Notes: Thanks for reading this far and leave a review if you feel compel to do so, whether positive or negative I love getting feedback.
800 years ago
The bird monster, Belial, stood in a wasteland of cinder and destruction. The army facing him had been burned into nothing but ash; he let a laugh escape his lungs. It was a cold cynical laugh; madness glowed in his yellow eyes. Eyes that watched eagerly as the last of the army, the one great leader, stumbled towards him, sword drawn as if he'd even stand a chance.
"What are you?" The man managed to say through his ash choked throat.
The figure simply laughed at the man as he inhaled and exhaled the remains of his armor, Belial's mighty power had turned them to nothing but dust! Not that were much different before.
"Why...why did you do this?" There was a hint of desperation in his voice, the vocal chime of defeat that brought unholy amounts of joy to Belial.
"Humans are nothing but insects that crawl along the ground of this great dining hall, this world should belong to us, the Avari! But you, mortal man, and your carelessness. You build upon our grass and claim it your own, you have no respect and for that you will all burn."
"You never answered my first question, what are you?"
Belial held out his arms with his palms facing upwards as if he were some grand being and proclaimed, "I am a god of destruction."
Present day
The sound of gunfire erupted from the street as Jay fired at a group of oncoming monsters, despite his best efforts his bullets did little but slow them down.
This wasn't good.
If Sienna was here they wouldn't be a problem, he shoots, she slices. Together they were a well-oiled machine, but now he was alone and things were falling apart. A group of at least twenty of them marched down the street like soldiers. They seemed strangely organized too, more than their own intelligence would allow them to be.
This wasn't good at all.
He needed Sienna, he couldn't do this alone and he knew it, but she wasn't going to help. She was still recovering from her last fight, a fight he should have been there to help her with. This was his karma he realized cynically, he would have to fight alone just as she had. The difference was she was able to hold her own alone. He continued to shoot, feeling the constant vibrations of his shots as he tried his best to fend off the foe, but his efforts seemed to do nothing in the long run, the mummies were now almost within grasp of him, their empty hands reached out greedily and mindlessly.
Then they stopped, it was so abrupt it almost made Jay jump, it was like something had flicked a switch and turned them off. Then there was a noise from a back alley, a shuffling that was too deliberate, too sentient, to be a stray animal.
"Just you this time?" A strangely gleeful voice asked from the alley.
Jay instinctively pointed one of his guns in the alley's direction, the other he kept at the frozen mummies, just in case.
The owner of the voice stepped out of the alley, he had a strangely angular face that positioned his lips in a fashion that even though he was scowling gave the impression he was happy. Then there was his eyes, glaring and yellow, the eyes of insanity. Jay couldn't help but be reminded of a verse in a poem he had read:
"Where does one go from a world of insanity? Somewhere on the other side of despair."
The yellowed eyed man smiled and hidden somewhere in his grin Jay swore to have spotted a spark of hellfire, a burning light illuminated the darkness of his eyes.
"I was hoping you'd have that girl with you," he said sounded disappointed, "The one so fond of steel and nobility."
"Leave Sienna out of this!" Jay yelled and tightened his grip on the gun.
"Oh Sienna is it?" The man asked mockingly. "What a fine name that is! I'm sure it'll look great on her tombstone." He said happily.
"Don't think I won't shoot you." Jay warned.
"Go right on ahead. Better yet shoot the sun and the moon! Aim your pistol to the stars, because I am higher than you'll ever be." There was a certain sense of cynicism in voice, something cold, hard, and unlike anything Jay had ever heard. Jay could feel himself shaking with fear; it was like a building about to topple over, all those hours and work reduced to nothing by some great force. He was terrified, but he couldn't show that to the enemy, not to someone so full of themselves.
"What are you after anyway?" Jay yelled, his voice wavering slightly.
"What everyone wants, closure, a definite end to this long spanning tale of war and destruction. What I'm telling you is I want to die."
"You want to die?" Jay asked confused by the concept.
"I'm done, dried up. I have watched millions of you die under my foot and its simply lost its luster." Jay noticed a hint of dread in his voice, something cold and hidden, truly only shining through in small gleaming patches.
"Then why are you here? Why not go and end your life instead of killing others?"
"I have one last job to do, something I shouldn't have held off for so long." The man's smile widened, turning into something barely recognizable as a facial expression at all. One word escaped his lips, something strange in the context of the situation but yet it left his lips so sweetly.
"Home."
"But I'm getting off track," He added, "I came here to warn you, there are evil things lurking in the shadow." He said in a strange tone. "Oh and one other thing." He added while stepping back into the alley. "run." and as if the switch clicked back on the monster snapped back to life.
01010000 01010010
Blaine Beaumont stood outside his front door, the slight autumn breeze blew his curly brown hair into a frenzy, to fix this he quickly put a gray bene on. Not that it matter much to him really. He really didn't have a reason to look nice, no one to impress, girls never really liked him when he looked his absolute best so why even try? Besides what kind of girls would he pick up at a library anyway?
As he set out for a day of literature and indie rock his ears were alerted to a drowning sound that he recognized fairly quickly, it was a high speed drone airplane, one that was flying low by the sound and feel of it. From it fell a gray parachute that descended strangely gracefully. Blaine found himself going to it, not really knowing why, curiosity he supposed.
As Blaine neared the parachute he suddenly stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes widened at the sight in front of him. A man in blue spandex was firing at strange mummy creatures. Blaine hollered out in surprise, this definitely wasn't something he planned on seeing. Maybe he stumbled onto the set of some weird indie movie, desperate filmmakers would do set up filming anywhere they could. Where were the cameras then? Just then a stray fire hit a nearby office building, indie filmmakers may be desperate but they aren't fond of lawsuits.
The blue suited man turned at Blaine not long after he hollered, the man had a blue helmet on that covered his entire head with the words data written on the side of the black visor. "Its not safe here." The man informed Blaine.
Fear brewed in Blaine's chest and he knew he should run, but his eyes were locked on the parachute and so was his heart. He suddenly thought back to something he had heard often as a child "when it comes to the important moments in your life, the ones that really matter, you won't have time to think about it, you won't be able to weigh your options. All you'll have is your gut, all you can do is jump and hope your landing is soft."
With his blood pumping adrenaline Blaine bolted for the parachute, which in turn meant running at the group of mummy things. He ran into the mob at full speed, pushing in and through them as he desperately made his way over. The feeling of the mummies cold dusty flesh made Blaine want to puke but he held in his screams and he continued to make his way through. Strangely the mummy didn't seem to notice him; they were too engrossed in the blue suited man.
"Hey what are you doing?" The man yelled with an angered tone at Blaine, of whom didn't hear it, he was too focused on the parachute, now only a few feet out of reach. His ears were deafened by his pounding heart.
Finally in a moment that would change his life at its very core his hands wrapped around the parachute. He pulled out its contents and was slightly confused, a syfy looking wrist contraption and a gray USB drive. Is this what he risked his life for?
"That thing in your hand!" The man in blue yelled frantically. "Put it on your wrist!"
"Okay?" Blaine said and strapped the device to his right hand.
"Now put the USB in the open slot and slam it down." He said frantically as the monsters closed in on him.
Blaine shakily followed the directions and slid the USB in the open compartment. He almost pressed down when a thought it him.
"Whats this going to do to me?" He asked suspiciously, this was all too strange for Blaine. First the mummies, then the boy in blue spandex firing at them and finally he's supposed to just listen to this helmet wearing gunslinger. Stranger then that was the general feeling that this wasn't too strange was all seemed to flow in such a calm way that it almost seemed to be planned.
"I really don't have time for your questions!" Blue yelled angrily. "I'll answer them later!"
"Well how do I know this won't kill me?"
"You don't but you have to trust me!"
In that moment, for whatever reason in the world Blaine made his choice, and slammed the USB down. For a small moment there was nothing, a slight millisecond of peace. Then it hit him, a wave of power unlike anything he'd ever felt before, a pulsing, a churning in his very being that sparked like electricity. Next he was covered in gray zeroes and ones that spreaded around him and filled him with a vibrating energy.
In a brilliant flash of gray light Blaine stood in a spandex suit similar to the blue one, but this was a mute gray. It was strange being in the suit, it felt more like a second skin then something foreign. He still felt the wind against his skin and despite wearing a helmet his vision was perfectly clear.
His right hand began to glow with yellow stripes that reminded Blaine of something you'd see on a computer chip. Then the rough outline of something began to form in his hand, which then transformed into swordstaff, a gray staff with a long dagger like blade attached to the end. He noticed blue was now completely surrounded, his bullets not even fazing them. Blaine charged at the mob, swigging his swordstaff in large arcs.
The bodies were knocked away but other than that there was little visible damage on them. Blaine stood back to back with the blue guy, his guns firing rapidly as Blaine swung his swordstaff at any oncoming mummies. This process worked, but it won't hold them off forever, sooner or later they would tire and no longer be able to fight. Blaine wouldn't admit it but he could already feel himself running out of steam.
01010000 01010010
Jay fired with all his might while watching the strange grey guy continue his assault. With another person on their team things could get easier, assuming they could even trust him. Jay decided he'd worry about that later and continued firing. Things were bad Jay realized as he continually fired at the mummies to absolutely no avail. He felt like he was pushing against a rubber wall, trying as hard as he could to bend it only for it to snap back moments later.
Then three things happened that seemed utterly impossible, the first a mummy had managed to get past both the defence of gray and the fire power of Jay. The second was right as it reached with it black decaying hand dripping a goopy liquid, it suddenly stopped. It was like hitting pause on a movie, even the droplet of whatever the mummy was oozing remained trapped in the air. Third was a man that seemed to appear out of nowhere, his hair long greasy and black, he grabbed onto the monster's head and squeezed which somehow caused the monster to turn to dust.
"Having some trouble it seems." the man said while turning to Jay, showing a bright silly smile.
"Huh?" Jay asked while still in shock of the whole situation.
The man stood rather plainly, his tattered brown coat that seemed to be made of a muck covered cotton hung loosely on his shoulders, but there was something about him and his ocean blue eyes. There was some hidden aura, something red hot, a burning fire that was fueled by insanity. Yet with that in mind he seemed totally in control, and the insanity was a tool of sorts.
"I swear humans are getting denser by the generation, of course that law doesn't entirely- never mind!" The man said holding his hand to his face.
"Who are you?" Jay managed to ask.
"Wrong question...god you're dense." He said in a disappointed tone, "Just here." He said and tossed something at Jay. As soon as Jay snatched it from the air the man vanished and time continued, the blob of black liquid hit the ground but Jay was too engrossed in what was in his hand. It was a USB, the same kind used to give him powers. This was different, blue yes, but it seemed to hold some strong power.
He quickly slid the USB into the opened compartment and slammed it down as the mummies continued their charge. In an almost jarring moment Jay felt an immense wave of energy come over him and like a title wave it crashed into him and filled him with electric light. The air was filled with a tingling static as a giant blue circle appeared in front of the mummies.
"Get out of the way!" Jay called to Gray as he fired a shot. Gray jumped just as the bullet hit the circle, then watched in awe as the circle glowed a dark neon blue before shooting a blast big enough to obliterate the entire squad of them.
Jay fell and unmorphed, he would have rather hid from Gray given he couldn't trust him yet but his energy was so low he had no choice.
"That was amazing!" Gray boosted and unmorphed himself to reveal a brown haired boy in a plaid shirt and a gray bene , not really what he expected but it could have been worse.
"Yeah." Jay said with the hint of a smile.
"So what else do you use these things for?" The boy asked poking the device on his wrist.
"What do you mean?"
"Think about all wicked stuff we could do!" He said with a mischievous smile. "Imagine some jock with their sports car cut in half? That would be so sweet!"
"You can't use your powers like that!" Jay begged with anger rising inside him.
"And who's gonna stop me?" The boy asked tauntingly.
Jay found himself too shocked and angry for words as the boy walked away.
"Catch you on the flip side blue boy." The boy said with his back turned, "By the way the name's Blaine, you best be remembering it too!" With that the cynical boy named Blaine left Jay alone and too weak to follow.