1 Awakening I
Pitch black, Magnus' surroundings were the same shade as his eyes. It was the night of the new moon, and the area he was in had no light anywhere you looked.
He took out a flashlight from one of the pockets on his ragtag shorts that were too long to be called so, but too short to be actual trousers. He was walking uphill, following deep footsteps on the ground that seemed to be his, and his movements were close to mechanical like he had done this numerous times already.
The sound of grasshoppers buzzing and birds chirping were quite distinct, making what should be utter silence into something a little more melodious. He liked these noises a lot, it helped him get distracted from reality, even if for a little bit.
He liked distracting himself from reality, it helped him stay sane throughout everything. He often looked around himself, observing and absorbing the scenery around him. He had grown up doing this and was used to it, more than once had he tried talking to others instead, but the response was never great.
He could feel the despise of those he interacted with, after all, he was less than nothing to them. At the same time, all of them respected and practically worshipped those who were above them, who treated them the same way they treated him.
"What a fucked up world."
This wasn't the first time he cursed the world, he hated this world, that valued things like your upbringing and your possessions without actually caring about you. He thought about the people on top. Worshipped by literally all of humanity, he wondered what they felt like, just because of something they were born with, with something that they shouldn't have had, they were considered to be above everyone else.
He wished he was like them, he wished he were better.
*Sigh*
Nonetheless, even if it was a fucked up world, it was up to him to make whatever he could with it. Not once had Magnus ever complained or given up, he knew it was pointless. He was quite rational in this way. Even though he didn't have a lot of 'knowledge' without proper education, he was quite efficient in his thoughts.
He kept going, climbing up, sweat dripped down, but it wasn't the first time, and it wouldn't be the last either, he had to train his body in any way he could, even the little things like this. That was the only way he could look up to a better future.
An hour later, after around 5 kilometers of pretty intense hiking, though some very steep and narrow hills and paths, he had reached his destination. It was a large area, in fact, it was huge, the amount of space here could easily fit a half dozen buildings, give or take. He wished he could say that this land was his, but the sad truth was that it wasn't.
Truth be told, this much land could easily be sold for quite a hefty sum, however, it seemed like the actual owner of this place couldn't care less. It was probably someone rich, Magnus was pretty glad this spot was neglected, it gave him a place to call his home.
Walking a little forward, he shivered in his dirty, baggy clothes that failed to keep him warm no matter how much he tried to do so. It was high up here, and so it was chilly, especially as it was winter. It was cold to the point that the breath coming out of his mouth was visible to him, and even wearing clothes that didn't perform any function other than barely covering him, he didn't feel particularly uncomfortable.
Taking an old, rusted, and almost distorted bronze key, he opened an old metal door that blended into the surroundings and was almost invisible if you didn't look at it closely. It looked like it was made over 100 years ago, even before the Incursion, he wondered what purpose a bunker such as this served.
The door shrieked loudly as he pushed all the way back.
Walking down a flight of stairs, in what should be complete darkness, except for the old torch he had in his hands, he reached a small secluded room. This was his home, it was the size of the average apartment, except all in one, big room. It was probably made to perform as an emergency bunker in the past, as there was no gap in any wall, and even the door could be completely locked shut with no possibility of intrusion.
He took up a couple of old newspapers on the ground, that acted as his blankets, and placed them on himself as he laid down on old rugged fabric on the ground that served as his bed.
As he arranged for himself to go to sleep, Magnus thought about the day, it was a normal one, he had woken up pretty early, received some food from the local food bank, and went over to his usual training grounds. He did his usual exercise routine, mostly with Aerobics, and agility based, for 4 hours, went on a jog for another hour, before going to practice his martial arts and self-defense at the local dojo, where he trained his strength and overall fitness. The dojo building had huge screens at all places that made it easy for one to imitate the actions shown on them.
After all these years of practice, although he had no idea of what any of those punches or kicks were actually called, or when they were supposed to be used, he still integrated them into his fighting style, which was still really weak compared to the people who beat him up regularly.
Even though he had the martial arts part nailed down, he had nowhere else to go to and didn't know what to do in order to progress further as he couldn't afford actual guidance.
He had no friends, family, or money. He was alone in this world with no one to help him. Nevertheless, he had accepted this fact a long time ago, he had long since come to terms with the fact that he was the only one who he could rely on.
The almost 15-year-old boy's body was riddled with little scars and scratches all over his body as if they were testifying to his hard work. There were even multiple injuries that seemed more like injuries from getting beaten up rather than training.
Facing an old photograph framed in broken plastic, Magnus laid down on the hard floor of the bunker and yawned.
As he was on the brink of falling asleep, opened his eyes one last time and looked at one of the papers under him for no particular reason. It was a calendar. That reminded him, tomorrow was his birthday, wasn't it? He was finally turning 15.
A slight smile grew on his face, one that was rarely seen. His pupils enlarging, he realized how he was finally old enough to enroll in the Academy in a couple of weeks' time when the admission started. He had completely forgotten about it for a while.
He was pumped, after all, the reason he had been training his entire life was to join the academy. Even while he was a child, he knew that his poverty would cause his life to go to ruin if he didn't do anything about it.
And after looking for opportunities to change his life, it didn't take long for him to find the Academy. It was the only way for him to have a dazzling future, even without a good background.
It was his only chance to prove himself and get rid of this poverty-driven life.
*Sigh*
He drifted into near unconsciousness, getting filled with determination about how he would prove himself in the Academy and make sure that he'd stand out.
In truth, Magnus wanted to be able to graduate from the Academy with a good score not only to not have to live in this poverty ever again, but he also hoped that once he collected enough credit points, he would ask to search the records in the Academy about his parents.
His mother was so beautiful, it would be weird if no one in the academy had documented it...right?
He knew it was foolish, but it was his only hope of finding anything about them. It was said that the Academy had the greatest information network and collection as it was founded by an alliance consisting of every major country and organization on Earth.
This was exactly why he focused on training and keeping his body fit every day, even if he didn't have the best resources to do so.
Magnus didn't remember anything about his parents. He had been an orphan as long as he remembered. Or at least that's what he would think if not for the 4 things that were in his possession that belonged solely to him, and were left to him by his parents.
The most important of those 4 things, was the old photograph he always slept beside and was facing right now. It was extremely weathered and dirty, and around a third of it was torn off.
However, it was the only thing he had that reminded him of what his parents looked like. It was a picture of his mother holding him up as an infant, giving an extremely cheery smile, standing in a beautiful location surrounded by waterfalls.
Her skin was pure white, while her hair and eyes were even darker than his, which was something he could never comprehend since his hair was literally the darkest color of black that existed. She was so beautiful she sucked the color out of the nature behind her. Even the beautiful scenery she stood in seemed to dim when compared to her, even when she was dressed the same as her body and hair, black and white.
Magnus always felt happy knowing someone that pretty was his mom. Another person was in the photo as well who he presumed to be his dad. Unfortunately, at one point or another, the right side of the photo got damaged and torn off, which removed almost tall of the part of his father from the photo, he could see one of the knees of his father, but he was wearing trousers, which made it impossible to determine even the smallest clue about him.
Another one of the 4 possessions was the ring he always wore around his finger. He had always had it worn on his right hand's middle finger.
The ring wasn't very special, it contained an average-sized stone looking jewel in the center. Although the jewel looked somewhat fancy, it was a very dull, dark color of red, to the point of almost looking black, it wasn't even a shiny black, just plain black.
Judging by the color, it probably was just a fake stone, nonetheless, Magnus never complained, he treated this ring as a treasure and he never even tried to take it off.
The last 2 things he had in his possession that were given to him by his parents were his birthmark and his name, Magnus.
He wasn't even aware of his entire name, all he knew was that his name was Magnus, and he figured that part out as the name Magnus was labeled to the infant in the photo.
Time passed, it was nearing midnight.
*Tick*
*Tick*
*Tick*
Magnus slept very silently, he never snored or wheezed, and so, the entire room was dead silent. Which was why he suddenly awoke to the sound of an old broken clock he had in his room, ticking.
There was nothing unusual, he had found this clock a couple of months ago. It was an old fashioned one which used gears rather than energy, unfortunately, it broke for the same reason. And since it was broken, he had to adjust it every 4 days or so for it to properly function.
So what..... What was this sensation he was feeling?
Growing up, he'd always had an extremely keen sense of intuition, it was necessary as he had no-one else to back him up when he was in danger, or even in trouble.
He felt uncomfortable and he could feel his heart speeding up to a much more rapid pace than usual. He felt his body being oddly excited.
Adrenaline was pumping throughout his entire body, and he had goosebumps on every limb. He rubbed his face, it was filled with sweat. Breathing deeply and trying to calm himself down, he looked back at the clock: 11:59:17
'43 seconds to midnight.'
He felt some light flashing from under him and looked down. He could see the ring on his finger, the one he always wore, glowing.
Although not too much, the ring was glowing,
'That's weird. Is there a light source it's reflecting?'
Looking around, he confirmed that the light was indeed coming from only the stone on his ring.
*COUGH*
He coughed out loud now, as he felt his blood flow slow down, he knew something wrong. It was his heart, it slowed down again, slowing down from its abnormal speed to now beating extremely slowly. He started to feel light-headed and dizzy and began to struggle to breathe properly. His heartbeat was now on around once per second, and it was loud, really, really, loud.
His entire body pulsed when every time his heart beat, and he felt his stamina draining.
Somewhat panicking, his eyes that struggled to even open looked at the ring again, it was now glowing brightly.
In fact, it was unnaturally bright, there was enough light coming out of it for him to clearly see everything in the entire room. He had never done so before, as the only sources of light he had was an old flashlight and a dim lamp on the ceiling.
He looked over at the alarm clock again, it was 11:59:52, 8 seconds to midnight.
He could instinctively feel it, that his heart was currently beating at 1 beat per second. Every second, the second's hand on the clock, and his heart moved as if they were perfectly in sync.
It was almost as if his heart was counting down for something, but why? And why was his ring glowing so bright? It was so bright he could no longer even look at it, and it even started to pulse. It pulsed at the same time the seconds' hand of the clock moved and his heart throbbed.
He could feel it, his entire body was reacting to something, and it also seemed to be counting down these 8 seconds. Something big was going to happen.
'But why? What's happening?'
At this point, his body seemed to stop listening to him. He fell back down, but his head was faced back at the clock again. Squinting his eyes, he could see the time.
*tick*
'Fifty-six'
He couldn't do much by now, and barely moved away from his 'bed' and crawled to the middle of the room.
*tick*
'Fifty-seven'
It was getting worse every second. He could barely even crawl now.
*tick*
'Fifty-eight'
With every passing second, he could feel his body starting to go crazy. His entire body felt incredibly hot, it was like he had a fever, which was weird because he had never been sick before.
He wasn't sure how to react, or of what to do. The photo of his family he had been holding till now was pushed to the side in case he accidently broke it.
*tick*
'Fifty-nine'
*Sigh*
He sighed and prepared himself for almost anything.
*Tick*
However, no amount of preparation could help what was going to happen.
The clock struck midnight,
and everything changed.
