Chapter 6

Chapter 6

A Way Back

Though he wasn’t too sure if the plan was foolproof,  but he knew even though his life was in danger, it was now or never, as he was getting hungry, and thirsty, and had to take a dump. He stared down at the possible leader guardian (thinking “Saren…” again) for about a minute with stress, excitement, and anxiety, then jumped off of the tree house.  He felt the now cold air rush through his soft cheeks as he soared through the now dark sky, and landed softly on the grass. Thankfully, no S.A.S.P.S. agents heard this.

His legs tingled a bit, but didn’t hurt, like the first time he fell. He then moved swiftly behind a bush. He peeked from behind it, and saw that none of the S.A.S.P.S. guards were acting differently. He figured that this meant that he was still undetected. He slowly headed towards the side of the house, and stretched his claws longer as to make a hole in the suit. He tried, and tried, but the suit wouldn’t tear. He looked down, and noticed that very, very small holes were already there… just small enough to fit his claws. He used his claws to climb up the side of his house (he didn’t want to risk flying) into a small attic opening. He had done this once before when he was 10 for no apparent reason except for random recreation.

He was about halfway up when he heard the guards by the door having a conversation. He slowly dropped his body, and hung there, listening to the conversation.

“…still think it’s dumb that we have to stand here, and guard this house… all because of that Ross Oak kid?” One said. He had a light, but deep voice Ross couldn’t explain, or mimic, but didn’t sound too whiney.

“Well, Saren said that there were reasons he couldn’t tell us that we had to make sure that kid didn’t come back. The other said. Oddly enough, he had a lighter voice than the other.

“I still think this is a bunch of baloney… I mean, he’s just a kid! What’s he going to do? Sneak past us into this house, and turn into a guardian, and kill us all?” The first one said.

“Well, that’s exactly what I can see Saren saying…” The second one said.

“Whatever… I think-” The first one started.

“Well, Saren obviously doesn’t exactly seem to care what you think, now, does he?” The second one butted in.

“I don’t care-” The first one started, only to be cut off again.

“Shut up, and do your job… sheesh…” The second said, ending the conversation.

Ross still had no idea what his parents had to do with anything, but now he knew that this “Saren” was their leader… and that they knew about Ross… but how? And then Ross remembered he was hanging on a wall precariously surrounded by a bunch of enemies who if they saw Ross, might kill him, and if not, they’d capture him. At that thought, he continued climbing up, and got the metal bars guarding the entrance to the attic. Ross took his claw, and carefully undid the nails keeping it in. The first two took some effort, the third was pretty easy, and the fourth one popped right out, getting Ross by surprise, and almost falling below, and landing on a guard walking around the perimeter. Thankfully, Ross’s cat reflexes let him catch it in time to stop it from falling below and screwing up the whole plan, and possibly giving away all the guardians. That wouldn’t be a happy ending now, would it? Ross then placed all the nails inside of the attic through the bars, and carefully pulled the bars piece through the hole it was blocking. Then he climbed in, all with great difficulty.

The attic was very, very hot, but to Ross, it felt nice, as his face was stinging with coldness outside. He poked his head out, and thankfully, still, no guards had caught on. He set the metal bars back up, and somewhat screwed the nails back in, and took off the suit. It was slowly getting hotter, and hotter, and Ross didn’t frankly want to melt. He pulled the backpack over his back, checking to see the pictures and notes were still inside, and crawled through the narrow passage ways. He then slid off his suit, and cooled down a huge amount. He could see fine, though. It was still typically common for cats to see in the dark. Cats who couldn’t normally had poor eyesight.

It seemed like forever crawling through the cramped space, and Ross was starting to see why people got claustrophobic. He hit his head on a piece of wood, and got furious for a bit, and then realized that being mad at the wood wouldn’t exactly do anything. As he was feeling the wooden planks he was crawling on, he felt a smooth piece of metal, and slowly got into a squatting position. There was now enough room as to not be so cramped. Ross put the suit back on (with great difficulty, as he was squatted…), and pulled a metal pad up slowly. He looked for laser triggers as to sense someone breaking in because he had no idea how paranoid the S.A.S.P.S. would be.

He saw no laser traps, so he slid down into the actual house. He heard no noises, but a light was on downstairs. He figured this was a guard, so he just crept over to his room, checking all along the way. When he got to his door, he slowly turned the handle, and was being very paranoid of bugs, laser checkers, and little buttons. Nothing went off, but Ross could swear he saw a red light flash for a second as he walked in. Whether it was paranoia, or the real deal, he needed to hurry up. He made one last check for booby traps, and went on.

He saw a small pile of school stuff, and grabbed his backpack. He emptied it out on his bed, and grabbed a tan vest from his closet, and stuffed it in his backpack. Next, he took the pictures out of his suit, and put them in a small pocket on the side. He zipped it close… then saw his cell phone. He put it, and its charger in his backpack also... when he heard a noise.

 He looked around for a place to hide. His closet was a bit obvious, he couldn’t hide in his bed’s drawers anymore, and he couldn’t think of anything else… then he saw it! His laundry bucket!

He popped the lid off, threw some clothes directly into the air above it, jumped in, let the clothes fall on top of him, and put the lid on just in time. The door opened. Through a small hole in his laundry bucket, he could see one of the S.A.S.P.S. guards walking into his room. Ross tried to breathe as little as possible, and as quiet when he needed to.

The guard looked around, closed the door, and quickly pulled a long sheath out, hidden under armor. The guard threw it on Ross’s bed, looked at the laundry bucket, and that strange voice rang in his head. “Bring this to Samuel…” it said. The guard then unlocked the window, nudged their head towards it, and walked back towards the door. They opened it, and looked at the bucket once more. “Go through the window… don’t worry about Ruke. Sprint like crap.” The voice said, then the guard walked away.

At this point, Ross was completely confused. But he figured that the guard had nothing to do with any booby traps, and that they were safe storing the sheath. Either way, Ross wanted to go through with what the voice said. He slowly got out of the laundry basket, and back into the friendliness of his room. He looked around for last minute traps, and went over to the sheath. There was some kind of warmth to it… and it felt like Ross was meant to take it. He grabbed it. At first it was heavy, but some sort of strength came over Ross in less than a second.

He smiled, and looked around. He just realized that he had no idea how to get back, or how to get out of his house. He could always go out the way he came in… when the door SLAMMED open…

Footsteps race up the stairs, and Ross panicked. He remembered that he had his invisible suit on, but he was still scared.  He tried to slide against a wall. A group of guards came into the room, and looked around. Ross was utterly confused. The guards then saw the sheath floating in mid air- HOW COULD HE BE SO STUPID? Ross never understood why he did what he is about to do even after he was dead. He opened the sheath, and pulled out the sword. It seemed like the opposite of the sword he saw earlier on the buffed out looking guard. The handle was a different color, though, and the blade was silver, and there was still a revolving mist. There was another familiar looking ruby but it was a different color… instead of being a dark green, it was a light blue.

The guards were bewildered for a bit, but then realized that he must have some sort of magic powers. Ross was scared. His heart pounded. He couldn’t think straight. He slowly pulled the sword upwards. He felt amazing power soar through his body. The guards pulled out their swords. The door broke down, and the guard in the samurai armor with the buffed out sword walked in. Ross’ heart stopped. He was going to die. Now. Like this. The other guards moved aside. The samurai armored guard, as Ross had thought, had been their leader. He took his sword up, then swung it down at Ross.

Ross took his sword, and lifted it up to block the other sword, but his sword was slammed down onto the ground. And then it happened. The window broke. Glass flew everywhere. The guards acted as a wall to Ross, and he was the only one not to take damage. The guard who came in to drop off the sword earlier came through the door, and put their hand up. Lightning flashed through the room, and some of the guards fell to the ground. Whether dead, or not, Ross couldn’t tell. The guard then slipped off the armor like it was water. It poured onto the floor, revealing a black cloak. It had a shiny gold medallion with some sort of carving on it… but the face was blocked by shadows.

The hooded figure then came for Ross. Ross held up the sword, confused. A few of the guards went for the hooded figure, and the others for Ross. The cloak zoomed through the air as if some type of cloaked bird on steroids, and made the guards running towards it fall to the ground in confusion.  Ross didn’t know whether to be relieved, or scared. Was this an ally, or a bounty hunter? But there was one person still up. The last guard put up his sword, the mist still whirling, the ruby shining, and the blade piercing. And then Ross was hit with some sense. He moved. He leaned to the left, feeling extremely stupid, and then started running towards the non-existent window, and when he got there, looked back.  The cloaked figure then swirled around the guard as if in some sort of liquidly state. The cloak rippled in an awesome sight.

Just then a bird (birds are bigger than our day) flew into the house, through the window. He motioned to go outside, and Ross smiled. The bird went over to help take the guard down, and Ross looked out of the window. He saw that there was a line of S.A.S.P.S. vehicles coming down the road from afar. He could tell, because only they had green lights on their cars/speeders. Ross had no idea where to go, what to do, and he couldn’t think straight again.

There was a flash of light. Ross was pushed out through the hole where the window used to be. The cloak whooshed through the air, out of the window with Ross. The bird jumped through the window with the sheath in its beak. Ross started running northeast, as the S.A.S.P.S. vehicles were coming from the northwest. With the bird following, and the cloak now leading him, Ross just figured that they were a Guardian, and an undercover guardian. Ross tried to remember this path, as he had taken it when he was younger. He remembered the general path, and some scenery… a few houses… but he still had no idea where he was going. He heard the cars pull over, but the speeders continued, gaining on him like mad.

Ross tried to use his speed powers, but he couldn’t. The speeders were gaining. A S.A.S.P.S. agent on one of the speeders appeared from behind the driver, and pulled out a long spike. The agent reached for Ross, and the bird tried batting it away with the sheath. It pushed it away, but it was inches away from touching Ross. When Ross tripped. Yes, he tripped. On a rock. Ross’ body flew forward, and he caught himself with his front paws… and he felt some sort of new strength coming through his body. He start running forward, forgetting about the sword. He was faster than he’d ever been; outrunning the vehicles, and the soaring cloak.

Luckily, the bird had good timing, and caught the sword inside of the sheath. Ross got to the end of the straight way, and looked back. What he saw was horrid… there were flying vehicles coming, with glowing lights. Big, slow ones, and small, speedy ones were coming all over the skies.

The speed, and the four paws had been on is side, but he saw flares coming through the skies, and it seemed to signal some sort of super engine ignition for the riders. As it was getting more dark, a lightning bolt would flash out of the cloak every now and then to help for vision. Ross didn’t need it, as cats can see in the dark.

The cloak, and the bird were catching up, and Ross looked for a sign of where to go. Ross looked back forward, and followed the cloak, and the bird take a left turn… and then, in a strange happening, they teleported back to the Guardian headquarters. The bird was walking over to a near by couch, and the cloak came over to Ross.

“Sorry for the confusion… I tried to get you the sword, but they got suspicious.” The cloaked figure said in a female voice. Ross could see strange glowing white eyes, and a mouth through the dark shadows.

“I was working undercover to find out what they’re up to… but now I can’t really go back. Anyways, at least you’re safe. That’s Fly,” she said pointing to the bird with her arms covered in sleeves.

“he’s mainly a scouter, but he came to help out... needed some power to help take those guards down. Oh, yeah, and you can call me Ampz. Nice to meet ya, Ross.” Ampz said in a friendly voice.

“How did we… teleport?” Ross asked.

“That would be me…” Fly said from the couch with a smile.

It was nice to rest after such a stressing day. Ross got up, and limped around completely tired, trying to find his way around. The Guardian HQ was almost like a maze… and then he saw Quincy walking up to him looking smug.

“Hey… we thought something happened… you were gone for awhile.” Quincy said greetingly.  “Erm… something did happen…” Ross said uncomfortably. “Where’s Ruke?” Quincy asked in a sad, unhopeful voice.

Ross turned away with sadness, disgust, and grief, knowing that it was partly his fault.

“I wish I knew…” Ross said quietly. “I wish I knew.”

Chapter 1 Revised

Chapter 1

An Unusual Day

(Revised Version)

Ross’s day started quite normally. Wake up from the alarm, hit snooze, wake up from the alarm, turn off, wake up from mom, rush downstairs, devour breakfast, and get a lift to school.

Ross was not a normal person. He was male, liked video games, slacked off in school sometimes… but he was a cat. Most of the world in these days are feline and canine superior, the animals weren’t too prejudice typically, there just faired more cats and dogs. Ross didn’t need to wear clothes, as nudity wasn’t the same as in humans; there wasn’t much to be exposed… that and the fact that animals have much different views than humans. ‘You don’t need to look fancy all the time, just when you need to look fancy.’

Ross wasn’t one of the popular kids at school. He had just a few close friends he would hang out with. He was very social, but he didn’t care too much what others thought of him, solving this problem.

He brushed his bright yellow fur a bit, ate breakfast, and rushed off to school. Nothing strange about the day so far had happened. He finished a normal day of school, with his seven classes; all the typical  classes a school would have, but with an extra class just for farming. The farming class’ origin isn’t completely confirmed, but some believe that it started as a cruel joke, and eventually lead to agriculture being a very important aspect on the newly reigned Earth. After all six of his typical classes and farming, he took the bus to a corner where a rundown movie rental place and a park met and walked home casually with his friend Quincy.

When he got there, he pulled the hidden key out from under a cheap porcelain garden ornament, and twisted the key. He entered his home and it seemed rather quiet. No nagging mother to tell him to fold his clothes and sort them or a father to tell him to mow the lawn. Ross studied for some tests he would have tomorrow, napped, and read a documentary on humans. It had been a few hours since he had gotten home and neither of his parents being home made him a little nervous. This worried Ross quite a bit. He fumbled around his room for his cell phone and attempted to call first his mother, then father. No answer... he tried again with the same response; none. This worried Ross even more. Time passed and he gained worry by the minute. It was now 10:34 P.M. and Ross hadn’t heard a word from his mom since breakfast. He wanted to sleep, but he knew he couldn’t… the anxiety kept him awake. He started to pace, and then…

‘KNOCK’ Ross hesitated, hoping this could be a sign of what was going on, then quickly remembered his parents had keys to the door. ‘KNOCK’ He unsurely thought of who would be banging on the door this late at night was confusing…could it be… ‘KNOCK’ Ross had a faint idea of what might possibly be going on, but prayed it might not be true… ‘KNOCK!’ Again it came, a quick bang and a retreat of the paw, more rough this time. Ross slowly went to the door, and peeked out the window. From the look of the dark blue outfit sleeked down and a slightly slanted matching hat on the head, he could tell the knocked was a A.G.S. Agent, standing there, not looking to happy. (A.G.S stands for Animal Governing Service, also known as the Agonizers.) The agent at the door wasn’t here for a birthday party, unless it involved killing the birthday animal with the giant gun in his hand. Ross walked backwards, not thinking, but realizing that AGS agents didn’t exactly have the best reputation.

The AGS mostly showed up to your doorstep if there’s a big governmental issue, and they weren’t the kindest about it. The AGS agents, usually just referred to as the AGS seemed to be in charge of things. The actual head of the nation Syrene was unknown to everyone except for a few special AGS agents. The whole situation of the ruling of the nation of Syrene was a bit mysterious and unusual, most of the citizens knew not too much about the AGS other than the fact that they seemed rather dark, and didn’t know too much about who the nation’s leader was. The truth was that long ago, when the nation was forming from a few separate nations with power, Syrene’s governmental stature seemed to get corrupt for reasons no one seemed to know. Slowly and slowly the government leaders weren’t announced publicly, you’d have to dig to find out info. The government ended up turning to secrecy, and none of the citizens seemed to care, so Syrene slowly crumbled.

Ross didn’t know too much about the AGS except for a phrase offered once by one of his friends Quincy: “Avoid if at all possible.” Ross had heard all the terrible stories and rumors of what had happened to victims of the government and couldn’t imagine what they might do to him. He crept up his stairs, only grabbing a blue jacket, which held a small electric knife in his pocket (these were a bit expensive) and a small piece of bread he was planning on consuming while pacing. He then continued on his path up the stairs, still trying to keep quiet. His tip-toe was stopped by the AGS agent calmly informing anyone that may have been inside that he was calmly going to bust down the door. This had the opposite effect of calm on Ross, and he busted open a window on his stairs and continued to tumble out of it, scratching his knee on the window seal, and barely shutting the window behind him. He fell into a thorn bush very conveniently planted against the wall and mumbled rude things under his breath.

After brushing his fur off a bit he stumbled about. After a few seconds of realizing that the AGS agents had figured out where he was, he ran like heck in any direction away from where he was. He ran. And he ran. And ran some more. And ran some more after that. And he kept on running until he had ventured deeply into the capital. The capital of -------- was a very large place, one of the biggest cities on the New Earth. It was very roughly divided into “the outer border”, “the capital boundaries”, and “the inner sanctum”.

He had started to begin getting tired when he noticed that the AGS fleet had evolved to vehicles for their pursuit. Ross groaned with agony and kept on running, ignoring the pain. He was decent with quick runs, short distances using all of your might, but when it came to long distances, he was pretty bad. The agents were slowly catching up and Ross didn’t know if he could take anymore, when all of a sudden, he felt a sudden burst of speed and felt the wind gush by his body. He was utterly confused, and almost felt as if he had no control over his body. He looked backwards at the AGS agents semi-far from him, and barely made out faces of anger, amazement, confirmation, and amusement. He was utterly confused about the entire day and just hoped it was all a bad dream he had yet to stop experiencing. But the dream didn’t end. And he didn’t stop running… or was he? He noticed the lack of thudding of his feet and once more looked at the ground to see why he didn’t feel the thudding… and the answer was that he was even touching the ground. He was flying. He ignored this fact and forced himself to discard it, and made his goal to continue on and rest for the night. He had had a long day. Eventually without his realization he began to run again. Due to the tiredness, he took frequent stops to catch his breath and see his distance from the AGS fleet in pursuit of him, realizing he had lost them some time back. Eventually he decided to call it quits and turn in to somewhere with the look of not being lived around. While looking, he was calmed down a bit by the cool air, calm sounds of hovering vehicles casually strolling through the streets, and decided to reason, which didn’t have a tangible end result. No explanations were thought up to why he, a normal cat should be tracked down by the government and then chased. Eventually he gave up his thought and looked again for a place to spend the night. Deciding to have found a nice corner in an ally, inside a strange deformation of a wall which could easily conceal him while giving him room to see out of it and receive fresh air, he tucked himself into the strange lodgings and slowly fell asleep picking apart the bread and eating it. He had strange unexplainable dreams involving the letters ‘J’, ‘A’, ‘Z’, ‘R’, and ‘G’ cursing at him.

          It seemed like he had only just dozed off when he was awoken by a loud voice. Had someone found him?