• Chapter 1: Camping

    “Kai, hurry up,” said Tech as he and the two girls moved ahead. Kai lightly shook his head. He had spaced out again. He had recently started daydreaming more often than normal, as his thoughts reverted back to some old past times of his, like martial arts training and action films. But this particular dream was different. He had seen that a figure was fighting some larger figure and the smaller one was having problems. He thought it was his father, whom he knew nothing about. His mom had always taken care of him and he loved her help. But he always wanted to know about his father and what he was like. She never spoke about him and told him that he was just a great man whenever he asked. He shook his head again and quickened his pace till he was next to his best friend, Tech.
    Tech, whom he had known since they could remember, was a black boy about fifteen, like he was, and had braids running down to the top of his back. Tech was a master of computers, having hacked into the school database once to change the lunch menu from Mystery Meat to Tasty Stuff at age nine. The boy was a smart but loved to hang out and be energetic whenever he could. That’s why Kai liked him so much; he was willing to get his hands dirty and quickly return to the computer.
    Accompanying him and Tech were to girls that they had known for a while. One was Luna; Techs old crush who they had met back when high school started. Kai remembered her faintly but he was still on good terms with her and they had become friends over the semesters. Luna was slim and average height, having long, flowing black hair. Her light red skin still showed her ancient Native American background and was appealing in almost any light.
    The other girl was Luna’s best friend, Trisha. She was a white girl from some high end family that owned a basketball team and a small oil company. She was a classic princess, having medium length amber hair and dimples. Her slightly tanned skin showed a bit of her lover for the beach and where her roots were. However, Kai was lest fond of her. He had barely known her the semester but she despised him. He liked her beauty and some of her personality, but got irritated with her on a daily bases.
    He was reluctant to agree with her joining them, but he just sighed and continued onward. He ruffled up his stark white hair, a surprising natural color for him that many believed he had bleached. His slanted eyes and slightly long hair revealed his part Asian origins but he didn’t know Japanese well enough to live up to his uncles standards. He closed his eyes and reopened them to the beautiful meadow they walked through.
    The small group had worked hard over the school year to get there parents to allow them to go on a camping trip alone. It was still amazed at Trisha’s uptight mother let her come. They were each assigned jobs: Tech was on food and location, Kai was on activities, Luna covered the supplies, and Trisha supplied the money for anything extra. They brought two bags each and two tents, one for the girls and vice versa. Kai was excited and rushed ahead of Tech, hopping onto a tree stump and flipping over a slightly higher rock.
    “Whoohoo,” he shouted, “The great outdoors! There’s nothing like’em” he grinned.
    “Got that right bro,” Tech said, copying the maneuver, just barely making it over the rock. He still lacked some of Kai’s athletic grace.
    “Why did I come along this trip,” Trisha groaned. She wasn’t immediately the adventurous type but she enjoyed hanging with her best friend Luna.
    “Because you wanted to see Tech,” Luna said in her friends ear, causing the girl to jump and it her playfully.
    “Shut up!” she said, shushing her quickly. Luna Laughed as the boys did a series of runs, jumps, and flips as they moved ahead.
    “How far now bro?” Kai asked, finally stopping the array of tricks and moving at a casual pace.
    “’Bout a few more yards ahead,” he said, opening his personalized PDA that he had made with a few spare parts from a blackberry, an IPOD, and GPS system. It was small and projected a holographic screen which still didn’t work but was cool to look at.
    “Oh Tech your so smart!” Trisha squealed and ran behind him, hugging his neck.
    “’Oh Tech’” Kai mocked and snickered a bit.
    “Shut up you little sweat mongrel!” she retorted.
    Kai smirked cunningly, raising an eyebrow. “Are you mad?” he asked in a mock baby voice. That did it. Trisha let go of Tech and began calling Kai every fancy insult she could find including a few derogatory phrases that Tech howled at. Kai was prepared though and replied with a series of slang terms, slurred swears, outrageous insults, and random threats. Tech and Luna howled with laughter. This was common of the two. Trisha finally glared at Kai and pouted.
    “Why I came, I don’t know!” she screamed and stalked off in the opposite direction. Luna slowed her laughs and went after her friend.
    “Yep go back home to your castle Princes!” he shouted back at her, moving onward as Tech chuckled gently behind him.
    “She’ll be back if Luna’s successful, which she probably will be.”
    “I hope not, she’s being a pain.”
    “Yep, but just cope for a while my friend, you’ll get over it.” Tech said, clapping his friend on the back. He finally stopped after a few minutes in a clearing a good twenty meters in diameter. “Luna knows the route so they’ll be back. Let’s set up camp” He said and Kai nodded.
    For the next thirty minutes, the two went about digging ditches, pitching their tent and preparing a spot for the girls as well as setting up a small meal for them all to snack on before they decided to scrounge around for a few fruits and herbs they could use for food reserves. They would be there for the summer, so they needed the extra food. As they stopped their finished work, Kai began to break off a strong bark and witling it into a sharp weapon. He had taken wood shop for a few years and paid close attention to a small section they had gone over about the creation of spears, bows, and other wood weaponry. He had mastered the art after a few thousand tries and had a collection of handmade wooden weapons in his house. The girls arrived back, new found joy in their eyes. Trisha looked at Kai loathsomely and smiled at Tech. Kai stuck his toungue out at her and went back to his project.
    “She said she’ll stop if you do,” came a voice and he looked up. Luna smiled prettily at him and plopped down beside him. “Just try to tolerate each other over the summer. You may soon become friends.”
    “Long as she holds her cool.” He said and finished the spear like weapon. “What do you think?” he asked her and she looked at it.
    “Not bad, a bit sloppy but it looks sturdy enough.” She said and he nodded. Kai liked Luna’s knack for having interest in his traits and skills. He noticed she had an eye for weapons like he did. She herself was adept at long range weapons, especially arrow shooting and dagger throwing. She seemed to secretly like him but she couldn’t really get it out. But he liked her enough to date her if she gave him the chance. Only thing was that Tech still liked her and he didn’t want to ruin his chances since he liked her more.
    The group pitched the other tent and ate the meal of fish and grilled apples, sweetened with cinnamon and sugar that Luna had in her pack. They laughed and joked around the campfire, completely forgetting their other chores, deciding to do them tomorrow when they woke. The night’s black blanket soon covered the sky and stars began to peer behind its shroud. The crowd of them all flashed brightly in the sky and they watched it for a minute, intrigued by its beauty before heading inside their tents for some rest.

    The night air howled restlessly through the trees and the crack of branch snapped next to the tent. But that wasn’t what woke the kids. It was the shrill, high pitched screech, similar t that of nails raking downs a chalkboard. The piercing sound shot into their ears, waking them from their peaceful dreams and causing groans of pain from them all. The sound thrashed their eardrums until it died down. They left their tents and grouped up around the doused campfire remains.
    “What the hell was that?” Kai said, massaging his ears.
    “Not sure, but it sounds like we’re not alone,” Tech replied, his head down in thought. He sighed and scratched his back. “Could be some screech owl’s fighting or maybe an animal just died.” But the sound suddenly came again, louder than before and it slammed their hearing with the force of one thousand amplifiers. It stopped and they were curled in the fetal position, holding their ears.
    “Let’s check it out” Kai said firmly and, before anyone could stop him, he rushed towards where the sound, now roaring through the night, seemed to come from, his spear in hand. Tech shrugged and rushed off. Luna grabbed her bow she brought and followed Trisha right on her heels. Before long, the group was at the base of a massive meadow. In the center were two things. One was a large creature with a lizard like body and long neck with a horned owls head on it. The entire things body was seemingly plated in diamonds and had two wings sprouting from each side. The other thing in the clearing was a boy, no older than they were, with long ruffled hair, black shirt, white pants, and two curved blades. The blades had runic carvings unknown to any of them, even Tech.
    The boy still hadn’t seen them and the owl like creature screeched again. The boy seemed unaffected as the kids cupped there ears.
    “Tornado blades,” the boy shouted, spinning the blades wildly. A massive gust of wind blew towards the beast, launching it into the air. It was propelled skyward and howled in rage. It twisted its body and pointed its beak at the ground, spiraling around like a drill. The boy grunted and leaped out of the way as the beast plunged into the ground, creating a large hole and lifting up the ground as if it were hit by an earthquake. The boy landed inches from where Kai was and looked at them all. “Leave” he said grimly as the bird’s beak sprouted from the ground, accompanied by the rest of its body as another hole appeared. It landed in front of the boy and screeched.
    The wind began to blow from its forceful call and the boy held his arms up in defense. As he rose his arms, Kai noticed that one of the blades was being held extremely loosely. Some inner strength within him called. It was an impulse, instinct, and reaction, but he did as the voice commanded. The command was simple.
    “Take it.”

    Kai moved with a speed unknown to him as time seemed to slow. He moved forward, grabbed the blade and leaped into the air. The beast was extremely large and it was hard to reach, but Kai’s inhuman speed gave him the extra power to move higher. He gripped the blade tightly and twirled in the air, picking up momentum. A spark of flame began to surround the blade as another voice erupted from his mouth.
    “Fire Slash!” the unknown voice spoke through him. The blade was enveloped in flames and he sliced the beast directly through the beak in a horizontal ark. He was propelled farther across the clearing, landing a few feet away from the beast. He slid forward a bit and stopped, holding the blade at the ready.
    The creature howled in pain and began to disintegrate into a shadowy air. Once it was gone, the boy rose, astonishment in his face.
    “What the—," he said and was overcome from the cheers of Tech, Luna, and Trisha.
    “Nice job!” said Tech.
    “Amazing!” Trisha said, with surprising admiration.
    “How’d you do it?” asked Luna.
    “Yeah,” said the boy, who had moved through the crowding children. “What the hell did you do?” he asked. “That power should be unknown to normal humans.”
    “What do ya mean?” Kai asked, dropping the blade and rubbing his palms.
    The boy moved around Kai, picked up his blade and sheathed it in the back holster where the other one was. “That was just a large amount of spiritual power.” He said, not looking at them. “What you just did and saw, is spirit energy. It’s known throughout the world in different forms. Chi, Magic, Chakra, etc.” The boy began to walk off down the clearing towards a path. “Follow me please. I have a feeling that you all have this power. I sensed the energy but it seemed distant. This night it got closer and when I saw all of you, I knew that it had to be you all.’
    Kai and his crew looked at each other and shrugged. “Leave the stuff.” He said and they all followed the boy. “Hey what’s your name?” he asked after a while.
    “My name is Zacharias, but I prefer Z,” the boy said. “You?”
    “I’m Kai,” he said and the others introduced themselves. The boy nodded and continued walking. The group walked in still silence, the cool mountain air moving their senses, the sun was rising and they were still following the straight path—although it had narrowed and was surrounded by rocks and sparse trees—and exhaustion became imminent. Finally, Z stopped some few feet away from a small hole in the earth. It seemed like a cave to the kids, which surprised them since they hadn’t seen a mountain anywhere.
    “Makramus,” he said in a guttural whisper. The opening seemed to shimmer as if it where in intense heat and stilled. Z continued through it, the others close on his heels. The cave path began to widen after a few paces, allowing them some space from the dank, damp, and moss ridden walls. It continued to widen out until they reached a large circular opening, a deep chasm surrounding them.
    “You are about to undergo something you from this realm have seen on rare occasions. The power that is dormant within you must be released so that we may adventure.” Z said slowly.
    “Why should we accompany you,” Tech asked. “I’m not sure about this other world and these crazy powers. Matter of fact, I don’t want to see one of those creatures again.” He sounded surprisingly calm but his curiosity was still evident on his face.
    “Truthfully, I have no idea,” Z said blankly. “I see that you all have powers unknown to your world. I might just be bringing you because I don’t want you to accidentally unleash your powers. But I do think that coming along will…help my world. It’s just that, we’re on the brink of destruction as a great power looms towards us. My master told me the power had seeped into this realm so I came but now I see that it was also to find people to help our cause.” The boy turned, his blades clanking gently on his back. “I—we—may need your help.”
    Kai looked at the boy. He had only today, just unleashed fire from some unseen source and killed some massive creature. He had witnesses a boy fight the creature before him, using swords and the wind to destroy it. Kai knew there had to be more. And he was willing to escape his boring life. He needed his friends though. So he turned and looked at them all. Even though Trisha wasn’t his friend, he thought she would be lonely. “Come on guys. We’ve all at some point wondered what it would be like to be in our favorite fantasy shows, movies, books, and games. We’ve all wanted to do something fantastic. This is our chance!” he said. He held his arms out wide. “Let’s make this work! I want to become the great warrior I’ve dreamt of in my dreams!” he shouted.
    Twang!

    Chapter 2: Spirit Sync

    Kai was suddenly enveloped in a massive blue aura. He seemed to not notice it as his eyes took on a brilliant blue color and, with his arms outstretched, he hovered into the air. The light began to grow in intensity as Kai was slowly beginning to grow out of sight. The light enveloped him in a cocoon and it vanished. Hovering in the air was boulder sized, egg shaped mass of blue light. The teens looked at Z and noticed he had a bow in his hand and was knocking another arrow into it. The arrow was drenched in a bright green liquid that shimmered in the darkness of the cave. The chasm seemed to glow now from underneath and the rough edges of the cave became revealed. They were covered in veins of bright rainbow colors that glowed brightly within its interior. The cocoon before them seemed to release a sinewy web like strand of energy. There were seven in total that waved gently around.
    Z seemed to lose focus for a second as he eyed the thing. He aimed the bow at them. “He’s not dead. His spirit is syncing with his inner power right now. Those strands are to show that he is about to awaken in seven minutes. As each one disappears, a minute has gone by.” He said all this casually, as if it happened everyday. “You can sync with your powers as well. But yours won’t be as strong as his . His is beyond any I’ve seen in my short years. Not even my master has that kind of power. But anyways, would you like to join?”
    Ұ

    Kai swirled around in a seemingly endless void. He was unsure as to what was going on at the moment and was curious as to where the others were. He felt his back where something had pierced it and felt nothing but his bare skin. He looked around and noticed that he was bare except for some pants. These pants were baggy and had a row of pouches around them. The pants, a deep green color, were airy and baggy. It resembled his martial arts outfit. He found that he was sitting in the lotus position and rose quickly. The pants gently moved in an unfelt wind and he looked around. He was inside a massive white room, or void, or something. He tried to call out but he couldn’t. His voice seemed to be gone. But he shrugged. He was unnaturally calm at this moment which surprised him.
    A sudden flash of colors moved his attention to the left. He turned and saw seven streaks of `light flash and move hurriedly towards him. He watched as they neared until they were a few feet from him. The lights turned out to be seven glowing people. As they alighted in front of him, the lights faded and seven figures faced him.
    Three were girls and the others were guys. The guys had a basic get up of pants, a hoodie, and a type of blade on their back. The girls, except one, wore dresses with a small blade on their hips. The other girl wore a long flowing night gown that shimmered silky light blue. That was the one thing about the figures that was separated them; they had different colored clothes. The guys wore red, grey, brown, and yellow while the girls wore sapphire, light blue and deep green. Kai looked at them as one of the figures, a boy in red with neck length, smooth red hair. He had red chin stubble. His face was angled roughly with a jutted chin and short features.
    “Yo kid,” he said in a laid back voice. “Nice to finally meet you in person. We have been your guardian spirits or, as others may put it, your inner spirit. We’ve looked over you for the past…how long was it Aqua?” he asked, turning hi head to the girls.
    The girl in the frilled sapphire dress looked at him. She smiled gently, her childlike features proudly sticking out with her long, blue hair. “Fifteen years, Blaze” she said in a light voice.
    The man nodded and turned back to Kai. “We’ve watched you for a while and protected you from terrible accidents.” Kai looked confused at that and the boy in yellow opened his mouth.
    His hood was down and his spiky yellow hair was streaked with electric blue lines. “You remember that time when you were six and you were lost?” Kai nodded. “Well, do you remember almost being struck by a truck?” Kai looked up and remembered that day. He had run across the street towards his apartment complex after finally making it back to his road.
    As he was going an eighteen wheeler rolled towards him at high speed and didn’t see him. He was seconds from being hit when it suddenly ignited, launched into the air, flew over him, and landed a few yards from him before exploding. He had been so scared that day that he ran back home, tear streaked and having nightmares for years. He remembered.
    He nodded and the boy continued. “Well, that was Blaze and Gust. A year after that, you were almost killed after falling out of a tree and Flora quickly got a branch grown and caught your ankle before you hit the ground.” Kai suddenly remembered a bunch of times when he was close to death and had miraculously survived.
    He looked at them all. “Thanks,” he said slowly. He was tearing up in the back of his head but he didn’t let it show.
    “You scared the boy Magnet,” said the girl in green, who he assumed was Flora. She had a bright pink flower in her hair which was also green. She had gentle, spring like features and had rosy cheeks. She had a small smile but it seemed to hold kindness unknown to the world. “Look, we’ve been there for you in essence. We even kept you healthy from many ailments. And we will for the rest of your life. But right now, you have to become the warrior you’ve wanted to be. Let me introduce the rest of us. The big, bulky, dark guy over there in brown is Fissure. The one next to him in gray carrying a skateboard without wheels and has tanned skin is Aero, and the other girl in ice blue with pale brown skin is Snow, but she prefers Frost.” Kai looked at all of them. He re-ran the names in his head a few times until he knew them all.
    “Okay guys, so what now?” he asked after a short, silent minute. Blaze grinned and turned into a red ball. The others also turned into orbs of their respective colors and zoomed towards him. They flowed into his body before he could even react and he spread himself eagle as he hovered n the air before disappearing from the void.

    The group watched in shock, even Z, as the shining cocoon began shining a rainbow of colors and flashed brightly, blinding them all briefly. As the light faded they all looked at the figure before them. He wore pants with pouches around the waist, a sliver sleeveless shirt, a deep silver cloak with a hood and a massive double bladed sword on his back. Kai grinned at them; hand on the grip of the sword. “Howdy!’ he said brightly.