Ian sat in silence, stirring his can of beans, bathed in the light of his campfire. He swats at his neck for what seemed like the millionth time. His many attempts to contact Victor went unanswered, this was nothing unusual, Victor liked to work in silence, he would reach out if there was an issue.

SNAP!

His head swiveled to the sound, the whole time he was there he didn't hear any signs of wildlife, not even a bird chirp.

"Victor if that's you stop fucking around! You know I hate the woods… If you try to scare me I'll put a hole in you!"

SNAP! CRACK! CHSSH!

CRSSH! CHHHCK!

The sounds rang out from around him, and he reached into one of his many pouches and produced a handful of small metal balls.

"You picked the wrong one to fuck with. Come on then… Show yourselves!"

Figures cloaked in white emerged into the light of his fire, surrounding him on all sides. He didn't hesitate. He would never forget those dreadful white cloaks. The spheres left his hand, red mist exploded from several of the Sourcers before the cracks of them breaking the sound barrier echoed in the night's air. The wounded dropped to the ground, all dead. Ian never missed, couldn't miss. Each projectile was a kill shot, he was a Hardwynn Elite for a reason.

More stepped out from the dark and he took out more of the balls, and tossed them while moving in a circle picking off the attackers.

"Is this all you got? I kicked your asses during the war, and I'll do it again!" He shouts at the Sourcers, picking them off with ease.

"You all made being out in this shit hole worth it!" He laughs, truly enjoying the carnage he wrought upon the cultists, shocked that they just kept coming. He was having so much fun he didn't notice the moon light being blocked out as a winged monstrosity descended down upon him.

The blow to his head fuzzed him, lights sparked behind his eyes as he stumbled forward. The Sourcers rushed and the pummeling began.

"This one lives..." He heard, before one last blow knocked him unconscious.

As he phased in and out of consciousness, he witnessed a fiery battle site. Dozens of bodies lined in a row, Sourcers putting something in the corpses mouths, bodies squirming.

He awoke to darkness, he could hear voices talking angrily. Eidolon… Hardwynn… Chosen… Sern..

Footsteps approached him, then blinding light. The bag around his head was removed. The cold morning air cooled the throbbing damage to his face. Blurry figures emerged through his swollen eyes.

A dry sinister voice spoke near him "Tosser… the butcher of Old Hope. Praise the Source!"

Ian grimaced, he hadn't been called that in ages.

"Just fucking kill me… you won't get anything from me you wack job." The patchwork cloak walked into his view. Ian's heart sped up.

"Patchman… You gotta be fucking kidding me."

The Patchman bows at him, flashing him his wretched smile.

"I'm honored you remember me Tosser, or do you go by Ian these days? No matter… I have a proposition for you." He walks to the edge of the rooftop, the building towering over the tree line. He snaps his fingers and Ian is lifted from the ground, his boots dragging, digging trenches along the gravely roof.

"They will be arriving any minute now." He says, unable to contain a sickening giggle.

The Sourcers drop Ian on his knees behind The Patchman, he turns towards Ian.

"You're going to do my master's bidding… In return you will be granted freedom in the new world, who knows... depending on how you perform you may get a place in the upper echelons of his new society." Patchman's arms raise to the sky.

"If you do not oblige… you will become one of the Chosen!"

Ian scoffs, spitting a clump of congealed blood on Patchman's boots."Like I would ever work for your fucking crazy cult! Chosen??? What does that even mean? Just fucking kill me and get this over with."

Patchman puts his fingers in his mouth and blows. The whistle rings out into the forest, Patchman smiles again.

"I knew you would take some convincing..." He says, taking a step backwards.

A blur flashes before Ian's face, and the visage of a foul fiend manifested before him, blood and black fluid covering its viscous maw.

Patchman runs his hand over the creature's tumorous scalp, its curly black hair coming off on his hand.

"I thought you would be more inclined to join us if you heard from your friend."

Ian's world melted as he realized who the creature was snarling in his face. He gazed up and down at Victor's twisted form, he barely resembled a human being anymore.

"Vic…? What did they do to you?" He mutters out in a state of disbelief.

"Why, Victor here is one of Sern’s Chosen! A pure form, unbound by the tethers of life! Reshaped by the Master into a work of utter beauty! So Ian, that is your choice… either continue on as you are, serving the Master, or become one of the Chosen." He turns back towards the vista and raises his arms in the air.

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

"Ahhh come, come, bring him here! They have arrived!"

Ian is, once again, lifted into the air, Victor joins Patchmans side, letting out a disgusting call over the forest. Ian looks over the rooftops edge, his jaw slack in pure horror.

A plume of dust rises from the forest floor through the canopy. Wretched beasts towered over the treetops, above them, massive flying creatures filled the sky.

"The master has arrived, it is time to finally make the world in his image! So Tosser… what will you choose?"

Three Days Later

Herbert Hu was tinkering with a power converter when Tilly came crashing into their headquarters.

"Hu!!! Med station… Now!" She yelled, Chase's limp body in her arms.

Hu ran to the table and cleared his junk off of it with one brush of his arm. Tilly lays Chase onto the table as the pair remove his tattered armor and clothes.

"What the fuck happened out there?" He holds up Chase's body armor.

"I just made this… I told him not to ruin it!"

Tilly shoots daggers with her eyes." Are you fucking serious right now?"

Hu doesn't respond, he is too enamored at the sight of Chase’s wounds.

"That's new." He says, pulling his goggles down over his eyes, and starts poking the crystals protruding from the gashes in his stomach.

"His vitals are…. Well not stable, he is going to live but..." He uses forceps to pull on one of the crystals, it comes free and he holds it up to the light.

"His power core is fluctuating off the charts, this crystal though… It's stable. I have to study this."

"Focus Hu! Something is up with him.. his powers were going wild out there. I've never seen anything like it."

"Who the... What the fuck is that?" Hu proclaimed as the partially formed Jontha hobbled into the cluttered room.

"Oh yeah, Herbert Hu, meet Jontha, our mysterious regenerating stranger who says he knows the Hardwynns."

Jontha stretches out his fully formed hand, Hu reluctantly accepts it. He apologized for the state of him, explaining that he can regenerate from even a hair, but the smaller the piece of him, the longer it takes. If dismemberment occurs the body parts will try to reunite. Hence why the Sourcers were able to keep him in that state.

Tilly and Jontha fill Hu in on the events of the forest ruins. Hu twirled his chin hairs in ponderance, trying to take it all in. If it's true, They were about to be attacked by a Sourcer army with resurrected monsters who were constantly changing and tough to kill. Their partner/ best friend's powers were going haywire and they had no idea how long he would be unconscious.

"Great! We should evacuate the town. We can't handle a massive attack like that. As for Chase, if my scans are right I think I know what's going on."

He places the crystal in a device and it whirls to life. A screen lights up showing streaming data.

"Our powers, as you should know, are generated by macro stars located in the pineal gland." Images and diagrams flash onto the screen, he puts his hand out and a metallic pointer floats into his hand, he slaps it onto the screen.

"There are many star types in the universe and each kind determines the type and strength of your abilities. Chase... Chase doesn't have a star. He has the opposite, a black hole. He doesn't generate power, he consumes it. In turn, his strength grows."

The device stops with a ding, and he removes the crystal, and holds it up to Tilly and Jontha.

"Not of this world… this reality... it can't be interpreted so it crystalizes. Hmmmm, something happened, something was stopping it. Instead of a massive feast, it was getting table scraps. It was starving."

He holds his hand out and clutter floats around it, rotating faster and faster. The seemingly random items form a device. He places it on a table. Looking around, he finds a wire and plugs it into the machine. He places the crystal inside it, and the attached item whirs to life uncontrollably, sparks flying out of it until it abruptly powers off.

He rushes over to Chase and greedily plucks off multiple crystals.

"Hu!" Tilly scolds him, Jontha watches Hu work in disbelief. She yells at him again, but it falls on deaf ears. She knows better than anyone that when Hu is onto something, there is no stopping him. The world fades away around him, and nothing else matters. It's especially amplified when things are going crazy… he in his weird way was helping the best he could.

Hu stops and glares at Jontha.

"Jontha... my scans say your human, but…. different. I think it's time you explain your role in this. When I explained what was happening with Chase, you didn't seem like you already knew."

"Fine, I will tell you everything, but over food. Rebuilding a body takes a lot out of me, i haven't eaten in weeks."

Hu nods, Tilly shoots a worried look at Chase.

"He will be fine. In fact, it appears these crystals are speeding up his recovery." He says, giving her a reassuring smile.

"Let's go eat. I'll make us a nice stew!"

Eons Ago

Jontha stood in the rubble, black fluid and blood covered him. He could feel the temperatures plummeting, as he watched the last ship take off for the glowing blue orb in the sky. It was the only one to survive the onslaught, but when the battle was finished, they departed safely. He slid down to the craters wall, towards the massive crystal in its center.

Tears washed the grime of battle off his face. He knew this was the plan, but it still broke his heart. Jovar… he did what he had to do, to save them. He trapped the vile Sern in a crystal, hopefully entrapping him forever, severing his connection to the Chosen and his abominable creations.

Jontha's duty was to get the crystal through the tunnels into the center of the world. His powers would allow him to finish the task. He would be sealed away with it, protecting it for the rest of eternity.

Eventually his world died. The crystal chamber had amenities to keep him sustained. He lived his life alone, day after day, keeping himself busy while he went insane a few thousand times.

Then the humans came and shattered the moon. A people with amnesia, if they had known what the crystal held, they would have never come. They had ravished their world, their technologies were… crude. The humans themselves had no abilities. Had that much time passed? He had stopped counting years in the thousands, but he, their ancestor, was ashamed of them.

He fended the intruders off for days, they were relentless. The crystal's energy was their salvation, and they would stop at nothing to get to it.

The chamber was eventually breached, sending him into the cold vacuum of space.

He awoke aboard a vessel, sirens and lights flashed, as it was torn apart entering the earth's atmosphere. The destruction of the moon triggered a chain of cataclysmic events. Floods, earthquakes,tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and pieces of the moon, bombarding the planet.

Hundreds of years passed, and the survivors started developing their supernatural abilities.

The Source Corporation managed to retrieve the crystal and use its infinite power as a base to bring the human race back from the brink of extinction. The survivors flocked to them, Source City was born, eventually new towns and cities formed.

Jontha stayed close to the Source, studied the people, learned their language and culture. Centuries passed, the Source War breaks out, and his worst nightmare becomes a reality. Sern walks the earth, and it's only a matter of time before he creates a new army of fiends. But there is hope, a child with powers similar to his long lost friend.