Chapter Text
Chapter 1
The universe is a gigantic place that can be difficult to explore. Out there maybe someone might find adventure or something out there. It was better than the life of regular ordinary high school student, at least that’s what Jason Wilson thought. He dreamt that a small pink puffball was fighting dark puppet creatures with blasters, beam swords, and boomerangs. He didn’t fight alone though; he had a big penguin and a black puffball in a mask and cape as allies. They all were fighting in front of a giant castle, trying to keep them out. Eventually a giant version of the puppet grabbed a crate of what looked like bombs with feet. It was about to throw them until a giant disembodied hand grabbed the puppet and crate. The puppet was prepared and had second bomber planned running to the side.
The penguin made a strange sound which was what Jason thought meant, “look out,” but it was too late. The puppet exploded, creating an opening to the side of the castle, but that wasn’t all the giant hands prisoner had lit a match and blew itself up along with the hand. The puffball screamed with sadness and ran forward meet with it. The hand was injured pretty badly covered in scuff marks and blood, but was still alive. The pink creature was sad, but the hand then spoke up saying, “don’t worry Kirby I will live.” Looking around he knew this fight was a lost cause so he clenched his fist and said, “Kirby, you must leave Dreamland.”
The puffball, Kirby made a confused noise which Jason thinks meant, “the hell you mean?!” The hand materializes a box of three small ball that look like bells. “This box holds the power to turn tides of battle, find those who are pure of heart to become our champions. Then you must recruit other warriors to assist in our war. Do you swear child?” Kirby hesitated at first, but looked every were and saw everything in ruins, his friends struggling and hope being lost. Kirby agreed and took the box and ran away. A couple of stragglers saw him and chased after him with their weapons in hand. Kirby did his best to avoid them by doing flips and somersaults out the way of attacks and blast.
Kirby then called his warp star and climbed on to it. Once he started flying into space a couple robot storks, a robot with a bucket of hot chunks of metal, and a fish with a giant eye and tentacles all started to fight towards him. He rode his star faster than he ever did while barely dodging attacks. He flew faster and faster to travel at warp speed but then a giant blast aimed for him. The blast managed to hit him as he warped away.
After getting hit by the blast his star traveled farther than he thought possible. Suddenly Jason woke up from his alarm clock all groggy from staying up all night playing video games. He slammed his fist on the clock and said, “what a weird dream,” he then checked the time and jumped up out of bed getting ready for school.
After he exited his apartment building, he ran straight to the train station hoping to catch it on time. He was fortunate that he overslept because the train was delayed and he made it just in time. After a long ride he checked his watch and saw he was almost late for school. He ran as fast as he could to get to school. Luckily, he was one minute away from being late and got to the classroom in time. He took his seat in the back as usual and studied his lessons as class went on. Soon after lunch began, he searched in his bag for his lunch and pulled out his bento box.
He then hung his head in silence until two people came up to him. “Hey Jason, what up. I missed you at the beginning of class,” the man said. “You ended up oversleeping again huh,” said the girl. Those two were Jason’s childhood friends Luke Kane and Sarah Grant. Luke had fiery red hair and wore his finger-less gloves along with his school uniform, while Sarah wore a headband with her uniform. Together they were the second most popular people in school. Sarah had black hair, wore glasses and was a nice and quiet girl unless you make her mad, while Luke was a confident and strong person who was very protective of those around him.
Jason and Luke met each other because their parents were old friends and naturally, their parents tried to make them friends. That wasn’t hard though they both loved video games and were into watching anime. Sarah, on the other hand, had just moved into town because of her mom’s work so she was starting 3rd grade in a new environment. Since she was very shy, she wasn’t very good at talking to people. Luke was the first to make a move and Jason followed his lead. They saw that she was on the computer playing a game neither of them knew about. Jason asked, “what are you play? I know every game alive and old but this is different.” She answered, “it a puzzle action-adventure spy game about a secret society trying to take over the world and you have to stop them.” “Sounds like fun, can I have a go?” Sarah was surprised but said, “no its not done yet, I have to complete the programing of the-,” she stopped herself before going into the details.
Luke heard that and asked, “wait did you make the game yourself?” She nodded nervously waiting for them to call her weird and back away. To her surprise Jason and Luke said, “that's awesome!” she felt shocked but happy at the same time. They all soon became the best of friends and learned a lot about each other: Sarah had a high IQ but didn’t want to skip ahead, Jason was a wiz in the kitchen, and Luke works at his dad’s dojo. Ever since they have been very close, loyal to each other and wouldn’t hurt the innocent for anything. “Yeah, at least I didn’t forget my lunch.” Soon the class starts and the teacher begins the class. The teacher talked about history and literature, while Jason was trying to make sense of his dream.
Later during lunch, Jason went up to the roof to meet his friends for lunch. They made it up to the roof and sat down next to each other to eat their lunch. They each took out their lunches and began to compare everything that they had in their plates. Jason had some fried chicken with rice, Luke had a mixed sushi roll with some meat, Sarah had an omelet with rice and vegetables. As they were digging in their lunch Sarah speaks up, “hey, have you guys heard? On the news a meteor shower is about to happen tonight.” Luke ate another piece of meat and said, “really, maybe if we’re lucky we could have our own space rock.” The three friends laughed at the joke until the school delinquents Bart and Mary entered the roof.
They were known as the two toughest duos in the whole school, Bart and Mary Johnson. Bart had worn a leather jacket with jeans, while Mary wore a Short-sleeved shirt with a short skirt. The two were known for their smarts and athletics, but their personalities are pretty opposite of one another. Bart was pretty much an arrogant jerk who tells others what to do, while Mary was nicer than her brother. While he fought other for the hell of it, Mary fought to help others for. Every time Bart needed something he call others to do his bidding and because both of them have influence and strength no one could say no to him, that is until he met Jason and the group. He wasn’t the strongest out of the group or the smartest, but Jason had heart and wouldn’t back down from a challenge and defied Bart outright.
A while ago back in junior year, he saw some girl being hit on by Bart, “…so what do you say how about you and me have some fun.” It turned out to be his friend Sarah and she wasn’t having it, “I already told you no. Now leave me alone.” He then grabbed her hand forcefully and says, “come on it’s gonna be fun.” She started to pull away only to prove futile. Jason knew he wasn’t going to survive, but his body then started to move on his own. Jason was in between them saying, “hey, she clearly said she’s not interested, so back off.” Bart seemed annoyed that he was interrupted by some guy, “eh, she and I were just having a little chat, there’s nothing bad about that.” Jason doubled down on his confidence and replied, “it is bad when you harass my friend. Now leave before this gets ugly, but judging by that stink eye I would say we’re already there.” Bart was about to say something but soon a teacher was in the distance so he said, “this isn't over,” and walked away.
With him gone, Jason let out the breath he was holding and leaned against the wall. He then turned to her and she had a worried look on her face, “are you okay Jason?” He was a bit surprised at her concern, but answered confidently, “I’m fine, but shouldn’t I be the one saying that to you. What even was happening here?” Sarah hesitated but told him everything, “Bart has been trying to ask me out for a while now,” this made him tense up at the sound of that, he wasn’t sure why but it bothered him. She continued, “I kept rejecting him over and over again, but he kept coming after me. It’s super annoying.”
He then released the breath he didn’t realized he was holding and Sarah said, “anyways thanks for the help, I owe you one!” Jason said, “no problem, but if you want my advice! Try learning self-defense like me and Luke, that will make him stay away.” Sarah was a bit surprised to hear this and asked, “wait you know self-defense? No offense, but I find that hard to believe.” Jason wasn’t offended but he still decided to tease her a bit, “are you calling me weak, ‘Specs’?” She then got a bit anxious at the fact that she might have insulted him and stammered, “N-N-no, no that’s not what I meant! I just thought you weren’t a fighter by choice is all.”
Jason smiled and said, “just teasing is all. Besides I know what you mean by that. You know while Luke’s been working at the dojo, his dad trained him in all forms of martial arts making him a prodigy. I on the other hand had taken up sword training to make sure that I'm not left behind.” She looked at her watch and sighed, “ok well, I got to go to the robotics club. So, how about as thanks you and me go to the fair on the weekend?” Taking the chance to tease her, Jason says, “sure, it’s a date!” He then caused her to turn red and before she could correct him, he ran off to his task.
After school was out, Jason cleaned up after the club members all went home. By the time he was done it was already night, but luckily, he could always crash at Luke’s if he misses the train since he lived close by. He checked his watch and saw he missed the train home. He sighed and began to walk to his friend’s house. As Jason wondered the streets, he saw not many people were out except for a couple straggler. He then passed a man in a hood and kept going straight. He then heard footsteps behind him and stopped to turn around only to find no one there. He continued down the road and saw another guy exiting the alleyway from across the street. The other guy went down the same path Jason walked, so to test this theory he turned down the corner. As he predicted he was being followed.
His fear was slowly creeping up on him and he felt a sudden chill at the nape of his neck. As he continued walking more people kept joining the pursuit. Jason was starting to get scared and began walking faster and faster. The hooded assailants then grew to about half a dozen and Jason speed off in a full sprint. As he ran down the street, he thought to himself were to go, ‘I can’t lead these guys to Luke’s, he will be in danger and they will know where he lives.’ So, he just runs around and evades all of them for the time being. Eventually he starts to lose them only for them to split up and cut him off.
He then ran into a dark alleyway and made it into a dead-end. It seemed oddly spacious for an alleyway, but Jason didn’t question it much. Seeing as there was no way out of this he turned around and faced them and jokingly said, “fellas, how about you and me settle this over a video game?” As they started to get closer, Jason backed up towards a wall and was leaning against it. They were continuing closing in when a voice said, “Halt!” The guys then began to make room for their leader to enter, but as Jason stood there, he got anxious. He instinctively moved his hand to the side and felt a piece of wood behind the dumpster. He gripped it and waited for the leader to get closer.
When the leader showed himself, Jason just rolled his eyes and sighed to himself, “you’ve gotta be shitting me.” It was Bart walking up to him and said, “well, what do we have here? Jason, right?” Jason just felt annoyed at his attempt to be threatening and said, “yeah, yeah. I know you probably practiced this in your head multiple times, but can we just skip to the part where you tell me your reason for coming here already?” The gang started to snicker at the joke, but Bart gave them a deadly stare making them shut up quick.
Bart decided to just continue, “well I told you this fight wasn’t over, now we’re gonna-” before he could continue Jason then interrupted him; embarrassing him more, “kick my ass, because my friend wouldn’t go on a date with you.” that earned him a punch to the gut and that punch felt like a car ran into him. Jason knelt down while still holding on to the object hoping to have the element of surprise. Bart got down to his level and said, “anyone ever tell you that you talk too much?” Jason looked up and retorted, “all the time, but that’s just part of my charm.”
Bart got up and faced his men saying, “alright men, let’s give him hell.” they all pulled out their individual weapons bats, brass knuckles, and some of them didn’t even have weapons. Jason got up and said, “bring it on.” The first one swung his bat aiming for the head, but Jason saw that coming a mile away and blocked with his piece of wood. Then using his strength, he pushed the attack off him and delivered a swift attack to the torso followed by a back leg sweep. He looked back at them with a cold look in his eye and said, “so, who else wants to give it a shot?”
Bart looks at him unfazed and orders his men, “attack him all at once he can’t take all of us.” They all obey the order and rush him. Jason saw blocked the first bat swing, but another guy charged trying to aim for his leg. Jason saw this coming and kicked him away, then shifted his weight to push the guy Infront off of him. After that he finds one guy about to deliver a right hook, but before he does Jason dodge rolls to the side only to run into another guy with a bat attacking him from behind. The bat guy hit Jason's back landing a clean hit on him, but that didn’t stop him. The unarmed fighter was about to deliver a Sparta kick to the chest, but Jason deflected the kick to the left. The guy used the momentum to do a roundhouse kick; luckily for Jason, he saw it coming and swept under his other leg making him fall down. After he fell, Jason did an axe kick to the leg and everyone heard a snap causing him to scream.
Jason looked back at them and had sadistic smile on his face. This caused everyone to back up slowly in terror, so he charges at them with no hesitation. Bart was hanging back and watching his opponent carefully to see any weakness. What he did notice was that he always blocks and counters and never strikes first, when others are doing a surprise attack, he uses his other senses to avoid the attack, and he always checks his footing before striking. Bart smiles and comes to a conclusion, ‘he’s a defensive fighter, so not only would he be tough to damage him, but he is also very quick.’
As he was fighting the bad guys, Jason lost his wooden blade and got into a fist fight with this guy and he was losing. Jason threw the first punch only to get caught and punched in the gut, flipped, and kicked. He grabbed the foot and twisted himself to make the guy fall and grabbed the nearest bat he could find and beat the shit out of him. A couple of opponents got up and were about to go for round two, but Bart said, “no!” Everyone turned around and saw him walking up to Jason saying, “you’ve done enough damage, this time I'll be your opponent.”
Jason spit at him and said, “so that’s what you do huh? You let the real threats tire me out, while you get the scraps and take the credit. That’s weak even for you, but don’t worry I'll kick your ass.” Jason got into his fighting stance ready to strike, but Bart refused to fight. “Fighting you as you are now would be an insult, so I'll make you a deal. In one week, I will fight you myself at the junkyard after school, bring any weapon you want. You win I'll back off your friend, you lose you will be my servant, forever.” Thinking about his deal, Jason began to weighed his options carefully. He wasn’t completely at one hundred percent, so his attacks would be slower. Also, his opponent saw how he fought, while he didn’t see how he fought. He could ask Luke to teach him a little hand to hand to compensate for his weakness.
He dropped his weapon and said, “deal.” Bart smiles and says, “see you soon, boy.” Bart leaves him alone saying, “oh, and here. For your injuries,” and threw some bandages and ointment towards him. Jason used the supplies and went to Luke’s house to spend the night. He knocks on the door and Luke’s mom answers, “who is it?” Jason answered and she opened the door instantly.
When she saw him bandaged up, worry started to well up inside her. She escorted him in and called her son down. Luke got protective and asked, “who did this you and where do they live?” Jason just smiled and said, “don’t worry, I just fell down the stairs to the subway. I was rushing there and ended up missing the last train.” Luke had a feeling that he was lying but wouldn’t elaborate. His parents gave him some food and sent him to sleep in the guest room. Then the night ended with him sleeping.
Back to the present Bart turned towards the group and gave a cold smile. “Hey if it isn’t the loser patrol, surprised to see you here.” Luke gave the same cold stare and retorted, “this was a quiet space, but I guess it was fun while it lasted.” His eyes were set on Sarah and tried flirting, “Sarah you're looking as lovely as usual today.” Sarah just sighs, “can you just skip the flirting and say why you’re here so I can reject you already. What do you want?” Bart held up his hands in surrender and replied, “woah, no need to be hostile. I just wanted to invite you to a party I'm throwing Saturday to celebrate our graduation from high school. You can even bring your friends if you want.”
Sarah said, “no way, we’ve got something important to do that day anyway.” Bart looked disappointed but said, “my offer still stands ‘til the event, think about it.” He left, but his sister stayed for a while and decided to say something, “you know my brother is a bit of a pain sometimes, but he’s not as bad as you get to know him.” Jason commented, “I find that very hard to believe.” Mary just said, “how about you three come over and I can show you,” Mary then glances at Luke and quickly turns away cheeks blushing whispering, “ it would be a lot more fun if you went. ”
Luke seemed to have heard her and said, “it would?” she began blushing even harder realizing that he heard her and ran away. Luke just stared at them confused asking, “what was that about?” Jason just shrugged, but Sarah shook her head. Jason asked, “what were we talking about again?” Sarah thought back to what they were talking about and remembered, “oh right the meteor shower, I hear it’s going to be a beautiful sight to see.” Luke then made a suggestion, “how about we watch it over at my house, my roof gives me a pretty good view of the sky, besides my folks are away.” Jason and Sarah agreed to this and finished their lunch. As they exited the roof top, Jason could have sworn that he heard a muffled voice and only made out, “wo... ...it.” Jason turned around but saw no one else, so he ignored it.
After school the three friends began to walk over to Luke’s house and they were in a conversation discussing their summer plans. “Maybe we could go to amusement park?” Luke suggested. Jason thought about it and said, “just so long it does interfere with the gaming competition this summer,” he then turned to Sarah noticing that she wasn’t engaging in the conversation and asked, “what about you Sarah?” She wasn’t answering because she was still lost in thought. Jason spoke a little louder trying to get her attention, “Sarah. Sarah!!!”
That snapped her out of her thoughts, “huh, I'm sorry what were you talking about?” Jason asked concerned, “are you okay, what’s eating you?” Luke shares the same look as Jason but also had a sense of understanding. “I’m... just thinking about the party on Saturday,” she lied. Jason scoffed, “don’t worry about Bart’s party, he’s just a jerk.” “But this could help us bury the hatchet, don’t you want that.” Jason looked at her and his face soften, “yeah, I guess it wouldn’t be so bad.” The group then makes it to Luke’s house and they entered insides.
They all hung out relaxing at Luke's place to past the time until the meteor shower starts. Sarah and Luke played a fighting game, while Jason was in the kitchen getting dinner ready for them. Luke noticed that Jason is listening to music while he is cooking, so he couldn’t hear them. Luke asked her outright, “when are you going to tell him?” This caused her to tense up a bit and distract her long enough to lose the match. She sighed, “...there’s nothing to talk about.” Luke told her straight up, “bullshit, you have to tell him. This is a good opportunity for you; besides you like him, right?” Sarah face turns red but gives a small nod. Luke then tells her, “If you don’t tell and he finds out about it from someone else, he’ll be hurt you don’t tell him” “Fine alright, I'll tell him tonight after the meteor shower.”
Jason said with a smile, “dinners ready, who’s hungry?” They both paused the game and ate their dinner. Jason made an assortment of meat, fish, vegetable, and beef dishes; with rice, dumplings, and soup on the side. Sarah said hesitantly, “uh, isn’t this too much food for the three of us?” Jason answered, “Luke’s parents aren’t home, right? So, this could last him a while.” They all took a bite of his food and instantly dug in with gusto. Sarah said, “damn Jason, this is amazing!” “Thanks, I have a lot of practice.” Luke decided to tease them a bit, “I agree you could make a girl very lucky in the future with this type of skill.” Jason was in the middle of chewing his food when Luke said that and choked on the food. Eventually he was okay and said, “don’t joke about that type of thing man.”
Luke replied, “it’s true, I heard some rumors saying, if they could choose someone to date, two girls said you.” Now it was her turn to be shocked, only this time she was drinking water and did a spit take. Sarah got self-conscious and asked, “who are these girls exactly?” Luke made a zip motion and said, “my secret.” Jason and Sarah’s checks were flushed just from this conversation and they tried to change the subject desperately.
Jason then felt a major pain in his brain, sort of like a knife cutting into it. He clutched his head and started groaning softly. He began to hear the voices from before much clearer now. It kept saying over and over, “ worlds await! ” he also saw visions of his friends, the bells from his dream, Kirby, the monsters, and his planet imploding into a black-hole. His friends came to his side and asked, “you, okay?!” Jason calmed himself down and soon the voices and visions died down. He nodded and said, “I’m okay, it was just a headache.” Sarah looked skeptical and asked, “what type of headache was that?” Luke interjected, “are you okay?”
Jason thought about his dream and told them everything, the dream, the visions, and the words. They were listening intensely and waited for him to finish. Once he did, he said, “...and that’s what's been bothering me. What’s worse is I kept having these dreams for a week now and I still don’t know what they mean.” Sarah placed a hand on his shoulder and said, “whatever it means we will be there every step of the way.” Luke gave a reassuring smile and saw the meteor shower was going to begin, “how about we go watch some meteors fall from the sky?” they all agreed and went to the roof.
Jason helped Sarah up onto the roof and Luke followed suit. Sarah sat down next to Jason, while Luke left some space away from the two to give them some time alone. They felt a little awkward just sitting there so Jason just said, “so have you ever seen a meteor shower before?” she shook her head and said, “no but, this is the first time I’m watching it with friends.” Jason places his hand on hers and replied, “I'm glad we get watch it together.” The two interlocked their fingers and waited for the show.
The meteor shower started and the first one that flew across the sky was small and fast. After that the shower came faster than ever and it was a beautiful sight. Sarah said, “hey guys, try make a wish.” They all closed their eyes and made their wish. Jason wished for answers to his dream, while the rest wished for something else entirely. Jason then opened his eyes and noticed that a meteor bigger than all the others flying through the sky. Jason pointed and said, “hey, doesn’t that one look like it's getting closer to you?” Sarah and Luke stared and saw it was getting bigger and told Jason to move.
Jason still holding Sarah’s hand moved out the way shielding her, while Luke jumped off the roof landing in the bushes. The meteor landed in the backyard and the house was still intact. Luke asked, “you guys okay up there?!” Jason got a good look at his surroundings and saw Sarah in his arms with her face up close to his. Sarah saw this and they both backed up saying, “we’re okay!” “Okay, I'm going into the backyard to check the damages.” As Luke proceeds to the back, Jason climbs down the house and tries to help Sarah down. Sarah managed to get down on her own and took Jason to the backyard.
When they made it to the backyard, they found Luke just starring at the crater the meteor made. Sarah asked, “what do you suppose we do with this thing?” Luke says, “I don’t know maybe we could call somebo-” just then, the earth under their feet made them fall into the crater. Jason got up and heard the same voices saying, “worlds await over and over again. Sarah and Luke looked around and asked Jason, “is that what you had to go through, if so it’s annoying?” Jason was surprised to hear this, “you hear it too?” They both nodded in agreement.
Suddenly the meteor hissed out steam and opened up to them. Inside revealed the same ball shaped bell things Jason saw in his dream, also a trophy of what looked to be Kirby. The three friends stared at the bell things and they each got visions what could be. They instinctively reached for them and as they began to glow brighter as they got closer. The moment they grabbed the bells, they glowed with a bright burning light and it began to change them in many ways; such as imbuing them with special abilities, information, and a vision of a house, a mansion with the same bell signal.
The process seems to have been too much for them and they immediately collapsed. Before Jason collapse, he felt something smooth touch his hand and heard a high-pitched sound and glowing light before fading into darkness.