• Chapter 1:
    The Influence
    The Spy
    Ah…a nice relaxing run through the jungle… just running through the jungle at 80 mph…. Running from a marauding band of bloodthirsty mercenaries…Why can’t everyone have my life? Right. Because then this jungle would be really crowded. I think I’ve lost them by now…No need to stop running though…I am on a different planet, in the year 30,932, but who’s counting… yes Earth is still alive and the human race is still around…just really really messed up from the original versions… yes there are many different species of human now, such as me. I look human, but my species was created, no, not bred, but literally created for war. I was a prototype of this species anyways.
    No I’m not a robot, I’m an actual functioning, breathing, living being with blood and veins and normal sized muscles, and I don’t look particularly strong or fast or made for war. But that’s because war doesn’t always happen in the battlefield. There are 5 of my type. The Super-soldier, who was made to be able to withstand rather large amounts of gunfire. The Sniper, who has escaped and put his uses to work as one of the top mercenaries in the galaxy now. The Technician, made to be able to hack any computer system or security system and also made for demolitions, he’s the main reason me and the others escaped. Finally there’s The Craftsman. He can build pretty much anything out of anything he’s got. He made the demolition equipment for us to get out with out of his sheets, a towel he got from the bathroom, some toothpaste, water, floss, and nail clippers. Incredible right? And finally there’s me, The Spy. Incredible speed, agility and cunning, able to withstand the worst of torture, which means I can get up without a bruise if I run into the tree in front of me at 80 mph. Good thing too.
    I slammed into a tree, bounced off of it, slammed through some other trees and landed in the dirt. I looked around and saw that the trees were actually fallen huts. They probably weren’t fallen when I wasn’t here. Oops. I turned around ready to run again, when I saw several particularly sharp spears pointed at me. I was prodded to one of the larger huts and was shoved inside. Wish I had thought faster. They gave me the ability to think fast and it still didn’t help. Stupid scientists.
    In front of me were several torches on the border of a long reddish-orange carpet. There were also lit torches on the borders of the room. Was that safe? The walls couldn’t be anything more than wood…Oh yes of course then there was the large lizard in front of me crawling like an alligator towards me with its teeth glistening. Did I mention I was getting sick of sharp things? Well by now I was.
    It leapt at me, but as I said before, I had speed, cunning, and thumbs. I jumped over it and landed behind it, I took a torch out of the ground and tested it on the ground. It was sturdy enough. And it was lit. Even better. All five of us super-humans had extensive combat training in pretty much any form of combat you chose. We all had our weaknesses of course. I wasn’t as good at Tai-kwon-do as I was at the recently developed feline-like form of fighting. Which could only be mastered if you were very good at jumping and flipping wildly through the air and landing on your feet. While hitting things.
    I jumped once more through the air and jabbed the torch downwards onto the lizards back. It screeched a sound that I didn’t know existed. It was a cross between a high-pitched bird’s chirp and the sound of a car that just hit the ground. I didn’t understand these primitive people. Even if they were primitive you would think that they would at least keep weapons like these torches here out of the monster’s den which they apparently worshipped.
    I landed in front of it and slammed the torch down on its head. Nothing fancy, just a one-handed swing down. It screeched again and jumped up at me. I ducked and it slammed against the door I had come through. Apparently the primitive people could make locks but not keep torches away from their god. Imbeciles. It turned and jumped at me. I spun sideways, and as it barely missed I saw…almost a pleading desperation to let it win in its eyes.
    Hm. Oh well, too bad for it. I had business to do. I rolled behind it and spun the torch in one hand, it smacked the lizard a couple of times before I let it stop spinning and smacked it on the head again. I think it was as tired of blunt fiery objects as I was of sharp objects. It was really mad now. That was what I was waiting for. That was my chance.
    I backed up to the wall to my left. I had seen a path that way while I was being prodded into this lizard’s house. It jumped at me, claws forward. I ducked, it was ready for that. I wasn’t. I jumped and ducked too many times, I thought this thing was too stupid to realize I’d do it again. It must’ve thought I was stupid enough to do it again. Stupid scientists couldn’t outdo an animal.
    Its claws came down and its whole body somersaulted into the wall, its claws still slashed out the back of my head. Ouch. My skin was made for this type of thing though, the unnatural toughness of my skin numbed the pain. It still hurt though. And even with that slight setback, my plan still worked. It hit the wall, I recovered from the clawing fast enough to slam my torch into its back. It was flat against the wall with its belly touching the wall now.
    Time to put the plan into action. Another escape plan. Go figure. I pushed the torch into it harder, the wall was really sturdy. It seriously wouldn’t break. Until the lizard started screeching and panicking. I must’ve been really hurting it bad because it totally lost control. It squirmed, screeched as loud as it could and clawed against the wall with more power than I thought those little legs had. That was all I needed.
    The wall was being clawed at, weakened now. It was starting to bend. I pushed just a little bit harder, and then there was a hole in the wall. And a lizard on the ground outside the wall. Yay, I was free from the tribe’s people…for about 2 seconds. Then the sharp things I was really getting mad at appeared again. I was done with this whole stupid jungle planet. It was then that I remembered something extremely important. Or it could’ve been important had I remembered it about thirty minutes earlier. Oh well.
    Back at the base they were holding us super-humans at, I had stolen one of their most important and more importantly, functioning, efficient, and finished experiments. A pair of shoes. Well I was a spy, why not put the ninja skills to the test? I had gotten the shoes, found the place that the demolitions were stored that the craftsman made, gotten a large scoop of ice cream from the freezer, dismantled the cooling system so that they were too distracted to work anymore, that is, after I was finished my ice cream so it wouldn’t melt, and finally met up with the super-humans inside the “so called” top notch security lock-down area. Oh yes and I was one of the top reasons we got out. I had to distract the security guards. The super-soldier just wanted to run in screaming and breaking down walls, but it was one against four votes so we went quietly. They never knew what hit them.
    Oh yes! Of course, the shoes. Yes they spent millions of dollars on shoes. But they were good shoes. Like, really good. They amplified speed by…well who knows, I haven’t put them to max yet. They also helped to increase the wearer’s ability to jump by vibrating. Yes they vibrate so violently that if you jumped, that you could probably top a two-story building. And that’s if you jumped. Not me. If I jumped it would probably be a 7 or 8 story building. I liked these shoes. Oh yes, back to the battle.
    I turned the shoes on up to two times the speed. I jumped above all the spears, high enough to land on the other side without spears in me. I started to run, but was caught. Caught by a rather large and green, scaly hand. I looked past the scaly hand and saw a scaly arm, shoulder, and head. A lizard’s head. Curious. It threw me behind him, higher than I thought anything could throw me. I never thought anything could throw me. That’s because I thought I wouldn’t let anything throw me. But it did.
    I flew over the trees away from the village. I landed in a clearing in the dirt, you know after I once again bounced a few times. I looked around the clearing in disbelief. There was a small ship here, probably big enough for seven or eight people. Okay maybe it wasn’t so small. I heard a thump from where I had been thrown from and wouldn’t you know it, the lizard was around for round two. I crouched in a fighting stance ready for him. He fell out of the sky after jumping here. Wow. And he didn’t even have shoes. It stood up obviously not in a fighting stance. It was now much more muscular and the fact that it was standing straight up surprised me.
    When it threw me it was crouched, like its spine couldn’t bend straight. I noticed something again. I was good at that. I was meant to be observant. I saw a look in its eyes. It was a look of pleading desperation. But with question in it. It looked like it had been hurt. No. No way. It was the same lizard as before. My god. Standing straight up and pointing at the ship, was the thing I had killed. It actually spoke. And wouldn’t you know it, my luck held through. It was English.
    It said, “Leave, you have disgraced me enough. You are truly not welcome here.”
    “Yes because the spears and prodding to your cozy little den there was such a pleasant welcome, I just had to ruin it.” I replied. I jumped to the loading ramp. I walked in and went to the middle of the ship. It was shaped like a crescent, with a ball in the middle, held in the middle by hallways to get to it. I activated the computers and closed the loading ramp. I checked the security cameras to make sure there were no stowaways.
    All clear. I looked at the star map. I couldn’t help myself. I almost jumped through the roof to ask for a new ship. The map had only one planet on it. It was the trading planet Grim. It was like the kingpin planet of the black market. It sold illegal weapons of all kinds, slaves of every species, except mine of course, and killed off at least 200,000 beings a day. If you didn’t say the right things, then you wouldn’t be able to say the right things a couple seconds later. It was also the place that had the largest bounty on super-humans. Stupid scientists were smart when it comes to capturing us, but not keeping or making or improving us.
    If I was going to regroup with my friends again, then I had to go to a planet where we could meet safely. I might be able to see the super-soldier here, it would be likely. He was always bragging to us about how he was tougher then everyone. I hoped he hadn’t come here. He would definitely get beaten. One super-soldier against hundreds of men with more than just blaster weapons which he was tough against, was still too much, even for that powerhouse. I had to go there.
    I set the coordinates and looked around the ship for new clothes or a disguise of some kind. I found some simple rag looking robes. They weren’t dirty or torn, they just looked thin, like they could be torn easily. They would have to do, but I needed some shields or armor of some sort sooner or later. After a great deal of time I was finally out of reach of radio contact of the planet I was previously on, I learned it was called Prim. Suits the planet, in my opinion. Then I was finally coming within seeing distance of Grim. Prim…Grim…Maybe that’s coincidental.


    The Sniper

    Hm. Getting away from those mercenaries was easier than necessary. Wish I could’ve had a better challenge. Oh well. Glad I’m in this place of comfort I found though. Oh yes, this is my side of the story. When we split up, The Technician seemed to favor running close to me, just a few sets of trees away. I lost him too. He was lost without a gun. I can fight without my rifle. But I prefer not to.
    Anyways, I lost the mercenaries after awhile, and The Technician. I think maybe he was caught…Maybe I should’ve stopped? No. It couldn’t be helped. After I lost them, I found a hill that was a little shorter than the treetops, but it had trees on it. So I climbed the middle tree on the hill and I could see right above everything…What a view. So I was in my place of comfort now. Unseen, unheard…And right where I could find anything that moved. My eyes were made to be like the perfect sniper’s, which, in theory, I was.
    I saw, from atop this tree, atop this hill, past all the trees and through the canopy…A mouse. I watched it scurry about…I heard something and went into my version of an alert mode. Completely still, and barely breathing. I could sustain not breathing for about 5 minutes, because you never know how close your prey might be, even if you are a sniper. I followed my ears. I looked over to see…Oh no… The Craftsman and The Technician, running side-by-side. I say The Craftsman needed to be a little more discreet. I also saw they were running. Did that mean they were running from something? Like the mercenaries?
    Yep. I saw about 12 men in white masks. I remembered my own mask. I tried taking it off. Unlucky. I bet that I’d have to leave the planet to get this thing off. I aimed at one of the men. They were fast. Running at maybe 20mph. And those were normal people. Boom! One them fell and flipped through the dirt. I heard one of them yell “The Sniper!” And I bolted from the tree. I jumped and landed at the bottom of the hill. Then I ran through the jungle, to find The Craftsman and Technician running beside me. Why didn’t they get The Super-soldier to be their guard? I looked back and shot again. I didn’t miss. Another fell to the dirt.
    I decided this was slowing me down, and I was sick of this. I stopped, and turned around, ready for a fight. The Craftsman and Technician followed suit, but stayed behind me. I shot as many as this rifle would let me before I was left with 6 men in front of us. They were weird, they crouched low to the ground like monkeys, with their arms loosely swinging as they moved. Like their arms were broken or something. Oh, I had forgotten something. I had no close range weapon. So, with even less ground between them and us, I turned and ran. Everyone seemed surprised, I could see it behind the masks. The Craftsman and Technician stood there for a second, then turned and ran after me. The mercenaries did the same. The Craftsman yelled to me, “What are you doing? You could have told us you were going to run!”
    “That would’ve spoiled the surprise though!” I yelled back. We ran to a part of the jungle I saw from my lookout point. A village, made of huts. There had been some ruckus earlier, and I saw someone in a black mask get tossed (or jump) over the treetops. Judging by the way his midair stance, he wasn’t jumping. Then I saw a ship come out of the jungle. So I knew The Spy was at least safe for now. Well it certainly wasn’t the Super-soldier, he’s huge. And the Technician and Craftsman were right here obviously so that just left The Spy as an option for leaving the planet.
    Now…We got into the village, all the while spreading the distance between us and the mercenaries. We each hid behind separate huts as the mercenaries passed, and then mobbed, by the villagers. Just one less thing to think about I suppose. I saw that the villager got their weapons from the bones of animals, and of course wood. I snuck over to the weapons rack and stole a few. I then saw the Technician trying to sneak out the other side of the village. The only problem there was that I could see him. I shouldn’t have been able to see him at all. Oh well. That Technician wasn’t the worst at combat training but…
    I decided that he was going to get himself killed this way, so I jumped on top of the hut I was behind. I shot at the last mercenary trying to get away. I heard a roar after my shot was fired. I had spooked something. Out of the largest hut burst a lizard, about 8 feet tall. Crap I thought. This really wasn’t my day. I started firing at the lizard. The bullets bounced off of the scales. My god this thing was tough. I think I had found out what threw the Spy. Speaking of super-humans… Where were the Craftsman and the super-soldier? I lost the Craftsman, he could handle himself. I had to handle myself now.
    The thing was in a rage over the bullets and the noise of the screaming villagers, so it decided to rip stuff apart. It tore through huts and people were being clawed out of its way. It was tearing through everything it could to get to me. I broke the bone from the stick that I had stolen, and used sinew they had made into rope to attach it to the end of my gun. It got to my hut and I jumped. I did a front flip in a ball in the air, but with my spear out. It slammed the lizard in the back of the head, actually making the 1,000 pound creature stumble. I landed behind it, a good three feet smaller than it.
    I stabbed the gun into its back, but the bone broke off and splinters flew out. So instead, while the barrel of my gun was against its back, I shot. It went in, but only a little. I could still see the bullet when I took my gun away from its back. Under the scales was pink skin. I was done, this thing wasn’t. I knew that, even as a super-human, our species could never take out something like this with a weapon like mine. Perfect shot or not. So I ran. It, not surprisingly, ran faster.
    I braced myself, ready for the claws to hit me. The only thing that hit me, was the sound of a blaster of some sort firing off a round at the lizard. I looked and saw the Craftsman and Technician firing at the lizard. One actually hit him in the eye. It blew up…I’m not going into any more detail than that. It was now blinded, so I booked it. But they really wanted to kill this thing for some reason. I put my gun back on the holster on my back and grabbed both of them with both hands. I was pulling them away and they stopped resisting and booked it with me. Eventually, after awhile, we got tired and stopped.
    Now we knew we were away, we had been running, not walking but running for the past maybe 3 hours. We decided that this place wasn’t worth risking staying at for the night. The Craftsman actually set to work on building a ship. A ship! I didn’t think he could build a ship before it got too dark. The sun was already setting. The Technician started on making a computer to steer the ship. In the next hour, they had both jobs done. Who knew wood, leaves, dirt, more wood, a strange array of juices from mounds of nearby worms and water could be used to build a full on ship and computer system. They even explained a little to me. The wood was used as the structure of the ship and computer, and the worms, because of what they taught at the base we were at, secreted a volatile liquid that, when used properly could be made into a type of heat shielding. And various beauty products, but I didn’t care about that. We needed the heat shielding from the nearby sun if we were getting off this planet. It was definitely getting dark. They got a whole bunch of Prim fire ants. Fire ants like you know are annoying and hurt. Fire ants here blew up when faced with too much heat. We used that with extra wood to make the engine. Off we went.
    We shot through space, not nearly as fast as any normal ship (or beat up one, or one that had half an engine) but we still got to a new planet, after getting many hours and many nights' sleep.

    The Super-soldier


    Uh…What to do now…I got outta that base…And now I gotta… get off the planet? That sounds right. Running through the jungle is boring…I wish I knew some songs to whistle or something…Maybe I should stop avoiding the trees…That sounds a little more fun. Crash! Boom! Haha! It hurts my head a little but I like the noises they make when they fall. What’s that ahead? It looks like…People…In white masks… Where have I seen that before? Oh yeah the base! Um… That means those people are…maybe trying to catch me? Probably. Hey umm… There are a lot of them there… I can take them though! Hahaha…Oh boy. After seeing through the trees and coming into this…Clearing? That’s what it’s called. I see that there are a lot more… maybe…34? No that’s not the number! But I don’t think I know any numbers past that… There are a lot more than 34 though. They’re running at me. What do they call this many people with weapons, a mission, and a leader behind them that I can see? Oh yeah an army…I think.


    The Spy


    Snore……”Huh? Ugh….” I got up outta the bed that this ship had. I heard a beeping sound. I saw the planet was coming in close, so I turned off the auto-pilot. I flew into the planet and docked on the outskirts of a city. I then mysteriously disappeared as I was going to pay them for parking. I didn’t care if they took the ship. It only went to Prim and Grim.
    I ran into the city and started walking about near the middle of the city. I saw more ships landing. One was actually made of wood. Weird. I didn’t know wood could fly. Must’ve had a good pilot in any case. I then heard a siren go off, and people started panicking. Running in all directions, shoving and trampling each other, crowding alleyways and buildings. In the space of 20 seconds this part of the city had cleared except for a few people banging on doors and windows screaming in fear to let them in. I heard a rumbling. Like giant footsteps. It had a rhythm like footsteps anyways. It shook the ground too…I looked up as quickly as I could.
    There were giant wings above one of the skyscrapers. Oh no! I thought, I really hope this thing doesn’t come after me… Of course its head peered around the side of the building and stared right at me. “Crap!” I yelled, and started running. I wasn’t fast enough? No that wasn’t it, the shoes weren’t on. I stooped over and turned them to double my speed. Then decided to triple it after I saw it was catching up with me just by walking. It was fast. I ran to the side, straight at a building, and jumped as high as I could. My feet caught the building, and I ran up the side of it. I looked back and saw that this was like a much, much larger version of the lizard that I’d fought on Prim, except this was red, not green, and it had wings. And sharp teeth. They both had that, but I thought I would just throw it in. I was really hating the way that all weapons used against me were sharp. I was also hating the way weapons in general were being used against me. Like, constantly.
    It jumped and flew to the top the building and landed on the top of it, this was a huge building. I kept going even after I ran out of wall to run up. I fell, and landed on its back. I had to think of a way to beat this thing, fast. I had a plan now. I turned the shoes to max, and they were violently vibrating. I hopped, and slammed my feet into its back. That made me fly into the air, while hurting it. I then saw something else flying at me through the air! It was about my size though, but it was going too fast to tell if it was human or not. It had some form of wings for flying, and it reached out an arm, I wasn’t going to let this thing throw me too. I twisted through the air and it missed, falling over the side of the building. I didn’t see it after that. Frankly, I didn’t want to. I then pointed one foot towards this…this…Dragon…That’s what this thing was. It’s a dragon.
    I kicked downwards, the force of max speed form these shoes, going downwards at about…let’s say 2,000 miles an hour? I went through its scales, they shattered behind me as I broke through layer after layer of muscle, bone, muscle, more bone, more muscle… Until I got through the other side. I burst through skin and shattered more blood-red scales, I overshot this by way too much now that I think about it. I also went through something softer than the other things I went Through while inside the dragon. I think it was the heart… Anyways, I not only over-killed this thing, but I almost killed myself in the process. I went through the roof of the building and started making holes through each story of the building. Boom! OW! Boom! OWW! Boom! OWWWWW! I went through that about fifty times before I made a crater instead of a hole. I’m glad I didn’t hit some poor guy in the building on the ground floor. They mostly evacuated when they heard something absolutely freakin’ huge land on the top, either that or when they heard a crash on each story of the building and figured it wasn’t stopping for them. I wish it had…Then people circled around me as an earthquake struck. No, not an earthquake…it stopped a few seconds after it started…oh yeah duh. The dragon. It’s not like it stayed up there after its heart exploded. Well…not exploded but… Those were pretty much my thoughts before I blacked out.