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GOTEN2003UK - No need for you to get angry, here is the update that you want so dang bad!! !!!
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Part one – Finding Destiny
"True nobility lies not in being superior to another man, but in being superior to one's previous self."
Hindustan proverb
"There are two ways to slide easily through life: to believe everything, or to doubt everything. Both ways save you from thinking."
Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950), Polish-American Linguist
Chapter 1: November 16, 2001 –Beginnings
Time – the one thing that drives man's life more than any others; the one thing that all men desire more of, without regard for status or wealth. Throughout the ages, time has been what people have been born and have died by, and have lived every second in between trying to make more of and wasting it nonetheless. Time is one constant, apart from all others, that alters its passing according to the level of activity in man's brain, speeding up or slowing down respectfully. Hence the phrase, 'Time flies when you are having fun.' Time is one philosophical and physical concept that has been a part of the human psyche from the days of Galileo and Newton and their theories of gravity and the rate at which black cannonballs fall, all the way to Einstein and Hawking and their theories of the velocity of particulate matter and black holes. It is even said that time alters its speed around gravity wells and while an object traverses the speed of light. But of all the things I know about time and what it does as I sit in my last period class I only wish one thing of it at the present moment.
I wish time would go a little fucking faster.
Having to listen to a math teacher drag on endlessly about algebraic concepts that have no use to anyone in life has to be the worst part of being me. That and knowing from the teachings of Dr. Spock that, 'having is not so pleasing a thing as wanting.' Perhaps that voice in my head could give me some clues to my pointless existence, but I ask too much of its endless chanting in my head of 'Kalltorraiya-jin'. I don't think it knows how to say anything else, much less how to express concepts in my reality.
The sudden sound of the school bell ringing brought me out of my musings and a smile curled on my face as I realized that the torture was over. I slung my backpack over my back and picked up my book, speed walking out the door before I could be dismissed and ignoring all complaints from my teacher as I did so. Nearly bowling over a few freshmen as I continued at my normal pace, which was about four times as fast as normal people, I reached my locker. A few expert turns of the tumbler and I had it open. I inserted my book and closed it with a single finger resulting in a loud bang that shook the wall. I gathered several strange looks, but I didn't care, I had more things on my mind than those worthless sheep could conceptualize. The few stragglers still around the bike rack moved off as I walked towards them, they were probably afraid of me.
I think I have always known there was something different about me. Just the way I act and the way I am always one step ahead of my peers and the way I am the greatest genius this world has ever seen. Since first grade I have been this way, teaching the teachers and astonishing people with my brains, as well as annoying them with my endless hyper state. First I though I was a sort of android, made from steel and strong enough to give superman a run for his money. Now I am convinced I am from another planet, at least, that's what my 'friends' say, I can't be sure.
My attention was momentarily diverted as I passed the football field and caught a glimpse of quite possibly the most beautiful sight ever. About a dozen cheerleaders kicking high in an after school practice session, just fine to my perfect vision. Catching the eye of the one in the back, Katharine, I really wished that she wasn't one of those girls that insisted on being 'just friends'. Not that I really minded, I could have had her a long time ago, being that I had known her for years, but I wasn't that kind of guy. If there was anything I hated more than boys trying to get laid with every girl they met, it was those who tried to do so with my Katharine. Much as I thought I liked her, she treated me as an older brother, and I had to do my best to protect her from such things.
The sun glinted peacefully over the windshield of a car as I dodged the speeding half-ton of metal indifferently on my bike. Some days I wonder how close I come to getting killed in the five miles of streets to my home, but then I thought, you're bullshitting yourself, Jake, you can't die! I dodged more cars and then zipped around a corner of an intersection right before the light changed, scraping my foot across the ground intentionally to stabilize myself as I rounded the turn. Finally getting to the home stretch, I waved to a passing car containing my arch-nemesis – David. Actually he was my best friend for years, but we compete all the time; not that it matters of course, I always win and he's about a year younger anyway. Easy prey.
. . .
The sound of a fist hitting delicate flesh broke the relative silence of the small backyard. It was quickly followed by a grunt of pain and then a thump of David's rear end hitting the ground as his feet were swept out from under him.
"I think you should be practicing more, you're getting weak!" I said as I directed a slow kick to his exposed gut.
"I'm sorry Jake," David shot back, "but I just can't keep up with your psycho martial arts skill!"
I paused briefly and that was all David needed, he blocked my next punch and spun me towards the dirt. But I recovered quickly and kicked out, sending him into the old oak tree behind my 5,000 year old house with a light crack.
"David, you know as well as I do that I have never taken a martial art in my life," I said slowly as he stood back up.
"Well I dunno, you used techniques from several Eastern fighting styles; I guess it's just in your blood, Jake," he responded, giving a shrug.
My eyes moved quickly to my finger, the ever-present symbol almost glowing in its own obvious presence.
My thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a shrill opossum shriek – my mother.
"Jacob Alexander Threshard, will you get in here and help me set the table!" she trilled loud enough to wake the dead.
Oh god I wish she would quit calling me that, I thought.But it was too late, David was already laughing.
"You should get everyone to call you that at school; what a name, it's a crack up!" David chuckled.
"You're asking for it, you shouldn't laugh at me," I said, feeling the rage already building inside my thin frame.
"I'm sorry," David said, still laughing. "I can't help it."
Well neither could I because before David knew what was happening a punch in the jaw sent him sailing ten feet into the garage door.
Shit! I thought. Why does that always happen when I get pissed at something? I looked up and saw David slumped against the garage, a thin stream of blood trickling down his chin. I hope I didn't break his jaw, again. I would check him but...I can already sense he's alive.
I decided to leave him there; he would wake up in a few hours. It was, after all, his fault that it had happened. Still I wondered why that rage arose, causing me to almost involuntarily break stuff, including people, at some times. I shrugged, and with a small sigh walked to my house and a prospective dinner.
. . .
"Honestly, Jake," my mother said, drying a dish, "I don't understand why you two fight so much if you are such great friends."
It seemed I had told her too many times already but she wouldn't leave me alone all night if I didn't tell her again.
"It's called sparring," I explained. "And there is rarely any..." – I looked out the kitchen window to the backyard, where David was just starting to stir – "...permanent damage. So you don't need to worry. I swear mom you get crazier every day, and-"
The sudden sound of the voice with a single chant of 'Kalltorraiya-jin' broke through my mind and I immediately forgot what I was saying.
"Uhh...I...," I faltered, struggling to say something.
"Who's crazy now, at least I don't stop in mid sentence and forget what I was...," she started, but I was halfway up the stairs already. "...going to say," she finished.
I opened the door to my horribly claustrophobic bedroom and stepped inside, nearly breaking my neck falling over mother dearest's vacuum cleaner. I picked it up and with little effort tossed the heavy machine into the hall closet and shut the door with a flick of my finger. It's damn convenient being so strong sometimes! I thought, before shutting the bedroom door and sitting on the edge of my bed, anticipating the creak of the bedsprings even before they came. I decided to meditate as was my custom before bed, but as per custom I had barely started when the familiar muted voice came over my mind and repeated: 'Kalltorraiya-jin'.I came out my meditative trance in an instant and thought for a moment about it.
It was so strange, I had been hearing that voice almost ten times each day and every time I tried to meditate for almost 3 years and I was still convinced I wasn't insane in the least. Still I wondered why it was incapable of saying anything else. "Why can't you say anything else?" I asked quietly of the air.
'Find the Dragonballs' came immediately following my request.This was too much; I had heard a lot of ridiculous things in my life, but even from a crazy voice in my head I had never heard anything this odd.
"What?!" I practically screamed. "Find the Dragon's balls?! What the hell, you mean some poor dragon...?" I said, but was cut off by the voice as it went on in monotone in my head.
'Dragonballs!'
"Oh." I said, getting into bed. "What are those?"
'You will know.'
. . .
All I remember is waking up frightened like I had never been before. All I knew was that my alarm clock had not yet gone off and it read just after five-thirty in the early morning, my mother already gone. The voice had said something along the lines of: 'Use this as some sense of inspiration...' and I was immediately rammed by a sense of pain I had never felt before for all my life.
My eyes clouded over and I found myself floating above the Earth and I could see explosions below. It's a trick, I thought, that bastard's screwing with my mind...this can't be real. But, try as I might, it didn't go away, it kept coming. Wave after wave of pain ran through me as I was thrust forward in this bizarre vision, careening over the skies and watching helplessly, as though my eyes were glued open. There were sirens, explosions, strange figures darting back and forth and buildings in flames, I could do nothing but watch. I landed on the ground, light as a feather, and I looked around me, in a fog, like a dream, barely able to perceive people running in all directions and then blood sprayed me from one torn in half by a dark shape that vanished as quickly as it came. I wiped off the blood from my face and looked at my feet, seeing a newspaper, stained red and marred with black footprints. But I could still read the date in the corner.
December 3rd, 2002.
Impossible.
I can't see the future, can I?
I looked up again, there were more explosions, and the sound rose up out of the melee to shake my mind as I recognized it as screaming. Helpless screaming; they were all dying around me. Thousands of them were dying.
Even children were dying!
I couldn't take it, I felt this as if it was happening to me, all that pain somehow channeled right to me and I writhed in agony just as it all ended and I was standing back in my room in the present.
It was too much for one boy to handle. I stumbled to the bathroom and was sick on the floor, and then I fainted. When I came to I felt numb.
'Want to feel more of this? You want to feel this again multiplied a billion times over?' the voice echoed in my head. 'There will be far more pain, sooner than you think, this is just like a little preview. When those aliens come the devastation will span this entire planet! You have to stop them.'
"What aliens? Why...? What's going on?" I poured out weakly from my raw throat, unable to comprehend what I had felt.
'The Dragonballs' the voice repeated.
I was scared, deathly scared. Not because of the seeming threats from the voice, not from what I had seen, but that now along with being told I could faintly feel an essence of pure evil approaching the Earth. My eyes drifted to the symbol on my finger. What was happening to me? What does it all mean?
Why do I have to be the one to save them all?!
No, I thought, there are seven and one half billion people on this planet, that's a lot of weight to shoulder. I can't do this.
I lay there for a time, crying from the pain and wishing it would all go away and I wouldn't have to deal with it anymore. Staggering to my room, I curled up with my extra pillow on my bed and inserted my thumb childishly into my mouth, fresh tears pouring down my face and my mind ran circles.
I don't want to be a hero. Not me. I can't do it. That's not what I do – I...I mean I'm not good enough. I can't just...what do I – why do I...? It's not fair; this isn't my fault, why must I be the one to...suffer?
Sticking my thumb deeper into my mouth, bringing a slight comfort to me, and closing my eyes, squeezing out more tears, I wished I could just be a little kid again. I was happy then; I didn't have to worry about high school or what I was going to do in life or my...my...my destiny. I just didn't care about anything at all and it was easy to not think then, but I had to now. I cried on, wishing again it would all go away and I would open my eyes to find myself ten years old again, but to no avail. I only succeeded in eventually crying myself to sleep.
When I awoke, I felt better, especially since I hadn't had to bother with school today, but it still hurt. I decided at once that I couldn't stop my destiny. It was only what I was and if that symbol on my finger meant I had to find some balls and then save the world with no reward, so be it.
"Well I guess I better find those stupid Dragonballs soon lest that voice in my head has a dammed fit!" I muttered to the air.
'No, you can't search for the Dragonballs-'
"What do you mean I can't-?"
'Quiet!' the voice thundered in my head, sending a shock of pain through my skull and flinging me to the ground painfully. I clapped my hands over my ears instinctively to try and keep out the deafening roar, with no effect whatsoever. 'You must keep watch, but you can't go to the Dragonballs, they will come to you. You must just make sure that you don't miss them when they do show up. And if you don't keep alert, the Dragonballs will pass you by and I can't answer for the possible consequences. Those Dragonballs must be found, the fate of the Earth rests on your success' and the voice, which probably had never said so much at one time, promptly shut up, and let me think at last.
This left me with a little to ponder, and I sat down to reflect on the day's events, among other things. I thought about that for a little while, before falling onto the bed and deciding to rest my eyes. But as these things usually happen, I felt myself drifting calmly to sleep in a short amount of time.
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Yet another addition to the weirdness chronicles...I hope you enjoy my character's little insanity trip. Who knows what happens next? Please review.