Hello readers – for those of you who read my Strike Witches-based fanfiction, I will once again be doing the 'time traveling Jedi to a new world' premise (This time, forward on the timeline, and not to an alternate universe), as well as taking elements from the Star Wars and Star Trek universes (and perhaps from one or two other places on occasion, if the situation calls for it). The story will center on my ubiquitous original character (Daniel Horowitz), but will also heavily involve the characters from the Irregular at Magic High School universe that you know and love! Also, for the purposes of this story, the Star Wars universe was never created in the original world this story is set in. Hopefully you will all find this engaging and entertaining. Constructive feedback is appreciated-no flames, please!
Disclaimer: I do not own the Irregular at Magic High School, Star Wars, or Star Trek. This story is a work of pure fiction, and is for fun and entertainment purposes only.
February 15, 2020
As he was riding in the military jeep to the main hangar, Daniel Horowitz couldn't help but go over in his head, for the umpteenth time, how the sequence of events in his life had led him here. It seemed that every time something amazing or extraordinary happened to him, it would come back to bite him in the ass – big time. At the young age of seventeen years old, he had been through quite a bit – more than a lot of people go through in their entire lifetimes.
Born and raised in Los Angeles, he was a typical teenage boy in many ways – he was a big sports fan, had a small, but seemingly solid group of friends that he liked to spend time with, and came from what would generally be considered a typical and happy middle-class family. Both of his parents were professors – his dad was a law professor, and his mom taught English literature to undergrads at the local college. He also had a younger sister (by three years) who sometimes drove him crazy, but whom he still loved. Daniel himself was 5'10 and 190 lbs. with brown eyes and light brown wavy hair.
It started when he was ten years old and was administered an intelligence test by the state educational administrative system. Not only had he scored incredibly high, he was considered to be a genius and was immediately offered the opportunity to skip several grade levels and attend high school. Still being somewhat naïve about the ways of the world, particularly about teenagers, he accepted this opportunity. However, he quickly came to realize that this had probably been a mistake, as he had a hard time socializing with his new "peers." He was considered a curiosity at best and was generally an outcast amongst the rest of the high school students. Not being one to quit after starting a challenge, he plowed through and graduated high school at the age of fourteen. While he was able to maintain contact with his small group of friends during this time, he decided that he would wait until they graduated until he went off to college – a decision his parents supported completely. In the meantime, he would try to find something to do with himself.
That decision was made for him, however, when he was out and about with two of his best buddies one day the next winter. They were hanging out in the local park when suddenly a heavy tree branch above them cracked and was coming down right on top of them. Daniel reacted like anyone else would and threw his arms up in the air in an attempt to brace himself. He then felt a strange sensation as he opened his eyes and saw that the branch was just hanging in midair. He felt as though he could control it, and using his mind, he was able to move the branch away from him and his friends, and allowed it to fall to the ground. To say that his friends were shocked would be an understatement – while they weren't afraid of him, they didn't quite know what to make of him. Daniel was initially both afraid and excited – he had become a superhero, complete with superpowers! People only dream of something like this happening! But what would everyone else think? How would he be treated by his friends and family?
Shortly after this incident was when things really went south on him, as the government somehow got wind of what had happened. Federal agents came to his family's door one day and demanded that Daniel come with them immediately – he was allowed to pack a few days' worth of clothing and could bring one parent with him, but he had to go with them. He chose his dad, as he was a law professor and would be the most able to help him. That was how, a day later, he ended up at the White House in Washington, D.C., sitting before the evil jackass who also happened to be the President of the United States. Flanked by the Vice President and the Secretary of Defense, Daniel was then told the purpose of him being brought there. Apparently, there were other people his age who had developed similar abilities (the government was keeping this from the public, of course), and they were being gathered to form a special, covert Air Force unit known as the Jedi Knights. Daniel had never had any desire whatsoever to join the military – especially not with this guy as the commander-in-chief.
He immediately refused to join, politely of course. However, the president wouldn't take "no" for an answer. "If you don't agree to join," he said, "I'm afraid that I'm going to have to detain you at an undisclosed located for national security purposes – we can't have someone like you running around freely doing God knows what with your powers. Not even your father will be able to help you, and good luck trying to get a habeas corpus writ." Seeing his options limited, and knowing the president liked to make bargains, he then agreed to join the Jedi Knights if the president would agree to a few conditions. With his father, he was able to get a written agreement hammered out, stating that Daniel would serve in the U.S. Air Force until he was 25 years old. In exchange, Daniel would be allowed to make phone calls to his family once a week (with the calls being monitored by military personnel), and would be allowed leave a few times a year to spend time with his family for birthdays and certain holidays. In addition, Daniel's entire family would be allowed to know what was happening, but they couldn't inform the public, lest they be arrested on national security charges. It was the best deal Daniel could have hoped for under the circumstances.
In fact, Daniel had just returned to base after spending a weekend with his parents and sister to celebrate his birthday when they were informed that the unit was heading to Tokyo (with the permission of the Japanese government) for a mission. Some mad genius scientist – a Dr. Hiroshi Ukami – had apparently gone over to the dark side, so to speak, and was on the verge of making time travel a reality. However, he was planning on using it to travel back in time to make himself ruler of the world – a plot that could have come out of an old comic book. They had only acquired this information because one of his assistants was able to pass along the information in secret to the proper authorities – in exchange for immunity once everything went down. Since the powers that be wanted to keep all of this quiet, it was determined that the Jedi Knights would go in covertly and stop his before he could execute his plan.
While resting up the night before the mission in the embassy accommodations, Daniel also thought about what his life had been like for the last two plus years. After he had signed his life away, he was taken to an air force base in the middle of the Pacific, far away from prying eyes. There, he met the other members of the team – there was Johnny Zhou from Seattle, and Laura Vasquez from Philadelphia. All of them had unexpectedly developed Jedi abilities – telekinesis, superhuman reflexes, etc. – but unlike Daniel, neither of the other two had the foresight to hammer out a specific written agreement with the president once they were presented with the ultimatum of joining or being held alone in an undisclosed location.
At the beginning, they were all given the rank of lieutenant, but the upper brass did not see them as true members of the air force – rather, they were seen as disposable tools to be molded and used for purposes that were yet to be determined. The only person who treated them with any real kindness and respect was their Jedi master and instructor, Ben Kenobi – a man who was the spitting image of the actor Ewan McGregor (imagine that). He had spent his life hiding his abilities, until the military came calling. Seeing that he was the only one who could help these young Jedi, he reluctantly agreed to become a part of the new covert group, and taught Daniel and the rest of the team how to use and control their abilities, as well as how to connect with the Force. The Force, they were told, was what gave a Jedi his or her powers. It was a universal energy source that bound and connected all things. Those that were able to understand this connection would be able to work as one with the Force and become stronger. Like the code in the King Arthur legends, this power was to be used not for aggression or personal gain, but to protect those who could not protect themselves. Master Kenobi had also brought in a lot of East Asian philosophy and martial arts into his training, which Daniel had to admit was fascinating. They were all taught hand-to-hand combat through the use of lightsabers – a katana-like sword with a retractable laser for a blade (thanks to some intense kendo training), as well as mental discipline to make sure they didn't lose themselves.
Realizing how lucky he had been to have his father with him at the time he hammered out his deal, Daniel was determined to do what he could to make his comrades' lives as tolerable as possible. He stood up for their rights and dignity at any chance he had, and helped them to make progress during the course of their training. The rest of the team quickly realized what Daniel was doing and soon came to respect him – in fact, Daniel felt that the group became as close as siblings. As for Daniel, he was determined not to allow the military brass to break him. He would pick his battles and put up a fight when he could – not so much as to constitute insubordination (which would have landed him in the brig), but enough to let them know that they would not break him. He was also determined, while helping out his comrades, to be the best of the bunch – to make sure that as annoying as he was to the brass, they would tolerate it due to his abilities.
His hard work had paid off about six weeks ago, just after the new year, when he became the first in the group to pass the trials. Not only had he mastered all of the abilities taught by Master Kenobi, but he had even developed two unique abilities of his own! The first he got from watching Star Trek – specifically, he came up with a way to do a mind meld like Spock, and made sure that it wouldn't physically harm the person he was melding with. The second ability he was especially proud of because it came through a bit of what he thought was original thinking regarding the perception of time. In superhero movies, super speed was just someone moving themselves at a higher intensity than what is normally capable of a human being. However, this expended a great deal of energy, and wouldn't be useful for very long. This is when Daniel thought to use the Force to instead change his own perception on the flow of time, making everything move slower in his eyes. While he would be moving at his normal speed, everyone else would perceive him to be moving faster. As a result of passing the trails, he was awarded the rank of captain, and was put in charge of the team outside of training.
He also had to admit that the training had been good for him physically, as he had lost some weight and gained some muscle. Nothing too over the top, but he was definitely in the best physical shape he had been in since he could remember.
In addition to their Jedi training, the team members had all been the team had all received flight training to pilot air force fighters – just in case a future mission required such skills. They were provided hundreds of hours of simulator training so that they could hit the ground running if and when they were called upon for actual flight duty. They also all received foreign language instruction – each of them getting to choose one language at the start. Daniel chose Japanese, as he had always been fascinated by Japanese culture, and wanted to immerse himself in the country under his own terms one of these days.
The next day, as the team approached the warehouse in the outskirts of Tokyo, Master Kenobi reminded them of their training, as well as the fact that they needed to do everything as inconspicuously as possible. Since they weren't expected, and because Dr. Ukami didn't want to draw attention to himself, security was relatively light – easily taken care of by the team. Within minutes, they were able to secure the building and capture Dr. Ukami just before his time machine was fully powered.
As the mad scientist and his minions were being led away by the Japanese authorities, Ben, Daniel, and the other Jedi were left with the job of cleanup and inventory of the building's contents. Daniel had just put down his backpack – which contained not only his government-issued laptop computer, but also some clothing and personal items and electronics from home – by the main console and was about to pull up his laptop to get the data out of the machine when he heard Master Kenobi give out a loud and unexpected gasp of pain.
He and Laura looked in his direction, and to their horror, they saw that Johnny had run through Ben from behind through the stomach with his lightsaber. Master Kenobi was able to momentarily look at Johnny, as though asking, "Why?" before he collapsed to the ground, dead. Both Daniel and Laura stood in place speechless for several moments before Laura yelled, "What the hell have you done, Johnny?!" He just looked at them with a cold expression before answering, "It had to be done. He was too soft." Daniel shook his head and asked, "What the hell are you talking about, Johnny!?"
Johnny then gave his terrifying explanation. He said that the mission had given him the idea that it should be the Jedi who should be ruling the world. "We are the ones with the special powers – no one could stop us," he said. He wanted to use the time machine to go back in time just like Dr. Ukami – only it would be them who would be ruling the world in the end. He felt that the world owed them after everything they had to endure for the past two years. Daniel was just horrified by what Johnny was suggesting. How could he have not seen this coming? How could he have not sensed Johnny's anger and descent into darkness? He thought he knew him like a brother.
Laura, however, was overcome by grief over the death of their master. "Traitor!" she shouted, "You killed our master over a power grab!?" She charged at him with her lightsaber, but she was not able to hit him, as they parried a couple of times before Johnny struck Laura in her side, and she fell to the ground in pain grasping her wound. In desperation, Daniel tried to stop Johnny's plans. "Johnny, this is madness! This isn't how a Jedi is supposed to act! We're supposed to be the protectors of freedom – to protect the innocent! Not seeking power for ourselves!" Johnny then looked at Daniel with a cold expression and said, "If you are not with me, then you are my enemy – and I will destroy you if you stand in my way!"
Daniel sighed in frustration. He knew now that he would have to fight his friend – a friend he had considered to be like a brother – possibly to the death. However, he also knew he had to stop him. He then steadied himself before drawing his lightsaber and engaging with Johnny. For several minutes, they moved and danced around each other, occasionally parrying with their energy blades. Finally, Daniel was able to use his superior skill set to see an opening and strike Johnny in the same spot he had struck Laura. As Johnny writhed in pain on the floor, Daniel thought, 'Why, Johnny? Why didn't you come to me? We could have talked about what was troubling you.'
He then went over to Laura's side to try to help her. While she was still alive and breathing, she was barely conscious and continuing to bleed out. The emergency medical kit Daniel had with him wasn't equipped for this kind of injury, and he tried to call for help using a nearby walkie-talkie. However, he was getting only static. As he looked around to try to figure out what the problem was, he noticed that the time machine was still on. 'That must be emitting the interference,' he thought. He then said to Laura, "Hang in there – I'll be right back, and I'll get help for you," before heading to the machine's main console to try to turn it off.
The machine was now fully powered, and the event horizon had opened up in the pit right next to the console. As he fiddled with the controls, he accidentally jostled the year portion of the destination date. Now instead of '2005', the destination year read '2095'. As Daniel continued to work, Johnny gasped for air and struggled to sit up again. As he did so, he said in a soft voice, yet just loud enough for Daniel to hear, "No…you won't win. I will make sure you can't go home again." Daniel was about to ask what Johnny meant when he felt something hit him on his side and throw him off-balance. With whatever strength he had left, Johnny had used his telekinesis to move a large metal pipe and bump Daniel towards the event horizon. Daniel tried to grab on to the console and prevent his fall, but was only able to grab his backpack before falling in.
Daniel fell backwards through what seemed to be an endless light tunnel, or vortex like you would see in a sci-fi movie. After several minutes, he was able to see the light at the end of the tunnel – both literally and figuratively – as he saw a glare of daylight coming from behind him before he finally exited the vortex and into an open space of some kind. He landed hard, and not before banging his back and the back of his head against a tree of some sort before landing on the grass below, where his backpack and lightsaber dropped to his sides. As Daniel was fighting the pain, and simultaneously losing consciousness, he was just able to make the outline of a girl around his age with long, black hair. Before he blacked out, he thought he heard her ask, "Are you alright?" before calling out for help.
I hope everyone enjoyed the first chapter! I know there was a bit of suspense at the end, but I think you all know where Daniel ended up. I hope you all continue to read on!
Also, I know some of you may think that perhaps I should have categorized this as a crossover (Star Wars x Irregular at Magic High School). I did consider this, but my ultimate thinking was that while I was using some ideas and concepts from the Star Wars universe, my use of characters and settings from that universe is (and will be) very minimal. Meanwhile, my use of characters and setting from 'Irregular' will be highly prevalent throughout the story. Therefore, I thought it best to categorize it under the 'Irregular' anime, and not as a crossover. You may have a different opinion, but I hope you understand and accept my thinking on this.