February thirteenth, 1966.

My name is Kyle; I have no last name; my kind never has last names. We belong to ourselves and no one else.

I look enough like a human: black hair, brown eyes, about three feet tall, and the body of a small boy- but I'm only part human.

I was leaving my home, headed for a faraway world—a world called dirt—called Earth. Seriously, that's all the more creative the inhabitants were.

On the ship, I laid stomach down on my bed, kicking my feet in the air above me. Facts about where I was were ticking off in my brain as I semi unconsciously took in my boring surroundings once again. I'd been stuck on this ship for so long and needed something to do.

The room around me was white with green and brown squares in seemingly random locations on the walls. The walls themselves were actually curved rather than straight to condense how much space the room itself took up in the ship. Opposite me was an energy projection that showed a black void outside the ship, but that wasn't much to look at after so long.

Looking at the projection, the sun was visible and one would expect my room to light up with it. But no, nothing so interesting. The actual warm rays of the sun were hitting the side of the ship, which only had real plexiglass windows in the front. This was only an image on a screen.

It was taking us a full week to simply travel from one solar system to the next, practically next door!

I was going crazy. Thank goodness I had mom to talk to. I think I spaced for a while, but in my defense, sometimes she droned on a bit. Just hearing her voice made me happy.

I looked at my net device and smiled. On the other end, my mother spoke up again.

"Now, one more time," my mother started. I rolled my eyes. "Are you rolling your eyes at me?"

"Um... no..." I quickly said, sitting up as though it would make any difference to someone who couldn't currently see me.

She chuckled. "Yes you are. Or you did, now you're sitting up trying to look like you care." I tried to stifle my laughter, hearing her do the same. She sighed. "Fine, let's go with it. Your allies on Earth will be who?"

"The werewolves."

"And their powers?"

"Twice normal human speed and strength." I rattled off these facts as my eyes wandered, counting the colored squares- again.

"Their origins?"

I sighed. "The year fifteen-ahhh- something, Dr. Frankenstien made them... along with a lot of other things. Wildmen, hounds of rebirth, that weird undead thing... the guy was... let's say an entrepreneur of mutants... we're sure he wasn't one of us?" Truth was, I studied the history of my people all the time, but when it came to studying humans- they didn't hold my interest. I knew their race was the origin of mine, but they were idiots who barely lived a hundred years- and it was only recent that living that long was at all common for them. I had friends who made nuclear reactors in their backyards. Humans would think it would take a genius to do that!

"No dear, again, Frankenstein was not a pharaoh. Moving on, why are the werewolves our allies?"

"The Purge- how could I forget that?" I asked back.

"What's the Purge?"

"Are you serious?" I asked, giving a slight gaff and almost a small choke.

"Well, honey I... when you drop out of Q-ton into normal space-this is the last time we'll be able to talk for two hundred years. I- maybe I'm dragging this out as long as I can."

I rolled over and looked at the ceiling, releasing a heavy sigh. "Yeah... but still, maybe we can talk about something else- or maybe something related? Hey- what was it like? I mean, the Purge? What was the name of your unit again?" I didn't want my last conversation with my mother in two centuries to be a pop quiz.

"The eighth battalion? Kiddo, it wasn't a unit, I commanded multiple companies. Hmmm," she paused. "It was exciting, I'll tell you that. But gargoyles are monsters. They were so fast and strong, there were times... if they could think on the same level as us, they might have been able to overtake us- I'm not kidding either." Mom got excited talking about her past sometimes. It sometimes made her speak rather rapidly, but it was a fun tick to listen to. Maybe solely because she was my mom, but whatever. "I-thanks for reminding me I somehow let your father talk me into sending our son to the world where they exist in order to "protect" him."

'Great I set her off. Damage control!' I thought.

"Mom it'll be okay. I think the home world's insurrectionists are a bit more dangerous to the son of the president than a nearly wiped out race of mutants," I said with a grin and an audible chuckle. "Hence why I'm going to earth and not staying there."

"Maybe," she sighed. "I guess... you are going to the world of our ancestors. Maybe you should be honored."

I shook my head. "Ehh... maybe. Bunch of primitives, we could fix half their problems in a weekend."

"Those people have a right to determine their own future. Don't get too arrogant boy of mine."

I smiled. "Oh, c'mon I'm the most humble person alive." She laughed hard at that one. "Besides, I have the monster to watch over me," I said, laughing.

"Oh yes, the monster," she repeated.

"Don't roll your eyes at me!" I demanded. "Really, she can handle a lot- you've seen what she can do."

"I've seen what she can do- and I've seen why you call her the monster- I'm not rolling my eyes," The ship shook gently.

"Yes you are," I said, laughing now, though tears were falling from my eyes. "The engines are starting to cut mom... I gotta go."

"Can't they keep going...?"

"If we wanna overshoot by a couple million miles, sure," I joked.

"Well... I mean you guys have enough supplies."

"Mom, I'm sorry... I gotta go."

"Okay well the-"

The call cut out. We were in normal space. I sat up and held the phone to my chest, holding back the urge to immediately start crying. "Bye mom." She had cared for me for one hundred years. I would not see her again in twice as long.

I looked at my projection, the planet Earth in view. "Goodbye home, hello Earth." I rolled over and slowly went to sleep, my tears not entirely stopped.

We were still several hours out. I passed out, dreaming of home, my mom and dad and the monster... all of us together, like we were supposed to be.

(***)

Hours later, I woke up and left my room.

I sat down in a small chair near a holographic window on the ship, watching the clouds of planet Earth come closer and closer as we descended through the upper atmosphere. I was told something about needing to go slow so we weren't noticed, but I really didn't care much.

The ride was so smooth the actual movement of the ship didn't make me feel anything, but staring at the clouds through that screen did give me a kind of hypnotic feeling of being carried through them. It was a sensation that... that I lost interest in after about twenty minutes.

My eyes traveled over the interior of this room- for the eighteenth time. It was also white with curved walls, but this time the room was around fifteen feet in radius (my room was barely big enough for me to sit on my bed). There was a couch near the middle of the room and the chair I was sitting in. Both were very basic in construction and white as well. Behind me was a small corridor that lead to my room and opposite me was a box of toys. Hey, I was still a kid, I did like to play... and yes they were mostly for the monster.

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The monster was still asleep. That was how she dealt with long journeys. Me, I was restless.

One of our escorts, Joseph, a servant from my home on Triad, stood by the far corridor that lead to the cockpit. I went over to him and tugged on his shirt looking up at him. "Can we play a game?" I asked.

"I don't have much time for games these days, child."

"Child?" I asked, "I'll have you know that where we're going, I'm a senior citizen! They think one hundred is old."

Joseph was a massive five foot three and dressed in blue jeans with a red shirt and wielded a massive blue-hued double-bladed staff. To me, he was huge, and to be honest, most of the people on my planet would have thought so too. It was like I was looking at a casually dressed and armed Hercules. He even had the muscles he had gained during the war still on him- those that hadn't long ago been eaten by the fat of a relatively sedentary life. You could feel, as long as this man was around, there was nothing to fear.

He smiled down at me and petted my hair with his large hand, messing it up and gently pushing me away.

I hated that this was the last day I would see him or anyone from my world... save for the monster of course.

"If you're old, what does that make me? Course you will remember that to them you will look like the infant you are."

I rolled my eyes. I anticipated him telling me to stop but he didn't... yeah that wasn't really anyone else's tick besides mom. I kept going like I wasn't disappointed. "Yeah, yeah, we age twenty years to their one, simple math. How old are you these days?"

"Five hundred thirty-three, do you know how old that makes me physically?"

"Do they really track this stuff on earth? Who cares about age?" He gave me a slight glare. "Um... five hundred thirty divided by twenty... let's say I solved that problem and start a game." Joseph shook his head, smiling at me. I could do the math, but I wanted to exercise a muscle besides my brain.

"We calculate our age by twenty-year intervals, they live year to year down there. You'll need to know how to do this."

"Joseph, half the kids at school don't even keep track of twenty-year intervals. Why bother..." He folded his arms. "Really?" I asked. He nodded. "You've seen... twenty-six ages, right?"

Joseph stooped down to me. "And you're only five. Hence you're an annoying kid."

Shoving my face into his, "So then- can we play a game? Kids play games right?"

"Tell you what," he said standing up and backing up, swinging his staff in the air slowly in front of himself. "Impress me kid, and we'll play something."

I grinned. Joseph loved to spar. Really he was a great teacher of anything. Still, everyone knows swordplay is loads more fun than math problems, it's just a fact of life right? Some philosopher said it I'm sure. I grabbed my weapon from under my chair where it was resting by its scabbard.

I held up my blade. I called her, the "blue assassin"- because I was even younger when I made her and thought it sounded awesome. It was a short double-bladed straight sword, big enough for me, but probably too small for an adult. It had a small dagger-like blade on the handle as well.

"Remember Kyle, judge the distance before you jump to speed, or you'll end up slamming into the side of the ship." I took in my surroundings. The living area of the ship wasn't especially large. As a Pharaoh, I used the electricity-based powers that I had to move at incredible speeds, but I only had about twenty feet to move around.

Joseph raised his staff and thrust it forward, me thinking fast. I quickly deflected the blade left with my blade, moving right as I did. I sent an electric pulse to my legs and used it to shoot across the room. I moved so fast I couldn't see the ship around me. I had to just stop before even a second had gone by. It really was a good thing I had practiced this stuff!

I stopped and spun around, quickly turning a somersault as Joseph's blade came at me. He barely missed. Joseph would never hurt me, but both blades on his staff were each two feet long, well long enough to cut me in half so I knew better than to test his skill to NOT land a hit. I moved backward a little.

"Your weapon is short-ranged, what are you going to do from there?"

I tossed my sword in the air, switching grip on it and pulling it back. "I could always throw it at you."

"Throwing a sword..." Joseph sighed and shook his head. "There's a brilliant strategy. Not like you'll have abused your primary weapon and left yourself defenseless or anything right?" He looked ahead to give me a crooked smile, but I had already been in motion. He looked down to see my sword poised right at his gut.

"Rule number one of combat," I reminded him of something he had taught me a long time ago. "If you're too busy taunting your opponent, you can't see what he's doing beyond your own ego. In other words, shut your trap." Joseph moved a hand down to push my blade to the right.

"And rule number one of sparring. No cheap shots," Joseph said. I grinned and shrugged.

"Still you have to admit, that was clever."

Joseph nodded side to side. I shot energy down to my legs again, jetting across the room some ten feet. "If we're really gonna practice this right we need to enact what would happen in real life, right?" I asked, trying to process an idea in my head while speaking.

"Um..." Joseph said.

"Course I'm right. I've been trained by the best."

"Yeah. Me." The man grinned.

"So I'm gonna turn my back."

"Think I messed up somewhere," Joseph said on that note, his grin fading.

"No no, that's not the point. The point is to simulate an attack I'm not expecting." I said as if I wasn't making this up as I went along.

"Oh. Okay then," Joseph took his staff and stood it up vertically against the floor. I turned around.

I stooped down to a couple toys left on the floor while putting away my sword. "Go ahead, do something I don't expect," I said. Looking at the specific toys, my plan finally formulated.

"Gottch-ya," he said. I then heard the distinct sound of someone crunching down on a carrot. I sighed turning around to- and at that instant, there was a blade at my throat. Joseph smiled at me, saying, "I seem to remember a rule that "turnabout is fair play". Not a combat rule mind you, but it still works."

"And I seem to remember you saying if I impressed you, we would play a game."

"And I'm supposed to be impressed by-"

I clicked my teeth nodding to a toy gun in my right hand. "Rule number- oh I forget which one: if you get the chance to set the rules, why not set the weapons? I could have gunned you down easy if this thing were real."

"This is a draw at best you know."

"You can't really STOP someone less than ten feet away, we both know that. Still, always have a weapon on you right? Just in case you're given a chance."

"Hmm..." Joseph took his blade and set it on the couch across the room. I grinned putting a small leather casing on the dagger end of my sword and sliding it into its scabbard and under the same bench from earlier.

"So what do we play?" I asked. My right leg was then grabbed as I was hoisted off my feet and upside down into the air. I yelled in response, but it was a happy scream.

"I didn't bring anything, but do you remember the gravity game?"

I relaxed. "Sure." I shrugged, keeping my t-shirt from falling over my face. I pulled my arm across my chest, closing my eyes. The hand was released from around my leg and I threw my arm to the right, the electricity in my body forcing it to move with such momentum I was tossed across the room. I quickly turned in the air, touching down in a crouching position. I tried to strike a pose with my arms out, but all I got out of Joseph was a smirk for it.

The gravity game wasn't a normal game. Since we were so far up from the Earth, gravity wasn't very powerful up here. I loved to pull tricks in low gravity sometimes, trying to test how far I could go before gravity made me smack the deck with my face. Sure the ship had artificial gravity, but not enough. "C'mon, give me a challenge!" I shouted.

Joseph approached me, "well..." he grabbed me around the stomach and threw me to the ground. He then put a hand on my chest. "Get up."

"Um." I pushed on the floor with my hands. "C'mon man, you weigh like three hundred pounds!"

"I beg your pardon?" he said. "I sense you're lacking motivation here." He then sent five fingers wiggling into my stomach, tickling and forcing me to scream out laughing.

"Stop you'll wake the monster!" I shouted. Joseph did stop, sighing and letting me up.

(***)

I played with Joseph for a while and we sparred a few more times. Finally, we felt another vibration go through the ship, meaning we were about ten minutes from landing.

I had gotten Joseph to tell me one of his stories about a time two hundred years ago when he fought against the terrifying gargoyles from Earth.

Joseph had turned down the lights to tell some of the creepy tales of the powerful creatures.

The gargoyles had it all, part lizard, incredible strength, speed (sometimes even faster than us), they could morph, heal fast and they were immortal. One problem. They were evil, every one of them destined to be monsters. It was sad really if you thought about it too deeply, but it was still fun to hear tales of battles with monsters. It was especially fun with Joseph as he made sound effects and used the darkness to his advantage in telling the stories. Every so often he would throw something or poke me at just the right moment to make me jump or look around.

He turned the lights back on, me sighing as I adjusted.

"Wish I could have been there," I said. "Saving the people of Earth from monsters, sealing alliances with other mutants..." I said fist-pumping the air. "What's left for me to do?"

Joseph looked at me with an air of seriousness. "Keep your head low. The humans on that world aren't ready to know mutants walk among them. I trained you how to act like an earth kid... like you really need practice."

"What do I do if I see a gargoyle?" I shrugged. "Run behind my bodyguard?"

"You really think the monster will be able to do anything against one of those things? You're more naïve than I thought. If you two want to live, you take my advice. You see a gar, you run like heck and don't look back." He shook his head, "I've seen those things rip men in half, and wield massive weapons like toys. And make no mistake, your status as son of the president will only make you a bigger target. They're a smidge resentful of us. We did almost wipe them out after all."

"But really, if they're so bad, why send me to Earth at all?" Not sure why I asked that. I already knew. Maybe there was a part of me thinking I could leverage him taking me back home.

"The odds of you seeing one of those things... really the rebellion moving against your father back home should scare you much more. There's probably more of them and besides, with our technology, we Pharaohs are the things you should really be afraid of. In any case, just don't go looking for trouble alright? Any world has plenty of that."

"Who are we meeting down there anyway?"

"I know... his name and what he looks like. A werewolf. Some guy named Allen." I tapped my fingers on the couch, waiting for him to say more. "Sorry, all I got. The other guards might know more."

"Yeah but you're my friend... maybe I'll ask them eventually." I sighed and looked back at the projection. From the angle I was at only clouds were visible, but I could make out the changing colors that told me how close we were to landing. Also, their shades told me what time it was as apparently it was dark out.

It wouldn't be too long. Soon I would step off the ship. A point of no return. I would meet... Allen.

I sighed scanning the stars, wondering if I could figure out where my sun was. Course now, it wasn't a sun from here, here it was just another star. From here, you couldn't even see my world.