Prologue #2

Prologue #2: Family Ties

(Alex Kross)

I sat down for breakfast. Mom had made the everyday French Toast with the Omlette. I picked up my bread and bit off a significant chunk of it. Then I chewed it down slowly, thinking about the day ahead. The day everything changed.

SWOOSH!

I Dashed around the Lv16 Pyroclaw, slashing at it with my Daggers. I sliced through its rocky exoskeleton, shattering some of it into his fiery, blazing bloodstream. It roared out in pain and reared up. Then it brought swung it heavy, smoking paw right at my face.

"Eat up, Alex! You got an entire day to tackle. You will need your energy!" My mom egged me on excitedly as I finished my Toast, and gulped down some milk. I looked at her and smiled, I couldn't very well tell her how much I was being picked on by Kent, and his gang at school. I had to just suck it up for another four months, then we'd move out to the countryside. My great grand mother had died last year and she had left us her farmhouse.

I ducked, as the paw swiped above me, ruffling my hair. I could feel the weightlessness in my bones. All this training had finally paid off. I had Leveled up to 34 now, and my Sprint had Evolved to Zap at level 20, and Zap was Level 28 currently. I spun the dagger on my right hand to a stabbing position, and threw down the left Dagger. I used both hands to grab it, and leapt up in the air, split my legs, to move down faster, and brought my blade down hard on the Pyroclaw's neck. My dagger smashed in the exoskeleton, as it exploded and spewed out its fiery blood.

At first I used to get burnt from these, but now I had developed an immunity against it. I got minor scaldings, but no major burns. The Pyroclaw fell down and the System rang out with the Experience notifications. One thing I learnt after my sixth Pyroclaw was that the exoskeleton was a really valuable material in the Shop. I inventoried everything as Lee had told me through our direct messaging. We would sell them later when we met.

And from selling...

"....Janice, we had some extraordinary sales this week, shame I will be quitting so soon..." Dad rambled on at breakfast. I had finished mine and was about to go out to school. I was tying my shoelaces, as the skies darkened and clouded up. Great! Another cloudy day! And y'all know what happened at school that day...

I collected my loot and made my way back to my makeshift base. I Zapped up the trees, it was almost like teleportation for this short distance. I grabbed some of the raw meat from a chicken like monster, and cooked it over the Firestarter. It was delicious.

After that I decided to go around my nightly walk around the forest. Or what was left of it after I had ripped off nearly all the trees or blew up huge craters in the fights. Still it was peaceful in the moon, or as long as I wasn't attacked. The two months period was coming to an end. I was out of contact with Lee, apparently he went abroad on some mission he couldn't tell me about. Nolan also went with him. But Jenny was actually out of grid.

I crashed in my bed, which I had gotten from the city, and dozed off. I had that nightmare again. About the time I went to visit my family, after the Orbs Quest. It was a day after all of us had separated. I had finally decided to go visit my parents, and see how they adapted to the new System. I didn't encounter much monsters, the city was still in ruins, although it was starting to be fixed. Soon, I was at the doorstep of my home, where I hadn't been for the last couple weeks.

I walked up the porch, and took a deep breath as I turned the doorknob. It was unlocked.

I walked in, it looked like no one had been here for quite some time. Well to be fair, I kind of expected my parents to move out of this "cozy" house after the Eclipsion, as Lee said the officials were calling it. I still walked around the dusty living room. I turned on the TV, and all I could see was the No Signal screen. I sighed and plopped down on the couch. I ruffled through the magazines left by dad on the coffee table.

After half an hour or so, I decided to check out the rest of the house too. I made my way towards the kitchen. I regretted it immediately. There was food rotting there, dirty dishes and scattering rodents were all over the floor. I opened the refrigerator, and a whiff of rotten eggs mixed with who knows what hit me. I Dashed out of there on instinct, making a mental note to never let food stay uneaten for two weeks.

I walked upstairs. There was my room on the right, and my parents' room on the left. There was an extra room for guests beside my room. I stroked the dusty wall on the right, tracing a layer clean with my finger.

I reached the door to my room, and placed my hand on the cold doorknob. My heart was thumping. I took a deep breath and turned it.

The door creaked open. Something shot at my face!

I swatted at it instinctively. It was the size of my fist, as it was swiped off the air and it hurt against the wall and slid down. It was just a bat, or was it?

It appeared to have mechanical additions to its body around the eyes and wings. Maybe some mutated monster of the System. No time to worry about useless stuff.

I walked into my room finally. It was dusty like usual. It was left exactly the way I left it on that fateful day. Messy, books scattered, my tablet on the table, beside the bookshelf. I walked over, stroking my table and walls, as I reached the tablet. I picked it up, and tried to turn it on.

Nothing happened. Well I didn't expect anything to happen. I Dashed around and cleaned my room, something I last did when Mom said she would ground me if I didn't clean my entire room, a year ago.

It looked tidier and more welcoming. I just wanted to sink into my bed and sleep. Sleep so long that I wake up and realise all this is just a nightmare. But sadly, I had to train myself for the Hazards. They sounded pretty dangerous.

I looked at my room, one final time. Taking a deep breath, and letting the air out in a whoosh, I decided to check out my parents room.

The door creaked open, revealing a dusty, but nearly arranged room. And what was shocking was-

I jolted up, awake. What I saw back there, was something that I never ever want to remember again. I tried to go back to sleep, but I guess sleep wasn't meant for me tonight...

I had just closed my eyes and almost drifted off when I heard a faint whistling, and staying in the wilderness made my senses go up by a lot. And random whistlings were not common here.

I jerked my eyes open and pricked up my ears, still laid down. I could hear it getting louder... louder... and then.... CRASHHH!!

With that crashing sound, I sat upright and within a second I had Zapped half a mile in the direction of the noise. Within five to ten seconds, I could see the smoke rising at a distance. I slowed down and Dashed there.

There was a crater formed by the explosion. The trees were all bent and broken. The crater was covered in smoke and rubble and broken rocks lay everywhere.

I could hear a faint humming and a pinkish glow among the smoke. I slowly walked, as I took out my Daggers. I took each step carefully, ready to Zap away at a moment's notice. The smoke was clearing slowly, and the glow grew stronger. I finally approached the crater. The smoke had cleared away enough for me to make out what had crashed.

It was a huge cylindrical capsule, glowing pink.