It was early in the morning. Oli was still asleep. Tommy just stood near the entrance of what used to be his parents' room reminiscing of the time his mother used to take him in whenever he had nightmares.
Moments later, as he walks out of the house, he gazes upon the swing that his mother used to sit on while having him and Oli on her lap, difference is, those days, the three were always smiling, but at this moment, Tommy's gaze was from a dead expression on his face.
Walking through a familiar street, Tommy keeps recalling how his mother used to hold his hand whenever the two went out shopping for groceries. Taking a walk further down the street, he comes across a forest on the hillside where he was once lost and started crying until his mother had found him.
Meanwhile…
"Hey look, isn't that the nerd who skipped a grade."
"Yeah, but being a nerd isn't getting her anywhere. The only reason she seems popular is because she is somehow friends with Tommy. It's astounding how people with such stark contrast are so similar."
"Just another nerd without friends haha. No wonder she has no boyfriend."
"Yo hey, why don't you come with us girlie. We can help you be NORMAL haha!"
A bunch of senior guys from the same class as Stefanie start walking in circles around her in an attempt to harass her.
"Hey don't be like that!" One of the guys trying to harass her speaks as he gets his hands onto Stefanie's skirt to pull it up, however, instantly, her hand moves on its own and punches the guy in the face which causes him to fall onto the ground.
Having seen one of their pals being hit by Stefanie, one of them starts to pull her hair but she simply targets her kick in the direction behind her from the same position she stood in which hits the other guy in the crotch and makes him fall down onto the ground as well.
Having seen two of their pals fall, this time they decide to push Stefanie onto the ground and hit her head onto a pillar. Even then, she manages to get up although her sweater gets caught up onto a sharp protrusion from the pillar which makes it tear up.
Just then, Charlie, the one who used to bully Tommy and Stefanie, comes in, to shield Stefanie from these weirdos as he screams, "How dare you try to annoy her!? That's my job you punks! Not yours! It was her new sweater too! Her mum gave it on her birthday! Look what you've done!"
"Hah. What do you mean 'her'? When I tried pulling one up on her skirt, there clearly wasn't something a girl would have between her legs! What are you…? A man? Haha" The guy that had his face punched in by Stefanie, speaks up in an extremely offensive tone of voice.
Having had enough of their disgusting antics, right as Charlie is about to charge onto the gang of weirdos, Stefanie grabs him by the shoulder and asks him to stop which shocks Charlie, however, as Stefanie starts walking towards the gang of weirdos, she takes off her torn sweater and a strange metallic belt can be seen tied around her waist.
"It is time to teach you guys some proper manners." Stefanie speaks up in a condescending manner of speech as mechanic arms start coming out from the back of her metallic belt. Upon seeing the sharp claws on the metallic arms, the gang of weirdos call her a "Freak" and start running away from her, but unfortunately for them, she continues standing there while the arms automatically extend to the direction of all the four weirdos present there.
As the mechanical arms reach each of the weirdos, it grabs them by the collar and smacks their faces in. With all of them knocked out, the mechanical arms combine into one and the claws merge into a giant cuff that holds all of them in place.
"It's about time I report you guys for sexual harassment, bullying and hateful speech to the principal." Stefanie speaks to the gang of weirdos having caught all of them up while Charlie cheers on saying, "Yoo! Those arms are so cool!", to which, with a smile, Stefanie replies, "I know right!?"
After having reported all of them, Charlie blushes a bit and offers Stefanie a free ice cream which she obviously has no objections in taking, but just then, they see Tommy walk across the street with his hands in his pockets, a dead and gloomy expression on his face and his hair covering up one of his eyes.
"Hey! Tommy! What's up?" Stefanie waves at Tommy but he doesn't seem to respond, so she and Charlie directly confront Tommy about it by walking towards him.
"Yo! Tommy! Up for a video game match?" Stefanie asks after grabbing Tommy's shoulder but he simply grabs her hand with his own rather cold hand, looks her in the eye with his dead eye and replies, "Sorry. I've got no time for games today."
Upon seeing the look on Tommy's face, as well as hearing his dead tone of voice, Stefanie's smile wears off into a worried expression as she continues, "It's fine if you don't wanna play. It seems you're not well today. You do know you can talk to me if something is wrong right? I'm here to help!"
"It's none of your business." Tommy replies with a harsh and nonchalant tone of voice without even looking at her which worries her even more while managing to piss Charlie off who charges right at him. Tommy however, immediately notices Charlie's rather slow movements in comparison to himself and knocks him down in such an instant of time that neither Stefanie, nor Charlie could even notice it happening.
"Dude. Your friends are worried about you and this is how you treat them? I know I used to bully you a lot but today, what you did as a friend hurt Stefanie more than any of my bullying ever has. She may not say it but I will! You've got no right to treat your friends like this! We're just worried about you man!" Charlie explains in an angry tone of voice while struggling to get up.
"Charlie stop!" Stefanie exclaims upon hearing Charlie talk so harshly, although he was justified in doing so.
"It's fine. He's right. I am a monster after all. You wanted to hear it so badly why I keep a distance from you guys right? It's because I killed someone. So I suggest you keep your distance from me…" Tommy replies with the same cold and dead tone of his voice before instantaneously disappearing right before Stefanie and Charlie's eyes who were still in shock and disbelief of what Tommy had just said.
"He killed someone…? That can't be right… He isn't like this at all…" Charlie mumbles in disbelief.
"Charlie, forget it. Let him be for sometime. I'm sure he wouldn't just say or do something like that without a strong reason. Let's hope he'll be alright…" Stefanie speaks up with a worried expression on her face.
At the hospital…
Tommy simply gazed through the window at Björn who was unconscious in bed after the many injuries he withstood during the recent ordeal. He enters Björn's room for a short while and leaves a few comic books, movies, games and a letter there for him.
After tying his neckerchief back together properly, he heads out to the military office where Oli and General Takeda were waiting for him.
"We meet again, Tommy!" Takeda speaks up to Tommy with a friendly tone of voice.
"Yeah… Nice to see you again Mr. Takeda!" Tommy replies with a smile, however, his dead eyes were still noticeable.
"Big bro! Mr. Takeda is so cool! He has a real samurai Katana!" Oli exclaims in excitement.
"I know Oli. I met him during the first phase of the military exam." Tommy replies back rather nonchalantly and immediately turns his head to Mr. Takeda, and continues, "So what's the mission about?"
"Our mission is on Planet Shobunak. It is on the list of one of the first planets that human beings were sent to for colonizing. Its native species were the Pryers, a reptilian species reminiscent of dinosaurs who were capable of human levels of intelligence. Upon the visit of the first ancient human beings, the Pryers and the human beings lived in harmony for hundreds upon thousands of years. The Solar System consisted of three out of seven planets with life on them.
All three of them were ruled by the Pryer civilization. The one that was colonized by humans lied between the other two planets. It also happened to be the most advanced out of all three planets with life while also being the planet all Pryers were originally from.
When the Pryer civil war happened, Shobunak, the planet where Pryers and Humans lived together in harmony, chose to stay neutral. In the aftermath of the Pryer civil war, one of the planets that comprised of Pryers had gone extinct and became incapable of hosting life on itself altogether. The planet that won the civil war however had gone through such drastic amounts of destruction that their economy had dropped to an all time low while the planet's habitability was decreasing because of a nuclear winter.
Pryers on Shobunak decided to take Pryers from the other planet as refugees. For the first few months, the Pryers and the humans continued to live in harmony, however, one of the refugees that weren't used to having humans on their home planet clashed with a human shopkeeper who was charging the Pryer extra for being a refugee. The Pryer asked why the human charged him extra, to which, the human replied that due to the infiltration of Pryer refugees, it has become more expensive to get the goods he has in his shops, therefore, 'someone has to pay'.
Since the Pryer was a starving refugee, he was easily pushed back by the shopkeeper who exclaimed to him to get lost if he had no money. Too weak to get up from starvation, due to the heavy traffic on the road, the Pryer got hit by a supplies truck that also happened to belong to a human. News of 'human killing a Pryer' started to spread like wildfire.
Various extremist groups of Pryers had started to form which promoted the sentiment of taking back their former glory by killing off all humans present on their planet. Soon after this, the group of Pryer extremists had bombed a place of worship that was built by human beings. Human beings couldn't tolerate this either and another extremist group had formed that promoted the sentiment of 'ending all Pryer barbarians who couldn't even save their own planet'.
Another internal civil war broke out, this time, between Pryers and human beings. After a hundred or so years, the first intergalactic war broke out between major factions in the universe who were trying to take control of the Intergalactic government. In this war, the Pryers joined the rebels because they refused to ally with a government that consisted of humans in it. Unfortunately, this meant the end for them. One of the generals of the intergalactic army went to Planet Shobunak to ally with them. They proposed a genocide of all Pryers in pursuit of peace.
With nearly all humans on Planet Shobunak coming to an agreement, a full scale genocide of the Pryers had begun. Within 5 years, all Pryers were eradicated, be it the evil ones or even the peaceful ones. Recently however, there were reports of terrorist attacks from Pryers even though over a decade has passed since the first Intergalactic War as well as the complete annihilation of the Pryers.
Our military was a hundred percent sure that all Pryers were completely killed off. Not a single Pryer was seen for over a decade on that planet. In fact, even as the attacks continued, there was no Payer to be found or reported. Our goal is to simply investigate the source of these attacks and stop it. By any chance, if there actually are some Pryers still alive, let us hope to not repeat the same mistake the military did during the war. You guys are free to not join me if you don't want to after hearing the story."
Mr. Takeda recites the entire story as well as the mission details.
"I wouldn't be a hero if I watch people die regardless of who the attacker is! I'm coming!!" Tommy exclaims with a determined look on his face while the shine in his vibrant blue eyes returns once again.
"Me too!" Oli follows up.
"Then it is settled. We're heading there NOW!" Takeda reciprocates their heroic enthusiasm.
As the three walk towards the ship, a mechanic steps out from below the ship with dust on his clothes and face.
"The ship's ready to go, General." The mechanic replies while dusting his clothes off.
"Thanks Joseph!" Takeda replies.
"You must be Tommy, the new recruit. Good luck out there! And thanks for befriending my daughter Stefanie." The mechanic Joseph speaks up to Tommy.
"Wait… You're her father?" Tommy asks.
"Yes, I am. We barely get to meet because of how busy I am with military affairs. Especially with Sina on the run. I think you've already heard of him. We're really close to catching him soon." Joseph replies back.
"I see. Well thank you Mr. Joseph. Try to meet your daughter more often though. She seems to miss you a lot." Tommy replies, to which, Joseph smiles and replies, "Once all this is over, I will!"
"Sina…" Tommy thinks to himself with his dead expression returning to his face once again as he walks right into the ship.
After several hours on the ship, the trio start with their dinner. In the midst of it, Takeda speaks up saying, "My stomach is sort of upset. I was thinking of giving my steak to you guys.", which excites Tommy and Oli, however, Takeda continues, "That is, if you could land a hit on me in a fight. I am getting bored on this ship and we have a fighting area. How about we have a little match. We haven't eaten much, some exercise won't make us nauseated."
Tommy and Oli enthusiastically take up on the offer and the three of them head to the fighting area of the ship.
Takeda and Oli arm themselves with a wooden sword while Tommy gets a plastic polearm. As Takeda finishes his three counts, the three of them begin their duel. Unsurprisingly, being such an experienced general, he easily diverts all hits from the two of them and hits them on the head in no time while taunting them saying, "The steak might rot if you two keep hitting at the speed of a turtle."
Tommy and Oli take some time to whisper something to each other followed by a nod, after which, they take Takeda on from the opposite sides but he simply jumps up and slams the two's heads into each others'.
"Tricks like that won't work on me! No matter the change in direction, if you both hit at the same angle at that speed, nothing is going to be done! You gotta try something more than an upfront hit! A mere balance of offense and defense is nothing if you can't read the room! What if your opponent is double your size?
Your mere defense and a clash of punches would simply end in your loss. Read your opponent. Try to find a weak point. Try to get around it and find a more dynamic hit that doubles the damage on your opponent and nullifies damage on you!" Takeda exclaims.
"Hey look! A space polar bear!" Tommy exclaims while pointing at the ship window which somehow intrigues Takeda into looking back and being hit on the head by both Tommy and Oli who burst into laughter after that.
"How could you fall for that Mr. Takeda haha!?" Oli laughs.
"For real though, that's the most obvious trick in the book!" Tommy laughs as well.
"It's cheating… Besides, you both still used a very upfront hit with no tact or intelligence." Takeda frowns with a slight tear in his eye as he hands the two of them his steak while the two of them ignore his lesson.
Meanwhile on Planet Shobunak…
"We will soon restore the planet and bring about a new era of resurrected Pryers… Thanks to no less than a human being like yourself Sina… You are helping a noble cause by helping us eradicate all humans on this planet…" A Pryer in the attire of a deity speaks up to Sina on top of a faraway hill as raindrops pour down onto the planet.
"It is my pleasure, Lord Akselfer… To undo the all sins of all lifeforms that reside in the universe and to put them in their place alongside the gods. There is no bigger fruit than that for a mortal like myself. However, now that I have set everything up for your goal, I shall take my leave to improve the universe in different ways." Sina replies to the deity the Pryers worship, Lord Akselfer.
"You've done enough. You have the blessing of Lord Akselfer himself to accomplish your noble goals. You may leave." Lord Akselfer replies back to Sina.
"Blessing… I will surely return for it once you meet your demise, you filthy lizard in the name of god…" Sina thinks to himself as he takes his leave.
Back to our heroes…
As the ship lands, the trio of heroes are met with a bunch of scared villagers who ask them to leave the planet immediately or they'd be massacred by the 'Ghost of Pryers' as well.
The trio then decide to ignore the public commotion and to head to the military post only to find it massacred and to see only one officer lodged to a broken chair of all things.
"What happened here!?" Takeda exclaims while Tommy and Oli are shocked.
"I genuinely have no idea… One night everything was okay, the other, I just woke up to see this place massacred… There hasn't been a single sight of a Pryer and I am the only one left on this military post… The population of human beings here came down to a whopping 30% overnight… It is all over… You guys should leave too… The ghost of Pryers might kill you as well…" The officer cried.
"Rest soldier… You've seen enough for one night. We of the anti-terrorism group of the military will not stop until we've saved every last human left here!" Takeda exclaims but the officer still seemed to look scared and continued crying however.
"Good grief…" Takeda thinks to himself.
"What's going on there…" Tommy and Oli mumble upon seeing a bunch of people carry a young girl tied up to a pole towards the forest.
The three of them then rush in front of the group of people while Takeda warns them by saying, "Stop! What is going on here?"
The oldest of the group steps forward saying, "It is merely a sacrifice to god. We got a message from the sky saying that for each young blood, feminine if possible, he would gain the power to stop the attacks from the Pryer ghosts. Every time we have sacrificed, he has gotten us a month's worth of peace. Every time we couldn't however, the attacks of the Pryer ghost continued… Since then, we've made sure to provide willing volunteers of the young blood to-"
"What nonsense! Everybody, head back home! This is a direct order from the General-in-charge of the planet!" Takeda exclaims, however, this agitates the crowd into attacking the three of them.
Suddenly, Tommy's eyes grow pitch black and he starts emitting tons of dark binding energy yet again upon seeing the crowd agitate.
To be continued in Chapter - 18…