Alex: I Didn't Sign Up For This

Alex, Grant, and Alguro all gathered around there nightly fire. A night sky sprawled above them. The glittering stars in the vast heavens glimmering brilliantly. Branches and logs sprawled across the ground around them. A trio of camping chairs, yet Alguro at a table made from vines entangled so tightly it doesn’t let anything through, still in a rather rich and lively color. If you were to take a closer look one would realize that they are growing from the ground to form it. A bowl of unopened chocolate bars and next to it two bags of marshmallows. Around the fire Grant and Alex are toasting marshmallows and a box of graham crackers sitting beside each of the three chairs. Alex puts his marshmallow to close to the fire and it ignites. He pulls it away blowing on it to put it out. Grant on the opposite end of him laughing about it. Accidentally setting his into the heart of the blaze and completely burning it. What was once a marshmallow is now nothing more than a bleeding gooey husk of white molten sugar. As it ignites grant continues to laugh he pulls it off his stick by scraping it around a metal ring containing the fire. Alguro glances behind him as the scene unfolds before his eyes and not his robe, something which he hasn’t witnessed in a long time, and smiles at the two boys. He turns back and grabs another bag of marshmallows and three chocolate bars.

“You know you are supposed to be toasting those not burning them right?” Alguro says to them.

The warm smile still sprawled across his face. He comes over to the fire and joins the two boys. As they are roasting their marshmallows and joking around the pool of the fountain, sitting adjacent to them begins to wave. It climbs up into the mirror and Father Time’s face sits in the mirror. “Alguro, where are you. I have some grave news.” Father’s voice echoes across the grove and even over the laughter and crackling of the fire. Grant and Alex share worried looks before looking up to see Alguro’s reaction. Alguro’s face knotted in worry stands up and walks over to the mirror. The two boys follow closely so as to sit on a bench in front of the mirror taking their seats.

“Yes Father, what is it?” Alguro says cautiously.

“You have a new mission, should you choose to accept it know that there is grave dangers ahead. There will be dead and you cannot avoid it this time.” Father replies.

Alguro looks at the two boys and they nod their heads in agreement. Even with the lurking fear that one of them will die with this request.

“We accept, what is the mission.” Alguro says his voice cracking just slightly.

“A demon from the realm of hell made it through and is trying to destroy the world. He claims himself to be Lucifer to the human world so he can will them to his enslavement. Already thousands have died. You need to get down there quickly and take care of this.” Father says.

As the two boys stand up they look at one another and begin to get ready to go for the most grave request they have taken in the year they have been here. “You think we got this one Alex?” Grant says his voice slipping with worry. Alex looks at him with his now normal crooked smile, “Of course we do, especially if Alguro comes with us, this is grave enough for him to be by our side.”

“Yeah I guess you’re right, shall we?”

Alex nods his head they look forward and say, “From the ends of time and the expansions of the heavens. We call upon your power to give us the armor fallen from the heavens and the weapons of time.”

They begin to glow, getting brighter and brighter. When the glow fades away they have new garb on them. Grant’s armor resembled the romanticism of samurai yet small enough to freely move within. His helm charred red with an opening for his face, carved to fit him but above his forehead a small, obsidian black, crescent is formed. His torso armor sharing the charred red color scheme but it is pointed outward towards the middle. The back being like a meat tenderizer grated to points. His legs were covered with chainmail and an iron kilt so he could freely manipulate his entire legs. In one hand a shield with an insignia of a lone flame. Beginning with yellow in the middle but blending into red as it expanded outward. A slight purple glow detailed around the flame. In his other hand a Katana with a curved edge. But the edge was made reversed, making the blade’s edge point towards him. Alex’s garb was baggy military print cargo pants and an oversized black t-shirt. A leather cloak covered his face where his eyes were they glowed with a hint of red. A belt held up his cargo pants. Wrapped around his belt was an assortment of tools. A whip coiled through one loop. A pouch hung from the belt clanging around inside with each step was throwing daggers. Another pouch had a plastic tube poked out the top. It was a blow dart with darts each individually pouched. Sewn into his right pocket was a pen pouch with a fountain pen sitting inside. On the back of his shirt an insignia of an audio visualizer with each bar a different color. Alguro finishes up his discussion with Father Time before coming to the two boys. He looks between the two and even with the circumstances he bears a smile. Not just any smile, one that they both have come to know all too well. Behind the warmth something dark was coming but they gave it no attention

“Alright, where are we going specifically? Been getting kind of bored cooped up here anyway.” Grant says.

“You will be going to a little town in the United States. When you first touchdown there you will see it is still intact but if you fail the town will be destroyed.” Alguro says to them.

“Wait you are coming with us aren’t you Alguro? This is something that we need more than just us two for.” Alex replies worried.

“Yes I should be going with you, but Father claims it is too dangerous. We need a keeper of the grove or something like that. As much as he is wise he still likes to see how things play out with new Guardians.”

Grant pulls Alguro aside to talk to him one on one, “You realize that we might not make it back right?”

“Yes I know that, but I have no other choice, take the lamp and if you get in a pinch pour out the oil. It will bring a guardian from another grove to aid. That will surely take care of this demon.” Said sternly, Alguro grabs the lamp seemingly from out of thin air and holds it out for grant to take. Grant takes it reluctantly and ties it to his waist. They both go back to Alex who has so much fear you could feel it emanating from his gaze. Looking at the fountain picture of the small town where they are headed faded in and out of the rippling water. Grant and Alex only shared a glance before looking at Alguro. They fist bump and cannon ball into the pool. Diving through it not knowing how or where the portal may actually lead out. Upon resurfacing on the other side the two hear screaming. Both of them are dripping from the water of the fountain. They gaze towards the screams. A rather large group of people were sprinting towards and past the two. Grant looks up and sees what the people are screaming about. A giant lurking shadow sprawled across the earth and protruding from about the middle of the town was a figure that was much bigger than the shadow. He nudges Alex and points at the figure.

“Great Zeus almighty, whatever that is it’s huge” Alex says.

Grant just grins and replies with,

“I don’t think I’ll ever get used to you being a Greek pagan.”

He starts jogging towards the creature immediately followed by Alex. They end up near the town’s high school. The walls made up of a tan brick. With massive amounts of chips and chunks from corrosion across the many years it has clearly stood there. Showing the red underbelly of the paint which was also chunked out. Across nearly the middle is a giant emblem of a devil’s face with an S blocking out some of it. Sprawling across the building is a huge concrete desert. Empty parking spaces from end to end, seemingly dead. As you followed the concrete it met a fenced in track and field with people running laps. Almost as if they couldn’t see the creature. A small pathway that the two began to follow split the track and three baseball fields. A park with its pieces sprawled about wrapped in plastic or on pallets, clearly in the process of being taken down.

“You got your pen on you don’t you Alex?” Grant yells as he continues to run down the pathway and taking a turn. Alex following closely, “Yes I do why?”

“There is something that looks like a road down at the end of this, think you could write us up a motorcycle or something?” Grant asks.

“You bet, with no issue ma.”

“A Neopagan and acting like you can speak ghetto, still shocks me.”

“Shut up and let me draw this up for us.”

Alex pulls out his pen from a small pocket. It was made up of bronze gears and cogs encasing the ink tube. As he raises his hand to the air to write something the gears and cogs start harmonizing, working in perfect unison. As he began to draw the ink actually sprawled out on the air like a blank page. His hands working so fast yet so formal, creating a near perfect drawing of a Harley pan head and an old world war two era liberator. Once finished the cogs follow suit, the drawings keeping up with the two in speed. Slowly the drawings begin to burn away, when the final lines burn away the duo burst through them and they burst to burning ash flailing in the wind. Grant slows down looking to the park and does a double take. Now looking around in an attempt to see someone that he knows isn’t there anymore. He turns towards the road and catches up to Alex. Once there Grant watches in never ending amazement as the drawings that just faded away into the wind were now rolling up with no driver. The only difference being the colors of each bike. The pan head had a red base color with hints of orange in order to complement the scheme. The other is painted in old faded forest camo. Just like what was used during the war. The engines hummed with great intimidation. Grant wastes no time and hops on the pan head, and just for fun decides to rev the motor. While doing so it roars to a new life and echoes on the streets. Car alarms surrounding them begin to go off with no one to turn them off quite yet.

“I’ll meet you up there Alex, don’t keep me waiting though. Gonna need you to take this thing down. This road interconnects to the main street down at the end. When you get there take a left and head straight down. I think it's down there.” Grant says before he speeds off.