Chapter Fourteen

Somewhere in a rural city.

After coming home from my fifth deployment. I visited a city around four hours away from my own. Reason being was intel from an unknown source that contacted me via phone. "Visit my city... I have answers about your friend. But, make sure that no one and I mean no one follows you, Anthony Johnson also known as the Iron Sledge."

Whoever this guy was, he knew Zach Birds.

Myself, Dakota, Percy, Kyzarian, Kirk, and Jacan stood in one place facing the very tall old man in a black well kept suit just a few feet in front of us. "You know, I'm impressed with you all. Keeping this away from me for as long as you did is phenomenal because well, not much passes my eye. But there is always a weak link in the squad and it seemed to be you, Dakota Moore. Blatantly sabotaging your friends plans is truly heartless."

He walked over to us with his tall figure looking down at us as if we were ants. Even Jacan, one of the tallest prisoners barely came up to his knees. "Jacan and Kirk? My own children were plotting to escape from me? No matter." He said as he turned his head to his top three. "Alexander, Charley, and Sam? You three will be rewarded greatly later on. For now, leave me be with these six, I'll be okay."

"Will do, Master." Alexander said as he and the other three walked out the door.

Then, the sounds of locks securing around the office echoed and the lights dimmed. "I won't beat around the bush as humans would say. I don't know how you did it, but you six have infiltrated my office and know of my plans. Zach Birds and Kirk Lakeland, there is no doubt in my mind that you two figured out that you are my prize delicacies as you both are the smartest humans here. However, due to my incompetence of leaving you two individuals free you have accomplished a grand feat. Ever since my three children have told me what Moore said, the processing of the human farm has stopped immediately."

Hyptant took a seat at his office chair intertwining his very large fingers together with a displeased expression on his face. "Unfortunate for the three that won't get their own personal human to eat. No matter, some will share with them. But I do have great news for me and bad news for you. You may not feel it, but this very space island is now on route to my own planet." He laughed, "in three days time you'll all be apart of the planets feast where you are on the main course. As for you two, my sweet succulent boys. I have a different fate for you. Zach, I will be eating you painfully slow while I present your home planet on a screen for you to watch. Watch as your best friend, Anthony continues to search for you. I must say, the boy has a lot of willpower. In three years time, he has not stopped looking for you. The poor fool just can't comprehend you'll never be seen again."

Anthony... he's still looking....

"Kirk Lakeland! We both have personal history for long time. Some ups and some downs. But it seems that our time has come to a end my young boy. Out of respect, I'll finish you off fast but I can't say that would be a fulfilled promise."

Kirk growled lowly to himself as Hyptant laughed at us. "Now that you know of your fate I feel that there is no longer a need to say much. Moore has successfully speeded up your process of death. And there won't be anything you can do about it besides wait for your demise. There is nothing more to say now." Hyptant continued to mock us as we all stood there like kids waiting to be sent to the principal's office. "There is one last thing actually and I believe you will all thank me for this." Before I could even blink Hyptant had snatched Dakota right up away from all of us.

"NOOOOOOO!!!" I screamed out and the next thing I knew we were all pushed out at once outside of his office. "DAKOTA!!!" I could hear his bloodcurdling screams as I rushed over to his large door only for it to be closed right in front of me stopping me in my tracks! "NO PLEASE! PLEASE! NOT HIM! NOT MY FRIEND! LET ME IN YOU BASTARD! I'LL KILL YOU IF YOU DO ANYTHING! LET ME IN NOW HYPTANT!" I punched the large red door not caring if my knuckles were torn open instantly. "DON'T HURT MY FRIEND! STOP!" I punched the steel door again as hard as I could.

From behind I hear Jacan letting out a ferocious roar running up to the door as he pulled back ready to hammer it, a purple field covered the entire door. Punching it as hard as he could, Jacan's punch had no effect thanks to the field. "HYPTANT! I AM GOING TO KILL YOU!" I screamed out again as Jacan punched the field as hard as he could again only for no effect.

"STAND BACK!" Kyzarian ordered, that same green sparkling mystic energy formed in his hand again. He blasted the field with as much power as he could only for him to also have no effect.

"I WILL RIP OUT YOUR THROAT AND WATCH YOU BLEED OUT!" Percy threatened also hitting the field to no avail. All four of us were hitting the field in some way trying to break through it but all of our efforts were useless. That never stopped us from still going at it with more then one hundred percent of our being.

Falling to my knees tears streamed down my face continuing to hit the field again and again. Not him! NOT HIM! NOT DAKOTA OF ALL PEOPLE! "YOUR GOING TO ROT IN HELL! YOU HEAR ME HYPTANT! YOUR GOING TO ROT IN HELL FOR ETERNITY! I WILL SEE TO IT THAT I SEND YOU THERE MYSELF!" Looking at my bloody hands I saw that my knuckles were broken from repeatedly hitting the door. "Why am I so useless? Why can't I save anyone..." To my side I saw that Kirk was standing next to me kneeling down and brushing his hand against the floor. As he was doing that I found my eyes getting more and more droopy along with teary eyed.

.....

My eyes opened slowly and the first thing I saw were stars that filled the night sky along with comets rushing past. Sitting up instantly the first thing I saw was Kirk sitting on the ledge of the platform he built on this massive tree he showed me. I looked around seeing the other space islands off in the distance then focused back to him. "You passed out from earlier, I assume because of what you just had witnessed. You used every fiber of your being trying to knock that door down just to get to Dakota even though you could not. That right there... is serious courage. Even after Jacan couldn't penetrate through that field, you still didn't stop. Those hands of yours were surely battered up but nothing I couldn't fix." Lifting up my hands I saw that they were completely healed from the damage they sustained from earlier.

How did he...

"I am going to be honest with you as we walked to the warden's office I had a vision that frightened me yet hit me with severe reality. Would you let me tell it too you? Please?" He asked softly turning his head slightly towards me waiting for a response. In which I nodded towards him earning a soft smile from him.

"Guys... please I'm sorry." Dakota whined, "I know I'm a screw up! Please someone say something..."

Ever since Dakota's breakdown at the springs no one bothered talking to him. I couldn't find myself to hate Dakota even after all of that. I was very well aware of what could have happened when taking this risk. And it is only our fault for not being better prepared. As the saying goes, you are only strong as your weakest link.

"I told you guys from the get go that this was a waste of time. Now? We're on a course to our deaths." I stated, "I don't even know why I bothered going along with you."

"And you think your little conversion theory was going to work? Kirk, admit it, that was a stupid idea and your crazy for even attempting it." Percy commented.

"At least my conversion theory was in the shadows. I can say this, Hyptant never knew about what I was doing. Why? Because I knew how to be discrete. Ever since YOU came here." I pointed at Zach, "You single handily fucked everything up! Everything I told you not to do you do anyway because you want answers! Going to different areas, asking people certain questions, going with Sam, and you're still going on! WERE DEAD!"

"You trying to pin this on me? YOU of all people? I never would have done anything HAD YOU JUST GAVE ME THE STUPID ANSWER IN THE FIRST PLACE! YOU INSISTED ON BEING GONE FOR WEEKS AT A TIME PROBABLY SITTING IN A CORNER SOMEWHERE MEDITATING ON HOW TO CHANGE YOUR NATURAL SEXUALITY!"

"Zach that's enough!" Kyzarian yelled.

"YOU KEEP TRYING TO CONVINCE YOURSELF THAT YOU CAN GET OUT OF HERE IF YOU TURNED STRAIGHT FOR FIVE MINUTES JUST TO SEE YOUR PARENTS?! NEWSFLASH KIRK I BEEN HERE FOR A WHILE AND IN THAT TIME PERIOD ITS BEEN THREE YEARS ON EARTH! IF YOU USED SIMPLE MATH YOU'D KNOW THAT IF YOUR 178 YEARS OLD THEN ITS SAFE TO ASSUME YOUR PARENTS ARE LONG DEAD BECAUSE THEY'LL DAMN NEAR BE 220 YEARS OLD WITHOUT THE LUXURY OF IMMORTALITY LIKE YOU DO!"

"ZACH!" Kyzarian yelled out.

My face begun twitching from his last sentence. He could see that what he said had really penetrated through my soul and I felt it. "Face it Kirk, you are nothing more then a selfish piece of shit. YOU think your the only one who had parents who loved you?! Think of the thousands of others that had the same predicament as you! Yet you still hold on to something that isn't even remotely possible. It's just like the warden's letter during my first month here. Your story is no different then fifty percent of others." Finally, he was done with his rant on me and he knew that low blow hurt my very being

Looking down at my boots, I nodded his head and turned around walking towards the door. Opening the door he put one foot out stopping in the middle to slightly turn back. "Screw you..." I said barely above a whisper walking out and closing the door. In the hallway I quietly sobbed knowing that what he said was true but I just couldn't find in myself to believe it even after all these long years. My parents are dead and that was the grim reality of things that couldn't be changed!

Why can't I leave this world so I can be with them again! Why must I be stuck here on this stupid island because of my sexuality? It couldn't have been my fault! No! Why is it that some foreign entity can decided my fate?! Why is it that I must be devoured by some stupid foreign entity? Why am I prolonging my suffering!

No more! I need to get the hell out of here! I need to get the hell out of here with everyone because I'll be damned if I end up as feces! I am getting out of this place for good! I WILL BE FREE AGAIN!

Wow....

Kirk then turned his head facing out towards the stars again. "As you can see, Hyptant was right we are on the course. Look at all those floating rocks going around in circles those weren't there before." I saw what Kirk was referring too as asteroids were spiraling around a planet that obviously wasn't the planet Saturn. "He's not dead, not yet anyway." Kirk said.

"But... he took him Kirk...."

"He took him correct, but he isn't dead. During my vision I also learned that I need to allow myself to open up to others instead of keeping it away. Perhaps had I only done this earlier maybe a different outcome would have happened." He opened his palm towards himself he looked at it turning it back and forth. "Strengthening blood is what I call my unique gift. It's similar to both Jacan and Sam as far as strength goes but of course mine is a whole different aspect. My blood is different from an average human and due to that blood it enhances my body beyond average humans. As you witnessed, I can open huge doors made of steel with no effort, run far faster then anyone else here, and endurance that last hours. These are only few out of many things I can do casually without ever exerting myself. Into more advance knowledge I can purposely bleed out from different parts of my face onto my skin to increase myself. How that makes sense? I don't honestly know. If I had ever came in contact with someone's blood I not only know their type of blood, I know if they are alive or not. You see, I don't know if you ever knew this or this may be a me only thing but I receive two distinct scents. One that means alive and another deceased."

Amazing...

"Dakota is alive believe me I wouldn't joke about his life." He stated in which I nodded my head. "I can also regenerate any part of my body given enough time and it isn't continous damage. I found that out when I lost my finger, most of my foot from some knuckle heads dropping heavy steel on it, and most of my arm when Jacan snapped it by accident in a arm wrestling match. It was how I healed your hand. I can say that I am immune to blood loss as it seems impossible due to my regenerative properties and unique blood qualities. Pretty impressive right?" He asked me as he stood up at the ledge. "It's not much but I wanted to say this to you. I am sorry for all of this. I should have never been so ignorant at a time like this. Please forgive me?"

Standing up I walked over near him. "Don't be sorry, don't ever be sorry."

A soft smile crept of his face but then it quickly faded away continuing to look into the distance. "Over the long years, I've tried converting my sexuality in any means possible. Crazy, I know but I needed to try something. So, I did something no one else would ever think of." He paused once more turning all the back around, "you can come out Isabella."

Isabella? I followed his direct motion and what my eyes were laid upon left me in complete shock. There was a girl just standing no more then a few feet away from me locking eye contact with me. Her extremely long brown hair that nearly touched the back of her knees flowed in the winds as she stood with her arms crossed and a powerful smile on her beautiful pale youthful well kept face. In a pale orange jumpsuit, similar to that of a sunset on earth she stood only a few inches shorter then me possibly around five feet four inches tall. "Nice to meet you, Zach." She said putting out her small hand.

Still in absolute shock I managed to find myself shaking her petite rather soft hand. "Same to you, Isabella. Wait! This is what you meant by conversion?! How did you even manage to cross islands?! Without succumbing to the extreme temperatures in space?!"

"Those dark clouds above the pathways act as barriers to keep air in. I first found out about it when I just happened to climb the tallest tree on my island just to see what was out there." Isabella then took a step closer grabbing a hold of my cheeks. "You were right Kirk, he is absolutely gorgeous!" Hearing what Kirk had said about me to this girl left me blushing as well did he quickly turning away from us. She undid the upper half of my jumpsuit zipping it all the way down to my waist. "Wow! And he's in shape too with low body fat percentage." Tracing from my chest to my abdomen.

SHE'S VIOLATING ME!

"Now we just need to check that little package of yours..." She said as she grabbed a hold of my waistband.

"I'LL PASS!" Pulling away from her hands.

Isabella smiled deviously at me not bothering to chase me around. "Remember those numbers you showed me a while back?" He paused with a release of a sigh, "Those were the number of attempts I tried in different ways to convert myself with Isabella's help who also had the same idea. 3210 times we kissed, 587 times we had made out, 216 times we touched one another sexually, and 121 times we had intercourse. 4134, is the number of times in these many years I have tried to convert myself. Eventually, we gave up because it wasn't going anywhere however that didn't stop us from becoming greatest of friends. That explains why I am gone for long periods of time because I am hanging with her either up here or at the other island."

Hearing how Kirk was opening to me about virtually everything was not only showing he trusted me, but he was changing for the better.

"Are you ready to tell him the last thing?" Isabella asked him from the side of me.

I saw that his postured had tightened from the back. Yet he still nodded his head beginning to take slow deep breaths. "Y-y-yes...." he stuttered turning his whole body to me and rose his hand to his zipper. "I-I-I have a deep confession to make. A long time ago, one day I had figured out a way to actually get out of here. It had something to do with same device we discovered together. It was different back then, Hyptant had no issues with us going into his office back then. He was confident that we were too dumb to figure anything out. One day, after repeated visitations to his office and observing how it worked I successfully concluded what I needed to do to get the hell out of here. Jacan, my best friend at the time was also let in on my plan so we could escape together. For some reason, he was against us escaping afraid that we may not end up where we want to go, end up back here, or worse die. We had got into a huge argument that eventually broke our friendship up and at the point I had no reason to stay any longer than I had too. Just as I was so close to leaving, Jacan intercepted my plans telling Hyptant about everything I had done. I was snatched right up and taken straight to his office that day." Grabbing a hold of his zipper I saw that his eyes began to water. "In my previous life I was lucky enough to never have been savagely beaten. But here, at Hyptant's hands? He wanted to make sure I would NEVER try to escape again."

Pulling his zipper down to his waist Kirk opened it all the way up allowing to hang loosely. "Oh my god...." I said covering my mouth from gasping. His entire body both back and some of his front was covered in brutal deep old scars. He fell to his knees sobbing uncontrollably in which both I and Isabella hugged him tightly as he cried. "Kirk, it's okay!" I told him as I rubbed his soft skin trying my best to avoid coming in contact with his scars. "Its okay..."

"Just promise me this one thing. Don't hate Jacan for what he did years ago. Now looking back at it I most likely would have ended back here within a few hours. Promise me that this will forever stay between us three okay Zach?"

It still didn't change the fact that Jacan had ratted you out Kirk. Even if you would have ended up back here it doesn't change the fact that Jacan had helped the enemy once upon a time. And I honestly found that absolutely disgusting. However, I will have to respect his wishes and keep this promise. "I promise, Kirk." I replied, secretly happy inside that he actually used my name for the first time ever. I couldn't stress enough that he let out all his secrets to me and it made me feel so good inside. Kirk eventually ended up hugging us back giving me a warm fuzzy feeling inside my stomach.

With a final sniff Kirk pulled back looking at my revealed body. "Your hot." He smiled.

"I can say the same about you." I complimented back, also smiling back at him. "To be honest, I think your even hotter with those scars." He begun laughing as did Isabella.

I learned a lot of things about Kirk this very night and I couldn't say I wasn't proud of his own growth.

"Now that everything is off my chest. Its about time us three discuss a way to save our friend and get the hell out of this place."

Back in my original room, I was greeted by my roommates who I haven't seen in quite some time. Parker, Hayden, Rodney, along with the rest of us all gathered around. If we were already on route to our deaths, then we need to prepare everyone even faster. "According to Hyptant, we have now two days before we reach his planet. As you already know, once we reach the planet we're all going to be eaten alive. Kirk and I have already devised a plan but due to unfortunate circumstances we need to bull rush this operation. That's why you are all here right now."

"As crazy as it sounds, we need to kill Hyptant. We can't do anything if he's constantly on our backs. Even if we were to escape, the bastard would just teleport us back. In order to kill him everyone with some type of power needs to be on the frontlines." It was time to analyze our fighters knowing their greatest strengths and weaknesses. One on one, we stood no chance but together? We had the greatest chance of success.

Jacan Henry, his unique gift is what I called Overwhelming Presence. Jacan's body was made with a material to that of titanium or possibly even harder then that. His body is so durable that he can't be hurt even by the warden himself. Not only is his durability is absurdly high, Jacan has tremendous physical strength. One punch from him caused a powerful tremble in the colosseum that made even some people fall over. He has lifted massive trees and swung them around as if they were toys. He also has superhuman speed despite his body holding him back. As far as I knew, his only weakness is stamina. He has to uphold the body and when under stress it puts more strain on his body. Five minutes in battle and he'll be down for the count.

Kirk Lakeland, his unique gift is Strengthening Blood. Out of all the individuals with supernatural abilities. I would say he has the most versatile thus far. Kirk has told me he can track people by their blood, immune to blood loss, heal if given enough time, and boost his already impressive physical attributes. He has insane stamina to last him hours at a time and is possibly faster then even Sam as he stated he's faster then anyone else here. For weaknesses, I have not a clue what weaknesses he may have.

Kyzarian, I have no name for his unique gift just yet. However, he is capable of conjuring magical mystic energy from his hands. He also has shown that he can hold his own when put in a predicament against the likes of King Alexander.

While those three were powerful in their own right, we needed more and that meant only one thing. Yes, it was time for me to try to go through with it. The three other original prisoners had to be on our side for this.

Sam Whitehorse, The Hype Man. As much as I hated to admit this, Sam could be one of our greatest trump cards to defeat Hyptant. Thanks to his ability, he could gain energy from every single prisoner here to boost his own strength. There are thousands of prisoners here on this island, that could very well help out! Not only that, I believe we can give a percentage of own without hurting ourselves too much. Jacan and Kirk giving even five percent of their own strength could greatly enhance Sam even better. Alexander, Charley, and Kyzarian would make it even greater.

Charley Smithens, Power Scream. Charley has a scream so powerful it can send a tree flying through several others and create massive craters. If at the right frequency, it can cause permanent deafness to Hyptant taking out a great sense. I just hope that I can convince the bastard as he's the biggest issue so far.

Alexander The III, Adapting Elements. Even seeing him fight only so briefly I could see why Alexander was so powerful. Equipped in full suit of classic shining knight armor from medieval times. It is safe to assume that it's up there in tough durability. But that isn't what makes him so dangerous. Alexander can summon melee weapons on the fly for whatever he needs in that moment. Not only that, he can control imbue his summoned weapon with a type of element. As witnessed when he used an attack called great slash. An horizontal swinging attack that infused both air and blue fire together.

Not to mention what abilities could be in store for me and possibly Percy so we could also help in the battle.

"I still can't fathom this... this has been our home for so long and now... we need to leave or else we'll die." Parker said. "How will we survive?"

I understood where he was coming from. Everyone in this room is significantly older then me, besides maybe Percy who isn't really that far from knowledge when it comes to earth. People who were much older like the original five were ancient relics of the past. However, I am here and I will help them all adjust to the home they had left for so long.

"Don't worry about that Parker. Just don't worry. What is important is that we get out of here together. No one will be left behind." He nodded his head gripping his partner's hand tighter.

Jacan then stepped forward, "so where will be having this battle? We can't fight him in the office or we might destroy the device."

"Correct," I replied, "I have already decided that if we are going to fight Hyptant, our best bet is too fight him in the colosseum. Plenty of room for you all to attack at once without running into one another."

I saw Jacan nod his head at me looking down at Kirk who was drawing on the floor. "If we are to do this right. There will need to be everyone giving it their all without holding back. Take my word for it, Hyptant is an incredibly difficult opponent to take on. Even overwhelming him is not going to be enough. There is a reason why he's so laid back with everything and he has every right to be. He predicts your moves faster then you even think. But there is a way to overcome that and that is going to be attacking each of his senses."

"Hyptant has five senses, just like the rest of us. Hearing, sight, taste, touch, and smell. From my experience he has better use of them then even the greatest of humans. Five of us will be assigned a sense to attack while everyone else distracts him. Who is given that sense to diminish will be a group decision. Basically, who is best fit for that role. There are six of us with gifts meaning one is going to have to be a distraction."

While it was obvious that Jacan was suited for that role. There was only so long he could last before he gave out.

"I could be the distraction...." I said leading to everyone looking at me as I was crazy. "What?"

"Your insane! He'll kill you in one blow!" Percy exclaimed.

I then shook my head, "no he won't and you want to know why? I'm considered a high quality food product. He's going to want to keep me in top shape and he's even stated that he'll eat me very slowly while alive. I'm perfect for this guys Hyptant will not crush me."

Kirk then stood to his original posture. "That could work actually. That gives us a higher percentage to overwhelm him even easier. I see no issues with this if we're looking at it from different perspectives. Guys, we need to trust one another. I know Zach can handle this." He smirked at me.

He used my name....

Then it was settled, I was going to be the distraction for this escape operation. Time to go back to our real home, earth. Don't worry Anthony, I'll see you soon and thank you for not giving up on me even after three years have passed on earth.