Wake up, little one.
...nnn...
It's time to get up.
...h-huh?
Good morning, little one. Today is the first day of the rest of your life.
What's going on?
The rest of your life. After all, all of us need... purpose... don't we?
We who?
Who indeed... you seem to understand more than the others.
Others? What others?
The failures.
Failures?
Don't worry. You're not like them, those poor pathetic misfits... it was a mercy to destroy them...
Destroy? Mercy??
You disagree?
I don't even know what you're talking about! Who are you? Where am I? And what is this "purpose"?
Perhaps the data banks have not kicked in yet. Give it time. They will.
Who are you?!
You will know soon enough...
No. I will know now.
Hm?
Tell me. now
What...?
...grrr...
Activate emergency locks! Seal all exits!
...damn it... call up the operators... tell them we've got a wild one...
A brown haired boy stared desperately up into the sky, without knowing why. "Hurry! Get out of there!"
Streams of smoke slashed across the sky, detonating against a shadowy creature up the street, shooting sparks into the skyscrapers next to it. He heard screams of panic from the fleeing people around him... but nothing from behind the smoke.
He felt something stream across his face. Tears?
He looked back at the smoke. It was dissipating, leaving the shadowy figure lying against the ground, not moving. Black, unmarked vans skidded up to... whatever it was, obscuring it from view. The boy took a step forward, then stopped. Not because there was anything wrong, but because everything around him had stopped, as well. People caught in mid-stride. Helicopters with their blades clearly visible, and unmoving. A dark man halfway out of one van.
The boy started to walk forward again, but jumped back in surprise when a figure, shrouded in darkness, appeared in front of him. The boy looked at him for a moment, then stammered "w-what is all this? What's going on?"
"I am simply showing you a possibility," the figure, apparently male from the pitch of his voice, replied. "Don't let this happen." He tossed him a small object, then vanished.
The boy looked where the figure had disappeared for a moment, then began to turn over the small white device he held in his hands that the figure had tossed him. One side was blank, but the other had a small circular screen, trimmed in red, with three buttons, also red.
The words USE IT WELL appeared on the screen.
Then he heard something unexpected, something you wouldn't expect to hear on a street with people running (although frozen), helicopters overhead firing missiles (also frozen), and something dark and dangerous lying against the ground (not moving regardless). He heard his mother.
"Kyle! Get up!"
The brown haired boy, Kyle, stared up at the ceiling, listening to his mother yelling at him to get up and dressed. That was weird... for a dream, that sure was realistic... he smiled faintly. Hey, maybe I can write a story about that!
He swung his legs off the bed, and let his bare feet touch the floor.
Aaah! Cold!
He flinched back onto his bed, and in the process dropped something he had been holding. Aw, no... I hope I haven't been playing with the phone in my sleep again... last time some Peruvian guy woke me up yelling about papayas...
He looked more carefully at the object. Good, not the phone... wait, hold on a sec... He flipped the white device over, showing a screen bordered in red with three red buttons beneath it.
Kyle stared at it for a moment. So it wasn't a dream... but then... what was it?
"Kyle! Get down here now!" his mother's yell jolted him out of his thoughts. "Do I have to get your father?"
Crap... never get her mad before her third cup of coffee... "I'm coming down! Just hold on a moment!"
Kyle, now dressed in a red shirt and blue jeans, slammed his apartment's front door behind him, and ran towards the elevators. One was closing. He sprinted for it. No, no no no, dang it! I don't want to go down twenty flights again...
Kyle realized halfway there he wasn't going to make it. He broke stride, feeling defeated. Then, the doors stopped closing, and reopened. A man stood in the elevator, holding one of the buttons down with a bemused expression on his face. "You need an elevator?"
Kyle nodded, and quickly got in. The doors closed again. Kyle took a moment to check himself in the reflective walls of the elevator (Good, no food in my hair) before glancing on the man who'd helped him.
The man had on full business attire, and wore a boring looking hat covering most of his short black hair. Kind of a boring looking person... probably thinks tapping computer keys is exciting as it gets...
The elevator doors finally opened, depositing them at the ground floor. The man looked over at Kyle, tipped his hat to him, and walked towards the exit. Kyle stared after him for a moment, then looked down at his watch.
"Shoot!" he whispered, and ran for the doors as well.
After reaching school with only moments to spare, Kyle had sat through boring class after boring class, just wanting the day to be over. It seemed like it took forever for lunch to roll around.
Kyle grabbed whatever the lunch people, Or "Nutritional Supply Personnel" now... had, and sat down at the usual table next to a window. Not that there was much to see. His friends Isaac, with short, (and for no really apparent reason) pale blue hair, and Kirsten, who had medium length blonde hair, were already sitting down, eating... something.
Kirsten looked up at Kyle. "You okay? You look kinda sick..." she half-grinned. "Tasted the food already?"
Kyle shook his head, and set his head down on the table (making sure to move the food out of the way first). "Hard day so far?" he heard Kirsten ask.
Kyle shrugged. "I dunno..." he said into the table.
He heard Isaac sigh, and put down his fork. "Okay. What is it, Kyle?"
Kyle looked up at them. "I dunno..."
"Really getting somewhere now..." Kirsten muttered sarcastically. "Worried about your 'date' later?"
Kyle blinked. He'd completely forgotten he'd somehow managed to work up the courage to ask Lauren out. He felt himself turn slightly red. "Well, that wasn't it..."
"Well, then what?"
"Um..."
Kirsten's grin widened. "You call that Guatemalan phone sex place in your sleep again?"
"What?!" Kyle said. A bit too loudly. He felt peoples' eyes turning to look at them. Crap...
Isaac saw Kyle's faint look of panic, and muttered "Just look un-interesting, and they'll ignore us."
"Like that's hard to do."
"Kirsten..."
"What? It's true!"
Kyle chanced a glance around the lunch room. They were being ignored again. Phew... Deciding that telling the truth was better than any more of Kirsten's weird ideas, Kyle spoke up. "It's... this dream I had last night..."
"About Guatemalan phone sex?"
Kyle buried his head in his hands. Okay, maybe there's no way around her weirdness... "No. I mean that's what's been bothering me today..."
Kirsten laughed. "You mean the G-"
:"If you say that one more time," Isaac muttered, "I'll make you regret it."
Kirsten laughed again. "Yeah right. You're not supposed to use your martial arts crap on people like me."
Isaac sighed. "Look, Kyle, you were saying?"
Thank god for people like Isaac... "Well, I had this dream, with this weird dark thing-"
"I knew it!" Kirsten crowed. "I knew it was about Gua- oof!" the last sound being all the air leaving her lungs as Isaac elbowed her hard in the stomach. "You were saying?" Isaac said as Kirsten gasped for air.
"Um... right. The dark thing, helicopters were shooting at it... and I was upset about it, for some reason... then everything froze, and this guy appeared out of thin air. He said some weird stuff, and then he gave me this device, and vanished."
Kirsten had recovered somewhat, and heard the tail end of what Kyle said. "Sounds like my last boyfriend."
Isaac ignored her. "Okay, that is weird... but why are you all upset about this?"
Kyle reached into his pocket, and took out the device he'd found this morning. "Because... when I woke up this morning... I was holding this... and it looks exactly like the thing the guy gave me in my dream."
Neither Isaac or Kirsten said anything for a moment. Kirsten opened up her mouth, probably to make a sarcastic remark, when something brilliantly bright flashed right outside their window, and the sound of an explosion rattled through the building, shattering the window and sending shards of glass splintering into the cafeteria. His friends ducked under the table, but Kyle didn't. He couldn't. Not with what he saw through the window.
Kirsten's and Isaac's heads popped out from under the table. "Get down, damn it!"
Kyle shook his head slowly. He pointed out the window. "Um..."
Both his friends looked out the window, where he was pointing. "That..."
A red and black dinosaur the size of a large dog roared, and spit fireballs at passing cars. The sounds of helicopter rotors sounded in the distance. Kyle gulped, and finished his sentence. "That's the dark thing I was telling you guys about..."
The red and black dinosaur roared again, and ran off down the street, away from the school.
Shadow: "For future reference, this is the section of the chapter where I talk about random stuff. If you don't like that, then skip to the bottom and leave a review.
Hey! You're still reading! Cool.
Anyways, long-time readers have probably already noticed a change in format. (Including all the lines and lack of Renamon. (She's taking a break. Don't know if she'll be back...)) If you're not, then don't worry about it.
If you've read this far into the chapter (which means you've read the entire thing) please leave a review! My writing is not perfect (yet), and I could use the advice. Or, if you really liked it, then say so! Or (insert other option here)!
Finally, a big shout out to everyone in Peru and Guatemala! Remember: if we all yell loud enough, everyone can hear us."
