Awaken Book 1: The World of Ebon

4 - Ebon, the Land of No Return?

"So Phillis, the director of WaveGate, rumors has it you have some illegal actions going on here." A man says as he walks with Phillis looks at her watch, obviously annoyed from all his questions. "Excuse me, I think we had enough of this hear say how about you, Mr. Quinn is it?" She says, she lays her hand on his shoulder as Quinn smiles. He looks at his notepad and the audio recorder on his shirt adjacently pointed to her. He presses the button to mute it, "So. You had the president signed an agreement on to have criminals to trade their lives for your experimental purposes....what a deal isn't it?" Quinn says as she freezes and looks at him with a stern(fake)smile. "I think we're done here." Phillis grabs a gadget with a button on it and she presses the button. Two guards walk their direction, "Oh. Well you have a great dayyy." He says, the two guards stand in shock as he teleports behind the men, he walks away. "He's a....GET HIM!" She orders the guards to run after him. He runs down the hall, effortlessly hurdling crates and carts in his way. More and more guards run after him as he passes by multiple rooms and hallways and hits the stairway. He runs out of the building after teleporting through the front doors as the guards tried to blockage him in, "Geez I can't be...teleporting too much....I may miss my limit soon." He says as the guards get in cars and motorcycles to catch up to him. The Washington Monument stands tall as a big, brown tree next to it with pink and white leaves sheds a leave. Quinn sees it and tries to hide behind it, the guards are park and run towards the monument with haste. "Damn it. I'm at the end of the line...I can't teleport anymore....I must've miscounted my limit..." He says as he tries to teleport and his body felt heavy and couldn't move. The guards run around the monument and pass the tree as if they can't see it. Quinn's eyes grow heavy as he falls over and the tree stoops down and grabs him with its branches. The tree opens up and it gently wraps him up and he goes in the tree as he wakes up and his scream is muffled.

He wakes up and sees the sky is pink and the sun is bigger than usual, "I must've been drinking way too much..." he slowly gets up and sees no alcohol around him. "Wait..." he says as he hears something move in the woods behind him. A huge white creature with no eyes walks out with sharp claws and gills on each side of its head, Quinn remains motionless as it smells heavily and scratches its face. Quinn sees a herd of them, they're all different sizes and shapes eating the grass around them. Quinn slowly walks away and sees the land around him: skyscraper height trees with multiple colored leaves, pink sky with strange vegetation and other foods, blue glass, and no buildings anywhere. A loud growl from the woods makes the other creatures run off in fear. A huge bear looking creature with one eye walks on all fours out the woods, knocking trees down as it only sees him. It roars loud as it pushes Quinn down and he starts to run, "I can't teleport....it'll tear me apart..." He says as he tries and a heavy pain grows in his chest and his body gets all glitchy, almost see-through. It gets closer and Quinn feels it coming closer, he digs in his pockets and some mini fire crackers go in his hands. "My stunt pills!" He smiles as he quickly turns around to face the creature and as its mouth is wide open, he chucks the fire crackers in its mouth as it carelessly eats them and continue to chase after him. He runs away as he sees a building with lights as the creature slows down with smoke coming out its mouth and it falls down without catching up to him. "Finally." He says as he looks behind him to see the creature nowhere in sight. He walks through the front door with strange markings in it and he freezes as he sees nothing human but a whole bunch of mystical creatures: ranging from unicorns in the corner, elves and dwarfs drinking, and much other he couldn't figure out all around him. "Oh shit." He says as some of the creatures get up and rush to him, towering him in height and size. They speak in a scratchy voice in a language he can't identify and one seems to be laughing as one that didn't get up from the table they were all seated at just looks in amazement at him. "Hey shortstop....come on here..." The three armed alien behind the counter waved at him with a high pitched voice and Quinn walks to the counter quickly. "A human....? Oh shit how the fuck did you get here?" He says as Quinn can't stop looking around as what's around him was nothing was either fake told in fairy tales or urban legends. "W-w-w-What is this..." Quinn hardly speaks words as he is amazed and afraid. "This place? Welcome to Ebon, I'm gonna be real with you. You in a bad place for y'all, you best to get going." He says as he grabs a lever and it releases a liquid in a mug and it foams up and over it. "I don't know where the fuck I am." Quinn says as he sees the creature sitting down at the table in front of him standing. It was silent as he grabs him and drags him through the dining hall and exits out the bar. "Hey what was that about?!" He says as he dusts himself off. "Ssshhh. We must go. Now. Before The Lost comes." The creatures shifts into a woman with burgundy hair to her shoulders, a vest with a t shirt that goes just above her belly button, cargo pants with a belt, a strange looking tattoo on her torso, and combat pants. "Who are -?" Quinn starts to ask as she grabs his arm and runs with her through the alleyways. "Before you thank me, we are far from safe, until today I was the only person here....well you know, human." She says as they run and he sees different strange landmarks and statues all around. "Who are you? What is this place?" Quinn asks as he hears something trailing behind them, she takes a deep sigh as she jumps behind him. Half her face turns black and his eye is bright pink and a gust of fire swarms to one of the several beasts from the bar Quinn encountered earlier in half. Her arm went from black with red veins back to her tan skin tone after its use and she turns her head towards him, "Den. Den Hendrix." She says as she smirks. "Hehe. Showoff." Quinn replies and sees a door that wasn't there before. "Come. We'll be safe here." Den says as they both walk in it and it has more of a cozy atmosphere than what the outside brought early on. " Kiano. I'm home." She says as she walks in the living room and Quinn doesn't say a word. "You bring someone." An elderly looking Goblin with blank eyes says and startles Quinn. "Y-you're blind?!" He exclaims as the goblin looks at him as if he wasn't. He teleports away from him a few feet away from him and he points to exactly the spot Quinn is standing at. "Your energy is weak but it trails after you warp." He said as Den walks back to see them both. "I see you met Kiano." She says as she hands Quinn some food, three small red capsules, and some clothes. "Here. You need that." She gestures him, "WaveGate's been looking for you, their invasion will happen soon and you're not ready for what they'll bring. They'll dissect you just for the fun of it." Den says as Quinn grabs her arm, "How the fuck you know about them?" He demands as she closes her eyes and sheds a tear. "I was one of....many experiments they conducted. They made their mark here once too many." She says as she wipes the tears away and begins to settle on the couch. "I trained her so she would come back stronger than ever and she has extraordinary abilities, she just can't take them on alone." Kiano says as he walks seemingly through the kitchen and sits next to her and lifts up her shirt as she blushes hard. "This mark...was a size of a pebble....if that. Now it's expanded and I knew from when she screamed and blew everything away from her years ago, I had to help her." He says as she puts her shirt down after his demonstration. "I'm not fighting this shit. It's not mine to fight." Quinn says as he sits across from them. "You idiot. It's not about YOU. The world as you know will be plagued with whatever they're coming up with. Whether you like it or not, you must be trained." He says as he stands up and strikes a pose and a cluster of wind blows Quinn away and he lands on his back outside. "What the fuck old man?!" He exclaims as he realizes he isn't back in the alley when they came through to get to that house. There's nothing around him and Kiano, it looks like the plains he was at when he landed here. Den walks in with some food, gear, and some weapons and drops it around. "The only way out of here is IF...you beat me." Kiano sees as he gets in a strange and unorthodox stance.