Intro Three
Somewhere hidden through time and space:
{ALERT ALERT! NEW SPLIT IN THE TIMELINE!}
Through the blaring alarm sat a man behind a cubicle. A simple insignificant man with nothing to do and all the time in the universe on his hands.
This very man was going to make a choice that would later define entire civilizations.
Sigh
"Thomas King… unified Sol five hundred years ahead of time… blah blah blah… then continued to unite the colonies against alien invasions. Impressive… hmm an esper with space abilities. Mark for recruitment or elimination."
After scanning the document a few times the man picked up his coffee, said hello to the passing receptionist (who just scoffed in annoyance) and sent the document to his boss.
[Send an agent to recruit prior to the unification treaty of Sol. Thomas King has limited potential as a child so it would be best to recruit or eliminate him before he becomes an A-rank super.]
[SEND]
The man stretched his arms and sighed, "Hey boss, I'm going on my break."
...…..
Earth's Orbit:
The hours went by in a flash and it was soon morning.
After watching the news until morning Thomas had realized for the first time how messed up the world really was, and like every young man, he had his own ideas on how to fix it.
Yet before he could begin doing more research he heard somebody knocking on his door.
KNOCK KNOCK
Thomas looked at his alarm and noticed he still had an hour before his shift, so who could be bothering him at this hour?
"I'm coming! I just need to get dressed!"
The knocking quickly stopped and Thomas got out of bed to get dressed, still reeling in the thoughts from earlier.
'War, famine, overpopulation and now some magic drug that gives people superpowers? No wonder Mars is taking preemptive strikes. Earth shoul-'
KNOCK KNOCK
"I'm coming!! Damn!"
Thomas rushed to the door now fully dressed and swung the door open.
"What?!-... oh… officers… How can I help you?"
Before him were two Military Police Officers in full uniform. Earth Directorate.
"Thomas King?"
I looked at them both with a bit of nervousness.
"Yes sir. That would be me."
The officer on the left gestured to my room asking to come in and take a seat. Obviously I wasn't crazy enough to say no.
After the two sat down, Thomas sat with them, still slightly nervous. It wasn't everyday that the military came knocking on your door after all.
The officer spoke, "Mr. King, we have been monitoring your progress on one of our government run games and found you to be a promising candidate for one of our current projects."
I just blinked a few times in confusion for the next few minutes, just listening to the officers until I finally said yes.
"Absolutly. I love Earth and I would fight to death for it. So… this super serum. When do we begin?"
Thomas held a proud toothy smile.
Not because he was going to protect Earth, but because he now had the opportunity to make a difference. A chance to change the current order.
...…..
Years passed and Thomas had grown stronger over the years. He could project a shield over his new exclusive battle cruiser, he could create entire portals and arrive at his enemies doorstep within minutes, of course it wasn't long before Mars got their hands on their own super serum, but of course it was already too late.
Thomas King was a titan on the battlefield. He alone made new metahumans step back in fear.
Laser eyes, metal manipulation, lightning in space? None of it mattered.
Soon even Earth began to grow worried of the monster they had created.
As they should.
After all, Thomas had his own plans and ambitions.
Now he stood with a group of people he considered loyal confidants. For some peculiar reason he had this third sense. A feeling he got whenever he looked at somebody. He could almost feel their levels of loyalty.
Of course he just chocked it up to his high perception.
'I'm a people person,' he would say.
"Ladies and gentlemen. I would like to discuss plans on creating an organization I would like to call, [The Common Trade Alliance]."
Everyone sat in silence, each with a grin, happy to be a part of history.
Yet once the meeting was over and everyone walked out the room he was met with his secretary.
A strange and incredibly disloyal one.
Thomas could feel the disloyalty wafting off of him like it were a perfume, who did he work for? Thomas had no idea.
Even with his people's excellent hacking and infiltration skills they still can't get anything on him.
'That's hardly a bad thing. It just means he's a high level spy and his masters will likely listen to whatever bullshit I feed him.'
If only Thomas knew the truth. He would have killed this man where he stood without hesitation.
The secretary spoke up, "Sir there is something I need to talk to you about."
Thomas looked at him for a second before moving to the cafeteria. Somewhere public.
...
The two sat in a booth and the secretary was the first to speak, yet what he said was nothing like he expected.
"Sir, let me be completely honest with you. I work for an organization that wishes to preserve and safeguard history at all cost, and my people are interested in recruiting you." The secretary spoke with a proud smile.
Thomas just sat there in confusion.
'He admits it? Just like that?'
Thomas shifted in his seat, now with a bit more attention and began asking questions.
"You mean like librarians?"
The spy/secretary chuckled.
"Somthing like that. We preserve historical objects, and use them on occasion, and we would like to use your talents to help people."
To say he was confused was an understatement.
A library wants to put a metahuman on payroll? Is this a joke?
Thomas just laughed while his soldiers watched.
Of course they were secretly notified of the dangers this man possessed the moment he confessed his double loyalties.
"As tempting as that is, you will have to notify your masters that I am not interested, and will be awaiting their subjugation in turn."
This time it was the secretaries turn to laugh.
"Hahaha! You have no idea how funny that sounds! A frog saying he will take down my masters! That's adorable!"
Instead of getting angry, Thomas just started laughing with him.
"Hahaha, maybe! Hahaha!"
Still, Thomas and the secretary just kept laughing.
Until finally both stopped and stared each other in the eyes, waiting for the other to make the first move.
And with a burst of light from his hands the secretary pulled out a plasma gun from thin air making Thomas assume that he too was a metahuman.
As soon as he flicked his wrist he sent a spatial cut right at the spy only for a strange barrier like shield to show up and shatter. Dulling the impact of the cut greatly.
The spy took that as his sign to shoot.
PEW PEW PEW
The laser weapon in his hands broke through Thomas's own personal space barrier on the first shot and shot Thomas twice in the chest.
"Ugh… fuck! You were supposed to be a master in space! Were the history books a lie?!"
Was his forte not in space after all? Clearly it was because if it weren't his shield and gun never would have worked on the first shot. The problem is that the plasma ball was supposed to go right through his barrier and his own shield was not supposed to break!
Just as he got out of the chair, Thomas's soldiers got up to intercept him.
Not that it mattered because he had already disappeared using a method that was similar to their commanders.
"Sombody get a medic! The commander is bleeding out!"
Thomas could hear his people scream and shout but all he could feel at the moment was the cold floor and blood rushing out of the place where his heart should've been.
"The damage is too great! He doesn't even have a chest cavity anymore!"
"Damn Marsians!"
With the final defender of Earth gone Mars no longer had a reason to surrender. Thereby declaring the treaty null and void. The war was back on.
Meanwhile,
[CONGRATULATIONS! YOU DIED!]
[WELCOME TO THE WORLD OF HOLSTEIN!]