Hey guys, here is the prologue and part one of a story I finished writing with my friend. I wrote the prologue and he wrote most of Part 1. I’d love to hear your guys’ thoughts and criticisms. And if you guys want, I’ll continue to post the subsequent parts. Take care!
Prologue
Brian Stuckey’s Private Residence, Near Nagano, Japan, 2020
Brian stared intensely at the 3-D printer on the countertop in his basement laboratory. He was monitoring the creation of his latest electronic chip. He was thankful with how it was turning out so far. He had spent much of his fortune on a top of the line printer and it did not disappoint. Satisfied, he turned to his partner, Mr. Iwao Kurihara.
“Everything seems to be working as planned. How many more chips do we have to make?” Brian asked Mr. Kurihara.
Mr. Kurihara pulled out his paper list that he kept in his pocket. On it was a checklist. Beside each checkbox was only one word. He traced his finger to about three quarters down the list.
“Not many more,” he said in heavily accented English. “From my count we have about 5 more to go.”
“Which elements?” Brian asked.
“Lightning, Water, Stone, Ice, and Lava,” Mr. Kurihara replied.
“Technically six, but since you refuse to give up wind-,” Brian started
“As I have said before, we have no remnant of the wind element. It was last practiced over 300 years ago, before the United States became the United States. No element remnant was ever recovered. It is not as if I don’t want to give it to you, it is the simple fact that I physically can’t,” Mr. Kurihara interjected irately. “We have been over this already.”
“Alright,” Brian responded, “I’ll prepare the printer for five more chips.”
“And I will bring in the last element samples tomorrow,” Mr. Kurihara said. “As well as my children.”
“Why?” Brian asked.
“Because my children have access to two of those elements. You will get the Lava and Ice elements from them.”
“I don’t want to experiment on kids! It’s unethical!”
“You will not be experimenting at all. You will draw a small sample of their blood, and then you will draw a small sample of my blood. That’s how you will get your elements,” Mr. Kurihara retorted.
“Why you though?” Brian asked.
“Because I control the stone element,” Mr. Kurihara smiled and then an instant later his skin turned gray and hardened. His eyes stayed the same. He moved his arms and legs to show he was not immobilized. An instant later, he was back to normal. “Now, are we done here?”
Brian was in such shock all he could do was nod.
“Good, then I will be on my way. I shall see you tomorrow,” Mr. Kurihara went over to another table and picked up his briefcase. He was about to exit when Brian spoke up again.
“Wait!” He croaked. Mr. Kurihara stopped and turned around expectantly.
“What are your kids names?” Brian asked. “This way I know what to call them.”
Mr. Kurihara paused for a second, contemplating his request, “Their names are Ichiro and Miyuki. Their nicknames are Hot Lava and Icicle.”
“Those are some… interesting nicknames,” Brian said.
“They are very literal, as they both correspond to their elements. Now, good night, and I shall see you tomorrow,” Mr. Kurihara picked up his briefcase again and walked up the stairs to the main level. Brian then heard the door open, then shut and lock.
“What have I gotten myself into?” Brian asked himself as he turned back to the 3D printer.
Tri-Force Chronicles Part 1
Present Day, 2048
Keagan knew that once he walked out of his base door into the cold air there was no turning back. After he walked out of the door, he turned around and inserted the key into the padlock.He started to think about locks on doors nowadays, and how most of them aren’t even padlocks anymore, and that they were hyper locks. The difference between a hyper lock and a padlock was that a padlock had just a key that had to be inserted, but a hyper lock had a facial recognition and a thumbprint that was also needed to open the lock. But considering the fact that they cost an outrageous $700, Keagan decided that at that moment he didn’t really need one. There was also the fact that his base was 1,000 feet off the ground and on the side of a mountain covered in camouflage. For all that Keagan knew, he was the only one in Snow Force that had a base.
Now he was just getting off task. Keagan had a serious case of ADD, which didn’t help when he was trying to plan De V.S. base attacks with his team. Well, it had been around 14 years since he had seen the team. Keagan was hoping that would all soon change. Keagan was planning on going out in search for some of his old team members in hope to bring the team back together again.
Keagan was afraid that the leader of Snow Force had been killed by criminals and there was no hope. Hopefully that wasn’t true. But knowing Jeremy, it probably wasn’t. Ever since Snow Force was shut down the crime rate had increased insanely. Mainly over two precious items. The nature swords.
There was once peace in the city. That was why Snow Force made the decision to shut down; that and the government had cut the funding for the program. Around five years after Snow Force shut down, the crime rate started rising. Most of the crimes were committed by one man named Professor Cyborg, also known as PC. He mostly got his nickname PC because of the way he committed his crimes.
The way he would do it was before his attack, he would have a scout go into the area that they planned to attack, raid or rob. The scout’s job was to leave an open computer in the base when they visit so that later that evening PC can teleport through the computer and attack the place. He was mostly doing these attacks in search of the two nature swords. PC wanted the swords for one reason. If the swords were brought together then whoever had control of them had ultimate power and could not be stopped.
The nature swords were created to keep peace of the land and of the air. But when they were being created and experimented on, they showed that they were highly unstable when found close to each other, so they were moved to far away locations.
But again, not the problem at this point in time. The problem was to find Evan or Jeremy (Evan was part of the three-man team that Keagan was in before he joined Snow Force. Jeremy was the former leader of Snow Force.) Those two people were probably the most likely to know where the rest of the team was. Keagan was also planning on using something that he had kept secret for many years. There was only two people who knew about the secret and that was Jeremy and Evan.
When Keagan was 12 years old, he was at his uncle’s house for the summer. His uncle was an inventor, but no one believed that he was, because any invention he made either broke or blew up. But Keagan believed him. One night when Keagan was asleep at the dinner table, his uncle was working on a microchip that held items like an invisible cloak and a teleporter. But when he was working on it, he spilled just a drop of water on it and then it exploded.
The explosion killed his uncle and sent a piece of shrapnel into Keagan’s shoulder. At first Keagan didn’t notice the shrapnel piece in his shoulder. It was actually one of the police officers that was talking to him later that night about the incident. The officer was questioning Keagan about why his uncle might have died, but Keagan truly didn’t know what happened other than the microchip exploding. After the officer was just about to take Keagan to the station, the officer noticed a big spot of blood on his shoulder that was slowly growing. The officer then had him rushed into the hospital, but the shrapnel was so small that the doctors couldn’t locate it. So, they decided what was best was to stitch him up and bring him to his parents’ house. And the rest was a blur to him.
The microchip was supposed to be used as a weapons device for an exo-suit that his uncle had built a few weeks earlier, but that was kind of a bust. The microchip would be inserted into the device and would permanently transmit the powers into the device it was in, including humans. That was one of the flaws that Keagan’s uncle was trying to fix just in case something bad happened. But of course, that didn’t work out.
To this day he still had his powers, but was afraid to show people, fearing that they wouldn’t accept him as a regular human. However, once again not the problem at this point in time. The last time that Keagan had heard from Jeremy was around 2 years ago. Jeremy was working at an industrial business where they manufactured cars. Keagan had last heard from Evan around 7 months ago via Skype. Evan apparently had an important message that something bad was going to happen in around a year, which didn’t leave us much time to stop PC. Evan worked at a different business where they sold guns and gun ammo.
. Keagan continued to walk down the mountain that he lived in. Once he got down to ground level, he unlocked his motorcycle that he had gotten many years ago and hopped in. The motorcycle was equipped with two machine guns on the front along with two gold blades that could ram into anything they wanted to. Then there was a Gatling gun/jump stand on the bottom fender of the motorcycle as well. On the back there were two hyper-magnetic skis that were only to be used when ejecting in emergencies. How they work was when he would eject, they would launch a grappling hook around the bottom of his feet, then they would stay hooked to his feet while they use a hyper-magnetic system that will slowly start at first, then around 5 seconds later could build up to the speed of 125mph.
‘Okay.’ Keagan said to himself. Keagan then twisted his right handle and started. riding. He was racing down the street at 110 mph. Keagan noticed all the white dotted lines that were supposed to shine like the sun were barely able to be seen. And every crack in the road had at least 2 weeds coming out of it. As he was going down the street, he noticed a dead deer that had a missing leg and flies flying around its carcass. Keagan wished he could have helped the poor thing but once again life doesn’t always go his way.
He also noticed that there was a car that looked like it had been abandoned for at least 2 years on the side of the road. As he kept driving, he felt a snowflake. He slowed down and looked up to see how hard it might start snowing and if it became a blizzard, he might have to crash at a local Super 8 for the night. As he looked around, he saw the mountain that he lived in. Keagan had already gone around 10 miles in the five and a half minutes that he had left his house.
The mountain had a light shade of gray over it because of how far Keagan had gone. Since the area around his mountain is pretty abandoned, he could go around 110 mph whenever he wanted to. The only people he would see were the occasional semi and/or tourists on a road trip driving through. The nearest grocery store was probably around 20 miles away from his mountain base. It never really bothered Keagan that everything was so far away. He kind of liked the peace and quiet. As Keagan kept thinking about this, he then sped up in his motorcycle again and started racing down the streets at 110 mph. 110 was Keagan’s favorite number.
Around 15 minutes had passed by the time Keagan arrived in the inner city. He then decided to search the name of the gun shop that Evan worked at. As Keagan got off his motorcycle, he activated the camouflage to hide all the weapons and pulled out his phone. he pulled up his browser and searched up the name Top Shot. He was around 20 minutes away if he walked, if he drove it would be around five to ten minutes. But Keagan decided there is no point in deactivating the camouflage and driving when he could just run there.
Keagan usually got odd looks from people with his earphones always in and his dark jeans, gray Vans, and black hoodie. Plus, his dark green eyes and his bright blonde hair didn’t really match his clothing. Keagan had decided to re dye his hair bright blonde around 4 years before Snow Force had shut down. He had had dyed black hair for around 9 years because of a dare, but then he realized that the dye made him just a little more stealthy. His usual outfit when it came to Snow Force missions consisted of a red t-■■■■■, a dark red hoodie, dark brown khakis, a black bandana that would go around his mouth (only for missions), and a motorcycle helmet (only for explosive missions). But other than that, he usually would just wear a dark colored attire.
As Keagan walked, he saw a man walking around asking people for money. Keagan never really liked how these people would usually approach him, but he figured you gotta do what you gotta do to survive. The man noticed Keagan and started walking over to him.
When the man got closer, he said, “Any spare change?”
Keagan replied almost too fast, “Sorry I don’t have any.” Which was a lie.
“Are you sure?” the man asked.
At this point Keagan had had enough, “Listen man, I just wanna get where I need to be, so please just leave me alone.”
Keagan said this with a lot of anger. The next thing that happened shocked Keagan a lot. The man then pushed Keagan back and pulled out a gun.
The gun was a normal 45 pistol, “I’ve had worse.” Keagan thought to himself.
The man then pointed the gun at Keagan’s forehead and said, “Listen kid, I didn’t wanna start anything but now I kind of have to.”
Before the man could react, Keagan pulled out 2 pistols and aimed them at the man. The man looked at Keagan and swore under his breath. The man shot and missed, Keagan then shot twice, once for each gun. One of the bullets pierced the man’s shoulder and the other didn’t make contact.
The man then screamed out in pain “You little punk! I will kill you!”
Keagan just stood there watching the man struggle to pick up his gun. As soon as his hand made contact with the gun Keagan shot again at his hand. The man dropped his gun and grabbed his hand screaming. Keagan ran over to him and dropped a pellet on his lap. The man looked down at it and then “POOF!” It exploded, spraying fumes all over him,the next thing he knew he was out.
Keagan got lucky with getting away without being caught. As Keagan ran, he noticed the cops down the street. Keagan then did something that he hadn’t done in an extremely long time. He slowed down curled his hands into fists and disappeared and then he re-appeared in an alley where he caught a glimpse of the cop car. Keagan pulled out his phone to find the Top Shot Evan worked at. He was around 5 minutes away because of the teleporting. Keagan then disguised himself (another feature of being a semi cyborg) into normal clothes.
As Keagan walked out into the sunlight with his new outfit, he didn’t get many looks. Good, no one suspected him. The Top Shot was just across the street which was nice. Keagan looked left, then right, then left again, then sprinted across the street. He opened the doors to the Top Shot. When he looked around all he saw was guns. Rifles, shotguns, machine guns (which was weird), and pistols. There were two people working behind the desk and one sales associate walking around the store helping people. The sales associate was a girl so she’s out. The two people behind the desk looked very different. One was an older fellow while the other was a kid and wore glasses.
‘Him.’ Keagan said to himself. Keagan walked over to the desk and looked at the older fellow’s name tag. On it in blue letters it said Evan.
‘Bingo.’ Keagan thought.
“Hey, do you know how much these pistols are worth?” Keagan placed his two pistols on the counter.
Evan looked at them with wide eyes. “I’ve seen these pistols before, but I don’t remember where from.”
“Huh because when I got the pieces for these it said they were recommended for missions mostly.”
Evan then looked at Keagan and said “Wait. Keagan is that you?”
“Long time no see old friend.” Keagan replied.
“How is it going?” Evan asked,
“Pretty well.” Keagan responded.
“So, what are you doing in Top Shot?”
“Well I was wondering if you knew any info about Snow Force?”
Evan’s smile disappeared. “Can I talk to you in the back room?” Evan asked.
“Yeah sure.”
Evan opened the door that lead behind the counter and then opened the door that went into the back room where they kept boxes and other things in case they run out of stock for some things.
When Keagan got in there, Evan locked the doors behind him. “Keagan, how did you find out where I worked?”
“Remember you called me through skype and told me where you worked.”
“Oh yeah.” Evan said.
Evan walked over to a cardboard box on the ground and kicked it to the side. There was a small gray button on the ground that Evan pressed with his foot then moved the box back to its original spot.
“Here is my little home away from home, I guess you can call it.” As Evan finished his sentence, one of the walls flipped and there was a wall of nothing but guns. The first thing Keagan thought was, ‘Mine’s bigger.’ Evan walked over and grabbed one of the pistols on the wall. He aimed it at a target on the wall and pressed and held onto the trigger. What really surprised Keagan was that it was a fully-automatic pistol. Keagan had only seen of few of those in his days of Snow Force.
Once Evan was done, he pulled out his phone with a surprised look. He put it up to his ear and said, “Hello? Yes, this is. Excuse me? I’m sorry but I legally can’t do that. Sir please.” He lowers the phone from his ear for a second and says to Keagan, “Call the cops Keagan.”
As Evan fought with the man on the phone, Keagan pulled out his phone and dialed 911. “Hi, yes I would like to report a pre-crime. No, but my friend is on the phone with a man and then lowered his phone and told me to call you guys. No, I am not on any types of drugs!” Keagan then hung up and turned to Evan.
“Well the police were a fail. Looks like we’ll have to take matters into our own hands,” Evan pressed end on his phone and stepped on the gray button on the ground. They both headed back upstairs.
When they arrived upstairs, they saw a cop car coming down the street. Then out of nowhere there was a flash on the top of a building and a rocket hit the front of the cop car. The car flipped and caught fire. Keagan went to go out the door then he notices it was locked with a padlock.
He looked at the store owner and said, “Sir could you unlock this?” The man shook his head. Keagan looked outside and saw the suspect’s silhouette on the top of the building. Keagan got an upset feeling in his stomach.
“He’s here.” Keagan said just above a whisper.
“Who is here?” Evan asked.
“PC”
Evan looked out the window and saw the silhouette as well. “Uh oh.” Evan said.
Keagan pulled out his pistol, put it to the lock, and shot it. The lock fell to the ground. Keagan sprinted over to the cop car and started to kick at the window. “Once, twice, three times.” Keagan thinks to himself. He crawled into the car and saw one of the officers in a bloody pool. Keagan looked away wishing he wouldn’t have seen it. He looks over at the passenger who had a few cuts but overall was still breathing.
Keagan grabbed the passenger cop and started to backward army-crawl his way out of the car. As he came out, a piece of metal from the door that is still on fire falls on Keagan. Keagan’s face cringes but he didn’t scream. He continued to back out of the car. When Keagan got out of the car, he picked up the cop and set him on his shoulder and started to sprint over to the Top Shot. As Keagan opened the door, he heard multiple sirens in the distance. “Oh no.” Keagan murmurs. He looked up and sees PC turn his head in the direction of the sirens.
“No, no, no. This isn’t how it was supposed to happen.” Keagan handed the injured police officer over to Evan. Evan put him on the ground and started his work. Keagan heard another boom. He turned his head around and saw pieces of a blown-up cop car, and a fiery mass of metal in the middle of the street. Keagan had had enough. Keagan started to sprint across the street over to the building PC was standing on and stopped. He closed his eyes, clenched his hands into fists and “poof” he appeared at the top of the building, behind PC. Keagan ran over to him, pulled out a pistol and put the end of the muzzle to the back of his head.
“Drop your gun!” Keagan shouts. PC started to chuckle then dropped his gun. Keagan the kicked it away with his foot so PC couldn’t quickly grab it and fire.
“You won’t win PC.”
PC started to laugh again. “I’m afraid I’ve already won.” PC said in a metallic sounding voice.
“What?” Keagan murmured.
PC then turned around fast and nailed Keagan in the face with his fist. Keagan fell but recovered quickly and pointed his pistol back at PC and fired four times. Only two were successful hits. PC then turned around with his AK-47 in hand. He started to laugh again. PC slowly started to walk toward Keagan with the AK-47 aimed straight at Keagan’s head. Keagan had a lump in his throat. PC then put the end of the barrel up to Keagan’s forehead.
“Oh, how the tables have turned.” PC said.
Then out of nowhere a gunshot went off and PC fell to the right of Keagan. Keagan then got up and looks around and saw Evan on the side of the building with a pistol in hand.
“Evan knows exactly when to show up.” Keagan thought to himself. Keagan then looked over at PC, lying on the floor with a small spot of blood quickly spreading on his chest. Keagan had had enough of PC. Keagan wanted so badly that the shot kill him and this big mission be over with. But of course, life didn’t always go his way.
After PC had been apprehended Keagan and Evan went inside and talked to the police.
“We’re lucky that there was only one casualty this time,” The policeman said.
“What do you mean this time?” Keagan asked.
“The last fight that we had with PC we lost 3 good officers that day.”
“Wow.” Keagan said. “The thing that I’m afraid of is that the next call we get about PC, the officers might not want to respond to it.”
This information really scared Keagan. He knew that if the people found out about how the officers feel about these strikes that they might feel unprotected and that no one can help. Once Keagan was done talking to the officer, he then looked over to the car that PC was in. Even though PC was probably going to jail for the rest of his life and that he had several bullets inside him he still laughed. After around 10 minutes of setting up the tapes and investigating, the cop cars had left. Well the one that held PC at least. Keagan then went back inside the Top Shot to talk to Evan. When he went inside, all of a sudden, the lights went out. He heard the doors lock behind him. Then he heard laughing. Not the regular PC laugh, too human. While Keagan walks around the store he hears a glass case around a gun shatter. Then he heard 5 shots. Two of them hit him!
“Ugh!” Keagan screamed.
“You think you can win don’t you Keagan.”
“Who are you.”
“Hmhmhm. You act as if you don’t remember. Now answer my question, do you think you have won?”
“Yes, actually.” Keagan said.
“Hmhmhm, well what if I told you that all you did was defeat our decoy and the real PC is out there and he has the air sword?”
“Crap.” Keagan said and before he could respond, he passed out.