Prologue
Year: 2022 Location: Nebula 9
Ikenna was on her way to the new galaxy with only her drone crew accompanying her. She had just finished flying through the wormhole that had suddenly appeared 20 years ago. She fly’s in her ship across the cosmos and see a black hole. Ikenna cringed at the sight. Not because of the fact that it’s a black hole, but because she had quite the history with this black hole. She’s supposed to explore a planet in a nearby system, but she can’t stop looking at the hole. She didn’t realize how dirty that sounded until she really thought about it. Ikenna smiled about that thought. But she couldn't shake the feeling. The feeling that said this may be the last smile she may ever make. She once again stares at the black hole and remembers her ulterior motive. She was sent to mine special metals from nearby planets, but the past made her think different.
Ikenna wanted to be an astronaut for the longest time. Ever since she was 7. But not because she thought space was cool like every other kid in existence. But because her father was there. She wanted to join him up there in the infinite void. However, one day, while waiting for her father to return for her birthday, all she received was a note. Her father had fallen into a black hole and was presumed dead. This drove her straight into astronomy. Especially black holes. She couldn't accept the fact that her father was dead. Something inside her knew he wasn't dead. She studied everything that had to do with black holes. With all the theories she’s learned, she thinks it’s possible her father could still be alive in one. After all, time and space inside a blackhole is supposed to be infinite. The physics inside a black hole is very different than the physics people know and love today. He may even be an afterlife she could find using the black hole. Even though the probability of that is miniscule.
She joined NASA in hopes of going to the same black hole her father got sucked into. When she requested the mission, it was instantly denied for simply being too dangerous. However, after about 2 months, NASA need someone to go to the same area of the black hole to mine from some nearby planets. They sent Ikenna for she was best they had and had the most research on black holes. They thought she would know to avoid it. Ikenna said she would go but she demanded that she go by herself. Nasa was very desperate, so they granted her wish. Instead of people, they sent drones with her instead.
Ikenna took one last look at space. It was truly a beautiful and scary thing. Part of her wanted to float through the endless void forever. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
But she couldn't do that. She had a mission. And not the one from NASA. She looks at the black hole. She turns on her thrusters to max speed leaving the drones and her original course behind. She starts plummeting directly towards the black hole. As she closes in, tears start flowing out of eyes. These weren't tears of sadness. These were tears of joy. Ever since she found out there was a possibility, she’s always wanted to do this. Ikenna turns off the comms that NASA was yelling at her through. It was too late to turn back. Eighteen years too late. Wherever her dad went, she was ready to join him. She is willing to do whatever it takes to find him.
As she goes deeper, the ride starts to bounce up and down. Her equipment inside the ship starts to be destroyed. However, Ikenna still has no second thoughts.
Just when she thought her ship was about to break in half, the ship clams down. Ikenna immediately looks at the statistics of the ship. She finds that the oxygen and fuel supply of the ship had stop decreasing. She thought this was a display error at first, but when she checked on her suit with the same results, she theorized that it must be because there is infinite time and space in a black hole. So theoretically, she would never run out. But in that case, a lot of other things shouldn't be able to work. Ikenna decided she needed more time to figure this out. But laughed when she realized she had infinite time.
Ikenna looks out the window and sees something she can’t describe. She was surrounded by what appeared to be floating screens. She looks closer and realizes these are screens of all the people and cities of Earth. Not just Earth. All of space too. But she noticed something else. She saw screens of worlds and universes she did not recognize.
“...The Afterlife?”
Suddenly Ikenna realized she was wrong about never smiling again.
Chapter 1
(1st Person POV) 2024
Mornings in Detroit Michigan aren’t that different than mornings anywhere else in America. My typical morning routine consist of me spending twenty minutes in bed thinking about getting up instead of actually getting up. After finally winning the battle against the combined forces of drowsiness and procrastination, I head for the one thing that can wake me up; the shower. Yes, I am that one weird person who takes showers in the morning. Although it doesn't really qualify as a shower. I just turn on the water to the hottest setting to wake me up and I spend about five minutes just standing there thinking about life. Then I spend the other ten minutes mentally preparing to step out of the shower. It’s not that I’m not a “morning person.” It’s that I’m just not a “waking up” person.
After the “shower,” I stand around for about thirty minutes with a towel on because I’m currently just too lazy to move and get dressed. Procrastination has struck again and it struck hard. After I defeat procrastination for a second time, I open the door to exit the bathroom and finally get my day started. As I stepped out, I started to experience to what seems to be a strange sensation where I couldn't breathe. It was then it occurred to me I was being locked in an inescapable choke hold. I also felt and saw long blonde hair fly by my face. It was at that exact moment that I heard an unmistakably loud voice booming into my poor unexpecting ears.
“Ohhh... Terrible reflexes, O’ little brother of mine.” Said the booming voice.
“With all this energy, this early in the morning, you can’t be human.” I somehow managed to choke out.
I knew who exactly this was now. This could be none other than Ruta. Also known as: my dreaded older sister. Let me ask you guys a question. What’s worse than an older sister? An older sister that’s in the military. After about 5 minutes of struggling, she finally let me go as I was about to turn blue. I finally get a good look at Ruta. What the crap is she wearing today?
She’s wearing her blonde hair in long double French braid with a slight bit of makeup on her face that really showed off her emerald green eyes. She has on her green camo tank top shirt which was short enough to show off her belly and has on a brown pair of shorts that would make any middle school boy realize he’s all grown up.
“So, I bet you’re wondering why I strangled you at 5:38 am as you came out of the shower, eh Shin?” She said while a little bit out of breath and a little sweaty.
Yes, my name is Shin. Well, my full name is Shinikaru, but people just call me Shin for short mostly because it’s easier on the tongue.
I only managed to get a wheeze out in front of Ruta as I was still recovering from the choke.
“I’ll take that little squeak as a yes.” Ruta assumed. “Today is take your sibling to work day!” She exclaimed happily with hands on her hips.
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
“Ruta, both you and I know that there’s no such thing-”
Wait.
I take a moment to seriously think about this. Going to her base would mean missing high school for me. I may have some cool friends at school, but I refer high school as an asylum from hell.
“Actually, I’m totally down! Let’s do it!” I proclaim as I try my best not to appear fazed from the choking.
1 Hour Later
Undisclosed Location
(Right outside of downtown and underground)
“Uhhh Ruta? This isn’t the Michigan Army National guard.” I say a bit worrying.
“Of course, it isn’t! See, I’ve learned over the years that I’m not going to get you to join by making look at the everyday stuff. So, I’m taking you to a secret military base!” She says as we walk.
She’s taking me to a secret base?!
“Ruta, isn’t that kind of… well... I don’t know, ILLEGAL!?” I say loudly almost yelling.
“Oh Shin, anything’s legal when you pull the right strings!” Ruta explains.
That scares me, but I know why she can pull strings in the first place...
“Oh, come on sis, both you and I know people only listen to you because you have a really big bus-” I get cut off by Ruta hitting me in the stomach.
I bend over and weez for a bit before I get up and say, “People listen to you because you have such a great personality, Ruta.”
“I know, right? I’m such a great person.” She says cheerfully while skipping.
Sometimes I question the probability of my survival around her.
I catch up with her and she starts giving some info on the base we were currently in. To be honest, I started to tone her out. All I got was that this base was state of the art technology and had titanium walls offering max protection. I was more focused scary looking soldiers with gun while we were walking. They gave me a straight face but smiled at my sister. Probably for all the wrong reasons.
As we got deeper in the base, I realized my cell phone reception was gone. It’s usually trash, but it’s not this bad.
“Can’t have you calling anyone right now. No ties to the outside world when visitors are here!” Ruta said to me.
Ruta brings me into a lab once we go far enough into the base. This isn’t no cheesy college lab either. There’s monitors all over the place, people running everywhere with papers, (almost 5 guys ran into me) and glass everywhere. Ruta brings me to the center if the lab where there appears to be an empty capsule tall and wide enough to fit a pretty big man in there.
“Uhh sis?” I look at her in confusion.
“Go on, get closer to it” She says as she excitedly nudges me toward it.
I walk closer to it and look inside anticipating something amazing based on the expressions on everyone’s faces and silence.
Empty. It was just empty.
“Ruta, is this supposed to be like the best prank ever or something?” I ask her.
“Just wait for it, little bro.” She responds.
Suddenly, the ground inside the capsule opens. Something starts slowly and dramatically rising out of the hole in the bottom of the capsule.
“Ruta! What's going on here!?” I say partly freaking out. Ruta doesn't say anything and just smiles and looks straight at the capsule. I was seriously considering running.
Slowly, something strange rises out of it. It looked like some sort of armored suit.
The helmet is in a “V” shape that appears it can fit on somebody’s face and was angled upwards at about a 135-degree angle. The visor attached to the full-face helmet also made a very wide “V” and was glowing a radiant neon green. Whoever made this suit must’ve been obsessed with the letter V. The rest of the suit looked almost skin tight but a thin layer of black armor covering the skin-tight layer and had the same glowing green in thick lines flowing throughout the suit. There are also some silver heavily armored parts as well that covered the arms and wrist, the legs and thighs, the feet, the back and finally the chest. In the middle of the chest is what appears to be a glowing green gear logo. The most noticeable feature however, is the wings; the wings look like dragonfly wings, but they wear human sized. The wings had more of a mechanical/cyber look to them with the actual wing itself appearing to be made of tiny glowing green holographic hexagons with the outline of the wings being made of steel.
I walk around it to see how it could possibly fly and I see my answer on the back of the suit. There is a twin booster and ventilator on the back the suit.
So, the boosters must allow it to go airborne while the wings must guide it through the air. I get it.
I think.
It looked like a giant robot from a movie or cartoon, but it was human sized.
“Ruta, this is really cool but… why?” I ask quietly?
“War, Shin.” She says. “War. We need protection from possible invading armies. Other countries are starting to catch up to us in military power and technology. We needed something extreme.” She says. “We call it the TS-01.”
“What does that stand for?” I ask.
“Technological Salvation.” She answers.
“That’s a pretty nerdy name.”
“Well nerds built it sooo...”
“...I can’t argue with that.”
I do have to admit, the suit looked really cool. I bet it had excellent capabilities. The wings and the armor really have me thinking about this right now. Having this suit would be cool and- WAIT A MINUTE!
“Nice try, Ruta.” I start. “Even this with cool suit, I’m still not joining the military.”
“Come on Shin,” She fires back. “All I want is just for my little brother to be with me more.” She begs.
“Listen sis, I love you, but I told you before, and I’ll tell you again, I just not cut out for that kind of stuff.” I begin. “When you join the military, you’ve got to be willing to put everything you have on the line. Your family, your friends, your whole life. You put it all in and risk it all for the fate of your country. Not only that, you make friends when you join. And then you must risk them too. And worst of all, you have to be willing to take someone else’s life. I’m sorry for this Ruta, but this just isn’t me. I can’t do that kind of stuff then just continue with life. It’s all just way too much for me.” I explain
“Shin when you go in the military, you don’t have to do that kind of stuff alone. We’re all in this together. We’ll teach you. We’ll train you.” She says.
“You’ll break me.” I say. “Thanks for the tour sis, but the answer is still no. Always has been and always will be.”
“Shin...” Ruta just says softly.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, I have stuff to still do. I’ll see you later at home.” I say walking away.
“Meh, I bet you’ll come around. I just know it!” She says as I walk away.
“Nah.” I say with my back turned.
It takes me a little bit, but I finally find an exit to the secret base. Truth be told, I had absolutely nothing to do. I just wanted to get out of that place, but I didn't want to look like a total loser while doing it.
As I exit the base, I look towards downtown Detroit thinking about what I should do next. I COULD go back to school, but I really don't want to. School could honestly be just as bad.
...
Plus, I had a test today that I didn’t study for, so skipping out today seemed pretty ideal. But the problem of what should I do still remains. I start heading to downtown in hopes of finding something to do for the day. With barely any energy or interest at all, I look at the sky for a hopeful answer.
Nope. Nothing but just the hot searing distorted summer sun.
Wait.
Distorted? The sun and parts of the sky looked a bit... wavy. I’m no weatherman, but I’m pretty sure that’s not supposed to happen. I know things sometimes get a little wavy when's the heat is intense, but the sky shouldn't look like it’s going to fall apart.
I look at a nearby TV store with a long row of TVs that have the news on. I walk up to it hoping the news or the weather would give me an answer for what's happening. They were talking about the phenomenon, but didn’t seem to know too much about it. I decided to listen to the weather lady on the TV for a bit.
“The World Meteorological Organization and World-Wide Health organization has confirmed that this strange phenomenon is not just happening in Detroit, but all over the United States and even across the rest of the world. Scientist at NASA suspect that this maybe happening because of a distortion or disturbance in what they call ‘the space-time continuum.’ We will keep monitoring the even-”
Right then and there all the TVs went into static. Oh great. Just my luck. Right when I was getting answers the TVs just had to go-
*BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM*
GEEZ! I almost just crapped my pants! Did those booms just come from the city? I look and see what appear to be big colorful circles in the skies over Detroit. I’m… not really sure what they are. And I’ve been in Detroit for a long time. Maybe they are just fireworks gone wrong?
My guess is proven wrong when I start to see stuff falling out of the circles. I know it seems impossible, but they must be some sort of... portal? Maybe some sort of worm hole?
Wait.
That’s not just random objects falling out. I look like those are.... People? No. People with wings?! Wait! Creatures falling with them?!? There’s a huge variety of them as well. Wait, those people with wings... they look like... angels? Wait... Something big is coming through one of the circles...
Oh god... Is that...
Video games and Modern TV have taught me to recognize that giant creature that just flew out of that “portal” thing as a dragon. It was a big one too. Almost the size of a skyscraper.
Explosions and screaming started taking place as the creatures started descending into the city. The dragon grabbed on to the top of the tall General Motors building as alarms across the city started blaring. The blue spiky dragon arches its head and back up. It suddenly snaps back down as he blazes intense blue fire onto the street directly below the General Motors building.
If there is one thing I know, I not some legendary heroic main charter knight. If anything, I am the complete opposite. I immediately turn the opposite way of the city and I start sprinting faster than any Olympic sprinter in the world.
At least that’s what it feels like.