In the year 2020, a mysterious energy appeared on Earth. It was first found in the air after a test showed some sort of unknown element. But soon it became clear that this energy was everywhere.
Humans, animals, plants and even building materials were found to contain small traces of the energy. Every single thing that you could find on Earth, had a very small bit of the energy inside of it.
At first, scientists didn't know what it was, except that it probably wasn't harmful. But they certainly didn't know for sure.
In the end, it was a random Chinese martial artist who was the first to find out.
He'd discovered that it was a sort of strengthening energy. Just from it lingering inside of your skin, bones and muscle tissue, your body was strengthened somehow.
And he made one more discovery.
Through a process of meditation and training, you could draw more of this energy inside of your body, strengthening it further. He dubbed this process cultivation.
But most of the information he kept secret, only telling a select few.
Publicly he only told people small parts of it. With only that little information to go on and without a teacher for guidance, very few were able to learn the process of cultivation.
*****
In the vast dark empty expanse of space.
A giant fleshy looking object was hovering above a beautiful blue planet.
Despite it's weird shape, it was in fact an interstellar spaceship, one capable of travelling to other planetary systems at remarkable speed.
Inside a certain room aboard this spaceship, a strange sort of creature sat on the floor, it's legged crossed and eyes closed. His silhouette was like a well trained man's, but his face was far from human. A pair of mandibles the most obvious of the inhuman traits covering his face, of which there were many.
Wearing a kind of uniform, his skin that was a muted red, was only barely visible. Still, just from the bit that could be seen, it was clear that it was no ordinary skin. The appearance of it was glossy and smooth, very akin to that of a beetle's exoskeleton. And it was very likely that it was just as hard and solid.
Without warning, a door inside the room slid open, and another one of these creatures walked in and bowed before the seated creature.
"What is it?" The seated one's mandibles clicked as it spoke in a very deep and mechanical, grating sort of voice.
"The time is up, it has been six months since the earthlings discovered the true use of Aether." The new creature spoke respectfully to the other one.
"Finally. The slowest of a hundred races it seems. What are your predictions for them Xeltroth?"
"It is not my place to make predictions High Praetor."
"Humor me." The High Praetor grinned, showing it's sharp insect like teeth.
"It is my personal belief that the earthlings will not achieve much."
"A very sober prediction.. But nonetheless, it is one I agree with," The High Praetor ran a hand over it's head, a head that was a lot wider than it was long, "You can leave now, I trust you to take care of the remaining preparations and inform the mothership. I will address Earth soon, it is about time we got things started."
*****
After the use of the energy had been discovered, lots of people had begun making use of it. Dojos specializing in the training of it, and combat making use of it, had even begun to pop up.
The first of these dojos was one started by the Chinese martial artist, who was known by the name Li Jie. Through using his name as marketing, it had been successful enough to open many branches all over the world.
But it was very expensive to train there, and definitely not something Kaden could afford.
No, he was training in some run down place in the slums. A place run by a retired boxer that Kaden just referred to as old man.
It was in this dilapidated building he was training right now, slugging away at a punching bag.
His strikes echoed rhythmically in the gym's empty darkness.
It was dark out and the light had been turned off to save money on power, and everyone else had already stopped training here months ago.
However, the old man who owned the place had given Kaden a key so he could come and go as he wished.
Well, it was only natural after all. This boxing gym was Kaden's second home, and had been for the last two months now. In fact, he actually stayed over here a lot more than he did at his real home.
His meeting with the old man was a bit of a chance encounter, but one that he looked fondly on.
It had been a regular kind of day as Kaden was returning home from school. But the truth was that there wasn't much home to return to, so as always, he took as long as possible on his way back to the foster home where he lived. It was just nicer staying out, than being cooped up in that suffocating house.
He'd seen the boxing gym and had assumed it to be abandoned, so he decided to go exploring inside. It wasn't something he hadn't done before when coming upon abandoned buildings.
It was probably due to all the news about the mysterious energy strengthening you, that when he saw a punching bag, he started playing around and hitting it. He quickly got lost in his own world, it was kind of cathartic to just punch away at something. It was at this moment that the owner had come in and caught him.
But well, things hadn't turned out so bad.
The old man was in a good mood, and happy to see someone appreciating what he had once dedicated his own life to. There weren't that many members who still trained in the gym, and most of the ones that did, spent all their time complaining about the facilities. It was nice to see someone who appreciated the place, even if it really was in a bad state.
At first he had just let Kaden train here as he pleased, coaching him a little here and there. But the stupid boy almost never left, only going to school once in a while.
He had inquired about Kaden's parents, and learned that the boy didn't have any. And his foster parents didn't seem to care much for the boy, indifferent towards when he came and went.
To make it easier for Kaden to come and go, and also to give him some leverage so that he could force him to go to school, the old man gave him a key. Since then, Kaden just stayed over here most nights, sleeping on a couch in the old man's office.
And well, at first Kaden had come to school more, but it didn't last for long. The old man threatened to take away the key, but it didn't do much and he soon gave in. The boy only had a mind for boxing.
Despite his wavering focus, the rhythmic thuds of a glove striking a punching bag continued to ring out endlessly.
But he was soon disturbed and pulled out of his trance as his phone started vibrating.
He ran over to his bag where he had it stashed, wondering just who could be calling him.
Picking it up, he didn't see a caller id on the cheap knock off phone, but the phone was still vibrating.
He unlocked it but was just met with a black blank screen, the phone still endlessly vibrating.
"Cheap shit!" Getting frustrated, he tried to turn the phone off, but the button wasn't doing anything. His phone didn't respond to any of his clicks or taps.
He began to shake the phone and lightly knocking it against the wall to try and get it working again.
"Urghh," The vibrating was so incredibly annoying. He felt like throwing the phone to the ground and smashing it just so it would stop, but there was no way he could afford a replacement.
And then… Just as he wanted to give up hope, the vibrating ceased. Quiet once more returned to the empty boxing gym.
He let out a sigh, feeling as if a great annoyance had just been removed and he could relax.
"Greetings citizens of Earth," A voice came out over the phone's speakers.
Kaden brought the phone back up to look at it, and was now greeted with the sight of an alien looking creature staring back at him.
"What's this now? Piss off already," Kaden continued to shake his phone in frustration.
"Remain calm, this is merely a service announcement," The creature's voice continued to transmit through the speakers.
Kaden paused, confused. Was this a service announcement from the government? But then, why the hell was the person on the screen dressed in such a wacky costume?
He realized that it could still be a prank, but something about it drew him in and made him want to listen to the message.
"As of now, it has been almost a full year since Aether, what your media has referred to as the mysterious energy, first appeared on your planet. The truth is this energy did not appear on your planet due to mere fate, rather, it was always there, dormant. My race simply did the favor of releasing it for you all. You're welcome."
Kaden snorted, who did this arrogant thing think he was? Speaking about his race and all.
"Of the one hundred races who had their Aether released at the same time, you were the slowest to figure out the use of it. Of one hundred races, your current ranking is all the way at the bottom.
"Still, we are benevolent and offer you a second chance so that you may remedy this. Exactly 24 hours from now, the 14th New Race Tournament will commence. 10 of your best fighters will be selected for this opportunity. Do your best."
And with those final words, the video feed cut off as the screen turned back to a blank black. With that, Kaden also noticed that he had regained control of his phone, the screen and buttons responding to his inputs.
In the quiet by himself, he was just left with confusion. What was that? It didn't make any sense.
Now that he thought about it, that thing on the screen made for a very convincing alien. But it couldn't be could it? It was way more likely to just be some sort of hack, done just to prank him, maybe a few others too.
Yeah that was definitely it, the more he thought of it, the surer he grew. It didn't seem to be anything to worry about, he only had a cheap knockoff phone after all. It didn't take much to hack a cheap piece of shit like that, it probably had horrible security.
Assured that it wasn't a big deal, he packed up his things and slung his bag over his shoulder.
He'd already gotten too distracted and wasn't in the mood to go back to training. Besides, he knew it was good to go home and show his face once in a while. He wasn't worried about his foster parents missing him, there was no chance of that. No it was more like… He craved any semblance of normalcy he could have.
And well, maybe the other kids missed him. It had been a bit over a week since he'd last gone home after all.
Putting on his jacket, he left the gym, locking the door behind him.
The winter night was dark and chilly, a breeze blew past instantly making him shiver from the cold. He pulled his hood up and pulled the zipper up as far as it would go, covering most of his lower face. It would keep him warm enough.
Standing alone on the sidewalk, he began the long walk to go home.
As he walked, his confusion grew more and more visible on his face. At first he hadn't thought much of it, but the further he walked, the more apparent it became.
The streets were completely empty.
As far as his eyes could see, there wasn't a single person other than him walking around outside.
Lights were turned on in houses, clearly there were people inside. But there was no one out on the streets, not a single breathing soul besides himself.
He'd never seen anything like this before. It was late sure, but most people his own age and older would still be up. Only the young kids or the elderly would've gone to sleep.
Something made him think of the supposed service announcement from earlier, but he quickly shook it off, "Coincidence." He told himself and kept walking, head down to prevent the wind from blowing on his face.
His fingers had gone stiff from the cold as he finally came upon the familiar steps, leading up into the house he called home. It was strange to think of it like that, because it really wasn't much of a home to him. But it was the best he had.
He walked up the steps and rapped his knuckles against the door before unlocking and opening it. It was always good to give his foster father a bit of warning, or he'd probably be confused as to who was coming in at this time. It was best for everyone in the house to just keep him calm.
Closing the door behind him, he took his jacket off and hung it up on the coat stand.
"Who is it? Is it you boy?" An arrogant male voice called from the living room, the TV clearly audible in the background.
"Yeah, just me." He yelled back and made his way to the living room, where his foster father sat glued in front of the TV screen, watching some sort of news program.
In a rare occurrence, the man turned his head to watch Kaden, "Guess that announcement frightened even you enough to come back huh?" The man bared his teeth in a grim derisive smile, clearly mocking him.
"Announcement?" Kaden's eyes went wide.
"Hah! Don't tell me you didn't see it boy." The man started laughing mockingly, clearly very pleased.
"No, I saw it. You did too?"
The man was a bit disappointed, but continued to explain nonetheless, "Boy I think just about everyone in the country either watched or heard it, they've been talking about it on the news all night." The man gestured back to the TV where the news section was on, a small picture taken of the alien was overlaid in the top right corner.
"How the…" Kaden almost stuttered, "I thought it was just a hack or something." He blurted out more information than he meant to.
"Hahaha, you scared? The aliens are finally here, the end is near!" The man started laughing again, then turned his attention back to watching the TV.
"Looks like you're still all fucked in the head," Kaden mumbled.
"You say something boy?" The man turned back around, his eyes locking with Kaden's in a threatening manner.
"No, nothing." Kaden kept his head down.
Keep the peace, don't make him angry… Keep the peace, don't make him angry… He kept repeating these words to himself inside his head over and over, just like a mantra.
"Alright, then what are you doing standing there? Get on out of here, I'm trying to watch the news." The man dismissed him, more eager to go back to watching his program.
"…" Kaden sighed, the man really was fucked in the head. There was no point in staying here and trying to learn anymore from him. Besides, he'd already talked way more with him than he wanted to.
He made his way up the staircase, considering what he should do.
His foster father Bill had been obsessed with aliens, UFO's and conspiracy theories ever since he'd known him. He was far from a trustworthy source, but what he said was still true, the alien announcement was on the news. And it fit perfectly with everything else too.
Sitting down at the top of the staircase, he took out his phone and went on the internet.
Browsing around, he quickly discovered a multitude of articles talking about the alien announcement.
Some made bold predictions, speaking of unknown horrors and post apocalyptic scenarios. But that wasn't what stood out to him.
It was that these articles came from all over the world, that the comments and participants on them spoke a slew of languages.
So it was for real then. Not just a simple hack. There was no way any kind of organization on Earth could take over all electronics and broadcast the same message all at the same time, to every country in the world.
Aliens had been monitoring Earth for a year? Was he being watched at this very moment? The very thought was enough to make him kind of paranoid, just like Bill…. Urgh, he hated making those comparisons. The last thing he wanted was to be anything like that man.
But, come to think of it. What was it that, "Alien" as he now knew it was, had spoken about? Some kind of tournament, and 10 fighters being selected. Now he wished he had paid more attention in the moment.
Still, it wasn't that important now. He stood up and shook his head to clear his thoughts. He wouldn't be selected, so there was nothing to worry about yet, it was all a waste of energy to think about. He would just have to wait and see.
For now, he just wanted to go to bed and catch some sleep. Just talking with Bill was enough to exhaust him.
Silently, he made his way to a door and opened it, careful not to be too loud. He didn't want to wake anyone inside the room.
He moved on his tippy toes over to one of the bunk beds, and crawled into the bottom bunk. Even in the dark, it was easy for him to move around the room.
Lying in bed, he closed his eyes and started to drift off.
A benefit of all the workouts was that sleep tended to come easy. It wasn't long before he was swept away, taken into the dream world.