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Ethan awaits the arrival of his assassins, as John's visions worsen. |
Michael Blackwell’s VALOR "ASSASSINATION" “The rise and fall of all we are stands before us.” Issue #2 Copyright 2007© Black Light Productions. Inc. All rights reserved ® VALOR CHAPTER ONE "It Begins" 1 He was big, mean and ugly as sin according to John. But Nitro was just as deadly as he was ugly. He was a super soldier elite in his own time, created by the evil master mind behind the NC-7 rebellion. He had almost as much blood on his hands as Hitler did. With no conscience, no heart, and no mind to think for himself, he was more machine now than he was man. All he wanted to do was kill. And anything that stood in his way was destroyed. He had stalked John and the others for quite awhile. And when finally discovered, he led the ultra-bot army in their destruction. John had escaped at the last moment when Volt exploded in an attempt to kill Nitro, leaving him temporarily blind. Volt was the youngest brother of the Valor Force. But now, Nitro has followed the only surviving member into the past to finish his job. But he didn’t expect to find Ethan. And to his surprise, Ethan will prove to be more than a worthy match for him. And, if John has anything to say about it, Nitro wont be leaving this decade. Nitro stood to his feet looking for the person who hit him. Ethan stepped out into the back yard. It took a minuet for him to figure out who Ethan was, and was shocked when he did. “You. You’re the one. How can you still be alive?” Nitro stuttered. “Your in my time now fool. You’ve busted into the wrong house on the wrong damn day!” Ethan yelled with great intensity. “It doesn’t matter what year this is, I’m still going to kill you!” Nitro powered forward. He slung his huge fist and just as he did, he was sent soaring in the air yet again. John landed holding his shoulder. He looked at Ethan and smiled. Nitro had yet another rocky landing. He planted his hand in the ground and lifted himself up. “Would you people stop doing that!!” Nitro screamed. “Is he the one sent to kill me, John?” Ethan asked confidently. “No, no I don’t think so. The other guy was much smaller.” John replied fixated on Nitro. “Well then, lets finish it.” Ethan gripped his fists tight. Nitro shot off toward them like a speeding train. Ethan put his palms together down by his side. Slowly the energy began to form. It swirled quickly and grew bigger every second. Nitro launched his attack. Ethan smacked his hands together and a blinding flash captured the land. When it cleared, Nitro was gone. John looked at Ethan surprised. “What?” Ethan questioned. “Where did you get that kind of power?” “Why? I thought you said that was normal for me.” “No. You were never that powerful in my time. Nowhere even close.” he said still processing what had just happened, “very strange.” 2 They returned to the living room to survey the damage. Ethan sat down next to his mother. The living room was heavily damaged. Wood, glass, brick, and everything else that was on the walls now covered the floor. Sara took a deep breath. She took a look of her house and sighed. Then the front door suddenly opened. Ethan looked up, “Jennifer.” “Remodeling I see. Its uh… different.” she said smiling. Ethan smiled and rolled his eyes, “no, actually. We had a little trouble. An unexpected guest.” “Wow, some guest.” she said looking around. “Yeah.” Ethan sighed. John stood up, “whoa, wait. You say that like this kind of stuff has happened around here before.” “Who’s your friend Ethan?” she asked suspiciously. “He’s uh, my cousin. John. He came in from Oklahoma today.” “Ethan, answer my question.” John said impatiently. Ethan turned to him, “yeah. He wasn’t the first. There was one more before him.” “Yeah, the other guy, well, what I saw of him, was kind of nerdy looking. We caught him following us home from school one day. But when we turned our heads, he vanished.” she said looking at Ethan. “Yeah, it was really strange.” he said uncomfortably. Later that evening, Ethan stood gazing out his window at the sun setting. A knock came at his door. John poked his head in, “can I come in?” “Sure.” “Ethan, I know its been a long day, and I just wanted to apologize for throwing all this at you at once. I know it must be overwhelming.” Ethan’s eyes stared at the pink setting sun. “Ya know, a part of me has always known the truth about myself. I just couldn’t put all the pieces together until you showed up.” “Look,” he said coming across the room, “things are about to get rough. But the time is coming for your true test. So we must get you ready. Today I witnessed just how powerful you really are. And, I know that you cant fully control it. That’s why you must undergo the training.” He placed his hand on Ethan’s shoulder. Ethan turned to face him. “I don’t care what I have to do. I wont let this happen. I will train for as long as I have to. I promise.” “I’m glad to hear that. I just hope your ready.” he said patting his shoulder. He turned and left the room. He passed Jennifer on the way out. “Knock, knock.” she said tapping his door. “Hey. You seemed kind of down earlier. I thought I’d come see how you were doing.” she said walking over and sitting next to him on his bed. 3 “Jenn, what do you do when you find out that the life you thought you knew, the life you thought you had, was nothing but a lie? What do you do when who you thought you were, turns out to be the furthest thing from the truth? How are you supposed to handle that?” he said getting up and walking back to the window. “Ethan, just because you found out where your really from, doesn’t change the person who you truly are.” she said gazing into his eyes. “Ethan, you’re a great guy. You really are. I’ve never met another person like you in my entire life. You put everyone else before you. You care about everyone but yourself. To me your amazing. Your love and kindness is unheard of now days. That’s what makes you unique, not your abilities, your heart. And that’s what makes you a true hero.” Her gazing eyes met his. She smiled like he had never seen before. “I just don’t know anymore.” he said sadly. “I don’t know what to do. This seems so much bigger than me. I want to be ready, I want to be strong, I just don’t know if I can.” Jennifer stood to her feet. She turned him toward her, “Ethan, if there is anyone on this planet that can face this, and beat it, its you. I know you can do it. I believe in you. I always have.” her smile grew. Ethan looked back at her. He smiled too. “Thanks Jenn. You always know how to make me feel better. You’re the only one who can. You’re a great friend.” he hugged her smiling. Her eyes quickly lost their sparkle. “Yeah, a good friend.” she whispered. John sat spying in from his cracked door. He could feel the uncertainty in Ethan’s heart. He closed his eyes and hung his head. “And so it begins.” CHAPTER TWO "Future" 4 The rain poured from the night sky as if it never had before. Lightning owned the heavens, and its thunder ruled them. October 13, 2015. The corrupt NC-7s parole the streets. A man looked out into the night through a window in a tall building in Dallas. He closed the curtains and poured a drink. Lightning flashed through curtains and lit up the room. He sat in his seat behind a desk. On his laptop he opened a picture of John. He was teleporting to the past. This ability had puzzled him for some time now. “You may have escaped from your demise this time Johnathan, but you wont be so lucky next time. Soon, you will be just as the rest of your comrads, dead!” he said smiling sinisterly. The doors of the room opened and a man in a black suit entered. “Sir, Nitro did not return on his scheduled time.” The other man leaned back in his seat, “oh? And just where is he?” “We don’t know. He never transmitted back. In fact, his transmitter is not even active anymore. You don’t think he could have been…” “Killed?” he finished the sentence leaning forward. “Now Alex, how many times has Johnathan ever defeated any of our soldiers by himself? Especially an elite such as Nitro?” he said confidently. “None sir, but what if he found the boy first?” the man asked concerned. “Boy or no boy, he couldn’t be strong enough to kill Nitro. Your forgetting that I know everything about him. Including his strengths and weaknesses.” “Yes sir.” “And what about Eto? Has he not returned?” “No sire. He hasn’t.” He closed his laptop. “No matter. Return to the lab and keep trying to find him. I want a report every half an hour. Now go.” he said pouring another drink. “Yes sir.” he said. He turned and left the room closing the doors behind him. “Judy,” he buzzed the intercom, “get me the General.” A few moments later the doors swung open again. This time General Beltoa entered. “You called for me sire.” The mysterious man turned to face the window, “yes. Do you know why we have not heard from Nitro yet?” he asked deviously. “ Uh, no sire, I do not.” he said nervously. “Its because he’s dead!” he yelled. “Dead? But he’s ten times stronger than Warp. How could he…” “He didn’t! The boy did.” “The boy? How could that be? He was nowhere near that powerful in this time.” 5 “I don’t know General. That’s why I called you here.” he said turning to him. “By your letting Warp’s escape, its altered the timeline! Now the boy is stronger than ever.” he exclaimed. Beltoa stepped closer, “what shall we do Sire?” “Your going to send our best men to kill them. Once and for all! No mistakes!” “Yes sire. Right away.” He turned to leave the room. “Oh, and General, one more thing. Another mishap like the last one, and you’ll be spending the rest of your days as a worm feeder. Do you understand?” “Yes sir.” he said heavily. He hurried out of the room. He turned back to the window and gazed into the stars, “You cant run forever John. You cant run forever.” CHAPTER THREE "ASSASSINATION" 6 The bell rang for the final time that evening. Ethan grabbed his bag and headed out the door on his walk home. A few weeks ago Ethan’s life changed dramatically. He’s begun his training for his upcoming test, but what he doesn’t know is that it will arrive sooner than he expected, and will be tougher than he could have anticipated. Jennifer walked out and saw him already on the street heading home. She hurried down the steps to meet him. “Ethan! Wait up!” He turned to see her. “Hey.” “Hi. In a hurry much?” she asked beginning to walk. He shrugged his shoulders. “So how are things going with the you know what?” she asked conspicuously. “Well,” he started, “Its going fine right now but,” “But what?” “I’ve just got a bad feeling for some reason. Like, something’s just not right.” he said with a worried look on his face. “What do you think it could be?” she said looking up to him. “I’m not sure, but its not good, I know that.” he said shaking. “Well, have you told John about this?” He shrugged his shoulders, “no.” “Hmm. Well, I hope you know what your doing Ethan.” He gazed ahead at the horizon. “Me too.” Meanwhile, John sat in the barn meditating. His head was filled with horrible images from the night before. He could see the faces of his fallen comrads. His heart broke, and his anger grew. Tension overtook his body, and sweat poured from his head. These images haunted his dreams. But what frightened him the most, was a dark figure standing in the night. The only glimpse he could see of the man, was when the lightning lit the sky. He could see him with a woman. Then suddenly, she fell to the earth. He then saw a flash of light, and felt the greatest intensity of power he had ever felt. And then all went black and he would wake up. He couldn’t determine the meaning of this dream, but it was the same every time. He opened his eyes. “What am I doing?” Ethan and Jennifer walked through the front door. “Mom!” Ethan hollered throwing his bag down. “Yes!?” she answered from the kitchen. “Where’s John?” “Hi Jennifer,” she said as they walked in, “um, Ethan, I think he’s in the barn.” “Thanks.” He said running out the door. Ethan ran up the stairs and there sat John. “Ethan,” he said as he walked up the stairs. John kept his back to him and his 7 eyes closed, “the time is drawing near. We must be ready.” Ethan joined him on the floor, “I thought you said we had a year John.” “Yes, that’s what I thought as well, but the time line has changed. Something has disrupted the balance. I fear the worst.” “John, I can feel him. I can feel his power. Its terrifying.” “Hmm. I don’t remember him being that strong. Anyhow, we mustn’t worry about that now. The hour is at hand. We must be on our guard, for he could appear at any time.” “I understand.” Night fell, and the dew set. The warm sun had hidden itself from the sky as the moon took its reign. All was quiet as the shadows fell across the land. Lit by the moon’s eery light, the red sky haunted the night. Ethan slept unsoundly in his bed. He tossed and turned vigorously. A mysterious shadow fell on Ethan’s wall. It crept closer and closer to his bed. The mysterious eyes of this being glistened an evil red. It formed a steel sword from it’s arm, and placed it near Ethan’s throat. It smiled and whispered to him. “Good night sweet prince.” with a bone chilling laughter. He raised the blade to impale him. Suddenly the door blew open with an explosion of blue light. Ethan awoke, “what the hell!?” Through the smoke came a voice, “Ethan, move!” Ethan was hit full force by the mysterious being. He flew through the wall and hit the backyard grass with a loud thud. He spit blood onto the ground. John leaped off the second floor and ran to Ethan’s side. “You alright?” “What in the hell was that!?” he screamed wiping his mouth of blood. “That, is your assassin, Ghost.” John said looking back at the house. Through the smoke and debris, Ghost appeared. He walked forward nearing closer to John and Ethan. He smiled as he spoke, “John, what a pleasant surprise. I wasn’t expecting to see you here.” “Well that’s too bad. We’ve been expecting you.” John replied. Ghost laughed, “Well, isn’t that touching. But I bet you weren’t expecting him.” and pointed and the gaping hole in Ethan’s room. The other warrior jumped down and instantly appeared by Ghost’s side. John’s eyes widened with fear, “no, not Titan.” he shook. “That’s why the power I was feeling was so strong! There were two of them!” Ethan exclaimed. “Hello Warp. Long time no see.” he spoke smiling. Ethan stood to his feet. “So I take it he’s another deranged psycho bent on world destruction.” “You’d be right. This monster destroyed our headquarters, and then, the whole city.” “Well, he wont do that here.” Ethan swore. 8 “Enough talking,” Ghost said impatiently, “I’ve got a mission to complete.” He launched forward and disappeared. “Johnathan’s mine!” Titan screamed. Ethan began to move amazingly fast, dodging Ghost’s assaults. John moved into attack position. Titan reappeared in front of him. John blocked his attack. Each villain continued to attack ruthlessly. “This was supposed to be a sinch!” Ghost screamed as he assaulted Ethan. “It would have been if we hadn’t been waiting for you!” screamed back Ethan. Ghost landed a fierce blow to Ethan’s face. He continued to demolish his head. Titan grabbed John’s arm and slung him across the field. He pursued him and crashed his heel into the ground as John quickly sprung away. He shot toward him and slammed a fist into Titan’s gut. John slammed him down into the ground and threw him into the air. Ghost was giving Ethan more trouble now by phasing in and out when he would attack. Ghost latched on to Ethan’s leg and slammed into the dirt. Ethan screamed in agony. He backflipped and landed on a knee. Ghost smiled. “That’s it!!” Ethan screamed. John looked down from the sky as he shot Titan back to the Earth. He once again watched in curiosity. Ethan planted his feet into the ground and gripped his fists. He held his arms out to his sides. John was anxious to see if this was the great power he had been told about. Ethan screamed with rage. And just to John’s expectations, a light formed in his palms. It quickly intensified. Swirling in his hands. This energy was different than the last. Ethan pulled the energy from around him, and concentrated it into his hands. He threw his arms forward and the energy doubled in size and intensity. “Take this!!” he screamed, and let the massive blast of energy shoot forward. It quickly engulfed Ghost as he let out a blood hurdling scream. The blast completely consumed him, and he was incinerated. Titan watched in horror. He couldn’t believe what he was witnessing. John appeared behind him as Titan backed up on him. “Where do you think your going?” he whispered in his ear. John shot his fist through the back of Titan. It emerged out the other side. Ethan was shocked to see this. Titans eyes doubled and fell to his knees. John placed both hands on his head, and with one fatal motion, snapped his neck and twisted it backwards. Titan was no more. Electricity sparked from his corpse. Wires and machinery fell from his lifeless shell. Ethan was baffled by this turn of events. “What, what is he?” John looked at the terminated cyborge. “He, was one of the fiercest destroy-bots of all. His name was Titan, but his call name was NCX TITAN 10. It meant “hell-bot”. And he was created in 2010 for ultimate takeover. He was the one who lured us to our demise.” 9 “Well if he was so dangerous, then how did you defeat him so easily?” Ethan asked. “The NC-7s and all counterparts have only one weakness, their central core. Their shells are weaker in the back, which makes it easier to destroy it. Once that’s been shut down, they lose their power. But you have to hit them with so much force, an amount of force, I’ve never possessed, until now. The problem with this method is, getting behind them long enough to impale their armor.” Ethan dropped to the ground, “whew, what a night.” he sighed. The next morning Ethan stood with John in the field he had first appeared in. John was returning to the future. “Ethan, my mission is complete. I must now return to the future. I have given you all you need to continue to stop this invasion.” he said placing his hand on Ethan’s shoulder. “Thank you John.” Ethan said kindly. “Listen carefully, the world you know will soon change, for the unleashing of the NC-7s will soon take place. You must stop this, or all is lost. If you fail, the world will fall to it’s knees and die. You, are the key to the future. Now, just as your destiny intended, you must save us all. Good luck.” “John, I wont let you down, I promise. I will prevent this from happening. No matter what it takes. I swear it.” “Thank you. Farewell my friend. See you in the future.” John said smiling. He stepped back and winked. And in a flash, he was gone. Returned to a nightmare, and a desolate future. Ethan stared at the sky wondering just what it was destiny had planned for him, and at what costs fulfilling it would come. But he knew that he had to take a stand for the innocent, and protect life at all costs. For it was his destiny, to hold the burdens of the world on his shoulders. Just as another great man, once did… TO BE CONTINUED… VALOR ASSASSINATION In a world where super soldiers protect governments, and ultra-bots known as the NC-7s, haunt the Earth, and time travel is possible to some, lives a hero destined to save mankind. Amidst all of the chaos, destruction, and darkness, this hero waits subconsciously for the moment in time, past or present, that he will emerge, and defend the human race from their biggest threat of all time: themselves. Join Ethan, John, and Jennifer in the biggest race to save the world in human history. Filled with heart stopping suspense, jaw dropping twists, and a story that will touch the hearts of many, “VALOR” will leave you everything but disappointed. It’s a race against time itself, to stop the twisted mind of an evil genius from destroying all that has ever been. Just two years after their completion the ultra-bots known as the NC-7s have unleashed their unstoppable fury upon the Earth. The only thing known to man that can oppose them is the team of superhuman soldiers known as the Valor Force. But to their surprise, they are defeated without much effort. John Halliver escapes to the past to warn the final member of this upcoming tragedy. It is now a race to stop this from occurring. But with a few surprise visitors, they quickly learn they have less time than they thought. Jump in and come along for the ride of a lifetime, and find out if evil will finally prevail in this all new series from Black Light Productions, VALOR! VALOR “VALOR”™, Valor Force®, Warp®, Nitro®, and NC-7™, are trademarks of Black Light Productions Inc. Any use of these or any other names without written permission from the publisher is illegal and violators will be prosecuted. Copyright© 2007 Michael Blackwell©. All rights reserved. MB-22191-002 Copyright 2007© Black Light Productions. Inc. All rights reserved ® |