A/N: Just so you know, some of the things that my SI describes to Lala, like my blackout rages, how burned my grandfather's body was after his work accident and all they could do for him, it is all true, because this fic is based on what I think could happen if my blackout rages become so out of control that everyone that I care about would abandon me if they feel that I pose a threat to them. And the way I end up in Heaven and what happens to me after that in the prologue and this first chapter is what I wish that God would do for me, if this kind of scenario ever happened that I would be abandoned and left to myself for survival.
Chapter I: The Beginning of an Adventure
I had no idea how I ended up in this universe. All I know is that I had a severe headache. I tried to get up, but I couldn't, because I then began to feel a unbearable, searing pain all over my body. There were people gathering around me, whispering among themselves about how I got there and who I was and where I came from. All of a sudden, a girl of about sixteen years of age, with black and pink-striped hair in pigtails came bursting through the crowd, kneeling down beside me and holding a bottle of something that smelled rank to my lips. I turned my head away as I was beginning to feel sick in the stomach from the smell of the liquid. But the girl had a pleading look in her eyes.
"Come on, Marcus, drink this potion." The girl said, a pleading sound in her voice as well. "You'll feel better. Trust me, it tastes better than it smells."
I groaned as I reluctantly drank the potion. And, somehow, the girl was right. It did taste better than it smelled, like the Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey that I used to drink. After the pain had completely gone, the girl helped me up and told everyone that I was her fifth cousin Marcus, visiting from a distant country, that I wasn't used to traveling through teleportation. When everyone in the crowd dispersed, the girl looked at me with a serious look on her face.
"Anyone else who would've said the same thing as me about you, the crowd would've thought they were crazy." The girl said. "I've just got two questions for you."
"What's that?" I said as I looked around, wondering where the heck in the world I was.
"Who are you? And where did you come from?" The girl asked me. I just looked at the girl, dumbfounded. But as I looked down in thought and thought about who I was and where I came from, I just looked at the girl with a confused look.
"I... I don't remember anything." I said. The girl looked at me with a confused look.
"Do you at least remember your name?" The girl asked. A name and planet rang out to me in the split-second that she asked me that question, as well as the name of a military branch and rank. I don't know who the voice that told me the name belonged to, but my heart was telling me I could trust the voice.
"My name is... Aaron Marksman of... Armenthia Prime. Formerly a Lieutenant of the United Star Marine Corps." I said. It was then I finally saw my reflection in the window of a flower shop. I saw that I was wearing an outfit that I recognized from a video game that I think I used to play. It was a dark purple outfit consisting of a sleeveless polyester-cotton material top made as a bungee-type material, a pair of dark purple military-style pants of the same material as military field camouflage pants. Then I noticed that I had on military-style Army boots. My shoulders had iron shoulder protectors on them. I also had on a big, thick belt that had some weird symbol on the buckle-like part that looked like it was a double-layered, W-like shape.
But what really surprised me was the sword on my back. When I took it out of the thin strap holding it to my back, I examined it. It was long yet very broad. From the look of it, it had multiple smaller swords built into it to make a sword that was bigger and stronger when the smaller swords were combined. After I finished examining the sword, I strapped it on my back again. I turned towards the girl. She was still looking at me, but not with the suspicious look that was on her face, but this time it was more like she was concerned. I looked at her with a confused look.
"Is everything... okay, Miss?" I asked. She just nodded her head and waved her hand in a motion for me to follow her.
"If you don't have a place to crash, I'll bring you to mine and my father's house." The girl said, smiling a friendly smile this time, though she had a look that told me that she would've blushed, but something told me that she couldn't, because she had no pulse. I thought that was odd, but I was getting the feeling that she liked me. She then said, "You can stay at my place, since my father is the leader of the RADs."
As soon as she said that she was the daughter of the leader of whatever these RADs were, I knelt down almost as fast as if she had just said 'princess'. She got the embarrassing feeling for blushing even more and smiled in embarrassment.
"C'mon, you don't have to bow to me. That's way too formal for me, plus I'm not even a princess or anything." The girl said in embarrassment. "Just call me Lala."
"Sure thing, uh... Lala." I said while I was feeling my cheeks burn, for I thought that she was cute as well. "But a beautiful immortal young woman such as you can call me X." I smiled as I took her hand and kissed it.
"You're sure are kind, X." Lala said.
"My mother always taught me to be kind to girls..." I said, looking out into the distance. Lala saw that I had a distant look in my eyes.
"I thought you said you couldn't remember anything?"
"I don't remember anything, Lala." I said, shaking my head while still looking at the distant sun of this planet which, when I looked around, I recognized the town of Salem, the capital city of the State of Oregon. "But my heart is telling me what I said about my mom. Except my heart is telling me that she also abandoned me because of a condition I have."
"And what's that?" Lala asked.
"A mental condition that causes me to black out and go into an almost-indestructible rage." I said, looking down in sadness. I finally started crying and sat down. Lala looked concerned and sat down next to me and brought me into an embrace. "And during the rages, I don't remember anything. It's like an epileptic seizure. But the thing is is that when I'm in these blackout rages, sometimes I can't distinguish between friend or foe, and my fists just start flying every which way, not caring who or what I hit."
"Maybe my doctor, who prescribed my iron supplements, can help with that. I'm going tomorrow to see him." Lala said, looking genuinely concerned for me. I can't remember the last time anyone was this nice to me. "I can talk to the Principal of Monster High to maybe give you a job as a security guard. I'm good friends with the principal since he was also the principal of Merston High before we RADs were exposed to the world again, except this time, they welcomed us as friends again like they had done before the monster movies of the 1930's had come out. Just come to my house and relax. You've had a rough day."
"Okay. Thanks." I said thankfully, finally pulling myself back together from my crying. As we were walking to her house, I began think about what I had said about my mom abandoning me. Why did she? Was it because she was afraid of my blackout rages, afraid that I would hurt her or my friends and other family, when I had them? I wish I could remember everything that I forgot, but the same voice that told me my name and home planet said that I had wished to forget everything of who I once was except for the memories in my heart of him, the person the voice belonged to, who told me he was my grandfather. The last two things I heard my grandfather say to me at that moment made me sad. The first was that I had always said to my friends and family that he, my grandfather, was more of a father to me than my real one because my real father had abandoned me. And the second thing that my grandfather told me that Lala had gone through the same thing that I did, but when she was really young. He said that she had lost her mom to illness when she was very young, just like I had lost someone very close to me three months to the day after my birthday.
Lala stopped walking as she noticed that I had stopped as well.
She walked up to me and asked, "Is everything okay, Aaron?" I snapped back to reality and looked back at Lala as I continued walking with her.
"Hm? Oh, yeah, everything's fine... just thinking."
"About what?"
"About what the voice who told me my name had said about his relationship with me." I said, unsure if I would feel comfortable with telling Lala what my grandfather, er, dad, had said about what I had felt about him and about how he had died.
"You can tell me." Lala said, looking down with the embarrassed look that told me she would be blushing if she had a pulse. "But if you're feeling uncomfortable about it, I'll understand if you don't want to say anything."
"No, it's okay." I said, smiling a smile in which I tried to say through the smile that I thought she, Lala, was beautiful. When she saw me smiling at her, she got the message and smiled shyly in return. "I don't mind talking about the voice."
"Anyway, the person from my past that the voice belongs to was my grandfather." I said. "I guess that for as long as I could remember back then, my grandfather and I were very close. Not just as grandfather and grandson, but as father and son. According to my father, Patrick Marksman, I had always told my friends and my family in my late teens to early 20s that my grandfather was more of a father to me than my biological father."
"Why would you say that about your own father?" Lala said, shocked. "That's just cruel."
"About my biological father, it's not cruel." I said matter-of-factly. "It's the truth. He pretty much just knocked up my mom, got her pregnant with me, and left, never wanting to take an interest in my life. And though I don't remember anything else about my biological father, I know I would say good riddance if I knew back then what I know about him now."
"Oh. I guess that makes sense." Lala said, nodding since she finally understood why I said what I said about my biological father. That's when Lala looked up, then she looked up at me, smiling and saying, "We're here. Radcliffe Way. That's mine and my dad's house on the left side of the street before the circle of the cul-de-sac, the only Victorian-style mansion here."
Lala and I walked up the steps to the porch and she was about to open the front door, but I quickly grabbed the doorknob and opened the door, motioning for Lala to precede me before I entered her house. She smiled a thankful smile. Before she fully passed by me on her way through her front door, she stood up on her toes and kissed me on the lips. I was surprised by this sudden maneuver, but I gave in to desires that seemed familiar, and yet they seemed unfamiliar at the same time. When we finally parted, we looked at each other while I blushed, but Lala had the same embarrassed look that told me that she would've been blushing if she had a pulse.
When I searched her mind, which I was surprised I could do, she lost someone as close to her as my grandfather was close to me. I felt ashamed when I saw that she had lost her mother when she was very young. And then that's when I saw that her mom had appeared to her in her dreams and told her that she would meet a boy that she would choose for her beautiful daughter to take care of her better than whoever this Clawd guy had treated her. I made a telepathic promise to Lala's human mother that I would protect her despite that I couldn't protect my father.
Suddenly I felt severely drained of energy. I crumpled down to all fours, unable to stand. Lala apparently noticed this and ran to my side, a worried look on her face.
"Need... Gaia... Energy..." I panted out. "Totally... drained. Only thing... that can... keep me alive."Then, as suddenly as the energy drain had come onto me, my head hung limp, then my whole body fell down to the pavement of the road of Radcliffe Way. The last thing I remember before passing out completely was Lala yelling for a Dr. Stein, who ran out and picked me up and carried me to his house. Then I passed out right before I felt the reinvigorating touch of pure Gaia Energy. As I slept in Gaia Stasis, I began to dream. But when I woke up the next morning feeling refreshed, I couldn't remember what the dreams were about, because I was so drained of Gaia Energy...
All I could remember was that they were familiar to me.
