FORGOTTEN MEMORIES

Chapter 5

"Come on! You're gonna be late for our first mission!" Jehuty stood in the door frame of Daleck's room at the Alexandria military building. Daleck turned his eyes from the window to Jehuty, who was also in uniform. He stared at him with wide eyes. "What?... What are you looking at me for?" Daleck scanned his eyes over Jehuty's outfit. "Come on! Quit it! We gotta go to the ship! It's departing the shore soon..." Daleck focused on his own outfit, as he had the same uniform as Jehuty. "Well I'm not waiting for you. I'll be at the boat, and you'd better get your butt over there. See ya." And he ran off.

Just then, the phone rang. Daleck picked it up, hesitantly. "H-hello?"

"Go to the museum." Daleck sat in silence, still holding the phone in his hand.

"The... museum?"

"Yes. Go! Now!" The man on the other end hung up. Daleck, confused, thought nothing of it, and hung up the phone.

"What happened? Why am I here?" He slowly walked around the room. There was his diploma for graduating,... there was a picture of his parents on the dresser... there was a picture of Maranda... Maranda? "Hm... looks like I finally made the first move with her." He smiled, and exited his room.

Daleck walked around the halls of this strange place, a place that he had only seen in pictures before. "Am I... in an alternate dimension?" He continued to walk, but had no idea where he was going. He stopped a girl to ask for directions to his ship. "Excuse me." He tapped the girl on the shoulder. "Could you..." When the girl turned around, he realized it was Maranda.

"Oh, hi Daleck!" She gave him a big hug... this was a first. "So we're all going on this mission together! Me, you, and Jehuty. You know, it's still hard to believe you made it this far."

"Yeah, I wonder how I did it..."

"But the important thing is that you're here, and now you can show off you're awesome fighting skills!"

"Yeah..."

"Let's go! Don't wanna be late!" She grabbed his hand and began to run. They ran for what seemed like hours... through the never ending halls, various rooms on the left and right, elevators, people scattered everywhere talking to one another... They finally reached a set of double doors. When Maranda put her hands on it to open them, a bright light escaped and nearly blinded Daleck. He was now outside. He looked around to find the Alexandria river, complete with ships by the docks.

"Let's see..." Maranda said as she walked around the outdoors, still grasping Daleck's hand. "Here's the one!" She pointed to a relatively small boat and dragged him to the door. When they entered, they were greeted by Jehuty.

"Finally made it! I was worried for a second... I guess I know what it takes to get Daleck to do anything, eh?" He said as he winked at Maranda and nudged her with his shoulder.

"Shut up, Jehuty. At least he has a girlfriend!"

Girlfriend... How he longed to hear those words from her...

Another person entered the boat. It was a woman. She was tall, and had short, blonde hair.

"Listen up," the woman started, "My name is Karen Whit. You may call me Instructor Whit. This mission is to test you're skills. I'll be you're instructor, and you will do as I tell you. If you pass this test, you will enter the Alexandria military, and will be dispersed all over the world."

"So this is just a test... what a bummer."

"First things first. Take anything out of your pockets, anything you are wearing, anything unnecessary. I don't want any of you carrying extra weight."

As Maranda and Jehuty reached inside their pockets, so did Daleck. He pulled out some scrap paper, a mint (a mint?), and then he felt something sharp. He pulled out the half pendant Maranda gave to him a while back. He obeyed the instructor and placed it on the ground, but he buried it beneath his other things so that no one would see it.

"Each of you will be assigned a weapon. The weapon you receive will be the one you specialize in." She leaded them into another room, where she gave each person a weapon. Maranda had a katana. Small, light, but easy to handle. Karen then walked over to Jehuty and handed him a broad sword. Very large, probably the heaviest of all swords, but very powerful. Then she walked over to Daleck. "I understand you like to use your fists?"

Daleck didn't comprehend... "Well, yes, that's one way I fight."

"Well here in the Alexandria military, we like to test all aspects of one's fighting abilities." She handed him a pair of gloves... they had brass knuckles on them. Daleck stared at the gloves, then looked back at Karen.

"Wait, If I'm being tested, why can't I use what I'm most comfortable with?"

"Why don't you have a little faith? Just try it. You may be surprised at what you can do." She turned and began to walk away. But, then she faced Daleck again and said, "Just think of it as... research." Research? "After all, citizens pay good money for our research." She walked away. Daleck held the gloves in his hand. He put them on.

"Hmm... very comfortable." He saw a punching bag in the corner of his eye. A grin spread upon his face as he walked over to it. He held his fist up, and punched it with all his might. SNAP! He punched it so hard the rope broke and the punching bag went flying to the other side of the room, and crashed on the ground. "Hmmmm... these gloves work nice." He left the room.

Daleck went to the deck of the boat, where the wind hit his face. They were now in the ocean.

Instructor Whit began to talk once again, as Maranda and Jehuty stood close by.

"Your test will begin soon." The boat came to a sudden halt. "You will be faced with a demon of the water, and all three of you will cooperate in order to succeed. This test is very real, so I want you all to take it very seriously. Get in your battle positions!" Maranda held her katana with both hands, vertically, in front of her face. Jehuty held his broad sword, one hand on the handle, the other on the tip, horizontally, across his face. Daleck warmed up his hands.

"C'mon... I gotta do this... this is what I always dreamed of..."

The boat then began to shake. Daleck almost lost his balance when all of a sudden, the water seemed to raise in front of the boat. Then, a serpent-like creature emerged from the ocean. It was the legendary beast, Leviathan.

To Be Continued...