Chapter 1: The Stuggle

The dark clouds above him roared as lightning streaked across the sky and thunder clashed about them. The night sky was occasionally blinded by sudden flashes of fiery hot electricity. Rain pounded down from the purple tinted clouds, pelting the four figures below in the alley. Mark felt himself fly through the air and hit the brick wall in Kerning City. His hands lost control and his shiny brand new Omega Spear rebounded off the walls. The air smelled of putrid, rotting garbage mixed with the stench of acidic rain. They closed in.

Mark yelled in agony as he tried to push himself up with his forearms. He immediately collapsed back down onto the drenched pavement, feeling his bones splinter and his ligaments tear. He felt so close to death that every flash of lightning seemed to be a glimpse into heaven. Yet, the three kept closing in, one wielding a Dark Hinkle, another carrying a Red Hinkle, and the last one manipulating a Blue Hinkle. Each of them aimed four steel arrows straight at Mark’s disheveled dark brown hair. Mark looked back up at them from the ground with his mahogany eyes. His tears mixed with the rain that swirled around him. He cried in pain, he cried in despair, he cried for the lost, but most of all, he cried for the meaningless death that lay before him.

Mark heard the twang of three bowstrings that sent twelve menacing missiles of death careening through the air at hundreds of miles per hour into his head. Then, he heard something he did not expect. His time in this world had not yet come. He listened on through the pouring rain, the sound of twelve arrows clattering aimlessly to the wet ground. Two people stood in between him and the three.

With eyes wide-open in surprise, Mark was dumbfounded as he watched the events unfold in the small alley, lighted by brief flashes of searing lightning. A hooded Priest and a White Knight with piercing white armor impeded Mark’s view of the three. Mark felt a searing energy channeling between the three of them. He felt connected to the souls of the Priest and the White Knight. He knew the exact instant when the two of them sprung into action.

With a great bellow, the White Knight unveiled his DoomBringer Two-handed Sword and swung it around in an enormous arc. Simultaneously, the Priest held his Kage out in front of his body like a bow, pulled his arm back as if grabbing an invisible bowstring, and launched a lance of white holy light at the man with the Dark Hinkle. Immediately, the three Rangers scattered, each fitting four more arrows into their bows as they ran.

Mark grimaced as he managed to prop his back up to a cold, dirty brick wall as he continued to watch the fight unfold. The Ranger with the Blue Hinkle ran up to a wall, started to dash along the wall, and showered the scene with hundreds of arrows surrounded in a blue light. Mark looked on as both the Priest and the White Knight dodged every single one of the incoming missiles and counterattacked with a ray of shining light and a freezing blow. Although both assaults missed, the defenders had driven the attackers out of the alley and into the street. The rain pounded down harder than ever.

Mark suddenly felt curiously awake, as if a hundred CCs of caffeine had been injected into his body. He felt the bones and tendons in his arms begin to mend. He felt his muscles relax and strengthen by the second. He noticed that he was surrounded in a greenish haze, then he stared straight at the Priest, who was also surrounded by the emerald glow. He knew who these people were now.

The White Knight suddenly began a flurry of strikes with his DoomBringer. Mark watched stunned as the White Knight showed his full potential. The Priest next to him had charged forward, raising his staff for a blow to the head on the man holding the Blue Hinkle. The man caught the blow just in time with a parry with his bow. The two of them were locked in a furious melee battle between staff and bow. Clashes and clangs of the two shining objects rang through the pounding of the relentless rain.

As if the other two Rangers were connected to the third, they sent eight arrows soaring straight at the Priest, making him retreat and parry the arrows with his Kage, giving the man with the Blue Hinkle time to escape back to his partners. The three, now reunited, bore down on the Priest and the White Knight amidst the drenching rain.

However, the defenders were suddenly joined with a third. Mark, wielding his Omega Spear, stood between the Priest and the White Knight, facing the three darkly covered Rangers.

“I knew you’d find me,” Mark whispered to his partners as he glared at the Rangers.
“It is hardly ever possible not to find you,” the Priest shot back with a grin, also looking at the Rangers.
“Les finish dese suckas,” said the third, sneering at the Rangers as if they were nothing but mere beginners fresh of the boat from Maple Island.

Mark took in a deep gulp of the humid air and released a Dragon Roar. A tremendous burst of sonic energy rocked the night air. Windows shattered all around them as the breath of a dragon bore down upon the three Rangers. They were all blown back a few feet, but regained their ground in a matter of seconds.

Spontaneously, the three Rangers raised their bows at the same time, armed them with four arrows each at the same time, and released with exact precision. Mark, the Priest and the White Knight hastily dodged out of the way as the arrows whizzed straight through the area where their bodies used to be mere milliseconds ago.

The Priest aimed another charge of holy energy at the three Rangers as Mark struck out with his Omega Spear three times, trying to impale all three. Two managed to dodge the blow, but the third caught a swift slash across the cheek. Crimson blood oozed out of the deep gash and mingled with the falling rain.

The White Knight slashed out with his DoomBringer again, but failed to hit his target. Swearing, he lashed out again and cut off a chunk of the man with the Dark Hinkle’s Black Seraph Cloak. He tilted his head back and roared out in triumph.

Sensing a losing battle, the three Rangers quickly nodded to each other. The one with the Dark Hinkle, apparently the leader, thrust his hand into his cloak and pulled out three tiny mechanical balls. In a nanosecond, he threw them to the ground and they released a cloud of smothering black smoke, covering the three of them from view.

By the time the smoke had cleared, all that was left were Mark, the Priest and the White Knight amidst the unrelenting rain. The White Knight smiled triumphantly.

“Dose foo’s won’ be botherin’ us fo a long time, Mark,” he said.
“Yes I know, Will, but they will be back. They have never left a mission incomplete. And since this time I am their mission, I sense they will never rest until I lie six feet underneath the earth,” Mark replied darkly.
“We are always here, Mark, Will and I,” the Priest replied.
“I know Vanya, I know.” The rain continued to pour down upon the three friends.