Please support the original releases of the powers and abilities that this story line is based off of. Enjoy!

Chapter 10: The Tournament

Zakee was tired of all the traveling that took place between Alexandria and Area 51. He had been on and off ships and trains all day until now. They had just arrived at Area 51 and couldn't be happier. News about Zakee and his team retrieving the holocron had spread through the academy like wildfire within the past few days. A lot of the students had gone up to one of them asking how hard it was to get and how strong the opponents were. Zakee, Clayton, Taylor, and Sarah walked into the academy with a thunderous applause from everyone for completing the very first mission of the academy. Sensei Rodan stood in the corner near the hallway that led to the briefing room. Zakee walked over to Sensei Rodan and gave him a high-five.

"Seems like you're the big man on campus right now, doesn't it?" said Sensei Rodan.

Zakee smiled as he looked out into the crowd. His smile soon changed into a dull, straight face. "We almost lost Taylor AND Sarah…"

Sensei Rodan quickly turned and looked at Zakee and said, "The important thing is that y'all didn't. You four worked together to get the job done, and achieved your goal!"

Zakee put his arm in his pocket and pulled out a red pyramid.

"Is this it? Is this the holocron?" This was Sensei Rodan's first time seeing a holocron too. It was small; about the size of a baseball. The sides of the pyramid triangles were still a bright red that could hypnotize the strongest into a blank stare.

"So, how do you open it?" asked Sensei Rodan.

Zakee looked back at his Sensei and said, "I think I heard that only Jedi can open them. It has to do with the Force and all that." Sensei Rodan nodded as he signaled Taylor, Sarah, and Clayton to come on over. The three of them pushed and shoved until they came up to Sensei Rodan and Zakee.

Looking at the lot of them, Sensei announced, "You four have been called to the briefing room for a synopsis of your mission. They want the details, names, powers, and the whole nine yards, so don't hold anything back. Alright?" He received a unanimous nod from everyone. He turned towards the hallway and led everyone down to the double doors at the end.

Over the loud speaker, the secretary announced, "All who are taking part in the Novice Battle Royale, please come to the training room at once. Again, all who are taking part in the Novice Battle Royale, please come to the training room at once. Thank you."

When Sensei Rodan heard this, he looked over his shoulder towards Zakee. "You're going to want to check out this battle royale when y'all finish. We have some talented new recruits."

Zakee looked up and said, "I don't know about today. This mission made me really tired."

They were almost at the door by now, and Sensei Rodan said, "Fine. Suit yourself." He threw the doors open, and the five of them walked in and surrounded a table.

Around the table sat seven other highly ranked officials. In the center was President Reed himself. On his right sat General Hall. The lead scientist, Dr. Rogers, sat to the President's left. The two past General Hall were Emma Austin, the Speaker of the House, and General Fox, the Salem academy leader. The other two on Dr. Rogers' side were Dr. Rich, the assistant to Dr. Rogers, and Janice Schmidt, the President's secretary. Sensei Rodan sat on the side of General Hall after saluting the President.

"At ease men and woman. Congratulations on your success. You might not know this, but your success has brought a moral boost for all soldiers and students and an expectation of success from everyone. Subsequently, making everyone else work that much harder."

The President began clapping for a job well done, and everyone else joined in. "However, we still have matters to attend to. Firstly, I want a detailed report on the assault of the caravan. Don't miss a single beat." Clayton, Taylor, and Sarah looked at Zakee cuing him in. He cleared his throat.

"We started with using the river that would provide water for my mist and water jutsus. I hid on the shore and used my Hidden Mist Jutsu when the caravan neared us…" Zakee continued with how the battle went. He talked about Clayton's multi shadow possession jutsu that he incorporated flames into. He talked about how Sarah used Kadabra to fight a Z-Fighter that had a scar over his right eye and burn on his shoulder. She used her Psybeams to render him and some other weaker opponents unconscious. He continued to tell about how Taylor was faster and more skilled than their two-swords style swordsman. Taylor butted in telling how he killed his opponent with a swift counter move. Zakee began again with his and Clayton's battle against their captain, how he was a strong Z-Fighter or maybe a Saiyan. They continued to how Sarah and Taylor were knocked unconscious, and how he and Clayton combined their wind and fire jutsus to finish off the captain.

Once Zakee finished, the room fell silent for a few seconds. General Hall was the first to speak, "Do you remember what the captain looked like?"

Zakee looked at Clayton and then back to General Hall. "He had short black hair and was very buff. Oh! He had a tattoo of a black hand on his back!"

The President looked down saying, "He's a part of the Nokmim of ISIS. Better known as the Black Hand. They are a group of their finest warriors, and by the looks of it, this captain was a bottom tier warrior of the Nokmim." Another pause filled the room. "You did retrieve the holocron, didn't you?"

Zakee had nearly forgotten about the red pyramid. He stuck his arm into his bag and pulled out the mesmerizing artifact. The members around the table widened their eyes in its splendor. Zakee noticed how General Fox twitched and rotated his shoulder because of his memory replaying how a masked Jedi stole a holocron from him a few months ago.

Zakee walked the holocron over to the President and put it in his hands. After a few seconds of analyzing the holocron, President Reed handed it over to Dr. Rogers, who put it in his pocket.

"Thank you for your time and more importantly, your service. Thank you." The President saluted the four soldiers then sent them out of the room.

Once the students had left the room, Dr. Rogers looked to the President and General Hall and said, "We need a Jedi to open this, and none of ours are strong enough to do it."

The President stood up and spoke out saying, "Be patient. The time will come when our Jedi will be able to open them effortlessly. However, for now just train the students to optimize our success rates. That is all for now. There is a battle royale between a multitude of our new recruits. Feel free to go watch and observe." All the officials that surrounded the table, except for General Hall and Sensei Rodan, got up and left the meeting room.

Sensei Rodan looked at the President and said, "Sir. I think that the new recruit, Ryder Jace, has the best shot in opening the holocron. I'm aware of your concerns and I have been keeping an eye out on him, but he hasn't shown any sign of being a spy or traitor."

General Hall nodded then said, "I agree in the fact that Ryder Jace might be our best shot, but I'm not quite sold on that he is one of ours."

"Thank you for inputs. I agree with both of you, but I'm still not sure of his allegiance as well. Let's keep observing for now. As long as that holocron stays in our possession, there is no need to rush this." The President stood up and nodded at his officials. "Now, there is a Royale going on now, and I'd like to see how the future of our army looks." He left the room through the two double doors and headed towards the large training room.

Zakee and the three others were walking to the elevator to go to their rooms when they heard loud footsteps coming down the hall. They turned around to see Sensei Rodan sprinting their way while having a hard time stoppings. The four of them side stepped as the Sensei slid right into the back of the elevator. He got up surprisingly quick and said with his hands up, "I'm fine. Don't worry about me."

Zakee looked at the others as he could barely hold his laugh in. "I just wanted to tell y'all something. Right now, it would mean a lot to the recruits and other soldiers seeing you four at the Battle Royale. They all know that you four are tired, but it would spark their fighting spirit and help them perform to the best of their abilities." He took a few more deep breathes still catching his breath from his crash. "Do it for me."

Zakee threw his hands in the air and said, "Fine! I'm not speaking on their behalf, but I'll go. By the way, you are terrible at guilt tripping people." He began walking towards the arena as he heard the others grumble and complain behind him.

They reached the arena and stood at the top behind a plexiglas wall. Students lined the stands and the Plexiglas wall where Zakee and the others stood. The announcer was another student that was known for having a loud, exciting voice.

A few moments passed before they heard him yell out, "And there goes another contestant! There are only five left! It's between a ninja, a Z-Fighter, a Jedi, a Devil Fruit user, and a Shinigami!"

They were all aligned in a pentagon shape waiting for someone to make the first move. Zakee couldn't see all the faces of the fighters, so he did not pay that close of attention to the fight.

Suddenly, the Shinigami sprinted towards the Devil Fruit user and engaged in fight between swords. "That Shinigami's name is, Murdoch. He's a recruit that shows great promise in his abilities. The Devil Fruit user is Zolzo, and he ate the Dice-Dice Fruit, which gave him the ability to turn any of his body parts into a blade. Oh! The ninja there, Josh, can use fire and earth style jutsu that have been keeping all the fighters on their toes." Sensei Rodan was getting excited as he pointed out each of the contestants.

As he said this, Josh rushed towards the Jedi ready to use taijutsu against him. Josh started with a leaping attack that seemed to have missed the Jedi because he landed just in the out of bounds perimeter line. Josh followed this attack by launching himself towards the Jedi with a series of punches, kicks, and other jumps that would hopefully catch him off guard. However, the Jedi patiently waited for an opening during his defensive hand-to-hand combat series, and analyzed each attack.

After the Jedi dodged another kick, Josh followed it with a straight ahead right-hand punch, but the Jedi saw this coming. He turned, grabbed the arm and threw him in the direction he was heading. While in mid-air the Jedi then force pushed him into the side of the arena.

"The ninja, Josh Sanders, had been disqualified for leaving the fighting grounds! Only four remain!" yelled the announcer enthusiastically.

Zakee was now interested in how this royale was going to end with the exciting announcer commentating and the interesting fighters.

Sensei Rodan noticed this and said, "You see? I told you it was going to be awesome!" Zakee ignored his Sensei as he continued to watch.

The Z-Fighter, Dirath, had been charging an attack ever since Murdoch, the Shinigami, rushed Zolzo, the Dice-Dice man.

"Special Beam Cannon!" yelled Dirath as he extended his arm towards Murdoch and Zolzo. A yellow beam with a yellow and purple coil shot from Dirath's finger tips, and it soon crashed into the ground where Murdoch and Zolzo were fighting. The blast knocked Murdoch out of the fighting zone, but Zolzo was heavy enough to where Dirath only knocked him back about ten yards.

"Dirath knocks Murdoch out with his powerful Special Beam Cannon! Will Ryder and Zolzo be able to defeat his strong attacks?!" The announcer was fully devoted to being the most enthusiastic person in the whole country, and it made others invest in the fight that much more.

While the announcer was speaking, Zakee was turned towards Jackson asking if he knew how to perform the Special Beam Cannon.

Meanwhile, Zolzo had begun to attack Dirath since he had used up a significantly large portion of his Chi in the last attack. Ryder joined in by using the Force to redirect the stray Chi blasts toward Zolzo who wasn't expecting them. The blasts hit Zolzo in his side and sent him towards the boundary line, but he never crossed it. Ryder used the Force to dash towards Zolzo and was there in an instant. When he arrived by Zolzo's side, Zolzo quickly got up while trying to slice Ryder's legs with his arms that were swords. Ryder jumped and flipped over to Zolzo's backside. Upon landing, he drew his lightsaber and slashed Zolzo across his back. Since Ryder was using a training lightsaber, the only injury that Zolzo sustained was a small cut that ran across his back.

"What a knock out attack! There are only two fighters left! The Jedi and the Z-Fighter!" The whole crowd were now on their feet. This was the first real fight they had seen since arriving at the academy. Only Zakee, Clayton, Sarah, and Taylor had seen or experienced combat until this tournament.

The two were the only fighters left in the battle royale that originally had fifteen contestants. They danced around the inner part of the fighting zone until Ryder dashed towards Dirath with his lightsaber ignited in one hand. Dirath began sending chi blasts after chi blasts in the direction of Ryder. Ryder used the Force to deflect the chi blasts and continued going straight towards Dirath. Ryder slashed his lightsaber horizontally aiming for Dirath's waist but missed. Dirath had jumped back and then began charging up his Special Beam Cannon again.

"This is it! The two are out of energy and are down to their last attack! It all comes down to this!" The announcer was nearly falling out of his booth at this point.

Ryder had a focused glare in his eyes as he was calculating his next move. He deactivated his lightsaber and hooked it to his belt. He widened his base and readied his defenses.

"Special Beam Cannon!" yelled Dirath as he sent his beam towards Ryder's chest.

Using the force, Ryder pushed as hard as he could against the beam. The reason he didn't use his lightsaber was because he wanted to finally test his Force abilities on a chi blast after reading the physics of them so many times. He continued pushing harder and harder than the second before that; however, the force of the Special Beam Cannon was making Ryder slide back towards the out of bounds line. Dirath was still pushing on his side, surprised that Ryder stopped his beam. For Ryder to push the beam back all the way, he had to push a lot harder than what he was now doing. He strained his head as he continued building up the Force. He felt it course through his body like blood through veins. He felt it go down through his arms, and instead of it coming out of his palm, the Force came out of his fingertips.

Flashes of light started to become visible as Ryder kept pushing harder and harder. "Look! Zakee, do you see this," Rodan yelled to Zakee!

Zakee paid closer attention to the struggle between the Force and Dirath's Special Beam Cannon. In-between the beam and Ryder, little currents of lightning were starting to become visible. "He's using the Force to create lightning… Incredible!"

Dirath had never felt such a presence on the other end of any of his finishing chi blasts. As his arms began to get tired, the strength of the beam decreased as well. 'Shit,' thought Dirath.

Ryder noticed this fault and put his all into this final push. However, when Ryder released his full strength on the beam, lightning streams visible to the naked eye filled the gap between the beam and Ryder. The power behind the lightning and force was too tremendous for Dirath to fight back against, so he cut the beam and jumped to the side.

Ryder was prepared for this move. He knew that Dirath would either take the attack head on or dodge to one of the sides.

Ryder directed his lightning into the ground sending up debris and dust, but Dirath was ready. He sent a few powerful chi blasts straight ahead.

Zakee saw the chi blasts fly through the debris creating holes in the dust that allowed him to see through to the other side of the dust.

However, once Dirath could see through the dust, he noticed that Ryder wasn't there!

Ryder saw Dirath send a chi blast straight ahead and knew his chance was now. He gathered the Force and sprinted around the dust cloud and towards Dirath with incredible speed, and before Dirath could even turn to his left, Ryder had sliced his lightsaber into Dirath's stomach sending him into the wall and unconscious. Ryder inhaled deeply while he deactivated his lightsaber. It was over. He won the tournament.

"That's the end! Ryder has won the Rookie Battle Royale Tournament!" announced the announcer. The crowd blew up in excitement.

Zakee could not believe what he just heard. Did the announcer just say, Ryder?! He had heard him say that name a few times before, but two and two just clicked in his head.

Zakee turned towards Sensei Rodan quickly and asked, "Wait, what is that Jedi's last name?"

It took Rodan a few seconds to remember, but he finally said, "Oh, I remember! It's Jase. Ryder Jase. Why?" Before Sensei Rodan could lift his head, Zakee was sprinting towards the fighting zone.

'How on Earth did Ryder make it to this academy?! What had he been doing for the past two years?!' thought Zakee as he ran to Ryder.

Zakee made it down to the middle of the fighting zone and kept his eyes on Ryder as he gave people high fives for winning the tournament.

"You son of a bitch…"

Ryder looked up to see who said that and couldn't believe his eyes.

"You crazy bastard!" Ryder yelled with a face full of excitement.

Sensei Rodan was right behind Zakee during this whole introduction. He poked his head around and asked, "Wait, you guys know each other?"

They turned towards him and Ryder said, "Yeah! We went to high school together and were best friends then."

Sensei Rodan nodded his head then said, "Well, it seems like you two have a lot of catching up to do. I'll leave you to it. Oh, Ryder, when you're finished, you'll be wanted in the briefing room too." Ryder gave him a quick thumb up and turned back towards Zakee.

"So, tell me what you've been doing for the past two years, Ziggy!"

Zakee (Ziggy was his nickname in high school) began talking about how he was one of the first soldiers to try out the Roxy that Dr. Rogers had built. He talked about his adventures here and all that he learned. Ziggy then introduced Ryder to Jackson, Clayton, Taylor, and a few other people. They started to talk about Ziggy's latest mission and how he did against the ISIS captain.

"Hey, Ryder! I can't believe you did it man!" Nero was sprinting down the walkway ready to jump on Ryder. "Hahaha Murdoch isn't too thrilled, but that's only because he lost."

Ryder laughed and then introduced Nero to Zakee and his friends. "Hey, this is my friend Nero. We fought together when we were deployed, and it's kind of funny how we both ended up here together." They all started talking about their past few days and how its' been at the academy.

A screech came over the intercom as Mrs. Janice announced, "Can Ryder Jase please come to the briefing room. Thank you." *Click*

Ryder turned towards everyone and said, "Well you all can't get all of the winner's attention." He turned and headed towards the briefing room where he knew at the least General Rodan was waiting there.

He walked in through the double doors that led to the briefing room and stood at attention when he saw the President and General Hall. "At ease, Ryder. Congratulations on your win earlier; it was truly impressive. I wasn't aware that you were able to use Force Lightning. How long have you been able to do this," asked the President?

Doctor Rogers paid close attention to see if Ryder would be lying or telling the truth. "That was my first time, sir. I'm not even fully aware how to do it again," said Ryder.

Dr. Rogers gave a nod to General Hall.

"Anyways, based upon your skills that you've displayed while here at the academy, we feel that you are ready to construct your own lightsaber," continued President Reed.

Ryder smiled just a little trying to hold himself together.

"You will take a ship, along with a General or highly ranked official of your choosing. However, General Rodan must stay here to teach all the other students; many rely on him." Ryder didn't want any other General to go with him on this trip. He had grown close to General Rodan since he had arrived, and he enjoyed how much time Rodan dedicated to him even though he wasn't a Jedi too. Someone else began to stand up at the table.

"I'll join Ryder on his mission," said a crackling voice. Dr. Rogers was the one that volunteered himself to go with Ryder. "It will serve as a good way for me to record details about the other planets and what's on them. This way we can prepare for anything if we need to go to one of them," said Dr. Rogers.

No one talked for a few seconds until President Reed said, "Okay. That will be fine. Go ahead and start your preparations."

Suddenly, Jerry, a small time worker for the president, said frantically, "Mr. President, twelve unidentified aircrafts have entered our zone!"

Outside the walls of the academy, twelve large ships were closing in on the academy. On the training grounds were at least one hundred students training with each other or solo.

Guy Lightfoot stopped his swords and looked up. "I didn't know that we were expecting that many more recruits. Cause damn, I don't think we can fit all of them." After he said that he could see a light coming closer and closer to the academy.

"What the hell?" he mumbled.

That light flew right by him and just missed the academy by a few hundred feet. It hit the ground and the explosion sent a shock wave that knocked most of the students down. A ball of fire rose into the air and formed a mushroom type of cloud that continued to rise into the air.

Guy didn't know what to do. Out of all the training that he had put in, this was the one thing he never expected.

A red light began flashing on the side of the academy, and the President's voice played over the speaker system. "We are under attack! Repeat, we are under attack! Prepare for battle!"

Guy stood there, frozen in fear. He thought to himself, 'I don't want to die. Not here. Not today.'

Zakee, Jackson, Taylor, General Hall and Fox, and others began rushing out of the academy to face the upcoming threat.

Inside the briefing room, the President made Ryder and Jerry stay there while everyone else left to go outside. "Okay, I am giving you a very special mission. You two CANNOT fail this mission, because if you do, the ISIS Empire will know everything that we have studied, collected, and much more." Jerry and Ryder nodded.

"Ryder, you will be escorting Jerry to the archive center." The President pointed to a hologram that appeared above the briefing table. "A transit, at the lowest level of the academy, will take you there. Once you get there, teleport as many of the artifacts, scrolls, and books to this location." The President handed Jerry a piece of paper that had longitude and latitude coordinates on them. "I am the only person that knows that location. I want you to teleport me to my private ship about a mile out, so that I can go to Detroit. I am going to bring as many cruisers here as possible, just in case things go poorly. Ryder, I know you don't have a legit lightsaber right now. You'll just have to use a training lightsaber and your Force abilities for now. When y'all get to the archive center I want you to teleport them to this locations." President Rodan gave Jerry a piece of paper that had numbers that corresponded to a longitude and latitude of another location.

I'm confident that you will do just fine. Now, go ahead and teleport me and good luck to you both." Ryder and Jerry looked at each other and then back at the President.

"But sir," Ryder spoke out, but the President cut him off.

"There is no time for buts. This is a mission in which you have no say in. There are people outside fighting for their lives, so we all must get a move on with what we must do!" Ryder nodded.

"Okay, close your eyes Mr. President, or else you might get sick," said Jerry.

President Reed closed his eyes as Jerry put his hand on his chest. Suddenly, the President was gone.

"It's time to get a move on, Ryder. Do you have your lightsaber?" asked Jerry.

"Yep. Let's go." He responded.

Comment to let me know what you think of this story. I hope you enjoy!

May the 4th be with you…

~Aldon