• Chapter One


    In the end, even though my physical body in this world was dying, I wasn't really dead. My friends will be sad but I'll see them again, before they die. To think all the craziness began only a week ago. I had been feeling restless and went out for a walk to a small oasis of trees by my neighborhood.
    When I had gotten to it, the life I used to lead ended and my life that I had always wanted to lead began. A week before my birthday, I was no longer a human but I became something so much greater.


    The forest was quiet as the cool night air flowed over my skin. It felt good to get out of the house, there was always some huge event going on and it was just nice to get out of the house for an hour or two. The moon was very bright tonight so I could easily find my way through the obstructed trail that I always walked. It lead to a small clearing where I kept an old and battered lawn chair that was amazingly comfortable for its age. Whenever I sat on it, it would creak menacingly as though it was going to fall apart, but it never did. It was my favorite place to just sit and think. A small creek ran through the clearing and the moon always rained down, poc-marking the dirt floor of the quiet thinking space.
    No one knows that I go there, not even my best friend, whom I tell almost everything. I usually think about life in my way, which usually involves pulling apart situations piece by piece and a slight possibility of setting it on fire in my mind. It always calms me, though, to just sit there and do nothing but whatever I want to.
    On this particular night, I felot like thinking about nothing in particular but to just let my mind wander. For a few hours I just sat in my lawn chair, letting my mind creep and crawl over and through every idea that blundered into my skull. It just hit me that I had better go home when I realized a soft and mellow green glow was eminating from a little ways into the thick of the trees.
    My curiousity was sparked and I had to go investigate. I climbed and tripped my way through the bushes until I began to get closer to the source of the odd light.
    Just as I climbed over a bush, I took a step and tripped right into the light source, a large green vortex in the ground. It seemed to sink into the ground like a drill of light. It made a weird humming noise like an engine while sitting in a car. I took this all in as I tripped and just as I finished my train of thought I realized that I was going to fall into it.
    I can't remember what went through my mind as I fell because just as I hit the green vortex I fell into it and into a giant tunnel colored the same eerie green as the vortex. The tunnel seemed to spin as I fell to the side, as though I was being pulled by a rope around my waist.
    As I spun and twisted through the green tunnel, I saw an ending to it. It was a black circle, and as I neared the ending I began to dread it. I wanted to get away from the black circle. I wanted to be so far from it, the feeling hurt me. And then I hit the black dread. I felt myself almost melt through it and just as I thought I saw a night sky with a red moon, everything went black.


    I have no idea how many hours had passed while I was unconcious. Somebody had to have hit me; because I woke up with a splitting headache and it felt like my entire body was throbbing. I tried to open my eyes, but it hurt like hell to.
    "Ow. Gah! Why does it hurt?" I said as I slowly rolled over, massaging one of my temples.
    "Don't move so much, it's not a good idea after coming to this world" said a femal voice. The voice seemed almost lyrical.
    "Coming to this world? What does that mean?" I asked
    "It means that where you used to live is no longer where you are" said the lyrical voice. "My name is Bellamarie."
    "Bellamarie? Nice name, mine is Kai" I said, rolling over onto my back.
    "Your's is nice as well, don't worry, with a little more rest you will be up and moving around no problem" she said.
    I sighed and rolled over onto my other side, falling asleep. I remember the dream I had that night. I was running through a forest and some large ravenous creature was giving chase. It almost caught up to me when several arrows made of what seemed to be ice flew in and killed the creature. Just as I was about to see who it was, I was woken up by a gentle nudge.
    "Kai, it's Bellamarie. You have a guest" she said.
    "So Kai is your name. I am Leader, it is an honor to meet you" said a calm voice.
    I looked up, now being able to see, and I saw a man no older than thirty standing over me. The man named Leader had a calm, almost placid look on his face, though he seemed to have a friendly aura radiating off of him. He had cool, enigmatic black eyes, and his brown hair hung loosely about his ears. He wore a suit and a black tie with a wavy blue line going down it. He smiled at me with a friendly smile.
    "So this is the one who came through the portal. Do you have any idea where you are?" said Leader.
    "No, and I don't know how or why I am here" I said.
    "Ah, well the why shall be answered in good time. The 'how' you got here is simple. A portal from our world to yours was opened and you fell into it. Currently you are on an island known only as X-7" said Leader.
    "Okay and how is that supposed to help me?" I asked, a little annoyed.
    I looked around the room as I talked with this man named Leader. It seemed to be a fairly advanced medical facility. I was laying in one of many very comfortable hospital beds. The side of the room I was on was lined with them. The other side was lined with what looked like operating tables. The weirdest thing about it all, though, were the floating orbs over all the beds and tables. The orbs looked like extremely complex machinary. Each one glowed a soft almost candle light kind of glow.
    Then I finally saw Bellamarie. She sat next to Leader at the foot of my bed. She had bright green eyes that were half closed. She had a lazy smile that made her give off a pleasent feeling and I couldn't help but feel happy and sleepy looking at her. She wore a beautiful dress with a floral patten on it. She wasn't wearing any shoes, but she was talking to a potted flower at the foot of my bed.
    "Well, if you wish to learn some of the art of fighting and magic I would be willing to teach you. You are ging to be here a long time, so why not learn something while you are here?" said Leader, bringing me back to him.
    I looked at him and then at Bellamarie, it was an amazing contrat between their hair colors. Leader's brown hair was very light compared to the deep black of Bellamarie's long hair. She let it hang down, and it must have stopped about where her shoulder blades were. It astounded me that I didn't notice till just now.
    "Actually, I think I will have to take you up on that offer" I said with a smile.
    "Okay, I will be back in a couple of days. Once I come back and we leave there is no backing down. You must surmount any challange placed before you" Leader had adorned this stern yet friendly look that showed just how serious this was.
    "I...I will, you have no need to worry" I said with another, less meaningful smile.
    "Good, then so long for now and get some rest, when I come back we will be heading for training and I don't want you tired or weak for it" said Leader, giving me a pat on the back.
    It was odd, in less than a day I had been sent to what seemed like an alternate dimension. I could no longer talk to anyone I knew or loved, and as far as I could tell, I was stuck there until I could figure a way out. This thought ran through my mind as I watched Leader leave out of the warehouse-like medical center, and just as I had had these thoughts, another one strangely floated into my head. I wasn't scared or nervous, and I wasn't sad that I probably wouldn't be seeing any of my friends or family ever again, oddly enough, I felt totally at home in this strange new place. I smiled and layed back to fall asleep again, having a new found hope for my life that it didn't have before.


    Everything was black. A loud noise, like metal banging against metal came ringing through the darkness. Hundreds of thousands of glowing red eyes stared at me from every direction. I spun around on spot as the eyes danced in a circle, inching closer and closer with every passing second. Then, when they seemed to be only a foot or two or so away from me, I heard the sound of swords being drawn from their sheathes; and as soon as they reached me, I felt as if my soul had just been speared. I let out a scream and jumped up in my bed. I was drenched in sweat and breathing heavily. The red glow from the moon fell elegantly onto the floor, giving the medical center an eerie look.
    I looked around really quick and then I slid out of bed, sliding my feet into a pair of slippers that had been left by the bed. I was wearing the usual hosptial clothes they gave you. It was a cloth that looked like paper, but wasn't, you know the stuff. The clothes I had been wearing were somewhere else. Bellamarie had taken them and had said that she would find me a more suitable replacement outfit to wear while here.
    I looked around the room one more time, and then headed for the door in one corner of the room. The soft humming noise from the floating orbs kept the room from seeming like an empty space, but it was still creepy to be up in the red glow. I just hoped I would get used to it. I was worried about my dream, I had been having ones like it everytime I went to sleep after I had met Leader. It was weird and disconcerting. Everytime I woke up I felt like Leader had been lying to me and that I shouldn't trust him, yet the sane side of my brain told me that he was a trustworthy person.
    I sighed, and stepped out into the dimly lit corridor right outside the medical center. It lead through an outpost that Leader had setup on X-7 for the organization he was in. It served as a base and a safe haven for those of the people in his organization. If I recall, Bellamarie told me that the organization Leader had founded was called the Bone Collector Squad. Apparantly it was a collection of the most powerful warriors Leader could find, trained in the art of the ninja, and they all got hired to do jobs around the globe. I heard all this with unbelief, it was exactly the kind of world I had always wanted to be in. A world where anything was possible, where you were only limited by what you wanted to do. Finally, I was here.
    I walked down the long corridor to the door that lead to small jungle island outside the outpost. The night air flowed slowly through the trees making it sound like a light rain was sprinkiling down. I looked up at the sky and saw countless stars in the clear sky. The island was several miles long and a few miles wide. It was completely covered in a dense jungle, the island had once been part of a larger continent but, due to a large conflict in the past, it was seperated from the main land. The only clearing on the entire island was the hill the outpost sat on and a small landing zone for the Bone Collector Squad's transport vehicles known as Skiffs.
    Skiffs were like large eliptical domes that could fly. They had underwater capabilities and they could float on top of the water too. The one who had designed all of them was a man named Jack. He was a master engineer who designed all of the Squad's machines and mechanical things. It was interesting how much I learned in just a day and a half from Bellamarie. She was very knowledgeable, she showed me pictures and let me read up on all the creatures and places in this world. It was a lot to take in, but I read as much as I could.
    I looked out over the jungle and listened to all the insects and animals making their nighttime noises. It was calming, and it reminded me of the forest I would sit in at home. It also reminded me of all of my friends and family. I wish I could bring them here. This thought ran through my mind at least three times every hour. It bothered me, not being able to see them, but I was going to figure out a way back. I figured since Leader made it sound like there was a passage to my world and this one, so I decided to not worry about it too much.
    Just then, the sun began to peek out over the mountains, and the sky turned a wonderful color of orange. It was odd though, the moon remained in the sky without moving at all. It was an odd sight, but I welcomed it as an interesting new setting, along with everything else in this weird world. As I looked out over where the sun was coming up I noticed a small black dot, and it was growing in size. I have no idea how I saw something at that distance, but it seemed like all of my senses were working three times better than normal, even the food tasted better. I would ask Leader about it when he got here, I felt bad for asking Bellamarie so much.
    "Kai, what are you doing out here? Leader is almost here, come in and try on the clothes I put together for you" said Bellamarie, looking a little bleary eyed, like she had been up all night.
    "Okey doke, coming" I said as I headed inside and followed her.
    The clothes she had found were a pair of black cargo pants, a black T-shirt with a cartoonish looking skull on the back, and a AA track jacket in black.
    "Hey, uh what's with all the black?" I asked, slightly thrown off.
    "I heard that all humans seem to be in to black clothing where you come from" she said, in wonder.
    I grimaced, I wasn't exactly the kind of kid that loved to wear black but I wore the clothes so that Bellamarie's hard work wouldn't go to waste, aside from the fact that I kind of liked the jacket. I got dressed quickly and went outside just in time to see Leader's skiff landing at the foot of the hill the outpost was on. The red skiff stood out among the green trees of the jungle. A giant side panel slowly lowered to the ground to become a ramp.
    "Hey, Leader! I'm ready, let's go!" I said, running down the hill to the open skiff.
    "I just have to grab a few things from the outpost but you can come inside and wait for me" said Leader as he walked past me on the ramp into the skiff.
    I nodded as he passed and stepped inside. It was very spacious and the furniture looked really comfortable. Across the wall the ramp was coming out from sat a couch that spanned the entire length of the wall. To the left of the couch sat a counter with some cabinets and an island, it looked like a kitchen but I wasn't sure because there weren't any kitchen appliances. To the left of the kitchenish area stood a door and on the opposite wall stood an open doorway. Since the front of the ship was on that side, I figured that it must have been the bridge.
    "Roomy, huh?" said a voice from behind me.
    I jumped and looked around to see a girl standing there. She had piercing blueish silver eyes with dark blond hair pulled up into a pony tail. She wore a black robe like thing with white skeletons on it, and she had it unzipped down to make the robe low cut. She had beautiful features that seemed to be alive with enthusiasm and life. She wore a wide smile that was contagious, I couldn't help but smile.
    "Yeah, it is. Hi, my name is Kai" I said, holding out my hand.
    "Crystal's the name, and I am Leader's younger sister" she said, shaking my hand.
    "Whoa, that's cool. How old are you?" I asked, "that is, if its not too much to ask." Adding that quickly so as not to seem rude.
    "It's not, I'm fourteen. So, you are the one Leader has been buzzing about for the past two days? Hmmm..." Crystal walked around me, examining me as if I were some fancy piece of furniture she wanted to buy. "You seem like you would do well, and your cute too" she smiled.
    "Oh, be careful Kai, she says that to every guy she meets. I wouldn't fall for her if I were you" said another voice coming from the door that was opening.
    A boy stepped out into the main part of the skiff and Crystal gave him a look that seemed like it could have killed him. "I do NOT!" she said, angrily.
    The boy was a little shorter than me and Crystal, but not by much. The boy seemed to look like a younger version of Leader and it was remarkable at how much they looked alike. The boy wore a black cape with skeletons on it and under that he wore a weird dark red armor that seemed to give off a strange soft glow. The boy smiled at me and grabbed my hand, shaking it vigorously.
    "Hi, I'm Elem. If you need anything, don't hesitate to ask, I will be glad to offer assistance. Like now, I shall remove this annoying pest for you" said Elem with a mocking look at Crystal, pushing her towards the door he had just come in through.
    "HEY! I still wanna talk to him!" said Crystal, trying to push Elem back without much success.
    "You two are always fighting, why is that?" said Leader from the ramp as he walked into the skiff. "I see you have met two of my siblings. As annoying as they are, they are really nice and very competent ninja" said Leader with a smile.
    "Wait, what do you mean 'ninja'?" I said with a hestitant tone.
    "Oh, that's right, Bellamarie didn't tell you about what you would be learning. Oh that's okay, I'll explain everything on the way to your new home while you are training" said Leader with a bright smile. "Now, let's get going. We have a long flight ahead of us and very little time to goof off. Crystal, go down to the hover engine room and check to see what that clanking noise was, it would be very bad if we were to crash land over miles of ocean and no possible way of rescue" Leader winked and walked into the bridge.
    I followed Leader into the closed off bridge and looked around. It reminded me very much of an airplane cockpit, but it this was roomier and looked like it was more comfortable to be in. At the front was a large glass windshield that looked slightly tinted, probably to protect the pilot's eyes from the sun. Directly under this windshield was a control consol that seemed to go almost in a full circle around a very comfortable looking chair. There was a small gap in the consol just room enough to let one person slide in and sit down. To the left and right of the pilot's chair sat two other chairs that were lower down than the pilot's chair, in fact the floor was lowered as well. These two chairs looked as though they were around the same desgin as the pilot's chair except they had fewer lights and buttons and one had a digital map on one of its screens.
    "This is the bridge to our skiffs, all of our members learn how to drive one, and opperate it's other systems. The chair in the middle, as I hope you have deducted, is the pilot's chair. The chair to the right with the map is the navigater's chair and the one to the left is the gunman's seat. You will be learning how to opperate each of these chairs when I feel you are ready, and you will be ready when you can go on missions. Those are fun, trust me" said Leader with a smile as he told me about the bridge. "Now, while we are in flight, only those who are opperating the chairs can be in here, the only exception is those people who need to tell one of us something. So you will have to sit in the main part of the skiff while we are in flight, but don't worry, you wont be alone" Leader had a devious smile on that I was surprised to see.
    I winced and he laughed. A little bit later, after Leader had shown me around the bridge and let me sit in each of the chairs, Crystal and Elem walked onto the bridge and I was asked to sit in the main part of the skiff where the couches were. I walked over to one and flopped down, I had this weird knot in my stomach and I couldn't get rid of it. I watched as the ramp slowly folded back up into the skiff and I could feel the vibration of the engines as the skiff slowly lifted up into the air. I sighed as I felt the ship lurch as it took off. What could Leader have possibly meant, I hated walking into a situation I knew was going to happen but I didn't know what was going to happen. I buried my face in a pillow on one of the couch cushions just as I heard the door on the opposite wall of the bridge open and close.