Hey guys, I'm new to this so I'll be quick. My Pen-name is KellerMeBad and I'm just some guy who had an idea for a story with good friends to back him up. I'm not the best writer or an expertise at grammar so please bear with me. I look for good criticism and I hope to get some. Please don't be a hater to my story because I have worked hard on it. This story is entirely my own, completely original, but there are a lot of ideas out there, so if anything that might not be original please tell me. Enjoy

-KellerMeBad

Prologue: All That Is To be

-Cale of the First Rebellion

Having the life driven out of you and then placed back isn't all that fun, Trust me. My pale green eyes opened to find the night sky filled with smoke and soft snow littering the ground. I tried to get up but stopped when I felt a sharp pain in my side, I unzipped my Netic-Vest to find a deep gash in my left side. I opened my medic-pack that was strapped in my side to pull out the biofoam cantina that reminded me of a fire extinguisher the size of my fist. I put the nozzle into my bleeding wound (which also hurt a lot) Seconds later I felt the sickening feeling of ants crawling under my skin but I knew it was the biofoam doing its work. Fortunately Biofoam doesn't hurt and numbs the pain of the wound. I struggled up and retrieved my ADR (Automatic Deployment Recon rifle) I checked its ammunition, out of Cybernetic armor rounds, great. I scanned the battlefield, all I saw were dead bodies, burning vehicles, and scorched grass that had melted through the snow.

Where do I begin? Things happened so quickly, I'm lost, I'm hungry, and I'm wounded. What do I do? Zan's words echoed in my head: identify your surroundings, get your friends out of harm's way, and then get the hell out of there. You're too important to die. I knew he was right, I ruffled my light brown hair and started looking for my soldiers.

After a long search I found two of my soldiers, luckily both had only been knocked out. I splashed water in their faces from my water cantina and they awoke.

"Sir?" One of the soldiers said, coming out of his daze. His eyes fluttered open and he realized he was talking to his commander-in-chief.

"Sir! We need to get you out of here, now!" The soldier reached for his gun.

"I'm sorry, I'm afraid I can't." I replied, getting up from where I was kneeling.

"What?" The other soldiers said with a mixture of confusion and worry on their faces.

"I have other soldiers I need to save." I said this in a grim tone, not knowing even if there were other soldiers who were still alive.

"But we just can't lea-"

"You will do it because I have ordered it! Understood?" I snapped in.

The soldiers looked at me with doubt. I guess following orders from a 14-year-old was still sinking in to The Rebellion. I was still the commander-in-chief though. Well, I guess that's not entirely true. I'm not really the leader of The Rebellion. I guess that title really belongs to general Trevan and his council. I'm still the face of this rebellion, though, and the people look to me for guidance. I know it sounds crazy and all an entire Rebellion following a 14-year old boy sounds crazy. No, scratch that, really crazy. Some nights I wonder how it all happened, but I guess when you start taking hope and freedom from people they'll eventually believe and follow anything.

The soldiers got up, looked at me one last time, and jogged away to the relay point.

I don't know how long I searched for but it was a while and yet I still found no one. I didn't even find my friends, Zan, Jin, Jayleen, G.G, Emilia, John, surprisingly Maya, and Anne. In this war it wasn't uncommon to find the young fighting, I once saw a nine-year-old fire an ADR. I would stop it if I could but the rebellion was so outmatched. We didn't have a choice. My team was tasked with protecting me. They all were close to my age, except for Zan and Emilia. Emilia was middle-aged. Zan…well, to be honest, I don't know.

I passed through some rubble when my eyes caught something shiny, I recognized it immediately. I pulled back the rubble to find my katana. You see, combat knives are outdated here. You need something bigger. I unsheathed it and saw its familiar pale green glow of Cybernetic foil. On the tip of the blade was a small needle that contained Suxamethonium chloride, a toxin that upon entering a person's bloodstream causes total paralysis within 20 seconds. Two minutes later, you're asleep for up to eight hours. My katana is the only sword I've encountered with the toxin. My katana, like all other bladed weapons, is wrapped in a thin Cybernetic foil.

A history lesson for you: in the year 2173 a scientist name Renor .L. Stimerhiemer, using the Cybernetic Theory of communication, used feedback given from atoms to create a new element. He named it Cybernetic foil. It replaced all metals like iron, copper, steel, you name it. The only exceptions are titanium and aluminum because they are the only metals that can resist Cybernetic metal. Cybernetic metal has two forms; Cybernetic foil, and armor. The foil has a pale green glow to it and can cut through almost anything. The armor has a dark gray color to it, doesn't glow, and is the only metal (besides titanium and aluminum) that can stop Cybernetic foil.

I looked around and still all I saw was dead bodies, burning cars, and rubble from where mortars had hit. The night sky was brighter and I knew it'd be dawn soon. After a minute of scanning the area I decided to head back relay point. My soldiers were waiting for me and possibly my friends.

When I arose though, I felt the familiar sharp pain in the front of my forehead. The headache wasn't the worst of it. Seconds later I became nauseous and the world started to sway. I don't remember blacking out, but I awoke in a forest bathed in sunlight. Another vision, I thought. You see I've been having numerous visions, where I've met a girl with neon blue butterfly wings (yes butterfly wings) who constantly been giving me weird warnings I couldn't understand. When I got up and saw the forest I realized I was standing in a pool of sunlight. When I looked around, the trees' pitch black leaves had grown so thick no sunlight should have been able to pass through it. I was standing in the only light in the forest for miles to pass. I couldn't see in the rest of the forest, but I knew I had to move, so I started walking.

I hadn't gotten very far when I stepped in something wet. I looked down to find a pond. I paused. Wait, how could I see? I looked around to find I was no longer in a forest, but in a field with a different forest in the distance.

I looked up and found her. She was standing on the water in the middle of the pond. Still she hadn't told me her name yet.

She wore what she always did no shoes, ratty blue grey dress that went down to her knees, ratty dark blue jacket, and a gold bracelet on her right wrist. Not only did her wings glow but so did her eyes. One was blue and the other was gold. They eyes seem to glow, and dazzled in the moonlight. This girl had pale skin, neatly combed dark hair which she in braided pig tails. She was my age, and red lips (which was kind of cute, but you didn't hear that from me).

She looked at me and gave a small and sad smile. "Hello Cale. It's nice to see you again."

I looked at her for a while, trying to figure her out and then responded. "I'd say the same if you'd finally tell me your name."

She gave a small giggle. "All in good time."

"Time that may be the one thing we no longer have," a voice boomed from the right. I turned and recognized him immediately.

"Kaymos." I muttered as the figured moved toward the pond (He'd been showing up in my visions too) Of course, things get weirder, I thought to myself.

This is going to sound strange, well I guess stranger than everything else that's happened. I've known Kaymos for almost my whole life; he was my imaginary friend when I was five. I know I'm crazy, but I've gotten used to it. In his defense, he was a great friend to me up until I turned eleven and my mom found out I was still talking to an imaginary friend. She took me to a shrink who, within a couple of months work convinced me he wasn't real.

Kaymos was tall, seemed to be middle aged (judging by the sound of his voice because he always wore a hood), and was still wearing the same outfit I'd seen him in the first day I had met him. He wore moccasins boots that came to his knee, black trousers, and a leather belt. He was still wearing his forest green cape that hid his face with the hood (yeah, I've never seen his face). His cape was interesting though it was green and was trimmed with a white line with a pattern of black triangles in it. The cape was tightly wrapped around his body. On his shoulders rested two white pony tails (They were not his hair) that came down to his chest. He had brown leather armguards and black gloves that had a weird insignia on them. He had a strong voice that could boost your confidence up and had authority to it. Perfect for a leader, I thought to myself.

Kaymos took a step out toward the pond, and to my surprise, started walking on the water. "Time is limited. Cale, please listen. When you have lost your way I want you to watch the skies," Kaymos said while walking towards the girl.

"What?" I replied, not even bothering to hide my confusion. "What does that mean?" I was going to continue but my eyes drifted to the girl.

"You're bleeding, again." I informed her. In every one of my visions blood always seemed to trickle down the left side of her face.

"Oh," she responded with little concern, bringing her hand up to her face. Kaymos put his hand on her shoulder.

"Do not worry Cale, I will care for her. You must go now, Cale. We wish we could tell you more," Kaymos told me, with sadness in his voice.

I was about to say more but in a split second I awoke on my back. I stood and looked around to find the scenery the same way I'd left it. When you have lost your way watch the skies I asked myself, what did that mean?

I started walking again and just after passing a burnt vehicle, from out of the dark I was attacked. I felt the attacker's knee go right into my back. We hit the ground hard. I was on my stomach until he flipped me over so I was on my back and our eye's met.

"You!" he said in an angry tone.

"Aeon." I said his name with disgust.

If I had an arch nemesis it would be this guy. He's been a pain ever since I joined The Rebellion. This guy was one of the Alysia's best soldiers. Not only was he a stone cold murderer who has killed countless men, woman, children, and some of my closest friends. He was also tasked with killing me.

He was my age, Caucasian, had blue eyes, and the most surprising thing was he had white hair, unusual. He wore the Alysian combat uniform, black cotton suit streaked with the Alysian colors: A navy blue and emerald green. On the left side of his chest was the Alysian crest. It was a blue shield outlined in gold surrounding a golden laurel wreath. Inside of that was a golden eagle that held a sword and the eagle grabbed the scruff of a jackal.

I never saw his fist but I certainly felt it connect with cheek. Aeon drew his Cybernetic sword and tried stab at my face. I moved my head away and brought the side of my hand to the center of the blade, it broke in two which I knew I would never have done if I hadn't known Aeon's blade was old and the weak point of an old blade.

"You-you broke it! My father gave-" he would have finished if I hadn't had head butted him.

His head flew back and I arched my back and rolled him over so he was now on his back. I grabbed both his wrists. Pinning him down with my left hand, I brought my right fist into his stomach twice.

"Tell me how I got to this time! Now!" I yelled

He spit at my face and I responded by bringing my elbow into his gut. He gasped for air and then glared at me.

"Tell me!" I repeated

"You idiot, we didn't bring you here," he breathed heavily. "You don't belong in this time, you're not natural."

I stared at him in confusion. "But you-you killed my-"

"We were trying to kill you!" he yelled. "Helia saw you in one of her visions; we were trying to kill you! We know what you are, we tried to stop you, and we failed."

His eyes drifted off for a couple of seconds then refocused back on me. "And I'm going to fix that."

I was caught off guard by our conversation, which was a big mistake for me. He brought his foot around my head and put the inside of his knee on my neck and pushed me down. I clawed at his leg and recognized the position, the scissor hold. I learned from Zan that there's no place for fighting honorably in this war and with that thought I bit into his calf. His pained screams filled the air and a stream of curses came out as he tried to fight through the pain. My teeth weren't weakening his hold and I was starting to feel light headed. I made eye contact with him one last time and my fist came down on his groin. Aeon's eyes bulged out of his head and his grip weakened enough for me to work my way out of his hold. I got up and assumed my fighting stance.

"That was a cheap shot, but not bad," he said his voice straining under the pain. "We'll make an Alysian soldier out of you yet."

"Shut up!" I yelled and side kicked him in the face

He absorbed it and used the momentum to roll and get to his feet. He looked at me with anger in his eyes as he assumed his fighting stance. He lunged at me and I threw a punch at him, which should have connected. Aeon fell back into a skid across the snow with his boot heading towards my shin. I'd seen this move before; it was an Alysian fighter's feint attack. The fighter would fake lunging at you and skid across the ground. They would try to bring their two feet into your leg in an attempt to break your shin. I took the momentum from my punch and put my hand on the ground carrying my feet over my head as I did a one-handed cartwheel over him. When I landed on my feet and drew my sword, I looked up to see a huge tree branch hanging over Aeon. I raised my sword and took a swipe at the branch, which made a clean cut, and fell on top of Aeon. He screamed in pain and tried to push the branch off his waist with no luck.

"This won't stop me, you know that," he said with anger and pain in his voice.

"I know." I responded with little triumph in my voice as I sheathed my sword.

"Cale of the Rebellion, so help me if you leave me here I'll-" he was going to say more but I cut him off.

"You'll what, throw snowballs at me?" I mocked.

"You know, I'll come back for you." he told me.

I considered it over for a couple of seconds and gave my final response. "Maybe you will. But today, right here, right now, you're my little bitch for the day." With a triumphant smile, I turned around and walked away.

He streamed curse words at me as I walked away. As I was climbing a hill, I thought of everything that had happened to me over the past five months, my fight with the B.r.a.d, battle of Wishmen's Peak, my training with my friends, but most of all my inauguration as the face of this Rebellion.

I guess even before that I'd been through a lot being two hundred and sixteen years old. You see, I was born in 1996. On my thirteenth birthday I found myself two hundred and three years in the future in the year 2213. I don't know how I got here but I know what I'm doing. I will free the people of Alysia.

1: I Walk Down Memory Lane

-Cale of the First Rebellion

I'll be honest. I didn't have specials skills or special talent; I was an average person, except for my past. I was born in Rhode Island in 1996, at approximately midnight at Rhode Island Justice Hospital. My dad (Robert Hugh Marshall) disappeared at the day of my birth; he was coming from work driving to the hospital until he got in a pretty bad accident. The weird part was that he was never found, like he'd vanished from the crash. Detectives went searching for him for months, but with no luck. My mother (Emily Sarah Collin) assumed the worst and I took my mother's maiden name, Collin. I asked her once why I didn't take my father's last name and in response she told me to, "Stop living the past." But to me, it almost seemed like she was angry at him. Almost as if she'd been expecting his disappearance.

When I was two, my mom and I moved too Maine. We stayed there for two years and then moved to New York. I asked her why we had moved, but she acted scared and jittery and didn't respond. On my fifth birthday I awoke to find my mom packing suitcases. Before I could even question her about it, she grabbed my arm and rushed me out of our apartment. We drove for eight hours until my mom stopped at a tattoo parlor. She took me inside and bribed the tattoo artist to tattoo my left shoulder. At first I objected and started crying but my mom knelt down, looked me in my eye, and told me that I would need this for the right time. I looked at her and I couldn't say no.

I'll be honest, back when I was five I had always wanted a tattoo, but I wanted to get it when I was older. When the tattoo artist was done, I'd regretted wishing for a one. It hurt while he did it and it was sore for what seemed like forever. I didn't understand it, but I knew in my gut I knew something was up with this tattoo.

The tattoo started on the top of my left shoulder and went down to the elbow. On the top of my shoulder was what appeared a flying diagonal comet and under that was strange writing that I couldn't read. I asked my mom what it meant, but she snapped at me, yelling so loudly I couldn't understand her. That was the first time I saw her yell like that. After that day I never asked again.

I'm sure you can guess that tattooing your five year old son is a big no-no. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I do know there was a big court case about it. Long story short, my mom went to court, the prosecuting lawyer fell in love with her, lost the case on purpose, and he married my mom. His name was Adam Lyle Webster, I liked him and he made a pretty good stepfather. Adam had blonde hair with blue eyes and had a narrow face. Adam had a well muscled body and was tall. He also had a tiny scar on his lip; he got that from a fishing trip because the pole came back up and hit him while he was catching a swordfish. I grew pretty close to him. After two years of living with him I had even started calling him Dad. I even really started wanting to be more like him after what had happened during my eighth birthday.

My mom was on business trip that day and to cheer me up Adam decided to take me to the movie theater. We arrived on time and were right about to enter through the door, when we heard something that sounded like thunder. I looked up to see if it was raining, but all I saw was the evening sky.

"Cale," he said, with worry and a hint of panic. His hand found mine and he gripped it hard. I looked up and noticed his eyes were looking in the distance. I turned my head around and saw something I would never forget.

It was like a mirage in the air, it appeared as if the empty space to my left was swirling. The swirling kept growing and electricity beamed around it. Adam pulled me back and we hid behind a car. The space had grown to the size of a man and out of swirling vortex stepped out four men wearing black trench coats. By now people had started forming a crowd and watched the men with awe on their faces.

"Cale, we need to get out of here," Adam told me, his voice filled with fear.

He had started to get up, but was interrupted when the four men turned their heads simultaneously. Their eyes fell on me.

Adam picked me up and started running. I heard gunfire behind us and people screaming. It must have been my lucky day because someone had called the police and they had already exchanged gunfire with the mysterious trench coated men.

Adam was now sprinting across the parking lot carrying me in his arms, shielding me from any gunfire. He ran up to a green minivan and slammed his elbow into the window. The car alarms blared as he unlocked the car and put me in the passenger's seat. He bent down and started working on something above the pedals. I soon realized he was hot-wiring the car. To this day, I still, wonder where he had learned to do that because I doubt they teach that at law school. After he was done he got up, closed the door, and we sped away out of the parking lot.

We were silent for a while, until he pulled the car over after an hour of driving away. He turned, looked in my eyes, took a deep breath, and said "We'll that was pretty-uh," he paused, searching for the right word. "Exciting now, wasn't it?"

I had a million questions to ask. Who were they? Where'd they come from? Where did Adam learn to hot-wire a car? But as soon as I started opening my mouth he held up his hand.

"Look, Cale I know this is unsettling to you but when the time comes you'll know."

Ha, story of my life. All my questions about my real dad, or strange events that happened to me were always answered. "You'll know when the time is right." Oh yeah that's right this wasn't the first time something weird had happened to me.

I still haven't forgotten about the tank that had mysteriously appeared in the subway when my mom was bringing me to work through by train, the flying mongooses that attacked me at school, or the shooting fireball off death that seared off my eyebrows at the mall. Every friggin time I asked what in the world was going on I got the same response. "When the time comes."

When? When will this time come? It never does! I've had to move around my whole life after one of these abnormal events happened, so when will I finally know why? Why!

I'm probably depressing you with my story. I mean, it's not all bad. When I was 11 my mom became pregnant. Her name was Keyaria; she was a cute little thing with Adam's blonde hair and my mom's brown eyes. The day she was born, I swore I'd take care of her. Even when she was a baby we grew close. To me, she was the one thing that made me feel normal. Every night I'd come in and kiss her on the head and every time I swore she'd wink at me.

Let's fast forward to 2010. It was my birthday (the unluckiest day of my glorious life). I was turning 13. I was in my last class of the day and there was one minute to go before school was over. I got up and pulled my backpack on. My friend Marcus came up to me and slapped his hand on my shoulder.

"Hey man, happy birthday."

Marcus was tall for his age, had a narrow face, and had shaggy black hair. I had known him for four years and he was a close friend.

I glanced up to him and smiled. "There's nothing happy about my birthday," I responded.

"Aww, why so gloomy?" he replied.

"Let's just say….I haven't had the best of luck with my birthday," I said with a grim tone in my voice.

"Hey," he smiled, tapping my arm. "Those chicks are checking you out back there."

"What?" I looked behind him and saw two pretty girls laughing and looking at me. One made eye contact with me and waved.

"I'm not looking for a relationship, you know that," I stated.

"Well, if you say so," he responded with a quizzical look on his face, not fully believing me.

I reconsidered and looked back at the two girls. "They are really pretty." Right when I finished the bell rung and Marcus grabbed my arm.

"C'mon Romeo, let's go before we're late," he groaned, still pulling me along. We were almost out the door of the classroom when someone called me.

"Hold on, Cale," a voice called out to us from behind. Marcus and I turned our heads around to find our Language Arts teacher, Mr. Chase. He had ruffled up short blonde hair that was fading to gray, was middle-aged, and wore black glasses. He was sitting at his desk and called me over.

Marcus and I exchanged glances for a moment, I finally broke the ice and said, "I'll catch up, go ahead." Marcus nodded and stepped out the door.

"Yes, Mr. Chase?" I asked, looking around the room, noticing we were the only ones left.

He took off his glasses, rubbed his eyes, and glanced back up at me. He dropped one of our latest classroom projects on the desk. I noticed an A+ on it.

"Cale," He said with a hint of exhaustion in his voice. "This project was supposed to be two pages minimum."

I looked down at it. "I'm sorry, Mr. Chase, I-"

"Don't apologize, Cale," He cut in. "You turned in a 20 page paper with college level material in it. It's just that I do not understand you, Cale. You see, you're the only kid I know who sleeps in my class, doesn't do homework, and when awake daydreams most of the time, yet can still get a 100% on every test I give him."

"I don't understand, sir," I said.

"Cale, you have a lot of potential. I just want to know why you waste it all away."

"I guess I'm just unusual," I responded. "Sorry Mr. Chase, I have to go."

With that I turned around and walked out the door. I had started jogging down the stairs, racing to get to the bus, and couldn't help but wonder why I ignored all my potential. I guess it was because I truly didn't care about school, but every time I took a test I got a 100%. I made it to the bus just as its doors were closing. I sprinted up the steps and found Marcus waiting for me, with a seat open. I rushed in and took the seat.

"What was all that about?" he asked when I took a seat.

"Something about me wasting my genius." I responded with a sarcastic tone. The truth was I really didn't fell like a genius. I just feel unlucky.

"Okay but you know he's right." he told me.

"Who?" I asked.

"Mr. Chase. He's right, dude. I mean you could be president if you wanted," He responded.

"Yeah, I know," I said.

It was raining when I arrived home. I stepped off the bus and heard it drive away behind me. I stood there for a couple of seconds letting the rain hit me. I always liked the rain. After a minute of standing there in the rain, I walked to the mailbox. I opened it and found no mail. My parents must be home. I entered my house to find the smell of cookies in the air. It was a hobby of my mom to cook desserts and I enjoyed every minute of it. I stepped into the kitchen and saw my mom cooking. She hummed to herself as she pulled out the second batch of cookies. Somehow she knew I was there and without turning around held out her hand.

"Could you hand me the phone please? I need to make a call," she asked.

"Sure," I responded handing her the phone.

"How was your day?" she asked, turning to me.

"Same as every day in school, it sucked. Where's Adam?" I asked.

"In the office. I'll be down soon, just need to do some more paperwork," I heard Adams voice yell from the hallway.

"Come here," my mom commanded, pulling me towards her, and forcing me to hug her.

I wrapped one of my arms around her, but used the other one to reach for one of the cookies on the stove.

"You can have some after dinner," she said, not even looking to see what I was reaching for. What can I say, she knows me. I put the cookie back and pulled away from my mom.

"We're having company over soon, so go take a shower," she declared.

"Who?" I asked.

"It's a surprise," She replied.

"Okay," I shrugged, heading towards the stairs.

I entered the bathroom and start undressing. As I took of my shirt my eyes fell on my tattoo. It hadn't changed and I still didn't understand it. But it seemed different. I looked into the mirror and saw what I always saw.

I have spiky, hazelnut colored hair. I don't like my hair too long or too short so I have it somewhere in between. I have pale, light, emerald eyes. My face comes down at a nice curve, not too narrow or round. I have an average build and height although I'm a little on the short side. I didn't really exercise that much, but I make sure my body is strong and well kept. I ate right so my body was lean and skinny, but lacked muscle.

When I was done, I toweled off and was halfway getting dressed when I heard a baby cry. Keyaria must be hungry, I thought to myself. I finished dressing and walked into her room. I walked up and peered into her crib to see her crying and rolling around.

"C'mon, Keyaria," I said, picking her up.

I was about to carry her downstairs, to get something for her to drink, but I heard the sound of glass breaking. Did Mom break something? I started hearing screams and I felt fear enter my mind. I set Keyaria back in her crib and ran downstairs. Did someone break into my house? I reached the bottom of the steps and turned to find what will haunt me till the day I die.

I walked into the hallway and found my two parents dead on the floor with knife wounds in their chests and backs. At first I didn't know what I was seeing, but after it settled in I started having problems breathing and I felt lightheaded. I felt tears flow from my eyes. Darkness started creeping into my view as I felt myself fall back. I had fainted. I would have stayed there for a while if a voice hadn't entered my mind.

"Wake up, Cale, wake up!" The voice wasn't mine. It sounded like a girl.

My eyes opened and hoped I was dreaming. I looked over and found my parents dead on the floor. I turned around instantly after seeing them, bent down, and regurgitated. More warm tears streamed down my face as memories flooded into my mind. My mom and Adam weren't the best parents but they were still my parents. I felt my heartbeat increase and it got harder to breathe again as I cried.

"Why! Damn it….Why!" I sobbed, punching the ground.

After a while I noticed a shadow covering me. I looked up, still crying, and I saw him for first time. The shadow belonged to a man that stood well above me. He was wearing a leather jacket and had black gloves on. On the back of the gloves was a symbol of a burning eagle with a laurel wreath around it. He wore a smooth red mask that curved around his head. It had two holes in it for his eyes to see out of that were covered with white glass so bright, it made your eyes hurt. My eyes wandered to his hands, where he was holding a bloody knife.

He killed them. I filled with so much rage that I don't think I could describe it in words. Upstairs I heard Keyaria crying, again. I wasn't the only one that noticed, the man's heads tilted up as well. I charged the man, refusing to let this murderer hurt her. I went for his legs and we both tumbled to the ground. Luckily I had caught him off guard and he had dropped his knife. When we hit the ground I saw an orange cube fall out of his jacket.

The cube was the size of my fist and had weird buttons on it and glowed. The cube rolled and came to a stop. The lights started flashing and it seemed to have activated. Like a projector's beam, light came out of the cube and stopped five feet in front of it. The empty space started to swirl. The memories of my eighth birthday buzzed in my head as it grew bigger, sucking both me and the man into the swirling vortex.