The nightshift sucked. The extremely bored and half-asleep fox looked around lazily. Why did he even sign up for this three years ago, knowing he'd be up all night four nights a week? Barely paying attention, he looked around at the grey mist, lit only by the numerous lamps, the shining snow at his feet and the black castle walls, thinking little of the importance of his job. Slumping against the stone wall, colder than ice, he closed his eyes subconsciously, waking up to shake a huge splat of snow off the side of his face. Groaning and cursing bitterly, he picked his rifle up again and slouched lazily against the wall again, falling asleep quickly.
Soon the fox woke up again, not knowing why, but he knew that he had woken with a start. Suddenly he heard it. A shot from his right, echoing down the short staircase. Then he heard gunfire. As quick as his brain registered, he grabbed his rifle which was again sitting on the ground, strapped it around his shoulder and ran towards the gunfight, which was still going, while shaking snow off himself and waking up. If someone was invading…that wasn't good. Slipping over the stairs and only just saving himself from a sprained ankle as he ran, he flicked the safety off his gun and turned left and right almost immediately. Careful not to slip on the snow's hardened patches, he saw the orange flashes of his own kind, guardians of the Pesnah Sphere, firing at black figures down below…who were firing back from the grey mist. Suddenly he heard the ricochet of a bullet hitting the wall behind his head, and looked around at the ground below, quickly hiding behind an uplift in the wall…lucky it had that medieval design! He thought glumly as bullets peltered into the rectangular shaped shelter. Knowing that he had nothing worse to lose than what he was guarding, Ivan, whose ranking was Private, quickly jumped around to shoot through the gap, expecting a bullet at any moment, that he would feel nothing but pain in moments…but he was lucky enough to survive as fate drove bullets through all of his current attackers. Realizing his luck, he quickly turned slightly to fire upon the dark figures now firing their pitons up at the wall for a safe entry into the castle. His majesty Reginald's last standing guard in the area wasn't going to give up lightly. Just as he was down to the last of them, the alarm sounded. "ARMED HOSTILES IN SECTOR 12! ARMED HOSTILES IN SECTOR-" suddenly it turned to static. That wasn't his sector, but they seemed all gone around here…taking a moment to say a prayer for his friends, slumped against the wall, covered in blood, Ivan quickly ran off for the other invaded sector, when another alarm went off. "MORE ARMED HOSTILES IN SECTOR 5!" Again, this repeated as Ivan ran as fast as he could along the slippery snow covered bridge, turned right and half-jumped down the stairs, wondering who would want to launch this attack…whoever it was obviously wanted power. Quickly he stopped running and slid straight into a black wall, resisting the pain from the impact to turn straight to his right at a sign of movement. Quickly, his eyes darted around, stomach churning and heart beating like never before. There was a whizz, like a bullet going past his head. Quickly he turned around and fired at the black figure running towards him, which dived forward limply. Quickly he turned back around just in time to see movement in three places. Looking around for a red button and not finding one, the blue fox looked around desperately. He was in sector 10. He needed an alarm button NOW! Quickly he fired a few rounds into the grey mist, hoping to hit something, and ran for his life, suddenly finding himself being thrown forward in a huge sudden rumbling noise and a lot of orange light. That had been another seriously close call. This was way past time to run for his life for now. Suddenly he heard another whoosh and quickly ducked to see a white streak fly over his head and explode upon impact with the wall. There was another announcement but he completely missed it. Quickly he ran out from the semi-circular passageway and over another bridge and right toward the helicopter pad, which had nothing on it…except for more black figures, running for the stairs. Suddenly they saw him and raised their weapons, their pinkish-red eyes trained on him. Ivan stepped back slowly, back toward the bridge, trying to scream but ending up with a wince…then he remembered something which should have been in his head this entire time. How could he possibly forget? There was a flash from one of the rocket launchers, and a red dot appeared in the center, followed by a white streak and Ivan was gone in a purple flash. Suddenly he was at one of the corners of the elevated platform above the snow-cleared helipad. The radiation of the Pesnah Sphere certainly had its uses, as did descending from its guardians…Suddenly there was another rocket and he had to 'electroport', as he called it, again, in a flash of horizontal, purple lightning, zapping straight to the next corner. Ivan looked down, knowing that he was the strongest they had faced thus far, judging by their looks, and those red eyes squinting, tilting their heads. Soon he was treated to the ol' orange flashes, also known as bullets. Quickly, with one sweep of his hand he was right in the center of the black figures, purple sparks flying from him for a few seconds. Then he threw his arms up and backwards, looking up into the sky, his eyes glowing a brilliant violet, and the black red-eyed figures suddenly started twitching, tiny glowing purple-blue veins flashing around them randomly. One by one, the figured collapsed, either unconcious or dead, and the fox known as Ivan went back to his normal state and leaned forward, puffing. Quickly he made his way back up the stairs to secure an important weapon, keep it safe…it was on the one corner he hadn't electroported to/from. Quickly he got behind the hunk of steel, just as another blue fox, this one with a taller head and a longer nose and a slight tinge of violet to his fur, ran around towards him, pursued by another white streak. Ivan looked at it closely…it was turning! The missile was turning! Without thought, transfixed at the sight of the other fox, whom he knew by sight but not by name. The fox stopped as he reached the wall, the rocket pounding straight for him. Whattaya doing, you FOOL!? Suddenly he understood. The rocket slammed into the wall, clearly packed with explosives, and the fox was right next to him. The other fox took up a sniper position with Ivan's rifle, saying nothing. Soon Ivan saw the figures, from the same place he had come from. Suddenly there was a crash, seeming to come from the very earth itself as Ivan controlled his missile, going straight for a retreating black figure, almost getting kicked off its speedy course before hitting the ground and the screen fizzling out, then transferring to the next missile. Suddenly the ground started shaking violently. Ivan looked down, dreading…he knew what this meant. The clan had failed. Ivan exchanged a nervous glance with the slightly purple fox next to him, who nodded. Things were as bad as they could possibly be. The black figures had taken the Pesnah Sphere. That meant that soon-Suddenly a pillar of earth burst up beneath the nameless fox, lifting him towering into the air as more, similar pillars, shot out of the ground in random places. Ivan glanced at the other fox; up on the first pillar…His eyes were bulging, he was having difficulty balancing. Ivan had to get out of there. NOW.
Future…Past…Day…Night…And then to the centre of four,
Heroes from each compass point
Shall defeat the greatest evil and more…
Chapter 1 25 years later…The kitchen was quiet, as usual. BlueHawk and SamaDaMana didn't like to use it much, as was to be expected. Hawk was holding a small, purple shape with buttons all over it and intently watching his TV screen, Sama behind him absolutely hypnotised. There were two figures on the screen, who looked like they were riding on top of vehicles from the future driving over the ocean. One figure, who was jumping to the left, was dressed in a blue cap and shirt with red overalls, suddenly he lashed out with a good whack with his enlarged fist, sending the other figure, the same but dressed in yellow and purple, straight into the road, before he zoomed off to the left and exploded. Hawk raised a fist in triumph and reached to press the grey spot on a dark cube object with cords in the back, turning out the semicircular red light near its front and the TV screen flickered for a second as Sama reached to turn it off, which for a second Hawk thought was a moment of great triumph until he had pressed the 'Channel down' button and sent it into misreception…too bad Hawk hadn't been in misreception, the last few weeks…before then had been so much easier! Before he found out he had a brother, a dark blue fox, older than himself, who worked for Phantom Falcon's ex-clan…his real name was Mykol Hawking, but he was careful not to tell anyone at this point, not even Sama or Minimaniac, and kept his brother's name tag hidden safely. The TV had flicked back to the news. Turning it off, Hawk turned around and walked slowly back to his room. His old friend, whom he'd first met when he lived at an orphanage, a dark blue armadillo known as Black Eagle, had joined him briefly in his mission to get back the chaos emeralds and then scarpered who knows where to. It was like he enjoyed being solitary, either that or just wanted home, wherever that was Hawk had no clue. Lying on his bed he went over that week…well, it may not have been the worst of his life, but it was close to it…he was just grateful to the fates he had actually survived all that…and DANG it had been lucky he pulled those rings from the generator in Cal HQ, they were extremely significant in the clash of super forms. He decided not to think about all this over again. What the past was could not be changed either way. All Hawk could do is accept it and try to have a good impact on the future….why had Eagle split, though? And where to? The answers would have to wait…Hawk didn't even know how Eagle had found him or where he had come from. Probably somewhere unusual, either that or he didn't want people to know, because every time Hawk had tried to bring it up the subject was quickly changed.
Hawk left his room to find that Sama was standing in front of the door, barely moving apart from his breathing and the occasional blink. This was normal, there was nothing wrong…well, nothing WRONG as such…but something was different…he wasn't usually this stupid anymore. Ever since his brain-enlarging operation his intelligence had been slowly increasing…and this was about as stupid as he had been, not reacting at all when Hawk slowly waved his hand in front of his face. No, this was even stupider than…Hawk walked back toward the couch and sat down, Sama still didn't move…then suddenly he started looking around. Hawk shrugged, shaking off the idea that this was completely out of the ordinary, and went down to visit Phantom.
"I'm going to look for Eagle." Hawk said suddenly as Phantom went to grab some food.
Phantom stopped still, frozen with surprise and thought. Finally he spoke. "…Why?"
Hawk shrugged. "I dunno. It's just kinda weird without him, suddenly. I mean, he was around for a few weeks and then he just disappeared, basically. One, he could be in trouble. Two, he's our friend and I don't know about you, but I miss him being around, Three, he's a valuable addition to our team if we're called for an important mission, and…" Hawk suddenly trailed off.
"And four?" phantom urged him. There was a silence. "There's something else you want that's outside of the city, isn't there?"
"I dunno, Phantom. It's like…there's something out there calling me…like I have to be somewhere else…and there's so many things I'm yet to know about myself! I'm beginning to wonder if these instinctive callings are…significant in some way."
Phantom looked at him, as if not knowing what to say, as if torn between two major things, as if he was making a hard decision. Suddenly he seemed to make up his mind. "When are you going?"
Hawk thought for a second. "Tomorrow…thing is I don't even know where to go…I kinda figure something will lead me to wherever it is I'm supposed to go."
Phantom knew what to say this time. "I'll come with you! I want to find him too…" He was cut off.
"No, don't…You'll be better off here."
"Oh, will I? What, with another friend away? My first friend on the…" Suddenly there was a crash of glass from above. Hawk and Phantom exchanged glances of concern and immediately knew…someone was after Hawk's emerald again.
Hawk ever-so-slowly inched his apartment door open, tensely pointing his Uzana 32 uzi/pistol around all the currently visible areas. No-one there, but the middle of the three big windows was shattered from the inside. Bluehawk opened the door fully, looking around anxiously. No-one seemed to be there except Sama, who was lying face down on the ground. Phantom slowly edged through the door, his own gun raised, and went to check Sama's room. Hawk slowly sidestepped across the wall towards his own door, then tapped it softly and pushed with his finger. No noise from inside. Placing his whole hand on the door and pushing it further, Hawk began to wonder if they had been attacked at all…but then he looked into his room. His desk had been upturned, the drawers strewn about the floor as well as their contents, parts of his bed were against the wall…whoever it was had searched his room, and he knew exactly what for…but how did they know he kept his emerald in his room now? Slowly he walked up to the side wall and the subtle dent, pushed his finger into it and lifted, moving a square of wall up and revealing a safe with a lock code. Slowly he turned the black dial back and forth, before there was a click, the door swung open and there was the glowing yellow gem. It was safe…but not for long. Hawk took it into his hand and placed it down the front of his black shirt, there was a yellow glow for a few seconds and the emerald seemed to have disappeared, absorbed into Hawk himself. He didn't think he'd ever have to do that again, but it seemed he had no choice. The emerald's protection was important…there was no guarantee he'd be as lucky as last time if it was ever taken again. Suddenly he remembered that Sama was on the ground unconcious. Hawk made his way out of his room to see Phantom standing over Sama. "He's fine…he's been knocked out, but he's fine…" Phantom said slowly. "All good?"
Hawk nodded. The sooner they got out of there and figured out why the heck Hawk wanted to go in the first place, the better. Sama finally got up after a while and said he'd been jumped, but how he managed to remember that and realize he was supposed to tell them was anyone's guess.
*****
Hawk longingly looked back upon the city which was now miles behind, the buildings and people he had grown to know as home, while Phantom and Sama looked forward to whatever lay beyond the grass field, trees frequent in their wake. Phantom was sure that Eagle had come from this general direction when he had arrived about a month earlier, and so this was obviously the way they should go look for him…like, by chance, they would end up going to exactly the right place. Hawk turned around gingerly, thinking about this and walked purposefully onwards, as though trying to hide his doubts. Bouncing his steps forward, Hawk busied himself looking at the ground, the many ants scurrying along it beneath his feet and quickly swerved his path as he nearly ran face-first into a tree. He glanced behind him, to his backpack, the straps of which he was occupying his arms with. His little chao, Skeeter, who was growing into a slight blue colour and appeared to be growing a fringe of hair on his forehead, sat happily on top of it, nursing his own small backpack containing his supplies, his toys and assorted other things. He added a little extra weight but Hawk was fine with that, as long as the feller was being taken care of. Suddenly he heard a loud buzzing noise by his ear as his other chao, little green Paladin, flew cheerfully by his ear, before coming to rest on Sama's head. He was starting to go slightly yellow and was beginning to sport Sama's dreadlocks as well as his wings turning transparent, thinner, longer and retractable. Hawk smiled to himself as they reached the orange dirt road, Phantom at the rear and Sama just behind Hawk, who was leading. They turned slightly to the right rather than backtrack to the left, and Hawk's doubts about whether they would actually find Black Eagle heightened. How did they know where he had gone? Still, at least they were heading where fate would lead them: where Hawk may find out why the heck his instincts had been calling him out.
*****
It was late, and the orange path kept going, further through the forest. It was a large forest, judging by the distance they had already walked. Paladin's flights had been getting gradually shorter, and Skeeter was already asleep on Hawk's backpack. The stars were out and only just visible through the dense canopy of trees. Hawk's ears twitched backwards, and quickly he turned around, not really worried about anything but just in case. Sama was behind him now, trudging along sleepily but without question…but something was wrong. Hawk shrugged it off and turned back around to stare at Phantom's backpack, only just visible in the lack of light. That's when he saw the shadows. Quickly his eyes started darting around…yes, the light source was from behind, a fair bit to the right, where the moon was…but the moon was up. They were climbing, swinging or flying. Hawk looked at just below where the moon was, trying to find where the shadows were, but Phantom's backpack was at a different angle to the moon than he was. Then he saw the movement, something black jumping between trees, silently…Hawk quickly tapped Phantom on the shoulder and alerted him to this presence. Funny thing was all it took were two taps and he looked straight at their stalkers. Suddenly Phantom was gone, a WHUMP was heard as well as Phantom shouting from the direction of the shadowy figures. Phantom Falcon had landed right on top of one of the dark figures, knocking it unconcious…then suddenly he was swept into the air with a piercing yell by a figure on a vine.
"PHANTOM!!" Hawk cried. Hawk dashed straight for the tree closest to where Phantom had been and used his speed to run straight up onto a high branch, dropping Skeeter to the ground at the bottom, who slowed his fall with the beating of his little wings. Landing on a fairly thick branch, Hawk looked around frantically as Sama tried to scramble up the tree where Hawk was. Then he heard it. A muffled cry of protest. Quickly he leapt forward, grabbed onto a branch from the next tree and swung himself around to get closer into the vicinity. Suddenly he noticed that Phantom was above him, leaning back to the tree they were in as much as possible. Suddenly Hawk felt a strong dull pain in his right side and plummeted through the branches, landing face down, hearing a crack, and realizing a huge pain in his chest…his ribs had cracked… Suddenly he realized he was surrounded by presences that he couldn't define…but they were numerous. Suddenly he turned over, and let his eyes dart around. He was surrounded by dark figures, humanlike, but shiny…and they all had red eyes trained on him. They were going to take him out…and not for a meal! Hawk cringed, ready for the one in front to bring down a rather fast moving bullet…Make them die…go away! Make them go… Suddenly there was a bang noise, and even through closed eyes combined with sunglasses Hawk could see huge flashes of light and hear the wailing screams and bangs. He opened his eyes, just in time to see the last streak of violet light rising to the sky…he had just been saved by some kind of psychic lightning…and suddenly everything was black again.
