“Hey Siyass, are you ready for school?”
“Yeah mum. Almost ready.”
“Well hurry up I don’t want you to be late on your first day at a new school.”
“I won’t be. Even if I am, they won’t care.”
“You can’t get through life with just looks.”
“Worked pretty well for you didn’t it?” My mother was beautiful, so was I, and not just slightly pretty and in shape, people would always stare and comment at our appearance. It didn’t seem natural to them, even I questioned it sometimes.
“You would be surprised with what I did with my life.”
“You should tell me sometime.”
Mum never spoke about her past. Dad didn’t even know. She had white hair. Not like an old person. It was actually as white as snow.
We were a fairly wealthy family. Mum said she had enough money for both of my parents to retire. Dad worked to pass the time though.
We had to move town recently after we had two men in black suits visit us.
They took mum away but she returned that night and said we had to leave town. Dad didn’t seem to surprised with it. I think it had happened before I was born.
Mum wouldn’t tell me what it was about. She said I was a lot better off not knowing.
“C ya mum. I'm off.”
I grabbed my bag and ran out the front door. I sprinted to school and got there five minutes late. I walked up to the desk to see a young receptionist.
“My name is Siyass Sanderson, I’m in year nine, this is my first day here.” She started typing on her computer and clicked a few times.
“Well Siyass, your class is in the last room down the hallway on the left.” I noticed she was staring at my eyes, everyone always did.
“Thank you miss. And yes they are real.” My eyes were purple, people usually asked if they were contacts, others are too polite to ask.
She blushed and turned away from me. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to stare.”
“Everybody does it. I kind of like it.”
“They are kind of mesmerizing.”
“Thank you again miss.” I left her and headed to the classroom. And everybody looked at me as soon as I entered the room. I heard a few gasps and whispers. I was already the most popular kid in class.
“You must be the new boy, Siyass?”
“Yes sir, sorry I’m late.”
“Don’t worry, your old school was three weeks ahead of this class. And apparently you were one of the best students there, you don’t actually have to be here for the next three weeks.”
“Thank you sir, what should I do in the meantime?”
“The sports teacher would like to see you, he needs somebody to help with setting up classes, I thought you would be able to help him with your free time.”
“So I just go to the gym?”
“Yes, it’s the big shed on its own outside, hard to miss really.” I walked out of the classroom and went through the door that was across the hallway. It took me outside to a nice little courtyard.
I couldn’t see much, except a building on either side, a large brick fence, and a glass hallway separating this courtyard and another one on the other side. I decided that the glass hallway was more towards the centre of the school.
I walked into the other courtyard and through the opening on the wooden fence on the other side. Suddenly I found the gym. A massive shed that had been thrown into the middle of nowhere.
I tried the door but it was locked, I knocked on it and the shed opened about five seconds later. I saw a blonde man in a strange yellow outfit. It covered his whole body except his head.
“Welcome Siyass, it’s about time you came here. I was afraid that I had the wrong school.”
“Wrong school? What do you mean?”
“It’s not just fate that has brought us here. I was sent here to wait for you. I thought you would be here at the start of the year, but I was mistaken.”
“You are starting to sound rather strange sir.”
“You have an ability I want. It seems that only you can help me.”
“Oh you need a guy with purple eyes and a pretty face for something? This should be amusing.”
“I need you to help me get something that belonged to your great grandfather.”
“Why do you want it?”
“I don’t want it, I want you to have it, but I want you to continue the work he did.”
“What work was that?”
“He used to fight aliens. There is a planet of them who have taken your great grandfathers weapon. We are going to kill these aliens before they use this weapon against us. Which they will if they find Earth.”
“You have got to be kidding me right?”
“Of course you would say that. But no I'm not kidding.”
“You will have to prove it, you can’t just expect me to believe you.”
“Well you do know about your abilities right?”
“What abilities?”
“Your mother never taught you? Never trained you?”
“What are you talking about?”
“You mother won’t like me when she finds out I have powers. And she won’t want you to come with me. But if I show her my powers, she will probably show hers when she attacks me.”
“What sort of powers?”
“Powers I couldn’t beat myself. Your mother won’t help us though. If she hasn’t told you about your people, then she won’t want any powers around you.”
He started walking towards my home and I was quick to follow. This guy seemed rather legit, he knew where he was going.
“What do we do when she attacks you then?”
“We run, you should be able to keep up. So should she though.”
“What if I can’t keep up?”
“You will, you have your great grandfather’s powers.”
“What if I don’t?”
“I suppose Laura never had her father’s powers, or her mother’s. I guess you’re right. How about you climb on my back as soon as you believe me?”
“Ok that sounds like a good idea, how fast can you run?”
“Too fast, if I use my powers to get away from her, then people will be after me. They are looking for me.”
“What did you do?”
“I went too fast, and I was punished for it, I decided not to accept my punishment.”
“You can get in trouble for going to fast?”
“Yeah, I went so fast I caused a rip in time.”
“Holy crap, you can do that?”
“I don’t want to try it again, I like my freedom.”
“What’s your name anyway?”
“To our people, I am known as Speed.”
“Well that’s a rather lame name.”
“Thanks, I was named by our people because of my power.”
“So how did you know my great grandfather?”
“We were both warriors. Fighting to save the universe. He was a good fighter, the best I ever had the honor of fighting with. I would have won if we hadn’t been interrupted. Maybe someday I can fight you and see how we go.”
“That wouldn’t be fair, you know more about me than I do in this field.”
“I think I’ll wait till you’re a bit stronger of course.”
“So what am I, if I’m not human?”
“You are half human. Then a quarter PM and a quarter Artificial.”
“I'm a crossbreed?”
“There was only ever two pure blooded Artificials that were female. That was your great grandmother and your mother’s auntie.”
“Then where does the PM come from?”
“Your grandmother. She wasn’t a warrior like the rest of your family. It seems like your mother has taken that trait from her.”
“Why didn’t my mum tell me any of this?”
“She never really knew her parents before they died, and almost every Artificial has been killed in fights.”
“How many are left?”
“No purebloods. But you, your mother, and four others. Three of those are still kids like you though.”
“So our entire species is pretty much extinct.”
“There were only twenty-five of you to begin with. That’s why there isn’t many of you. Artificials are amazingly powerful and can beat any enemy, but have a terrible mortality rate.”
“I guess we aren’t that powerful then are we?”
“Oh you are, but like all powerful beings, you seem to get careless and make mistakes. Not many Artificials have lived long enough to get proper training. Those that have, died trying to do something they couldn’t do.”
“What about the ones that are alive then?”
“They have hidden their identities. They have escaped that world of danger.”
“And you are trying to bring me into it?”
“The Amazonians are going to wipe out everyone soon. A war has been predicted, a war that will wipe out almost every creature in the universe. Many species will become extinct. It is said that only the Amazonians, humans and PM will survive in a universe of slavery.”
“The Artificials are almost extinct anyway, so you can’t count them.”
“But the Maulers, Guardians and Dragex are still the three largest races in the known universe. And for our people to become slaves. I won’t accept it. Killing the Amazonians and the Dragex is the only way to be sure that we won’t have war.”
“Won’t it take a war to wipe them out?”
“The Dragex maybe, but the Amazonians aren’t too powerful, just the two of us could do it. With a little help.”
“What sort of help?”
“The overlord can bring back the dead, he has brought back my old squad member, we only ever called her Ninja, and she is unbeatable.”
“If she is so unbeatable, then why does she need to be brought back from the dead?”
“She was caught up in an explosion that killed an Artificial, and permanently hospitalized two more. The fourth one was fairly wounded too.”
“Sounds like things were rather dangerous back then.”
“They will be again soon, especially for you, you are an Artificial, therefore, you will be the center of attention for the war until you die.”
“Is that a good thing or a bad thing?”
“Depends on how good you are, you could die on your first day if you made a mistake. Otherwise you could live a full life if you can put the effort in to be the best.”
“What if I refuse this life of danger and war?”
“Then hope that we can do it without you, or that you can defend this planet alone when the time comes. The humans won’t be much help, apparently one lone Mauler nearly wiped out this entire planet, until the Artificials stepped in.”
“How many Artificials did it take?”
“In the end, it was just one, but another eight tried to take it on together, two of those died and the Mauler barely got hurt.”
“So that one was better than all eight?”
“He thought he was going to die whether he killed the Mauler or not. So he was able to take risks that the others couldn’t. But yes, he was better than most of them at the time. But within a year, some of the Artificials could kill a Mauler in one swing.”
“Can you do that?”
“I have never had to fight a Mauler, I just outran them.”
“How do I take one down if I can’t outrun it?”
“Once you have this weapon, one slice to the leg of a Mauler and it will fall. Two Artificials went to the Mauler home world, freed hundreds of millions of slaves in plain sight, and then flew away casually.”
“How the hell did they do that? Did the Maulers not care?”
“Oh they cared, only about fifty slaves got away alive, but they couldn’t stop the Artificials, your great grandfather killed any Mauler he ran passed that day.”
“What was the point in freeing the slaves if only fifty survived?”
“Because two of the slaves were Artificials, both of those survived too.”
“They let hundreds of millions die, and only saved two of their own? That is disgraceful, I thought these guys were heroes, but they seem to care about themselves more than protecting people.”
“The slaves were criminals, you murder somebody important, and you are sent to the Maulers to do what they need you to.”
“Then why were the Artificials there?”
“They killed the president’s friend and his friend’s son.”
“Were they heroes or not?”
“They were power hungry, they thought they were doing good, but sometimes, they were causing trouble, they freed the Forbidden PM.”
“What are they?”
“The only PM as strong as Artificials. So powerful that they were banned and locked away, the Artificials freed them, and then killed them. I guess they wanted to know if they would win.”
“Did they win?”
“In the end yes, but through luck.”
“As long as they won I guess?”
“Well they haven’t really, the Forbiddens are back now.”
“So I guess you want me to help you defeat them?”
“Of course not, they are not as bad as people think, yes they are powerful, but not evil. The Artificials attacked them, they defended themselves.”
“So the Artificials are the bad guys then?”
“They were good guys, at least from their perspective. But really everyone thinks they are doing the right thing no matter how bad it is.”
Just as he said this, we arrived at my home. The walk seemed to go so quick when I had somebody to talk to. We walked up to the front door and he knocked.
My mum opened the door with a puzzled look on her face. “Hello, who might you be?”
“I am a friend of your grandfathers. I have come to inform you that we need your son to help our people.”
“You have the wrong people, please leave and stay away from my family.”
“You know what I’m talking about, and if you want me to leave you will have to force me.”
“I’m calling the police if you don’t leave. Get inside Siy.”
“But mum, I want him to show me his powers if he has them.”
Suddenly he was inside the house and behind mum. “My only power is to move fast.”
“I would say that’s enough proof for me, you basically teleported.”
“I can outrun the speed of light if I choose to, but that has consequences.”
“I’m sorry mum but I think I want to go with him. I want a more challenging life, you got everywhere on looks with no effort. I’m not putting any effort into my life and I’m still getting everything I want. It’s boring.”
“This is not the life you want, you could be killed, my mother took me away from all this when my father died. I was seven at the time. She took me here to Earth to take me away from everything, after one year she had taught me how to live my life as a human. What I needed to do for money and what I needed to survive. She left me on my own when I was eight to return home. I never saw her again.”
“Why didn’t you tell me about any of this? Does dad know?”
“Nobody knows, and I didn’t want you to end up like my parents. I don’t want you out there fighting, mum told me the war was coming and that Earth was the only safe place. She said that you would probably want to fight if you knew.”
“Well I do want to fight, I want to make a difference to peoples lives. This is how I can do it.”
“You can’t go, you are too old to start training. And we don’t know when the war is coming. Dad spent most of his life training for the war, he never lived to see it. It may not happen for five hundred years.”
I started running, I hoped I could get away. Mum appeared in front of me. “You are not going anywhere Siy, don’t try and run.”
“Come with us mum, help us fight, help us save everybody.”
Suddenly Speed appeared next to us. “You may not like me Cassie, but there are PM here.” I looked down the street to see two men in black suits walking towards us. One had green hair, the other had red hair.
“Get inside Siyass. Now!”
The men walked over to us. “Cassie, we need you to come back to your home planet.”
“My home planet is Earth. I am not going anywhere.”
“We will hurt you to make you co-operate if you make us.”
“You know you won’t beat me, others have tried.”
“We will, we are prepared this time.” Suddenly the one with green hair made a vine come out of his hand and swung it towards mum, but she caught it without even flinching. The red haired one threw a fireball at her, she caught it with her free hand and threw it at the green haired one.
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