Chapter 2: A Warning.

Chapter two is finally here! I know it's a slow start, but I promise that it'll get better in those to come. That being said, I'm still trying to work out a definitive schedule for posting these. Until I do, just expect one every few days assuming I have the muse or time to post. But enough of all of that. Enjoy the story! Reviews and the like are greatly appreciated!

Everything felt hazy, constantly shifting and leaving the teen wondering whether or not the ground he stood upon was going to be solid one second and mist in the next, leaving him to plummet to whatever was below. Not that he could see it. In the void that he was in, everything was pitch black. So dark that even if he put his hand right in front of his face, he'd be unable to see it.

"So you've found a Dragon Ball.. The four star ball at that.. Do you even know of the power that it holds, boy? A power so strong that it can render your planet inhabitable and the people on it extinct."

It came from all directions, deep and powerful, causing the ground to tremble with each word that it said. Even without being able to put a name to the face, Karlan could tell that whoever it belonged to was powerful. So powerful that if he really wanted to do so, he'd crush the teen without so much as a single bit of effort. But even though he was terrified, he pushed forward, step by step, walking through the darkness. He couldn't tell how he knew, but he knew that if he gave in, something bad would happen.. Something really bad.

"I've been searching for them for ages.. and now that my journey is almost complete, I refuse to let you or anyone else stand in my way.. Not after coming this far.."

He was getting closer. The trembling of the ground was stronger and the dread he felt within himself grew as went deeper. Before long, the darkness around him nearly became suffocating, making it hard to breath and even harder to push forward.

"Not after searching for SO LONG!"

It happened in a literal instant.

One moment he was struggling to push forward and take a single step forward; the next he was being sent back twice the amount of distance he managed to cover, a silent cry of pain escaping the teen, a fist imprint left on his chest as a indication of what just happened. He landed hard on the ground, tumbling back a few yards post landing whilst he struggled to breath, his eyes watering at the realization that he couldn't.

Not that it mattered. He'd be dead in another minute or so anyways.

Landing just a few short feet north of him was a gigantic beast clad in darkness, emitting a power so potent that the very air around him seemed to kneel in face of it, hands clenched and his gaze directed on the teen laid out before him. With a single step, he closed the distance between the two, extending his hand down at him. A few moments later and a purple orb was forming before it, growing more apparent and potent with each second that went by.

"You'd be starting a war that neither you or the human race can win, boy. Give up the Dragon Ball Know that if you don't, you'll be the reason why I reduce this planet into nothing."

"Know that if you defy me and hinder my plans.. everyone shall suffer."

Karlan jolted upright, face beaded with sweat and chest heaving, immediately grabbing his phone on the stand beside him. A quick-press-of-a-button later and he was laying back down, Sunday Candy by Chance The Rapper playing at full volume.

"What was..-"

He trailed off, a frown forming on his face soon afterwards. He had a nightmare. One so terrible that he could still feel the cold hold of fear that embraced his heart and tears welling up within his eyes; despite that, he couldn't remember what he had dreamed about, the memory quickly sinking to the deepest parts of his mind.

Another glance was taken at his phone and with it came a small sigh of frustration. The time was 5:47am and he'd have to get up in a little over ten minutes to start getting ready for school. If he tried going back to sleep..-

Wait, what was that glow?

Slowly, he sat back up, squinting at the source of a dim light on his dresser. The dragon ball that he had picked up on his way home from school the other day. Though wrapped in the darkness of his room, the sphere still gave off a faint light, growing until Karlan had to shield his eyes from it, and dying back down to a dim glow soon afterwards.

He was hesitant. That much was clear toward the glances toward the door to the far right and the thoughts of sprinting from the room as fast as he could before something bad happened to him, but something kept him from doing so. Maybe it was the soft glow that the dragon ball gave off every few seconds or maybe it was the fact that somehow, he could sense that it wouldn't harm him.

Karlan sighed, "I'm stupid for even thinking about this. The fact that I'm still here says a lot.."

But even as he said that, the teen pushed out of the bed and onto his feet, making his way toward the dragon ball. It didn't take long to; just a few steps, but in the face of something so foreign and otherworldly, it seemed to take an eternity. And upon reaching it, he reached out for it, wincing before he even laid a finger on it in preparation for the pain he was almost sure would come.

.. But none did. If anything, it felt exactly as it did the day before and minus the glowing, looked the same as well.

"Do they all do this..?"

Regardless, Karlan returned the dragon ball to his dresser, heading back to his bed to check his phone. 5:50am. Might as well take another shower to help wake him up.

So he grabbed a towel and some boxers and left the room, heading across the hallway toward the bathroom. A minute later and he undressed and standing underneath the water, bobbing his head and rapping along to a verse by Kendrick Lamar that played on his phone. But even as he showered and long afterwards when he was dressed and heading out the door, something plagued him, rooted deep within the back of his mind. A warning and a threat made by someone an infinite times more powerful than he.

And even though he was ignorant of it then, Karlan would soon find out..

He was better off leaving the dragon ball back in the fields he found it in.