DISCLAIMER:

I do not own the world nor any of the rules of this story. The only things I can claim to be mine are the characters and the plot. The views and opinions expressed in the story may or may not be my own, the whole idea is for you to think a character is being stupid, not me. If you happen to see something wrong you may inform me, but please do not do so in an insulting mannor. Please feel free to read and review, and enjoy.

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Magic is not dead.

Open your eyes and see with mystick sight.

A War rages,

A Reckoning is at hand.

On one side stand the Others,

Who would twist our world with their mad designs;

On the other hand, the snare of Pride,

And Power's lure,

Await an inner Fall.

Is our Path too narrow?

You decide.

Come forth,

A journey beckons.

Open your eyes

And Awaken.

MAGE DESTINY

Technocratic Union

Chapter 1

Abnormal Event

In room nine of an apartment building on Elms road, there lived a man named Tom Winslow. Tom was a twenty year old man who, aside from his uncanny sense of time, had no real talents whatsoever. He is an only child and both of his parents died two years after he was born, murdered by their neighbor at the time. Tom has been forced to live on his own ever since, trying to make a living on the small portions of money he gets from whatever job he could get. It wasn't unusual to see him looking for a job as he usually can't keep one for more than a week. However, this man's life is about to change, forever.

Our story takes place at seven o'clock AM on a Monday. An alarm sounded and Tom slowly woke up, rubbing his eyes. He had shoulder length white hair and blue eyes wearing only boxers. slowly he rolled over and covered his head with his pillow as if trying to drown out the noise, but when he discovered that he could still hear it, he pushed himself up a little, swung his pillow, and smacked the alarm clock a crossed the room.

"Damn clock..." He said with a yawn. His eyes were still very heavy. He rolled over and placed his pillow back under his head, closing his eyes slowly. He thought he could get at least five more minutes like everyone else, but then there was a knock at the front door.

"Tom Winslow!" A female voice screamed through the door. Tom rolled his eyes as he listened to her. "Get out of bed this instant! It's time for you to go to work!

Tom rolled onto his back with his arms outstretched. He let out a heavy sigh as he stared at the ceiling. Eventually he sat up and swung his legs over the side of his bed. He faced his clock which now lay on the floor with several pieces missing. He smirked in amusement, proud of breaking that infernal noise maker that tormented him every morning.

"Tom!" The voice yelled again, louder this time and with more door pounding. "Did you hear me?!"

"Yes, Mrs. Fonner! I'm up!"

He heard footsteps leaving the door to his room. Knowing that meant Mrs. Fonner had finally gone. Tom reached to his right and grabbed a black shirt, pulling it on lazily. He then pulled on a pair of blue jeans and finally got up, grabbing his wallet and stuffing it into his pocket as he opened his closet. He pulled out a McDonalds work shirt and headed for the door slowly, walking as if he was still asleep. He slowly opened his door and stepped out, putting on his work shirt.

"I'm leaving, Mrs. Fonner! He called as he closed his front door.

-

Tom walked out the front door of the apartment, his McDonalds work shirt now on completely. He was very anxious to get to work. He had this job for a whole week and hasn't lost it yet. Today was pay day. He knew he wasn't getting much, but it would at least be enough to pay his rent for the week and buy some food to live on for a little while. Tom held his hand out as a taxi drove around the corner. it approached him slowly from the left and came to a stop next to him. The driver rolled down his window and peered out to speak.

"Where you headed?" He said to Tom. A half-smoked cigar hanging from under a black, bushy mustache. He looked sort of like a plumber.

"Um, McDonalds." Tom said to the driver, a bit distracted by the driver's appearance. "I'm in a bit of a hurry. It's seven fifteen now... If we leave now I can make it in time." The taxi driver went to look at his watch. Sure enough, it had just turned seven fifteen about five seconds before Tom said it was. He looked up at Tome in amazement.

"That's pretty good! How'd you know that without looking at a watch or anything?"

"I don't know." Tom said. "It's kind of a gift I have. Anyway, can you take me there?"

"Of course." The taxi driver said with a smirk. "Wouldn't be much of a cab driver if I couldn't. Hop in."

"Thanks." Tom opened the back door on the passenger side. He slipped in and slowly brought his leg in as the car started driving off, closing the door. The trip was rather boring as neither of them spoke. Tom watched out the window as he passed the same buildings he passed every day along with the same boring people walking the sidewalks, reading newspapers or talking. Most looking a lot richer then he. In no time at all they were approaching McDonalds. Several police cars were surrounding the place.

"Better put your seat-belt on." The taxi driver informed Tom who seemed distracted by the police.

"Huh? Oh, right." But tom did not put on his seat belt. He was too busy staring out the window at the building, trying to see what was going on. Several cops were thrown out of the door of the McDonalds building. Tom turned to the cab driver as he opened his wallet.

"Let me out here." Tom said, a nervous tone to his voice as he fumbled around with his wallet. "How much will that be?"

The taxi driver checked the meter, then turned back to Tom as he stopped the car. "A dollar eighty five." He seemed surprisingly calm. The cigar in his mouth almost completely used up. Tom handed him the money as he thanked him, then unbuckled his seat-belt and let himself out. He closed the door with a thud and the taxi drove off. Tom walked slowly up to the parking lot, staring at the place with shock. Some police men walked up to him and stopped him from getting closer.

"Nothing to see here." One of the officers told Tom. "You should go home. Let us handle this."

"But I work here!" Tom said, a knot forming in his stomach. "I'm supposed to get paid today! If I don't get that money..."

"We're doing the best we can. You just have to..."

Their conversation was cut off suddenly as McDonalds exploded, sending several cops flying through the air along with several chunks of the building. The police, keeping Tom back, crouched behind their cars and pulled out their guns. Tom crouched down too, wondering what was happening. Suddenly a strange feeling overcame him. He now realized that on top of the fact that he might be in danger here, he would also be in danger with his landlord, for now there was no way he could get paid. He didn't have enough time to ponder what he was going to do now that he was surely going to be living on the streets and eating out of trash cans. For at that moment, the flames that stood where McDonalds used to be, had parted. A man wearing strange green and yellow robes was slowly walking out of what remained of the building, a green aura flickering around him as he walked. His eyes glowing red. It was impossible to tell whether the man had hair or not, and other random features were difficult to see as well.

"Open fire!" A policeman shouted. Several rounds were being shot at the strange, glowing man walking out of the building. The bullets, however, were bouncing off of him. No, they weren't even hitting him. They repelled themselves off of the air around the strange glowing man.

"What the hell?..." Tom said with confusion, backing up very slowly from the event. Not believing one bit of it, and yet, there it was happening right in front of him. The glowing man began screaming out as he shot balls of fire at the police. Several cars were destroyed as he threw the fire around like a mad man. Tom leaped out of the parking lot and behind some bushes as he saw one coming his way, to paniked to realise how foolish hiding from a ball of fire behind bushes was. He covered his head and closed his eyes tightly, but to his surprise, he didn't hear an explosion. In fact, he couldn't hear anything but burning debris. No gun shots. No fireballs flying through the air. no explosions. and no screaming.

Tom peeked his head out from above the bushes. The police were all asleep and the glowing man was gone. He stood slowly, believing this even less than what was happening before. How could something like that just stop? And why would the police all fall asleep without any sign of sleeping gas? Or maybe there was sleeping gas and he was just the first to wake up? Tom walked out from behind the bush and began dragging the sleeping cops away from their burning cars, knowing it wasn't safe for them to stay near them. One by one he pulled the police away from their cars. One of the cars exploded as he was pulling the last police officer to safety, startling him, but not stopping him. He couldn't help feeling sleepy every time he got close to the parking lot. As soon as he was done, the police began waking up.

"I better get out of here" Tom thought to himself, although he wasn't compleatly sure why. He just had a really bad feeling about staying. But, as he turned to leave...

"Hey! Don't move!"

Tom turned to see several sleepy cops aiming their guns at him. He raised his arms high into the air, opening his mouth to speak, but nothing came out.

"Did you do this?!" One of the cops said to him in an angry tone.

"N, no! I couldn't..." Tom explained. "You know I didn't... You saw the guy..."

"Enough!" Said the cop in anger. "You're under arrest!"

Tom didn't understand it. They saw the guy who did it. Why were they accusing him of doing this? It was as if they didn't know what had happened at all. Tom was cuffed and read his rights, then pushed rather harshly into a police car and driven to the police station.

-

Tom was locked in cell number thirty six. The guard was patrolling the cells slowly, beating his club against the bars to annoy the prisoners. Tom couldn't understand it. Was it all just his imagination? Maybe nothing happened after the explosion. Maybe the explosion sent him flying back behind the bush and debris landed on the police cars. It could have been a gas explosion, but that didn't explain why the cops were there, or why they were all asleep too. On top of that, their guns were out. It was confusing and hard to accept, but what he saw must have really happened. But, why did it stop?

He heard a couple of voices at the end of the hall. He figured that the guard must have been talking to an officer or one of the prisoners about something. Then suddenly. the voices stopped. There was no sound at all. Not even the breathing of the sleeping prisoners or the water leaking from the ceiling. Then he heard loud footsteps coming from the left. The opposite side from where the guard was.

"Who's there?!" Tom said with some terror in his voice, standing slightly.

"It's alright" Said an old, but firm sounding voice. "I'm a friend of yours."

As the man walked into view, Tom could see that he was definitely nobody that he recognized. This man had long silvery hair and gray eyes. He was wearing a white shirt with white pants and white shoes while sporting a white cape that was red on the inside. Tom shook his head angrily.

"You are not my friend! I don't even know who you are!"

"My name is Lore. I am a high mage on the Council of Nine."

Tom rolled his eyes. "High mage? Council of Nine?" Tom said with a bit of a laugh. "I think you're missing a few marbles." Tom dropped down onto his prison bed. He looked to the side as if atempting to ignore the man in front of his cell, then turned back curiously. "What kind of a name is 'Lore' Anyway?"

"T'was a nickname I acquired over time." Lore said with an unshakable calmness in his voice. He streched his arms out to his sides and wrapped his hands around the bars, leaning against them as he continued to speak. "I was well known for knowing things. Far too many things at times."

"Fine, so you have a nickname." Tom said, a bit annoyd. "What's your real name?"

"I cannot say. That's privileged information."

"Yeah, sure..." Tom shook his head, acting like this Lore fellow was a fruit cake. Lore just smiled.

"You have magical potential too. I sense a strong Avatar within you."

"What?" Tom now looked confused as ever.

"You have the ability to tell what time it is without looking at any form of a clock." Tom couldn't believe that Lore new this. He guessed that Lore probably heard it from someone and just got a little more annoyed about it. thinking this was all crazy, but also seeing that this 'Lore' was given a proper nickname.

"What the hell is an avatar?" Tom said, more confused than before. "And what does knowing what time it is have to do with any of this? Anybody could learn how to do it" Tom could see Lore shaking his head, as if he was listening to the words of a fool.

"Do you know what time it is now?" Lore asked. Tom thought about it for a moment, then slowly shook his head.

"No... I don't" He admited hesitantly.

"You can't tell because time is stopped." These words caused Tom to raise a brow, seeing Lore as even more of a nutcase now. Lore continued. "Your avatar is your soul, and it's so strong that you can sense the waves of time." Tom shook his head.

"You're out of your mind, you know that?"

"Am I?" Lore said with a smile on his face. Tom stood up again, feeling a bit annoyed with this Lore fellow.

"Whatever. I have no time for crazy people who think they're mages. I'm in enough trouble as it is. Just leave me alone and take your magical fantasies with you!" Lore offered Tom an amused grin as he leaned in a bit closer.

"Are you saying that what you saw at McDonalds never happened?" Lore said, his amusement apparent in his tone. "All just a fantasy?" Tom opened his mouth to say something, but then looked around as he thought about what Lore just said.

"How do you know about that?"

"I'm a high mage, as well as a fountain of knowledge." Lore said planely. "It's my job to know." There was a moment of silence as Tom stood up and began to pace back and forth in his cell, thinking hard. Eventually he turned to Lore again.

"Fine, let's say you're telling the truth." Tom said, short on reasons to deny Lore's case. "How can you prove any of what you're saying?"

At that moment, Lore walked forward. His body molded around the bars of Tom's cell, giving Tom quite a shock and causing him to throw himself back against the wall. Eventually, Lore was all the way inside and smiling as Tom fell back onto his bed.

"Still think I'm telling lies?" Said Lore as he gazed at Tom, who gave no answer to his question. Too frightened to utter a sound. "I thought so." Lore continued to stand their as Tom tried to relax himself. He found all of this hard to believe, but he couldn't deny what was happening. Unless...

"This must all be a nightmare..." He said in an attempt to make himself feel better. "All just a crazy dream!" Tom smiled stupidly and let out a laugh as he began to turn his head this way and that, looking around the room to find something out of place, as most of his dreams, realistic or not, always had mistakes. But this was the first time he had ever known he was dreaming.

"No. I can assure you, this is quite real." Lore said slowly as Tom didn't find anything out of place at all, aside from the deathly silence around him. Tom pinched himself on the arm, fairly sure that would cause himself to wake up.

"Ouch!" He looked at his arm for a moment, then up to Lore in shock. Feeling a bit uneasy.

"If this isn't a dream..." He said with a shaky voice. "What do you plan to do to me now?... Kill me?" Lore smiled and shook his head.

"No." Lore said calmly. "If I wanted to kill you, it would be done."

"Oh... Well that's nice" Tom said, sarcastically. Pretending that made him feel better. "What did you come here for then?"

"This brings us back to why I am a friend of yours." Lore said, ignoring Tom's sarcasm. "What I've come to do is to offer you a choice." Tom looked up at Lore, not completely understanding his statement.

"A choice? What do you mean by that?" He watched as Lore walked to a wall and leaned against it.

"The choice I'm offering you is this. You can either allow me to erase your memory willingly, leaving no chance of you remembering any of these events, or you can choose to die." Lore lowered his head a bit as he said the last half of that sentence.

"Forget everything or die?" Tom said, feeling a bit insulted. "Why did you even bother to tell me in the first place?" Lore raised his head and looked back up at Tom.

"Because if you are to either forget or die, then your avatar would at least remember what happened here." Lore smiled a bit as he prepared himself to speak again. "That way, you'll know a bit in another life when it comes time for your awakening."

"Awakening?" Tom asked curiously, but mostly wanting to stall for time, which was a bit of a strange concept at the moment as time was suposedly standing still.

"People who have great magical power are the "awakened". Those who have not been awakened to magic are called "Sleepers." Some sleepers, like yourself, have strong avatars, and have gained a bit of magical power. Such people include psychics and hypnotists. In your case, however, your avatar has peeked into the area of Time"

"There you go about time again." Tom said in an unconvincing attempt to sound frustrated. "What exactly do you mean?."

"You can sense Time." Lore said, seeming a bit annoyed now at these questions. That uncanny ability you have that allows you to know exactly what time it is without looking at a clock. You think of it as something normal. Something that others can notice given practice, but this is not the case. It is your magical ability, you see. An ability given to you because your avatar is abnormally strong in the area of Time. Possibly meaning that in a previous life, you used Time magic often."

"Strangely, this is all kind of making sense..." Tom looked around, then looked back to Lore, now realising that he was definitly going to forget everything one way or another. "Will I ever remember any of this? You know... after you erase my memory?"

"No." Said Lore, seeming a bit like he felt as though he was babysitting Tom. "Your memory will be permanently altered. You will forget everything that has happened today. You will live out your life the way it was meant to be lived. Whether or not you end-up becoming a mage in the future... well, we'll leave that up to destiny." Looking a bit pleased with the last word he mentioned, as if it was an inside joke, Lore turned and walked through the bars again. Tom stood up suddenly as Lore turned back around to face him.

"So that's it?! After all of that, I just forget it all and live my pathetic life?!" Tom said with anger in his voice. He didn't want to forget what had happened. It was the first time his life had ever had anything interesting happen in it. He didn't want to go back to the way things were. Lore turned toward Tom and smiled at him. Lore was beginning to glow.

"That would seem to be the basic idea, yes." Lore said with amusement. "Have a nice day." Suddenly Lore became a bright flash of light. Tom was now standing behind the counter at McDonalds, as though it had never been destroyed. Tom looked around, wondering how he had gotten there, not remembering anything to do with the explosion, the arrest, Lore, or anything about magic. As Tom stood there with a dazed expression on his face, a customer walked up to the counter.

"Hey, are you alright?" Said the customer, a bit concerned.

"Huh? Yeah." Tom replied, feeling a bit uneasy as he snapped back to reality. "Uh, what do you need?"