Hey guys, Austorias here, made a super extra long chapter just for you guys! Don't forget to review my work! Also, leave me a question for the characters or myself in a review or private message if you want to see them appear later.
Jacks was enthralled in a blissful darkness, nothing but absolute peace flowing through and around him. He saw a figure over the black landscape, a fluorescent white glow coming off of it. Jacks swam across the infinite spanning dark towards it, taking a second to notice his apparel, he wore a very elegant tuxedo, with a white button up undershirt, and a flower in the pocket. The closer he was to the figure, the harder it became to see, getting blurrier and blurrier, until it was nothing but a ball of white fuzz. Jacks reached out a hand to the figure, but when his hand touched it, the figure was gone seemingly instantly, like when you blink thoughts away. Jacks marveled at the sight, but in the distance, he saw the figure appear, standing on the abyss. A bright flash caused Jacks to rub his eyes from pain, but when he regained sight, another figure was there, the same shining white color as the original. A bright flash, and another, and another, and another. Before Jacks knew it, the entire blackness was covered in these white figures, but this time, the figures moved closer to him. With the strange beings converging in, Jacks wanted to move, run even, but inside him a sudden warmth was spurned, like the feeling you get when you have a crush on someone. Suddenly, Jacks didn't want to move, Jacks just wanted the warm feeling to persist. One of the figures grabbed Jacks by the collar with and ethereal hand, and Jacks was pulled up through the blackness. He still did not resist, he just smiled and tried to maintain the warmth. The vast blackness had no movement to it, it seemed as if he was being pulled through empty space entirely, like nothing existed.
The figure kept pulling Jacks until the blackness had a strange, ice cold sensation that chilled Jacks to the bone. The figure was gone by the time Jacks turned around, and when he faced his original direction, there lie an old, antiquated glass mirror, Victorian style. Jacks looked deeply into said mirror, due to curiosity, but he did not see himself. Jacks instead saw a person with his features standing in the mirror with similar clothing, but there was one difference. The figure had a red, furry fox ear stitched onto its head, it's jaw was replaced with that of some sort of bear, and it had multiple patches of fur haphazardly stitched on to various parts of the body. Jacks moved his arm upward, and the reflection copied, Jacks moved his jaw, the reflection copied, Jacks put his hand on the mirror, the reflection copied. Jacks left his hand there, just staring at the grotesque being, until he felt a sharp pain in his chest. He looked down to see a brown, matted, furry arm sticking into his chest, blood running down it. He looked back up to see the same reflection he had before, but this time, there was no mirror.
He felt the figure gripping down on his heart within his chest, blood continuing to pour down. The figure spoke in a staticy, distorted tone.
"Embraaaaaaace meeeeeeeeeeeee….." The figure trailed off into static, still staring into Jacks' eyes. All this time Jacks showed no pain, or even emotion. He gave the figure one last look, and grabbed the arm in his chest.
*Spppliiirt*
Jacks pulled on it's arm, pulling it out of his chest, causing more blood to spew out everywhere. Jacks pulled the figure's arm, still locked into a staring contest with it. He felt the arm coming slowly out of his chest cavity, Jacks pulled until he saw another hand grip the arm, but it was not his own. A man on his right, not covered in fur, but like Jacks, with the suit jacket and everything, gripped the arm and pulled, and they pulled until another unfamiliar hand joined the tug-of-war. A woman on Jack's right, looking like Jacks as well, no fur but on her head, and wearing a beautiful white gown and rose in her hair, grasped the arm as well. The man actually did look a lot like Jacks, short head fur, heavily built, a bit chubbier in the chest, but with the most handsome features on his face coupled with two fiery, bright red eyes. The woman had long hair that trailed to her lower back, and very stoic facial feature. Her skin was perfect, no blemish or abnormality on it, paired with bright, radiant blue eyes.
Jacks looked at the two strange people, and back at the malformed figure. The trio pulled with all of their might on the arm in Jacks' chest, making more blood fly in the faces and clothing.
*SPLAT*
The arm was removed, the trio still holding it, inside the hand of it was a glowing, radiant white orb, that had streams of light coming off of it. The figure still had the same blank stare on its face, gripping the orb. Jacks smiled, until he felt a mind-numbingly painful sensation.
The figure had crushed the orb in it's hand, and swallowed the pieces.
Everything faded to white for Jacks.
"Hellooooooooow? Jackson?" A mysterious voice said, in a muffled tone.
Jacks shot up from the blankets he was under, gasping and hyperventilating. He looked over to see Francis beside his bead, looking down on him with a worried tone.
"You were tossing and turning and making noises while you slept, you musta' been having a nightmare." Francis said, crouching down.
"Mmmmph." Jacks stretched and rubbed his eyes. Feeling his muscles relax, Jacks calmed down a lot. Francis smiled at this, she found it adorable.
"Wait!" Jacks quickly exclaimed.
He pulled his grey pajama shirt off over his head, revealing his bare chest. Jacks wasn't very fit, in fact he was really out of shape, he had a bit of belly fat, and some minor man-boobage. Jacks put his hand over his heart and sighed with relief, no gaping hole in his chest.
"That bad huh?" Francis said, a large amount of caring in her voice.
Francis was still in her pajamas as well, blue, fuzzy long pants with a dinosaur pattern on them, as well as a white overshirt.
"Yea, it was a strange one to say the least." Jacks continued to rub his eyes. He looked around the room, still sitting on his bed. He noticed that Fawkes' bed was empty.
"Hey, where's Foxy?" Jacks asked, not worried about his health, more of everyone else's.
Francis smiled, and stood up, she spoke with a strange softness in her voice.
"Well, the whole group other than me n' you went to Earth to hunt down that Sin that we failed to kill last time." Francis spoke very carefully, as if trying to not offend someone. Even still, Jacks was taken slightly back by the fact that the group did not take him with them on the mission.
Foxy didn't even tell him…
Jacks did not show any pain, even though he was pretty damn torn on the matter.
"Well, I voluntarily stayed behind to spend the day training with you!" She changed her tone to that of a true knight.
Jacks looked at her with a confused look and crossed his arms.
"You asked me to help you get stronger, and by my Knight's Honor, I must help those who need it." She continued her little speech, trying to be inspiring, but to Jacks she just sounded like a big dumbass.
Even though he was reluctant about her tone, Jacks was excited to be able to be worth something
"Well uh, I appreciate that you stayed here for me Knight." Jacks called her by her title, throwing her off for a second, but she realized.
"Knight, what, are we not friends anymore?" Knight asked.
Jacks felt a sudden sense of dejavu, and decided to go all the way with it.
"Sorry, Francis." Jacks shook his head to jar his brain.
A moment of silence occurred until Francis spoke up.
"Well you aren't getting' any more trained just sitting there, let's go!" Francis shouted at the top of her lungs before grabbing Jacks by the arm and dragging him out the door. Jacks thought back to the last time Francis did this, and doubt struck him.
"NO NO NOT AGAIN!" Jacks screamed as he dug at his wrist, trying to get out of Francis' grip.
"Yep, you're right, not this time." Francis dragged him into a room filled with their equipment.
Jacks could pay more attention to the room now that Francis had let him go, the room was a complete shade of white, but a dark red light gave a haze to everything in sight. (Hey that rhymed!)
Their equipment was hanging along the walls in a certain category system.
Weapons-Armor-Gadgets.
Francis looked to Jacks with a soul piercing stare, her black eye's pupil grew slightly larger.
"Now, you're going to carry everything in this room to the holodome all the way on the other side of the building." Francis spoke in a monotone voice.
"Not too bad, it'll just take a while!" Jacks seemed overly cocky, Francis was eager to shut him down.
"In one trip." Francis said bluntly
"Scuse me?" Jacks asked, cocking an eyebrow.
Francis got annoyed at him seeming to not take her seriously.
"You got shit in your ears?! Carry. It. In. One. Trip. Everything at once. All of it on your shoulders and back!" Francis pulled one of her sudden mood changes once again.
Jacks did not say anything in return, he didn't want to anger the woman any more than he already had.
"Well, start packing." She said, crossing her arms.
Jacks grabbed multiple packs and duffle bags and began shoving equipment into them, it took him a good fifteen minutes, thirteen duffle bags, and ten packs to get everything into them. The load weighed in at eight hundred and fifty six pounds in all.
Jacks turned at Francis and cocked an eyebrow, Francis simply stared back at him, still with her arms crossed.
"If you say so….." Jacks trailed off in his own words. He picked up a bag, strapped it on, and another, and another, until he had them all on. The enormous weight put high strain on his shoulders and back, and he could not hide the pain.
"You better start walking." Francis nodded toward the door with her same stance and expression.
"And don't even think about leaning on anything, you hear?" She said, not at all concerned with Jacks' expression of pain.
Jacks tried to take a step forward, but nearly fell over the second he lifted his foot up. He took a deep breath, and took a careful step forward. The packs were so heavy that it felt like he had walked a mile with every step. Jacks could feel the muscles in his arms, shoulders, and back tearing over time, giving off a burning feeling. He slowly trekked on, the pain in his body overwhelming him to the brink of exhaustion, as he walked, so did Francis, observing every step he took.
Jacks continued down the hallway, slowing down, the whole building seemed to shake with every crashing step that he took. He noticed that his left arm was slowly falling off of the pack's strap, he tried to hold it up, but he just couldn't. After a few more steps, his other arm was doing the same, he could not lift either of his arms up even if he wanted to do so. Jacks felt the same feeling in his shoulders and back, then snaking down into his legs. He slowly started into a crouch walk, then into a crawl, then, Jacks could not move at all.
The immense pain in Jacks' body caused him to have to blink away a few tears. He looked up at Francis from the ground, and spoke.
"Francis, w-what's…." He was cut off.
"The muscles in your body are completely destroyed, that's why you can't move." She said with no emotion in her voice.
"Well, you dropped, so, carry it back, start over." Francis said, expecting Jacks to comply.
Jacks felt a sudden burst of anger and confusion, a dangerous combination.
"But Francis, I can't! Do you think any person alive could do this?! I asked you to help me become strong, not to throw me into the fires of hell!" Jacks snapped at Francis.
Francis rolled her eyes and sighed at Jacks, she then cracked her knuckles and with one hand, picked up Jacks by the collar bully style, while he still had the pack on. She brought her face very close to Jacks' and spoke through her teeth.
"Now, listen to the words coming out of my mouth. I don't want to see you get killed, I want to see you be the best damned Knight in existence! But you can't snap your fingers an expect greatness to appear on a silver platter in front of you, you have to carve it out yourself. It will hurt, a lot, and you will learn to hate it, but you will love what you can become with just a little material pain." Francis spoke in a static tone.
"So, do you want to know what it's like to be strong, or do you want to be strong?" Francis got even closer to his face.
Jacks could feel her hot breath pushing against his face, adding to his discomfort.
"I-I…. *Sigh* I want to be strong." Jacks put his head down.
"Good!" Francis changed her tone back to her happy go lucky, cheerful voice.
She leaned over and gave Jacks a kiss on the cheek before dropping him to the floor, giving Jacks the biggest mental whiplash he'd ever felt.
"Then pick yourself up, and start over." Francis changed her tone again back to her drill sergeant mode.
Jacks lie on the floor there trying to hide his blushed face from Francis, he did enjoy that kiss.
"ARE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?!" Francis yelled at the top of her voice to Jacks.
Jacks blinked, and tried to move himself up, to no avail. He tried again, grunting, like he was trying to open a jar of pickles. He tried one last time, and still, fell back to the ground.
Absolute anger and frustration overwhelmed him completely, his blood boiled at the thought of where he was. He was a Knight damnit! And he wasn't about to let some simple training challenge get in his way. Jacks pushed his body and mind to the absolute limit, he could feel the pain, but he ignored it entirely. Jacks screamed, yes, screamed at the top of his lungs trying to lift up. Francis saw a purple aura arising from Jacks, she looked down at him with a smirk of approval. Jacks continued screaming and straining himself until his hands were pressed into the ground like he was about to do a push up, and it got louder when he tried using his arms to push himself off of the ground. Jacks raised off of the ground until he was on his knees, he slowly dragged his leg into a kneeling position, and Jacks stood up with the pack.
And Jacks has unleashed his inner badass! But can he keep it that way? I guess we will have to wait and see!