Project: Earthbound Prologue

"Age of a New Weapon,"

A/N: Hi...so I know I wanted to do this one Shadows of the Past was over, but I couldn't hold back anymore! I was too excited about this and I just started to write the prologue and I didn't want it to just sit there so...yeah...However let me make clear that this is a whole new story, this is in no way a sequel. The Shadows of the Past is the last one. But I couldn't just end my EB fics that way so I made a continuation of the MOTHER universe I created. So not a sequel! A continuation ;D...there is a difference.

The world has changed ever so greatly in the past few years that have gone by. The three heroes who have saved the time stream from numerous threats have finally had a chance of peace. Although the three were forced to separate for their own personally reasons. The ties that connected them severed for the sake of the time stream. However, they keep their memories close to their hearts held strong. However, the world is changing and adapting to the changes. Since the coming of the Immortal Soldeirs and PSI becoming much more of a norm, hysteria began to stir among politicians. Not just politicians, but the public as well. The Chosen Four, their heroes, have begun to have lives of their own. Saving the world is not their only concerns anymore. However, that does not stop them from performing feats of heroism. However, it was as of late that the world's faith in the Chosen Four has begun to wane. The Eagleland government fears the power of such unstoppable people with the will to do as they want. They live completely unchecked and the government having no power on what they can and can't do, or at least lacking the military power to stop them.

Far up in a mountainous region sat a deep valley covered in forest. The forest trees were quite tall pine trees in fact attempting to keep a gigantic castle hidden in the center of it. The castle was quite large with spiked towers based on gothic art. Spiked edges were seen on every portion of the castle, the green tint on the roves of the castle, and along with numerous guards standing ready on every inch of it. In such an isolated area, it would be very strange to see so many guards placed around it.

Inside the castle a special meeting was being conducted. Two men were sitting next to each other in what appeared to be a spacious living area. The room had a green color scheme to it from the rugs, and the furniture. The walls were a nice peach color as the room was lit by the ceiling lights above. The two men had on suits with drinking out wine glasses filled with red wine. One man was bald with a shiny head, and the man also had quite a gut to boot. The other man had a full head of black hair, and a matching goatee. Both man seemed to be in joyous laughter as they continued whatever business they were conducting.

"So, Charles, all jokes aside why did you call me all the way out here?" the man with hair asked. He glanced behind him to a door with two guards standing ready. "And with so much security?"

"Well, I was hoping to begin conducting business with you. See, a few of my partners and I are in development of a new kind of weapon,"

"Weapon?"

"Yes Steven, I'm sure you are aware of the ever limitless power of PSI correct?"

"More or less," Steven responded with a flick of his wrist. Charles reached out to press a button on the side of the arm of his chair. Suddenly, a large screen dropped out the ceiling. Then an image of what appeared to be a battle of some sort. The combatants were the Eagleland military versus what appeared to be a monster with an impenetrable armor. The military were quickly knocked aside to make way for what appeared to be a small boy with onyx hair. This boy seemed empowered with raw power known as PSI. "This creature was able to make short work of some of the militaries best weapons. They all were dwarfed by the raw power that single child had. That is the true power of PSI,"

"Amazing…" Steven gasped watching the fight.

"Imagine, our men all equipped with that power, and imagine the price people would pay to have such a power accessible to them,"

"What are you saying I thought you had to be born with that power, and besides I'm simply a congressman Charles?"

"Oh please Steven, we both know what you secretly dapple in. Your connections to the black market, and the underworld," The man was silent. Which made the bald man laugh. "Oh now, now Steven don't get upset. It's not like I'm blackmailing you, after all I did assist with getting you into your position. I simply ask for your partnership,"

"In what Charles?" asked clearly getting nervous as he glanced over to the guards on the other side of the room.

"Calm down Steven," Charles said with a wave of his hand. "The guards aren't for you, their simply so this meeting can go off without a hitch,"

"What do you mean?"

"…"

"You won't get my cooperation without being honest with me. I need to know what risk I'm facing if I join this alliance,"

"A supposed ghost…" Charles answered hesitantly. "There is a large network of people working on this as we speak. We have a corporation in the making, however, our customers don't exactly see eye to eye with our country,"

"Were assisting terrorist!"

"Now Steven you know how war works. There's always a benefactor no matter who wins in the end," Steven began fidgeting as he was clearly hesitant to join. "Come and be apart of us Steven, and feel power that which you've never experienced," Charles said raising his hand as a small flame appeared in his palm. This made Steven jump back in pure awe.

"Y-You have-,"

"No, I don't, that's what makes this new weapon so beautiful…"

"…Tell me more, specifically about this so called ghost…"

Charles crushed the flame in his fist then relaxed. "Apparently, a few of our partners were…apprehended by the FBI or CIA. Heck even the United Nations are starting to come down on a few of us. We don't know how, but apparently they were taken out of their homes, in some instances while they were on vacation. Suddenly, a paper trail comes up connecting them to the crimes, but we're a big business I'll have you know so catching one want stop anything. We think it's some special Black Ops team making moves against us. We're currently working out on finding them, but we believe that this is part of a secret project that the military has been developing for quite some time,"

"Yes, I've heard rumors about it,"

"Then you know that whatever and whoever they are will soon be dead. By either a bullet in the end, or burned to a crisp," Suddenly the man's attention were grabbed by the radio of one of the guards behind them. They turned to see the man put it to his ear and listen with a frown. "What's going on?"

"Apparently one of the idiots out there thought they saw something. Now there lost so a few of them are going to help guide them back,"

"Idiots, go make sure they get back into positions!" At the man's order they both exist the room. "Ugh, good help is so hard to find nowadays. Now back to our conversation, what do you say Steven?"

Steven thought for a moment. With his title and his connections, he would have no problem avoiding the eye of suspicion. Especially with his squeaky clean record. "I suppose, seems you have a new partner Charles,"

"You made the wrong choice Mr. Congressman," came a voice from behind them. The men quickly turn around to see a blur rush at them. Charles points his palm at the figure to unleash a rush of flames. However, a white pasty substance shot out the figure wrist that contained the flames and encased his hand. Charles was so distracted with it he was not prepared for the next shot that encased his other hand and stuck it to his chair. "PSI suppresser, even with your abnormal abilities, you lack any skill in fighting. Power is useless unless you know how to use it,"

The figure slammed his boot against Charles' face knocking him to the floor with the chair following him since it was still stuck on his hand. The figure turned his head hearing Steven rushing toward the door that was left ajar. A string like substance launched out the figure's forearm and attached itself to the congressman's back. He was yanked back as his face was grabbed then slammed into the floor harshly. He was out in a moment's notice as the figure stood up. He placed a finger to his ear.

"Area is secured, send in units to apprehend subjects,"

"How many casualties?" asked the voice on the other end.

"Only a few guards were killed in the initial taking of the estate. It turns out that intel was right about Congressman Steven's involvement in all this. They both are ready for extraction to be apprehended and questioned,"

"Adequate work Project Earthbound. Extraction team is on their way, you are to avoid contact with them at all cost and proceeded to rendezvous point for pick up,"

"Understood," the figure stated. Then removed his finger from his ear then turned toward the video that was still playing on the screen. He looked to see a boy battling what appeared to be a titanic monster of incredible power. He stared in awe at the battle feeling such a pit of emotions flow through him. Emotions such as respect, shock, bravado... and envy, he blinked surprised naming the last of the emotions he felt. He knew it was against protocol to feel anything. His job was to follow orders, nothing more and nothing less. He gave the battle one lasting fleeting glance before he rushed out the room.

His mission now was to avoid being seen from the extraction team that has probably surrounded the entire area. The goal was always to give an air of mystery. Allow no one to see him, and allow no one to know of his existence. He dashed through the halls at record breaking speeds, oddly fast for any human, especially at his stature.

"Contact!" a soldier called seeing him from below him on the ground level. It would seem the figure had no choice but to exit from the higher levels if they already had the back entrance covered.

"Halt!" a commanding voice from behind him called. He had no intentions of doing such as he turned sharply around with his finger pointed.

"PK Shot," he muttered as a white flash shot out. The shot was like an arrow, but moved as a bullet. It had the explosive power of TNT as shown when it blew a hole through the roof making it come down.

"Shit, we got a PSI user here, send in the special unit!" a soldier yelled over the noise. The figure had no intention of staying that long as leaped into the hole he made then after a brief showing of acrobatic skill by leaping through the support beams of the roof. He burst to the top in a moments notice. However, a helicopter that was covering the area noticed him and put a light on him. His face dropped upon realizing his critical mistake. No doubt, they would be recording him, or at least take pictures. All he could was hopeful give them something difficult to record. He slipped out the light to slide alongside the slanted roof. He turned from his torso then unleashed two rounds of PK Shot. One taking out the light, and the other taking out a blade of the helicopter with deadly accuracy. He turned back around to focus on kicking off the roof noticing all the gathering troops around the area. He supposed that the guards were heavy enough to call for such a show of force. He flipped through the air once then landed in the thicket. Once in the cover of the trees he began running as fast as he could. He made sure to avoid using the ground as much as possible as he traveled by tree top. Although it was difficult since these were pine trees that provided little support for his weight.

He shot out a white thin substance from his finger tip that latched onto a tree then jerked himself forward. He was coming toward the bottom of a gorge and he could feel the soldiers still following. He had no choice but to go by foot now. He catapulted himself forward down to the ground to give himself a head start then started running. It wasn't long till the soldiers grew tired of chasing and opted to wound him since it was common knowledge that PSI users could heal themselves rather quickly. Lead started flying towards him as he ran and he could hear how close some of them had come. He kicked off a tree then slid down a sloping hill masterfully as if he's done this his whole life. Suddenly, his whole hand turned white as a blade protruded from his wrist. He sharply turned to chop a tree down in one slash making it tip over and blocked a flying grenade that was coming toward him.

"They must've been preparing for the next time they might get a chance to apprehend me…" However, he knew they lacked the proper tools to capture him. And even if they did, it still would be near impossible. He was, after all, the best weapon on the planet. "I must lose them before I can catch my ride…" He slid to a halt then placed his hand on a tree. The color began to meld onto him slowly covering his entire body until he matched the entire color and texture of the tree. The soldier arrived just when he vanished.

"The hell, where'd he go?" asked one soldier as he glanced around left and right.

"Damn it, another disappearing act…" One soldier grunted clearly in charge of the platoon.

"Should we try hearts sensors, or heat vision sir?"

"No, it's a waste. Didn't you read the reports?" he asked annoyed. "This guy can seem to avoid all types of detection. He can manage to vanish off all forms of radar, even the kind should be impossible to avoid…"

"So he's gone again?"

"Afraid so, the ghost got us again," he placed a finger to his ear. "This is Captain Stacy of Alpha squad, calling Black Bird, come in Black Bird do you copy over?"

"Yes Alpha Leader we copy, over," the frantic voice on the other end managed to reply.

"What's the status of the filming equipment, we get a shot of the bastard?"

"Uh….sir I'm sorry to say that this guy for lack of a better term…is crazy good. He managed to snipe our lights before we could get a good look at him, and sent our bird out of control before we could reestablish visual. I'd say we got, at best, .2 seconds of film of the guy and it's shit…"

Captain Stacy growled as he ended the conversation there. "Great…"

"Now what captain?"

"Now, at least we know this guy has PSI powers. It was sketchy at best, but now we know. What's also obvious is his military training. No run of the mile kind of person could escape us so easily, I pride myself on our units reaction time, and effectiveness. When we go in, everyone we go after is either dead, or prisoner, no one gets away. This guy was trained extremely well, with intelligence and skills to back him up. We know next to nothing about him, but what we do know is his targets and consistent. He's tracking the same terrorist group as us. We keep doing our job, and we'll catch this guy soon enough, he's gotta slip up eventually. Let's move out!" he called to his team as they retraced their steps back to the castle like manor. As soon as they all left the figure revealed that he was standing only a meter away from the Captain the entire time.

"This isn't good…" he muttered sadly as he walked toward the rendezvous point. He arrived to a clearing with a nothing there but upon inspection with his shades he saw a helicopter in clock mode. He swept the area swiftly to make sure he wasn't followed then leaped on board. The pilot was quietly waiting on him playing the radio. How he got a signal the figure wasn't sure.

"Hey kid, how'd the mission go?" he asked turning the radio down as he got out of his relaxed position to prepare for take off.

"Terrible…" he muttered as his mask went away went away without him doing anything. It revealed that he was a young boy, quite young in fact to be maybe twelve years old. Once he removed his shades his eyes are shown to be a bright crimson red.

"You get your targets?"

"Yes but-,"

"That's deemed mission accomplished kid,"

"But I was seen, I was chased. I was not allowed to come into any kind of contact unless they were guards, or my targets. I failed…"

"Boy, the General has you way to high strung…his expectations are crazy…"

"I'm the perfect weapon, that's what he should get, perfection," he said with a sulky look as he took his seat next to the pilot. The pilot only sighed as he got the chopper running to take off, once ready they hovered above the ground slowly then quickly climbed. They climbed until they were high into the air unseen by those below.

"Maybe you should get a different hairstyle if ya wanna go unnoticed," the man jived. The boy looked at the pilot then turned to his window to look at his reflection. His hair was odd… but he didn't think it was any odder then the stuff that other humans did today. His onyx black hair highlighted by strands of blonde locks. The most notable feature though, was the cowlick in his hair that made it look like ice cream.

"I'm told this look is timeless…" he muttered glumly.