Chapter 2
Canton Junior High, Canton,Ohio 11:40am
It was a usual day at school, the cafeteria was near the end of lunch and yet it was still filled up with different cliques of students going about it like any other day going over their responsibilities for kids not going to be in school for an event in two days at the pro football hall of fame.
"Dude, isn't it awesome that the team gets to be starters for the annual punk pass and kick competition." A blonde boy expressed to his table full of teammates. As a member of the bulldogs, it has been a long time since the team had gotten the upper advantage over a rival team.
"Yeah, Marty maybe after the second or third time but fourth is going a little overboard." Said a slightly annoyed and sarcastic Asian American boy who said right beside him with spiked up black hair.
"Well sorry, Troy, but this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, not only do we get to go up close to real major league NFL alumni but we get to go face to face with an actual Guardian, maybe even including Wildcard himself."
"You mean what's left of them, dude there hasn't been a new guardian since "99" and since then everyone's starting to forget about them." Troy explained. "I mean until another threat destroys another part of the world, i mean look at what happened in New York last year.
"Well I haven't." Said Marty as he felt a bit defensive but cautiously facing the possible truth of his words.
"Yeah chill Troy, there's nothing wrong with taking a break from crime fighting considering what they go through, I'm sure the guardians are still preparing for a major comeback soon and then everybody will see just how much we need them." Said an African American boy sitting right across them.
"Thanks ish, at least someone still sees how useful superheroes can be unlike the government, all they want is to spread paranoia and fake news over flus and political scandals."
"Yeah I miss the old days when people weren't at each other's throats for saying the smallest thing and not worrying about teachers having guns with them." Said a deep yet somber voice of a larger boy who was next to ish. "Plus my grades are slipping and I can't take the stress."
"It'll get better Tua, you shouldn't let it get to you so much, after all you did help us make it to first place for the bulldogs with your bulldozer technique." Said Ish as he and others agreed in an extreme chant of support. Just as they were done running through the victory chant, a girl with very eye catching scarlet red hair entered the conversation.
"At it again you guys." The girl interjected herself into the most vacant seat of the occupied table right next to Ish and placed her tray along the row of the others trays."I'm all for team spirit but let's keep it on the field, you don't want to get your butts handed to you by the all girls state champion, two years counting. The redhead confidently stated to her equally overconfident friends.
"You sure do know how to put on a show Ash, especially with a kick like yours, I'll give you that." Ish followed up on as everyone joined in too. "So did your dad have any second thoughts about taking up the chaperoning position to the football hall of fame meet up."
"Actually yes he said it was ok as long as we all don't go wandering off by ourselves, you know how he is around that kind of stuff." Ash explained her fathers role in planning out the trip.
"Yeah why is that, isn't he adjusted already to canton after you convinced him not to take up that position in Dubai." Troy asked sensing something not normal about it.
"Well things haven't been easy dude since dad and I lost mom, there are some things he is salty about that are too personal to talk about. Also he and I have been having a lot of nightmares occurring more recently which hasn't really helped." A sight of uncomfortableness was noticed by everyone from what she said.
"Well sorry didn't mean to make it weird like that I was just asking." Troy retracted his comment as the air was very tense like.
"Wait, you said both of you have had nightmares about your lives." Marty said as he was hit with a feeling of deja vu.
"Yeah, exactly what are you going on about." Ash responded to Marty's sudden interest in her dilemma.
"Well everyone has been saying that they have been having similar nightmares like yours ain't that what you told me guys. Marty then focused his attention on everyone else.
"Actually now that you mention it, things have been a hell of a lot more trippy with my dreams, they've been more personal and family related than ever and I'm not sure why." Ish said that it was related to Ash's dream." But the funny thing is that my mom hasn't had many dreams or nightmares like I have."
"So have I but they have been about school and I don't like it as much, then again being in school now is a nightmare what with all the tests I have to study for." Tua explained his troubles himself to the table with equal discomfort.
" I don't know what everyone is talking about. I feel just fine at night. In fact, I sleep like a champ after every game." Troy interjected talking about his success but some could tell something was up but didn't comment as they thought it was a joke. "Anyway, the only thing for you to worry about is your tactical strength on the field."
"Yeah, Don't worry about that bro it's all just in your head, all of our heads at that, let's just focus on getting up in the big leagues am I right!" Ish reassured the team with a rise of confidence and team spirit.
Just as everyone was done complimenting themselves, there was a sudden rumbling that was powerful enough to rattle several tables around, the windows started forming hairline cracks and making several kids and teachers lose their balance, spilling their lunches and trays flying across the room as a result. Some people dragged others with them under the tables to take cover. The group holding on to the table rails under it along with several other people around the cafeteria just as the building stopped moving back and forth and the room calmed down for a second to get their bearings.
"Is everyone ok." Ish looked over at the mess around him to see that everyone was getting up from the floor which was slightly covered with gunk and trash as they scurried over it. As they peaked they could see a thin line of smoke in the distance from the shattered window in the town area.
As they were getting up they each got a ding from their phones, swiping up on their screen a news report update: Military convoy attacked in downtown Canton, evacuation in progress. All of a sudden the speakers come on saying the same thing that there is an attack going on and that the school was close to the blast zone so the faculty are to escort the school population out of the building into the school buses outside to the nearest shelter.
"C'mon you guys, you heard him we need to get out of here." Ish said firmly to the others.
"Are we sure it's safe out there, it sounds like a war zone out there." Tua said while cautiously concerned about his surroundings.
"Don't worry about that, as long as we stay together we will be fine." Ash reassured Tua to calm him down.
"After all this is like,what the third time this month why are we still caught off guard." Troy jokingly poked holes in this situation.
"Wait Ish, your dad in the military, wasn't he assigned to a military convoy like the one currently in danger." Marty said as he remembered his friends family occupation from the ongoing situation which Ish quickly shot down the notion.
"No thankfully he was assigned to keep the convoy on coordination to the military base he's situated on, but my mom was on shift at the pro football hall of fame, so i'm hoping she made it out before it got too serious." Ish said to slightly ease his own worries only to start to have new worries for his mom.
"But we can worry about that later, now we just have to get through this." Ish said.
"Sounds good to me." Marty said.
"Same here." Troy said.
Everyone moved through the cafeteria doors to the school halls with about half a dozen teachers guiding hundreds of students from classrooms down south of where the cafeteria was located where there was a lobby sized area where the school exits stood where the activities booth stood at the right side of the wall. The group exited the building with papers and pebbles of rubble blew from behind with the stampede of students piling together to find a line of parked busses ready to drop kids home instead now to drop them off to a designated safe zone to exit the hot zone.
Ish and the group are unfortunately are blocked in the middle of the crowd as they move up barely an inch as a result of the chaos going on at the moment of people pushing and crowding into each other to the point of it feeling excruciatingly claustrophobic, especially for Tua who has anxiety with being cornered in a tight space, something that could be felt through the group as it came to a point where it felt suffocating.
"Let's just keep together so we don't get lost in the scuffle now let's go." Ish commanded with authority to keep the group together. Just as everyone was lined up in front of the busses the teachers assigned groups of students by grade into each specified bus. The group are luckily put together on the same bus as they are the same grade.
They get on the bus as they are noticed by a familiar face to be the quarterback of the rival team that lost the competition. It was Ricky Cervantes, who was wearing a red beanie and a red sweatshirt jacket, alongside a well suited older gentleman with gelled back hair and stubble sitting across in the back.
"Ricky, funny seeing you here, but… what are you doing here you're not from this school." Ish said, pointing out the obvious while being cautiously confused.
"Well me and my dad were practicing on my goal kicking when the building alarm came on telling us to evacuate the building." Ricky explained just as his father interjected.
"Just as we're leaving some nice military gentleman escorted us to this bus which was on route to your school my curious little friend." Ricky's father explained further with a distinguished Spanish accent to accompany him.
"Dad please, can I talk with them for a few, pops." Ricky signaled Ish and his group to sit in the nearby seats just as he is going to move up.
"Just stay close where I can't lose you, Mijo, it's going to be a bumpy ride." Ricky's dad said.
"Don't worry, dad I got this."
Ricky then moved one seat down where Ish was, looking out the mirror of the right side of the bus. The other four followed suit into their own designated seats: Marty sitting next to Troy right next Ish and Ricky as Ash and Tua sit one seat up of them in return as the MP instructor checked off some things on his convenient clipboard just as he instructed every to keep calm and seated as everyone continued to feel the anxiety breathing down their shoulders annoyingly as they waited for the bus to get a move on as Ricky leaned close to ease the tension with some conversation starters.
"So I heard you guys were accepted into the pro football hall for the celebration." Ricky started out with the group on.
"So I guess that isn't much of a surprise." Ish said. "What with you, the mini Steelers and the Bulldogs at each other's necks in that game." Everyone got verbally closer as they felt distracted enough from the chaos going on currently to engage in the conversation.
"It was a good game Ricky, it's too bad that we had you throwing in the towel with our quick signature Bulldog techniques." Troy said in a somewhat gloating tone as he high fives Marty right next
"Troy don't be like that, it's not like a competition for who is the most skilled on the field, now isn't that time anyway, dude." Ash interjected to prevent any rivalry's.
"What, I thought we were just yanking each other's chains here, I mean I'd be lying if I wasn't impressed and slightly jealous of your split form punting in the second to last round in the quarter." Troy continued as he showed a slight bit of respect for his former opponent.
"That was pretty sick, dude, I mean on your own you could be in the pros making wicked stacks of cash and getting adored by babes." Marty said.
"Ahem." Ash took note of that last comment.
"No offense, dude, uh… thanks for the cover." Marty said as he felt a bit awkward at that moment.
"Well my dad has that covered, he's been on my case about being successful it's starting to get on my nerves a bit." Ricky said looking slightly over to his dad.
"I guess we do have more in common than I thought, it's nice to actually be on the same level for once." Ish said.
"Yeah, it's weird huh how we're on the same page, but on the field we're complete rivals." Ricky said as he started to be more comfortable talking about this.
"Well sometimes, competitiveness gets the best of us sometimes, that's what my parents tell me to look out for." Ish said.
"Your parents seem cool, what do they do for a living." Ricky asked curiously.
"My dads a lieutenant for the US army currently situated in the Wright Patterson military base and my mom is head guide of the pro football hall of fame exhibits." Ish said.
"Wow, like I said pretty cool, you must have fun with parents like that, unlike me." Ricky said.
"Actually it gets pretty lonely because their jobs take a lot of time out of their schedules, especially nowadays with all the preparations going on, but now I'm not so sure with the situation right now." Ish continued about how his family might get some time together but at the same time unsure until Ricky chimes in.
"Sorry to hear that, that's a lot to take in, my mom left my dad a while back so I understand." Ricky reassured Ish as he was starting to look up. "But if you want someone to talk to I'm the guy for you."
"Thanks Ricky, that means a lot coming from you, dude, I sure could use an extra helpful hand if you're interested." Ish then patted Ricky on the shoulder for listening to his troubles just as he suddenly felt as if a shadow swept away slightly.
"Really..I mean that be great, since I think you're a swell guy to be around." Rick and Ish had themselves a friendly chuckle with each other as he looked around at his friends.
"That reminds me, I never got to have us properly introduce ourselves, I'm Ricky Cervantes." Ricky said as everyone else started to chime in.
"I'm Ishmael Taylor, but my friends usually call me Ish for short, but by now I'm sure you already knew that." Ish started the proper introduction as everyone else did in order.
"I'm Ashley Reynolds, but you can call me ash for short as well." Ash said.
"I'm Troy Kang, nice to meet you in person I guess, you're not so bad."
"I'm Marty Stevens, it's cool to have insight on other team's members."
"And I'm Tua Tupola, it's a pleasure to get to know you better." Tua said with a bit of a timidness to his voice but some curiosity too.
"We usually call the big guy tiny for short, but don't let that name fool you because when he puts his mind to it he packs a huge punch." Troy explained as Tua looked away slightly embarrassed but happy.
"Well from the game last week I can clearly see where your star power shines." Ricky added. But just as they were finished, they heard booms in the distance as the were in the outskirts of town as the buildings in the distance dropped pieces of debris down below on the city as balls of fire then poured from building to building until they were coming to the ground and then back up in the sky again. Everyone on the bus looks on in shock but also mesmerized at the fight going on which appears to be happening from the skyline.
"Is this what you guys deal with on a regular basis?" Ricky asked as he was taken back at the city, getting decimated.
"Like every couple months depending on the villains and what time that is." Troy elaborated.
"I know New York wasn't as bad as this, but it comes close but I also heard that this isn't the only time it got bad here, back in ''99 . Ricky said as he started getting adjusted to the environment. "What happened in 99 exactly."
"That was when some punk named Sudden Death unleashed an invasion and almost destroyed the world but the guardians stopped him, mostly with the help of Wildcard who was more powerful than the rest of them and sent him running or that's what we thought at least." Troy explained the stories told throughout the years about it.
"What do you mean or so they thought." Ricky asked by what he meant.
"No one really found all of him as there was an explosion that prevented anyone to get closer to the site of the body but by the time the smoke cleared the clean up teams found only a few organic and inorganic body parts." Troy continued the story as the gang had their suspicions as everyone else was distracted by the stuff outside.
"So wait, does that mean he's still on the loose out there." Ricky said.
"Fat chance, if the rumors I heard are true then he wouldn't have even been able to move anything as he was sliced apart by his own ax, immobilizing him, so my guess is he was overloaded by the power from Wildcard and exploded. Marty interjected his own theory.
"Well it doesn't matter anymore does it, it's been moderately safer here as he was the only thing alien to worry about attacking us." Ish said.
Just as everyone was close to the evac center a static rambling came from the M.P.s walk ie talkie as he went on saying some military jargon as he stopped and got up to address the situation as it started to calm down outside.
"Alright everyone Listen Up, the crisis has been averted and it is safe in the city for now but we must stay put until the roads are clear to pass in the city." Everyone was relieved by the news but annoyed that they're now stuck until the roads are cleared.
"Man this sucks, what else are we supposed to do while we wait." Marty voiced out his complaints as Troy agreed with him with a "mm hmm".
"Well if we're going to be stuck for a little while we might as well see if our families are safe and sound." Ash interjected.
"Yeah, I better call my mom, maybe she can pull some strings with dad to get his superiors to let us off." Ish said as he pulled out his smartphone and pulled up contacts.
"You think they can do that." Ricky questioned but Ish reassured him.
"That sounds great, I'm feeling a little trapped right now." Tua said.
"Maybe we can hitch a ride on a hummer like they use all the time in the movies." Marty geeked out for a second.
"I doubt that, Marty but it's a start." Ash said, keeping things optimistic.
Ish started his call to his dad but he couldn't as he remembered his base is not permitted to receive as the phone rang a few times before he hung up until he pulled up his mom's contact as the phone rang a few before it finally picked up.
"Hello?" A female voice came out the other end.
"Hey Mom are you okay, things went crazy back at school and now we're stuck in the bus because of unsafe roads currently." Ish said.
"I'll contact your father as soon as possible so you just hang on for a little bit, I'm in a little bit of a jam myself over here, it's a real mess. She said as she looked at the chaos right around as she looked on as the red villain was dragged away in a squad truck, driving away.
"What was that." Ish's voice came out statically from her wrist communicator.
"That's just the clean up crews outside working on the roads, I'll call your father soon so just hang on, ok."
"Ok, I love you mom."
"Love you too, honey." She then disconnected the call as she activated her holographic jet pack and flew off to find Wildcard as a robot spider was watching from a building as it morphs and flies off in the opposite direction.
…..Meanwhile: at the Wright Patterson military base.
"Sir, I just got off the phone with my wife that my son and his friends were currently on an evac bus out of the city that was stopped under orders not to move." Lieutenant Matt Taylor said to his commanding officer, general Stamotopoulos.
"I see, I apologize that your son got caught in our protocol but I have a main priority to keep everyone safe until the area is secure and everything is in order." General Stamotopoulos reaffirmed his orders.
"I understand that sir, but I don't feel it is safe for him to be in the middle of nowhere along with his friends so I am asking you to reverse your order for my son to be transported back home." Matt said standing his ground and slightly demanding his commander to reconsider his order.
"Given what you have done for your country alongside your wife, who just assisted in bringing in playback, I'll do this just once but I implore you keep your eye on your priorities." The general then assigns the MP officer again to allow the group listed on the portfolio to the bus to be transported via newly assigned directions back to the city.
"Now I expect you to not let this distract you from your new duties in re directing the convoy back to base as having such hardware exposed would be very compromising to the safety of the populace." The general and the lieutenant saluted each other goodbye as the lieutenant went to retrieve his son with a small group of soldiers. The general was called back to the command center as they detected an unknown anomaly going on in space picked up by a nearby satellite.
"Sir I'm picking up some unusual frequency readings from the space probe." The communications officer addressing the current situation to the general.
"I'm not sure exactly what it is but the last thing we need right now is more surprises,I want you to send a code red alert on a secure line to-
"YOU WILL SEND NOTHING!" A male domineering voice called out.
The room went quiet as they looked behind at the door as they were surprised and shocked to see a tall figure shrouded by dark shadows where a soldier stood motionless as a female figure standing next to the figure had plunged a katana through his throat as she thrusted it out of his neck as he fell over shooting out a thin stream of blood that splattered the floor as the remaining officers reached for their gun holsters but were suddenly stopped midway and stood motionless being painfully restrained by another figure sticking his hand out.
"This information is to remain confidential." The figure then illuminated a red glow from his right eye to reveal his face is half robot resembling a metal skull while the other half was green skinned with a sharp pointed ear and three zig zagged scars on top of his head while most of his body was covered with a cloak as several more individuals came pouring out of the shadows behind him holding rifle like weapons, one of which stood twice as tall as him with twice as much muscle than everyone else combined. All the soldiers could do in their state was to look in horror at what they saw presented in front of them as the figure fired a laser from his eye that short circuited the main computer terminal until red bolts of electricity overwhelmed the systems.
"Who do you think you are." The general stood his ground as he struggled to regain control of his body but couldn't move a muscle.
"What I am now is one step closer to seeing my dream come together and you are going to help me." He then walked up to the general as he extended his right arm out of his cloak with a long slender hand with elongated claw like fingers and touched the palm of his head until he was somewhat unresponsive as he was in a trancelike state. He then motioned the telekinetic henchman to let the military personnel out of his grip as he addressed them.
"And unless you want to end up like your dear general you will now do my bidding and surrender control of your access codes and keep your mouths shut or I will plunge the rest of your minds into an endless loop of despair of my choosing, are we clear." The figure said as he commanded with a calm but calculated confidence to the tone of his voice that the threat they posed was too high that they did as he ordered. He then ordered his subordinates to take away everyone and took out a device that started scanning over everyone that transformed his henchmen into the personnel in the room.
"Now get to work, Zich, you especially in rewiring this earth tech so as not to alert their systems of our trespassing." He said to the gargantuan man creature as he ripped off the top panel and started reorganizing the wires into new ports. "Angkoro, escort our prisoners out of the back so as to not alert our other guests of our arrival. He then ordered the telepathic disguised as the general as the soldiers followed him out the door to be undetected. "Stellaria, keep an eye on our wayward friend down here when he wakes up as well as your trash."
"Yes, great leader." Stellaria then dragged the non responsive general to the wall where he was placed sitting up, as well moving the body of the dead guard.
(Inaudible alien grumbling) the giant called out to the figure as the feed was back up.
"Finally, after almost 15 years I will be able to fulfill my destiny, starting with getting some loose ends out of the way." The computer then went through connecting with the spider bot looking over the damage of the street picking up a figure.
"Go back a little and zoom in on that one." Zich then pulled up the exact moment to wildcard flying away.
"I see that playback was successful in distracting these weaklings long enough to infiltrate their defense systems." Stellaria interjected as she was half ignored by the cybernetic figure.
"Yes, but that's the least of my worries, if there were anything to worry about, now that I have an advantage." He says looking at the video of the fight.
"He is the one who will make it all possible." He then let's out a sinister laugh as he sees a zoomed in picture of wildcards wrist with his energy level.
- I apologize for not getting this out sooner but my schedule was very hectic, but by now it will be back on track now or at until something else comes up-