Chapter 4

"Jesus fucking christ save me!" Chaz screamed as he woke up in a hospital bed. He suddenly realized that he was no longer in the school, he was in a white room with a bed, two chairs, a single window and a curtain cutting off the rest of the room. Chaz took a deep breathe when suddenly Near pulled back the curtain at extreme speed, "It's the year ten thousand, you have just awoken from a coma from which you've rested for thousands of years. You are the sole survivor of the human race and must avenge your people by destroying the robots that destroyed your species." Chaz closed his eyes and rubbed his head, "No offence Admiral but that sounds terrible." Near sat in one the chairs, "Yeah, who'd like a story about humans with futuristic weapons fight against a powerful advanced enemy?" Near looked away from Chaz and blinked. Chaz opens his eyes, "What happened back there, the last thing I remember was being choked and then nothing." Near strokes his chin, "Well, what seems to have happened is I was wrong." Chaz looked at Near confused, "Yeah believe me it's weird for me to." Chaz rolled his eyes, "I'd like an explanation." Near slouched, "Fine, whatever. It seems that the serum gave you a power I'd never seen before. When you were almost killed you lost consciousness and your instincts took over, turning you into a perfect warrior. It seems to be triggered in life or death scenarios, a last resort, although it could have some other type of trigger, perhaps emotion." Chaz's eyes widened, "That explains why my last thoughts were of Jonathan and Toby." Near closed his eyes and stroked his chin, "It's possible that this is just a premature form, it's possible that you could master it, or maybe your strength depends on the situation. Regardless, this means you have a power, a powerful one at that." Chaz's eyes lit up, "You mean…" Near opened his eyes and smirked, "You are going to Keys Academy." Chaz began to stand up when he heard something crack and lied back down, "Ow that hurts." Suddenly Chaz's joy was overcome by another thought, "Wait what about the attack on the city? What happened to my family?" Near's smirk faded and tears began welling up in Chaz's eyes, "Well… You're parents and younger brother are fine and your older brother has minor injuries but will recover." Chaz's tears went away and he sighed, "Did you speak with them about me going to Keys?" Near smirked again, "It took some negotiating and about one hundred thousand dollars but I managed to convince them." Chaz was unsurprised that that was all it took. Near stopped smiling and looked deep into Chaz's soul, "I did have to promise them one thing however. I would have to train you so hard that you'd want to return home within months." Chaz thought to himself, "Maybe they do care, although they must realize they played themselves." Chaz smirked, "The harder the training, the better I'll be." Near nodded, "That's an excellent mind set for the last student of this year." "That reminds me, when will we be leaving?" Near walked up to the window, which was covered by curtains, "About that." Near slid the curtains back to reveal the Earth getting ever farther away. Chaz's jaw dropped and he stood up. Chaz walked with a limp to stand next to Near, "Where are we?" Near turned to look at Chaz, "We are aboard the frigate Gladiator, on our way to Wormhole station zero one, to take us to the Epsilon Eridani Sector, where your training will begin." The Heavy Frigate passes by the moon, the city of Lunas visible by the naked eye, approaching a massive ring in orbit of the sun. When the ship is within ten kilometers, the ring is filled by a shiny blue and black void. The ship accelerates and goes through the portal as a mere speck compared to the grand scale of it, Near put his hand on Chaz's shoulder, "You see the good thing about this is that now the author doesn't have to worry about his flaws when writing family drama." Chaz shook Near's hand off his shoulder, "Quiet now." Chaz looked out the window with amazement at the streaks of many different colors going around them, "I've never gone through a wormhole before." Near sits back down, "It allows us to travel three point seven thousand times the speed of light with no physical hindrance." Chaz, still looking outside, corrects Near, "Actually three point eight thousand." Near frowned in annoyance as he left the room.