Chapter 1

He was in their section of the sewer going through his normal early morning routine. He stood in the bathroom that they had added to their crib with their powers long ago.

He was looking at his reflection in the cloudy mirror hanging on the back of the door.

His family was still asleep.

Loving the solitude, he always took advantage of the fact that they were not morning people.

He had taken a nice hot shower. After using his power to dry is hair, he styled his clean and shiny raven hair into long spikes that reached out haphazardly all over his head.

He tilted his head while his tongue toyed with the labret just below his bottom lip.

His mouth was desirable, and his lips were full and had just the right amount of pout to them when he was brooding.

Knowing how to use that mouth and those lips to please women was a talent he had acquired with lots of practice.

He was pondering whether to put color on the tips of his hair, red, blue, or just go natural.

He stared back at his reflection into his own golden brown eyes, winked, nodded once, and smiled; he had decided he'd go natural.

Assessing himself further, standing naked as the day he hatched from the pod, he started flexing his muscles.

Again nodding his head with approval, 'I might work out later, keep this sexy bronze body perfect,' he thought.

Yeah, he knew he was Da'Man. The bitches think he is sexy.

He lifted the corner of his mouth with a smirk while cupping his crotch thinking salaciously, 'who wouldn't like this big love muscle hammering their brains out. Damn, I'd fuck myself if I could.' Thinking he had just said the funniest thing ever, Zan let out a chuckle and continued to smirk.

'Leather, yeah leather pants is what I will wear today.'

He dressed in the private section of the area in the sewer that he called his bedroom.

He came out looking bold and sexy in a tight black t-shirt with ripped off sleeves that hugged his broad shoulders and muscles like a glove.

His black leather low cut pants fit his narrow hips perfectly, and accentuated his impressive package from the front, and his tight muscular ass from the back.

After lacing his Doc Martens, he picked up his worn black leather jacket, then Zan headed out.

Zan suddenly felt his hackles rise. It surprised him. He immediately went on high alert.

He felt something was off kilter when he started out of the sewer toward the streets.

He kept feeling a tingle or vibration at the back of his mind as he walked the street. He had felt it off and on for the past two weeks.

It was like something or someone was reaching out to him.

This made him nervous and uneasy.

The vibes started easing off until he could barely feel them.

He picked up his gait walking just a little faster. He could see his own breath in puffs as he tried to keep warm on this crisp New York morning.

Zan liked being up at dawn so he could have some private time to himself before his crew woke up bitchin' about one thing or another.

Things that they wanted, or which direction his lead should take. Zan usually just reminded them that he was Da'Man.

He never hesitated to harshly put them back in their pecking order again.

Zan's thoughts turned dark as he started feeling resentful. Zan was the 'responsible' one. He would die for them. He knew it, and his family knew it.

He was their fuckin leader after all, and recently he was getting pretty fuckin tired of it.

Hell, he wondered who the prick was that dumped this whole 'responsibility' load of shit on him, there had to be, just had to be, more meaning in his life than this.

He was often lonely and confused. Zan wasn't really sure exactly how old the four of them were.

After all none of them knew how old they were when they came out of the pods. When he was hatched he didn't know anything about calendars or dates.

They could only estimate their true age.

He figured that he was about 18 or 19 years old now. Zan taught himself how to read.

When he was younger, during one of his excursions out of the sewer, he was casing a small school supply store to take things back that they might be able to use.

Luckily he just happened to come up on a learning program that included all the tools that he needed to learn phonics. At the time he had no idea what he had stolen from the shop keeper.

He had no idea that it would profoundly impact all of their futures.

After putting the program to good use, and when he thought he had learned to speak English well enough, he started teaching it to the others.

It was his 'responsibility' to take care of his family. Zan discovered the New York City Library.

He would go there every chance he got and would read to obtain all the information he could get his hands on.

As he got older he learned that he had the ability to scan the book pages with his mind, taking the knowledge and retaining it.

He soon learned through his studies that his life in the sewer wasn't as comfortable and accommodating as he thought.

He wondered why it was that they were in the sewer, and had been there their entire life.

Where were his parents? Like the ones that were so often described in the books he read.

How was it that he was so young, and had such a big responsibility, a family of four, thrust onto him from the day that he and the other three had hatched from the pods?

'Damn, life sucks.' Zan sighed to himself.

Zan, Lonni, Rath, and Ava were the size of five or six year old children when they hatched from the pods.

Four little slime covered beings burst through four separate egg-shaped membranes that had been attached to the sewer wall.

When all four of the children had hatched, three sets of eyes landed on Zan.

Not able to speak aloud only communicating through their feelings, their eyes wordlessly questioned Zan, 'what do we do now?'

He looked back at them intensely and then looked around surveying the surrounding hostile looking environment.

Even at such a young age Zan knew things. He just knew them, more like an instinct, he knew what needed to be done to survive.

He knew the things they needed to avoid. He stood there silently, and then turned again to study the three faces that were looking back at him, he sized them up so to speak.

He felt a bond with them, he felt connected to them. Like they belonged together.

He could have just wondered away like any other innocent child probably would have, but even as a newborn child, brand new to the world, his first instinct was to stay with them, and help lead the other three children to safety.

Even if it was only to hide from all the 'scary stuff' that was out there beyond their hatching room.

Recently, Zan started to feel as though his life was like a wheel spinning while stuck in mud.

He was in a rut. 'OH Shit! My life has turned mundane.' He groaned to himself.

Last week Kal Langley, who identified himself as the Royal 'protector', contacted Zan to set up a meeting with him down in the sewer.

Zan waited patiently for Kal to show up before asking him what he meant by having the title 'Royal Protector.'

After showing up for the meeting and feeling quite arrogant towards the 'boy King,' Kal introduced himself to Zan, then began explaining in a condescending tone, what the duty of a protector was to Zan and the others during their stay here on Earth.

Kal had deserted them and he felt no remorse for doing so. Kal felt a sense of satisfaction thinking how he was living the good life while slacking off his duties to the Royal Four.

Yet, Kal didn't realize who he was dealing with when he revealed his lack of care for the four young people.

Zan was feeling irritated and confused by all the vague answers that Kal continued to dose out to him.

Zan got angrier as the realization of who Kal was in relationship to him and his family became clear.

Without thinking twice, Zan raised his hand and, roaring a feral roar, he sent an energy blast at Kal slamming him into the wall and knocking him unconscious.

Zan pulled up a chair turned it around backwards and straddled it leaning his arms on the back of the chair waiting for Kal to wake up.

Zan wasn't finished with Kal. When Kal finally regained his wits about him, Zan jumped up and grabbed him by the throat letting his 'protector' know that he had some serious explaining to do.

After demanding that Kal explain why he left all of them alone in such a vulnerable state, and deciding that Kal's reasons weren't good enough, Zan roughed Kal up some more.

He warned Kal that he had better be careful and tell him the whole fuckin story.

Kal did tell Zan the 'how and why' it came to pass that they were hatched out of the pods here on Earth.

Kal explained the four podster's destiny to Zan in full detail.

He told Zan of their past lives and how they came from a planet called Antar in the Whirlwind Galaxy.

He explained how each of the children were reborn clones of their previous selves from another lifetime.

Zan is the King of Antar, Rath is his second in command and Vilondra's betrothed, and Vilondra is Zan's sister and a Princess.

Kal told him that in Zan's previous life Zan's and Ava's marriage had been arranged by each of their parents to create a bonding alliance of two different worlds.

Unfortunately, when the time had come for them to stand and take their nuptials; the marriage ritual had been interrupted and the ritual never took place.

Kivar, an enemy to the King, had always envied Zan. Kivar and his band of thugs, invaded the palace and killed Zan, Ava, Vilondra, and Rath.

He murdered them so that he could take over the throne and be the ruler of the planet.

Kal explained that Zan's mother is still alive, and safe in hiding.

Through her anguish from losing her children, the Queen Mother arranged for her children's DNA, along with their betrothed's DNA, to be mixed with human DNA and put into the hatching pods by Antarian scientist.

She sent the pods and a group of watchers to the planet Earth.

This allowed each of them to be reincarnated with the protection and training of the Royal Protectors.

While the Royal Four are here on the planet Earth, the protectors are to prepare them so that they can go back when the time is right and save Antar from Kivar's oppression.

After hearing what Kal had to say, Zan ordered Kal to begin the duties that he was sent out from Antar to perform.

He commanded Kal to provide him an easy access to contact him 24/7.

Zan gave Kal a parting command, "Kal, You will obey me, that is a royal command from your King," Zan said with an air of hubris that came from learning he was a King.

Bowing unfamiliar humility, Kal answered, "As you wish, Your Highness."

Zan swaggered away from Kal, and decided he would tell the others about their 'destiny' when he thought the time was right.

Zan was thinking back to when he and the other three children were small, they never left the pod area of the sewer.

Zan would venture out to sneak food from the other people that made their homes in the sewer.

He was really good at hiding in the shadows, slinking back in the dark places invisible to those around him.

He would bring the food back to his family to eat. As the kids got older, they would venture out further into the sewer.

During their adventures they would sometimes witness homeless people having sex in the make-shift homes dotting the underside of New York City.

By the time the kids turned around 16 or 17 years old, their hormones were raging.

Rath and Vilondra hooked up and started experimenting with a touch here and a touch there which eventually led to full blown fucking.

They liked this thing called sex.

Ava wanted to 'experiment' with Zan, but Zan wasn't ready to do that with Ava.

It wasn't because he didn't have the same desires raging through him that they had, it was just he didn't have them for her.

He would just shake his head when he thought of the fact that Lonni and Rath were fuckin. How could they fuck when they had grown up as family? They were his brother and sister for fuck sake.

For a very long time, the four children thought that every person they saw had hatched out of pods like they did.

They had no idea that they had started their lives different from everyone else.

They didn't know that they were special, and had been designed to carry out a profound destiny on a distant planet.

They were innocent children left to fend for themselves by AWOL protectors.

As they grew older, Zan, Lonni, Rath, and Ava started developing strange new abilities.

They realized that they could do things that humans could not do. They could conjure energy and change objects, manipulate atoms so to speak.

Lonni, Rath, and Ava were always being lectured by Zan to be careful and not let anybody see them using their powers.

Those lectures came from the innate instincts that Zan had regarding their safety.

He knew something was behind his paranoia, but never in his life imagined that it was anything like the enlightening information he had received from Kal their 'so-called' protector.

'Fuck him,' Zan growled. 'The first order of business I will attend to when I get back to Antar will be to throw his sorry ass in the dungeon,' Zan thought while feeling confident in the new found royal authority he now possessed.

Zan felt the vibration, the tingling in the back of his mind again. This brought him out of his reverie.

He stopped in his tracks narrowing his eyes; he scanned the street.

He didn't see anything unusual. He placed his hand on the back of his head.

'Fuck! Can I be any more 'paranoid?!' he thought. "What is causin' dis' shit" Zan whispered out loud.

Zan continued on his path watching, scoping with his eyes, listening, and 'feeling' trying to pick up vibrations.

He put all his senses on high alert. He kept walking, turning corners, he walked for blocks, and then the tingling vibration was so strong it felt like a homing beacon, and it was coming from the brownstone house that was standing right before him.

He stood there looking at it for a moment before moving into the shadows keeping the house in his view.

He realized fleetingly that he had made his way to Manhattan.

He generally never went there unless he was on a mission for something they needed out of pure necessity.

There was no place in Manhattan for punks from the sewers like them.

He had been told that many times by the police that patrolled there.

He made sure his crew stayed away too. 'Fuck Manhattan who needs it, I'm a fuckin King, how many of you fuckers can say that? Yeah, I didn't think so,' he thought to himself.

They would stick out among the other people, and wouldn't blend in.

They couldn't draw attention to themselves like that. It just wasn't safe.

They chose to hang out in their hood where all the punks hung out.

Although, Zan knew with confidence that he could take care of himself in any kind of flex'in situation he found himself in.

In fact, he had a battle scar marking his handsome brow, and a few dotted over his muscular body.

The scars were from when the fights escalated and got a little too dirty; sharp weapons were drawn.

However, he felt it was in all of their best interest to avoid trouble. Rath, on the other hand, thrived on starting fights around their crib and sometimes it was just for the hell of it because he was feeling bored.

Rath was impulsive and couldn't control his anger very well once he got going, the fuckers he was fighting would end up dead; it was too easy for Rath to slip up and get into trouble.

Zan had to keep on top all of Rath's moods.

Zan stood staring at the brown building that held the object of his curiosity and unease.

He walked through the shadows as he investigated the outside of the house.

He didn't want to stir suspicion if someone came along and noticed him.

He winced and squinted his eyes, the vibes were coming full force now.

It wasn't actually a 'bad' sensation, it was just different from anything he had ever felt before.

It was intense, strong, and it confused him. He had to find out what the fuck was behind it.

Zan looked around to see if anyone could see him as he crept up the stairs leading up to the front door of the Brownstone house.

Seeing the coast was clear, he peered through the window that adorned the door, but he didn't see anything unusual when he looked through it.

Inside there was a foyer that lead to a living room with modern furniture.

'Looks like money lives here,' he thought to himself.

The lights were off except for a dim light flickering faintly illuminating the dark living room.

That was all he could make out looking through the window.

Using his powers to heighten his senses even more he listened against the door for sounds, any sound that would indicate that there was someone in the house.

After diligently listening, he again used his powers, but this time to unlock the door.

When he stepped inside and pushed the door closed, he tuned in to his hyper-senses.

He listened and then he sniffed, for a sound or scent that would indicate that there was another person, (or is it an alien?) in the house.

He stood for a few moments taking in his surroundings, always in charge of the situation.

In warrior mode, he started in the direction that had such an intense pull on him.

He was drawn to a door, and was on high alert to take any action necessary to defend himself, or protect his family.

He had to take care of this and take care of it right now.

He reached over and turned the knob and the door slowly creaked open.

His breath hitched when he saw her sitting on the bed up against the headboard.

She had her knees drawn up under her chin with her arms wrapped around her legs.

Her big round chocolate-colored doe eyes opened wide as she looked at him and she whispered in a surprised tone, "It's you."

TBC