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Scionic Awakening

Chapter 1:
Wake up call

In this age, the world is bustling place. Anti-gravity cars and buses fly every which direction. Humans and aliens alike go about and doing their thing. No one pays any attention to the impoverished. I could lean against the wall all day, and no one would even notice me, unless I got up and moved around. You’d think being dressed in nothing but a ragged white hospital gown would get you noticed, but as it is currently snowing, everything just blends in. Any normal person would be freezing, but the cold is just another pain that I am used to.
If I knew my name, I would tell you, but unfortunately I don’t have one. Unless you count research specimen codes, in which SA7392 is ingrained into my skull. To this day, I still haven’t a clue as to what those letters and numbers relate to. Nor do I wish to find out. The people I escaped from want to kill me, as it stands.
Since my escape from God knows where, I’ve quickly gathered as much information about the world around me as possible. So far, guns seem to be restricted only to military personnel. For personal protection, people use swords made from a special alloy I can’t even pronounce. To carry these, you need to have a license of some kind, probably to insure that you know how to use it and not just kill every person you encounter. The other thing I’ve noticed about these swords is that the alloy has some kind of electromagnetic energy waveform flowing through it. I touched the blade of one before in an attempt to acquire one for myself, on the flat side, and noticed my fingers went numb. My theory would be that the electromagnetism would temporarily paralyze someone by interrupting the electrical signals in their nervous system. Even the smallest cut would render you immobile.
Aside from weaponry, people wore bracelets affixed with a built in cell phone, an internet access device with a holographic screen. Its display not only showed time, but had the date, current GPS location, and the temperature. And I’m thinking that’s not all they can do. Clothing in general varied among the people depending upon the age, but nearly all of them wore insulated thermal suits, due to the fact that it is snowing. I didn’t need any kind of techno-gadgetry to tell me that it’s five below. I just knew…don’t really know how to explain it.
I do that with a lot of things. I don’t know how I know certain things, but I just do. The more I think about it, the more it gives me a headache. The place I came from did something to me, I’m certain. But there’s no use in fretting over the past. If something’s weird, you just have to live with it. The mind is a terrible place to mess around in. It’s like a labyrinth. If you’re not careful, you can get lost.
Let’s get back to the present. Currently, I’m in New York City. The date is February 12th, 3135. I’m sitting on the ground with my back to the wall, the snow melting into water as it hits the bare skin of my feet and hands. My arms are wrapped around my knees, being tucked against my chest. My head rested on my knees, sandy brown hair blowing slightly with each gust of wind. It’s short, so I can’t exactly use it for some warmth.
About 52 people have walked past me since I’ve sat down, and 134 cars have flown past. The air smelled of exhaust and grease. Probably because of the traffic and the fact that there’s a Mickey D’s two buildings down. To keep the towering skyscrapers from swaying too much, elaborate crosswalks have been placed between every building. Architecturally speaking, the entire city looked to be put together like one big puzzle. The floors were lit up by colored fiberglass, which conducted electricity and various other bits of information. The wires glowed in every color, and went in every which direction. During the daylight, they aren’t that noticeable, but at night, the entire city lights up.
About 50 yards away on one of the crosswalks, I noticed several men armed with the electromagnetic swords chasing a woman with shoulder length pink colored hair.
“Your highness, please stop this at once!” one of the men wearing a corporal’s badge demanded, signaling for the four other officers behind him to split up and surround the pink haired woman. They did so in front of the building I currently rested against.
“Leave me alone!” the pink haired woman screamed, noticing that she had no place else to run.
When an animal is backed into a corner, instinct tells it to fight to the death. In humans, the same principal applies. The body fears the infliction of pain, and thus releases adrenaline into the bloodstream. When this happens, the pupils tend to dilate, the heart rate goes up, and the mind starts running a mile a minute. At least, that’s what happens with normal human beings with no martial arts background, or psychological training. With the pink haired girl, however, this is not the case. Any fear that she has is completely blanketed by her anger. Adrenaline and rage can be a bad combination, since the combatant is more likely to lose control of the situation. On top of that, all five officers were armed with the electromagnetic swords that paralyze with the tiniest abrasion.
Now let me explain how all this is happening. You have a towering skyscraper about 50 feet wide, with me at the very end left corner of it, minding my business. The five officers form a 15 foot arc in front of the building, surrounding the pink haired girl, who’s 10 feet away from the corporal standing in front of her. For the average person, it’d be a dead end. But what happened next caught my interest.
The girl ran towards the corporal, causing them to react by rushing forward, all of the officers using the same attack, which would be the flat thrust. All five swords collide with a metallic clank, and the girl dodges by leaping into the air, over the blades. She grabs the corporal by the shoulders and flips over his back, kicking him in the back of the head and forcing him off balance. The officers fall into a pile off balance and the girl lands, taking off running again. One of the officer’s electromagnetic swords slides across the icy walkway and stops just an inch short of my foot. Moving sluggishly, I pick up the sword by its handle. Then, I slowly clamber to my feet. The cops are still untangling themselves, so I approach them nonchalantly.
“Who’s sword is this?” I questioned, watching them stumble and slip trying to regain their balance.
“It’s mine,” an officer who’s badge read “Regals” answered, sounding moody after having just been showed up by a girl.
“53 grams, well balanced, but has a weak spot towards the base. A man in your profession should be better equipped,” I informed, offering him back the sword by its handle. He waved me off.
“That girl you just saw is the Princess of Terragias. If you help us catch her, I’ll file a license for you as a reward,” Regals said, brushing off snow. “By the way, it’s 5 below and you’re wearing a torn up hospital gown. Are you nuts?”
“It’s a long story. Right now, you’re asking me for help. What are the details?” I further questioned, growing a bit agitated at this cop’s lack of intellect. Finally, the corporal, whose name is Cakler, stepped up.
“We’re the royal guard of Terragias. The girl who just pwn’d us is the one and only Princess of Terragias. Our King has promised her majesty a chance for freedom once we arrive on Earth, but his majesty’s conditions are that we stay with her at all times. Once she found out, her majesty went into a rage and took off. We’ve been chasing her all day,” Cakler stated, bowing his head in shame. “We’ll reward you if you can catch her.”
“All I need is food, clothes, and a warm bed to rest my head in tonight. Other than those terms, consider it done,” I agreed, running off in the direction the Princess had fled.
As I ran, I took notice the pattern of the Princess’s boot print. She is a woman’s size 5, about 95lbs, and very nimble. I don’t know the Terragias race, but considering what I’ve seen, she might be a difficult cookie to crumble. And with the current rate of snowfall, I knew I’d have to rush my a** off to catch up with her. Luckily, the local thugs saved me the trouble.
Three men…two maybe 150 pounds at most and short in stature. The third looked be about 6’5’ and close to 300. The big brute had flung the Princess against the back of a dumpster, knocking her unconscious. Her blood illuminated a florescent pink as it trickled down her forehead. I was tired, hungry, and cold. Every part of my body screamed in pain from the fatigue. But seeing the girl hurt changed everything. If they were mugging some guy from down the street, I wouldn’t care. It happens all the time. But mugging the girl, it’s just not right. It’s unjustifiable, and I was getting angered quickly. Killing them wouldn’t be right, I had to take vengeance.
As I walked toward the three men, I took in my surroundings. Dead end alley, a dumpster, three trash cans, no lids, and several bags of industrial garbage lined against the back wall. When it comes to fighting, I can be pretty deadly. Sadly, I can’t explain that, either. I don’t know what happened to me in that facility, but for now, I’m not questioning it. Looks like it’s time for someone to take out the trash.
There were no words. The brutish man stopped what he was doing and rushed me. Within three feet of me, he swung his right fist towards my head in a wide right hook. Quickly, I switched my hold on the sword to reverse. I blocked his arm with the flat side of the blade resting against my right forearm. Instantly afterward, I dropped the sword and followed through in the same motion with a palm strike to the brute’s solar plexus. There was the crackle of an electrostatic discharge as my palm made its impact. As the brutish man lost balance and began to fly backwards, I spun with superhuman speed and grabbed the sword again in mid-air with my left hand. Following through even further, I threw the sword at the smaller man who was tearing at the Princess’s pant material. The blade sliced into the base of the man’s neck, nicking him with surgical precision as it flew past, imbedding itself into the brick wall. A shower of sparks began, but before the first spark hit the ground, I was on the move. Rushing the third man, the one rummaging through the Princess’s purse, I leapt into the air and caught him with a spinning left foot. In mid-air, I followed up with a right spinning heel to the face. Using the momentum to push off, I flew at and grabbed the other short thug by his shirt collar. Rebounding off the brick wall and the cut thug’s neck getting whiplash, I flew at the brutish big thug and grabbed the chest of his shirt while he too was still in mid-air. The three of our bodies one big, twisting mass, spun in the air, and I pulled them in closer to me, creating centrifugal force. Letting go, all three thugs collided with each trash can, and were knocked out cold.
The entire fight had maybe taken one or two seconds, and the sparks from the sword were starting to set the trash bags on fire. Turning my attention to the Princess, I checked her vitals. Placing my right index and middle fingers against her left common carotid artery, I detected a steady pulse. With my left hand, I rested the same two fingers under her nose, feeling her breath with each exhale. She was just knocked out. Picking her up, I slung her over my left shoulder and retrieved her purse. Nothing had been taken out of it.
There’s a saying that goes “if caught in a crime, destroy all evidence of you having been there”. The fire slowly being fueled by the trash, the unconscious men will probably be burned to death by the time the fire department shows up. And once the fire’s been put out, any shred of forensic evidence will have been washed away. But just for good measure, I snapped the sword in half at its weak point, carrying the fingerprinted remains with me.