Prelude~
"I'm…Falling?" Mackenzie's subtle voice echoed in his mind, as he realized he was falling into the shadows below, as if sinking into the endless darkness while little bubbles escaped his lips. His descent progressed quickly. He didn't understand where he was before, nor did he know how he got to where he was. He blinked slowly as he saw before him the destination he was quickly heading towards: a station of awakening. He saw it was of a spikey-haired youth. His speed slowed as he gently landed on his own two feet and looked about.
"What an interesting place…" he said calmly, as he looked about into the dark unknown. "You will help set things right…" an unknown voice rang out from the midnight, "…with the one who bears the Key of Destiny…" the voice faded. Mackenzie looked around in slight confusion, "…Key of Destiny?" he repeated to himself in question, and then noticed the boy in the station was holding a giant key. He still didn't understand where he was, but for some reason he didn't feel too concerned about that. The main situation he was in was figuring out what he was supposed to accomplish.
A staff emerged into Mackenzie's hands from a burst of blue light and bubbles, and he held it without thought. Suddenly, dark creatures emerged from the shadows all around him with glowing yellow, pupil-less eyes. "What are these things?" he questioned himself as he assumed a battle stance. One then lunged forth and tried to attack Mackenzie, but he quickly dodged and dispatched the enemy with his new weapon. The others failed in their attacks, and each one was destroyed by the youth. Mackenzie then looked on as he saw a beam of light that looked like it came from above. His weapon disappeared as he quickly ran towards the light. When he finally reached it, he realized the station cracked, and then was shattering all around him. He panicked as he lost his ground and ended up falling once again with the station shards fading into twinkling lights and eventually dissipating. A sudden wave of sleep overcame Mackenzie as he blacked out.
He fell…downward into the black void. Finally reaching ground once again, Mackenzie woke up. He got up and realized he was on another station platform. This station held a picture of himself holding a staff and everyone dear to him. He didn't understand, but as looked around, he saw a giant enemy rise from the depths behind the station. "Whoah!" Mackenzie shouted as he backed up a bit, his emotions conjuring up his staff again.
He fought the monster, and destroyed it. With its last actions, it began creating dark energy around the ground near Mackenzie. "No…I won't let you take me!" Mackenzie shouted as he held his staff and emitted blue energy as he faded into whiteness. He felt calm and serenity for a brief moment in this time.
He woke up in his room, slightly dazed and confused. He sat up and pondered a second, but then he remembered something that he was waiting a long time for. He was happy that it was his first day of Summer Vacation. He got out of bed gingerly, went to his window, and looked out to see the beautiful world and the sun shining brightly. "Ahh, finally summer vacation is here!" he said to himself with subdued joy. He and his friends were planning a big get-together and this would be their first time all being in the same place.
Chapter 1: A Fated Destiny
Mackenzie finished putting on the rest of his clothes, when suddenly his phone beeped. He quickly took out his phone and read the text message, "Meet me at my place" it read. "Let's do this!" he shouted to himself. He quickly got ready, and then dashed out of his house. His destination was his friend Michael's house, with the promise that him and his other 3 friends would finally be able to all hang out at the same time. It was simplistic, and yet a very strong desire.
"I can't wait" he said to himself as he ran down the streets of his neighborhood. The sky was partly cloudy, and something filled the air with suspense. He finally reached the house he was heading for. He came up to the door and knocked, "MIKE! I'm here!" he shouted, his voice echoed with excitement.
Michael came and opened the door, "Come on in. We're still waiting for Leah" he said. "Sure" Mackenzie replied shortly as he walked past Michael and sat on the couch, watching the news on the television. "Are you excited to go explore the city?" Michael asks, "Yep. To be honest, I have never explored much of it" Mackenzie replies. "Well, I'll be excited once we find something interesting" a voice called out from upstairs. Kayla then descended from the upper level and joined the group. "We'll never know until we try" Mackenzie responds to Kayla's comment. Michael was playing darts the whole time while Kayla sat down next to Mackenzie, "I just hope these rumors about the town aren't fake" Kayla adds as she rests her head against her fist on the end of the couch.
Leah rode her bike the whole way from her place as fast as she could with her backpack of goodies strapped on. Summers were rare enough in her book, so she wasn't going to waste a second of it. Reaching Kayla and Michael's home, she quickly dismounted, parked her bike on the side of the house, and knocked on the door. Mike stopped his darts and answered the door to greet Leah, "I hope I didn't keep you guys waiting" Leah apologized, "Not at all. Mac just got here about 5 minutes before you" Mike replied kindly.
Leah entered the house and Michael shut the door behind her. Everyone exchanged greetings and gathered around the counter in the kitchen as Michael went to fetch a map of the city from the corkboard on the wall. "These are the places that we're going to check out. The closest one would be the school, and the one after that is in the canyon" Michael begins unveiling his plan on the map by pointing out each location. "Then we should check out the park, and then the bridge, and so on". Mackenzie looked at each location with hope and curiosity, while Kayla was somewhat skeptical, "So suppose that none of these things are even real…what then?" She asks half-heartedly. "As long as we're together, we'll have made happy memories at least" Mackenzie replies in a soothing tone. "Yeah, because life isn't worth living unless you have friends to share it with. Even if we don't find any real mysteries in our town, it's fun to say we debunked them ourselves" Michael adds.
Leah carefully sets her backpack down on the counter and proceeds to unzip it, "Well at least we won't go hungry" She chimes, pulling out a family sized bag of chips, a loaf of bread, Jerky, and a jar of peanut butter. All the necessary food they'll need on their trek was presently accounted for. "Thank you for bringing the food Leah" Kayla said graciously, while Leah started putting the food back. "You're welcome…Everyone have their water bottle?" Leah questions the group, and to which everyone replies yes, "Good" she says as she puts everything back.
Michael packed up the map and pocketed it in his pants pocket. Mackenzie had a sudden thought, "Hey guys, let's have a group photo together, so that we can share this memory in the future" Mackenzie said, trying to give the group some sentimentality. "Sure, why not" Michael replies. The group gets together, and they all smile for their picture from which they all had camera phones for. With their arms extended, they finally capture their first moment of complete unity. "Hold on, I'm going to print off copies upstairs before we go" Kayla goes back upstairs for her little picture mission.
While the group waited, Mackenzie decided to check the news again, and something wasn't right. The news was saying something about attacks around the town from little black creatures. "Michael, Leah, come here!" Mackenzie exclaimed with a bit of worry. The others came and watched the news in curiosity while a documented video shows someone being attacked by a creature. "Seems like another mystery we should check out" Mackenzie states somewhat serious in tone, "Well this certainly isn't a rumor if it's on the news, so I think this should take priority over our mission" Michael adds. Leah sighed, "And I thought this summer was going to be relaxed. Guess I should be the one to say that we should be prepared…as in defend yourself prepared" she says as if it wasn't something new.
Kayla came downstairs and she wore a smile, "The pictures printed out very well! Here's one for all of you" she passed out the pictures with enthusiasm and subtle grace, "I'll give you all larger versions when we get back home". "Thank you" they all said, holding the pocket-sized photos, promptly putting them in their wallets. "Kayla, the news was saying that there have been monster attacks around town lately. We should investigate this before we go on our trip" Michael tells his sister seriously. "Monsters? Okay, the news has gone crazy…There's no way this can be real" Kayla begins to tell them as she starts watching the news. She gasps as she watches the video of a person being attacked. "What are they?" she asks, her curiosity peaking. "We'll find out soon I think" Leah adds lazily.
"We have to get our weapons" Mike announces, "I agree" Mackenzie nods and they all migrate to the backyard. Upon exiting the building, they noticed the sky was becoming darker and a storm seemed to be approaching. Mike went up to a shed in his backyard, opened the doors, and walked in. On the walls were 2 hanging daggers or rather large kitchen knives, a wooden bow and a quiver, a simple spear, and a wooden staff. They all gathered their respective weapons, and exited the tiny shed. Mackenzie held his staff as he looked into the sky with concern while Leah strapped her quiver on. A terrified female scream was heard somewhat nearby, "Come on! Someone needs help" Mackenzie told the rest, "What a great way to start summer vacation" Michael says somewhat sarcastically. "Sometimes I wonder if I'll get a break…but I guess saving someone's life should be fun" Kayla says feeling slightly bummed but with optimism. "Don't worry, we'll have our adventure" Leah states trying to cheer Kayla up as they all progressed out of the back yard and down the street.
The group finally came to a group of people who were under attack from the dark beings mentioned on the news. One of the creatures seemed to reach inside a person's chest and appeared to take out something that resembled a glowing "heart". The heart disappeared, and the person faded away into shadows as another creature took their place. Kayla gasped, as Leah took immediate action, "I hope these guys like arrows", she said as she released her flight-bound ammunition. The arrow pierced two of the creatures, causing them to disperse into nothing. The people were confused as well panicked, but also thankful that people came to their rescue. "Well, they're not invincible or biological creatures, so let's take these guys out" Michael says seriously, as he starts charging into the scene with his daggers in hand. Mackenzie and Kayla ran close behind, with Leah following slowly being the sniper of the group.
Mackenzie, Michael, and Kayla fought off the creatures. Each black enigma dispersing into nothingness after each strike the group laid on them. The group of people they were defending ran off to seek shelter. "That was easy" Leah said as she came back to the group. "I don't know what those were, but I feel like we haven't seen the last of them" Mackenzie says cryptically. "For now, let's go home and relax a bit before we go back out" Mike suggested as he led the way back home to his house. The rest followed without question.
"Are you worried that something worse will happen?" Kayla asked the group, "The future doesn't scare me at all. We'll take on anything that comes our way" Mike responds with calm valor. The four walked calmly together, not knowing of their uncertain future. Mackenzie stopped for a moment while the rest kept walking, and looked up into the dark, turbid sky with a look of concern. He wondered if his friends would be able to live happily like this, but he always expects the unexpected. "Nothing's like before…" he said calmly, causing Michael to turn around, "Did you say something?"
Suddenly a piercing pain forced its way through Mackenzie's chest as he gasps in pain and surprise. Michael's hair stood on end as he saw one of those dark beings with its arm sticking into his friend's back. A blue orb of energy slowly came forth and appeared out of Mackenzie's heart area. Time seemed to have stopped, because the moment he saw his friend in danger, Michael attacked and dispatched the darkling that attacked his friend. Kayla and Leah watched with concern for their friend, who now was lying in Michael's arms with a luminous blue orb floating above their chest, "Mac! Wake up! Please wake up!" Michael pleaded. The blue orb of energy slowly drifted back into Mackenzie, causing him to awaken. "Wha-…what happened?" Mackenzie asked as if waking up somewhat oblivious that he was even out, "I don't know, but we're not safe. I thought we almost lost you" Michael says with both relief and caution. "We thought you were a goner!" Leah exclaimed with genuine concern as came to help Michael pick Mackenzie up. Kayla looks around and her eyes widen at what she saw, "Uh…guys…" she says to get everyone's attention.
The creatures started to appear suddenly from the shadows, one by one, and then in dozens. "We need to get somewhere safe" Kayla shouts with concern as she pans her vision to see the increasing amount of danger. Mackenzie quickly regained composure as they all ran back to Mike's house with the demons following close behind and empty yellow eyes focusing on the group. The whole way they fought off the occasional jumper, or the ones that were simply in the way. There was now an obvious, giant, ominous portal in the sky above them, making the wind currents flow upwards.
The group quickly enters the backyard again, shutting the wooden gate behind them. "Thank you for helping me back there" Mackenzie told Michael dearly, "Don't thank me just yet…" he stopped as he then saw a mass of the creatures appear from the shadows of his yard, "we're still in this situation". Leah readied her bow; "If this is how summer vacation is going to go, let's make sure we stay alive so we can have some ice cream after all this ends" she says somewhat comically to try and break the tension, "Sure, laughs and jokes all the way" Kayla adds smiling. They all resume combat with the creatures, and after each one is dispatched, another takes its place.
The group notices that there world was now falling apart. Pieces of land and buildings were stripped apart, and being sucked into the ravenous portal in the sky above. Even the house and the creatures they fought were now getting vacuumed up as well. "We have to stay together!" Mackenzie told the rest, although the sounds of their world were almost deafening above his words, "I don't know what's going on, but we have to stay together no matter what" he adds with heartfelt words. Right as they start to join hands, Leah started to become swept off her feet, "Wha?-Guys! Help me!" she shouted in a panic as she was then anchored by Michael and Mackenzie. "Hold on!" Mackenzie and Michael both plead. They held her arms with no intention of letting go, and Kayla too was starting to lose her footing, "AHH!" Kayla screamed, with Mackenzie and Mike still holding them down. Mackenzie knew this wasn't going to bode well, but at least he spent time with his friends, "This isn't the end…" Mackenzie said within ear range of them all. Mackenzie smiled, right before he and Michael began to rise up into the sky with Kayla and Leah in hand. "Whatever you do, don't let-"suddenly a giant metal awning crashed into the group, causing Michael to be cut off in mid sentence and splitting them into a group of 3, leaving Mackenzie and Leah alone. The only two left still holding hands were Michael and Kayla as the group was consumed by the portal in the sky that destroyed their world. All their screams were muffled by the chaos around them, reaching out to one another while they everything they knew became washed away.
Chapter 2: Awakening