Episode 0.02: Alice Prologue

After returning home from the restaurant, Alice immediately went off to sleep. She was so tired she fell asleep from the impact on her bed. She awoke in the middle of the night because of a text Jack sent. She smiled, but sent nothing back. She fell asleep again instead. At 8 am she woke up, finally sending the text(1).

Jack showed up two hours later. "You wanted to talk to me about something?" he asked. "Yeah. my dad said he was going on a mission and needs us to go with him." Alice replied.

Arnold walked into the room, wearing his usual black cloak. he was carrying a brown cloak which he gave to Alice. "Among my students there is no favoritism. Since Jack has his own personal coat, you should have one as well." he said.

"Thanks dad. Tell us about this mission you want us to accompany you on." Alice asked. "There is a preson I've been tailing for a while and I think he's making his move." Arnold explained.

"Ah, so you want to protect the world from the shadows. we got your back, old man." Jack mocked. "Don't mock me just yet, boy. It would be one of our downfalls." Arnold retorted.

A few hours later the three members stood before an abandoned building. They enter and immediately get ambushed by slimes of all varieties. Arnold is very nimble and manages to escape, but Jack and Alice weren't that lucky. "Go on, dad. We got this." Alice said. "Don't worry about us! We'll catch up later!" Jack called out while throwing his chakrams. Arnold leaves the scene as Alice stomped on the ground creating two dirt spires. "Whoa! What the heck!?" Jack screamed. "This is... Spire Turret!" Alice called out, causing the spires to fire throwing knives identical to Alice's.

The slimes were shot down and evaporated. "Let's meet up with your dad." Jack said. "Good idea. I'm kinda worried about him" Alice replied.

The two wander into a room and what they see shocks Alice to the core. It was her father on the floor in a pool of his own blood. "DAD!" Alice screamed.

Arnold opened his eyes. "Please. Save the world while looking after each other. Search for students of your own and teach them your craft..." he said. And with that, Arnold took his last breath.

Alice couldn't stop crying for the next two days. Jack could only comfort her inside her house, since she wouldn't leave that place. "Alice, you can't keep beating yourself up like this. The guy who murdered your father must be brought to justice." Jack said.

"Okay. We might as well start looking for students here." Alice said while sobbing.

As Alice and Jack walk into town, they see several creatures walking through a space-time rift. Some of them had wings of different colors and some looked like humans with dog features. "Who are these guys?" Jack asked. "No idea." Alice replied, still sad.

A little girl walks up to the duo. "Excuse me miss, are you sad?" the girl asked. "It's nothing..." Alice replied with visible shock. She couldn't understand that someone who just met her had knowledge of what happened two days ago.

"Huh. I swore I saw something was up with you..." the girl said. "Evelyn, come here. We're going to find a house to live in today. We can talk with them later." the girl's mother called out.

Evelyn ran off. Jack was perplexed at Alice's reaction. "What do you think, Alice?" Jack asked.

"We've found our first candidate for teaching." Alice replied confidently.

Episode end

Next time...

"Do you really think I can do this?"

"Sure you can. Choose which path you want to go first. maybe I can even learn something from you."

Fae Prologue

(1) callback to the last episode. This also shows Jack to be a person that wakes up very late.