Chapter 1: The Start of it All

You are the chosen one. You're the one who will make change in the world you know now. Know that everything now rides on your shoulders, chosen one. Make your choices wisely. Pick your friends as they will be the ones who will help you make everything possible. Without them, you will not be successful. But know that your life is the one that matters, not theirs. Remember, young dragon, you are the one who will set us all free.

*---*

Michael woke up abruptly from his dream, hyperventilating and sweating like it was summer in Arizona. He took a moment to get himself straight. He was shirtless and was only wearing his uniformed pants as he slept. Michael had a fit body, but not as fit as Lincoln's younger brother's friend and partner, Lycan, or as the people call him, Wolf. The room was really small. All he had was a sink, a toilet, a bed, and a locker to put his things in. The locker was rusting since he was a grunt and grunts get the crappy, if not the shittiest things around the headquarters. His sword was lying at his side and he took it. And just then, the door to his room opened. Michael sat back down on his bed after seeing who it was.

"Hey Linc. Hey Paul." Michael said.

"Come on, get ready, Michael." Paul commanded. "Colonel Padman has a job for us and we need to get there now. It's important that we do this immediately because he needs this job done fast and if we get this done right, he'll give you more trust and possibly raise your rank." Paul explained. He was wearing a blue vest with a white shirt under that. His pants were also a slightly different shade of blue, possibly sky blue. His sword was a light, teal color.

"What about Linc?" Michael asked, curious since his friend was the only person who would stay the same rank just for him.

"I can get promoted at any time, Michael. You worry about yourself, okay?" Lincoln said as he put his hand on Michael's shoulder. He was sporting nearly an overall that was teal that only showed his masculine chest and his strong arms. His sword was colored red and was moon-shaped and thin as Paul's rapier. "Now hurry up and get dressed. I want to get back here for LJ's graduation from the academy."

"Alright then get out so I can change. I'll meet you at Colonel's office." Michael said irritably. He shoved his two friends out of his room and shut the door right behind him. I didn't take him long to change into his small black vest that only covered his chest with a white t-shirt under that. His arms fit into the vest just tight enough to reveal the muscles he had. He took his yellow, regular stereotyped sword and put it in his pant belt.

After he washed his face, he packed up healing herbs in his satchel and then walked out his door. Almost immediately after walking out, he ran into Lycan. He was larger than Michael was and he had black hair. He was wearing nothing but two belts that ran over in a cross over his huge masculine, tanned body. He was just wearing blue shorts that were almost like cutoffs. He was also wearing iron armlets around his wrists. Michael always wondered if he was just naturally that large because at the age of 18 and being that big made him feel like he was sort of insignificant to him.

"Hey, Michael." Lycan greeted.

"Hey, Lycan." Michael said. "The air's a bit different today. Are you heading this way?"

"Uh… yeah. I had to meet up with-"

"Hey!!!" LJ yelled as he ran from behind the two of them, easily bypassing the other men to get through the hall that seemed to barely both Michael and Lycan in. He was wearing his blue mage overalls. They were light enough for him to run in and also to maneuver his incantations and staff movements. They had a golden sun printed on the front; on the back was a gold moon. They were small and long enough that it wouldn't have tripped LJ but allowed for the swiftest movements, especially with the combinations that involved both Lycan and LJ. His staff had a round top with a brown colored stick for holding.

"Speak of the devil." Lycan casually said. "I thought you wanted me to meet you at the arena for a match with Andy and Divy? I mean you were busy making out with Sofia that you didn't want to leave her."

"Shut up with the talking about my girlfriend, Wolf." LJ irritably said. "And Andy and Divy cancelled. They didn't want to fight against you, knowing that you'd probably just kick them out of the arena, or grab them by their shirts and then throw them out."

Lycan sighed. "Well there goes my challenge. And I wasn't going to play dirty like that. I would've tried to keep it… fair."

"With your height of 6' 2" and your huge constitution, a fair fight is hard." Michael acknowledged while directing his hands up and down in the air in front of his body.

"Thanks, like I wasn't already conscious of my height and my body." Lycan grimaced. He sighed. "Well I better get ready for graduation. Not that it matters. All we're wearing are the things that are naturally our own equipment for the jobs that are outside of here." He walked away and turned right at the end of the rusted, badly lighted hall. There was also dirt as the whole entire place was a tunnel that was dug into. Not even Michael could remember how they arrived here.

That reminded Michael of his graduation from the academy. He wore the exact same clothes he was wearing now on the stand when he got his golden pin that marked him as a grunt. Too bad he didn't further it much due to his luck with his jobs and that he always screwed up somewhere, one way or another. If it weren't for Lincoln, he probably would've quit. Lincoln is possibly his closest friend, Paul coming second. He knew he could always trust Lincoln as he did in the academy. It was the same way for Lycan and LJ. LJ befriended Lycan while he was being ridiculed for his abnormal size, if not feared for it. Lycan does have an older brother who's advanced in the higher ranks and a father, but he never talked about them. He only followed orders from LJ, who was the strategist, like his friend Lincoln.

"Yeah… I need to get ready as well. Later, Michael!" LJ dashed past Michael but made a left at the end of the hall.

Michael shook his head and then continued down the hallway, making a left, but making a first right and through the sliding, automatic door. It shut behind him right after he passed it almost immediately. He walked past several office desks, saying hi to a few of people working there who knew him and are hoping that he would one day achieve his dream of becoming a regent. At the end of the hall of desks, he made it to another sliding door and walked inside. Lincoln and Paul were waiting for him.

"Finally you're here." Lincoln said impatiently. "Any longer and I would've probably left and went back to sleep. Or gone to the academy to study on a few more maps that I need to be familiar with before LJ's graduation."

"Lincoln, shut up please so I can give you guys the job now." Padman commanded with authority. All three of them stood at attention. "At ease." They followed the order and stood legs apart, hands behind their backs. "Okay. So due to you guys being the only ones free and couldn't possibly screw this up, I'm giving you this small job." He pulled a paper right under his manila folder. It was full of computer print, no pictures provided at all. Paul took it, read it, and then passed the paper along to Michael who also took the chance to read it. Lincoln received it last and spent the time analyzing every small bit of detail as he could. He wanted to know where they were heading, what they had to do, and any possible thing that could happen. In his mind, he thought of every possible counter to whatever he could imagine, be it a crash, broken railroad, etc. It didn't take him long to finally calculate everything in his head so he passed back the paper to the Colonel. "So your job is to simply guard a package from Biogenetic Company. You are NOT to take a look at the package. Your job is to simply guard it on the train and get it safely to the destination.

"This is a very serious job and also a very easy one. You need this job to go well, Michael, or that's it for you. You're gone if you screw this up."

Michael gulped. He knew where he would have to go if he had to be "casted away". There was no chance of him wanting that to happen because if it did, he would probably rather just jump down a hole to his death.

"You do know that if Michael goes, I'm gone too." Lincoln said.

"Cut the bullcrap, Lincoln. If you try to leave with Michael, I'll have my men chain you up and bring you back here. You are not to leave or do something like that. Besides, how would your brother feel knowing that you're not here anymore?" Padman was a complete hard-ass in his black suit and his five-star beret. He wanted to make sure that he asserted his authority and make his presence known. That is why no one, not even Lincoln, would dare to get on his bad side. If anyone did get there, all they could do is pray that he doesn't do something to get them kicked out of the area.

"Is that all?" Paul asked. "I'd like to get this job done."

"Yes. And as usual, Paul is the leader of this mission. How you plan this out is up to you." Padman said.

They saluted him and he saluted them back. "We'll be back, Colonel." Lincoln and Michael left to get prepared. Paul was the last one to leave but he was stopped because Padman wanted to talk to him about something.

"What is it, Colonel?"

"I'd just received a commission for you to become a regent, Paul." Padman smiled as he said that. But there was just something about his smile. It was a bit sinister.

Paul was taken aback. Not only was his dream about to be reached, but he was going to be at a higher rank than the Colonel and possibly in a better place. "Are you serious!?" He said elatedly. And as he said that, he looked at the Colonel. There was a catch, especially since he was about to be promoted to a way higher rank than the Colonel himself. He was trying to tell himself that he deserved it since very few people can achieve a feat like that in life and his sword skill set and determination got him there, but there was something about the Colonel's smile that was running butterflies in his stomach.

"Yes." Padman said, still grinning. It started creeping Paul out.

"What's the catch?" Paul asked, curious. He would do it, of course because his dream is right there on the line.

*---*

Michael and Lincoln went down 10 meters worth of stairs and turned right at the bottom of the rusted stairs. There were metal plates on the floor that made sound for every step the two of them made. They were heading down to the market to buy healing kits before they headed down to the train station on the left of the stairs they went down.

It made no sense to bring healing kits, but Lincoln knew that nothing ever ran smoothly. He wanted to make sure they were ready for whatever case of emergency possible. So he bought at least 15 healing kits to make sure of that. Michael shook his head as the two of them left the store. He knew that Lincoln was usually a safe, worry-wart, but sometimes he felt that he took their safety a bit too far. But it was understandable. It wasn't a safe world to begin with.

As the two of them walked out of the market, they noticed LJ and Lycan hanging around.

"Hey. Shouldn't you two be somewhere near the graduation area?" Lincoln asked.

"We should be… but we heard that you had a mission." LJ replied as he got up off the side of the wall he was hanging around. Lycan stood there, eating an apple, and staying as far away from the brothers so they could have their moment. Michael moved away from them as well, and decided to talk to Lycan. "Are you sure you'll be able to make it back to the graduation? I mean it's not that it'll be bad if you don't, but you know we haven't been exactly hanging around lately."

"I know. I know, LJ." Lincoln hugged his younger brother. "I know it's been hard knowing that dad is a regent and is somewhere else and hasn't been contacting us and I'm off doing missions almost every time you're free." He relinquished the hug and put his hands on his shoulder. "But understand this, little brother, whatever happens from here on out, I will never betray you or anything. I will always try to be there for you. That's also another reason why I won't bother going up in the ranks yet, besides for Michael's sake. I want to be up there, with you and Michael. After this mission, we should find some time to hang around. You know - reminiscence about our younger times."

LJ smiled. "I'd really like that. Let's do that after you get back, before or after the graduation." The two of them embraced each other in a tight hug. If there was anything that was tender, it would be these two. LJ and Lincoln only really have each other since they no longer have any contact from their dad. The twelve year age distance meant nothing to these two; they acted like they were just a couple of years apart and were protective of one another.

"Okay, you guys should get ready to go." LJ said after releasing the hug. Lycan and Michael joined them after they could tell that they had their touching brotherly moment. "We all know how Paul is about getting a mission started and on time."

Lycan took a bite out of his apple again. "He was more of an ass about it, actually." He said with his mouth full, smiling with his mouth closed. The other three of them laughed.

"How come you're able to crack jokes when you're around us?" Michael asked. "Earlier you were all shy and self-conscious about yourself."

Lycan crossed his arms around his chest after eating the rest of his apple. He threw the remains of the apple in the trash can from where he was standing. It was a swish into the can. "I… feel comfortable when I'm around just you guys. It's like nothing matters when I'm here. I want to protect my close friends. Life's too short here, isn't it?"

Michael nodded his head. "Life is too short, indeed." He checked his watch. "Well we should be going off, Linc. We don't need to have Paul on our case. Colonel does that enough."

"Yeah. Alright, we're off, guys." He hugged LJ once more and shook Lycan's hand. "Watch over him and make sure he doesn't do anything stupid before graduation."

"You bet." Lycan assured him with a small smile. "Take care, you two."

And they bid them farewell and went their own ways. Michael and Lincoln practically ran their way to the train station, knowing that Paul was already there and that the two of them were wasting their time, dillydallying in the market. However, they really didn't care if Paul yelled at them for being late. He was really impatient to begin with and they happened to deal with it on a daily basis.

When they got to the station, Paul was already on board the train. There was a colossal sized capsule on top of one of the carts for the train. Paul was already on the front, which meant that both Lincoln and Michael would have to get the back. The horn whistled and the two of them ran down the steps, almost tripping down, and jumped onto the capsule.

The train ride was smooth for five minutes now, nothing happening. Paul was sitting in the front, talking to the conductor. Lincoln decided to take a nap as he barely caught any sleep the night before. Michael stood at the top, tending to the Automatic Machine Gun that was already there. It was a pretty boring ride at the moment. There was nothing to do so Michael ran over several thoughts in his mind.

He was thinking about his life up until now. There was really nothing much to think about. He went to the academy for several years, graduated with Lincoln and Paul, and after that, his life went downhill. He was a failure in every possible way, even in the simplest of missions. He couldn't begin to fathom as to why Paul kept him on the team. He knew that Paul was shooting for the top, and that's where he wanted to be as well, but his swordplay was not up to par and neither was his planning. The only thing running for him was his courage and stubbornness to never back down, no matter how the odds were. That's the only thing he had over Lincoln, who was possibly far advanced in swordplay and in strategy.

A minute later, an alarm went off on the train. This woke up Lincoln and everyone looked around to see what was going on.

"Shit! A Company operative!" Paul yelled as he pointed at the other side of the railroad, which was about 50 meters away. The female Company operative was riding on a Cyclops. She was wearing a mask with red eyes to keep from revealing her identity and she had an orange tail and ears. She was a woman of the tiger tribe. She had a gun in her holster. She was also wearing a tight blue suit that tightened around her curves, which allowed for her to move without any fear of tripping.

Michael and started firing the Automatic Machine Gun at her, but the shots were too far and he kept missing.

"Michael, aim at where she's going!" Paul yelled as he pointed. But as he turned back, she was gone.

"Where did she go?!" Paul yelled. Everyone was looking around. But then they looked in front of them. She was there on a rock platform, with a rocket launcher.

"Shit!" They all yelled. She took a shot and blew the bridge apart, separating the front with the package. Michael and Lincoln fell with the package and Paul was knocked out on top of the train and was out cold.

*---*

Michael could see nothing around him. It was all dark. There was no fire. He could feel his body aching in several places. He cringed at the pain. He held his ribs and started to lip forward, hoping that he could see something. Then, he heard a voice in his head.

Are you about to give up?

Michael remained silent and thought "I don't know. Where am I?"

You can't give up. There's so much more for you to do.

What are you talking about?

Don't give up. You have so much untouched potential. Now wake up! WAKE UP!

*---*

Michael woke up abruptly again. He started to sweat and hyperventilate. He looked around and he could see that Lincoln was face on the ground and that the capsule was broken. But none of that mattered. What bothered him most was the dream. What could it have been about? What was that voice in his head? It was so deep and rough, but velvet and caring at the same time. It was almost as if it was his guardian. He had his own guardian voice.

He snapped himself out of his stupor and sought out Lincoln, who was still on the ground. Was he dead? Michael didn't know. He was more so saddened for LJ than himself. He checked for a pulse. He let out a breath of relief knowing that his heart was still breathing.

Michael took out a healing kit out of Lincoln's bag and started treating the wounds on the two of them. It took him five minutes to treat all the minor flesh wounds on his shoulders and his chest; Lincoln, three minutes on his shoulders and face. As he finished, Lincoln woke up and groaned in pain.

"Hey, are you alright?" Michael asked, feeling better that his friend was back into consciousness. It felt like a building was lifted off his shoulders.

Lincoln groaned and slowly sat up. "I'm fine." He looked around. There was the broken capsule and there was nothing in it. Also there was a small fire just a few meters away from him. They were lucky to have landed on lower ground, no matter how far. They could've dropped down the dark abyss and were never to be found again.

Lincoln checked to see if any of his bones were broken. He shook his legs, his arms, and even moved almost every part of his body that he could. None of them were. He got up right after and cleaned the dirt of his clothes. "Come on. Let's go."

"Go where?" Michael asked. He stood up as well, dusting himself off.

"I think I know where we are." He pointed at a rusted shack that was several meters away from them. "If we head there, we might be able to find elevators to take us up. I don't know how far we dropped, but I remember reading that they had elevators drop down to 2100 meters."

Michael kicked a rock off the edge of the cliff they were on. "Well I guess we can have a little bit of faith and see if what you say is true."

"Have I ever failed you, Michael?" Lincoln asked, hurt by Michael's thoughts.

"No, but I have failed you and Paul several times." Michael recovered.

Lincoln dropped his head and shook it. "Michael, you're wrong yet again." He looked at him again. "Come on, let's go." Lincoln started walking off. He could tell Michael wasn't following him. "If you don't hurry up, I'm leaving you!"

Michael ran off to catch up with him. He smiled out of embarrassment that he doubted himself again in front of his good, no great friend. Once he caught up with Lincoln, he slowed down to a walk at his pace and they walked right inside the rusted shack.

*---*

Right when they passed the working sliding door to the shack, they heard footsteps. They actually sounded like thump… thump… thump… They were slow steps one after another. Michael and Lincoln hid behind two huge piles of trash.

It was the Cyclops that was with the lady! But there was something in his arms and she looked like she was struggling. She was wearing a run-down hospital gown. But the most striking feature about her was her white wings. They were majestic and they shined brighter than a well-polished gold jewelry.

This made Michael furious and his eyes started to glow red and he felt like he could just run and fly towards the Cyclops and save the girl. Lincoln didn't even notice anything different about Michael until he ran up the pile of garbage and jumped off the top of it, his sword above his head. He was flying through the air and Lincoln could only just stare after him. Lincoln was just astonished, but he had a feeling that there was something different about Michael, something he didn't know about.

Michael flew through the air and was right above the Cyclops. He slashed his sword down and cut the Cyclops's arm off, causing him to scream in pain and for the white winged girl to drop to the ground. Lincoln ran in and grabbed the girl. She was afraid of him.

"Don't worry. I'm not here to hurt you. I'm with that man over there. You can trust us. Come on. Let me lead you to safety. This fight's not done yet."

She nodded her head and Lincoln led her behind a mountain of garbage. He heard Michael fighting in the distance and drew his sword. "Stay here and don't move." He said firmly. Lincoln got up and ran to help Michael.

The Cyclops only had one arm to attack with, but he was pretty strong. Michael dodged and rolled back. Lincoln was at his side just then. He took a look at the damage that Michael did and the Cyclops looked pretty weak by then as its green blood started to drip and ooze out of the cuts on its body.

"Did you do that?" Lincoln asked Michael, still staring at the slowly breathing Cyclops.

Michael took a look at the Cyclops and he was surprised he managed to get that many strikes in without getting hurt. "I guess I did."

"Let's finish this off." Lincoln commanded. And just then, he and Michael both ran at the Cyclops at full speed. Everything was moving so fast that they couldn't have seen what was going on. The two of them slashed their swords forward and the next thing they knew, they were on the opposite side of the Cyclops.

They were frozen in place, holding their swords in the same stance without a sudden movement. Afterwards, they sheathed their swords and the Cyclops dropped to the floor. It was dead.

*---*

They took the moment to rest for a little bit. Lincoln decided to scout the place out a bit and Michael decided to take a look at the white-winged girl, who was still sitting in the same place Lincoln had left her, following his orders. Michael sat down right next to her. He noticed that she had a black armlet on her right wrist with a strange design running around it.

"Are you a magic user?" Michael asked. She nodded her head. "What type?"

She put her hand on the floor and just then, a magic staff appeared in her hands. The staff glowed red and had a heated feeling around it, just enough to make Michael's body warm.

"Ah… a fire staff user." They remained silent as they sat there. Lincoln was watching from the distance, but stayed hidden as he wanted to give Michael and her their own time. He understood his friend more than anything, but does he really know? Michael's red eyes; his speed was so unbelievably fast. There were so many questions he had for Michael, but he trusted him and knew that when the time was right, he'd tell him. It bothered Lincoln the most to know how Michael could achieve such a hidden power like that. He envied him.

"What's your name?" Michael asked, breaking the silence.

"S-Sara T-Tancredi." She answered.

"Are you alright, Sara?" Michael asked, concerned about her health. "Did it hurt you?"

"No." She said.

"Where did you come from?"

"I… don't remember." She closed her eyes and her wings spread. They were about 4 meters in length. "I can't remember anything from before the crash."

Michael was shocked by that phrase, from before the crash. "Wait, you were from the capsule? You were a package?"

"I don't know." She put her hands on her head. Michael touched her on the shoulder.

"It's alright. No one's going to hurt you."

Lincoln approached the two of them. "Well, I'm pretty sure you guys had enough time, but we need to hurry and go. I don't think we would want everyone to think that we're dead."

Michael stood up and helped Sara stand. "I think you're right. By the way, her name is-"

"Sara." Lincoln finished. Michael made a look trying to understand how he knew. "I was around; not 'around around', but around."

"We need to go now. I don't want LJ thinking I'm dead. I'm the only one he's got."

Michael nodded. "You're right. Let's go." He held Sara's hand. "Let's go together with Lincoln, Sara." She smiled and nodded. The three of them ran further into the shack.

*---*

"So… you failed your mission. That's a major disappointment, Paul. And now Lincoln and Michael are missing." Padman said. Paul was back in his office. He had to report the mission, knowing that it was a failure.

"No one could've predicted that we would be attacked by a skilled Company operative."

Padman slammed his folder on the desk. It sounded like thunder struck. "I don't care! If you want to become a regent now, you're going to need to find Michael, Lincoln, and the package and take care of them. I've enlisted several people to go with you. You'll have mages and gunmen."

"What about the close up battalion?" Paul asked.

"I've had that taken care of." Padman nodded his head at the man staring by the doorway. He went out to go get someone, or something. "They don't know the mission and don't tell them anything. They're fresh out of the academy, graduated today. Those two are the best you'll get for your close up battalion."

Paul looked behind him when he heard the door slide open. And the two people who walked in were Lycan and LJ.