A Death in the Family
As Shadow ran down the street that led to the large open area before his dwelling, he saw that Max was staring at him through his bedroom window. Caring very little about Max's silly games, he continued his run towards his home. Looking around him to be sure no one was watching, he sped up testing his speed against his now normal time limit, desperately trying to beat his own personal best from the day before. As he arrived at his garage, he put his hand on the shabby exterior and looked at the watch on his wrist "2 minutes 38 seconds, beat my time by 6 seconds" he said as he walked through the front door of his home.
When he walked into the living room he was confronted by his parents "The clan will be here in two days. You should get your things prepped and ready to go. Only the things that are completely necessary to take with you ok" Kiera said in a light caring tone.
"Ok mom, so I can't tell anybody where I am going and I can only take a few things with me. Well I guess life is completely different where we are going right" as Shadow finished his sentence, he spotted Dachande looking at him with a kind of smile on his face. His mandibles slightly spread outwards and upwards at the same time.
Thinking that something was wrong with him, Shadow just started to walk towards his room, when Dachande pounced at him. Shadow stumbled a little from the weight of his father now attached to his back. Unsure whether to take it seriously or not, Shadow just tried to continue walking to his room. Dachande tried to force him to the floor by bobbing his weight up and down, but with no use. So he decided to try and take his legs out, but Shadow was one step ahead of him and fell backwards landing on Dachande in a heap on the floor outside of his room.
Shadow stood up, turned around and looked at Dachande on the floor. He still had the little smile on his face "What are you doing?" Shadow asked.
"I am trying to make you angry again, so you turn back to how you where the other day" Dachande replied as he picked himself up.
"I can change when I want to. Whilst I was out yesterday, I thought about everything that I hated, and I changed. When I thought about the things I liked and some of the things I can do as a human, I changed back. So when time comes for me to change I can do it" he said as he opened his bedroom door.
With a now surprised look on his face Dachande turned around and walked towards the living room and back to his chair.
Later that night…
"Sir, there is no sign of the aliens. They must be hiding somewhere in the village" the trooper said as he stood to attention to his commanding officer.
"What their no where. How do you loose two aliens in a village that's full of humans. Get back out there and check again" the Officer shouted, as he waved his troopers back into the openness.
As the officer was about to leave his quarters, the phone rung. "Sir, I think you had better take a look at this. We have detected an alien space craft, about 100,000 miles from the planet sir" the scientist said on the other end of the phone.
"I will be right down. Thank you" the officer said as he slammed the phone down and ran out of the room.
General Davis was a fairly large man, always smartly dressed ready to command his troops. He had only a little bit of hair on the sides and back of his head, on top he was bald. He had a squared chin cleanly shaven and a moustache under his broad nose. His brown eyes where darkened slightly by his uni-browed eye brow.
As he ran down the endless maze of corridors, General Davis ran past his rather jumpy troops. As he approached the science wing of his military base, the doors hissed open to reveal four armed troopers and six scientists. Scattered all around the room where random samples of alien equipment in beakers and glass cabinets, and about a dozen computers. All the scientist where at computers, analysing charts and diagrams, and doing scientific calculations to do with their alien artefacts. One on the scientists ran over to General Davis, waving papers in the air. "Sir, take a look at these images. They show the alien space craft passing Drakos starling" the intrigued scientist said as he ran back over to his computer in the corner of the room.
"I have run the calculations through the computer several times, and they come up with slightly different distances and times. But going by the mean average, the craft will either pass by or land here by about 1700 hours tomorrow" the scientist said as he punched a few keys on his computers keyboard.
"So do we have visual on this craft, if so I want to see pictures" the General demanded.
"Yes sir" the scientist mustered.
Showing the General a few deep space pictured of the craft, General Davis began to shake with excitement and fear. Not knowing what he would be up against if anything at all, he decided to ready battle plans in his head.
As Shadow walked onto the lawn of the school, Max ran passed and pushed him out of the way. He knew from that moment that the day would only get worse.
In class Shadow just sat in his seat staring out of the window, concentrating on nothing but the sky, and the brownish coloured sky. Felling something hit him in the side of the head, he looked down to see a scrunched up ball of paper. Knowing that it had come from Max, he decided to just ignore it and keep looking out of the window.
"Jay, what is the answer?" Mr Freeman asked.
Still staring out of the window, Shadow felt an eraser hit him in the head. He was about to turn around and throw his text book at max when Mr Freeman asked him again.
"Jay Shadow Rico. What is the answer?" Mr Freeman asked raising his voice
"The answer to what sir?" Shadow replied.
"The answer to the question on the board. What is 12 multiplied by 12?" Mr Freeman asked insistently.
"Oh right. The answer is 144 sir" he replied.
"That is correct. What is wrong with you Jay? The past few days you have done nothing but look out of that window" Mr Freeman asked.
"Err just wondering what it is like on other planets" he replied as he looked back to the window.
"Oh ok, well if you can pay more attention to what I am teaching you, then you might be able to become an astronaut when your older" Mr Freeman said in an almost joking manner.
Max and Joe started to laugh at him. Shadow turned and pointed to them, then pointed to his back. Knowing what he meant, the boys shut up and turned back to face the front. A few moments later Max put his hand up and waited for Mr Freeman to acknowledge him. "Yes Joe what is it?"
"Jay just threatened me and Max" Joe said in a fearful way.
"And how did he threaten you Joe?" Mr Freeman asked.
"He said that he was going to cut us up with his knife sir" Max interrupted.
"Is this true Jay?" he asked as he turned to look at Jay.
"Err kind of sir. All I did was point at them then pointed behind me. My plan worked though, because I wanted them to stop laughing and it worked, I wasn't threatening to cut anyone with any knife at all. If you want to be precise I actually pointed to the floor behind me" Jay said as he mimicked his own movements to the boys.
"Well err don't do it again ok" Mr Freeman said as he waved his finger in the air.
Just as Mr Freeman finished his sentence, the lunch bell rung. Everyone lifted there desk trays up and threw in their work and stationary, then darted out of the class in a flash.
During the lunch break Shadow walked over to the far corner of the playing field. Once in the corner, he knelt down with his hands on his knees and closed his eyes. After a few minutes, he jumped to his feet and began to perform martial arts moves at random. Kicking above his head height, throwing punches lightning fast, back flipping, and jumping extraordinarily high and multi kicking invisible targets all around him. After a few moments of this he calmed down and knelt back down on the floor. When he opened his eyes he was confronted by Josh, Samantha, and a few others from the school. Shadow jumped to his feet from his knelt position on the floor. "Wow Shadow, never knew that you were that good. Where did you learn that?" Josh said as he walked up to him.
"I was born with the natural ability to be fast, agile and flexible. Whilst I was at home, I used to get bored pretty quickly, so I decided to teach myself fighting techniques, and increase my strength" Shadow said in reply.
Until the end of the lunch break, the group just sat on the field and spoke about general things, school, favourite things, where they live etc. As the bell rung again the group stood up and began to walk to the door to re-enter the school, when Max and a group of five of the biggest kids in the school walked to the group. "Oi Jay, you think you're pretty slick threatening me with a knife in class don't you. Well me and the boys are going to beat your ass right now. Try pulling out your knife we're going to beat you down either way" Max said in front of the little gang.
"Max, my knife only spills the blood of honourable prey. You're not even worth breaking a sweat over" Shadow said defensively.
"Max just go away, we don't want any trouble" Samantha said as she pushed her way to the front of the group.
"He started the trouble by threatening me in class" Max said aggressively.
Completely unaware another member of Max's gang, walked up behind them and grabbed Samantha, She screamed and Shadow turned around to assess the situation, and seeing that he had her in a head lock. "Let go of her now!" Shadow insisted.
"Or what?" the meaty thug replied.
Without warning Shadow leaped towards the chunky kid, and restrained him in a reverse head lock. "Or I break your neck fat boy"
The kid let go of Samantha, she kicked him in the shin then turned around and walked back to the group. When Shadow let the chunky boy go, he fell onto his back on the floor. As he turned around Max threw a basketball into Shadow's face. Crimson coloured blood ran down his lip from his nose, as it rolled over his lip, he could taste it. After tasting his own blood, it turned from crimson to neon green. Turning to his little group of he said "I am sorry you guy had to see this, josh ill talk to you later if you want to know things".
Turning back to the little attack group, Shadow looked into the eyes of his attackers. Thinking of everything he hated about max and his little group.
"You're sorry for what Shadow?" Josh said looking at him strangely.
As Josh finished what he was saying, he saw an event that he had only ever seen in movies on TV. Shadow began to morph, his eyes now dark orange, his body mass grew, skin colour and texture changed. He was now in the body form of his Yautja side. Towering over his attackers, the gang just stood there in shock. Some of them peed their pants, some of them began to cry, but Max began to tremble with fear. Picking up Max in one of his large hands, Shadow lifted him up to his eye level with no effort at all. In a croaky human tone Shadow said to Max and his gang "Do not anger me or my friends again. Or I use your skull as a necklace ornament. Do you understand?"
Max nodded, and his friends nodded quickly and scampered back into the building. Shadow threw Max in the direction of the entrance back into the school. As he did this Shadow turned around and began to walk towards the wired fence of the school grounds, when he felt someone touch his leg, with a soft hand. He turned around to see that it was Samantha. Looking behind her he could see that the rest of the group were frozen in fear and amazement. "Thanks for rescuing me Shadow" Samantha said in a scared tone.
Shadow knelt down beside her, and gave her a quick hug. As soft as he tried to hug her, she moaned slightly in discomfort. Staggering forwards from the little group, Josh said "Hey Shadow, ill come with you now. I want to know how…what…you are and that"
"Me too, ill come with you" Samantha mustered.
Shadow nodded and walked towards the school grounds wire fence, with Josh and Sam. Lifting them one at a time, he placed them on the other side of the fence.
As the group of three began to run Shadow began to calm down and think of happy thoughts, as he did this he changed back. Running down the street, the group ran down an ally way and across a car park lot, towards Josh's house. When they arrived they ran up to his room. Josh sat on his bed, Shadow sat on a chair in the corner of the room and Samantha sat on the floor next to Shadow. Seeing that Sam had sat on the floor, Shadow got up and offered the seat to her "Ill sit on the chair with you Shadow" she said as she lowered her head looking at her feet.
Agreeing to this, Samantha sat on the seat as well as Shadow. "So Shadow, what are you?" Josh asked in an intrigued way.
"Promise me you two that this goes to the grave with you" both Josh and Sam nodded.
"I am human, with a few slight differences. My eyes are two-tone with blue and green rings, the dreadlocks as I have heard people hear call them are racial, my father's species have dreadlocks as a spiritual guidance of some sort I really don't know why. As you can see I am taller than everyone else, only by a small margin, and I am far stronger and faster than everyone on this planet" Shadow explained.
Josh was sitting on his bed concentrating on what he was saying, and Sam was sitting admiring Shadow, taking in only little bits of what he was saying.
Shadow continued "When I get angry, feel extreme pain, I change into my Yautja side as you saw. The only Yautja I have ever seen is my father and I. going by what I have heard, were a re a race of hunters, that hunt only the strongest prey. There is too much to explain, but that is the basis of it all"
"So you are what exactly. A human and Yautja mix?" Josh asked.
"Yes. My mom is human and my dad is Yautja" He replied.
"Cool. Why didn't you tell me sooner?" Josh said in a cool tone.
"Because if this gets out, my family and I could be in trouble. I'm leaving here soon anyway, but I don't want them looking for us" he continued in a slightly worried tone.
"You're leaving already, but I have only just got to know you. Where you going anyway?" he asked.
"Sorry I'm leaving but it was my father's decision. I don't really know, its called home world. I don't know where it is" he said slightly lost.
"So will you be coming back?" Josh asked.
"I honestly don't know. Hopefully I will be, but I don't know" he replied.
Shadow turned around to look at Samantha. She was still sitting there staring at him. He snapped his fingers and whistled at her, and she shook her head coming out of a day dream. "What are you doing? You haven't said a word since we left the school" Shadow asked staring at her puzzled.
"I was thinking about…err…what we would be doing if we were in school at the moment" she replied.
"No you weren't. What were you really thinking about?" Shadow asked.
"I…I…I was thinking about you" she said as she blushed, her cheeks turning slightly pink.
"You were thinking about me. What were you thinking about me exactly?" Shadow asked again.
"About how cute you are. Since I first saw you walk through the classroom door I liked you" she said as she turned her gaze to the wall beside her.
"So basically you love me don't you? That's fine by me, but I'm not going to be here for much longer. I tell you what, as long as I am here. We can hang about together, how does that sound?" Shadow said with a warm gaze at Samantha.
"Sounds awesome" she replied turning back to him and giving him a hug.
At 3:15 Shadow decided that he had better run home and prepare for his evenings training. Giving Samantha a hug and a kiss on the cheek, and shaking Josh's hand, he jumped out of the window and sprinted as fast as he could home.
As he arrived, he saw a few bags full of items from his dwelling. Going inside he saw Kiera and Dachande collecting the essentials from the home and putting them into bags. "What are you doing?" he asked.
"The clan are coming tonight to get us, get your stuff ready Shadow" Kiera said in an excited tone.
Running to his room his packed his bare essentials, his weapons, some of his clothes, a few of his comic books and his MP3 player. By this time Dachande had come into his room and said that he should be prepared to move to the canyons "Can I go and say goodbye to someone if I am quick father" Shadow asked.
"If you are extremely quick" He replied.
With that, Shadow ran out of the house and sprinted as fast as his body could take him, to Josh's house. He rapped on the door, and Josh opened it. "Hey bro what's happening?"
"Hey Josh. Where does Sam live?" Shadow asked.
"She lives next door, why's that?" Josh asked back.
"I'm leaving tonight, my father just told me. The clan is coming to get us tonight" he replied.
"Seriously? Ok cool, ill come with you to Sam's house, one sec whilst I grab my shoes" Josh said as he ran into the house.
Both the boys ran over to Sam's house, Shadow rapped on the door, and her mom answered it "Hey boys" Mrs Newton said.
"Is Samantha home?" Shadow asked.
"Yes, she is up stairs, I'll just get her for you" she replied.
As Mrs Newton walked into the house the boys could hear her call Sam from up stairs. Running down the stairs and opening the door, Sam wondered what they wanted at this time in the day. "Hey guy's. What's up?" Samantha asked.
"I'm leaving tonight. I have to be quick because we are going now" Shadow replied.
"Ok. Hope you have a great time where you are going, please try and visit if you can I want to see you again" she replied as her eyes began to fill with tears.
"I'll be back one day for sure" Shadow took off his shirt and unclipped his hunting knife and holster. "Take this, as a remembrance of me. It has a tracker in the handle so I don't lose it. Ill keep hold of the locator. Keep that knife safe and always have it. I might come to find you one day" he went on to explain.
"Well good luck you guy's, enjoy the rest of your lives"
"I will dude. Good luck to you too" Josh said shaking Shadows hand.
At this point Samantha was in tears. Shadow gave her a firm reassuring hug and an affectionate kiss on the cheek. Wiping the tears from her cheeks "I love you Sam. I will be back…for you" he said.
"I love you too Shadow" Sam said as she strapped the knife to her waist.
As he released Sam from his grasp, he turned around and started to sprint back to his dwelling, looking over his shoulder every now and again seeing Sam and Josh disappear into the distance.
At the military base…
General Davis was studying the latest graphs and schematics of the incoming alien craft, when his office phone rung "Sir its professor Jones, the alien craft is about to enter out atmosphere. It seems to be head towards the canyons and the village area sir" Professor Jones said in a hazy muffled tone.
"Thank you Professor" as General Davis put the phone down, he pressed black button on his desk. Immediately after pressing the button, a siren blared out for the whole military base to hear. The General stood up from his seat, grabbed his dark sand coloured beret, and walked to his office window. When he opened the window he could see all his troops in a black formation, standing to attention ready for orders. Using the microphone from his office he shouted to the troopers.
"Men. Today is the day we have been training for. A large alien craft is approaching the planet. I want you to equip yourselves with you rifles, side arms and plenty of ammunition. They might land on the other side of the planet, but to be sure they are not interrupting out community, I want you prepared for the worst. If we do battle. Some of you will die, but you die for your home planet. I shall be fighting along side you. Let's make the people on Dakota Alpha 231 proud of their troops"
The troopers let out three cheers and ran to their quarters to kit up. Once the troops were kitted, the General deployed his men around the village and around the surrounding areas.
General Davis picked up his phone and dialled the number for his elite assassin group. "Desert Hawks Alpha, Bravo and Charlie. I want Alpha to attack the alien house. Bravo I want you to occupy the top of the mountain. Charlie I want you to occupy the base of the mountain. This alien craft is probably here to collect its missing subjects. Even if they are not, then we have an excuse to populate the village with troops, we say were have reason to believe we have alien hostiles amongst us. Am I Clear?"
"Crystal clear General Sir" the commanding Desert Hawk troop said in reply.
Back at Shadow's home…
The family were walking towards the canyons; all of them had about three bags each. As they looked into the distance, they could just about make out the distortion of the cloaked Yautja ship. Seeing the craft they knew that it was only going to land for few moments, and then it would speed off back to home world. As they began to run towards the cloaked craft, there was a crashing noise coming from their home. Slowing their pace slightly and turning their gaze towards the house to see what it was, they saw a group of soldiers running into the house. Knowing that the soldiers where after them they sped up.
The ship lowered a platform for the group of three to board. The noise of the platform lowering, alerted the soldiers from the mountain. The soldiers in the house stormed out, and began to run after Shadow and his family. About 600 yards from the ships lowered platform, a soldier in the front of his group decided to fire his rifle, and attempt to take out one of the fugitives. Upon doing this, he hit the ship several times and it began to materialize in a series of blue lightning like electrical flashes.
With the Yautja ship now fully visible, the soldiers took positions ready to fire at the family and any hostiles that may appear from the alien craft. One of the soldiers fired his rifle, hitting Kiera in the back of her leg. She screamed in pain and fell to the floor. As Kiera landed on the floor, Dachande and Shadow had arrived at the ship. Shadow turned around to see where his mother was, noticing that she was on the floor about 200 yards back, he dropped the bags and grabbed his sword, that he was given the day before. Sprinting towards his mother, all the soldiers open fired upon Shadow. Ducking and diving, Shadow was evading the bullets, and amazingly he was deflecting quite a few with his sword. As he reached Kiera, he picked her up in his arms, as he did this she took a deep gasp of air. Shadow ran as fast as he could, darting left to right to avoid the incoming fire from the soldiers attacking him.
Dachande pressed a button on the wall just inside of the area by the platform. Seeing it raising, Shadow ran faster and jumped onto the raising platform. The moment the platform had closed. Dachande used the communicator next to the platform open and close switch, to call through the control room of the ship "The hatch is sealed. Go"
The ship levitated off of the ground and then activated its cloaking mechanism. As it cloaked is began its journey back to home world.
Shadow put Kiera onto the metallic floor of the cargo bay. Dachande noticed that she had been shot in the chest. Shadow put his hand over the entry and exit wounds, to stop the blood from flowing out so much, but it was of no use "Shh…Shh. Shhhadow p…p…plllease do your bess…best. Mmm…mmm…mmake me aaand your father prr…prr…prroud, do…do that fffor meee" Kiera pleaded.
As Kiera finished her sentence, she laid back and closed her eyes. Still holding her Shadow felt her body go limp and lifeless. He gently put her upper body to the metallic floor, his body shaking in rage and sorrow. So many things ran through his head, the soldiers, his mother's death, her plea for him to do his best. His rage over powered him, and he began to morph once again, but this time he had the burning desire to kill.