Jacob Pick

"So, where do you want to go?" Zita asked Mark as they left the dome. Mark shrugged. Zita thought for a moment, watching the sun slowly sink then said, "How about we go talk to Jacob. He was the one that investigated the store house that the nova cataclysms were stolen from. I want to know what he found."

"Okay then, let's go." They began walking down back into the city. "Was Jacob the guy who appeared on the bridge? He seemed kinda… odd." Zita nodded.

"Jacob is odd, everyone knows it. He appeared shortly after N-Day, but no one knows from where. He has never told anyone, but he just helped the Magicians to band together, and survive. Because no one knew where he was from, when our previous great sage died he was not offered the position. Apparently he never wanted it anyway."

"Wait… he was around when the current Great Sage was chosen? He only seemed to be in his twenties. How old is he?"

"Again, no one knows, but he seems old enough to be a great warrior and magician. I remember seeing him when I was a child. Stranger still though… if you look back in what records we saved, a couple times they mention a 'warrior that only wielded a pickaxe.' I have never seen Jacob without a pickaxe."

"Okay… but, couldn't it be a way of fighting being passed down through the ages?"

"I guess, but still, Jacob is odd. He spends most of his time in the graveyard, meditating. It's just in here." Zita opened a gate onto a large balcony. There were rows of graves. A lot in fact. "This is where we buried all of the magician's that died from radiation poisoning, but some of the graves date back further to when Notch City was founded."

Zita lead the way through the graveyard. Mark stopped to read some of the gravestones. One caught his eye. "Charlie and Rosemary Magi, died 20 years post N-Day. Missing after Wastes patrol." Mark wanted to ask to Zita about it, but he decided to ask her later. They continued through the graveyard, until the gravestones were black with soot. However, right at the back where the gravestones were oldest, one had been carefully cleaned. Jacob sat on the earth in front of it, with his legs crossed and his hand on the gravestone, eyes closed. "Jacob, this is Mark Vetenskap. Mark, Jacob Pick," Zita said. Jacob opened his eyes and stood up. He held out his hand and Mark shook it.

"I am guessing you wanted to talk to me, Zita? About the store house the cataclysms were stolen from?" Zita nodded.

"What did you find?"

"Not much. The laser sentry was sort of was a hindrance."

"Laser sentry?" Zita asked looking confused, "What laser sentry?"

"This one." Jacob reached behind him and pulled up a turret head. The cables sticking out the bottom where Jacob must have cut it sparked pathetically. Mark recognised it instantly.

"That's…that's an experimental defence weapon. It's so new that there are no fully working prototypes. The only people beside the developers that have access to it… are the Council."

Jacob shrugged. "Hey, I didn't steal it. And I stopped investigating the store house when you two turned up."

"But the store houses are down on the lower….," Zita sighed. "Fine, can we go back with you now and see what else there is?"

"Sure," Jacob threw the sentry head over the side of the balcony, then held out his hands. On one, a black ring shot through with purple glistened. Zita grasped his hand, but Mark raised his eyebrows. "Teleporting, fastest way down. It won't hurt…much." Mark sighed and took Jacob's hand. Suddenly, he felt the world contract, and then turn black.