Chapter 1: The early beginning

My story starts... as I was walking home in the calm snow in New York City. I was walking from an abandoned building, where which I did my sword training.Yeah I know, "sword..." right? I've been a fighter all my life but, never really hurt anyone. Back in the day there was a bunch of people who really piss me off at times and I always wanted to kick their ass for it all. Unfortunately, I never did lay my finger on anyone at all. Now, I wasn't scared of anyone if thats what you were thinking. The real reason was that I had this reputation with my parents and its like I can't do anything wrong. I always had to be a "goody goody" and make my parents proud of me.

Anyways,while I was walking by, a slum drunk homeless(or at least that is what he seemed to be by his appearance) grabbed me by the shirt and called to me...

"Hey kiddo!", the drunk uttered to me. "You wanna know something? There is actually a place to be free, with flowers and mountain falls...it's a great place to be...if you ever wanna go I can take you.."

At first I thought this was just some homeless dude trying to jack my money and run away to buy more alcohol, but then I decided to take a listen, because I've been hearing things like this on the street from a lot of people, especially those that are fortunate and/or less fortunate. This was just the hundredth time I heard it today! The weirdest thing is that they are telling me...

"Where do you here these rumors?"I asked

"Oh dude, they no rumors! It's the real deal, know what im saying?"the slum replied. He's obviously drunk, but I hear this from alot of non-intoxicated souls too. Still, I didn't want to hang around and believe it.

"You said you know the location right, if you do, I'd take it that you are drunk and you walk around everywhere with a beer bottle in your hand and hallucinate. I assume you need help..."I barked back. From then on, the slum made a glare, stood up and pointed at me.

"So you wanna be a funny guy right, well I got a couple of people who can take a joke...while beating you down!"the slum yelled. Just then I felt my space being crowded in by thugs and gangsters. The slum then walked up to me and told me to give up all the money I had or get the pain I deserve. So he was joking...or was he...?

I then slowly reached and grabbed the handle of my gunblade and quickly kicked one thug beside me, making him to throw back into a wall, hard enough to break his spine. I quicky took out my gunblade as I spin around to kick another guy and quickly stuck my blade through his gut and pulled the trigger three times until I could feel his blood flow stop running. I took out my blade from his body and looked at everyone else with a scared look on their face, even the slum drunk. "Now, is there anyone else who would like to take me on...I have plenty of time...no?...good."I said. I quickly ran away to my house, leaving the guy who got blade shot and the drunken dude to shame. I knew he would try to gang up on me like that, but if his story was true, I would take it under the consideration.

As time passes, I have finally got to my house. I usually play video games here and nothing else, except to lift weights and to keep in shape. I train here with my gunblade as well. Those curious of my weapon: Think of it as a blade attached to a handle of the gun. I bought it from a sword shop...50k!

Here at this time I was 21, tons of knowledge, free from parents, and independent. I also had a lot of money to burn since I was in a big gaming business called "Mega 400". I ran the whole thing and also help make games, mostly fighting and RPGs. There is one person who is a famous singer, my co producer of "Mega 400" and also my cousin. She much more of a traveler than I ever was. She was more energetic, independent, she was pretty much everything. Her name was Crystal. She's 2 years older than me but she still acts like a kid. She doesn't act like much of an adult no matter how old she is, which is a good thing.

She was here, she was there, and now she is in my house, or as I soon found out as I walked in my room. I found her dancing to a mix music playing on my stereo. She was so full of energy. I was...well...shocked. She finally stopped dancing until she heard me come through the door. She smiled at me and quickly turned off the stereo. She then turned around and smiled some more. I was a bit confused, because once I came into my house, I heard noises, and THIS is what I find...

"Home already?"she asked. "What took you so long? I've been here for 2 hours this morning"

"How did you get in here? When did you get here? Tell me now!"I could not stop asking her those questions because I just got back from training and killing, and now I come here and see my cousin dancing in my own room...I may have overreacted, but still...

"Hey hey, chill. I just came to tell you that there is some rumor about 'pretty places' or somthing like that..."she said happily as if she wanted to go herself.

"I just got back from causing trouble...some drunk dude told me the same rumor. I've been hearing them for some time now. I don't know what it is."

"Well, its just scaring me 'cause...it sounds familiar I had a dream of a place once."she said with worry.

I looked at her and said that it is just a rumor and nothing else...well... that was until I turned on my T.V. and found something on the news. There was a women on the screen, behind her was something big and huge. It seemed like a black hole of some sort. I saw people jump in the hole...I thought I recognized them, but it was only my imagination..or was it? The reporter was terrified and was screaming like crazy...alot of people are in New York City.

short dialogue

Reporter: We are live downtown...AHHHHHH...there seems to be behind me a black whole with strong winds trying to suck whatever! AHHHH! What the heck, there are people jumping in the hole! ARE THEY CRAZY? This is Xu reporting live downtown! IM OUTTA HERE!

dialogue complete

I quickly looked at Crystal with amazement...she was frightened and started to cry...I was on the verge, at that particular moment, to find out what's happening...then there was a knock on my door. I went downstairs and secretly looked out the window to find out who it was. There were just two friends of mine, Chris and Steve. They looked shocked. I opened the door and they quickly rushed in...

"Hey, have you seen Sarah?"Steve asked. "Lisa?"Chris added after a moment.

"I don't know.."I responded."Never did see them after a 5 weeks...wait where is–"

"She is missing too."Steve said, knowing who I'd ask for. It was obvious the girls, who were our friends ever since 2nd grade, were somewhere together. "Where?" was the question we wanted to know. We discussed where they looked and how they didn't return any calls or internet/text messages. This scared me for I was worried where they could have gone. Crystal then rushed downstairs.

"Hey, what's going on? What happened?"she asked, still freaked about the black hole.

"Our friends are gone, we don't know where they are.."Chris said with unease.

"Our friends are gone"...I thought that in my head for quite a while. This was something big and frightening. Not only our friends are missing, but the fact there has been some talk about a place where you can be free and there is a black thing that is currently eating up downtown. I then thought back to the black hole. There were people jumping in there, I thought I recognized them but then again...did they jump in or was it someone else? A more better question is where does the black hole lead to? Could it be the place of freedom like everyone has rumored and mentioned? How did this thing happen? Is all this connecting?. I've no clue. I want to find my friends and I also want to know what is going on. I then took action to my own hands and looked at Chris...but before somthing could come out of my mouth, I felt this really strong headache in my head and dropped to my knees.

"Your fate will be decided if you plan to look for you allies." Was that a voice in my head? I tried to shake it off and screamed loudly! Crystal ran to my aid trying to help me up. "Bryan, are you ok? Whats wrong?" The pressure in my head stopped miraculously and I stood back up again. I honestly didn't know what that was. "I'm ok"I said. I then looked back to Chris.

"Chris, you have your van here with you right?"I asked

As soon as he told me that he did, I rushed everyone out the door to the van. Everyone got in and wondered where we were going. I said nothing, grabbed Chris's keys(while he was not looking), got in the drivers seat, started the car, pulled out and headed for downtown! I was in control. It was a very good thing I brung my gunblade with me. This was the start of my journey...and now it begins.

end of chapter 1