Author's Notes: Alright viewers, this is where it all begins, the ride of your life that will leave you thinking about ALOT of things at the end of this trip. Maybe different situations, your life, other's problems, the choices you make, anything dealing with the moral aspect of life. I warn you, don't be fooled because this has several Sonic and Star Fox characters, look into the meaning of this story, which shouldn't be hard if you get into it. :) read and enjoy the start of Lex Chronicles.

Eternity Course

Chapter One: Confined Obsession

The Prower family was always a special bunch, working for the military, helping out with the community whenever they could, and lending a hand to those in need. They were always a nice family that loved to try and help out when they could. The youngest of them, Artemis Prower, had always believed that there was something more that he could achieve. He had a knack for gaining knowledge, and he tended to have a weakness about pride. There were many times when the family had to face off against strong and dangerous enemies, trying to protect others who couldn't fight. After realizing he himself had been beaten in one of these fights, he seeked power and more knowledge to help those he could, whether in danger or just in need of information. He began to start his quest after hearing a rumor about a secret liquid called the Vostage Prosperity that was sealed inside of a hand-sized capsule. It was rumored that one sip from this liquid, and he would have all the knowledge as well as physical power that was unmatched to any physical being in the universe.

Artemis wasn't stupid however, and wondered quickly why no one else has gone after this liquid. It was safe to say that it was because it was told that it was stored in a labyrinth maze that was full of traps. By the information he was given, the grey fox began to think it was almost hopeless to look for it. But he realized that without the liquid, his family would have to endure the burden of always defending everyone else, and that was something he did not want. He wanted to protect his family as well as give them knowledge to everything he might learn. He believed it was a positive thing to do. And so, it is the start of the long journey that the young Prower takes.

In a small house...

A grey fox with royal blue eyes crossed his arms as he looked at his mother across the kitchen table. He was wearing a black shirt with dark blue jeans along with black sneakers. He also had a pair of black shades set on his forehead, ready to be pulled down for his trek across the treacherous mountains. "Please mom... I need to find it... just let me go and I'll promise that I'll come back even stronger." he quipped. The orange vixen turned around and then showed her angry face to her son, "Listen Artemis, I will not let you travel half the planet to look for something that couldn't even exist. Even if I was one hundred percent sure that drug existed..." she began, but the teenager protested quickly. "Mom it's not a drug, it's a..." he began, but was cut off. "It's the Vostage Prosperity! I know, you've told me a thousand times. Now my answer is no and that's final." the orange vixen shouted. The grey fox only sulked as he stood up from the table and walked towards the back of the house. Suddenly the side door opened and a buff orange fox walked inside.

He was carrying yet another three unconscious bodies over his huge and broad shoulders. He was a tall orange fox with a few deep scars sculpted into his body. He was usually seen wearing a torn white shirt with blue jeans, a big result from fighting. Artemis' father was always fighting crime, but he never liked to kill, so he would beat his opponents unconscious for the most part and then nurse them back to health, then tell them to leave town and never show their face again. That was his father, kind hearted to the end. "Arguing with your mother again huh Artemis? Listen, you will never get anywhere like that. If you really want to argue your point, show her proof why she should let you go after this liquidy thingy. Your mother loves proof to everything. Sheesh, it took me a few years to show her enough proof why she should marry me." he chuckled. This made Artemis crack a smile; he couldn't help but feel happy around his father, he always made him cheer up when he was down about something. "Once she's convinced though, she's the best supporter you can have. Trust me son. Why don't you go look down at the library, see if you can dig up anything about that rumor there. I'll tell your mother that you went out to go train today." the tall orange fox whispered. Artemis nodded, liking his father's devious plan. "Thanks dad, I really owe you one." he whispered back and went towards his room. "No problem son. Hey while you're out can you pick me up some medicinal herbs and empty capsules from the pharmacy? I already called Harley and told him you were going to be there." the orange fox called out. "Will do dad." Artemis shouted back.

After reaching his room, the grey fox began to pack some things into his backpack. He put it onto his back and then began to head out towards the library. "Alright mom, I'm going out to train." Artemis called out. The orange vixen was chopping up a few vegetables as well as slices of meat, and did not turn around. However, that did not stop her from responding to her son's call. "Be back before ten tonight, I have a special dinner and I don't want you missing it." she ordered. "I'll get back in time, don't worry." he replied and opened the front door. He walked slowly down the pathway and looked forward, anxious to reach the library and learn all he could about the secret potion. He walked about ten minutes in silence while thinking about the results of taking the elusive liquid. Soon he reached the building he was looking for and then walked slowly towards the entrance.

A few hours later...

Artemis slung the backpack over his shoulder after he finished stuffing the medicinal herbs and empty small capsules into one of the compartments. 'Wonder why dad needed these? I was sure he had enough first aid kits to take care of those bandits.' the grey fox thought. His mind quickly wandered off to his new task however. He began to think about the information that he learned about the Vostage Prosperity. He was very surprised to find out that there was quite a bit of information on the liquid. He had to search many times on the item, but he found out a good piece of information that he saved onto a flash drive. He continued walking towards his small town when he saw something very disturbing. He quickly began to run towards the small urban area and then the nauseous smell of burning flesh reached his nose. 'Oh no, what could have happened?' he thought to himself. He continued running and then he came towards a burning building. He looked around cautiously at the village and noticed a body lying in the middle of the open area. He quickly ran to the body and flipped it over, trying to see who it was. As he got a closer look, his eyes went wide. It was only a child, and she was shot multiple times in her body. Artemis began to feel anger grow inside of him, but he knew that his father said to hold it back at all costs, no matter what.

That's when he realized that it wasn't just the child who was lying there motionless; he looked up slowly to see more bleeding and burned bodies littered on the ground. He slowly set the child down and then ran down the pathway towards his home, passing by the random villagers he had once knew and loved. He came to his house and then noticed something that made him fall back immediately onto the ground. His house was on fire, and the scent around it smelled highly of blood. 'No mom, dad, please be alright.' he thought to himself. He knew he couldn't risk entering into his home, so he decided to go around the back to see what he could find. After setting his backpack down near the front entrance, he ran towards the back to see if there was an opening he could take to at least quickly look inside. But as the backyard came into view, his eager and quick footsteps came to a halt as he stared at the scene in front of him. His mother and father were lying on the ground, coated with blood and were lying face down. Artemis could not believe what he was seeing, his father had never lost a fight, and now here he was, lying on the ground dead. Artemis quickly ran to his parents' bodies and then flipped them both over. "Dad get up! You're not dead! Stop playing dad!" he shouted. He knew he sounded crazy, but he didn't care, the whole situation was crazy.

He had just left the village a few hours ago, and everything was perfect. But now all of a sudden when he came back, there were bodies everywhere. He hugged his mother's body and then began to cry uncontrollably. 'How could this have happened? Who did this?' he thought to himself. As he looked up to wipe his tears, he quickly noticed that a figure was on his burning roof that he hadn't seen before. It was somehow impervious to the fire that was licking at it and it was not getting burned in any way. The figure suddenly hopped down and landed on the ground in front of Artemis. Then it looked at the grey fox in front of him and smirked. "You, I knew that worthless Prower was lying. He said he didn't have any kids. Seems that coward was wrong." the figure remarked. Now that the figure was closer, Artemis noticed that the figure was really a jackal. That's when it hit him, there had been talk that a certain jackal along with a couple of other rogues from the village had been trying to terrorize the village and his home, in particular the Prowers. But his father had always stopped the bandits, telling them kindly not to come back and leave our family alone. 'It seems that dad's kindness has taken its toll, and now he's paid for that mistake. I however won't make the same.' Artemis thought and balled up his fists. The jackal began to laugh hysterically, "You think you have any chance against me boy? I took out your father like he was nothing." he remarked. Artemis frowned, "Yeah, after he beat you down at least five hundred times." he replied quickly. This made the jackal growl and then swing at Artemis.

But Artemis was too fast for the jackal and he sidestepped as well as blocked the punched, knocking his arm outward so he could get a clear shot at the jackal's chest. As Artemis tried to punch back though, the jackal had already blocked his vulnerable area with his other arm and then tried to deliver a roundhouse kick to Artemis' head. The grey fox did not duck from the attack, instead, he quickly blocked it, stopping the jackal's foot in mid-air and delivered a hard punch to the jackal's kneecap. This caused the jackal to howl in pain and fall to the ground. Artemis had already brought out the protection knife that he had always brought with him everywhere and looked into the jackal's eyes. "Please, young man, I didn't mean anything I did... I'm sorry..." he begged. Artemis became even angrier with the jackal for being such a coward and brought his arm back to swipe at the jackal's face. But he was hit suddenly in the back of the neck with something blunt and hard. The grey fox fell forward and became heavily dazed, losing all focus and becoming dizzy. "Took you long enough Ralph." the jackal remarked. "Eh, I thought you could have at least handled a Prower kid, guess I was wrong." a figure said from behind. The voice was faint, and Artemis couldn't really tell who it was; though it sounded a little familiar to him in some way. He remained still on the ground as he tried to regain his bearings, hearing the jackal hiss in pain at his kneecap that Artemis had broken. "That damn kid, I want to kill him now!" the jackal shouted. "No, you had your chance, I'm not going to let him get away because of your failure." the voice responded.

The conversation suddenly ceased and Artemis heard the figure get closer from behind him. He couldn't make out all the shifting of movement, but he was pretty sure that the figure had kneeled down beside the jackal. Silence then took over for a couple of seconds and then the grey fox heard the jackal speak first. "Thanks, I really do owe you one. Now can we kill this stupid fox?" the jackal asked. Artemis knew that this was his cue to get up and try to fight back, but with one surprise already out, he couldn't be sure how many other rogues were waiting to jump into the fight. His only option was to run away and get away from the maniacal killers as quick as he could. Just as he heard footsteps get closer to him, the grey fox hopped up and then threw the knife he was still holding straight at the jackal, trying to severely wound him even more. His plan was to at least take out one of the rogues and he could have at least enough chance to gain some cover to figure out what was going on. The knife glided through the air and pierced the jackal's chest. The jackal began to yell out in pain and he fell onto his knees. The second figure was wearing a coat along with a baseball cap, so he couldn't tell who he was. But he heard his voice clearly and heard the tone of his expression. "You idiot! You're too careless!" the second figure shouted. He yanked the knife out of the jackal's chest, which as a response the jackal howled even louder. The second figure wasted no time in setting both his palms on the jackal's wounds and then a glowing effect began to take place. Artemis' eyes went wide, 'No way! That's not possible! He's healing him!' the grey fox thought.

He knew now that he had no chance taking out the useless jackal with the second figure there, and now it became apparent to him why it was so odd to see the jackal stand after Artemis broke his kneecap. 'He had healed him from that injury too.' the grey fox thought. He quickly ran to the front of his house and yanked his backpack off the ground without stopping. He tripped awkwardly in the process, but was able to catch himself before tumbling over and continued running. "Hey he's getting away!" the jackal shouted. The second figure only sighed, "Let him go, knowing a Prower, he'll come back and try to settle the score. Let's just make sure that you took care of all the Prowers this time. You left him alive, there could be others around here somewhere." the second figure ordered and began to walk slowly away from the backyard of Artemis' house.

The grey fox continued to run without stopping, not looking back to see if the two had followed him. He ran as fast as he could, not daring to even think of looking back. He cut corners of small hills, under rocky bridges and pathways throughout the rocky terrain. After about twenty minutes of running, he completely fell onto the ground exhausted. He was panting hard for air and his head began to pound from the rush of running so much. He held his head as it continued to throb and tears began to form out of his eyes again. In less than an hour, he had found out that his parents and possibly the rest of his family were killed brutally along with the other villagers. He couldn't think of any real reason why anyone would attack the family personally; it just didn't make sense to him. But he realized that the horror was only beginning as he realized that he had no where else to go. He couldn't return back home, the two rogues must have been waiting for him. He didn't see or hear any of them following him, and he could assume that they were probably looking for more survivors in the village. He decided that it was the best time to look for the secret potion.

He grabbed the backpack and then unzipped one of the compartments. He took out sheets of paper that he had printed out from the library and then looked at the directions that were set on the paper. He noticed that the so-called location of the Vostage Prosperity was heading towards the opposite side of where he had ran, which meant he needed to cross his own village to even get started on his journey. This made Artemis bite his lip, and he wasn't sure if he should risk trying to cross paths with the two rogues. He could imagine there were even more of them, even with one of them having healing powers, there was no way that even five of them could take on his dad. There had to be around ten to take on his father successfully. The grey fox sighed heavily, knowing he had no choice but to cross the village to get what he wanted. He needed to find that special potion, and he believed with it, he could beat the two rogues easily. He decided that during the night he would pass through the village, they wouldn't expect him to come back so soon, so maybe he could catch them off guard. Then again he thought that they might be expecting him to attack during the night while he was cloaked by the dark setting. That would definitely go against him, and he was sure that they would quickly find him if they were really looking for him.

He decided then that he would head back in an hour, the sun was setting and it was definitely early enough not to let them expect him of trying to pass through. He couldn't simply go left or right of the village, as the two passageways were cut off by huge mountains, and the only way to pass to the other side would be through the small village. He sat upright and rested against a rocky surface, looking up at the blue sky and his vision became distant, he didn't focus on anything in particular. He heard a hawk squawk in the distance, and he began to drift out of consciousness. The attack on the back of his neck did more than he had thought. He heard the hawk again and heard it getting lower and lower. His eyes began to slowly close as the red sun continued to set. His mind began to wander onto images of his mother, and her sweet voice and innocent looking face. 'Mom... I miss you...' he thought sadly.

"Artemis..." a soft voice called out. "Artemis..." it repeated. Artemis squinted his eyes open and then looked around slowly. He noticed it was pitch black and that the full moon was out. 'Oh damnit! How could I have slept that long?! No, my plan! How am I going to pass through the village without them knowing?!' his mind shouted. He quickly stood up and grabbed his backpack. He put it on his back and then crouched low. He began to move slowly back towards the village and looked around cautiously. 'Where can they be? I know they're around here.' he thought to himself. After a couple of minutes, he entered into the dark village that was blanketed by the night. He didn't realize how much the moon affected the lighting of the area. His heart was racing and beating very rapidly as he tried to maintain his breathing to be slow. He passed halfway through the village and noticed he was about to pass by his house. Suddenly he heard someone snoring loudly and he quickly hid behind one of the small houses. He peeked around the corner of the building he was hiding behind and noticed the jackal lying on the porch of his house. Artemis began to feel anger again trying to take over. He wanted to quickly sneak over there and kill him, show him he didn't even realize he could have died in his sleep. But after he saw two figures with rifles in their hands, his mind quickly snapped back to reality that he would not be able to go towards them. 'I don't remember seeing them around here before?' Artemis thought. Then he remembered the little girl's body and how he noticed the bullet holes. 'They were the ones who shot down most of the villagers, I'll get them back... I have to for my family.' he thought to himself.

After he checked the area thoroughly, he decided to make a run for the passageway out of the village that he had risked his life for. Just as he went out of cover, he suddenly noticed the silhouette of a figure on the roof of his house. How he hadn't seen it before, he didn't know, but had it not been for the moon at a certain angle, he would have been in the figure's plain line of sight. His heart began to race as he quickly went back to his cover. His pants began to increase in speed and he gulped hard. He licked his lips as he felt them drying up. 'I can do this, I'll just run past and they won't notice I was even here.' he thought to himself. He got out of his hiding spot and then quickly skulked past his house, not alerting the two guards or the jackal. But as Artemis kept his eyes trained on the silhouette figure, he noticed that the eyes of the figure were looking at him in the general area of where he was in disbelief, not sure if it was his imagination or if it was really Artemis. The grey fox took this time as an advantage to make a break for it, knowing the different routes near the exit of the village to easily lose the rogues if they decided to follow them. And sure enough as the grey fox began to run at full speed, the figure jumped down from the roof and began to run after him.

The two guards as well as the jackal followed slowly behind as they tried to catch up with the figure that seemed to be leading the pack. "Hurry up you fools!" the figure shouted behind him. But Artemis was smirking as he continued to run away from the rogues that were set on his heels. He turned a quick left through a passageway that he clearly would have passed by if he didn't know about the area near there. He quickly skidded and ran to his right through a three way passageway. He looked behind him and noticed only the second figure was following slowly behind him. Artemis didn't need the light to see where he was going, he had ran through these small passageways before. He turned a quick right and then a left and continued running straight, out of the tight rocky maze area where he would be free of the following nuisance. As he made it to the clearing, he quickly stopped to catch his breath, but his eyes went wide when he heard the clumsy figure coming close behind him. 'No way! He followed me from all the way back there?!' he thought frantically. He quickly pressed his body against the wall and then hoped for the best. He held in his breath just as the figure came into the large clearing. The full moon illuminated over the rocky flat field and began to shine brightly through the night sky. The figure with the baseball cap looked around quickly through the clearing, sure that he had seen Artemis run through the passageway a few moments ago. "He got away... I can't believe this... That stupid jackal should have been on better guard... That's the second time... next time I'll kill him myself." the figure mumbled to himself and turned back into the narrow pathway that led back to Artemis' house.

After being sure that the figure was gone, Artemis let out a long and loud sigh that he had held in for at least forty seconds. He caught his breath and then looked straightforward, noticing that the clear rocky plains were definitely the route he needed to take in order to reach his location. 'Vostage Prosperity, here I come... I'll get that guy back... I know I will.' the grey fox thought and began to walk slowly down the open field.

To Be Continued

Editor's Notes: Hi everyone! I am Ultima the God, and I'm the editor of this fic, and these are my notes. I will offer my opinion and speculate on what's going on, and what's going to happen. I will NOT, however, tell anyone what's happening next. Also, to all aspiring authors who need an editor, PM me and I will get to you as soon as I can. Please read and review!

-Ultima out-