IN A DREAMSTATE

IN A DREAMSTATE

by

Adam Norman

In a Dream state

Copyright © 2011 - 2019 by Adam Norman

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

CHAPTER 1: WHO AM I?

7:00P.M. - 2014 A.D.

Somewhere off the coast of Maine.... “Where am I? Who are you?”, as he picked himself up off the floor of the yacht. “My name is Saundra. You've been abducted”. A guy with wavy hair stands in front of them, “Quiet you two!!”. As they stand up, they hear a disturbance from the deck above as they see what seems to be twins fighting. “You're not supposed to be here. They are not ready for you yet. Know your place!”. “They? What the hell are you talking about?” One of the women begins fading away. “The anu... is all that...” Suddenly, an explosion from the engine room takes out the back of the boat. Everyone runs for the water. “These are shark infested waters.”, as the wavy-haired bad guy and three others run across the water as if they were walking on solid ground.

“What the hell?!”? he whispers to himself as the boat begins to sink. “There's no time to think...!” As Saundra pushes him overboard. Thunder and lightening can be seen and heard over the waters of Maine. A few minutes later, he washes up on shore. “Be glad you didn't end up like our friends over there.” as Saundra points at the rock beaten corpses on the beach. A shadowy figure walks up to the two of them, “Glad you made it Saundra. I see you're still cold as ice. Who's the guy?”. “Dunno... He was on the ship when I arrived. He was unconscious like everyone else. I think we need to go so I can change and gather some supplies.” They take off toward the apartment unknowingly with an extra passenger in the trunk.

As one of the henchmen melds himself to the composition of their vehicle, he transmits a beacon of their position. Another entity rushes underneath just as they stop for a traffic light. The guy from the boat blacks out for a moment, he feels himself thrown from his body. Whispers can be heard all around him, “We are darkness. We are damnation. We will have you...” he wakes up startled as Sims hits the horn for the vehicle in front of them to move.

They arrive at the apartment only to find the door broken open. As they enter, they hear screaming. Saundra's twin was in the living room, at least what looked like her twin. “That's Saundra's clone... sort of.” As Saundra began to sit down exactly where her clone was, they began to meld together. They both begin screaming. You could tell how painful it was to 'meld' together. “Okay, let me go grab a shower and change my clothes.” she said to the guys. She left out the room, her clothes dropping while she walked to the bathroom until she was nude by the time she stepped into the shower. Meanwhile, Sims asks him if he remembers anything about his abduction and tells him the story behind the whole 'lexe.' story and how one day the year prior, a great dark vortex opened off the coast of Florida.

Everyone was watching television when it happened. Six hours passed as it began to fluxuate. Lightening began to flash with the crackle of thunder along with high ocean waves crashing into the shore. The vortex began changing colors. It looked as if it were getting darker in the epicenter.

As it began getting bigger, things that looked like parallel worlds began appearing, as if someone was changing stations on a television. As the vortex changed between worlds, it came across what looked like a post apocalyptic world and locked onto the image for what seemed like forever. The cameras all focused on the vortex began experiencing power surges as something stepped through the vortex. What appeared to be a metallic-like creature, reporters began talking with fear and excitement, reporting to the mass public watching the scenario unfold on television.

Creatures, one after another stepped through the vortex. After a few hours, there were over several thousand on the beach in what looked like military formation. Then a being wearing a crown, stepped through holding what appeared to be a scepter-like walking stick. “You're talking about the Megoians....” he interrupted. “That's right.” The vortex looked as it began to destabilize...

Then one after another, vortexes began to appear all around the world with thousands upon thousands of Megoians coming through them. When everything was finally done, there were over a billion Megoian refugees. A few weeks passed and everything seemed to be going back to normal. As they were talking in the living room trying to figure out how he was tied into all this, Saundra was in the shower with her back to the water thinking back...

(Set in the wilderness of Maine) A couple had gone on vacation for two weeks to their cabin. Everything was going great. That night, they were by the fireplace, Ben looked into Saundra's eyes and pulled out a very pretty diamond ring and asked her to marry him. Her eyes lit up as she saw the ring, then looked up at Ben and smiled. “Yes, Ben Velesion, I will marry you!” as she pressed her lips to his. Later that evening as she lied on her pillow, she began to see bright flashes of light in what could only be described as a vision. She screamed out and suddenly fainted. When she awoke, she found herself on the lake shore. She stood up and looked around in disbelief at the fact she was not in bed and had to walk back to the cabin.

When she arrived back at the cabin, she walked back to the bed only to find someone that looked just like her in bed with her fiancé. As she walked closer to investigate, the woman suddenly opened her eyes and began screaming. Flashes of light exploded through the bedroom as they merged into one. Once the transformation was complete, she was flooded with the memories that weren't hers. Memories of making love to her fiancé the night before. She soon realized that she had a split personality... literally. She knew then that when she began to fall asleep, this 'other' her emerged from her body. She then vowed to keep this dark secret to herself and never let anyone know of it. She packed her things and walked out the door on foot never to be seen again.

Returning to the present, Sims begin analyzing the guy’s blood to figure out why lexe was holding him on the boat. Who is this lexe?” he asks Sims. Sims stares off into the microscope as he begins to explain.... “Right after the vortexes began to disappear, an earthquake in the mid-south happened that ripped open a hole in the Ouachita Mountains. This opened a rift into a dimension, a dimension that we call the Diablo Dimension, where lexe was released from his prison of ten thousand years.... or so he claims. When that rift opened, the mutations began appearing throughout the world.

People found out they had these abilities. Some people found out the hard way though. While having a fight with her husband, Deloris Crinshaw screamed at her husband and when she did, beams of vibrant light surround him. His eyes began to change, and a white horn began growing out of his forehead. Screaming for help, he began to shrink as his hands and feet turned into hooves. His body became very hairy. As she closed her eyes, she envisioned him as a unicorn stuffed animal. She stood up and smiled as she opened her eyes and saw that there was a life size stuffed unicorn in her living room now. And now she works for that sadistic Lexe. Lexe, it Stands for 'Living Extraterrestrial Xeno-biological Entity'. He is why humans have been given these mutant abilities. He is a threat to all life on Earth, to all life in the universe. Saundra and I are looking for people with special abilities that will stand and fight with us for the future of all living things.

The alarm goes off in the apartment. “What's that?!” he asks alarmingly. “INTRUDERS!!!”, Saundra yells as she bursts into the room quickly putting on clothes as fast as she took them off earlier. “We have to go!!!” Sims yells over the alarm, “Okay and where do we go?!” Saundra points at the window, “Out the window!!!” She pushes them both out the window. As they fall to the ground, everything slows down. He glances over at a butterfly; it appears to slow down to the point that every detail of it can be seen down to the hairs on its legs. He gets to his feet, brushes himself off and looks at Saundra and says sarcastically, “Thanks for the push of confidence...”.

The henchmen look out the window and begin to fire on them with automatic rifles. They run to the backside of the apartments, henchmen right behind them, not seeing the laundry lines in front of him, he turns sideways and bends backwards as he runs under them, they jump into the Jeep and take off leaving the henchmen in the parking lot. “We need a second vehicle!! Let's go to my place and grab my red truck.”, Sims says.

As they arrive at Sims's place, there's a group of people outside waiting on him. “This will just take a second.” Sims touches his skin and suddenly transforms into him. He walks over to the truck and gets in and drives off. “Who were all those people?” he asks. “They are his wife's friends and family vowing to put him away or kill him for taking her life. She became evil when her mutation took over and he had to take her life before she took their daughter's.”

As they drive off, he sees a person that makes eye contact with him. Suddenly he has a vision of him in an interrogation room being yelled at with a guy holding dog tags in front of his face. He shakes it off as they leave. Meanwhile, the boss of the henchmen, Cronos, tells lexe what has happened and what direction they're headed. “Everything is going according to my plan”.

Meanwhile in a volcanic chamber in the south pacific, creatures producing diamond like fuel pods for transport to the diablo dimension are hard at work. “There is a presence here that I have never felt”. (Somewhere in the forests in New Hampshire) “They will never find us here in this forest. I can finally have a good night's rest. Saundra, you two take first watch. Your twin and I will take second watch.” Sims says. (Later that night) As he tries to sleep, he has a dream where he has an out of body experience. He is snatched so fast and shot across the world, it makes him sick to his stomach.

He stands in front of a masked, shrouded woman who begins speaking words of an ancient language he understands. Suddenly, her thoughts surge into his mind. “I understand”. Suddenly he wakes up to the smell of food. Sims shoves bacon in his face, “Hungry?!” “Those Megoians sure do know how to do it. These implants make anything taste the way you want it to. Wow! My bacon tastes like steak.” Sims says while stuffing his face. He goes down to the river to wash up and walks up on Saundra. “I'm sorry.” he says.

He tells her that Sims went to find another vehicle for discretion. They finally arrive back up at camp and discover Sims has brought back two new 2012 Spiders. Suddenly, a bullet bounces off the ground. A guy by the name of TopShot, who can zoom in on an object like a sniper scope pulls the trigger and fires a shot from his rifle. As he begins to shoot, everything goes into slow motion. (Zak)He somehow sees where the shots are coming from and 'Ports' himself behind the sniper, kicking him in the back. He takes his weapon and ports back into the car. As they drive away, “How the hell did I do that?!”. Amazed at what just happened, Sims’s jaw drops. “You’ve must have more than one ability, right? That's kick ass man!” Sims says over the intercom.

(Cut scene – A secluded cemetery by a power station.) - “I call upon Xengeon, THE DARK ONE. For every person in misery, rise for justice and good. I give you all the 'un-life' in this sacred ground. Now, with the power of the 'Four', ARISE!!!” (Thunder erupts in the sky with red lightening) The ground begins to tremble as trees burst into flames. Sparks fly into the air from the power station causing a static burst to hit everything in a half mile radius knocking out all communications. Meanwhile, the team stop off for a bite to eat and do some shopping in Boston. “How do we know who will join us? I mean, how do we know they won't turn on us? Do we take whomever is willing to join us or what?” he asks with half a burger in his mouth. “We take whomever wants to join... period!!” Saundra says.

Just as she says that, they hear yelling behind them, “STOP! Thief! Get him! He just stole a diamond ring!” Police begin chasing the kid around the mall. He eludes them with for a moment with just enough time to split himself into ten different bodies with the same ability as him, speed. They begin to run around the mall, keeping them busy as he changes his clothes and casually walks through the mall stealing what he wants. “We need him on the team.” Saundra quietly whispers. They get up and spread out into the mall. With police running everywhere, they don't notice (Zak)him in the background with the kid in his grasp. “Come with me if you're looking for real merchandise and money.” The kid kicks and kicks as they 'Port' to the meeting spot. “You're with us now. No questions. Just listen”. As Saundra looks him over. “What's your name?” He looks at her with a smug look, “My name's Jordan and I don't appreciate your guy handling me the way he did. Why and what do you want from me?”

Sims looks over at Saundra with a 'Yea right' look. “You have a great ability that you're wasting on petty theft. We need you as a part of a team.” Sims says with a slight angry voice when he looks at Jordan. “Well, I guess I don't really have a choice huh?”, Jordan says kidding around. “We need to get out of here before the police realize they're just chasing ghosts.” Jordan says as he hops in the passenger seat of the Spider. As he closes his eyes, the doubles begin to fade as they disappear, confusing the cops. They drive out of the parking lot and head to the highway. “I know a few 'Friends' that can help.”, as they head south towards the North Carolina Megoian refugee suburbs.

Top-Shot sends a few of his guys into a closed clinic. “What are we looking for?” one of his henchmen asks. “The boss wants morphine, and tranquilizer meds along with a radioactive isotope drug for animals. Now get to looking!!” the other one says. As they look, a mysterious dark red cloud of mist surrounds Top-Shot and immobilizes him. “What the hell?!” he says as he tries to fight it.

The mist begins to swirl around him. As it swirls, it begins to show him glimpses of his past and then shows him what becoming one with the mist will do for him. His skeletal system starts mutating. He tries to scream, but it feels as the mist had taken his voice for a moment. His eyes begin to turn solid red. He raises his head and smiles as he walks off into the moonlight leaving his henchmen for the police as he sets off the alarm.

(Back with the team) - Jordan takes over driving for a little while so he (Zak) can rest. He's pulled out of his body once again and is in front of the shrouded woman. This time she puts her hand on his head as he feels power pouring into him. Suddenly, waves of energy burst out from his eyes as another power is awakened from deep within. He wakes up from the car running over the shoulder lines because Jordan is falling asleep. “Wake up man!!”, as Jordan slams on the brakes, and both cars come to a screeching halt. “I'll drive!!”, as they switch seats, they hear what sounds like a woman screaming from below the bridge. “The drop is about sixty feet into the gorge.” As he (Zak) starts concentrating on the scream, he 'ports' down.

He hears the screaming ahead of him. He runs as fast as he can until he arrives finding a huge grizzly bear attacking a family in a minivan that got lost on a back road. He chunks a few rocks at the grizzly to get his attention. The grizzly turns and snarls at him (Zak), as he runs full speed towards him ready to kill him.

Zak dodges the grizzly as it slices through a small tree like a knife through butter. The bear turns and uses its paw to knock him into the air. Just before he hits the ground, he closes his eyes and ports. As he ports, his body surges with energy. He opens his eyes, realizing he's not on the same plane as the bear anymore. The bear looks around in confusion and then runs off into the woods. “We are watching all of you.” is whispered in his ear when suddenly, he's back on his plane of existence. “What was that?”, he thinks to himself. While trying to catch his breath, he explains to the family how to get back on the highway.

As they’re driving away, he ports back up to the team and tells them, “Everything's good. I've got another power. When I ported, I ended up in a different plane of existence just outside of the reach of physical objects. We're being watched.” Sims asks in disbelief, “Who's watching us?” “All I heard were whispers like it was more than one voice.” He says as he gets back in the car. Everyone gets back in their vehicles and head out into the night. As Sims looks out the passenger window, he thinks back.

Location: Savannah, Georgia – 1:00a.m. Saturday morning – 1997: “You got the stuff?” one asks. “You got the money?” the other asks. “Yeah, I got the money.”, as he pulls out a gun and shoots the other in the head, he takes the stuff and takes off. Lying in a puddle of blood, he starts fading away into the darkness. As he’s lying there, he hears voices whispering to him, “It's not your time. We have plans for you.”. Suddenly, he gasps for air and awakens with his wound healed. He learns he has a remarkable knack for learning things faster than normal.

Along with processing the information, he can now send and receive information through circuits of any type like a computer. He comes back to reality when he comes over to the car and yells in his ear, “Wake up! It's time to eat!!” He laughs and turns and walks off to the diner. Sims steps out of the car and looks over at Saundra with that ‘look’ as they head in to eat.

Meanwhile, Lexe wonders what or who is this dark entity that has set its sights on Earth. “I cannot let you mess with my plans.”, as he walks out of the chamber. He enters the lift and presses a series of dials in a certain order sending him into a different plane. “We have competition my lord. A dark, ancient entity has surfaced, and I will not let it have my victory. What shall we do my lord?” as he looks up into oblivion, a light begins to shimmer. As it comes closer to Lexe, it grows violently larger than the sun with the energy of a giant super nova. “I understand my lord.”

The entity disappears and he's back on the lift. “Commander, step two begins within two hours.” as he walks back into the chamber and stands there looking out onto Europa, one of Jupiter’s moons. Somewhere in the tropics, the sound of Macaws screeches everywhere. “Those damn birds won’t shut the hell up!! SHUT UP DAMMIT!!!” Rami shouts as he points his M-16 upwards and starts firing. “You know Rami, there are other ways of silencing the wildlife around here...”, Jessica quietly comments as a green colored fusion orb starts to appear in her palm. “Do it then Jess!” Seconds later, the only sound you hear is the breathing of Rami from being so tired out. “lexe wants us to finish this mission as soon as we can. And I will not be responsible for a failure. The GPS says we're almost there. Just five more clicks north and we should be at the tunnel. Let's head out! Everyone MOVE!!”, as Rami takes Point.

(Two hours later) - Rami whispers with authority, “Everyone halt! We've got movement up ahead. There are Megoians guarding the tunnel. Any suggestions Jess? I mean Captain...” Jess closes her eyes for a second. As she opens them, they turn solid green as she projects herself over by the Megoians. Nothing can see her because she is using fourth dimension (Time) magic. She moves through the camp counting how many guards there are. She comes back and tells Rami that there's only five guards. “They're all yours 'Magnus'(Rami).” Rami throws his weapon down to the ground as he begins to growl, making his body double in size, turning into a mag-mortar with magma in his veins. He quickly takes the Megoians throwing magma at them, watching them burn to the ground.

“What's in this tunnel anyways?” he asks. “An ancient artifact and we're going in to get it regardless of what's guarding it!” she says. Jess enters the tunnel first with orb in hand, lighting the way. The team enters the tunnel behind her. As they move through the tunnel, they pass what seems to be jagged, vibrating, pointed rocks coming up from the floor. They traverse down for half a mile as it begins to get cool. “Do you feel that? It's getting colder the further we go down.”, she tells Rami. “Yeah, I feel it too. Stay alert!”, Rami says. They keep going down the tunnel, further and further down as its walls begin ice over. The further they go in, the bigger the Ice gets on the walls until they come upon a chamber that begins to open at what looks to be the end. A bright, bluish, white light seems to be emanating in the gorge far below. They follow the path down to the light.

The artifact is laying on the ground as if someone threw it to the bottom of the gorge. “Well that was eas…” Rami says. Just as he starts to say easy, the gravity shifts, and the entire team is upside down in the chamber and an Ice dragon from the top of the ceiling pulls its claws forcefully out of the ceiling of the gorge. The dragon ascends upon them with a wing span of five hundred feet in each direction. “You had to open your mouth, didn't you?” Jess says as everyone spreads out. The dragon descends into the gorge with the speed of an F-16 Phantom Falcon, as blue ice shards shoot out of its mouth as if it were shooting fire. Two of the team instantly freeze on contact from the ice shards hitting them with the impact of a small explosion.

As the dragon lands, the impact shatters the men into tiny little fragments as they scatter across the floor. “Six O'clock!!” one shouts as smaller dragons appear behind them. They turn and fire on the small dragons. One gets through and stabs the man through his leg, freezing him instantly. As the ice reaches his neck, his head explodes. “Rami, it's time!” Jess says as the two gathers in the middle of the floor of the chamber. “RI-KA-JI-MIURI! Darkness comes!” both chant the saying over and over as their bodies meld together to form a being with both their powers to deal with the dragons. They begin running at the small dragons, taking them out effortlessly.

The ice dragon lands in front of them with the anger of a mother losing her children. It’s claws suddenly grow an ice sheet over its claws to deal damage to the rest of the team. It takes three of the team out within seconds. The being that Rami and Jess turn into starts running on the wall around the ice dragon to gather up momentum and fires a magma-fusion orb into the heart of the dragon. Just as the dragon swoops down and opens its mouth to swallow them, it explodes with guts and blue blood going everywhere. Jessica and Rami begin to separate. “Good job little sister! Good job!! Let's get out of here before one of the little ones decides to grow up and have its revenge on us.”

Back with the team, “What do ya think is going to happen once we get there? I mean, don't you guys think we need to recruit more people? The Megoians that I know have some very high-tech gadgets and abilities that we could use to fight this guy that's trying to take over.” Jordan says while looking at him(Zak) demolishing his food. “By the way, do you have a name man?”, Jordan asks. “The name’s Zak.” Zak says. “Zak, nice to meet you.” Jordan sarcastically remarks. Sims speaks up, “I've heard that we can combine our powers and merge into one another to make a more powerful being. But you’ve got to speak the words correctly. The thing is, I have no clue what they are.” they with their meal, tip the waitress, and head out. Just as they open their car doors, a teenage girl asks them if they have any change. Jordan pulls out a few dollars from his wallet and she suddenly grabs his forearm and throws him into the field behind the restaurant, leaving the other three to fight her off. “The Dark one says you are in the way. This is your destiny. You must be destroyed.

I will not have you take my place by their side.”. The girl conjures up three spell casting skeletal warlocks to defend her while she begins to open the gate to the 7th dimension, the death dimension. “Zak, you take point. I'll take the one on the right. Sims, you take the one on the left.” Saundra says while taking her jacket off. Sims makes quick work of the warlock by picking up a sharp-edged rock, holding it tightly in his hand, changing the mass to ten times its weight and throws it at the ground. A power which developed after his near-death experience, as it bounced, taking its head right off.

Zak ports away making the warlock look around in all directions to no avail. Suddenly, it explodes from the inside. Zak appears from porting inside the warlock. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?! IT ISN'T YET TIME FOR THIS!”, as a voice is heard, the woman is sucked into a vortex that sends out electrical surges along with flames. “Why do we keep running into these crazy situations? Who or what is after you Zak?” Sims looks at Zak and asks. “How much farther is it to your friends' hideout?” Zak asks Jordan. “We got about five more hours till we get there.” Jordan says. They hurry into their vehicles and take off out of the parking lot smoking tires on the pavement as they hit the highway.

Two Years before on an unexplored planet -

Tech - “Sir, we’re picking up vibrations below. It seems to have a 6.8 magnitude seismic vibration with very strong magnetic waves radiating from the epicenter.” Other tech - “Yes sir! We also confirm that the epicenter is growing. It appears to be radiating an electro-magnetic pulse that’s like Morse code. It appears to be mathematical.” High ranking official - “Go down to twenty-two thousand feet. Let's take a look at this thing. We have to make sure that it hasn't broken free.” They send out a probe with a HUD camera attached to it to investigate. As the probe gets closer and closer to the epicenter, the signal starts malfunctioning. Bright, brilliant blue and green lights begin flashing across the screen. Suddenly, everything goes pitch black. “What just happened? Someone talk to me!!” the high ranking official yells.

“SIR!!!” the only word one of the techs can say as two flashes of red light hit the probe and the hull of the submarine which is over half a mile away with equal to that of the sun's brightness. As it hits the probe and hull, black beams surround the red beams and dark matter shoots from the epicenter surrounding the sub, penetrating the hull and transporting everything into the abyss of the epicenter like a black hole. Everything disappears and the ocean is quiet again.

An eternal knight in a chamber rests in darkness as she awaits her punishment - “Why have you found me in dishonor of you, my lord? I have done everything you've wished of me. Did I not do as I was told? Why am I to be punished by this demon you've created?” she asks. An ancient sounding voice emanates the chamber as sonic waves clash against the old rock walls making dust fall to the ground, “You were not to take on the mortals yet! You forsake me?!! (A haze begins to form around the woman making her throw her arms out to the side with her head thrusting upwards as her eyes turn dark yellow.) You are now needed!” (The voice starts to fade away with the sonic waves as a red mist enters the chamber. Her shackles begin to dissolve. Blue lightening enters the chamber as the view suddenly fades out to nothing.)

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!” Zak wakes up in a cold sweat, yelling as his hands begin to burn. He runs to the bathroom to rinse them off. Steam comes off his hands when the water begins to fall on them. “We're watching you......” comes from behind him, as he looks up in the mirror, a hooded figure with its back turned to Zak says, raising its hand towards him. It shoots a beam of bright blue light at him, waking him from his nightmare. He jumps as Jordan startles him, as if he’s about to wake him to come in for a bite to eat at the convenient store. He tells Jordan while they're looking around the store for snacks that he's been having these crazy dreams and what's been going on with his new powers that seem to be appearing every time he has them.

Jordan tells him his theory about these 'powers' that keep coming up without knowing why. He tells him he thinks that Zak is from a different dimension like L.e.x.e. in a jokingly manner smiling and laughing as they go to the counter to pay for their stuff. Saundra tells everyone that they must make a stop in Maryland. “You mean we have to turn around and make an extra two-hundred and fifty-mile trip backwards? And the reason for this unscheduled stop?” Jordan asks. “I had a dream. That's all you need to know for now. Now drive!!” she says. “YES MAAM!!” as everyone salutes. “Sims, you take passenger and get some rest.”, Saundra says. (Sims lies back in the passenger seat, pulls his shades down over his eyes, smiles, and starts to fall asleep).

As he falls asleep, he finds himself in front of a yellowish – green vortex. He looks around to find the sky appearing as water and the ground as space. Suddenly, he's pulled through the vortex. He realizes he's flying through a wormhole. He hears a voice inside his head telling him everything is okay. “Why have you come here child of Xaxaestra? What do you seek? Powers in which you do not understand are at work. We... I need to show you the way to your ultimate destiny. Every time you dream from here on out, I will guide you.” Suddenly he's thrown forward through another vortex into a dark room. He stands up, looking around but sees nothing. He hears something that sounds like electricity crackling, when suddenly he's hit by a force that knocks him to his knees. He stands up as fast as he can in his battle stance, waiting for the next hit. “Is that all you’ve got?”, he tries to shout as if his breath was knocked out of him.

He listens for footsteps to figure out where whatever knocked him to his knees is. Two sets of footsteps come towards him as he steps forward to ready for them. They get closer and closer, sounding like they are right in front of him, when suddenly they come from the right and left of him, putting him to his knees yet once again. He gets angry and stands back up ready for battle. He closes his eyes and the view turns towards the inner part of his ears as they mutate to let him hear more clearly than he's ever heard. He hears footsteps yet again and readies for the forces behind them. As they come at him, he takes out his swords, hitting them together making sparks to show him where they are coming from.

As the light fades, he cuts through the bodies then takes out a hand gun in one hand while still holding one of his swords, shooting them in the head twice to make sure they are dead. The bodies fall to the floor, one with two bullet shots to the head, one with a sword in its heart. “You have done well my child of Xaxaestra. Now go!! Be prepared for your next task. Suddenly, a hole appears below Sims. He falls into a swirling vortex pit of water and ice which turns into energy that took him before. “Wake up Sims!”, hearing Saundra yelling at him, “Why are you yelling?!” he asks. “Whaaaaa? I was whispering. How in the world did you hear that??” He touches his ears, and smiles as he pulls his hoodie lower and his shades up and looks out the window.

6500 B.K. - Iraq

“Bukret ario or'dro foriodians” - slowly translates into English, “We are the guardians of this world until the Megoians find their way to this plane of existence. The sacred scrolls of the dark ones shall be scattered to the four corners of the world with the new guardians. We will rise once again when we are needed. My friends, you are to protect the ones until they are ready. Remember, they cannot know you. They must do it themselves.”

A few hundred years pass until a great war begins in ancient China. “Master, we must go now!! They are coming! We must hurry.” a young pupil says. “We must make sure we have all the documents of old. You will carry these scrolls to the eternal sleeper.”, the master says as he pushes on a loose stone in the wall as a secret passage opens.

The pupil grabs his master's hand and peers into his eyes as a surge of information enters his head. He turns towards the passage and descends into the chamber as fast as he can, closing the secret passage behind him. “Where are the scrolls old man?! Where are they?! a demon with ancient looking armor demands. “What have you done with the scrolls of the dark ones??!! Take him. We will see what he knows.” The demon warlord enters the room, looks around with paranoid eyes, glancing at every nook and hole in the wall. He stands there for a few seconds then speaks. “Leave nothing. Take everything. We ride to West.”, as he turns, his bloodied cape crosses in front of our view as he walks out. “You heard him!! Get to it!!, a henchman yells. The demon army burns the temple to the ground. They traverse westward taking everything in their path.

For centuries, this demon army has been gathering the dark one's scrolls for their queen, Lady Yuiox, so that she may grow in power and have all kingdoms under her rule. A tremendous earthquake in the late 15th century ended her rule when late one evening she opened a scroll and began reading from it. As she read from it, the sky turned dark green with red clouds. A vortex began forming in the crypt under her castle, causing everything to be sucked into it. As this happened, a figure appeared in front of her, glaring into her eyes as if they knew one another. She didn't have to say anything to the figure. Suddenly she looks down and there is a white stone in her hand instead of the scroll. She looks up and the figure has disappeared, as the floor begins to crumble below her. The vortex becomes more powerful as she is sucked in.

Screaming, she vows to come back one day. The sky turns blue as the sun shines down on ruins where her castle was just moments ago, standing in all its glory. Everything is still and the birds can be heard chirping. “My service to you is done.”, the demon warlord claims as he and his army fades into nothing.

Meanwhile, while the team is headed to Maryland, across the world in a lagoon, a very evil man is looking for an artifact. “Boss, what are we looking for on this island? I mean, why don't we just take over this place and make it yours?”, a henchman says as TopShot surveys the lagoon he was told about. “We are here to find an ancient artifact that has the power to vanquish a life form by turning it into ice. So, unless you know of a better location to find a similar item, I would advise you to keep your mouth shut and keep looking!”, he turns to the henchman and yells at him. Some of his guys finally come back after surveying the other side of the lagoon with information. “Boss, we've come across a tunnel that leads up the mountain then splits off in two directions with markings on the walls that look like gibberish to us.” He suddenly looks to the north of the island and starts talking to what seems like himself. “I've found a tunnel that I am going to explore to see if the artifact is there. I will keep you updated master. This is a deceiving island? I will take that into account master. Top Shot, out!”

They head up to the tunnel. Topshot examines the markings. “What do you think Cronos? What are the markings?” he asks Cronos. “They appear to be dates in time. I've studied at Okima from the diablo dimension, which is a form of Scholar University. I've seen writings like this before on the Dark ones' scrolls in a book of ancient origin. I was taught how to port back and forth to these dates using a chronoticuous power I developed from L.e.x.e. himself. I will check these dates in time and be right back. You will not even know I left.” Cronos puts his hood over his head, puts his thumbs to his forehead and vanishes, then reappears within a second with blood all over his hood and robe. “One of the mortals is traversing time ahead of us. I observed this figure collecting the scrolls. We must hurry and find this artifact before L.e.x.e. summons me to his side.

They reach the 'Y' in the tunnel. “We need to go left.”, as topshot looks through his scope down the tunnel and sees molten lava and gas coming up from the floor. They head to the left to the entrance of the volcano. “Cronos!!!” L.e.x.e yells!! “Master, you sent him to the 3rd dimension to handle your campaigns. Shall I summon him my lord?” a henchman asks. “No. I will deal with this myself.” turning into a fusion orb he vanishes.

Zak, Saundra, Jordan, & Sims reach Maryland and enter Baltimore. “Okay guys, we're looking for a girl that can change water into liquid metal. She's supposed to be living downtown in a studio apartment. Her name is Tasha Schkeniken. She teaches at the local college. We need her for the team. She is a biotech engineer with incredible abilities.” Saundra says.

Just as she briefs the team, dark gray clouds begin forming over the city. “Jordan and I will take the east side and you and Sims take the west side and we'll meet right back here in two hours... Sound good?”, Zak asks. “Sounds great.” Saundra says. At Tasha Schkeniken's apartment, a voice can be heard, “Come here Daizee. Are you a good girl? You're a good kitty, huh?”, as she sits down and pets her cat. 'Knock, Knock, knock!', she hears a knock at the door and goes to answer it. She looks out her peephole but sees no one standing at her door. (Knock, knock knock) She asks, “Who is it?” No one answers. She opens the door and doesn't see anyone. A woman, her best-friend, Casey jumps out of the dark and scares her to death. She screams, then smiles and punches Casey in the arm saying, “You're such a brat!” Casey walks in all excited. “What are you so excited for?”, Tasha asks. “It's your twenty first birthday! You're not excited??”, Casey asks. “Haven't you always wondered what's out there? I mean, What if....? Ya know? I'm twenty-one and I haven't done anything with my life yet. I've only got eight years left before I'm old enough to get Social Security.”, Tasha says while walking back and forth through her apartment getting ready for her birthday party at the 'Spiral' club.

Tasha is 5'9”, skinny, and very fit. Tasha was born into a wealthy medical family, where her father was the first doctor to live past thirty-three and her mother was the first doctor into space. “Okay, I’m ready. We still have three hours before the party starts. Let’s go eat something at the deli downstairs. Okay?” she asks. “I’m right behind you sis.” Casey says. Zak and Sims start searching for Tasha in the downtown district.

“I mean, she could be any of these women. A lot of them look alike. I mean, just look!! Twins! See what I mean?” Sims exclaims. “Keep your cool Sims. Let’s take a break for a bite to eat. What do you say?” Zak asks. They find a nice little bistro looking deli on the corner to sit and eat at. As they’re sitting and not doing their job, Saundra & Jordan begin looking down at the university to see if she’s there.

“So, what do we even say to her when we find her Saundra? Hi, you’ve got these abilities and we want you?? I can only imagine her reaction.” Jordan says. “We’re going to explain to her that we are the good guys and that the world is in grave danger.” They head inside and start looking. Back at the deli, Sims and Zak are stuffing their faces when two beautiful women stop in for a bite to eat. As they sit right next to them, Zak overhears one telling the other that she could be put in prison or worse, the government would make her an experiment. Zak pretends to drop his credit card and asks the woman if she could get it. He looks into her eyes as they both realize she’s who they’re looking for. He grabs her wrist and explains who he is and who his team represents. He then shows her everything they’ve been going through to get to her just by touching her. She suddenly jumps up out of her chair as a blue aura surrounds her.

Soon as this happens, her glass of water starts to turn into liquid metal, gradually getting heavier and heavier as it goes right through the wooden table that She and Casey were sitting at. “Showtime!”, Sims yells. Sims blasts the front doors with one of his accessories, locking the doors. “You know why we’re here Tasha, and you know why we need you. Search your thoughts of what I showed you, and think about it, okay? We need you!!” Zak says calmly. Meanwhile, Jordan & Saundra decide it’s time to leave the university since their search has turned up nothing. Jordan looks over his shoulder just as he reaches the car noticing a woman running for her life from a gang of thugs. “I’ll be right back…” as he runs toward the way they were running. “We don’t have time for this…” Saundra yells as she gets into the car and follows him.

The gang of thugs gets closer and closer to the woman making her more frightened. She begins to scream and hears Jordan telling her not to worry, that her hero has come to save her. The thugs begin laughing and joking around because the way Jordan looks. Jordan mouths off to one of them telling them they look like a bunch of fairies in skin tight t-shirts with huge guts. This gets the attention of the leader and pisses him off. He then tells the thugs to get the asshole. Soon as they run toward him, he’s gone. They freak out and look around and wonder if he was even there. They hear a voice from behind them asking if they really want to do this. They look behind them, but no one’s there. He appears in front of them and one tries to hit him, he vanishes and the guy hits one of his buddies in the head with a steel pipe. “We do not have time for these games Jordan.” Saundra tells him. As she says that, she conjures up a ball of energy and throws it at the thugs, knocking them all out. “Man, Saundra, you aren’t any fun.” Jordan says. “Remember what we’re here for. No exceptions Jordan.” She tells him. “I had to help her.

They were going to rape her, maybe even kill her.” He explains. They take the woman and get into the vehicle and take off. “We need to regroup with Sims and Zak, so call them and find out if they know anything new.” She says.

They get half way to Sims and Zak’s location and find out that they’ve found her. But there’s a problem. Lexe’s minions are out front and they’ve got some ‘heavy’ ammo. As Saundra and Jordan pull up a block away, they soon realize what the ‘heavy’ ammo is. The minions have brought two giant ogres to take Tasha at all cost. “Jordan, you know what to do. I will come up behind them. Have Zak teleport to you and tell him how we take these guys down.” Saundra whispers as they duck behind a vehicle.

“Man, I knew this felt too easy to recruit her. You ready Sims? I’ll port Tasha and her friend to a safe location while we deal with these idiots.” Zak yells over the coms. “NO! I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to help fight these monsters because there are a lot of innocent people around here and we don’t need casualties.” Tasha yells. “I’m staying too.” Casey says as she is surrounded by green flames and her eyes turn solid white. “Casey, you’re like me? When did this happen?” Casey just looks at Tasha and smiles. The battle ensues. Zak decides to combine his powers with Tasha to take out the ogres by having them be too heavy to move. He has Tasha take the fire hydrant and make the water into a very heavy substance called palladium. The ogres realize they can’t move and grow angry. Saundra and Jordan take out all the minions while Sims takes out one of the ogres.

Casey torches the other ogre completely burning it up. “Casey, would you like to join our team also? We didn’t realize you were like us.” Saundra asks. “Sounds like fun. Tasha, I’ll join if you do. Sounds like a lot of fun.” Casey exclaims. Tasha just turns to her and Zak and smiles. “She’s in guys.” Casey admits.

Back on the island, while TopShot & Cronos are still looking for the artifacts, he remembers the time when he first knew he wasn’t the only one of his kind. “Kaokai, you must understand, I’ve come to demand your eternal surrender for my master. You are outmatched. There is no way you can defeat me.” Kaokai, the king of Juricai, the Faithful city of plunder, tells Cronos he has someone that can defeat him and his master without hesitation. He points to the door as it opens, and a young woman enters the chamber. She begins to walk slowly toward Cronos and the king. He tells Cronos he found this young woman in the diablo dimension when the dimensional wars were going on and has raised her from birth. He then tells Cronos that she has some remarkable abilities he’s never seen in all his years as king. She pulls what looks like a knife from her back sheath, pushing a button on it with her thumb as it turns into a katana sharper than any blade known to anyone, given to her from her grandfather, ‘the dark smith’. “Father, I have come because there is a great trouble coming and I’ve felt it. Why haven’t you summoned me?? Who is this? A playmate for me maybe?” she asks scandalously.

Cronos and the girl are teleported into the Arena of lost souls for a friendly match to see who the better sportsman is. The battle begins with both bowing to one another in their own style of fighting. Cronos pulls a block that looks like a mini Rubik cube out and presses a button on it turning it into an axe with jagged edges. Suddenly, lots of minions port into the arena to try and keep the two fighters busy while trying to attack one another. The girl takes the minions out with ease on both sides of the playing field. Cronos’s jaw drops in disbelief. “No one could do that. No one.” The girl begins her approach running faster than normal, jumps into the air with a double summersault and comes down with her blade, hitting Cronos’s axe making a loud thunderous clanging sound with sparks going everywhere. Cronos begins speaking his origin language, building up his power for a ‘force of origins’ blast while trying to keep the girl preoccupied with the ‘worthless’ battle. She makes him look like a child fighting an adult martial artist with the speed to block and dodge his attacks.

Cronos begins getting angry because he cannot hit this silly, little girl he’s been battling now for over an hour. She finally takes on the offensive and begins to throw punches that are so fast Cronos cannot dodge everyone and is put to the ground a few times. His special technique is finally ready to use on her, so he gets up and shoots the blast at her directly in the face. Just as he does, she teleports behind him so fast, time almost stops as he is still using his power. It takes a few seconds for him to realize she’s not in front of him any longer.

She instantly puts him to the ground with her hand to the back of his neck. “That is enough. You now understand why she is my bodyguard Cronos?” the king asks. Cronos bows to the king and tells him that he needs the king’s bodyguard for a special mission to keep the earth’s first team of mutants at bay till Lex is ready to take over the dimension. “Your request will be taken to heart.” The king tells him as he gets up from his thrown and leaves with his body guard. As they leave, the girl turns just for an instant, glances at him and smirks.

Somewhere in the Milky Way, – in the Bravo verse – Megolian Prime - “Our world is ending. We can’t contain the particles any longer. If we don’t release them soon, we may not be able to leave.” A scientist says to another. “Maybe you’re right. We should do it slowly though so they can’t integrate and form the “Valhalla” particle.” As they have their conversation, they are unaware of a dimensional rift opening on the other side of the complex. Several soldiers and henchmen begin to emerge from the singularity. “We have to go now! Initialize the bio vortex so that it will port every Megolian at once. They’re coming!!”, the head scientist yells. The release the particles forming multiple vortexes at once, teleporting all Megoians to Earth.

“The megoians have a machine that can read your thoughts and memories even if you can’t remember them. This will help us find out who you are and where you come from Zak. If we know where you came from and what you’re here for, we might be able to understand a little more about why all this is happening. If, you’re up for it…” Saundra says. “What if I don’t like what I find? What if you don’t like what you find out about me? What if I’m a bad guy and don’t know it? There is so many variables in this plan of yours. If we make one mistake, we are screwed. If Lexe wanted to, he could end all of us right now. I’m sorry I’m just stressed out a little bit. So, what’s the plan?” as Zak goes off.

“The plan is to get to our destination.”, she says. The team finally arrives at the megoians’ base. They meet up with Jordan’s contact and explain to him what has happened thus far. A few hours go by and night falls. They take the rest of the night off to rest and relax before they go in for their readings. As everyone beds down for the night, they all start thinking about where they were right before everything started.

“I will never leave your side baby. I am here now and forever. You and I are inseparable. We will be together till we part this place.” As she looked into his eyes believing every word coming from his lips, the waitress came over and asked them for their order. “I’ll have a double bacon cheeseburger with onion rings and a diet Pepsi with a side order of chili and a medium strawberry – banana milkshake.”, as she smiled at him. “What will you have?” He looked up at the waitress and started to speak, “I’ll have what she’s having.”.

While they order their food, a woman in a coat enters the diner. She goes up to the counter and begins to order. When the waitress at the counter asks if that’s all she’ll have, she tells her yes and begins to open her coat revealing several supersonic driven ceramic ball bearing explosives around her body with the igniter in her hand, ready to push the button. Sims looks over at Skylar with a horrific look on her face, and then looks over at the counter as the explosion consumes the entire diner. Glass blasts out towards the walking pedestrians in front. He wakes up outside the diner with medics all around him asking if he’s okay and what had happened.

Jordan’s room - Chris Brown’s new fast music hit starts playing - Just coming out of the shower, Jordan runs around the room getting dressed then turns his X-Box on for some Black Ops 3. He smiles as he sneaks up behind an online player to take him out fast remembering how he got his powers. The Megoians had just appeared. He and a couple of friends were going to hang at an abandoned Aero-hydro plant on the east side of town. They had stopped by the store for some snacks and drinks and were almost there when a group of thugs in a gang that was notorious for hanging out around the plant claiming it as their territory saw him and his friends walking towards the plant. They all had headphones on playing different music, so they didn’t even notice the group of thugs sneaking up on them from behind.

Jordan felt a severe pressure against his back as one of the thugs hit him with a bat. He fell to his knees as his headphones slightly came off one ear so he could hear what they thugs were yelling. He quickly got up and ran into the plant with his other two friends. They ran deeper and deeper into the plant where they had never ventured into.

The thugs were still behind them looking for them. Jordan and his friends came to a “T” at the end of the hallway. They decided to split up because maybe one of them could get away if possible and call the police. Jordan went left and his friends went right. The hallways in the plant went on as if they’d never end. Jordan kept running until he reached a steel door with a keypad on it. There was still power going to the door and the keypad. He quickly took out his digital hacking utility to make quick work of the passcode to get into the room behind the door. He quickly closes the door behind him to find that the locking mechanism malfunctioned from hacking the keypad and made it to where the door couldn’t be shut.

He turns around and is shocked at what he sees. It’s a huge hydro chamber with barrels and chests that seem to go on forever about a hundred feet straight down from where he was standing. He hears the thugs running towards him and doesn’t notice the button next to him blinking green and the hydro chamber becoming active. He makes quick work of the ladder down to the barrels. He runs about sixty yards through the chamber and hides behind a red and green barrel and what looks like a silver metallic chest with a key pad on it.

The thugs run into the room and start down the ladder and look for him. A loud humming sound starts coming from the ceiling as wind traverses the entire room where everyone feels it and quickly looks up at the ceiling. “Hey! Yo! Let’s get out of here quick!” one of the thugs yells at the other.

They get back up to the door and get out of the area. Jordan runs back up to the door and yells at the thugs to hold the door but alas, it’s too late. The door seals shut right before them all. One of the thugs looks through the window in the door and just smiles before he takes off back down the hall. Jordan runs back down to where he was hiding because it looked as if the chest was big enough so he could squeeze into it long enough that he might just make it before the water filled the entire room. He got back to the chest and used his D.H.U on the chest to quickly crack the code and got into it. He knew it was a good place to go because it looked like it was a tight seal so he wouldn’t drown. As the room filled up with freezing water from the Aero (wind) – Hydro (water) machine, the chest began to float and drift towards the air ducts at the top on the other end of the room.

It was completely dark in the chest with an exception of a small window where he could see what was going on. Oblivious to what was going on in the chest, he kept his eyes on the way out. Nano machines in the chest were becoming active and started looking for a living organism to plant themselves in. They detected a heat source and quickly started embedding themselves into Jordan. He started screaming out in pain with no one to hear him in a vacuum tight chest. He passed out.

When everything was said and done, he awoke with the chest open with the river bank about ten feet from him. He decided to swim to the shore. He fell to his knees grasping for air. He got up and felt something in his hand. He started looking at them, seeing something almost protruding his skin. He went to grab his hand and moved so fast, he threw himself to the ground. “What is… this?”

Day 2 – Megoian base – “Your training in the ancient arts will begin in two days. We welcome you to our community. You have been chosen from a thousand years of evolution. You all were destined to come to train and grow stronger and develop your powers into what they can become. Go now and rest and get ready. Everything you will need has been set up in your rooms. Enjoy your next two days for they will be your last as civilians (and as human).” The elder turns, and goes behind the thrown into his chamber. “Is Anyone up for a bite to eat? I’m starving. Let’s go have a cook out.” Jordan says. “That’s a fantastic idea Jordan. Let’s go get the stuff for it.” Zak says. A technician comes in before they leave. “Your readings will begin at 1300, sharp.”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, “Boss, why are we in Guam? And why are we in the middle of the forest?” a henchman asks Top Shot. “We’re here because there’s an ancient prophecy that says there’s a significant item the boss needs. While we search here, Cronos is finishing on that island. It’s a good thing we brought him along. We’d would have never made it through all those traps.”

They begin the trek into the forest. Traveling through the forest, the ambient noises suddenly stop. “Everyone, stop and perform security! We’ve got company!” A noise of a crackling leaf is heard off in the distance. “AGHHHHH!!!” is heard from behind the group. “HEEEELLLLLPPPP!!!” is heard from in front of the group. Suddenly, there’s a gust of wind that passes between the group and three of the guys fall over with gashes to their abdomens. “You guys are worthless.” TopShot says laughingly. The henchmen start running in all directions to get away from whatever was killing everyone. TopShot casually walks in the direction of the pyramid where the boss told him to go. He feels a sudden sensation of warning behind him, jumping into a tree, the demon misses him and runs into a rock, passing right through it. “So, that’s what they are.” He says to himself. He pulls out an explosive tipped arrow with angelic writing on it.

He hears the demon behind him breathing. Twirling the arrow around quickly, stabbing it in the throat killing it. “You’re dead!” Dropping down to the ground, he takes off and runs faster than the traps can activate, trying to kill him all the way to the pyramid.

(5th Dimension – Chronos Galaxy – Planet Chronos – 10 B.C.) – “Do you not understand the consequences of your actions?! LEXE is pure evil. You can’t be allowed to leave this planet ever again! Son, do you not understand what you’ve done?! There are always other ways to do things. Our ways of living and our teachings have been passed down for millennia and have not changed.

Our way of manipulating time and space is only passed down to the first born. How many civilizations will be compromised due to you manipulating time? This cannot be allowed anymore. You are to strip all rank and decorations and be sentenced to the brig for no less than five thousand years.” Chronos’s father says. “There are things that you just can’t comprehend father. I feel sorry for you and this planet.

We shall see how long you can hold me here father, we shall see.” In a dark, damp cell where Chronos is kept, days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, months into years. As time passes, a day comes where Chronos is lying on his cot and hears thoughts that can only be emerging into a voice. The voice of Lexe in his mind. “Are you ready to serve me? Are you ready to reveal to this existence what we truly are? Join me Chronos, master of time manipulation.” A silver vortex opens in his cell, and he vanishes.

Cut scene – Kansas - 1960’s – On a still, cloudy night in a field of corn there stand a teenager building a contraption that appeared to be straight out of a sci-fi movie. The machine appeared to be made from some type of super conductive metal. “What is he doing out there? He didn’t show up for work, didn’t do his chores, and now he’s late for supper.” His mom thought. As he was working on his project, he didn’t realize a super storm was coming from the west with potential funnel clouds and cloud to ground lightening. He was inserting the last piece of the contraption which was plutonium 3.

He was a janitor at the plant where he had top secret clearance since he had to clean most of the labs and offices on the bottom level 5th floor. He watched the scientists when he went into work and memorized the keycodes they used to access all the restricted areas he couldn’t reach.

Once everyone left for the evening, he took metallic spray paint and sprayed it over the cameras focusing on those restricted areas so that he could not be seen entering. He had no clue what the contraption was going to do but remembers seeing it in his dreams and knowing he must assemble it for a purpose. Just as he hit the power switch, lightening came down and struck the plutonium. As it happened, the plutonium began lighting up with sparks coming from it. It started making a noise and just as the noise got the loudest, a beam of energy shot straight up through the clouds as if it were sent into space.

Just before it shot up, he tried to turn off the contraption being electrocuted. He disappeared just before the beam of energy lost consistency and stopped. His mom came out to the field because she had thought she saw him fall to the ground from being electrocuted. Once she was out in the field, she couldn’t find his body. She looked for over an hour to see if the lightening hit him and pushed him away from where he was. There was no sign of him. She ran into the house and called the authorities.

The town they lived by was so small that there was one lonely car sent out to the house to see what had happened. She showed the officer where he was struck by lightning and explained to him what she saw. The officer saw where the lightning struck the ground but no sign of her son or the “Contraption” she spoke of. The officer took her back into the house and had her fill out a missing person’s report stating what she saw and the measurements of the strike. “Thank-you ma’am. We’ll keep you informed on everything we find.” The officer told her as he drove off in his vehicle.

Kansas 2010) – “Strong winds and severe weather have been plaguing our area for a week now and it looks as if it’s not even close to being over. We should expect even more severe storms tonight due to a low-pressure system coming into the area. Expect warm temperatures with cloud to ground lightning and even golf ball to softball size hail and if we’re lucky, maybe even a tornado or two.” The weather man explains in detail. Night comes with severe storm clouds just as the weatherman predicted. Lightning begins striking the ground in the corn fields outside their house. “Look!! There’s a funnel cloud. We need to get to the shelter.” The husband tells his wife and kids. They all run out to the shelter and shut the door.

Just as they shut the door on the shelter, a cloud to ground strike hits the wind mill and bounces to the exact spot where it hit in the 1960’s. As it hits the ground, something starts to materialize. As the lightning sparks, you start to make out what looks like boots and then pants until something is standing in the corn field. With his head looking down at the ground he speaks. “You all are in trouble. He is coming.” As he looks up, his eyes glow from blue to dark red. He smiles and vanishes.

(Present Day) – One day before the trials begin, the team decides to do some sparing for their morning practice and see what they’re capable of. (The setting: green grassy prairie with multiple tree systems.) They begin with explaining what they have fought in the past and pair up showing one another how to take the creature or creatures out as fast as they can. They go over each scenario to get ready for the trials because they know the Megoians’ training center has every creature known in their hologram programs. Just as they get ready to start, fog forms all around them with a figure appearing just beyond their sight. It begins speaking in riddles. The voice is familiar to Zak but he just can’t place it. As the fog disappears, the figure appears to be colonel Frisk from the National Space Defense & Aeronautical Strategic Command. “Colonel, what are you doing here? I thought you had your hands full with all the problems going on right now. You wouldn’t be here unless you didn’t have any other ‘ways’ of fixing things. Saundra asks with doubt. “I’m here to make sure you don’t mess up. We need you, all of you for a critical mission that has come to our attention and if you don’t help us, Mankind will literally come to an end by the end of the year. So, if you just want to waste time and stand around here training all day, every day then by all means.” The colonel states with authority.

He begins to walk back to his chopper when Zak asks him if it’s that important, why not ask the Saturn squad to take care of it. The colonel turns and looks him dead in his eye and tells him the most horrifying thing he’s heard in a long time, that the Saturn squad doesn’t exist. As everyone looks at the ground, they decide to go with the colonel to find out what’s going on. Five hours later, they finally reach the secret base. “We will brief you tomorrow morning. Get some rest. You’re going to need it people.” The colonel tells them right before shutting the door to their room. Before anyone falls asleep, they talk to one another. “Guys, we’re only a group of people with special abilities and can’t be everywhere. Lexe probably has his hands in this issue too. So, the more things we handle, the more pissed he’ll get. Let’s do this!” Saundra exclaims. Zak lies on his cot and thinks about what the colonel told them that day about the Saturn squad not existing.

It was all made up to give the people of earth hope. As he lies there looking at the ceiling thinking, he begins to fall asleep. Suddenly there’s a huge explosion. He jumps up from his cot, sprints to the door and tries to stop and begins to slide towards the door. The door opens into a huge cavern where the rest of the base use to be. He looks up and see’s what appears to be a figure hovering at the top of the hole. He squats down to pull all his power for a leap and instantly appears in front of the figure which turns out to be L.e.x.e. himself. “Who are you?! Why did you do this?! What do you want?! Zak demands from the figure. L.e.x.e. begins to laugh. “It’s always the same questions. What do I want, why did I do it, who am I? When the real question on your mind is, who are you?” (The alarm goes off and Zak wakes up.)

Zak thinks back to two days ago, when the team had all their readings done. He remembers what the technician told him about his reading. “You are human, yet not. It appears you are what we call a half breed. You’re 75% human and 25% something else. Therefore, you have access to so many more abilities than most humans. We will continue to study your abilities to determine what the other 25% is”. “What the hell just happened?? Was it a dream? Was it real? I’ve got to tell the others.” He jumps up off his cot and hurries to find the others. Everyone’s sitting around a table in the mess hall eating breakfast as Zak goes over what happened in his “dream”. They’re all paying close attention to what he’s saying while eating. “So, what exactly does this thing look like? I mean, are we ready for him? Do you think we have what it takes? Is he nasty looking? Is he capable of flight? Is that why he was floating?” They all ask questions too fast for him to answer any of them.

He slams his tray down onto the table aggravated that no one will let him answer any of their questions and tells them to “Hold up so I can answer!” as a couple of the soldiers at the next table stare him down giving him a dirty look, mumbling something under their breath as they turn back around going about their business once again. He starts answering the team’s questions when the alarm goes off all around the base. Everyone starts running towards the front gates ready for whatever awaits them. They get to the gate and to their surprise; they see modified humans standing there as far as they can see. One speaks; “I’m not sure why or how I got here. It’s like I was drawn here.”

Days pass as the team trains with other modified humans drawn to the base as they were. Days pass into weeks, weeks pass into months, all while they grow stronger by pushing themselves harder than they’ve ever done so before. They find out they can combine their powers to become an unstoppable force of destruction if combined correctly. The team begins to question the force drawing them to the Mogian base. “We’ve got to find out what is bringing all these people here.

It’s like once their ‘gene’ is activated, they come. And if the Mogians can’t build habitats faster, we’re going to run outta room soon for all of them.” Saundra comments as they patrol the outer area of the base. The leaves begin to fall as another season ends. “When will we go after Lexe? It’s been almost a year since we’ve started training. It’s time we do something.” Jordan exclaims. “We don’t even know how to get to Lexe. So, how are we going to do anything about it Jordan? Tell me that mate. As Sims goes off on Jordan, Zak and Saundra finally get a meeting with the Council of the Megoians. They go over everything that has happened before they came to the base and what’s happened since they came onto the base. The council then explains to them why they were all drawn there.

The megoians are capable of faster than light travel through space and time by folding space and entering a dimensional rift to cross great distances. This fold in space created an energy around the base drew the humans to it by accident. They then explain to Saundra and Zak along with a couple of other leaders that a witch cast a summoning spell long ago to bring about chaos and darkness from the other twelve dimensions described in her coven’s book of witchcraft. After casting the spell, things began to happen. Along with events started long ago, genetic changes in humanity began to take shape to counter-act the coming chaos. This brought about the first genetically changed humans. At first, no one noticed the slight changes from blue eyes, green eyes, taller people, and people living longer. When the changes couldn’t be ignored anymore, we set out on our journey to help you defeat the demon council. But before we could collect the proper particles called Valhalla particles, we were invaded by Lexe’s forces and had to travel here to Earth. We are now in the midst of gathering the particles to help with the battles and wars to come.

CHAPTER 2 – THE DEMON COUNCIL

(The Fifth dimension)

Nine hundred billion years ago, a hostile, polluted, heat driven universe was formed by a great council, a council of demonic entities from a long dead dimension. Escaping into the black void, these entities came across a doorway into a volatile universe much like their own. With everything that had happened, they longed to unite and become more powerful than their previous adversaries who had driven them to extinction due to igniting all their stars’ cores and destroying the universe. When all the suns went supernova, it ruptured the space-time continuum, disassembling every particle in their universe. Of all the demonic entities escaping into the new universe, Eoha knew what needed to be done for his race to become the most powerful force in any universe, he had to become the most powerful of them all. Entering through one of the many black holes of their universe, Eoha knew that matter from his universe would cause a great explosion of matter, time, and space into this new universe his species intruded upon creating new places to conquer.

As his species passed through the gateway, the explosion was so great that the matter and space expanded so exponentially fast, it took billions of years for them to gather back up in one place to plan their future of conquest of this new universe. Realizing that this universe had multiple dimensions, they planned, built, and used multi-dimensional gateways to expand their hold on it. A new council was put together of the eldest survivors with the darkest intent of keeping a hold on everything their hands touched. Eoha was the eldest of the demon council and the evilest. Everyone either looked up to him or feared him. Plundering precious metals and gasses from every dimension, the demon council decided to expand throughout multiple galaxies. Their plan executed properly could amass a great addition to their future empire.

They would have to build graviton dimensional slip stream technology that could send them great distances in the matter of minutes through dimensional gateways. This required tireless amounts of working and planning. Completion of the drives were almost complete. Thousands of our “Earth years” had passed by in the blink of an eye. They had finally gathered enough materials. A secret council meeting was called without Eoha’s knowledge one night. It was about the how the leadership of the council was too relaxed. “We’ve come together tonight to discuss the leadership of this council and to determine if the eldest is still fit to lead. As many of you know, Eoha has not been seen for many years and it is believed he has traveled to a faraway galaxy or dimension. He has left us with more questions than answers in his absence. Our society is at its peak, it’s Golden age, yet he sits idle without one word to anyone. We’ve almost completed the construction of the graviton drives without any setbacks.

We now have the ability to travel to galaxies we wouldn’t have reached in our lifetimes. If any of you have council members have anything to add, be heard now or forever be silent on this subject.”, the eldest speaks. A member stands up before the council, walks down the steps next to his hovering platform down to the central pedestal to voice his opinion in front of all the council. “As many of you well know by now that I, supreme Kaiko have become the favorite to take over Eldest Eoha’s position for many years now, yet I take no pleasure in this. He has been one of our greatest heroes and leaders. His position is of the most importance.

His vision was to discover new lands, new dimensions, new territory so that our society may grow into the greatest empire ever known. With great sadness, we know not where he has gone. For many years, this council has supported his beliefs with every thought of his safety. And with that said, I take this position with honor, dignity, and humility.

For I know not what he would have done..”. Just as Kaiko was about to finish his speech accepting his new position, a vortex began to open. The color of the vortex was black in the center with dark red waves emanating from the sides, turning into bright blood red lighter waves with a pulse every few seconds coming from the waves. A dark figure appeared from the vortex surrounded by a light red tint aura. Stepping out of the vortex, his boots touched the floor. It was Eoha. He was Eoha, but he wasn’t. His face looked younger than what the council had remembered. “The council has done its job to a great success. I applaud each one of you. I have been absent for a long time. In my stead, you, Kaiko, have served me well. I thank you for your service and honor you. Your time as an elder has come to a closing though.” As Eoha lifts his left arm, Elder Kaiko’s life essence flows from his body and into Eoha’s fist as he absorbs every particle. “What are you?! How dare you come back here just to murder one of your own. Why have you come back now Eoha?”, a councilman questions Eoha.

“Eoha is not my name. Eoha is my essence but it is not me. I, we, my name is Lexe… I have incorporated this corporeal entity and we, I are now one. Eoha is very happy now with this relationship. Two hundred years ago, Eoha was learning how to open a dimensional rift into my realm. The rift began to open when suddenly I slithered through without him noticing. Just when he was about to enter the rift, I took advantage of the situation. It took a few days to merge completely with this entity. He fought me the first few days. It was very strenuous on my mind. He taught me how to speak as our minds connected. We had years of conversations in the matter of a few months, and I began to understand your species the more we connected. You now have two options. Surrender to my leadership for life, or.. die.” As he began to smile, the eldest council member looked around the room, sighed, and began to speak. “It is with great sadness that on this day we no longer acknowledge Eoha as leader of our society.” Saying that, he presses a button next to his chair summoning a group of security forces from the other rooms.

They surround Lexe with photon weapons set at the highest frequency of kill. As they begin to pull the triggers, his eyes turn solid red. His hands begin to glow green as the aura surrounds his whole body. He begins speaking in a strange tongue the council had never heard before. Suddenly the security forces begin to sweat. He screams out as if in pain as the aura blasts out of his body with a force of an explosion, disintegrating every living organism around him that was not behind the security shield. With what just happened, the council agrees to his terms and surrenders. This is the story of how L.e.x.e became the most powerful being in all creation. He steps onto the central platform to announce himself as ruler with all the knowledge of Pheike to his new empire. “What has happened since I was last here? I want to know everything.”, he exclaims.

The council convenes for the next two years every day to go over what has happened in his absence. “With the dimensional barriers intact, we still control over seventy five percent of gateway travel, my lord. Thanks to the research into dimensional crystal technology, we’ve been able to travel to all known dimensions and have found even more to travel to. We now know that there is at least fourteen dimensions, or universes if you have it. There might even be more to travel to. We’re still doing the research on the crystals since there is an unlimited light spectrum emanating from them. Give us a few more years my lord and we will have expanded your empire ten, no, twenty-fold.” Back at the compound in present day, the crew decides to help the Megoians in South America with a ‘lizard’ problem. “Are you sure they gave us the right coordinates? This looks more alien than those dimensions you mention. I mean, it looks like no human(s) has stepped foot down here in millions of years if at all. By the way, speaking of stepping foot on any land in millions of years, when’s the last time you had…”, Jordan asks Saundra as he’s interrupted by her on comms.

“How bout you focus on the mission instead of wondering who’s been in my pants Newbie? We took this assignment to see if we’re ready to face the most powerful whatever he is. Maybe he’s a mutant like the rest of us. Or maybe he’s some alien hybrid. He does look a little like a human.”, Saundra replies.

Chapter 3: Hide & Seek

“Coordinates 900274.80. We’re here. I’ll set us down over there in that clearing.”, Sims tells them over the headset. “So, what exactly are we looking for in the middle of the jungle Saundra? You’ve kept us in the dark the whole way.”, Sims comments as he unfastens his seatbelt. They start gearing up before heading off the ship. Saundra looks Sims in the eyes as she puts her gear on and turns around grabbing her weapons and heads towards the ramp out of the aircraft. “We’re here to find a jewel or jewels that are in the locals’ ancient history. They think it’s a myth, but I’ve listened to all their history from the elders. It or shall I say, they should be in this jungle. They also mention monsters in their stories. That’s why we have these. We will be prepared for whatever’s out there. Sims, you take point.”, as she walks down the ramp.

A few hours pass and the team are taking a break, sitting down and against a tree as they drink water and have a dehydrated meal. Sims pulls out a photo and stares at it remembering how it was before everything happened. He slowly comes back to reality realizing Jordan is trying to tell him it’s time to get going back at the mission at hand. He puts his photo back in his pocket and the start back at it. “How much longer do we have to go? I mean, I’m all for a walk in the woods, but this is ridiculous. I’m soaked from head to toe in sweat, and the bugs here are as big as dogs (slaps his neck killing a bug). I think the wildlife here is smarter than we are. Look, they’re nowhere to be seen. Probably hiding in a den or something, waiting for the sun to go down, which we should be doing.”, Jordan rambles. “Look, if you don’t want to be here, go back to the aircraft and pull security till we get back. I’m sick and tired of you whining like a little bitch Jordan.”, Saundra exclaims.

Jordan looks over at Tasha and they both give a smirk, then put on their serious face as they put down their infrared goggles over their eyes and head deeper into the jungle. “We’ve got movement at your three o’clock. Use caution. Zak, get ready. This may be a situation where we need you to use your precision.”, headquarters relays. “Copy.”, Zak whispers. Particles of light begin to form around his hands slowly as he slowly charges up his powers. He slowly moves towards the movement in the bush. Getting closer and closer to the movement, he thinks back to when they all had a chance to leave the team and pursue other adventures. Closer and closer his steps got quieter. He steps up to a tree to his back using it as cover. He slowly peers around to see something he cannot even put into words. It’s two small wildcats mating. “All clear.”, he says as he walks back over to the team. “Let’s keep moving.”, Saundra whispers.

Saundra gives the team a halting signal with her hand and they all take a knee. There’s a trip wire right in front of her boot. “Looks like we’re getting close.”, as she points at the trip wire. Everyone steps over it as they walk a little further coming to a cliff with a crater that looks like it was recently made. “I’ve got to call this in guys. Take a break. And we’ll see what headquarters says.”, she tells the team. They take a knee in defensive positions as Saundra calls it in. “Headquarters, this is Tango Echo 113. We have a situation here. There is what appears to be a crater in front of our current position that stretches about two miles in all directions. There appears to also be movement at the bottom of the crater. There are about forty to fifty military personnel moving some of the enormous meteorite. It appears to be glowing with a green then blue color, alternating in frequency. Please advise. Over.”, Saundra radios.

They wait for what feels like forever and then they hear movement in the bush. “Everyone, down! Movement at our nine o’clock. It’s definitely not cats this time.”, Zak states. Voices can be heard getting louder as the movement of the bushes and twigs breaking can be heard. As the voices get louder, the team drops to the ground, weapons ready. One of the soldier’s boots step right in front of Saundra’s face as their commander calls them back to the site. The soldiers begin to walk back. Saundra gives the all clear. “Tango Echo 113, You are to wait until said hostiles have left with their shipment then investigate the site. Bring back what samples you can. Do not, I repeat, Do Not come back without the primary target. Headquarters out.”

Saundra looks over at Zak and signals with her hand to move on the soldiers. Zak port away, knocking out the soldiers. Moving through the woods, they come up on the camp where Saundra signals the group to form up. “Okay, here’s what’s going on. As of 72 hours earlier, we got wind of a kid with the ability to create wormholes, more like portals so they can teleport from one location to another without boundaries of walls or borders. There’s one catch though. This kid is Cardia Mercucio, The drug cartel’s leader’s daughter. Soldiers from this country’s government are holding her in this location until the ransom is paid. We’re here to extract Miss Mercucio and bring her back to base where the Megoians can extract information from her mind about her father’s ‘business’”.

Jordan looks around at the team and asks, “I thought we were helping with a lizard problem”. Saundra smiles, “We are Jordan. What I failed to tell you until now, was that the soldiers are actually a race of lizards from under the Earth that have been here since the dawn of time with tech that makes them look human”. Let’s move.”, as the team sets up to infiltrate the camp. Flares begin to light up the camp confusing the soldiers and blinding them at the same time. Jordan and Zak rush in taking out a few of the soldiers without a problem. Everything looks clear for a minute. Suddenly, multiple soldiers surround the two.

“Where the hell did they come from? It’s like they just appeared out of thin air. Do they also have camo tech?”, Zak asks in radio. “That’s one of their natural abilities. They can camouflage themselves to reflect the area around them, making them almost completely invisible.”, Saundra whispers. Zak whispers over his shoulder to Jordan, “J, do you remember the Vault Port you and I was working on? We kind of need that right now.” “Do you remember what happened when we tried that the last time? You ended up in a tree and I ended up in Russia.”, Jordan laughingly says. “Well, no time to argue over this. Do it!”, Sims tells the team.

“So, Saundra, is the girl the Jewel we’re looking for or what?”, Jordan asks. Saundra replies, “Yes sir, and that means get your ass in gear.” “Copy that.”, as Jordan begins to run circles around Zak while he begins to charge his hands with Tesla energy from the sky to power up for his teleport. Tesla energy was invented by Nicola Tesla in 1891, which took the electrical current in the air and magnified it to create high voltage, low current, high frequency alternating-current electricity. As Zak was finishing up his charge, Jordan flips upside down and begins to run around on the current coming down charging Zak. As Zak begins his teleport, Jordan channels the electrical current into his boot to his hands, sending out a small electrical shockwave immobilizing the soldiers as they port over to the hostage.

“All Clear.” Comes across the radios as Zak unties the girls. “Saundra, I thought you said there was only one hostage. There’s over twenty girls and women here. Do they all have powers?”. “That’s why we’re here team. We’ll take them all back with us and let the Megoians run tests to find out and find their families so we can reunite them”.

“Jewels have been secured HQ. Securing in anti-gravity casings. What should we do with the soldiers? Copy that. Soldiers are to be taken and destroyed. Out.”, Saundra restates what she hears over the radio. “Copy boss. Hey Jordon, Let’s get these guys out to the ocean so there’s no mess.”, Zac states. “Alright, open me a portal and this will go a lot faster”, Jordon casually says. The team finishes up with the bodies and secures all the jewels as they fly back to base.

“So, Saundra, what’s up with these jewels? Are they some sort of asteroid minerals or are they from deep within the Earth or what?”, Simms asks with interest. “Why, are you thinking about taking a few for yourself and selling them on the Black Market?”, she asks. “No, why? Are you wanting to do the same?”, Simms asks in return. “We could use the funds and HQ doesn’t know how many rocks we recovered. So, yeah, get ahold of your contact for an exchange. Make this quick.”, she says while flying the aircraft. After exchanging the minerals with his contact, the team returns to headquarters where they give the Megoians to test to see why they are so special.

A few weeks go by and Simms is contacted by his guy. The team is requested to the estate of his contact to receive payment. They all take a week off from work and fly down. “So, Simms, what does your contact want with all of us in person? Couldn’t he have just put the money into your account?”, Jordon asks. “Not sure. He said the buyer wanted to meet us in person.” “Well, I for one could use some sun and warm weather for once. If things go sideways, you all know what to do”, Saundra says. They finally make their way to the estate where Simms’s contact and buyer are located. “My good friend Simms, how are you? How are you?! This is Mr. T.S Hott.

He wanted to acquire the minerals and wanted to know how you came about such a rare mineral type. He says that he would like to meet you in person, so I, a good host could not refuse him, as he has very, very deep pockets, if you get my drift”, as the contact smiles.

“Hello Mr. Simms. My name is T.S. Hott and I wanted to ask you in person how you came about this mineral. You see, it does not act like any mineral here on Earth or this solar system. As far as all records show, it might not exist in this galaxy. So, if you know of where it came from or someone you got it from knows, I would be willing to show you gratitude with a finder’s fee.”. Simms looks at the team and tells Hott that if he gives him a week to get the information needed, he and the team would be more than happy with a “generous” finder’s fee. Hott agrees to the terms, shakes hands with Simms, and they part ways for the week.

Back at HQ, the women brought in are being tested for powers. Zak stands outside the room where they are being tested wondering why there were more than one hostage at the camp, when the intel said there was only one hostage. He stares off thinking to himself as Saundra walks up to the glass, looking into the room. “A penny for your thoughts?”, she asks. “Just a feeling. Why were there multiple hostages, and why didn’t HQ know about it? Something’s off. Why were…”, Zak states as Saundra cuts him off mid-sentence, “They’re safe now. That’s all that matters. Our mission is finished. It’s up to HQ to determine that. We’re here to help.”.

“Okay, I’ve got some info on where from whom the minerals were acquired. We must fly to Croatia and meet with a guy that owns a mineral company called CroMineral. His name is Xavi Manicore. He’s agreed to meet with some buyers expressing that they’re excited to buy into his company. We’re those buyers. We fly out at 0700 in the morning”, Simms says while briefing the team. Morning comes as the team grabs all their gear needed for the op and head to the jet. As they’re loading up, Jordon tells the team he forgot something and runs off. He suddenly comes back with five cartons of doughnuts from his favorite Portland doughnut shop, VooDoo Doughnuts.

The team arrives in Croatia. Jordon opens the hatch to step out, doughnut in his hand with a mouthful, looking into the distance as he steps out and onto the tarmac. Doughnuts still in his mouth, he exclaims, “This place is beautiful.”. A limousine pulls up to the jet. The team gets in as they pull off the tarmac headed towards the company location. “Well, this is different. I’ve never had the luxury of riding in a limousine for an OP. Wait, is this an OP or personal?”, Jordon asks. “This is a personal OP Jordon. It’s an OP but it’s personal. Why did you even ask us that? You know what it is.”, Simms jokingly says.

“Remember, let Saundra and I lead as we ask questions. You two check out the facilities to see if you can find out more about these minerals. Ask questions, but don’t be too direct so that the scientists don’t pick up we’re looking for the mineral directly. We need to be subtle. Got it?”, Simms reiterates the OP.

“Yeah, yeah, ask questions, walk around, seem interested, blah, blah, blah.”, Jordon says acting bored already. “We hear you.”, Zak says.

They pull up to the company, Dr. Manicore waiting outside to greet them. Greetings are said as they go inside. Everything starts going as anticipated. Simms and Saundra head into Manicore’s office to look over the paperwork as Zak and Jordon take the tour to see the facilities. As Zak and Jordon walk around with the head scientist explaining to them that most of their minerals come from a sink hole discovered by them three years ago that leads into a special cave system that emanates a high dose of radiation known as Hawking Radiation. “Hawking radiation is not fatal to our special staff of Megoians, who are immune to it. We’ve collected over two hundred tons of the mineral so far. At the rate it grows, we can harvest almost two hundred more tons every month. Its growth rate is three hundred percent over the normal growth rate of earth minerals.”, the head scientist states.

“That’s extraordinary Dr. Phips. So, according to the rate of growth, is there a special environment you must contain this mineral in so that it doesn’t continue to grow, or does it stop growing once you disconnect it from the area it grows?”, Zak asks. The head scientist looks over at Zak with wide eyes and then smiles. “I had no idea you knew so much about geology.”. “Well, it’s more of a hobby than anything. I’ve always been fascinated with rocks and the history of the planet.”, Zak chucklingly exclaims. “He never shuts up about rocks, ever.”, Jordon sighs.

Back in Manicore’s office, Saundra and Simms sit down with Manicore to go over the paperwork. “My business has been my greatest success of my life. Ever since I was a boy, I’ve been fascinated with geology and how minerals are created. I was lucky to be able to have funding from the government of Croatia to go to school in Japan, where I was able to explore the Vulcan type minerals of volcanoes and the structures of how they erupt, along with the way earthquakes happen and behave. Once I finished school, they were happy to give me funding to start this business so long as they can have 15% of stocks and bonds in the company. So, you see, to have foreigners as share holders in this company benefits me because it makes the government want to buy more shares in order to keep me afloat.”

“Mr. Manicore, you have a guest. Mr. Hott is here to see you.”, the receptionist states as she walks Hott into the room. “Mr. Hott, it is so good to see you. I’m excited to introduce you to my new shareholders. Well, they are about to be some new shareholders. Meet Miss Cureb and Mr. Joi.”, Manicore casually greets. They all sit down for their scheduled meetings while Manicore goes over his business’s agenda and what the company stands for. He gradually goes into more detail explaining that the cave system is a portal into another dimension that he discovered five years ago yet hasn’t told any of his employees. Saundra activates her comms so that Zak and Jordon can hear the meeting while touring the rest of the facilities.

“So, are we being set up or did Hott come here to make sure we were doing our job? And how did he know where we were in the first place? Did he put a tracker on the jet?”, Jordon asks quietly over the comms.

Zak thinks back to the meeting with Hott and remembers that he offered the team drinks and food over the meeting. “He bugged our food or drinks. That’s why and how he knew where we are. He’s up to something and we need to be ready for whatever happens.” Jordon begins to get nervous as Zak tells him what happened. “Jordon, calm down. We can’t break our cover man.”, Zak says calmingly. Calming Jordon down, Zak and he walk around more with the head scientist learning more about the mineral extraction process and how the Megoians are immune to the radiation.

Saundra, Simms, and Hott are taken on an exclusive tour of the cave system where the minerals are harvested. The temperatures in the cave system, as told from Manicore, reach a balmy One hundred thirty degrees Fahrenheit, making it too hot for humans. They put on suits that keep the body cool so that they can take the tour. “As you can see, the minerals are growing continuously even after cutting them away from their source. We believe that they are from a different dimension on a planet heated to the point where the minerals are super-heated to make them grow continuously.

The problem we’re facing with the portal where they come from is that it seems to be one-way, meaning anything we send into the portal is immediately destroyed at the molecular level. We can see into the portal and our probes can read the data of the planet and surrounding area from outside the portal, but as you can see it has to be on this side.”, as they look down at the workers from the platform. They finish up the tour and sign all of the paperwork.

Later that night, they all have dinner together. “I want to thank all of you for showing my company value to your hearts, and your minds.”, as they all toast to the business venture. Dinner ends as everyone parts for the night. “What the hell is Hott up to Saundra?!”, Jordon asks. “He knew we’d find where the minerals came from, so he bugged our meal at our meeting so he could locate the exact place, thus cutting us, the middle man out entirely. That was his last mistake. We’re going to confront him and find out what’s going on.”, Simms says to the team with Saundra agreeing.

The next day the team knocks on Hott’s estate door, weapons drawn. When they knock at the door, it appears to already be open. They slowly move into the house as they clear each room until they reach the back of the house where the pool is, only to find a lot of blood in the pool with Hott’s dress coat floating atop of the water. “What the heck happened here? So much blood. No bodies. Looks like a huge struggle happened here. Now we’ve got more unanswered questions than we had before. We’ll have to figure this out later. HQ is requesting us for an OP.”, Saundra tells the team as they holster their weapons.

They take the evidence with them as they head back to the states. On the way back Zak remembers more of his past as he bags and tags the suit. His finger runs across the fabric of the suit triggering a memory. His iris enlarges as the memory takes full control of his attention. Walking on a battlefield, he looks down at his hands covered in blood.

Sword in hand, he looks up to an enemy coming towards him, wearing armor, he brings his sword up, thrusting it into the enemy’s chest. Pulling it out, he looks down at his sword, instantly porting into the present, wearing a dress suit, looking in the mirror, with a woman helping him with his tie. His iris switches back to normal as he comes back to his senses and finishes up with the paperwork of the suit. “Hey bud, you okay?”, Jordon asks. “Yeah, just another memory or at least part of two different memories. I was on a medieval battlefield fighting and then I was in a condo with a woman helping me with my tie.” “Alright, alright, Mister Blade’n Playboy, we’re about to land”, Jordon comically tells Zak.

“Welcome back. We’ve got an important mission for you. There are multiple portals forming around the world, with some of the bigger ones forming in Russia and Pakistan. We need your team to go to Pakistan and find out what you can. The Pakistani government knows you’re coming and await your arrival. What we know about the portals are that there seems to be another location on the other side of them not of this solar system. This is all we know about them for now. You’re to fly out immediately. Good luck.”, their Megoian briefer tells them. “Well, that was a warm welcome. Everyone back here in one hour. Shave, shit, and shower. Make sure to have your gear ready to go.”, Simms tells the team. An hour passes and the team’s ready to go except for Jordon. Simms yells over the intercom for Jordon to get his speedy ass to the jet. The team hears Jordon’s voice, “Guys, are you coming or not?”, inside the jet. “I’ve been waiting here for almost ten minutes.”

What’s waiting for our heroes?

Only he knows…