Chapter 1

On planet Zonia:

No, no, no, I’m going to ruin everything.

Lua’s long golden hair flowed in the wind as she dashed through the lush forest toward her village. She couldn’t drag her elven humanoid form along fast enough. But she had to. She couldn’t mess this up. She picked up the hem of her forest green dress to gain more speed.

By checking the sun’s position in the sky, she could tell it was late in the afternoon. What seemed like mere moments ago, she had gone for a walk in the forest and told her fiancé, Tobé, that she would be back before the Harvest Festival. They were planning to surprise his father, the Chief of their village, with their engagement that evening. As she thought of it, she started to blush, torn between nervousness and excitement. She’d never thought the Chief’s son would pick her to be his sól-chaté, what their people called “his only love.”

Distracted by these musings, Lua’s attention didn’t quite catch the object in her path. She tripped and fell, hard and flat on her face.

“Ow…” She raised her head gingerly, groaning from the pain.

She looked back to see what she tripped on, and to her surprise, she saw what appeared to be a young girl’s arm, pale and covered in blood, sticking out from the bushes. Lua screamed. She sat up, inching away from the arm in question. Peering at the bloodied body part, she saw that there were no signs of decay or abnormalities—it was fresh. Whatever did this to her must still be here, she thought in panic.

Lua heard rustling noises from nearby bushes. She rose, scanning her surroundings. Her long-pointed ears twitched with alarm. Metallic chittering like a cicada echoed through the forest.

There was something there, something hiding behind the trees, blending in, watching Lua like a predator, waiting to attack. The metallic chitters drew closer. Feeling surrounded, Lua panicked and fled for the village screaming.

“Help! Somebody help me!

This unseen being pursued its prey, slithering toward her, faster than her legs could carry. Unable to outrun her attacker, Lua could only look back, sensing her impending demise.

The creature made contact. Her scream echoed through the forest.

— ✧ —

On planet Earth:

“Mark this one here.”

The jeep came to a stop in the middle of the woods. An awkward, lanky construction worker, with a can of red spray paint in his hand, stepped out the vehicle and approached the large, old tree close by. Seeing how tall and wide the tree was, he couldn’t help but let out a whistle.

“Damn, that thing is huge. It’ll take some time to bulldoze this behemoth down.”

The worker shook the can to prime it, causing pressure to build. He sprayed the crimson paint on the tree, marking it with a large “X,” and took a step back to admire his work.

“Is that the last of them?”

“Yup,” replied the other worker, who was short and rotund. He took out his map, which was covered with little red X’s except the current spot. With his red marker, he placed the final X on the map. “Tomorrow, we plow this place down. We should be able to get it cleared by the end of the week.”

The worker who stood near the tree glanced overhead to see the base of the sun touching the top rows of foliage up above.

“Hey,” the worker in the jeep said. “If we hurry, we can catch the rest of the game at Louie’s.”

“Sure, but you’re buying,” said the lankier worker.

He slid the can into the left cargo pocket of his pants and then hopped back into the vehicle.

On the opposite side of the now-painted tree, hidden from their sight, was a hollowed-out hole. Inside, there rested an aged blue box, clasps rusted from years of exposure to the elements. Such conditions left the box ajar. Within, something glowed. The rhythmic pulsation of this glow resembled a breath.

As the men drove away, a low hum began to sound from inside the box and echo out from the hollow tree. The frequency of this sound was so high that, as it traveled, no humans could hear it. Its sound continued to stretch outward and onward, as though calling out for someone to notice it.

— ✧ —

Where am I?

Kevin had never given much thought to how long “forever” was, but as he sank deeper and deeper into the abyss of nothingness, he imagined that this was probably how forever felt. Whenever he opened his eyes, there was only darkness. He was alone, and the emptiness around him felt cold and uncaring. He had no idea where he was, no idea how to make sense of this odd in-between. All he did know was that he felt like he was underwater, and he could still breathe. That wasn’t much to go off of.

"Choose."

The gentle voice was no more than a whisper, but after so long spent in silence, it pierced his mind. His surprise at the sudden change to his condition meant that it took him a second to realize: this was his own voice, calling to him. Then, another voice spoke, but unlike the first, this one hissed.

"You must choosssssssse."

These words resounded in his head, booming and shaking every fiber of his being. Kevin's heart was racing. Is it fear? he thought. No. This was something deep within him, beating to the rhythm of his heart, like drums calling to him. As this feeling was building within, it felt strange. A part of him wanted to ignore it, but he couldn’t help but feel a sense of familiarity.

Why am I here? he thought.

"Power," hissed the second voice.

"Protect," the first voice replied.

Suddenly, two glowing orbs of fiery light emerged and lit up the dark void. One was a soft blue, and the other swirled purple and black. Kevin shielded his eyes from their brightness, but his eyes adjusted more quickly than usual. The orbs were larger than him, and they resembled two suns with their enormous flames. That feeling of familiarity grew even stronger within him. He could feel the warmth of the orbs’ energy flowing through his body, energizing him, strengthening him. Something about him felt drawn to them, like he needed them.

"Do you wish to protect?" The first voice was now emanating from the glowing blue flame.

"Or is it power you seek?" The second voice, now housed in the purple and black flame, hissed.

Kevin finally placed where he’d heard these voices before. It was in his youth. He had been only ten, but he recalled the moment in the cold, dark void. These voices had called him, asking him to choose power or protection. He hadn’t understood it then, but it had happened more times than he could remember.

Then, one day, the voices stopped. Now, they were back. Why?

"Who are you?" Kevin called out.

"Choose!" bellowed the flames in unison. "You must-”

"Choose." A new voice joined in. One he knew…

Johnny.

Kevin woke from his trance to find himself staring at his reflection in a window. His black shoulder-length hair partially covered his lightning-shaped scar, which ran from the corner of his right eye to his chin. The scar was the result of an accident when he was ten and was usually the feature of his that people remembered the most, when they caught a glimpse of it. His hair could occasionally help hide his disfigured face, but it couldn’t hide his heterochromic eyes, his left a natural deep blue and his right a light blue, with a strange mark that was also a result of the accident.

He looked beyond his reflection to see that he was inside McHenry’s, the fast-food joint at the mall where his friend Sara worked. Well, at least he wasn’t in the void, falling forever.

A group of people walked past the window, heading toward the exit. He looked toward the nearby exit. Through the windows, he could see that the sun was beginning to go down. The sky looked like a blaze of fire. It was almost the mall’s closing time.

"Yo! Earth to Kevin!" his friend Johnny shouted, waving his hand in Kevin's direction.

Kevin glanced at Johnny, whose black skin shone with focused sweat under the mall lights, and then turned to face his other friend, Sara. Though Kevin and Johnny sat together in their booth, Sara was diligently cleaning her workstation to prepare for the next day. Clearly, the mall had already closed. Kevin had not been paying attention.

He looked back at Johnny, who stared expectantly. "I'm sorry, what?" Kevin said.

"I was saying you're our leader,” Johnny said, clearly frustrated. “We got a couple of offers from Surge and Hondae to join their motorsports teams. Please tell me you made a choice.”

"Oh, sorry. No," Kevin answered shamefully. "I was-

"You were in the ‘deep end’ again?" Johnny chided.

Kevin fell silent and sank into his chair. He hadn’t heard that phrase in a long time. Johnny had created it when they were in the fifth grade; Kevin would get lost in his daydreams, and Johnny would tease that Kevin was always going off the “deep end.” The unfortunate name had come from one time when, in a moment of childlike optimism that he would perhaps be understood, Kevin had described his daydreams through the feeling of floating underwater and not having to come up for air. Johnny had taken that metaphor and rolled with it.

Thankfully, Kevin had never told his friend about the voices, or Johnny would really think he was crazy.

"Something on your mind?" Johnny prodded.

Kevin paused, unsure of how to answer. There was so much on his mind that, even if he wanted to tell Johnny, he wouldn’t know where to begin. Should he talk about the voices that kept asking him to make a choice? Or that strange urge that called him toward the two lights?

Kevin was about to brush the question off altogether when a biker's helmet slammed down on the center of the table. Sara was already wearing her leather jacket over her uniform and had her long blonde hair tied back in a bun. She looked annoyed.

"Can we go already?" she barked. "I wanna wash this fried oil smell off me ASAP."

Johnny and Kevin looked at each other. Clearly, Johnny still expected Kevin to answer his question, but Kevin just shrugged and got up from the booth.

By the time Sara was locking up, Kevin figured he’d avoided talking about his daydreaming altogether. He was wrong.

"So what were you guys talking about?" Sara asked.

Kevin winced, but before he could respond, Johnny did.

"Oh, you know, the fate of our racing careers hanging in the balance because our fearless leader hasn't made a choice yet."

"What?!"

Without hesitation, Sara jabbed Kevin's left arm with her fist. He reacted with a small grunt and reached over to cradle his left arm.

"You jerk!” she muttered. “You better not screw up my chance with Surge, or I'll never forgive you."

"Surge?!" Johnny said. "What about Hondae? Think of the possibilities with a brand like that. We could go international…”

"Who cares about international deals!? Surge has cool merch that’s exclusively for their riders. Don't you want to be in commercials?"

Kevin glanced back and forth between his friends and smiled, in part at their argument and in part because their frustration was not directed at him anymore. He chuckled.

"And you guys wonder why I haven't decided yet…" He walked ahead of the two. "We're supposed to be united in this decision. I don't want to choose a sponsor you two can't agree on.”

Johnny and Sara looked at each other and fell silent.

“Besides,” Kevin added, “we have to win the race first before they would even consider us.”

As the three approached the main exit, a sound came from the nearby electronics store. In the store’s window display, the latest high-end TVs ran various shows and commercials. In the center, the latest 90-inch 4K TV could catch the attention of nearly anybody walking by. The TV had just been tuned into the ending credits of a show, but a loud siren brought a “Breaking News” announcement into the screen and drew the group’s attention. The show shrank to the bottom corner of the screen, and their local news anchorman, Kent Dunbar, a man in his late 50s, sat at his desk with his cue cards in his hand.

"This just in: a Seirei Jin attack has occurred near Westin and Brookfield. The Advent Guard are fast at work, trying to capture the threat. At this time, those roads are closed. Please follow posted signs for alternate routes. Citizens are advised to avoid the area until the all clear is given."

Then, a team of soldiers appeared on the screen. Sara’s eyes lit up, and she dashed over to the display window. The soldiers, were engaged in combat with a young east asian female teen about the age of Sara herself. The teen with her turquoise-colored powers raised several cars into the air and threw them toward the Guard. She was clearly making the battle difficult.

Kevin and Johnny followed Sara at her insistence, and together, the three glued themselves to the screen.

"That Jin doesn't stand a chance,” Sara said as the battle progressed. “She should just give up already."

"I don't know," Johnny said. “She looks like a Psychic Type. Depending on her Class, she could turn their minds to mush."

"Come on,” Sara said. “Don't be an idiot. If it weren't for the Advent Guard, those roaches would've taken over Earth already. They know what they’re doing."

Kevin remained silent. Sara was right. They had all learned the history of the Seirei Jin in school, a group of dangerous humans with special powers who came to their world to take over. Earth had stopped their initial invasion and mostly wiped them out. These days, there seemed to be more and more Jin sightings than ever. He was always seeing them on TV, as they popped up in stores, parks, and city centers. Whenever there was a Jin sighting, you were supposed to call the Advent Guard, a group of trained soldiers who knew how to capture Seirei Jins and would take them away. Then, they were probably executed, or that’s what Kevin and his friends assumed.

Kevin looked back at Sara, who was still cheering on the soldiers. He understood her fascination with them. After all, they had saved her from an attack when she was thirteen, an attack her own mother hadn’t survived. She felt she owed endless support to the Guard and their quest to bring down the Jin. Johnny felt differently. Though he had never encountered one, he was fascinated by them, and he was constantly watching videos by people who swore they met and experienced the powers of Seirei Jins.

Kevin didn't believe these stories. He just listened to his friend prattle on about it to humor him. Now, Kevin looked at the TV, and he almost felt sorry for the female Jin. She looked exhausted, and her powers were clearly waning. They would capture her soon. At times, he identified with those like her. He too was ostracized. Ever since the car accident he experienced at a young age, no one really wanted to be around him. Oftentimes, the kids in school would bully him, calling him “scarface” and spreading rumors of his being diseased. Kevin hated his hometown, Faraday, and wanted nothing more than to leave.

The young Jin didn’t have a chance to leave, but he did. Whether they won the race or not.

"Come on, guys," Kevin said. He turned and began to usher his friends away from the TV and toward the exit. "We know what's going to happen next, so let's just-“

Before Kevin could finish, a teen with a buzz cut passed him on his right side. The teen bumped into Kevin's shoulder, without warning. The impact of the hit knocked Kevin back, but as he tried to catch himself from falling, a flash of light engulfed him.

He found himself outside.