Rise of The Darkforce

WARNING!

The following set may contain mild use of adult language, violence, gore, and other graphic notation at some point.

Reader discretion is therefore advised.

***

PROLOGUE

The sound of thunder suddenly rented the air from across the cosmic dimensional world of energy-the Speedrealm-the world that exists beyond both time and space.

The sound grew louder by every second, making the walls of the Speedrealm tremble until a dark ghastly figure appeared from within the depths of the realm, its entire body flickering and glowing with the purple aura of the Speedrealm.

It was the Spectre.

It hovered towards the source of the noise, which turned out to be a ruptured hole on the base of the realm.

The hole was black, completely filled with darkness before suddenly starting to give off a faint red glow. The glow went on to increase in intensity, almost blinding the Spectre.

While still trying to make out what was causing all of this, the Spectre was thrown backwards and its body crumbled away after suddenly being struck by a bolt of lightning which shot off from the hole. It was like it had been obliterated, destroyed by whatever had conjured the lightning.

More flashes of red lightning began to burst through the hole and if one were to look close enough, just at the edge of the hole, something then appeared on the surface. A massive clawed hand. Red flames were dancing off of it as it grabbed onto the edge, probably trying to heave the rest of what was inside the hole to the surface...

H E R B R E A T H I N G W A S relaxed and focused as she cut through the air, dashing past cars and people while leaving a streak of green and blue lightning trailing behind her.

She glanced at the digital timer on her wrist which had the initials, C•L on it and watched the digits go up from two hundred miles an hour and almost to six hundred.

She was in a green sweater and sweatpants of the same color when she then noticed a young girl crossing the road while on a skateboard, oblivious of the impending doom as a bus was headed straight for her.

For the girl, it all happened so fast before realizing that she was already on the other side of the road but just in time to see the familiar green blur zoom past and disappear down the road.

It was Natasha, who finally ended her morning 'jog' by stopping at her home.

"Morning!" came Jenna, who appeared from the kitchen.

"Hi, Mom!" Natasha responded, moving over to the fridge and taking out a bottle of sparkling water. "I'm still getting faster!"

She showed her the timer.

"You're almost as fast as Carol!" Jenna exclaimed, handing Nat a plateful of pancakes, "so, how about you keep your glucose levels up if you want to beat her, plus I don't want you passing out on your first school day of the year."

Having had breakfast and taken a shower, Natasha was then brushing her golden brown hair which she had decided to cut short just right over her shoulders, which actually helped in stopping it from clasping whenever she was using her speed.

Looking at herself in the mirror, she turned to the left where she had pinned a drawing of her in a super suit, the drawing Lucas had made for her and branded her as 'Viper' - a name which came to catch on towards the end of Sophomore year.

Her pet snake of the same name was still around, slithering in its cage as she fed her before kissing her mom goodbye and heading off to school.

⚡

Waking up to the beats of Lizzo's Truth Hurts, Cassie's morning started as she yawned before picking up her phone and scrolling down.

She texted Natasha, telling her to wait so they could go together and then went on to get herself ready by setting the phone down and letting the music go on.

Cassie's room was like the inside of her mind, with portraits of famous music artistes ranging from some pictures of Drake, Juice Wrld, Cardi B and even Madonna then to other big profiles like Will Smith, Tom Cruise and her very own personal favorite - Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson.

She was clearly a pop fanatic plus a lover of all genres and always loved to speak her mind.

Her parents were also heading out and her dad had offered her a ride to school which she gently refused, arguing that there was no way a senior would be showing up at school with her parents; classic Cassie!

⚡

Over at Mac's, Lucas was just done polishing the racks at the Plasma TV section when his dad walked in, marveling at the job he had done.

"You keep up like this and my job will end up leaving me for you, kid!" he joked, "you better head out now. I don't wanna be the reason you run late for school!"

⚡

"Hey!" called Natasha who appeared behind her best friend.

Cassie turned and they were both smiling at each other, having not been together since Christmas.

"Ready to be seniors?" came Lucas who met up with them just as they approached the entrance of North Atlanta High.

"I don't feel any different though, " Natasha started when the school bus passed by them.

"Oh, I can feel a lot of change already!" blurted Cassie excitedly.

There was laughter as the three of them turned to see Daniel, the shortest kid in school, hit the ground face flat from the bus.

"What's the matter, Danny boy!" came the husky voice of Ben, responsible for having tied Daniel's laces together so that he fell when he tried to walk.

"I guess some things never change," sighed Lucas.

The year was 2029, or as Natasha and her friends would put it-senior year, with only one more year remaining to finish high school.

B A R E L Y A W E E K into Senior year, Natasha and Cassie were just walking into North Atlanta High and Natasha laughed at something her best friend had said. Something to do with her desk mate, Henry.

The school bus stopped at the entrance and this time, Daniel was first to alight, making sure that his shoelaces were tied correctly.

Big bully Ben was just catching up to him outside the bus, ready to grab him by his bag when the sound of a smooth running engine suddenly filled the vicinity.

The whole of North Atlanta High, including Nat and Cassie, had to stop and marvel at the motor bike that rolled into the school before stopping in front of the bus.

"Who is that?" gasped Cassie, mesmerized.

They watched the rider slowly get up from the bike-a red Ducati Monster 795. He was clad in a classic red leather jacket and blue jeans then stepping on the ground with black boots.

The rider went on to take off the black helmet, revealing a boy with thick black hair which thinned out from the sides of his square head down to the side burns, accentuating his dark skin and eyes.

"Nice ride, dude!" exclaimed two kids who were standing closest to the bike.

"I know," replied the rider, smiling and exposing his perfectly white teeth before moving away from the bike, his tall stature become even more apparent.

Just as he walked towards class, Natasha was sure she caught him give her a quick side glance accompanied with a wink and every bit of that suddenly sent a crazy feeling dancing up inside of her.

The excitement continued when in the middle of History class, Natasha was jotting down notes under the topic, World Wars.

Carmen started patting her on the shoulder and made her mess up one of her points.

"What?"

Carmen tilted her head forwards and was grinning.

Natasha looked up to see the boy with the bike standing at the door of her class.

Mr. Gilbert, the History teacher, turned to the door.

"You know you can knock on the door if you want," he said, gesturing for him to enter.

The new kid walked into the classroom, with one strap of his bag hanging over his right shoulder.

"Alright, everyone, this is um..." Mr. Gilbert looked at one of his files, "this is Xander Maxwell, who as you can see just got transferred here. I'm sure you'll show him a nice time."

"Move!" shot Bianca to her desk mate, Jeanette.

"What? Why...?"

"Dear, you don't want none of me," Bianca added with her icy nature, "now beat it!"

Frowning, Jeanette grabbed her books and went to sit somewhere else.

Everyone in class watched the new kid move over to the back where Bianca was laying out her most seductive smile ever, accentuating her pale face.

He sat at the spot evacuated by Jeanette and returned Bianca's smile before setting down his bag and slumping into his chair.

On the board, Mr. Gilbert had scribbled something to do with the accounts of the first and second World War as he went on with his class.

"Some texts and theories even go to show that the Nazis had tried to dwell into ideologies like dark magic on their quest to win the war and over power the allies..."

During recess, a couple of guys were getting down at the basketball court in the Phys Ed hall and one of them tossed the ball too far as it missed the hoop and leaped over to the forms and out of the court where it stopped under the boot of none other than Xander Maxwell.

"Hey, do you mind?" asked Chet, one of the top players of the school's basket ball team.

The new kid tapped the big red ball with the heel of his boot and it bounced up to level with his arms and caught it between open palms.

He stared at it for a while before turning to face the court then went on to toss the ball. Not to Chet but towards the hoop as it glided through the air and sunk through the hoop without touching any of the thread.

Chet nodded, clearly amused.

"Ain't that the kid who showed up with the bike today?" came Brad, another player.

"Hey!" Chet called out from the court just as Xander was turning to leave. "Do you play?"

Xander shrugged.

"We could use somebody like you on the team!"

Chet's statement sent ripples of laughter throughout the court when he said the word 'team'.

Apparently, North Atlanta High was famed for its prowess in football and the praise was going on strong after the Homecoming game, thanks to new additions like Lucas King. But basketball was another story, with the Dunk Kings never having won a single title in all the tournaments that they've ever been in. Hell, even the coach had given up on them, with the school's funding of the game being their last hope, ergo leaving the team's name at an incredibly stupid irony.

To their delight, Xander accepted to join the Dunk Kings as they started a game among themselves, with Xander shocking everyone with his killer moves, not to mention he had just the right body to play basketball.

To the other world of football, Lucas and the Jaguars were on a try out when he noticed how the court was suddenly becoming empty.

"Where's everybody going?" he asked team captain, Scott.

"I heard something about basketball," came his reply before tossing over a ball at Lucas.

"Basketball?"

"I know, crazy. The game's dying out in North Atlanta."

Lucas watched the cheerleaders leave the court and join the others to the court.

"OK, let's go check it out. Maybe it's a fight," added Scott.

They met up with Bianca and the Pixies at the entrance of the Phys Ed hall.

"OMG!" began an elated Bianca to both Lucas and Scott, "the new kid's killing it like hell over there! At this rate, I think I'm gonna switch over to basketball but then I can't leave you guys!"

Lucas noticed how she caressed Scott's shoulder while raving on about Xander and he had to prevent himself from laughing, knowing that Queen B over here definitely had a thing for black guys. Wait, wasn't he and Carmen like a thing now?

"Whatever," came Scott, "that's only one kid and they need like a crap load more like him to actually have a team and compete at our level."

Bianca mischievously narrowed her eyes at the team captain.

"Oooo, somebody's already hoppin' on to the jealous train!"

Lucas watched Scott's expression who shook his head in disapproval and for a moment, he himself began to wonder if the new kid would turn out to be trouble for the popularity of the Jaguars.

More cheers came from the crowd after the new kid performed a powerful dunk and almost broke the glass to which the hoop was attached.