Prologue: In Media Res
The alien soldier's cannon arm swings up, and John tenses, his hand flying to the pocketknife hidden in his back pocket. But the cannon doesn't stop on him; it continues all the way until it's pointing straight up into the sky, silhouetted by the bright full moon. As John watches, his protective bubble of fire roaring around him, the cannon begins to pull life force into itself from the trees around it. Flitting gray shadows burst from within the forest life, swirling in the air to coalesce as a shimmering white brilliance in the barrel of the Mogodorian's cannon. Once the trees have been completely drained of life energy, they collapse into fine, powdery ash.
This is what the Mogodorians did to their own world—they drained every last drop of their planet's life to wage war and death upon others. In their desire for technological advancement, the Mogodorians killed the land they stood on over the course of several generations. Then they moved onto John's home planet, Lorien, drained its life force within a week to fuel the weaponry they'd developed on Mogodore, and transformed John's home into a lifeless hunk of rock. In all his nightmarish visions since his powers have awakened, he has only been able to stand by and look on helplessly as fireworks turn into fiery explosions, as towering monsters crush wailing children and splatter their innocent blood on crumbling buildings.
Lives of thousands are extinguished in a single night. Out of the entire planet's population, only eighteen are spared: nine children of the Garde, a group tasked with caring for all life on the planet and genetically bestowed with various supernatural powers; and their un-powered guardians called the Cêpan, who educate the Garde and run society. Those eighteen Garde-Cêpan pairs just happen to be touring the airfield when all hell breaks loose. Everybody else outside in the public square dies fighting for their world. John's Garde father fights with all the powers he has at his disposal until his mind and body collapse. Adults try to protect defenseless children. Bodies are strewn carelessly across the ground, Cêpan and Garde alike, like broken rag dolls lying in pools of their own crimson lives. Of all those people, only John and seventeen others plus the pilot survive. The survivors can only watch in horror as the Mogodorians immediately begin to suck life energy out of the very planet itself, and entire sections of forest and wilderness fade from green to gray as everything disintegrates to ash.
Now, John's got to defend the Lorien legacy. The beginning of the end of the world is happening all over again on Earth, but this time, John can do something about it.
The pocketknife, small and almost useless, is gripped in his hand. The cannon flashes radiantly, the soldier drowned in its luminescence, but John rushes forward blindly anyways. He lands a deep punch into the soldier's unyielding stomach, and John's shield of fire engulfs both of them. A cutting ring splits the air, and John brings up the pocketknife to parry the sword racing down on his head. The glowing sword slides away from his face, but the strain is still enough to shatter John's tiny blade and continue downwards to make contact with John's shoulder.
Crackling electricity races through his body and a tiny explosion blasts him backwards thirty feet. For a couple seconds, John simply lies there, trying to regain control over his shaking, electrocuted limbs. However, the soldier doesn't press its advantage; it breathes raggedly, steam rising off its charred flesh. It takes John a moment to realize that he unintentionally burned the soldier when he crashed into it with his shield of fire.
His body already aches from the short encounter, but the soldier has only just begun. The life-force cannon has been charged—and now it's pointing straight at him. Before John can react, a brilliant light is hurtling towards him. Within its hollow depths come the ragged forms of his guardian, Henri; his girlfriend, Quinn Fabray; his best friend, Mike Chang; even his dog, Bernie Kosar. And they're all screaming and crying, with fragile hands reaching towards him, pulling him down to frozen, quiet death. He makes eye contact with Quinn's cruel caricature. Her blonde hair flows in thin tatters around her sallow face, but her hazel eyes catch and hold him—tortured, pleading, drawing him in.
Please. Please don't leave me.
He can't take his eyes off her as white death comes to engulf him.
A/N: "In Media Res" is Latin for "In the middle of the action." So literally, this starts in the middle of the action; but in later chapters, I'll start from the beginning. Fox owns Glee and HarperCollins Publisher owns I Am Number Four. I just happened to notice Dianna Agron plays both Quinn Fabray from Glee and Sarah Hart from the "Number Four" movie, and both Glee and the "Number Four" movie are set in Ohio = inspiration.
Chapter One will start shortly after the start of the second season of Glee, though character histories will be changed to fit this AU. Reviews, constructive criticisms, and flames appreciated!