try to multi-task on all of them. I will train you to be able to move fast enough to where you can be able to attack with the best speed and accuracy a human being can do, after that, well let’s just say it’s beyond me to train you above that level, though you just might surpass my training," Zed finished as he took a sip of the fresh water, "and if you ever have to give your sword to another, break it before them, thrust it into the ground and break it in two, a man’s blade is like a lifeline that keeps you breathing, never let that lifeline be used against you and insure that it never does." Jack took this all in while looking over the edge of where he was sitting. "You said at one point I will outgrow my sword, then why all this training?" Jack asked to Zed while he polished his blade. Zed stopped a moment and looked out into the void for just a moment or so then answered, "You’re sword will always be needed when you are in battle, at one point you might have to use other resources, but you should always start with the sword." That was good enough for Jack and then he suddenly realized how tired he was and his conscious mind left him to go sip some tea and eat some rice balls.
Jack awoke to the sound (and feel) of water in his face. Zed glared at him coldly, "It’s time for you to get used to waking at least an hour before the sun rises, it’s the only way you will stay alive." Jack gave a dirty glare at Zed and rolled onto his stomach and got up slowly but surely. Zed tossed him some clean clothes, "Today you’re going to learn how to stay one step ahead of your opponent."
