Chronicles of the Guardians of Order

Book 1: NeoGenesis (Rebirth might be better?)

Chapter 1

(warning: profanity, violence)

It's important to be able to handle things on your own, but you should never turn down a helping hand.

These were the words reverberating in Caleb's head as he was walking down the street, and while he wished he could focus on anything else- whether it was the task before him, his plans for the month, or even something as simple as what to do for breakfast, all he could think about was a phrase he couldn't even remember where (or even who) he heard it from.

It was a cold, dreary morning-nearly the crack of dawn. While he was used to waking up in the morning, Caleb was awoken hours earlier than he was used to- the museum curator, Xon, called him because there was an unidentifiable creature that had been hiding in the museum after closing. Xon called the police first, but after a few hours, the only progress they've made was damage to some of the exhibits. At this point, it was more worried there wouldn't be a museum left and wanted Caleb to deescalate the situation.

While walking along the street, Caleb was passing a windowpane that was part of a coffee shop. He stopped, but not to look in the store. In the reflection of the glass, there stood a man, with hair blue as the sky, leaning towards the left as if it was magnetized that way; a face of fair skin, with a right eye as red as a ruby and the left as blue as a sapphire with bags under both, with a small nose in between. He was wearing a padded trench coat with a white collared shirt and black suit pants underneath, complete with black boots, black gloves, and a blue cloak. Upon his back and over his cloak rested a round shield with pointed edges protruding from under it; attached to his hip was a claymore-esque sword, sheathed away.

Caleb froze for a second. Even after all these months, part of him still refused to recognize that this is what he looked like now. After a few seconds, he closed his eyes, shook his head, and kept walking. No time to be distracted, he said in his head.

After walking through a few more blocks of street traffic and crowds of people and other beings, he was striding up the steps of the museum, with local police cars still parked out front. Caleb put his hand on the door handle and… it was locked. He looked through the glass doors and didn't see anyone in the entrance. Caleb sighed; Leave it to Xon to call for help and leave the door locked again, he thought. He looked around; no one was watching him- not anyone in their cars, on the street, or up high in buildings or in the air. He turned back to the doors, closed his eyes, and snapped his fingers; after a bright flash, he was on the other side of the door. He knew he mastered teleporting to where he could handle it without snapping or closing his eyes- he just enjoyed doing it that way more. He began to move forward into the museum entrance, his footsteps resounding on the marble floor; with enough emphasis on each step to make his presence known, as to not provoke a startled reaction from anyone, but not enough to be obnoxious. Not even five seconds in, something came out of the dimly lit hallways- even in low light, he saw the tentacles, and three eyes on stalks. Caleb took a deep breath.

"Hey Xon, you still got that problem, or am I too late?" Caleb quipped, a grin on his face.

Xongalab moved from the shadows, and in the brighter light, saw that worried look on his eyes, and some dust on his suit. "Yes, the issue persists- but seriously, HOW are you getting in without breaking or unlocking those doors?" he responded.

"Trade secret." Caleb answered, his grin growing wider, knowing Xon will get annoyed that he answered that question with the same answer, yet again.

"I wish you'd tell me how those 'trade secrets' worked, because our little …guest… seems to have them too." Xon replied.

"I'll let you in on them when you start leaving the door unlocked for me." Caleb sarcastically joked.

The eyelids on Xon's three eye furrowed. "This time wasn't my fault; the cops instructed me to keep all the doors locked, so the thing wouldn't get out- but I think it was to not let anyone in."

Caleb shook his head. "Five hundred credits says that I'm what they wanted to keep out?" he said, while walking past Xongalab to get a closer look at the exhibits- and the damage the cat and mouse game had done to them.

Now Xon shook his head, "I'm not betting on the obvious- those orders were given after I mentioned you were coming."

"Well," Caleb began, "They can't threaten me or force me to leave- they don't have much authority over me, unless they try to hit me with breaking and entering- so as long as you say you let me in under pretense of seeking professional help, and delete the footage of the entrance security cameras, you should be fine. Speaking of security footage, record and keep a hidden copy of the damages the cops did and move the damaged objects to a locked closet- so you have evidence if they try to deny the damages they've done. Oh, and if you need someone to repair your broken displays, I might have a… trade secret for that as well."

Xongalab rolled his eyes. "You seem to have a trade secret for everything; how much does it cost to learn them?" he inquired.

It was a good thing Caleb was facing away from Xon, because, for a few seconds, his cheery, smart aleck look on his face turned into a cold, thousand-yard stare. But when he turned back around, he had back his shit-eating grin and glint in his eyes. "Price? It's a lot higher than you may think it is. Now, mind leading me to where the unwelcomed guests are? You know, before they break anything else."

"Fine. Follow me" Xon said, going back the way he came. "Just try get the squatter and NOT antagonize the police, please? I asked you to come to deescalate the situation, not the opposite."

No promises, Caleb thought, as he began to follow the tentacled curator, ruminating about his time in the force- on this planet, at least.

After a few minutes of walking through (and in some cases, over) some of the exhibits and their displays, Xongalab and Caleb reached where some of the local P.D. were gathered. While passing, Caleb could hear the murmured whispers, and the sound of communication channels being used. As annoying as it was, with eyes staring into the back of his head, and constant whisperings of his name, Caleb had to brace himself; the worst was yet to come.

Eventually, the two reached where the police were gathered; they seemed to be blocking all the exits to one specific exhibit. Standing in front of the entrance on Caleb and Xon's side stood a very muscular, tall, six-armed alien. Of course, Truji's here, Caleb thought.

"I told you to keep all entrances locked, why is he here?" Truji remarked gruffly.

Xon was about to speak, but Caleb beat him to it. "Well, Xon wanted someone to deal with this intruder hours ago and without destroying half the museum, and I didn't want to get up hours earlier than I schedule to deal with trespassers and incompetent men," while gesturing at the broken displays and the officers, "so you can take some solace in the fact that no one is getting what they wanted today".

Xon shot Caleb a sideways glare, as if to say it hasn't even been 5 seconds and you are antagonizing him. Stop. It.

Truji turned to Caleb; "If I wanted hear from a quitter, I would go down to the local bar and ask one of the drunks laying around; but that would just mean running into you again." Some of the officers chuckled and gasped.

Caleb replied, "And if I wanted to hear from a clown, I'd go down to the circus and ask one of them; but I'm pretty sure I would just find you working with them." Some more chuckles and gasps were heard.

Xon got between the two of them and interrupted with a stern, "Gentlemen. Can you put aside this nonsense please and focus on the intruder?"

"I'm already working on it, and I am not gonna let him in and ruin our setup. We have it right where we want it." Truji responded.

Caleb smirked; "3000 credits says you're afraid to be shown up cause what you spent five hours doing, I can accomplish in five minutes- or are you too much of a coward to take that bet?"

The officers collectively gasped- challenging Truji AND calling him a coward? Everyone knows you can't just insult the chief like that and get out easy. Caleb knew what he was doing- he wasn't looking for an out; he was looking for an in.

Truji's face went red, then grinned; "You want to nab this perp so badly? Fine. But if you fail and don't pay up, I'm charging you with interrupting operations."

Caleb closed his eyes, and took a breath, focusing on foreseeing possible events; when he opened them, he said "As long as you give your word that if the squatter has demands that are reasonable in order to come down, you won't turn them down to sabotage me."

Truji's smile faded a little. Figured he'd try to trip me up with something stupid; he really never changes, sprang up in Caleb's head. Truji ultimately nodded and stepped aside. "Five minutes starting now" he said gruffly, pointing at his watch.

Caleb quickly walked past him and entered the exhibit; he could see it was a fossil exhibit, full of skeletons of all sizes; he looked around but didn't see anyone except officers blocking all the exits. Most people would need to ask where someone is hiding in a seemingly lifeless room; but Caleb already knew.

One of the nice perks of seeing into the future is saving time in the present.

He began walking toward one of the fossils; a very tall creature, thanks to a very large, but sturdy, long neckbones. As he got closer, he held his hand out, focusing on constructing a solid staircase out of energy and air; while he would prefer to do it slowly and carefully and make it visible to the human eye, much less with people watching him perform magic; he didn't exactly have a lot of time. As he strode up the steps, he hoped all the bewildered eyes staring at him were going to assume he had some sort of psionic tech on him that was enabling him. Upon reaching the final step, he was staring eye to eye with what was hiding in the skull of the skeleton.

Inside, sat a human, with long, wavy, dark orange hair; they were covered in dirt from head to toe, with long sleeved clothes and shoes so worn and ragged, it would be hard to tell what they looked like now, much less when they were new. They looked like they were in shock, seeing someone stand on thin air, and had tears all over their face, like they had been crying recently. They were curled up, but sitting upright, and had a dirty, worn, blanket with almost more holes than cloth draped around them, and a small knapsack on the side.

After a small, shocked pause from both sides, Caleb finally spoke. "Howdy", he said in a polite manner.

The figure, still taken aback, stammered back a, "…h-hi?" while tears began to flow again.

"Do you have a name… or something you'd prefer me to call you?" Caleb inquired calmly, trying to prevent them from crying or freaking out.

"It's *sniff*… Julie" she answered, wiping her eyes and nose with the remains of a shirt sleeve.

"Okay, Julie…" Caleb began, and then paused, trying to think of what to say to bring her down the safest, and fastest way possible. "… my name is Caleb, it's nice to meet you." She nodded. "You're a human, like me, right?" she nodded again. "Can I ask you to come down from here? Is there something you want in return?"

"I… I want somewhere I can rest, and hide, and recover. I… I knew coming here was wrong, but…" Julie began, before shutting her eyes hard and curling up tighter, "I didn't know where else to go orwhatelsetodoandIwascoldandtiredanbeinchased-" the rest began to become uncoherent as she spoke faster, becoming more upset by the second, and turned into more of a sobbing than a mumble.

Caleb began to shush her reassuringly, and said "it's ok, I've been where you've been before, it's ok, please calm down, I want to help you, but you need to help me to do so" he whispered. Julie became quiet and seemingly tried to calm down. Caleb turned around and shouted to Xon, "Xon, can you drop the charges against her of breaking and entering on ground of seeking asylum?"

"I wasn't even planning to in the first place, it's not like they were stealing or damaging things! I just wanted to try to talk to it, but it kept running away!" Xon called back.

"Now hold on a minute, you can't just- "Truji interrupted loudly-

"I can, it's public property, but it's entrusted to me, which means it's my choice." Xon shot back at him, not shouting, but just loud enough for Caleb to hear.

"Fine" Truji responded to Xongalab. "BUT WE HAVE TO TAKE HER IN FOR QUESTIONING" Truji shouted loudly toward Caleb. Caleb began to hear Julie weep again.

Caleb turned to her and reassuringly said "it's standard procedure, they're not going to hurt you. And you don't have to worry about going in alone; you're allowed to have a lawyer present, and I know a good one."

She looks at him, and quietly mumbled "You do?" Caleb nods. "Who?" She asks.

"They're standing right in front of you" Caleb said with a grin. "Well, if you can call this 'standing'" he said, looking down for a second to remind himself that, to the naked eye, he looked like he was floating, and to NOT drop the magically created staircase yet. Julie almost smiled hearing that.

Caleb turned around to shout at Truji. "So, the terms are no charges to be held against her, she comes in for questioning with me present-" he emphasized, "-and then she came come with me to a safer location, if she chooses. And if you have a problem with that, forget the conditions, you've got a problem with ME." He could see Truji growing even more red and grinding his teeth.

Truji looked like he was about to explode from rage, but then turned around, threw his top set of hands in the air, with the rest on his hips, and shouted "FINE!" and began to storm off. He's absolutely going to try to get back at me for showing him up and winning the bet, but the credits and his reaction? Priceless. Caleb thought to himself.

"So, are you ready to come- "Caleb began as he was turning to Julie, but she had already gathered her things, was crawling out of the skull… and stepping down the stairs? Caleb became surprised and thrown off by this. He was opening his mouth to say something-but decided against it and simply followed her down. It had been draining to keep it going for this long, he didn't want them to stop going because she might freeze up if he asked. Besides, a part of him had been keeping track of the time, and it had been four minutes since he started. While the bet was more about getting past Truji, he'd rather collect it than lose it-he could pay for his and Julie's lunch with it.

With them down the last step, Caleb released the construct, letting the solid structure become air again. He saw all the officers packing up and leaving, but Xon and a VERY disgruntled Truji walking up.

"What, was this an elaborate setup to make me look stupid and milk me for money? You ran for five hours from the law, playing cat and mouse around a museum just to agree to storybook hero knockoff in a heartbeat?" Truji said in a loud and annoyed tone.

Caleb saw that Julie was beginning to shudder and look down, so Caleb stepped in between them. "Oh damn, you figured out our plan to hire a friend to dress and look like a hobo and run around a museum at 3am to make you look like you hate being kind and the homeless because we have nothing better to do with our lives. Bravo, detective, bravo" he replied sarcastically, while he rolled his eyes and clapped just as sarcastically.

Truji was not amused, and Xon was making cut it out gestures, but at least the humor seemed to calm down Julie. "Oh, for Amat- God's sake," Caleb began, while correcting himself from a habit, "no, I don't know them. Did you two consider a tired, homeless human might be afraid of the sight of a tentacle creature, or a bulking, barking, behemoth?" He asked, then followed with, "no offense, Xon."

Truji looked to the side, looking like he was on his last nerves. "Whatever." He stated gruffly. "Let's just go to the station, and get the report done so this can be over" as he began to walk away.

One of Xon's eyes looked over Caleb shoulder and said, "I am sorry if I scared you, I didn't know you were human and not accustomed to other forms of life- you were so fast, you couldn't even be caught on the cameras clearly. I assumed you weren't human to be going as fast as you were." Julie looked at Xon's eye and quickly looked down at the floor, nodding. The three of them proceeded to walk toward the entrance.

At the entrance, Xon turned to both Caleb and Julie and said, "take care, both of you- I've got to go and assess and take care of damages and then save the footage." He turned to Caleb, "and especially you. We both know you can't diss the chief and not expect some sort of petty vengeance from him."

Caleb chuckled, "I will. You still up for the raid on the weekend in Star Shooters?"

Xon laughed, a bubbly, gurgley, hearty laugh. "Oh course, so don't get arrested, become a wanted man, or blackout drunk before then." Then he turned and walked back into the museum.

Julie whispered, "you're friends with him?" to Caleb.

Caleb slightly angled his head to her, saying "yeah, we have history, and helped each other out time to time. It seems like you're not used to non-humans." Julie shook her head. "Yeah, this planet is more non-humans than humans. It'll be a trial by fire, but you get used to it eventually."

They both proceeded to walk to the vehicle Truji was waiting for them at. At first, Caleb thought the walk was just slow. Then he noticed something- across the street, a man in a suit was watching them and throwing a half-eaten bagel to the trash. The bagel itself seemed to be floating for the amount of time it took to land in the trash. Then it hit him. Things weren't moving slow- Caleb was moving fast.

Something was causing his senses to go into overdrive, as if to warn him of incoming danger. He looked around as fast as his head would allow. Off to the side, he saw some beings in suits, some men, some alien, who initially seemed to be minding their business, were pulling weapons from quantum space pocket devices, one even pulling a fucking grenade launcher from a suitcase.

ShitshitshitSHIT-

Caleb grabbed his shield and held it in front of him with one arm and grabbed Julie with the other, and both were ducked behind his shield just as the launcher was fired.

The shot landed perfectly between the officers and where Caleb stood, and the force of the impact knocked everyone back- for the police, officers flew away and their cars overturned, but Caleb and Julie just slid back a few inches, the shield's outer edges beginning to spin.

While the dust and debris were still in the air, Caleb slammed his foot on the ground, causing the stone stairs in front of them to rise, creating a barricade for them. He turned to Julie, and saw she was cut in the leg by some of the debris and was bleeding. He grabbed his cloak with his free hand and wrapped it around her leg quickly. "Keep pressure on that, I'll handle these shmucks" he said, and without waiting for a response, pulled his sword from the sheath and leapt over the barricade.

Upon leaping over he saw some cops were struggling to get up and move to cover, while the suited attackers were advancing with guns in hand. Caleb threw his shield forward, to the surprise of them, and hit the man in the middle of the group with it, causing a similar, but weaker concussive blast to the group, knocking them all back, while the shield ricocheted back to Caleb, which he caught with his hand and put back on his arm in one swift motion. While he was glad it was one group down, he saw another, larger group approach from the right. "Wow, the Star Stealers Mafia really just wants me dead today, huh" Caleb thought, and began to charge them shield forward, so bullets were harmlessly bouncing off, causing the shield's blades to spin again. When he got in range, he began to slash the members down with his sword. While he wasn't cutting them physically, the sword was cutting through their life force, causing them to drop without them bleeding or open wounds. He had cleaved through a good portion when suddenly, he heard…

FUS…

He felt the mana in the air shift; someone nearby was casting magic in a supercluster system where magic was supposed to be a myth (save for a few exceptions), and this time it wasn't Caleb doing it.

RO…

Caleb turned and witnessed where the energy was shifting to; it was going toward a man, wearing armor that seemed to be from an archaic time period, and a high-tech metal collar on his neck. Caleb turned his shield toward the target and focused his energy on his shield to empower its defensive ability, though he was too close and didn't have enough time to ready himself for what came next.

DAH!

The force of the blast was even stronger than the grenade was, and it sent Caleb reeling back a few meters from the man across the road and into the air- fortunately, he managed to land on his feet, and slammed the ground with his fist to make another wall, which he put his back on and began considering his options.

His initial thoughts were to try and fight from range, but then he heard the patter of bullets hitting his barricade; he would be outgunned. Invisibility? Probably would get hit by a stray shot, and he'd be screwed if they had infrared or x-ray vision. Telekinesis? He looked around. Too many civilians, if he psychically held a gangster, a gun, or a bullet and it hit an innocent on accident, he'd never hear the end of it, from the media or himself. As long as they were focused on him, no one is getting hurt. Cmon… think! Caleb thought, desperately trying to out-think a bad situation yet again…

…"No… I was so close… how did they find me?" was racing in Julie's mind. She had finally gotten out of their custody. Played stowaway on ships until she reached the planet she needed to. Finally, she met the Mind Breaker, the Solar Sorcerer, the ONE person who may be their chance at freedom. And they found them. She started to weep again. She didn't want to end up like the people in the cages next to her when she was captured by them- she could still remember their disfigured bodies and lifeless eyes, their animatronic like movements; the scream of those who disobeyed.

[If you like listening to music to read along with to give a picture and illustrate it inside your head, for this part, I would recommend part one of RWBY's 'Red like Roses' -most rendition work fine, though I find what works best is the original version and the cover made by LeeAndLie/Amalee. If not, then ignore this section.]

"Then fight back." A strange, unfamiliar voice echoed inside her head. What the fu- she began to think but was quickly overshadowed; "You may not be at your best, but you are far from your worst. You have, against all odds, made an impossible escape and voyage, and now the key to your freedom and future lies before you. If you do nothing, and he is captured, all will be lost- for you, and everyone too. You know what you must do."

When she was captured, she lost all her weapons and gear, save for one they could not take from her, the one that was key to her escape and survival. She held out her hand and focused. The light itself seemed to be drawn to her hand, and it coalesced into the blade she was familiar with. "If there was ever a time to turn into a crazed murder hobo", she thought, while gazing into the silvery reflection of her weapon, "I guess that time would be now." She casted a healing spell and checked her leg; the bleeding was done, she could stand. She slowly stood up; and saw the gangster were focused on Caleb, who was taking cover behind another barricade, and the lumbering armored warrior was walking toward him. No eyes were on her. She darted from hiding spot to hiding spot, getting into position to strike…

Teleporting behind them? Too risky, it would raise questions from the media or could result in someone getting shot. Cloak diversion? Wait, Julie still has it. Shit! All the thoughts racing in his head, and none were viable enough. He knew he would have to do something- he could hear footsteps and the drawing of a weapon, even through the gunfire. Something has to be done about the gunfire, he though. Then, to his surprise- the sound of lasers and bullets were interrupted by loud, SWING! SWISH! SWANG! WHACK!, and the firing ceased. Convenient, he thought, but who did it? The police didn't go for cover, they just fled he noted. He decided to risk it and look over the barrier. He saw the enemy in armor had even turned around too. Standing over the sprawled-out mobsters, was Julie, holding some sort of… strange axe with a large hand guard and small chain dangling from it? What was less important than deciding what she was holding was that the enemy was charging her now. Caleb leaped from his cover, hoping to get to the him before he got to her, but that didn't seem to be a problem when the enemy was being lifted; Julie, holding up her free hand, was holding him in place, which caused her sleeve to drop, revealing multi-colored glowing tattoos. She pointed here weapon at him and shouted, "Firaga!", which caused a huge fireball to erupt from the tip of the weapon and travel toward the foe; after the huge splash of fire, the enemy remained, unfazed and angry, and as he seemed to prepare a spell of his own, he forgot there was an enemy in front of him and behind him.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! Caleb was lighting fast and cutting him multiple times a second, causing the sounds of the sword cutting through him to even overlap. Finally, he slashed one more time, dashing through the foe to land and slide all the way over to Julia, stopping just a foot behind her and to her side. Julia, for extra measure (and hopefully for no other reason) clasped her hand and brought it down, causing the armor man to hit the pavement- hard- and not get back up. Caleb, breathing heavy, finally stood up and looked Julia in the eyes. Their eyes met for a second of bewilderment, astonishment, but additionally a strange sense of understanding, of each other.

Unfortunately, the moment ended as soon as it began; they each turned to see more Star Stealers rounding each block and darting toward them.

"You know what? Screw the questioning, they didn't stay to help us, so we're not staying here either," Caleb stated. He sheathed his sword and grabbed Julie's arm. "Close your eyes and hang on" he told her, while placing his shield onto his back, and pulling out a red crystal from a pocket in his coat and held it up. She shut her eyes and used her hand to grab his arm like he did to her. The energy swirling around them was loud enough to obscure Caleb's shout, and after an incredibly bright flash and loud pop- the mafia was shocked to see where they once stood was now just an empty street, save for their comrades, their tools, and their pet.