Code:Israel

By The Universal Storyteller, 2007-2016 (?)

All of the characters and the other story elements that are present in this story are entirely mine here, and are used fictitiously, unless otherwise stated. That is all. Now on with the story!

Chapter One: The Beginning

Thomas Prince, a fourteen-year-old Caucasian male, accessed one of his electronic mail accounts and visited several websites starting at 7:45 in the morning of Wednesday, August 22, 2007. Neither he, nor anyone else, yet knew that life was about to change. And especially for those in and around the local area of St. Peter, Minnesota, on an alternate Earth.

Far from St. Peter, Behemoth, one of several artificial intelligences created by Lucian Dracolongus, engaged a timer, set to go off without any warning to future prey or opponents. When it finally hit zero, Behemoth would begin executing programs Lucian had created. Lucian was now hiding out in secret underground headquarters poised to cause mass havoc not only in multiple areas of cyberspace, but also in the real world. People like Thomas Prince and those around him, for instance, he might see as potential threats. If so, they might be most in danger when it came to his plans for multi-world domination!

"Do you mind taking me to the library, Angela?" he asked, after leaving the upstairs bedroom he shared with his younger brother Silas behind, and unexpectedly encountering her in the kitchen.

"Sure, no problem," his older sister answered. She didn't mind driving her younger brother around, knowing he was a real bibliophile, always keen to learn.

Thomas would soon start his freshman year at St. Peter High School, and she'd start her senior year there. They had both attended SPHS since their respective seventh-grade years, and were glad to do so, even if their grades weren't always the best for themselves.

She dropped him off at the library at 10 am, and agreed to return for him by 4 pm. Six hours. He only had six hours. Where should he begin? He had recently been fascinated by several things that were theological, historical, or technological in nature, for instance, after having read several inspirational novels that often heavily featured such things in them. And that recent fascination of his had consequently sparked a greater desire to see if he could find more books related to such things, whether they were non-fictional or fictional in nature.

At 3:50 pm, he went to the front desk, and had Judith Booker begin checking out the books that he'd ultimately chosen for himself, as soon as she then could. With the ease of someone quite experienced with such things, it took only about five or so minutes for her to check them out for him as needed. With a kind smile, Judy soon let him leave the front desk with them, once he'd borrowed a cart and begun loading the sixty books that she'd just checked out to him onto it. Most of them were assorted novels, but there were a few books of other kinds present as well.

Angela soon entered the library and headed directly for the front desk in it, knowing that he'd most likely still be around there by the time she found him in the library. After she found him, his books were soon in the back seat of her mostly blue and gold custom-built four-door sedan, once they'd met up with each other and loaded them as needed and desired into it.

Thomas read whenever he possibly could in his life. However, that habit would often get him in trouble scholastically, due to his often reading things not sufficiently related to his studies at times in it. His grades were generally in the C-range, when they conceivably could've been at least in the B-range, due to that particular habit of his. About the only subjects that he currently did rather well in were Physical Education and English, more or less. Math was mostly a problem for him, and so were Science and History classes, to at least some degree, if not to a great degree.

He had no idea that in the near future, he'd meet assorted people that he'd never actually met before in his life. And neither did those people yet know of his existence in the world. They had yet to encounter each other in their respective lives, for various reasons not yet known to any or all of them.

By 4:35, Angela had pulled into their family's driveway again and helped Thomas bring his books up to his bedroom in their family's four-bedroom red brick country house. Three upstairs, one downstairs, with the one downstairs being their parents' master bedroom. He and the twelve-year-old Silas shared one, Angela and the eight-year-old Rebecca shared another, and a guest bedroom was the last upstairs bedroom in it. While their parents Arthur and Margaret had the largest bedroom in it, along with an attached master bathroom.

After they'd put all his new books in his and Silas's bedroom, Thomas soon said, "Angie, you may leave me alone with these books now, if you'd like."

The blue and gold-bedecked Angela said, while suddenly sticking her thumbs in her ears and her tongue out briefly, before just as quickly grinning, "As you wish, Thomas. Supper should hopefully be ready at 7. Mother is expecting to make spaghetti and meatballs, based on what she told me while you were still enjoying yourself at the library."

"Okay. Thank you for your assistance earlier, then."

"You're welcome, Tom." She then winked at him as she left his and Silas's bedroom. When she was gone, he opened one of his new books and began reading. He read voraciously until Margaret finally paged him for supper. Setting his then-current book on top of his desk, he went to the upstairs bathroom to clean himself up before it. Five minutes later, he was downstairs in the dining room, and just about to sit down at the main table there.

Supper lasted until 7:30, and Tom often gladly conversed with his parents and siblings during it. After supper, he was released for the rest of the night, and he soon went back upstairs for the rest of it. He resumed reading the book he'd been reading just before supper, and continued reading it until 10. Then he checked his email and certain websites for a little while before bed. He was done attending to the necessary online things on his computer by 11:15, in bed by 11:30, and quite soundly asleep by 11:40.

Almost two weeks later, Thomas was at his school, and it was almost lunch time for him and the rest of his current history class there. When his current class ended, then, and the bell rang, he and the rest of his classmates were dismissed. On his way to the school cafeteria, it was a few seconds shy of 11:42 in the morning when he first met up with one of many people who'd also find themselves in danger every so often because of Lucian and others around him, whether those others around were organic beings or not.

This person that he met on his way to it was a young girl in his grade, but not currently in any of his classes. She was then in a mostly maroon and silver outfit, as opposed to his current navy blue, red, black, and white one. He didn't yet know her name, and she didn't yet know his, but they'd each learn them soon. In a sudden burst of inspiration, she suddenly asked him, "Young man, would you by any chance care to eat lunch with me today?"

"I don't know. Why do you ask, young miss?" He studied her taller and athletic-looking appearance for a few seconds, before then looking at her auburn hair-framed face again, with its roughly shoulder-length hair and bright green eyes.

"I can't explain it well enough right now, if I'll ever be able to, but I just felt this feeling that I had to ask you to do that, young man," she said, as she also took a few seconds to look him over a little bit here, somehow knowing he'd done the same to her mere moments before.

He thought about that for a few brief moments, as they both moved toward the school's cafeteria. And then, just as suddenly as she'd asked him what she just had, he said, now with a look of moderate curiosity on his face, "I suppose I could do that. I'd still like to know your name before I do, however."

"My name is Scarlett. Scarlett Relsena, just so you know. What's yours, then?" She asked him this, with an almost-imperceptible bit of a smile starting to appear on her face, even as they continued heading to the cafeteria for lunch.

"I'm Thomas. Thomas Prince," he answered, with a slight nod of acknowledgement in her direction.

"Pleased to meet you here, then, Mister Prince." Her barely-visible smile got just a teensy bit wider.

"My friends often call me Tom. I somehow have this feeling that you'll often do the same as well, Miss Relsena." He glanced briefly at her eyes, before looking back in front of himself again here, so he wouldn't potentially bump into anyone then in front of them both by accident as they then entered the cafeteria.

"Only time will tell. My own friends often call me Letta." She reached up, thinking the ribbon securing her ponytail was starting to come loose, and made absolutely sure that it wasn't doing so now.

A few minutes later, both of them received their lunch items and found a still-empty table elsewhere in the cafeteria. They consumed them in a reasonably fast manner, though not too fast, while also beginning to get to know each other in their respective lives. When they were done having them, they then decided to walk together for a little while, seeing as they still had about ten minutes to themselves before they'd have to part from each other here. They decided to go to the school gym for a while, just to kick back for a few minutes, at least. So they did. And they watched other people shoot hoops while they did so. Among those people they watched were two more students who would also be caught up in future events with them both. One was now mostly in green and gold, and another was in purple and orange. Both were boys, by the way.

All of a sudden, one of the boys' shots went awry, due to another boy's blocking of a shot. And the ball headed almost directly for Scarlett, as she and Tom were sitting on a stage elsewhere in the gym. She instantly reacted to it heading her way by pulling her knees towards her torso and starting to push herself up into a crouching position. As it was just about to pass over her own head, she then sprang up from that crouch, with considerable ease on her part here. Doing a flying leap with a full somersault in the air, she grabbed the ball just below a navy blue curtain elsewhere on the gym's stage. She snared it rather easily, and while she was still in the air, even threw in a full twist here for good measure. As she did that full twist, she unexpectedly whipped it back very quickly at the boy whose shot had just gone awry. Five seconds later, she landed quite easily and quite gently on her feet. Everyone then in the gym went quite silent, astounded at how she'd reacted when the ball had headed in her direction as it'd just done.

She soon saw that, and then very quietly asked Thomas, "What, Thomas?"

"How did you do that, Scarlett?" He was very curious about how she'd somehow just been able to do what she'd just done.

"Really, I don't know. I honestly wish I did." A little while later, she and everyone else who'd still been in the gym left it. And she eventually had to part from Tom again.

A few hours later, Thomas and Scarlett's school days were over. As was everyone else's, at least for the students. Before they could part for the rest of the day, two of the boys from before in the gym came up to them both. The boy in green and gold asked them to come with him and the other boy. Tom and Scarlett looked briefly at each other, just before Angela was about to come up to Tom here as she often would after school.

Then Scarlett asked, a few seconds later, "Who are you two, and why do you want us to come with you both now?"

The boy in purple and orange said, "I'm Gawain McDougal, and this other boy with me is Sylvester Woodhaven. We really need your help right now. It seems that there's someone calling for help elsewhere in the area. Please come with us."

"Where are they, as far as you know, Gawain?" asked Thomas, expecting Angela to show up near him very soon, as was usually her after-school wont.

"They seem to be trapped in some sort of building somewhere nearby. I can hear them from about a quarter-mile away, in fact," he answered, with a somewhat concerned look then on his face.

"How so?" asked Scarlett, not yet understanding how they could do that somehow, of course.

"I don't really know. I just know that I do. And Sylvester here seems to think that they're not in a very comfortable situation at the current time, for some yet-unknown reason or reasons. Almost as if they're caught in some sort of cage or something somewhere nearby," said Gawain, who was a boy with dyed orange hair and elbow-length gloves that were mostly orange with purple trim for them. Mostly purple musical notes and miniature microphones were also present on those gloves for him every so often.

Sylvester Woodhaven, on the other hand, looked quite like a woodsman, with a mostly green and gold tunic, matching trousers, and black high-top boots. In his left hand, he currently held an axe, while in his other, he held nothing. He also was wearing a nearly matching backpack, for that matter.

Just as Angela was about to tap Thomas on the shoulder, from behind him, Thomas saw her out of the corner of his left eye. He suddenly said, "Angela, I won't actually be riding home with you this afternoon, it seems. Apparently I'll have to help these kids here and now for some yet-unknown reason. Please tell Mom and Dad I'll find my own way home somehow, please."

Angela came around to stand in front of him briefly, and asked, "Are you sure, Thomas?"

"Yes, I am, Angela. I'll bring my own things home later. I'll try not to be back home too late, if I possibly can do that here." Tom shot Angela a very determined look that she'd often seen from him in the past, when his mind was completely set on something. After she saw it, she immediately realized he wasn't up for ANY debate about the current situation here, whatever it might actually be.

"Very well, Thomas. Please try to be as careful as you possibly can be, then, if you must actually go with these kids elsewhere, okay?"

"Of course, Angela." Then Angela wasted no more time at all by still sticking around him and his current companions here. She was at least a little bit worried that he was about to get himself and others in somewhat considerable danger. But she still left, just the same.

When she was gone, Thomas said, "If we're going to do this, then, everyone, let's go where we have to, so that we can hopefully find and rescue this other person from where they now are, somehow."

By 3:40, then, the quartet had come to an apparently abandoned building of some sort. This building, in fact, had actually been a good-sized warehouse when in active use. But it was no longer in active use, for its original owner had not kept up with its maintenance in the recent past, and had basically forgotten about it, as well. So it was currently in a state of ever-increasing disrepair. Several parts of the building had begun to suffer the natural effects of little or no maintenance being done for it and in it, as a direct result of its virtual abandonment by its original owner. There were some parts that were sufficiently in good shape, but not as many as there should have been, in actual reality.

The quartet carefully picked their ways through assorted considerably-damaged areas of the building, by sheer necessity, until they all found themselves in a large room that seemed to be the main control center of the entire building. A rather good-sized computer system was in the exact center of that room. And two elevator shafts were along the wall opposite the door they'd just passed through in order to access that room. They all looked around the room here. And Thomas was somehow drawn to the computer first, for some yet-unknown reason here. He soon sat down behind it, in an often-adjustable chair. The other three looked at it and the computer's main screen from over his shoulders, just as soon as they could do that well enough here.

After looking at the computer and its various components for several moments, at least, Thomas soon said, "Scarlett, Sylvester, and Gawain, it seems you three need to access the elevator shaft directly behind my right shoulder. That should take you to a room one level below this one in this building's complex, with eight mostly-translucent telephone booth-like boxes of some sort. Each of you should choose one of them, and then enter them. Next, you'll each need to press the button that matches your respective booth's number, within sixty seconds, once you've closed your booth's door in order to do what you'd then have to do, it seems. And finally, you'll have to see what happens then, once you each do that."

Two minutes later, Scarlett, Gawain, and Sylvester were standing near three of the booths that Thomas had just told them about. At his direction, each of them chose a booth, and they did so one at a time. Scarlett took Booth 1, Gawain Booth 2, and Sylvester Booth 3.

When they were each in one of the three chosen booths, certain information about them suddenly began appearing on Thomas's main computer screen. It was basic biology-related information about each of them. If nothing else at all about any or all of them, as well.

He directed them to press the applicable buttons for each of them here, one at a time. First, Scarlett did so, seeing as she was first to enter one of the booths where they'd all just gone here. And then the other two did so, in turn, when the need arose. When they all did so, they were each scanned by some sort of yet-unknown device in their respective booths. And they all felt themselves changing at least a little bit, if not a lot, even while still being scanned in them.

Two minutes later, they all suddenly materialized in a still-unfamiliar place. They found themselves near a river of some sort once they'd fully materialized five feet above the ground before dropping down to it. They landed on the ground two seconds after materializing above it. Scarlett landed on it the softest, when they did so. Sylvester landed on it half as softly, and Gawain about a third as softly, as Scarlett did.

When they'd all done that and sufficiently gotten their bearings, after mutually having considered their present situation, they soon looked themselves all over. Each of them was dressed at least a bit differently than they'd each been before they and Thomas had all found the computer. If not quite a bit differently.

Scarlett was now wearing a fighting uniform that looked like some sort of fusion between a ninja outfit and a gymnastics leotard. And this uniform was mostly maroon and silver in color. In two pockets of it, there were several throwing stars and many playing cards. On each of her arms, there were several bracelets, with many of them being mostly metallic in nature. And attached to her belt, in several sheaths of some sort, there were several knives as well.

Sylvester, for his own part, now had a simple recurved bow in his left hand and many arrows in a rather full quiver hanging on his back. He also had an often-expandable wooden staff, an axe, and at least one rope of considerable length hanging from his belt. He now was mostly in a similar outfit to the one that he'd been wearing prior to his stepping into a booth of some sort. And it was a mostly green and gold outfit.

Gawain was now in a fighting uniform that was some sort of fusion between what a musician might wear and what a sailor might wear. And it was mostly purple and orange in color. In his hands, he currently held a pipe and a microphone. On his back were two crossed canoe paddles. Also, he still had his gloves on from before. He now wore a swimming mask perched on top of his head, and he'd often have reason to use that mask in the future, most likely. On his feet, he now wore boots much, though not entirely, like the ones that Sylvester was now wearing. Those boots completed his present look.

The three of them looked themselves over briefly, before Gawain heard from some distance away the voice that he'd heard before again. He immediately began running toward it, and the others obviously followed him here. Two seconds before he was about to dive into the nearby river, his mask came down over his eyes automatically. The other two were stopped before they could do the same by some sort of energy field that extended for about five feet away from the nearest part of the river on their side of it.

Gawain dove into the river, and soon found a young girl trapped in some sort of cage, just as Sylvester had earlier thought someone might be trapped in one. He soon began playing a tune that suddenly came into his head, and the cage opened seconds after he began doing so. He caught the girl as she was ejected from that cage, and placed her on his back, after temporarily putting his paddles under his belt. That done, he put his pipe and microphone on his belt as well, before beginning to use the aforementioned paddles to get back to the water's surface. As he used them, several aquatic beings of some yet-unfamiliar sort began to head toward him and his current companion. When they began to get too close to him and the girl he was carrying, he was forced to try to fend them off with his paddles. He was able to make the surface easily enough, though, without losing her in the process. After he was able to do that sufficiently well, then, the beings were forced to abandon their pursuit of him and that companion. For they were generally unable to breathe out of water. The girl he'd just rescued from the cage was now in a mostly pink, copper, and tan outfit.

Once the girl was placed on the nearby riverbank, Sylvester and Scarlett began to check her out. The girl was rather weak, but she was still at least somewhat alive. She'd been held for some considerable length of time in some sort of air pocket. But that air pocket had begun to dissipate, and she'd also not been given food or water for some time, while still in that cage. It took her just a little while longer to adjust to her now-changed circumstances here.

By the time that she'd then done so, Gawain and the others besides her found themselves under attacks from strange beings that'd shown up not long after she'd been brought where she now was. Most of them were land-based, while several were air-based, in their respective natures.

When she saw them all fighting those beings, she suddenly said, "Let's get out of here, everyone. Follow me!" She then rose from the ground, up to a standing position, and quickly began running towards a good-sized mound somewhere off in the distance. Not wanting to lose her, they all followed her as she did so. On the way there, she began shooting several multi-colored bursts of fire from her fingers at several of the beings that were now trying to take them down. Those firebursts represented her current capability for at least some spiritual attacks in this area of her virtual realm.

Fifteen minutes later, the four warriors were near that mound. The yet-unnamed girl then had the others stand guard as she actually went into the mound for a little while. They didn't yet understand why she wanted them to do that here. But they all would come to understand why she'd wanted them to do that here in due time. They all agreed to do so, though, without any debate at all. After they all did so, she went to the mound and touched it, before phasing almost immediately through its visible surface and disappearing from their sights for the time being.

Once inside the mound, she soon found herself in a hall of some sort. She went down it as quickly as possible until she found herself in a small room with only a simple screen and touchpad visible. She touched the touchpad with her right hand. When she did, the words "Code Israel: Genesis" appeared at the top of the screen. And the name Tiffany appeared in its center. Five seconds later, a pillar of light suddenly engulfed the room around her, the touchpad, and the screen, starting from where her hand had touched the touchpad. This pillar of light soon expanded to encompass not only the room that she was now in here, but also the hallway, the rest of the mound, and the immediate area of the mound now in question here. That same pillar also shrouded the four warriors, and sent them all to other places entirely. It sent Tiffany to an alcove of some yet-unknown sort near the room where the touchpad and the screen were, and sent the other three warriors back to the booths that they'd each originally entered some time before.

When Scarlett, Sylvester, and Gawain each emerged from the booths they'd earlier entered, it was now just about 5:10 pm local time. Scarlett was the first of them to speak, once they all realized they were back in the Booth Room with each other. She soon said, "That was rather unexpected. I wonder who that girl was that we all helped, Gawain."

"As do I, and I'm sure that Sylvester does too. Right, Sylvester?" asked Gawain.

"That is so, Gawain and Scarlett." Sylvester was often a boy of few words, if and whenever possible, in his life. He was the only child of his parents. And he was the kind of boy that often took a great deal of time to feel close enough to someone in his life. He had very few friends because he wasn't the kind of boy who liked being around a lot of people if he didn't have to be.

"Perhaps Thomas can tell us who she is, boys," said Scarlett, as they began to leave the Booth Room for the elevator that'd take them back up to where Thomas still was in the building complex. The three of them moved to the other elevator that was present around them now.

A few minutes later, all three of them were conversing with Thomas again in the Computer Room. He soon told them, "The girl you rescued has a name of Tiffany. She resides now in a virtual realm called 'Israel,' it seems. She's quite closely tied to it at the present time, so she can't actually leave it well enough now, and still exist in a physical enough sense, if what I've learned about her so far is accurate enough. Mind you, I only know just a little bit about her right now. I most certainly will see what I can possibly learn about her and her realm, if and whenever I can, though. The mound that you all saw her enter is one of her main bases in various areas of Israel. Several mounds like the one that you brought her to are linked together somehow. Though I don't know just how yet. The area of her realm that you were in just now seems to be called 'Babylon,' if I remember things well enough here."

"What happened to send us back here, then?" asked Scarlett.

"You were sent back to this world by a pillar of light that appeared first inside the mound you brought her to. And you were brought back here at the exact same time that you all left that virtual realm, Scarlett," answered Thomas, after looking at his main screen for at least a few seconds here.

"So will we see more of her virtual realm?" asked Sylvester.

"Do you wish to, Sylvester?" asked Thomas.

"Very much, I think. I haven't had this much challenge in ages! My real life's rather dull, you might say, Thomas," said Sylvester, with the first smile that they'd all seen from him in their still-short knowledge and experience with him. It wasn't a very big smile, in fact, But it was still a smile, just the same.

"Then perhaps you might just get that wish. It seems that you've just been chosen as a Israelite Warrior to fight alongside Tiffany, Gawain, and Scarlett, at least."

"I've been chosen as one, Thomas?" asked Scarlett. "I really wasn't ever planning to come to a virtual realm quite often in the future. I was hoping to instead be able to train as a gymnast or a ninja quite often in it, just so you know."

"You've been chosen as one. As have Gawain and Sylvester," said Thomas.

"And what about you? What is your part going to be, as far as you know, in this group of ours?" asked Scarlett, not very happy about being chosen as one, for that matter.

"For now, at least, it seems that I'll be the group's data-keeper. I may eventually find myself in the virtual realm as well. But not for right now, I think. I don't even know if it'll be possible for me to ever go to it somehow, Scarlett. Someone needs to be here to make sure that everyone else can go there, if and whenever needed, you know. And that someone appears to be me. At least for now, anyway."

The quartet eventually left the building complex, and returned to their respective residences in the local area. They all left it by 6, and were all in their respective homes again by 7. Before they all parted, Thomas handed them all small communicators that looked almost entirely like simple calculators. He'd unexpectedly found them all somewhere near the main computer while they'd all been in Israel with Tiffany. He showed them all how to use their new communicators before they all parted from each other for the rest of the night.

Thomas went back home on foot, and had shared supper with his family by 8:30 pm. By 9, he was studying, and by 11, he'd taken a shower and retired to his bed for the night. He fell asleep by 11:45, after reading in it for a while.

The newly-revised second chapter of Code Israel: Genesis will be up soon here, I expect. If you have any good ideas for possible pairings of the main characters, as long as they are straight ones, I'm quite willing to hear them. I really hope that you'll enjoy this story and its related series quite a bit. Please do often read and review quite constructively, if at all possible and if you feel the need or desire to do so, people. Until later, then, this is The Universal Storyteller saying, "Over and out!"