Chapter I: Arrival in Chaos

A hole in the fabric of space-time has appeared in the San Francisco-like city of Orchid Bay City. Travis Yao Li started to materialize in front of the hole after going through Multiversal space. Another minute later and Travis was one-hundred percent intact. But soon after he stood up on his own feet again, he collapsed and passed out from the effects of warping through space-time. When Travis came to, he was hanging by his arms in dungeon-style cuffs. He stood up and took a look around. But it was pitch black. An hour later, lights had turned on all over the room he was in, which was riddled with holding cells. When Travis looked up the wooden steps that he spotted, a door opened up at the top. A girl of about eleven years of age started walking down the steps and, once at the bottom, towards Travis. But what Travis noticed was that this girl was just a bit shorter than him. When Travis looked at himself in a mirror to his left, he saw that he had regressed in age.

Before I left, I was 27, Travis said to himself. Now I'm 12 again. I just hope my DNA isn't back what it used to be before I was in SOLDIER.

Travis noticed that the girl was Chinese, just like him, except he was half-Chinese and half-American. When the girl comes up to Travis, she karate kicks him to the stomach. He falls to his knees from the pain.

"You better start talking," said the Chinese girl. "Because I have reason to believe that you're the cause of the chaos going on right now, according to the company that you worked for."

Biocyte? Travis said to himself in his mind. How could they have come here? They never had wormhole technology. Unless...

When he looked up at the girl's face, he was instantly star-struck. He saw the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

"Who are you?" Travis asked.

"My name," the girl started to say, "is Juniper Lee. And you, my friend, are going to stay in my dungeon basement until you start talking about what you know about what's happening to the people of this planet!"

"I don't what you're talking about," Travis said to Juniper. "Unless, maybe, you recorded what is going on in a video camera?"

"You're darn right I did," Juniper said with a most intense fury that Travis had ever seen. "I'll show one of the people I knew that was infected with the virus that does... this!" Juniper said that last word with the same fury that was in her voice earlier. As Travis was watching the video on the camera, he was shocked to the bone.

In front of his eyes was a boy on the screen who looked to be about Juniper's age. But what was weird was that he knew the face that was zombified.

"That's Marcus Conner, isn't it?" Travis asked Juniper.

"How do you know my boyfriend?!" Juniper asked after she gives him a punch to the stomach, making Travis fall to his knees and losing his breath for a few minutes. When he caught his breath again, he looked serious, looking Juniper in the eyes.

"Marcus Conner was my best friend in SOLDIER." Travis said to Juniper. "He was my partner for the world government agency that we worked for after the Agency had discovered Biocyte's nefarious plan."

"What nefarious plan?!" Juniper screams. "Talk..." she said venomously as she punches him in the stomach again, making Mr. Li crumple to the ground again, "NOW!"

"Their plan to... take over the world... with the virus..." Travis says breathlessly.

"YOU LIAR!" Juniper said in a scream. But just when she is about to start punching Travis again, an older woman's voice intervenes.

"He speaks the truth, Juniper." An old, gray-haired lady said as she coming down the basement stairs. Juniper looks towards the steps in shock.

"Ah-mah?" Juniper asks. "But... the Biocyte Company told me that this boy was the one who had released the eXMZ-Virus over the city! He has to be the one who released it!"

"I overheard that conversation," said Juniper's grandmother, who Travis telepathically identified as Jasmine Lee. "I sensed they were lying, because, like Mr. Li has said, they made up lies to use the virus secretly in order to take over the world. Starting with ours."

Juniper looked deep in thought for a while. But then she reached for her dungeon cuff keys and was about to release Travis, but Travis waves her off.

"Don't worry about unlocking me," Travis says, "I got a little trick up my sleeve to unlock myself."

And then Travis went into a meditative state. As he went into his meditation, Juniper was shocked as his dungeon cuffs had unlocked, as if as a result of his meditation. After the cuffs fell off of Travis's wrists, Travis opened his eyes, but then he fell to his knees. But Juniper, despite her being mean to Travis earlier, caught him before he even hit the ground on his knees. Travis looked at Juniper with a thankful look in his eyes. Juniper looked at Travis.

"You alright?" she asked, a little upset that she had mistaken Travis for the enemy and treated him just as badly.

"Yeah," Travis said. "I was just seeing if I still had my powers that I had from when I was still in SOLDIER undercover. And obviously, I still have my telekinetic powers."

"Travis, I..." Juniper started to say timidly. "I'm sorry for treating you so badly. It's just..."

"I know..." Travis started to say sadly. "You loved Marcus. You wanted to marry him when that time came. The Marcus I knew was my best friend. But Biocyte had tortured him to death before I had escaped. He told just to get the virus into government hands before Biocyte could start infecting the world. So I know what you're going through."

"How did you...?" Juniper started to say in confusion, but Travis just cut her off.

"I'm not only telekinetic, I'm also telepathic," Travis said, pointing to his head. "I just wish I could've saved the Marcus I knew. What happened to the Marcus of this world?"

"He..." Juniper started to say, but she started to cry. Then she shook her head and said, "I don't want to talk about it."

"Tell me, June," Travis tried to soothe Juniper. "You can tell me. You can trust me."

Juniper looked hesitant at first, but then she just sighed and said, "One of my best friends, Ophelia Ramirez, was one of the first ones to be mutated into a zombie." She fell to her knees now, crying uncontrollably. "She had bitten Marcus after she had turned. After I had to kill her, I just stayed by Marcus's side. He told me that he loved me, and that he would always love me. I told him the same. I stayed with him until he had turned. I was crying as I took my dad's combat knife and stabbed Marcus in the head after he turned. I... I just don't know what to do anymore. He was the only one who gave my life meaning, ever since I had first met him at school." She was shaking and crying uncontrollably by this time.

"Shhh..." Travis said to try to comfort Juniper. "It's going to be alright, June. I'll stop them. I may have discovered a cure that could reverse this disaster completely."

Juniper looked at Travis with a hopeful look in her eyes. Then she said while still sniffling, "R... Really? You can reverse the viral disease?"

"Yes," Travis said to comfort Juniper, but yet he said it with a sad tone of voice. "But it won't bring back the Marcus as you knew him. He'll only have a certain measure of his intelligence and memories. He'll remember you, but..." Travis had to think about what he wanted to say next. "The life that you wanted to have with him, marrying him and all, it will never happen. I'm sure that he would want you to move on and not dwell over his death." Travis all of a sudden had an unfocused look in his eyes, which Juniper guessed he was talking to someone telepathically. When Travis came back to reality, he looked at Juniper with a smile on his face.

"Though I can't bring your best friend and boyfriend back to the way they were," Travis said to Juniper as he smiled, "I can, however, allow their spirits to enter my body and communicate with you through me. But only one person at a time per day." Then Travis said with a bigger smile, "I have a message for you from Marcus."

Travis got that unfocused, telepath-talking look in his eyes. But what he did next was look at Juniper with the unfocused look still in his eyes. But he also looked at Juniper with a smile.

"Hey, sweetheart," said a double male voice. One was Travis's voice, Juniper could tell that right off the bat. But the other voice got her thing as to who was talking to her. But then she looked back at Travis as she realized who the other voice belonged to.

"Marcus...?" Juniper asked hesitantly.

"Yes, sweetheart, it's me." Marcus said through Travis. "I know you wanted to spend the rest of your life with me. But... as Travis has said to you a couple of minutes ago, it will never happen now. I will just say this..." Marcus said the next sentence as if he was bringing it from the bottom of his heart. "I have chosen Travis Yao Li to protect you. I have chosen him to protect you so you can have someone who will take care of you and show you the love and support that I will never be able to show you again. Allow him to love you, and love him in return. He will protect you for the rest of his life; I have foreseen that after I had died from turning." Then Marcus, through Travis, said, "Just remember this, sweetheart: I love you, Juniper Lee. I will always love you; for all eternity. Whenever you're in a bind, I will be there right next to you; invisible, for this will be the only time you'll talk to me through Travis; with reassurance that Travis will be there for you always when I can't be. Goodbye, June. Remember: I love you. And I will always love you, Juniper Lee; for all eternity."

Then Travis's eyes closed as Marcus's spirit left Travis's body to go back to heaven. Then Travis opened his eyes, finally back in his own body, and looked at Juniper with a confused look on his face. Then, as his mind had finally realized what had happened, he just smiled at Juniper.

Travis then said, "So what did Marcus say?"

Juniper was hesitant, not knowing what to do. But then she smiled, though still sad, and kissed Travis gently on the lips. When Travis and Juniper broke off the kiss, Juniper looked at Travis and smiled.

"He told that you were right." Juniper said with a smile, though sad. "He wouldn't have wanted me to dwell over his death. He... he said that he would want me to move on. And he wanted me to let you show me the love and support that he won't be able to show me anymore. And... he said that he wanted me to love you in return. Just promise me something, Travis...

"What's that, Juniper?" Travis asked, prompting her to tell him what she wanted to say without reading her mind.

"Promise me that you'll never turn into one of those zombies." Juniper said, looking away, embarrassed.

"You know I can't promise that," Travis said.

"If you promise me," Juniper started to say, "I'll marry you when that time comes, if our relationship develops to that point."

Travis looked at her, turned her around gently, and said his next sentence like his favorite movie character, Gary Johnston, from Team America: World Police.

"I promise, I will never turn into a zombie." Travis said in a kind of monotone voice.

When Juniper heard him swear his oath, she and Travis looked back at each other and leaned in for a kiss. And while they were kissing, Travis vowed to himself that as long as there was living, not undead, breath still in his body, he would protect Juniper Lee. Even if it means sacrificing his life to keep her alive.