Jackson “Jack” Riggs
People were panicking. The strange sphere came out of nowhere and was now floating over the city. Beams shot from the object and what they hit became cocooned in a strange wood-bone material. Though everyone around me was freaking out, I found it…mesmerizing. It seemed familiar. It felt like when your parents call you home for supper…that home feeling.
The sea of people rushed around me…but I stepped towards it.
Dogboy (aka Joe Rover)
I piloted the Dogmobile in a mad rush towards the unknown sphere. Brain, via the dog whistle comm-link in my sunglasses, told me that the strange wood material was terraforming the planet. Woof, the team’s artificial intelligence, confirmed this suspicion.
“Not the first time some aliens tried to terraform the planet.” I then had to shake my head to resist the flashback of when I fought the Xacians.
The Xacians. A evil empire that had ruled most of our galaxy. They had come to Earth eons ago and began messing with, not just human life, but all. They transformed plant, animal, mineral in an ongoing attempt to rule all life. They came to our “backwater” planet because Earth life is surprisingly adaptable. They wanted to make the ultimate invader. Their mistakes became the stuff of legend and story. That’s right, every myth, urban legend, and story is true.
But they weren’t the only aliens to visit. Many good aliens arrived to help, such as advancing our technology and knowledge of the universe. Many of the great inventors and creators in history were either these friendly aliens, descendants of them, or just friends with them. The world’s governments kept the secret by telling everyone: in the form of stories, movies, comics, video games, and so on. Which is why I’m even allowed to tell you this; you’ll believe it’s fiction. Also, in my time (2027), it doesn’t matter because everyone knows aliens, monsters, and superheroes exist.
I’m telling you this so you’ll understand when I say that this plays a part in my origins. One such Friends of Earth (or FOEs, horrible name by the way) were the Sirians, from Sirius (the dog star not the radio). These aliens inspired the legend of the werewolf. They came to Earth to stop the Xacians (they’ve been at war with the Xacians for a long time). A couple Sirians fell in love with Earth people and over countless generations genetics mixed to make me–a half human half Sirian…mutt.
“Joe!” Brain shouted. “Are you daydreaming again?”
“Nope, just thinking of the exposition I’d need to give the readers for my next story.”
Though I couldn’t see him, I knew Brain was tapping his desk at the Doghouse in frustration. “Could you please keep your mind in the present.”
“You try being part dog. Everything is so…fascinating. All. The. Time.”
“You’re coming up on the sphere now.”
I parked the Dogmobile and the gull-wing doors opened to let me out. My purple cape blew in the breeze created by the object. I crouched down, focused my telekinesis, and readied to jump. The ground began to break around my black boots as pieces of dirt started to float. I pounced into the air. Using my telekinesis, I could keep myself on track. At least until the sphere hit me right in the Dogboy emblem on my chest (a picture of a dog howling at the moon).
Jack Riggs
“Dogboy is down,” the woman reporter said. I think her name is Sally Pine, but I didn’t care much. I had to get closer to sphere. I needed to get closer.
The closer I got, the more I understood it. It was a part of me. I could feel it…awakening something in me. I could feel power in me.
“Tetrix,” it whispered to me. I saw images of another world. My world. Trees. Animals. A blue sky. It was like Earth but different. There was more of that strange material. I was not from Earth. I’d lived on Earth for 16 years but this Sphere told me I had come to Earth from another world.
My world had been invaded by the Xacians. There was no way we could win, so we fled. My parents gave me to the couple I thought had been my parents. Others escaped on ships like ours. They sent a Sphere to a young planet, easily transformable, so that Tetrix could live again.
“Jackson,” said my father, “you will be the only surviving member of the royal family. Lead our people in a new age.”
Our memories had been wiped so that we could fit in on Earth until it was time. Now the Sphere’s energy was reawakening us. All of us.
The Sphere seemed to command me to stand down, to let it convert this planet. But I had memories of Earth. I could also see the fear in the Earthlings. Maybe they would survive; our planet was much like Earth. But no, this was wrong.
I held out my hand. “I am Jackson of the royal family of Tetrix. I command you to stop.”
The whirling noise and energy beams began to slow. The Sphere was shutting down.
The woman reporter went to help Dogboy. A crowd began to form around me. Whispers started.
“Is he an Xacian?”
“Another alien invasion.”
“Where did he come from?”
“What does he want?”
“Is that thing dead?”
The people seemed more afraid now than when the Sphere was on.
To be continued…
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