"Jonathon, it's time to train." Says an overbearing old man.
"Don't want to, you old man." Snapped back the 4 year old boy as he darts out the door.
"He is too much like his mother, god rest her soul." The old man recounted to the rest of his pupils as they begin their warm ups. 'It has been four years since that fateful week, the week where I lost both my daughter Katherine and my son in law James' the old man regrettably thought to himself. There is never a day that goes by where he doesn't think of them. "That was truly the darkest week in this old man's life." The look of regret in the old man's eyes told the entire story, one that not many like to remember.
The old man chooses to let the boy do as he wishes, for now at least. "Let's begin!" He shouts to the men. The whole scene looks like it's taken from a gang manga, everyone has at least one scar on their body and have the mental aptitude of hungry beasts on a collar. At his words, all the men form up to begin a new day of training. There were 20 men packed into the small hall in the families main residence. From the look on their faces you could see that they all took the training very seriously. All techniques shown during the session were performed perfectly, almost as if they were dancing with one another. They performed just like the wind; freely, and rugged. Yet it flowed calmly, just like an ocean as they sparred. Everyone in the room was considered his family, even though they had no blood relations.
Jonathon didn't live in a large house, though not many people would agree with him. He had his own library, filled to the brim with every genre of literature you can think of. Jonathon just loved to read books. They were a medium used to escape reality. He could image having a mother and father that loved him, which he did often, very often.
From the gates there was 1/2 a mile to 800 metres of garden before you reached the main door. The garden was well kept; with its leaves green and glowing, the ponds clear as day. The garden was the pride and joy of Alfred, the old man of the house. It had hundreds of different flowers, blooming as if every day was the beginning of spring, neatly arranged giving the whole house, better yet mansion, a warm feeling.
The two storey mansion had a rustic feel from the early 19th century, two pillars holding an arch over the door, a foot path through the garden leading to the entrance. Inside the mansion was spotless, with its own chandelier hanging gloriously above the entrance. Knight amour in the halls and weapons on the walls. Red carpet lead up the stairs as it parted to the left and right, following the stairs to the second floor.
In the garden sits a young boy, no older than four, he stares with his deep blue eyes into the sky. The sky almost seemed to blend into his eyes, just like his fathers. "Jonathon get here NOW!" Boomed a voice from the main hall. The training seemed to have ended and his grandfather seemed angry. Jonathon timidly entered the hall to see his grandfather sitting in the middle of the hall. To Jonathon his grandfather looked like he a wolf, about to devour him, or so he thought.
"Sit down." Alfred commanded to his grandson. Jonathon sits down in front of his grandfather. His grandfather was a seasoned man, he knows the way of the world and he had the scars to prove it. Alfred was an aging man in his late 70's but still acted like a spring chicken, training every day to keep his fitness up and eating healthy. Doing these allowed him to maintain a body with muscles that looked of steel. "Why won't you join training with us in the morning Jonathon?" asked Alfred.
"Because you never tell me about what happened to my parents." Replied the young boy with puppy dog eyes, almost begging his grandfather for answers. The boy had deep blue eyes with jet black hair, he was small for his age and unusually thin like his mother.
Alfred placed his right hand on top of the young boys head. "Alright, if you're this insistent I will tell you about how your parents lived to the days of their death." Alfred looks off into the distant before he begins to tell Jonathon about his parents. "First I'll tell you about your father."
"My father." The boy says excitedly.
"Your father" began Alfred, "he was a good man that grew up in the worst environment. James's parents were drug addicts that used him as their own pack mule. He was a bright kid who deserved so much more but was given so little. He was the youngest of 4 children, they had to fight for their very lives from the day they were born, smuggling drugs to their parents, for scraps of food, dodging debt collectors, prostitute dealers and drug dealers alike." Alfred paused, the young boys eyes glistening with curiosity. "This continued for many years, your father and his older siblings were in a severely malnourished state. Do you understand?" Asked Alfred to his grandson.
"No, too many big words." Replied Jonathon.
"HAHAHAH! I guess so, simply put they had only eaten single piece of bread a day." explained Alfred. "Can you imagine only getting a single piece of bread a day?" Alfred hinted to his grandson, all that came was a simple nod. "Ok then, by this time my daughter your mother and I, had moved to town."
"What happened next?" Excitedly asked the boy.
"Well, I started to destroy those drugs, until there was none left in the city." Said Alfred as he stared into the boys eyes. "Your father's parents didn't give up even after that, and keep digging their feet further and further into the ground. Until BOOOOOM!" Yelled Alfred as Jonathon's skeleton leaped out of his body.
"How did digging a hole cause an explosion?" Jonathon asked timidly.
"HAH." Was all Jonathon got before his grandfather continued. "In the explosion your father was the only survivor, he was alone in the world, he went to an orphanage where he lived until he was fit to work. Many years passed and your father…."
"Saved our lives." Interrupted the three stooges of the family. They were three of the brawniest men you would ever see, arms and legs the size of tree trunks, shaved heads and tattoos of rising dragons on their arms. They had more brawn than brain that was for sure.
"Yes he saved my men and brought them home," Summarised Alfred.
"He saved you!" Said Jonathon with a stars in his eyes.
"Yes." Idiot 1
"Yep." Idiot 2
"Certainly." Idiot 3
"That was they day James met Katherine, your mother, and was also the day I found out our activities were making a difference in the city. He told us about his parents and what had happened saying how much he respected me for my work, even if it was not exactly legal. Here I was trying to award James for saving my men, instead I end up being respected, who would have thought. From that day James would come by and visit very often and eventually won over my daughter and became my son in law." Alfred was looking to the ceiling, through the sky, and into the heavens as he said those words.
"Life was happy in those times and we were over the moon when we found out my little angel was going to have you. Boy you should have seen your father, he was so nervous and overjoyed that he was going to have a son. However one night when he was on his way home, a man murdered him for the paper in his wallet, your father always walk to and from work because it was reasonably close by, that was the type of man your father was."
"2 days later your mother passed away after bringing you into the world. Your mother had always been weak like her mother before her. To me she was an angel that brightened the world around us, her smile could change the world if she was given the chance." Finished Alfred with a tear in his old eyes, it was the first time that Jonathon had ever seen the old man shed a tear. "Jonathon, always remember your parents are always, ALWAYS watching over us." Said Alfred as he removed a locket from his neck and opened it as he handed it to Jonathon. On one side was a picture of his mother and father and the other side was left blank.
"Grandfather" says Jonathon with a rainfall of tears leaving his eyes.
"Jonathon always keep that locket with you, the other side is for the person closes to your heart, whoever she may be." Alfred said as he hugs his grandson.
The next morning a small 4 year old boy can be seen training with the brawniest men that roam the planet. Jonathon could almost feel his parents smiling down on him from heaven.
**
Time passes, it has been 14 years since Jonathon's Grandfather told him what had happened to his parents. He is now a young man of 18 years. He's waiting outside his house because he grandfather enlisted him into the Peacekeepers military group.
The Peacekeepers are a privately owned military group not attached to any government. They are known as the most high trained, well equipped and professional soldiers for hirer. They pride themselves on being equipped with the most technological advanced weapons and equipment. They have a reputation of being more reliable than any government forces.
"Damn, Damn, Damn why me, grandad says this will be for the best, maybe it will be. But why must he bus come so early in the morning, the sun hasn't even broken past the mountains yet." Complained Jonathon. Winter was the season but no snow fell, however it was cold very cold. Every breath could be seen as vapour leaving the mouth, Jonathon was wearing a beanie and scarf covering his face. His body was wrapped in warm cloths to combat the cold.
Jonathon wasn't a big man, even training everyday with his grandfather put almost no muscle tone on his body. However Jonathon was not weak in any way. On the contrary he was strong, so very strong as he had complete control over his strength and could use his opponents strength against them.
"My books, oh how I'll miss my books. Wait for me I'll return someday." Jonathon says as he waited in front of the mansions gates. Jonathon was a popular kid at school, he had many friends but he never found someone he truly loved, there were girls but they never interested him. A lot of his friends were excitedly talking about the new game that was going to be released Solar Frontier. Jonathon never cared, of course he and his friends had study game history in school for course credits but he never really wanted to play a game. He had his books after all.
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"So long." He complained again but no one was around to hear it, His friends weren't close enough to get up at 4 am to see him off. Soon after he could see two headlights in the distance, racing to his location. "The bus" he thought to himself as it came ever closer. "This is no bus" he thought to himself, because what rolled to a stop had barred windows, reinforced steel plating covering the body of the vehicle, two mounted machineguns that were operational. So much for being the most technologically advance army in the world.
The door opened "all aboard" shouted the driver. The driver was smoking a cigar and was missing an eye, the rest of the body he had seen a lot in his life.
"Muscle and scars, it's always muscle and scars" he thought to himself as he boarded the bus. On the bus there were only three other poor souls, it was a small town after all. The first was a skinny man, with glasses and no muscles his face seemed to scream for somebody to save him, he looked scared shitless. The second was a beefcake, a beefcake he was as fat as a cow and didn't look to bright, he had no muscle and looked like he was thrown out of his house and enlisted in the Peacekeepers out of desperation. The food stains on his cloths said that much at least, his face looked like it had given up hope. There was not much to say for the third as he wore a hooded jumper and looked asleep at the back of the bus.
"Take a seat, any seat" said the bus drive as he closed the door and began to pull out onto the road.
Jonathon took a seat at the back of the bus and tried to talk to the last person on the bus. At first he was hesitant but after a while he began to talk.
The first thing that startled Jonathon was that she was a girl. "You're a girl?" He says.
"What is that supposed to mean." she said with anger in her voice.
"Sorry, sorry meant no offence by that just a little surprised but I have to admit I did think it was unfair if there was a boy as pretty as you going you would have stolen every girl there." Says Jonathon as he blushed. To Jonathon there was something different about this girl but he couldn't get his finger on it. They talk for the rest of the trip and he found her pretty interesting.
**
"Congratulation recruits on having survived basic training." says the instructor. It was 6 of the most grueling months that any man or women have had to endure. Everything for basic hand to hand combat, weapons practice, vehicle training, and stealth combat, explosive works was covered in those short 6 months.
At the end of it all recruits have created a strong bond with one another creating a platoon of 30 men. Of course the 3 people on the bus with Jonathon, Luke, Leaf and Christy had survived the training with Jonathon. Luke had actually developed muscles and used his smarts to be the Platoon Sergeant, which consisted of 30 individuals. Leaf had lost most of his fat and looked leaner and meaner carrying that heavy machine around like it was a toy. Jonathon and Christy were both Corporal's and had become quite intimate over the past months.
"Platoon on me" yelled Luke. He had become very commanding like a leader should be. "Okay our orders are as follows, we are to assists the local forces in defending the area, that’s all." "The duration is close to year so everyone stay frosty and stay alive."
"That’s not a lot of information to go on is it?" replies Christy, in a nonchalant way.
"Yes but it's all we need" replies the simple headed Leaf. Jonathon just remains silent and checks his equipment one last time before he boards the aircraft with the other 3 platoons heading to the same destination.
"Jonathon's got the right idea, every check your equipment one last time because we will be dropping into a red zone." ordered Luke. There are 3 coloured zones to describe the amount of resistance in the area. Green usually meant a friendly zone, yellow meant neutral zones and red was hostile territory.
After an hour it was finally the groups turn to board the plane. Before Jonathon could get on the plane he was suddenly stopped by Christy and was given a kiss on the lips and the words "I love you," before departing.
**
A year in to the excursion into enemy territory, a convoy guarded by the Peace Keeper was attacked. The insurgents attacked from all sides Jonathon and his Platoon tried to fight back but there was just total chaos. Explosions and bullets firing everywhere, soldiers dying and screaming in pain, it was carnage one should never have to witness. In the initial attack the peacekeepers took heavy causalities but were able to rally and started to hit the insurgents hard.
"Jonathon take cover quickly" yelled Christy from behind a car. However as Jonathon sprinted the jeep he saw an RPG on the roof about to fire at the jeep. He bought his rifle up and aimed it at the RPG on the roof firing three rounds, he hit the man in the chest, arm and leg to late however as he fired the RPG. When he arrived at the jeep it was nothing but smoke and wreckage.
"Christy, Christy where are you" he shouted
"Over here" she said softly just enough for him to hear, she had a metal rod 4 metres in length through her stomach. She was coughing up blood as she lay on the floor before Jonathon.
"Christy you're going to be ok, alright" said Jonathon as he tries to stop the bleeding with his hands.
"I love you" were the last words to leave her mouth as she tried to raise her hand to Jonathon's cheek. As her hand touched his cheek it fell lifeless to the ground.
"Christy" Jonathon yells at the top of his lungs as he picks up his and her rifle and begins to fire blindly in to the building, not caring for who he hit. After he ran out of ammo, he noticed two tanks rolling to the convoy from behind. Jonathon was the only person to have noticed them, however instead of telling the anti-tank teams he sprinted to the tanks amongst the hail of bullets and explosions. He was able to plant two anti-tank charges on the hull.
BOOM! "Take that you fuckers" he yells as he is thrown back into a car from the shock wave of the explosions. Jonathon stands in pain and notices that a 'rail' hum vee is still operational but the gunner is dead. He jumps in to the rail gun and begins to fire into the insurgents.
4 hours past and silence fell on the battlefield, the insurgents had retreated after taking substantial causalities. There is no movement in the Peacekeeper convoy except for one man crawling his way to a radio. "Base come in this is delta-1 over."
"This is base we read you, Delta-1 come in." said the man on the other side of the radio.
"Convey attack by insurgents, suffered critical causalities requesting immediate support." reports Jonathon
"Roger that Delta-1, we are dispatching all forces, ETA 10 minutes hold tight." the man on the radio said as he pushed a red button by his station. An alert beacon was activated and all force scrambled to the vehicles and rushed to their comrades. No man left behind was their credo.
Jonathon lay there looking at the wreckage as he lost consciousness.
Jonathon was awoken by the sounds of helicopters flying overhead. The Peacekeeper reinforcements arrived in the hundreds and secured the area. They began to search for survivors. "Sir we have one" said one soldier as he picked up the dog tags. "Corporal Jonathon Richards sir."
"Ok, soldier bring a medic and transport him to base, he looks pretty banged up" said the commander as he looks around at the wreckage. "My god what happened here, sergeant see what we can salvage" ordered the commander.
"Sir, over here" said one of the soldiers.
"What have we got?" asked the commander as he rushed over to the soldier.
"An operational video camera, sir."
"Take it back to base for analysis" ordered the commander.
"Yes Sir."
**
"Today on the 6 o'clock news we bring to you, exclusive footage of a skirmish between Peacekeeper forces and insurgents just outside of New Deli. We must warn you this footage contains blood and gore and viewer discretion is advised." Says the reporter as his hands tremble from having seen the footage earlier.
The footage played shows a single man amongst the sounds of rifles firing, grenade and RPG explosions sprinting towards two tanks flanking the Peacekeepers. The man places charges and destroys the tanks being blown by the shock wave 50 meters in to an operational Hum Vee, where he quickly removes the dead gunner and begins to open fire in the insurgents. After the hum vee was hit by an RPG. He crawls out covered in blood an proceeds to an exposed titan exoskeleton as he proceeds to empty he barrel alone into the retreating insurgents. It is seen that in the final moments he takes three bullets to the abdomen, even after sustaining all those injuries he was able to radio for evacuation.
The video easily becomes the most viewed phenomenon on the internet. Reporters from around the world are currently searching for the boy to get an exclusive interview of the hero in the battle on the outskirts of New Deli.
**
In an undisclosed Peacekeeper hospital "Goodness he's awake, quickly call a doctor" said a nurse. As one quickly left the room and soon returned with a smart looking middle age man with a clean lab coat, tidy face with glasses and a small beard.
"How are you feeling Jonathon Richards?" Asked the doctor.
"I don't know, I can't feel anything" Replied Jonathon.
"Well it might take a while for feeling to return, after all you have been asleep for over 6 months" said the doctor.
"6 months??" Asked Jonathon surprised.
"Yes, you sustained considerable injuries it's a miracle you're even alive" replied the doctor.
"Were there another other survivor??" Asked Jonathon.
"No there wasn't, you were the only survivor." Replied the doctor as he picked up the charts and looked through them. "Having survived this incident you may have developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, PTSD for short. So we would like you to play a game to relieve your stress and begin to bring you back to civilization for a few years."
"A game?" Asked Jonathon.