Aura ~ Work of Time Master

Well, here we go. My first shot at something in the traditional show case. Rate and comment on my wall. Don't post comments in here.


Zack sat on top of a clock tower over looking the city of Portage WI. He had a ice cream in one hand, chocolate, and was chomping away at it while looking over the town. "I like these jobs. Lot's of action." He remarked to himself brightly, still chomping away.

The day was fair and sunny, not to hot or cold. He slight wind was coming from the west, which meant that the storm happening in Minnesota would be on it's way here, but for now Zack could enjoy the day.

Or at least, he would have enjoyed the day, but suddenly a scream went up from somewhere in the commerce area of town. "So much for my ice cream." He grumped, but took it with him when he suddenly phased out of view on the tower.

He reappeared on top of shop, biting into the cone now as he began searching for the source of the yell. He noticed a few teenage guys, probably high schoolers, molesting a young woman, probably junior high. Deciding that such a thing was not going to happen on his watch, Zack yelled out, "Oi. What do you think you're doing?"

The kids looked up at him, the boys not happy with someone interrupting their sport. "Piss off." One shouted. The others laughed.

Zack frowned. "And I was so enjoying the day to. What-ever." He didn't even need to bother drawing his blade forth for these morons. He shimmered in the air, and was suddenly a few inches from the one who shouted at him. "Hi." He said brightly, punching the guy in the face.

While he went down, yelling in pain since his nose was busted, another went to kick Zack in the groin. Zack shimmered again, this time staying in place. The guys leg went through him, stomping the ground instead of Zack. The kid looked horrified, as Zack kicked the boys leg, breaking it.

"Is this it? Seriously, I've seen grade schoolers do better." He laughed, shimmering again to avoid a poorly aimed punch to his head.

"How the hell are you doing this!" One of them yelled.

"Time is nothing to me." Was Zacks reply. He shimmered again, this time behind the one who had spoken. "Nor does space. You are now under arrest for assault and attempted rape. Will you come quietly now or do i still have to thump your skulls?"

The kids surrendered, allowing Zack to place a binding spell on their arms and letting him escort them to the nearby squad cars that had only just arrived. Zack was delighted to find that he was still holding his ice cream.

 

Summoner for the love of... I said NO POSTING IN HERE!!! I am asking a mod to delete. I am having trouble posting but I will edit. Summoner, Learn how to read.

Edit* On with the story.
In retrospect Summoner, while you definently erred in posting that comment here of all places, this really does need a flash back.


Zack, duty done, returned to his ice cream, enjoying ever moment he could spend on crunching the cone down. "I gotta go back to that pop corn stand. So many flavors, so little time." He laughed happily, strolling along main street. He would have passed through the day in bliss, if weren't for the fact that he saw a few teens spray painting a building. "Oi! What do you think your doing there?" Zack shouted at them. They looked up, then took off. Zack would have given chase, but he saw the sign on the wall.

The sign depicted a red skull with sharks for eyes and a sword in its teeth. A serperent was coiled around the crown of the skull, hissing at the viewer. Zack knew that sign very well. "The blood skulls." He whispered. He continued staring at it, ice cream and vandals forgotten.

He recalled a time when he had first seen that sign. It had been a spring day much like this one, and Zack had only been a junior high kid at the time. It was also a time before he was Zackarias, the Time Shifter. A time when he was nothing but a normal human boy still in puberty.

~~~~~~​

School let out early that day. Zack usually rejoiced in school, but today he wanted to just get home and go to bed. He had a bad migraine the whole day, and advil didn't even dent it. So he was quite happy to pack up his bag, and start walking home. He'd have taken the bus, but the shouted conversations would have made his head ache a lot worse than it already was. He stopped at an intersection as the light turned red for him.

Thump, went his head. "Damn advil." He groaned, rubbing his temples with one of his hands. He let his held tilt down while he squeezed his eyes shut to try and block out the pain. "Damn damn that advil." He suddenly heard the traffic change, and when he looked up, he saw several high schoolers across the street. They had the blood skull's tattoo on their arms, and they were laughing.

Zack wondered what that sign meant, when he was hit by another wave of pain. Resigning himself to a very bad day, he started across. Just as he had passed them, he felt something slam into his back. He pitched forward, barely stopping himself from falling. "What the hell?" He almost yelled, whirling to face his tormentors.

"What the hell?" One of the gangsters laughed. "You should be more respectful to your betters." He sneered.

"Seriously short stuff. What made you think you could scowl at a blood skull and walk away with your teeth?" Another laughed, pulling a brass knuckle from his pocket.

Zack knew he was in trouble, and wanted very much to run for it, but he couldn't move. The pulsing in his head was getting faster. His head felt like it was about to split in two. "What the?" He gasped, falling to one knee.

"Wow dude, you hit him hard." The gangster with the knuckle laughed.

But the one who had tried to knock him over wasn't laughing. "I didn't hit him that hard."

Suddenly, a force picked up the gangster with the knuckle, and threw him into a tree. He slid to the ground dazed. "You kids better get moving, if you want to keep your teeth." A man in a over coat said as he walked up to them. He was glaring at the teens, daring them to attack him. The first one obliged him.

"Better shut the fuck up man." He growled, stepping forward.

"I don't have time for this." The man replied off handedly. "Force." Without any movement on his part, the teen who had challenged him was thrown backward by a force, slamming him into the pavement. "I said get moving. I think you better listen to me."

The last remaining gangster could only stare with his mouth open. After a second, he yelled and turned to run for it, his friends forgotten.

Mean while, Zack had fallen to the ground completely, his head feeling worse, if that was possible. Suddenly, his ears were filled with a high pitched screech. At the same time his vision when white. This was to much for him, and sank gratefully into unconsciousness.

 

Zack woke up in a room that was unfamiliar to him. For one thing, he would never paint his walls brown. For another, he didn't have a queen size bed with a white comforter. "What the?" He asked, then realized something crucial. His head ache was gone. Suddenly, he recalled the white flash coupled with the high pitched screech in his ears.

"Oh, you're awake." A man said, who was sitting in a chair reading a book. From were Zack was, he couldn't tell what the title was. "You've been out for about twenty hours. Pretty incredible, if you ask me."

Zack almost passed out again. "Oh man, I missed school!"

"About half of it." The man agreed. "But don't worry, I took care of it."

Zack sat up, feeling completely back to normal. In fact, he felt better than normal. His body was so light, and it responded instantly to what he wanted it to do. "What happened to me?" He asked.

"You have awakened." The man replied, placing a red book mark in his book, and setting it aside. "Your body needed some time to get used to the changes it was going through. That's why you had sensory overload. You hit a stage in your transformation you weren't ready for. It happens often."

Zack couldn't even begin to understand what this loon was saying.

"No I'm not a loon." The man said, latching onto Zack's thought.

"What! How did you-"

"I saw it on your face. What, did you think I could read your mind? Even if I could do that trick, why would I want to read the mind of a pubesent kid like you?"

Zack frowned at this, feeling stupid for thinking that this guy could do something that he had never believed was possible.

"How ever, I can do a lot of other things some would say was unnatural. Like making a ball of pure wind," He held a hand up, creating a air ball. Zack almost fell out of the bed. "Or perhaps fire?" The air was surrounded by flame. "Perhaps water?" The flame was doused as water replaced it. "Maybe even some earth?" Zack narrowly avoided a few stones that came careening through the window over his head.

"What are you?"

"A human like you, but also something more." The man replied, smiling for the first time.

 

Zack sat on his knees now. Nothing could have pulled him away from this strange mans speech now. "Wait. You mean that I can do this stuff to?"

The man nodded. "You can use your power to an extent. We all have different strengths in this ability, but you can most certainly use it."

"How many people can do this?" Zack asked.

The man paused for a second, lost in thought. "I think maybe around one in every thousand humans under go the process known as awakening, and that only one in sixty of those actually amount to more than just novice level abilities. We won't know your limits until you are completely developed. Thats going to take nothing more than practice."

"So your saying that even with practice, there's a good chance that I'm not going to be very strong? What happens if I can't rise above the novice level?"

"In that case, you will have the choice of serving the organization I work for with whatever abilities you have, or you can return to your normal life. Of course we will have to keep tabs on you to make sure you don't abuse your power." He raised a hand to stop Zack from protesting. "It's nothing major. You just need to mail us your address whenever it changes, so we can warn a agent in or near your new city to check in on you every once in a while. You won't even know the agent is there."

Zack settled. "So when do you start training me?"

"Next week. For now, your body is still strained from the awakening. You need to take it easy for a while. You may experience a few head aches, or minor dizzy spells for a little while. Don't be alarmed, your body is just getting accustomed to your new abilities."

"So what do you call this ability?" Zack asked, barely containing his excitement.

"Aura." The man replied, noticing Zacks excitement. "For now, I'll take you home and let you settle into this new way of life. You will also experience increase in physical strength, acute hearing, sight, smell, and touch, and you will also experience a increase in your reaction time. You will also be more aware of whats around you, and you will be able to feel if someone means to do you harm."

"Just one more question. What's your name?" Zack asked.

The man smiled once again. "I am Jackson Bane. A class C aura user."

"Cool." Zack said. "Is that strong?"

"Average." The man replied. "Come, I'll take you home."

 

~~~~~~​

Zack let the memory fade away, bringing himself back to the present. Suddenly, a wet something began sliding down his hand. He immediately dropped his ice cream, swearing because it had melted all over his hand. "Shoot. And I was so enjoying that to." He growled, sticking his hand into his mouth to get the chocolate off.

After he had cleaned his hand off, he turned his attention back to the graffiti. Finally he turned away, shaking his head. "Whoa boy. This is not going to go over well with Zerieth." He groaned. Truthfully, this didn't sit well with him either. The blood skulls were one of the fiercest gangs in the US. It was said that even the Bloods and the Crips were afraid of them, and the police could do nothing about them. It would take the national gaurd or the army to get rid of them. That, or a few incredibly powerful AMS agents. Zack smiled. Life was going to get very interesting.



It took Zack a while, but he eventually found Zerieth sitting on a clock tower, drinking cappuccino. He looked up. "Zackarias. What brings you to my part of town?" He asked.

"I'm afraid it's nothing good." Zack replied.

Zerieth took another swig. "Oh great. Never once Zack, have you ever visited with me while on duty just to say hi."

"Next time." Zack promised.

Zerieth sighed. "Ok, what is it?" He asked in a exasperated voice.

Zack had to contain a smile. Zerieth would certainly be surprised by this. "I found evidence that the blood stones are working in this area."

Zerieth had taken another drink, and sprayed it out of his mouth, almost dropping his cup. "What the!?" He yelled, stifling a coughing fit.

Zack grinned. "It would seem that either a few kids are suicidal enough to leave the blood stones mark without being in the gang itself, or they are operating in town. I'm guessing the highway is a good attraction for them, since its the interstate."

"So? We haven't received any orders to deal with major gang activity."

Zack waited patiently until Zerieth saw what he was getting at. Eventually he caught on.

"Oh shit. We're the only ones who can do anything about it aren't we?" Zack nodded. "Ok then. I'll get a report into hq and request Emily from baraboo. Word on the network says she's getting bored over there. You go out looking for more of these blood stones. See were they're operating from."

"Roger." Zack said, turned and vanishing a few paces away.

Zerieth finished his drink. He then whipped out his cell phone, and dialed.

"AMS HQ 31 Commander Ryson. What is it?" A male voice said.

"Commander, this is Agent Zerieth. You're not going to like this."

 

Zack had returned back to the streets again, scaring a young man who had been walking along. It's very disconcerting to see someone drop from the sky and land perfectly. Even more so to see said person walk away without so much as a limp.

Zack wasn't paying much attention to the mans strangled shout, but was more concerned with this blood skulls business. They were the equivalent with terrorists except that while terrorists tend to fight for a cause, the blood skulls just fought for the sake of fighting. They dealt in arms, illegal drug trafficking, and other crimes. It was rumored that they even kept woman as slaves and raped them if they weren't doing what was demanded of them. Zack would love nothing more than to kill off every last one of these gang members, and he wasn't surprised when three weeks ago he recieved a general order. It had simply said that the blood skulls were now K.O.S. Kill On Sight. This was only branded onto terror organizations and rogue aura users. For the blood skulls, a gang, to be branded with a K.O.S. order was incredible, but not surprising.



Zerieth had continued on with filling his Commander Ryson about the situation. When he had finished he heard a exasperated sigh. Zerieth wondered if Ryson had already known. "Sir, did you already know about this?" He asked.

"No, but I suspected. We recieved more requests from the police to do investigations this month. A lot more. We suspected that some kind of organization was at fault. We just didn't expect it to be this big."

Zerieth nodded, though the Commander couldn't see him. "I see. I need to request Emily Calson, and Kane Holister."

"The Blossom Assasinator, and your brother?"

"Yep. Zack and I are strong, but we aren't strong enough to take these guys on alone. We could really use the help."

Zerieth heard some clicking sounds from his phone. Finally Ryson said, "You're in luck. Kane is currently off duty, and Emily hasn't even written a parking ticket in the last three weeks. She would probably like the change in plans. I'll draft new orders for them to report to you a.s.a.p."

Zerieth grinned, happy that his friends were free to give him a hand. "Thanks sir, I owe you."

"Get rid of this blood skulls infestation and we'll call it square. Kane will be ticked at you though for disturbing his leave."

Zerieth winced. "Not nearly as ticked as his wife will be."

"Best of luck." Came the cheerful reply.

"With Kanes wife or these blood skulls?"

"Both. Happy hunting. Base out."

The phone cut out before Zerieth could make a snappy reply. He tucked it back into his pocket, then drained the last of his cappuccino. "Looks like tough times are coming, right Sepherious?" A blue wolf appeared beside him. It had white lines on its coat, and dazzling blue eyes. It seemed to glow with an inner light. It nodded in reply.

 

Zack didn't have to go far to find the blood skulls at work. A few members with the mark of the blood skulls tattoed to their arms were harrassing a few high school girls who'd been out shopping judging from the grocery bags they were holding.

"Come on babe." He heard one of the thugs say. "Let us show you girls a good time."

One of the girls, the tallest and strongest looking of the bunch, was holding a can of pepper spray up at one of the gangsters, though she seemed torn as to weather or not to use it.

Zack decided he couldn't let this go on any longer, so he strode across the street and said, "Oi, you!"

The thugs looked over at him. "What you want tiny?" one of them said. Indeed, they were quite a bit taller than Zack.

"I want you to leave those girls alone now. You're all under arrest."

The thugs stared at him for a second, not believing this. Finally they all started laughing. "You and who's army?" Another asked between chuckles.

Zack held his hand up, calling his sword into being. "Who needs an army?" He asked.

They all stopped cold, then began pulling guns out of their pockets. Zack was already running at them though, and was starting to bring his sword up in a swing.

One thug cleared his holster and fired into Zacks hip, hoping to stall him long enough to get in a killing blow. However, Zack time shifted a split second before the bullet hit, allowing it to pass through him as he shifted out of time for a split second, then shifted back into time.

"Shit!" The guy shouted as Zack chopped the gun in half, then kicked another thug in the stomach, pouring his energy into the attack. The thug hit the wall hard, and slumped to the ground in a daze.

The other two rushed at Zack all at once, the unarmed one pulling a switch blade out of his pocket. Zack was not going to have much luck with timing it this time, due to the fact that he was low on power from the earlier incident. He deflected the knife off the side of his blade, then got it back up in time to block a point blank bullet aimed for his head. "Not good" he said, jumping back.

Suddenly the air dropped several degrees, as if a cold snap had suddenly happened right then. Zack immediatly knew from this that help had arrived.

"You boys may want to back down... Now." Came Zerieths voice from behind them. They whired around to see Zerieth holding his blue katana. The air around it seemed to shimmer as ice particles formed around the blade.
"Attacking me will be the last thing you ever do." He said, holding his free hand up to form several ice needles. They stared at them as if in a trance, before dropping their weapons.

"Good boys. Now, why don't you come with us."

Zack smiled. Zerieth must be in a really good mood, and at last things were going his way.