It's been 3 years. Night. Evans' house
Nine year old Arthur sat meditating cross-legged. In three years he had grown taller and his hair more unkempt and spiky. His hairstyle was like this: strands all the way down to the end of his face and the rest of his hair short. The boy was dressed in a black badlon, white trousers with a belt and trainers. He lifted his head up to look at the stars. The brown-haired man looked closely and saw a light starfall. Then Evans noticed that one of the stars was getting brighter and brighter.
«А..? - asked the fallen man. - AHHHHHHHHH! - he jumped back, ducking his head.
"The star fell right into the spot where the chestnut stood, creating a slight wave. Evans pulled himself up, shaking off the ground. The boy walked over to where it had fallen and saw a small crater with a strange piece of grey metal in it, as if it were iron. It was about three centimetres long and half a centimetre wide. It was a rectangle with a small sharp protrusion on top. From the outside it looked like it was the blade of a sword. The paratrooper touched it lightly and froze. Information and images began to pour into his brain. In an instant, he saw a black silhouette looking back at him. Its eyes were completely the colour of space. When it stopped, the brown-haired man looked at the shard. He picked it up, examining it.
«Kree...? Shi'ar...? Skrulls...? Titans...? Chitauri? The Eternals? The Sword of Eternity...? - Arthur lifted the shard up and examined it. - What on earth is it...? - Evans clenched it in his palm and his fist glowed with black and white energy.
It began to spread through his body. Suddenly his hair turned silver, as did his eyes. In an instant, he unclenched his fist and the glow stopped, and his hair and eyes returned to their previous colour.
«Phew... - He exhaled and then hit the back of his head lightly against the wall of the house. - Ouch!
The brown-haired man looked around and saw that he was levitating in mid-air. Arthur looked at the shard in his hand, after which he threw it under himself. He then fell to the ground, thank god the distance was half a metre. Popadan got up holding on to his fifth point, then picked up the shard, examining it.
«What am I supposed to do with you? - Evans asked. - I'll keep it... - he took out a string, tied one end and hung the resulting pendant around his neck.
The brown-haired man smiled, and then his face turned sharply as if he'd eaten a lemon. Arthur looked at the small hole left by the shard.
«What are we going to do with you? - he asked, and then exhaled, waving his hand.
A blob of white energy flew out of his hand. It went straight into the pit and instead of a pit there was a small mound. Evans patted his eyes, looking down at his palm. It was as if the sleeve had grown longer, covering his hand completely. It resembled a glove fused to the sleeve. The brown-haired man looked at his hands and the other one was similarly covered in white light. Despite the bright light, he saw that the fabric of the sleeve also covered the palm of his hand. It grew from the sleeve until it completely covered it. Arthur examined his hands and noticed something. The fabric was not made like a loom, but was layered like leather. Chestnut ran into the house.
***
Arthur ran into the kitchen and grabbed a pair of scissors and then cut the fabric that had been sprouted and a small piece from the jumper itself. He threw the scissors and ran upstairs. Evans ran to his room and pulled out a chemist's kit with a microscope. The brown-haired man began to examine the two fabric samples.
«Identical... - said the fallen man, looking into the microscope, adjusting it.
Evans began examining the shard. Chestnut wanted to break off a piece of it, but the chisel broke. Arthur picked up the iron piece.
«Gr... - he squeezed it, but this time a black light covered his hands.
The adventurer looked and saw that where he had taken the iron piece the metal was gone and the pieces of the chisel had fallen off. The handle hadn't changed at all. The brown-haired man looked at the hand where the iron part had been. There wasn't even a gram of steel dust in his hand.
«Nothing...? But it doesn't work like that... - Arthur put his hand under the microscope and started looking for iron.
He looked at the handle. Evans noticed something. There was no varnish where it was held on. Chestnut looked at his hands.
«How does this work...? - asked the hit man.
Chestnut looked down and noticed that he was floating in the air again.
«Ah!" shouted Arthur and fell to the floor.
Arthur lifted himself up, holding his head, then looked at his new talisman.
«Eh... - Chestnut crouched down, propping his head up.
Evans began to examine the piece of metal that had fallen from the sky. Suddenly, a light bulb above his head lit up. Evans ran to the storeroom.
***
Arthur rummaged in the pantry and found a dosimeter. He ran back. As soon as he got there, he checked the shard for radiation. It was within the normal range.
«What the fuck? - asked the chestnut.
Evans began to think. The paratrooper pulled up a board on which he began to write. In the centre he wrote 'Sword of Eternity' and around it the name of the alien races. He drew a circle around each word and connected each race to the centre where the Sword of Eternity was. Then the brown-haired man took a picture of the shard and waited for the picture to print out. When it was visible and Evans taped it to the board and drew a line from the sword. Above the photo, Arthur drew question marks.- 'So this is a shard of the sword of eternity...' - he looked at the shard. - But what does it have to do with all these races...? And how did the sword shard get here...?
Evans started to think. The brown-haired man almost fainted, but he shook his head and looked at the electronic clock. It read 3:01. He yawned, then rubbed his eyes.
«Tomorrow I'll think and figure it out, but for now.... Sleep... - Arthur flipped the board over and rolled it to the corner, covering it.
Then the chestnut man flopped down on the bed.
Morning
The alarm clock rang in the Evans house. Arthur and Aria emerged from their rooms, hugging their pillows. The brown-haired one was dressed in a t-shirt and sports trousers.
«Good morning. - they said at once.
Arthur's mum spat out a strand of hair that was stuck in her mouth. Her son did the same.
«Arthur, today I have to test my new game, will you help me...? - She asked.
Evans shook his head, waking up.
«'Of course -' nodded the chestnut man. - I'm always up for it.
«Yeah, especially to play the games, there will be characters you made up, by the way, your sketches helped me a lot - she smiled.
«Hee-hee... - Arthur smiled broadly. - 'Can we get Gwen and Peter?
«Of course,' replied Miss Evans. - The more opinions the better.
The brown-haired man smiled broadly. Then the brown-haired girl noticed a pendant from outer space.
«What is that and where did it come from? - Aria asked, examining the pendant.
«Huh? I just found it," Arthur smiled, then handed the pillow back to her mum. - Sorry, I'll run after Gwen and Peter - he ran outside.
«What a restless son I have - she grinned.
***
Arthur went outside and ran to Gwen's house. He knocked on the door. The door was opened by a sleepy Gwen in her pyjamas.
«Arthur...? - she asked.
«'Gwen, get ready quickly, Mum wants her to test out a new game' said Evans.
«Э?! - Stacey woke up immediately. - I'll be quick! - she closed the door.
A noise started to be heard outside the door. A couple of minutes later Gwen came out wearing a white t-shirt with a black spider that glowed pink, black shorts and ballet flats.
«Where's Peter? - She asked.
Arthur merely pointed to his house. The blonde dragged him towards Parker's house.
***
Arthur, Gwen and Peter sat in front of the plasma screen with joysticks in their hands. Aria, meanwhile, was downloading a game from her laptop. The kids were smiling widely.
«That's it, you can switch it on," Miss Evans said as she closed the laptop.
«Yay! - Chestnut pressed the button on the joystick.
It started loading. The splash screen began.
«'Greetings, players - A guy with white hair, fair skin and blue eyes appeared on the screen. He was dressed in a white buttoned coat, white trousers and shoes. He had blue coloured glasses with single lens on his nose. - I am the master of the game - Shin.
Three lists with three pictures appeared immediately afterwards.
«Choose characters for your game and enter a nickname - Shin said.
The children started choosing characters.
«Choosing... Limbo the Jester - Hakuba - Arthur pressed a button on the Joystick.
The Jester appeared in the picture in the middle, divided vertically in half. His left side was black and his right side was white. In his hands he had a scythe with two blades, black and white, and the handle resembled a spine and one vertebrae was black and the other was white, and so in turn.
«And I'm a white Arachne then - gwen chose her character.
A girl with white hair, a bob, pale skin and two pairs of completely red eyes appeared in the picture to the right. She was dressed in a tight white suit with black spiders on her back, shoulders and hips. There were eight black spider legs sticking out of her back.
«And I'd like a Gillian the spider warrior! - Peter chose a character too.
In the picture on the left was a knight in red armour, similar to that worn by a spider knight. He has a sword on his belt and a spider shield on his back.
«Characters approved, we can begin - said the game master.
They began to play.
A few hours later
After a few hours of unrestrained play, Gwen and Peter went to bed. When Arthur saw his friends sleeping, he paused the game. Chestnut laid them down on the couch and covered them up. Evans wanted to go outside, but stopped, thinking. He grasped the leg of his chair and lifted it up with one hand.
«When did I get so strong? - The brown-haired man asked, putting the chair back in place. - Well, for the sake of experimentation... - Evans walked over to the cupboard and lifted it up with all his might.
Evans put the cupboard back in place and collapsed on his back.
«Japanese god... - Chestnut said.
He crouched down, crunching his back. Arthur waved his hand at that cabinet and released a white blob of energy. Suddenly crystals, the colour of the varnish used to smear furniture, grew from where the blob had arrived. The brown-haired man took a deep breath, after which his hand was covered with black energy. He squeezed the lacquer crystals and they disappeared completely into his hand. A small trace of it remained on the cupboard door.
«Shall we practise or what? - Arthur asked, looking at his hand.
He got up and went back to the hall. There Chestnut sat down on the sofa and closed his eyes, crossing his arms over his chest.
To be continued...