And So It Begins

The Forward Operating Base was quiet except for the trees on its perimeter rustling in the wind, and the few sleepy soldiers keeping watch. The night echoed this silence as if in anticipation of the event about to take place. Of course not everyone was quiet. Certain buildings, such as the one Darius was in, were soundproof. Darius sat in his cozy gaming chair wearing only the lower half of his military fatigues. The building hid the rambunctious racket being made by him as he fought along side his friend Críostóir.

Críostóir was from Dublin, Ireland. He was average sized with short wavy brown hair, freckles, bright green eyes, and mouth loud enough to hear clear across the ocean. They were an odd pair considering Darius was the polar opposite being tall, dark skinned, hazel eyed with shoulder length dreads, and more reserved. He was from Seattle, which he missed daily, and which Crís constantly made fun off because of a certain vampire series's close proximity.

They shared a love of all things otaku, even though neither of them looked like it in the slightest. Crís was built like a lean heavyweight boxer. He gained his build from his years of practicing Dornálaíocht (An Irish style of boxing). He was undefeated in official competitions, but still couldn't beat Darius who was in the military. He refused to tell his friend what branch just to piss him off whenever he tried to figure out why he couldn't beat him. It was a strange friendship, but it worked perfectly somehow.

They had been playing the computer mmo Fallen Heroes since before Darius was forced to serve. This was the last big raid of the season and they were moments away from beating it. "Hey Crís, cover me. Void Shock should end him, but I need ten seconds to cast it."  "Of course ya eejit. I am the tank here man. Now bring ur ugly mug over here ya big bitch. I promise I'll be gentle." Darius always enjoyed playing Fallen Heroes before a big mission like tomorrow.  Though, half the fun was hearing his friend yell Irish curses at their opponent. "Alright Crís, move outta the way." Darius's spell finished and appeared as a single dark translucent ball that shot towards the strange Christmas influenced monster. As soon as it made contact it expanded and immobilized Demon Claus. Inside, it was shocked with waves of electricity. The monster faded and disappeared. Congratulations appeared in big white words across both of their screens. "Ha, looks like all the little demon leanaí won't be getting a Christmas this year."

Críostóir was never one for being humble, but it was good for a laugh. Darius spoke sarcastically, "Would never have thought demon kids got Christmas. Hanukkah? Definitely. But Christmas is a bit far fetched don't you think?" Crís fired right back, " Shut your ugly gob ya...." Suddenly the words on the screen flashed. Congratulations morphed into strange looking symbols that looked almost like old runes. "Oy, Darius you seeing this?" "Yeah man. You getting these weird symbols on your screen too?" "Aye. Ya think it's part of the raid?" "Hell no. I've never seen symbols like these in the game before". Just then the symbols began to glow. They seemed to radiate burning golden colored energy while growing brighter and brighter. Darius could feel the hairs being singed off his upper body. He could have sworn he heard chanting in a language he'd never heard before coming from somewhere too. "What the hell?!" Strangly, he felt like he was being pulled, but it felt like he was being pulled in every direction. The light seemed to shine almost as bright as the sun before everything went dark.

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Around the world similar events were simultaneously taking place.

In a hotel room with a perfect view of the city covered in fresh fallen snow, a man laid in bed choking on his own blood. His assailant, one of the world's most dangerous assassins, had just finished wiping their kukri clean when strange symbols appeared on the blade. They leaned closer in confusion only for the symbols to begin to glow. In an instant, they were blinded by white light. They dropped the kukri, but the light continued. In an effort to stop the light they picked it back up to toss it from the window only to be stopped by a tugging sensation.

The man had settled down for his bath. He normally would have women wash him, as he enjoyed the relaxation of the bath and the sight of their bodies. This morning he had slept in and decided to relax alone after getting up late. His men had been given the day off so he would take advantage of the peace and take a long hot bath. He had almost dozed off when a bright light blasted his closed eyelids. It was coming from some strange red symbols that seemed to be sitting on top of his bath water. As he tried to get out he felt a strange tugging sensation on his body as the light grew even brighter.

Everyone had stared in awe as the 7'2" giant had ordered and walked out with 12 pancakes, 4 pounds of bacon, a 10 egg omelette, and a cup of grape juice. The giant was used to the stares as they had a normal routine of carb loading before a workout. They'd gotten home and immediately tore into their food. They'd destroyed the pancakes first and had started to move the plate out of the way when they noticed runes on it. The runes were glowing a bright silver color. Heat seemed to exude from them as they grew brighter. The giant tried to smash the plate, but to their surprise it didn't break. Instead they were assailed with a strange tugging sensation.

"Commodore!" The man saluted his superior and left the room. The commodore hated formality. They actually preferred endless paperwork over the annoying formalities involved with speaking to people above and below them. They didn't mind the respect, but the constant saluting was too much. Regardless, they actually did have a mountain of paperwork to get through on their desk. As they began to read, the words began to reform themselves. In their place blue colored symbols appeared. The commodore blinked and looked again, and now the symbols were glowing. They dropped the paper and shielded their eyes as the symbols grew brighter and brighter. Oddly enough, they started to feel their body being pulled as well.