4
Earth, Sol System
11.2.43
1485 Hours
Sabre was glad to be home, at least, what he told himself was home. His mind was troubled over the assassin that had followed him here, but after a while his thoughts began to drift to other things. He had always heard stories about the Earth, and was anxious to actually go there, but circumstances had never allowed it. Finally, it was the Necron war had brought him here, to the cradle of his species.
Statistically speaking, Earth wasn't very impressive. It was rather small, with low gravity, only had about six billion relatively weak people that had made only modest technological progress. Since Earthlings had yet to explore any meaningful area of space, it had been left alone, isolated in its uneventful corner of space.
Fighting strength was the standard of comparison used by most races in the Coalition. The ancient race that took his ancestors from here saw a great potential in the humans where no one else did—not even the humans themselves. They were never given second thought. The physically weak, short-lived, and small humans were generally regarded with contempt among the other races being the weakest of the lot. Sabre was the first to break that stereotype.
He had trained himself the best he could, but was always one step behind, physically at least, at the Academy. He was definitely very smart, excelling in the academics offered, but that meant little at an institution renowned for breeding the fiercest, strongest fighters. It was impossible for him to keep up with the Sayjins and the Thrakans. Once the Sayjins went SSJ and the Thrakans Hyperdyned, he didn't stand a chance. As he shot through the air, he thought back to the day that all changed...
Polaris, Aphea System
03.16.34
1522 Hours
Resa easily dodged his kick and struck him in the chest, sending him back a few yards. He became angered that this small Sayjin girl could beat him so easily if she wanted to, and was holding back so as not to accidentally kill him. He had nothing against her, but it was his own inferiority that drove him mad. He threw a punch directly at her face, which she deflected before returning the favor. He barely had time to react and took the blow full on. Blood ran from the side of his lip and his face contorted with anger. He powered up again and launched a flurry of ki blasts at her, all of which she dodged with a smile.
"Missed me!" she mocked.
He then charged at her, sending a roundhouse at her head. She grabbed his foot and flipped him so he faced the ground, then drove her elbow into the small of his back. He impacted the floor with a dull thud, and Resa followed him. She helped him up gently and walked him over to the nearby rest area. All around others were training in the Academy arena, bright flashes of gold and red and green where the Thrakans and Sayjins and a few Nameks were fighting.
"Jake, I told you I don't like to fight you when I'm a Super Sayjin, it's hard for me to hold back enough to not hurt you like that."
"Don't worry about it," he said. He then tried to laugh, but that just sent jolts of stabbing pain all through out his body. "I know what I'm getting into. Don't be sorry. I'm tired of everyone being sorry for me."
Resa was actually one of the stronger Sayjins who held back her training in order to help him. When not transformed she had short, jet black hair, and was flat-out beautiful. She the most stunning green eyes he'd ever seen and a smile to match. She was just a hair shorter than he, and had a nicely toned body. Right now her muscles were bulging, filled with the power that Super Sayjins naturally possess, and he longed for that power. Not because he wanted to abuse it or flaunt it to show how tough he was, but so he could actually be of some use to the universe. He wanted to be the best so he could be the protector, not the protected. She handed him a pill, which he promptly swallowed. His wounds immediately healed.
"Do you want to go again?" she asked.
"No, I'm just holding you back, go and train. I'll be alright."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, just go." He waved her off. He was in no mood to take another ego pounding, though he'd been doing so for years.
"Okay," she sighed. She knew not to press him, because it just made him sadder. She squeezed his shoulder then turned and flew off to join the massive melee going on around him. It was their third year in the Academy, Jake was 16, as was she. They loved each other, but they would not admit to themselves it was anything more than the kind of love forged from years of friendship. Time would prove otherwise, however. They had grown up together, and when they were not sparring they would be found in the parks and movie theaters just hanging out. They had entered the Academy together, roughly at the same level, but she rapidly progressed faster than he did, and once she went SSJ, he was left in the dust.
He left the arena in order to go think. He had been doing a lot of that lately. He knew there had to be some way to get stronger, but he had reached a plateau and could not ascend any higher. He peaked at a power level of about 17,000,000 whereas Resa and the other Sayains and the Thrakans were at around 28,000,000 and rising. He knew the Sayjins ascended through emotions such as rage and pain, whereas the Thrakans ascended through meditation.
The Thrakans were definitely an interesting race. On average, they were about six feet tall, and had a light red tint in their skin. This tint turned bright red when they hyperdyned, the equivalent of going SSJ. Their eyes glowed an eerie red as well. They resembled humans and Sayjins, but like the Nameks they had different color striations on their muscles. Socially, they were quite reserved and tended to be aloof.
Then there were the humans. In the Coalition, they numbered the fewest next to the Nameks, only about one and a half of the more than fifty billion who were part of it. There were about five billion Sayjins, but the Thrakans were the majority by far, accounting for nearly twenty-five billion. The rest comprised of other races, but the Thrakans and Sayjins and a handful of Nameks were the only true warriors in the Coalition. He had tried to change that stereotype by entering the Academy, but so far it wasn't working out.
Jake flew down to the nearby beach and began to walk its enormous coastline. He was the only one there, since everyone was either training or working on the space dock in orbit. The planet the Academy was located on was called Polaris, and the only items of interest on or around the planet were the Academy and Space Dock Sierra in high orbit.
The Academy consisted of a cluster of administrative and academic buildings, at the center of which was a large, geodesic dome known as the Arena. There all the physical training took place. The planet had no residents save for the trainees and instructors, so there would be no distractions for the trainees. This left the rest of the planet devoid of inhabitants and technology, preserving its natural beauty.
He would often walk the coastline in order to think, mainly about getting stronger and of Earth. His parents talked of it as if they had lived there, when in actuality no one directly related to him had seen the planet in over sixty thousand years. He wondered what it was like, and if his fellow man had discovered the secret to unlock the potential he knew that humans had to possess. If all the other races had the ability to ascend to much higher levels, surely the humans could as well. But if they had, they were certainly hiding it, as it would have drawn the attention of the Coalition High Command. Contact with underdeveloped planets was strictly forbidden, mainly to prevent the Coalition from entangling itself in foreign affairs. Interference in the development of lesser civilizations was only a secondary concern. A bout of isolationist sentiment had dominated the sentiments of Coalition leaders for the past five generations, since the Mandreen wars. All he knew of Earth he learned from myths, legends, and the few non-classified vids and documents pertaining to the planet.
Night was falling and he wondered how Resa was doing. Technically, Jake was only there for the academic courses, advanced tactics, battle theory, biology, and the like, so he had no obligation to train. This entire week was a break until next semester began, so he could basically do as he pleased. The stars began to shine, and his thoughts drifted away from training and the academy. He focused on the twinkling dots of light and became fascinated with them, as he did every night. The subtle sound of the ocean breaking on the shore lulled him into a pleasant tranquility. He knew that actually most of the stars were dead, and their light was just reaching the planet, but he didn't care, it didn't detract from their beauty.
Some time later Resa found him on the beach as she always did, he was half- asleep, gazing into the heavens above. She felt so sorry for him, always training, pushing himself, but it was evident he was getting nowhere. She knew he didn't want anyone feeling sorry for him in the least, but her feelings for him couldn't be helped.
"Hey there stranger." she said, "You didn't come back, so I'd figure I'd find you here."
"Yeah."
"You should've seen Vicha today, he was trying to perfect one of his crazy attacks when it accidentally went off and hit Coach Vela. Boy was he pissed."
"Vicha, oh he's a card alright. What'd Coach do?"
"He smacked him around a bit then put him on kitchen duty for a month."
"Oooh, that's harsh."
The conversation ended there and Resa sat beside him, her hair blowing softly in the wind. He looked into her eyes and saw the very stars that were in the sky.
"Has anyone told you how beautiful you are?" he asked with a wry smile.
"Yeah, you, only about 10,000 times."
"Well, this makes it 10,001."
He turned his attention back to the sky and wondered if he would ever be as great as he wanted to be.
"I know what you're thinking."
"What's that?"
"You still wanna get stronger, don't you?"
"That obvious, huh? It's only been bothering me for a few years. I'm surprised it shows." His bitterness was evident.
"Jake, I wish I could help you, I really do. To see you trying so hard, it, it just kills me."
"Look," he returned his eyes to hers, "I know you want to help, but I'm just not strong enough yet. I think I'm beginning to realize that I may just grasping at straws. It's not gonna happen."
"Oh, don't say that!" she chided, "Everyone respects and admires you for what you're doing, you've pushed us all to go further than we thought we could, because you did yourself. Just because you aren't as strong as the rest of us doesn't make you any less great."
He stood up angrily. "Don't give me that shit. I'm not a child. No one here needs me, or even wants me. You would have gotten as strong as you are even if I wasn't here. Have you noticed that you're the only one who even talks to me? No one even knows I exist." He then turned back to the ocean and glowered.
Resa was unwaveringly sympathetic. "I don't believe that. Just because everyone is too proud to get to know you, it doesn't mean they don't notice you. They'd never admit it, but everyone in that building admires you to some degree. In your heart, you are the strongest fighter I've ever known, It's what's in your heart that counts. Isn't that what they have been drilling into us?"
"That's the problem. Only in my heart am I a great fighter. And that doesn't land punches. It isn't worth a damn for someone like me." With that, Jake turned and headed back down the coastline.
12.28.34
2300 Hours
Polaris, Aphea System
The months came and went, and his attempts to become stronger were still in vain. Resa and the others we growing in power in leaps and bounds, but his own power was not enough to challenge even the weakest of the trainees. Jake no longer trained in the Academy, for it had become obvious that pushing himself physically was useless. He focused instead on mental exercises and deep meditation—always been part of the Academy curriculum, but which he now attempted to take much further in his private sessions.
Jake had not dropped combat training altogether, however, and he spent time perfecting his current techniques and attacks, even devising a few new ones. One of them allowed him to go from normal to full power in a fraction of a second, a trick that he had thought would be useful when he realized that a person burned off a lot of energy in the simple act of powering up.
This particular evening, he was on the far side of the planet so his power fluctuations would not be detected. He wanted no distractions while engaged in his mentally intense exercises. He was floating and meditating, trying to figure out why he could not ascend, why there was some sort of block within him. Every other race had an inherent, untapped power, why not humans? It had to be there, it was just waiting for the right trigger. If not from within, then from without? The thought intrigued him. It felt right. Something was there now, dancing about at the edge of his conscious mind, was it the answer? The more he tried to focus on it, the vaguer it became. This went on for hours until he decided to let it go. Jake took a deep breath and emptied his mind. The clear, cold night was a familiar sensation.
He was lost in a trance when a scream in his mind shook him to the core. Something was there. Not on the planet, but in his mind. It had no form, but he could see its eyes, the red glowing eyes. Not the proud red of the Thrakans, but a blood, dull-red— the red that signified unmistakably a deep, pure evil. Jake suddenly felt as if his entire body was in the hand of a giant, squeezing him so tight that he could hardly breathe. The terror was such that he had never felt, and yet...the experience was not altogether new. It reminded him of the mind probe he had to endure before being accepted into the Academy, without the paralyzing fear. So, that meant it was being projected to him telepathically. The logic did little to ease the shrieking in his mind.
It smiled at him, the eyes, the being, whatever it was. It showed him pictures of powerful people, the people he wanted to be, of myth and legend, of heroes dead and alive. It knew what he wanted. The creature then killed them one by one, burning them, torturing them all. The last image was that of Resa. She was sleeping in her bed at the academy. Was it tonight? It could have been any night. The formless creature appeared above her, setting her aflame in her sleep, burning her alive. He could see her features being melted away...Jake tried to avert his eyes but couldn't, trapped in a nightmare he could not escape. His mind was reacting to a primordial terror, something his subconscious was remembering from ages long ago.
His terror turned to anger, anger to a burning hatred. Then it stopped. The rage within him was replaced with an understanding. This was it. This was the trigger. The presence receded from his mind. Jake suddenly felt as if he was then watching himself floating above the ocean. He was standing straight up, arms pulled back at his sides. The feeling soon passed and he was back in his body; he opened his eyes. Now he felt the power he had been looking for. It surged through him, penetrating the very fabric of his being, enveloping him in a blazing white aura. His hair changed to a gray, then to a brilliant white; his eyebrows followed suit. His eyes disappeared and his eye sockets were filled with pure white energy. He was blinded, but at the same time everything seemed so clear and vivid. He felt his body begin to change. Bolts of blue electricity shot off all about him, his fists, clenched, were coursing with electricity of their own. He let out a roar so powerful that the shockwave separated the ocean below him and shattered rocks miles away. He felt the ocean rain back down on him as the final transformation took place. His muscles doubled in size, filling with a power not seen on this side of the galaxy in a great while. Electricity ran all over his body, augmenting his new, formidable appearance.
Before, his body was reacting naturally to the power influx disconnecting his central nervous system from his higher brain functions so as to not overload it. Now he was back in control. He realized this was the power that had been hidden from him. He had no trouble with control; it was as if it had always been a part of him. He flew back to the coast in a blur, flying so fast that the air in front of him was destroyed and formed a vacuum. An earsplitting boom sounded his arrival back at The Academy.
He stood gazing at the arena, now feeling that he would finally be able walk in there proud, unashamed of his humanity. But, was this what he really wanted? He was almost sure. Almost. But what purpose did he have? Power without a purpose was inherently destructive. His mind became awash with waves of self-doubt and worry. When he stopped, he realized he had not powered down, and wondered that if he did, would he be able to power up again? That was a stupid question. Of course he could. With a simple thought his new found power vanished. Just as easily, it returned when he willed it to.
He then noticed that no one had come to check out the sudden power spike his transformation had surely caused. It must have not been that great of a leap after all, he thought. Or, perhaps this power was of a different nature, not readily detectable or sensible. He supposed would find out in due time. Soon his thoughts turned to the presence he felt. What it was, he couldn't say. If and when it was time to tell someone, he wasn't sure what he would say. There were only two impressions he took back from the incident. That it was pure evil, and that it was coming.
Jake made his way back to his room and slept a troubled sleep. His subconscious mind milled over memories and information he did not know he possessed. From that night on, his life would never be the same.
Earth, Sol System
11.2.43
1485 Hours
Sabre was glad to be home, at least, what he told himself was home. His mind was troubled over the assassin that had followed him here, but after a while his thoughts began to drift to other things. He had always heard stories about the Earth, and was anxious to actually go there, but circumstances had never allowed it. Finally, it was the Necron war had brought him here, to the cradle of his species.
Statistically speaking, Earth wasn't very impressive. It was rather small, with low gravity, only had about six billion relatively weak people that had made only modest technological progress. Since Earthlings had yet to explore any meaningful area of space, it had been left alone, isolated in its uneventful corner of space.
Fighting strength was the standard of comparison used by most races in the Coalition. The ancient race that took his ancestors from here saw a great potential in the humans where no one else did—not even the humans themselves. They were never given second thought. The physically weak, short-lived, and small humans were generally regarded with contempt among the other races being the weakest of the lot. Sabre was the first to break that stereotype.
He had trained himself the best he could, but was always one step behind, physically at least, at the Academy. He was definitely very smart, excelling in the academics offered, but that meant little at an institution renowned for breeding the fiercest, strongest fighters. It was impossible for him to keep up with the Sayjins and the Thrakans. Once the Sayjins went SSJ and the Thrakans Hyperdyned, he didn't stand a chance. As he shot through the air, he thought back to the day that all changed...
Polaris, Aphea System
03.16.34
1522 Hours
Resa easily dodged his kick and struck him in the chest, sending him back a few yards. He became angered that this small Sayjin girl could beat him so easily if she wanted to, and was holding back so as not to accidentally kill him. He had nothing against her, but it was his own inferiority that drove him mad. He threw a punch directly at her face, which she deflected before returning the favor. He barely had time to react and took the blow full on. Blood ran from the side of his lip and his face contorted with anger. He powered up again and launched a flurry of ki blasts at her, all of which she dodged with a smile.
"Missed me!" she mocked.
He then charged at her, sending a roundhouse at her head. She grabbed his foot and flipped him so he faced the ground, then drove her elbow into the small of his back. He impacted the floor with a dull thud, and Resa followed him. She helped him up gently and walked him over to the nearby rest area. All around others were training in the Academy arena, bright flashes of gold and red and green where the Thrakans and Sayjins and a few Nameks were fighting.
"Jake, I told you I don't like to fight you when I'm a Super Sayjin, it's hard for me to hold back enough to not hurt you like that."
"Don't worry about it," he said. He then tried to laugh, but that just sent jolts of stabbing pain all through out his body. "I know what I'm getting into. Don't be sorry. I'm tired of everyone being sorry for me."
Resa was actually one of the stronger Sayjins who held back her training in order to help him. When not transformed she had short, jet black hair, and was flat-out beautiful. She the most stunning green eyes he'd ever seen and a smile to match. She was just a hair shorter than he, and had a nicely toned body. Right now her muscles were bulging, filled with the power that Super Sayjins naturally possess, and he longed for that power. Not because he wanted to abuse it or flaunt it to show how tough he was, but so he could actually be of some use to the universe. He wanted to be the best so he could be the protector, not the protected. She handed him a pill, which he promptly swallowed. His wounds immediately healed.
"Do you want to go again?" she asked.
"No, I'm just holding you back, go and train. I'll be alright."
"Are you sure?"
"Yeah, just go." He waved her off. He was in no mood to take another ego pounding, though he'd been doing so for years.
"Okay," she sighed. She knew not to press him, because it just made him sadder. She squeezed his shoulder then turned and flew off to join the massive melee going on around him. It was their third year in the Academy, Jake was 16, as was she. They loved each other, but they would not admit to themselves it was anything more than the kind of love forged from years of friendship. Time would prove otherwise, however. They had grown up together, and when they were not sparring they would be found in the parks and movie theaters just hanging out. They had entered the Academy together, roughly at the same level, but she rapidly progressed faster than he did, and once she went SSJ, he was left in the dust.
He left the arena in order to go think. He had been doing a lot of that lately. He knew there had to be some way to get stronger, but he had reached a plateau and could not ascend any higher. He peaked at a power level of about 17,000,000 whereas Resa and the other Sayains and the Thrakans were at around 28,000,000 and rising. He knew the Sayjins ascended through emotions such as rage and pain, whereas the Thrakans ascended through meditation.
The Thrakans were definitely an interesting race. On average, they were about six feet tall, and had a light red tint in their skin. This tint turned bright red when they hyperdyned, the equivalent of going SSJ. Their eyes glowed an eerie red as well. They resembled humans and Sayjins, but like the Nameks they had different color striations on their muscles. Socially, they were quite reserved and tended to be aloof.
Then there were the humans. In the Coalition, they numbered the fewest next to the Nameks, only about one and a half of the more than fifty billion who were part of it. There were about five billion Sayjins, but the Thrakans were the majority by far, accounting for nearly twenty-five billion. The rest comprised of other races, but the Thrakans and Sayjins and a handful of Nameks were the only true warriors in the Coalition. He had tried to change that stereotype by entering the Academy, but so far it wasn't working out.
Jake flew down to the nearby beach and began to walk its enormous coastline. He was the only one there, since everyone was either training or working on the space dock in orbit. The planet the Academy was located on was called Polaris, and the only items of interest on or around the planet were the Academy and Space Dock Sierra in high orbit.
The Academy consisted of a cluster of administrative and academic buildings, at the center of which was a large, geodesic dome known as the Arena. There all the physical training took place. The planet had no residents save for the trainees and instructors, so there would be no distractions for the trainees. This left the rest of the planet devoid of inhabitants and technology, preserving its natural beauty.
He would often walk the coastline in order to think, mainly about getting stronger and of Earth. His parents talked of it as if they had lived there, when in actuality no one directly related to him had seen the planet in over sixty thousand years. He wondered what it was like, and if his fellow man had discovered the secret to unlock the potential he knew that humans had to possess. If all the other races had the ability to ascend to much higher levels, surely the humans could as well. But if they had, they were certainly hiding it, as it would have drawn the attention of the Coalition High Command. Contact with underdeveloped planets was strictly forbidden, mainly to prevent the Coalition from entangling itself in foreign affairs. Interference in the development of lesser civilizations was only a secondary concern. A bout of isolationist sentiment had dominated the sentiments of Coalition leaders for the past five generations, since the Mandreen wars. All he knew of Earth he learned from myths, legends, and the few non-classified vids and documents pertaining to the planet.
Night was falling and he wondered how Resa was doing. Technically, Jake was only there for the academic courses, advanced tactics, battle theory, biology, and the like, so he had no obligation to train. This entire week was a break until next semester began, so he could basically do as he pleased. The stars began to shine, and his thoughts drifted away from training and the academy. He focused on the twinkling dots of light and became fascinated with them, as he did every night. The subtle sound of the ocean breaking on the shore lulled him into a pleasant tranquility. He knew that actually most of the stars were dead, and their light was just reaching the planet, but he didn't care, it didn't detract from their beauty.
Some time later Resa found him on the beach as she always did, he was half- asleep, gazing into the heavens above. She felt so sorry for him, always training, pushing himself, but it was evident he was getting nowhere. She knew he didn't want anyone feeling sorry for him in the least, but her feelings for him couldn't be helped.
"Hey there stranger." she said, "You didn't come back, so I'd figure I'd find you here."
"Yeah."
"You should've seen Vicha today, he was trying to perfect one of his crazy attacks when it accidentally went off and hit Coach Vela. Boy was he pissed."
"Vicha, oh he's a card alright. What'd Coach do?"
"He smacked him around a bit then put him on kitchen duty for a month."
"Oooh, that's harsh."
The conversation ended there and Resa sat beside him, her hair blowing softly in the wind. He looked into her eyes and saw the very stars that were in the sky.
"Has anyone told you how beautiful you are?" he asked with a wry smile.
"Yeah, you, only about 10,000 times."
"Well, this makes it 10,001."
He turned his attention back to the sky and wondered if he would ever be as great as he wanted to be.
"I know what you're thinking."
"What's that?"
"You still wanna get stronger, don't you?"
"That obvious, huh? It's only been bothering me for a few years. I'm surprised it shows." His bitterness was evident.
"Jake, I wish I could help you, I really do. To see you trying so hard, it, it just kills me."
"Look," he returned his eyes to hers, "I know you want to help, but I'm just not strong enough yet. I think I'm beginning to realize that I may just grasping at straws. It's not gonna happen."
"Oh, don't say that!" she chided, "Everyone respects and admires you for what you're doing, you've pushed us all to go further than we thought we could, because you did yourself. Just because you aren't as strong as the rest of us doesn't make you any less great."
He stood up angrily. "Don't give me that shit. I'm not a child. No one here needs me, or even wants me. You would have gotten as strong as you are even if I wasn't here. Have you noticed that you're the only one who even talks to me? No one even knows I exist." He then turned back to the ocean and glowered.
Resa was unwaveringly sympathetic. "I don't believe that. Just because everyone is too proud to get to know you, it doesn't mean they don't notice you. They'd never admit it, but everyone in that building admires you to some degree. In your heart, you are the strongest fighter I've ever known, It's what's in your heart that counts. Isn't that what they have been drilling into us?"
"That's the problem. Only in my heart am I a great fighter. And that doesn't land punches. It isn't worth a damn for someone like me." With that, Jake turned and headed back down the coastline.
12.28.34
2300 Hours
Polaris, Aphea System
The months came and went, and his attempts to become stronger were still in vain. Resa and the others we growing in power in leaps and bounds, but his own power was not enough to challenge even the weakest of the trainees. Jake no longer trained in the Academy, for it had become obvious that pushing himself physically was useless. He focused instead on mental exercises and deep meditation—always been part of the Academy curriculum, but which he now attempted to take much further in his private sessions.
Jake had not dropped combat training altogether, however, and he spent time perfecting his current techniques and attacks, even devising a few new ones. One of them allowed him to go from normal to full power in a fraction of a second, a trick that he had thought would be useful when he realized that a person burned off a lot of energy in the simple act of powering up.
This particular evening, he was on the far side of the planet so his power fluctuations would not be detected. He wanted no distractions while engaged in his mentally intense exercises. He was floating and meditating, trying to figure out why he could not ascend, why there was some sort of block within him. Every other race had an inherent, untapped power, why not humans? It had to be there, it was just waiting for the right trigger. If not from within, then from without? The thought intrigued him. It felt right. Something was there now, dancing about at the edge of his conscious mind, was it the answer? The more he tried to focus on it, the vaguer it became. This went on for hours until he decided to let it go. Jake took a deep breath and emptied his mind. The clear, cold night was a familiar sensation.
He was lost in a trance when a scream in his mind shook him to the core. Something was there. Not on the planet, but in his mind. It had no form, but he could see its eyes, the red glowing eyes. Not the proud red of the Thrakans, but a blood, dull-red— the red that signified unmistakably a deep, pure evil. Jake suddenly felt as if his entire body was in the hand of a giant, squeezing him so tight that he could hardly breathe. The terror was such that he had never felt, and yet...the experience was not altogether new. It reminded him of the mind probe he had to endure before being accepted into the Academy, without the paralyzing fear. So, that meant it was being projected to him telepathically. The logic did little to ease the shrieking in his mind.
It smiled at him, the eyes, the being, whatever it was. It showed him pictures of powerful people, the people he wanted to be, of myth and legend, of heroes dead and alive. It knew what he wanted. The creature then killed them one by one, burning them, torturing them all. The last image was that of Resa. She was sleeping in her bed at the academy. Was it tonight? It could have been any night. The formless creature appeared above her, setting her aflame in her sleep, burning her alive. He could see her features being melted away...Jake tried to avert his eyes but couldn't, trapped in a nightmare he could not escape. His mind was reacting to a primordial terror, something his subconscious was remembering from ages long ago.
His terror turned to anger, anger to a burning hatred. Then it stopped. The rage within him was replaced with an understanding. This was it. This was the trigger. The presence receded from his mind. Jake suddenly felt as if he was then watching himself floating above the ocean. He was standing straight up, arms pulled back at his sides. The feeling soon passed and he was back in his body; he opened his eyes. Now he felt the power he had been looking for. It surged through him, penetrating the very fabric of his being, enveloping him in a blazing white aura. His hair changed to a gray, then to a brilliant white; his eyebrows followed suit. His eyes disappeared and his eye sockets were filled with pure white energy. He was blinded, but at the same time everything seemed so clear and vivid. He felt his body begin to change. Bolts of blue electricity shot off all about him, his fists, clenched, were coursing with electricity of their own. He let out a roar so powerful that the shockwave separated the ocean below him and shattered rocks miles away. He felt the ocean rain back down on him as the final transformation took place. His muscles doubled in size, filling with a power not seen on this side of the galaxy in a great while. Electricity ran all over his body, augmenting his new, formidable appearance.
Before, his body was reacting naturally to the power influx disconnecting his central nervous system from his higher brain functions so as to not overload it. Now he was back in control. He realized this was the power that had been hidden from him. He had no trouble with control; it was as if it had always been a part of him. He flew back to the coast in a blur, flying so fast that the air in front of him was destroyed and formed a vacuum. An earsplitting boom sounded his arrival back at The Academy.
He stood gazing at the arena, now feeling that he would finally be able walk in there proud, unashamed of his humanity. But, was this what he really wanted? He was almost sure. Almost. But what purpose did he have? Power without a purpose was inherently destructive. His mind became awash with waves of self-doubt and worry. When he stopped, he realized he had not powered down, and wondered that if he did, would he be able to power up again? That was a stupid question. Of course he could. With a simple thought his new found power vanished. Just as easily, it returned when he willed it to.
He then noticed that no one had come to check out the sudden power spike his transformation had surely caused. It must have not been that great of a leap after all, he thought. Or, perhaps this power was of a different nature, not readily detectable or sensible. He supposed would find out in due time. Soon his thoughts turned to the presence he felt. What it was, he couldn't say. If and when it was time to tell someone, he wasn't sure what he would say. There were only two impressions he took back from the incident. That it was pure evil, and that it was coming.
Jake made his way back to his room and slept a troubled sleep. His subconscious mind milled over memories and information he did not know he possessed. From that night on, his life would never be the same.