Galactic High

"So!" Nika grinned. "Looks like we'll be showing you a Deathball montage tonight!"

"Well I've got to learn somehow!" Jack chuckled weakly. "I can't back out now!"

"Well the first main lesson is that most of the fields of play are revealed by the referees just before the game." Sephy grinned. "Adds to the fun when players get lost and have to scout out the area as part of the game, not even knowing where the enemy goal is right away."

"Who the hell came up with this and thought this'd be a fun sport?" Jack sighed, just accepting the craziness at this point.

"Hey! You yourself admitted it was fun!" Nika slapped him on the back. "Didn't you have a similar sport back home?"

"Rugby." Jack smiled, accepting her point. "Though it's just a normal pitch, you don't get any magic and the spectators don't get physically involved."

"See! They're practically the same!" Sephy replied.

Jack rolled his eyes in amusement, but didn't bother to correct the Skritta.

"Well I don't mind watching a few Deathball games tonight once we've got our homework done," Alora added. "I think after the weekend we can afford to take a chill day."

"Dante will need a walk though," Jack pointed out. "How's he been, Sephy?"

They had agreed that they'd keep an eye on their new friend periodically while at school, with Sephy having quick and easy access to the camera system they had.

"He's been having fun! Most of the morning he was running laps around the district wall, spent most of the afternoon sleeping in your room and last I checked he's been sniffing around and exploring."

"At least he's been keeping himself occupied, but I can take him around a few of the other districts to get him outside," Jack reasoned.

"One or all of us had better come with you." Nika pointed out. “Even without the bounties, you might get lost without us."

"I'll go with him." Alora reasoned. "My homework is already done and It’s Nika’s turn to cook.”

"Uh oh!" Sephy warned. "Better brace yourselves for some protein, but at least it isn't Chiyo’s night!"

She paused for a moment as she looked at Chiyo, a little worried. "You ok Chiyo? Usually that's the part where you yeet me into the air!"

I am fine. Chiyo replied in a way that did not sound fine. Just thinking.

"Sounds like watching some dumb sports might be the perfect thing," Nika reasoned. "Get the homework and walk out of the way as quickly as you all can, and we can unwind after that with some grilled meat and herbs!"

Dante was jumping with joy when the group finally got back, making sure to get pets from all of them, even Chiyo as he kept trying to leap up and grab her with his mouth as she floated in mid-air, who eventually gave in to peer pressure and gave him an unsure pat on the head. After he had finally gotten enough attention, with Alora and Sephy taking a few pictures, Jack and Alora quickly set off with the happy Dante, who seemed more eager to walk them than the other way around.

"How are you holding up?" Alora finally asked Jack. They had mostly been walking in silence, taking a less busy circuit around the local districts to allow Dante to satisfy his curiosity without bothering anyone.

"I feel better than I did this morning," Jack replied with a sigh. "Though today was pretty eventful. Honestly when we were at the temple and you told me about all of this, I had no clue it was going to be quite this crazy!"

"Well I had no idea you'd have bounties placed on you, for one thing." Alora shrugged. "Or that we'd go on the most difficult adventure our group has ever been on."

"But at least we came out of that in one piece," Jack concluded. "Physically at least."

Alora put an arm around Jack in a semi-hug. "We'll find answers."

"Yeah," Jack replied, returning the hug. "I hope so."

The rest of the walk was uneventful, with the two of them making small talk about Jack's adjustment from the Temple of Hope to wider society. It was difficult at first, but he was glad that he was slowly adjusting and making friends. With the exception of all the people wanting him dead, things were feeling better for him.

The rest of the evening was spent in front of the TV, with Jack finishing off his homework and listening to Nika's tactical takes from the Deathball game they were watching. The 'Srakuul Slicers' Vs The 'Drukalaii Decimators' was pretty fun to watch, though the food Nika had made was quite tough for most of the group.

Jack was glad that he was allowed the time to just sit back and relax. It had felt as if he couldn't really let his guard down ever since he learned about the bounty hunters, which had played havoc on his mental state. Today had been a mixed day for him, getting into a fight with the Drow and enduring Master Kull's 'lesson', but for the most part it had been good. The lessons were fascinating, and for the first time in a long time he felt appreciated by people outside of his small group of friends.

Jack closed his eyes that night at the closest point to peace he had ever experienced in this realm.

He really wished he didn't….

Darkness engulfed him as his body felt like it was drifting on ocean currents. Not knowing what it was, Jack accepted the sensation, and allowed his body to be taken away. When his eyes opened, he found himself lying down face up in scuffed rubble in a horrifyingly familiar place. Forced to repeat the actions of his past, Jack groggily pushed himself to his feet as he looked around at his surroundings in a panic.

Ruined and desecrated buildings surrounded him, covered in dark and disgusting effigies. He saw symbols painted in blood and gore on every surface, with mutilated dead bodies scattered across the ground. Moving back in shock, he heard a strange noise behind him and snapped around to see what it was.

The creature was nothing like anything he had seen before, with rows of vicious sharp teeth. All across his faded purple skin were carved, bloody symbols, but the one that stood out more than anything else was the massive, burning skull carved on his chest.

"W-what the fuck are you?" Jack asked in panic, stumbling back as the creature pulled out a savage-looking knife. "A-are you some kind of alien? I don't want any trouble! Please! What do you want?"

The alien creature just hissed and grunted in a guttural chuckle Jack couldn't understand. He turned to run but was faced with another figure slowly advancing. This one was a larger lizard-like creature with a rusted, spiky metal chestplate with the same horrific symbol.

"Hey, you don’t need to do this!" Jack panicked, desperately looking for a way out. There was none. All around him were more strange-looking creatures with the same burning skull either carved or painted on them. All of them had vile-looking weapons, and none cared for his pleas of mercy.

This was a nightmare, just one big fucking nightmare. He'd wake up in bed the next morning and his mum would have a cup of tea ready for him and the rest of his family. He pinched himself, trying to force himself to wake up.

But nothing happened. The pinch was real. This was real!

Despite his terror, Jack forced himself to calm down enough to focus on the current problem. He was naked, unarmed, and trapped. He remembered the words of his eldest brother, Michael.

"Only stand and fight as a last resort. Get away if you can. But if you can't, don't hesitate, don't let them make the first move, and don't show mercy! Kill them if you have to!"

Jack remembered his martial arts lessons, and immediately threw those lessons out the window as he quickly rushed the smallest of them, leading with a quick punch to daze before shoving them out of the way as he ran.

But something was off with that attack. Though it wasn't a full-force strike, Jack barely felt any resistance as the alien's skull was knocked back, and when Jack shoved past it, it was already halfway down to the ground. Risking a look back, he could see the alien faintly convulsing on the ground but making no effort to get back up. How hard had he hit them? Adrenaline was a hell of a thing.

Quickly turning around, Jack's eyes went wide as another lizard-like creature tried to block him off with wicked-looking claws. Jack knew in the back of his mind that if he slowed down or stopped he would be swarmed, so he charged. He could feel himself run quicker than he had ever managed before, causing him to misjudge the distance. Jack tensed up, protecting his vital areas as he smashed into the creature, feeling its bones crunch as his head connected with the creature’s face, not stopping as it was taken off its feet and fell to the side, unmoving.

"Holy shit!" Jack exclaimed as he kept running. Did I just kill that guy?

He had no idea where he was going and he didn't care. Anywhere but here!

More creatures tried to bar his path, and each one was torn apart in the human's panic, not even stopping to witness the carnage he was leaving.

Jack saw a great wall ahead of him, and hoped against hope that he'd find some way out, but as he turned the corner of a few rundown buildings to try and lose his pursuers, he realised he had made a mistake.

He was trapped.

Nasty-looking aliens peered out of entryways with wicked grins and mocking chuckles as they stood up with weapons drawn. He wasn't going to get out.

Pinned, cornered, no escape. Jack was going to die here. From where he had come there came a steady rumble of footsteps as something big menacingly strode over. With sickly-looking pale green skin, gnarled metal scraps bent in shape to act as a shoddy form of spiky armour and a mouth of rotted, black teeth, the giant roared at Jack as it dragged its tree trunk club along the ground.

Kill them if you have to!

Growling in primal anger Jack charged forward with a punch to a surprised bird-like creature, catching it in its crooked beak at maximum strength with a loud crack, knocking it out as it dropped its cleaver. Jack quickly picked it up and parried a spear thrust aimed at his neck which still grazed his shoulder, following through with a full-force chop at the neck of the wolf-like being before Jack could even stop to think, eyes wide in shock as the lifeless eyes of the creature glazed over.

Kill them if you have to!

Throwing the cleaver at movement to his left Jack, took up the spear and swung it behind him in terror as two more tried to advance on him, snapping the weapon in two as he clobbered the head of one that got too close. Spinning around on reflex, Jack stabbed the splintered shaft of the spear into another attacker's head, the thin membrane of the insectoid creature parting to splintered wood.

Oh my god! What the fuck! I think I actually killed them! Jack thought in panic before something raked across his back, drawing thin lines of blood. Jack quickly reacted with a backfist that broke the face of his attacker, just as another tried to tackle him, spiked and rusted armour shearing Jack's skin as the human planted his feet on the ground in a karate stance and tossed the alien with all of his strength. The rat-like creature flew hard and fast through the air for several metres before smashing into something.

Holy shit! I'm strong! How!? Jack thought as he spotted a gap in the crowd, which he quickly dashed through. And I'm fast! What the fuck's going on?!

He was snapped out of his thoughts as he felt something coming behind him, and on reflex he jumped to the side as the club of the giant smacked to the ground, pummeling a hole while Jack flew several metres upwards, getting a few seconds of air before landing awkwardly.

Jumping higher too?! Is this low gravity or something? Jack quickly though as he felt a hot sensation hit his back. Growling in discomfort at the minor damage, Jack spun around to see one of the monsters with what looked like a gun of some kind. Panicking again, Jack ran, heading for the ruins to try and get some cover, throwing whoever and whatever he could find behind him to break the line of sight, shoddily throwing punches to quickly dispatch the unusually weak people that got in his way. If he could get on top of one of the buildings, he might find an exit…

Several more jolts of pain rocked his body as more laser fire pinged him, but Jack shrugged it off as he charged through a door, smashing it to pieces as he knocked the psycho behind it down, doing damage to himself in the process as he landed on yet more of those damn spikes. Forcing himself up and grabbing the dropped knife, Jack quickly met the charge of another psycho, taking a cut along his forearm as they lunged at Jack, who quickly grabbed the arm and pulled forward, hearing a pop of the shoulder joint before Jack brought his knife home into the base of the monster's neck several times. Hequickly parried an attempted strike from yet another attacker with a bat that tingled his arm, before burying his blade in the creature’s face in return, not bothering to recover the weapon or look at his grizzly handiwork as he picked up the bat and looked for a way up as more figures ran to him. They were weak, but there were a lot of them, and they just kept coming!

Spotting a rotten set of stairs, Jack jumped up them as quickly as he could, not wanting to take the chance of it breaking from under him as a swarm of crazies chased after him, the staircase quickly breaking apart under their sheer mass just as Jack reached the top and hopped up to the hole in the ceiling.

Pulling himself onto what remained of the roof, what he saw filled Jack with dread. A torrent of psychos were running their way to him, following the giant who seemed to be much more cautious in his approach. He looked around at the dark, purple-black metal wall surrounding him, seeing nothing near him resembling a way out aside from a massive pile of rubble in the distance.

But the worst thing was what he saw when he looked up.

The stars above looked…somehow wrong.

Unfamiliar.

Then he saw honest-to-god spaceships flying in the distance, leaving trails of blue and green in their wake as they zipped to and from a glowing point in the distance with strange-looking buildings he could barely perceive in the distance.

That confirmed the creeping fear in the back of his mind.

He wasn't on Earth any more…

Snapping back to reality, Jack turned and kicked another alien in the chest as it tried to climb up from below, booting it to the ground with a sickening crunch as it took several more with it.

But yet more kept coming.

Jack was going to die here.

He wouldn't go quietly.

The thundering of footsteps drew Jack's attention back to the giant who had now spotted him, giving the human a wide, sadistic grin with his black teeth as it charged.

Jack has to do something, but what?

Tearing a chunk of brick from the roof Jack steadied himself as he took careful aim and prayed to whoever was listening that his plan would work, chucking the hunk of brick as hard as he could at the forehead of the colossus, hoping his newfound strength would help him knock the beast unconscious.

But Jack missed.

He got it in the eye.

The giant roared in agony as green ichor spewed out of the destroyed eyeball, trampling its allies as it flailed about in pain. It swung wildly with its club and smacked the building Jack was on, crumpling the weak stone as he felt it start to collapse.

In a moment of inspiration, Jack ran and jumped forward, leaping off the building and grabbing onto a jutting spike on the giant's shoulders to stop him from falling before striking the giant's head as hard as he could with the bat with an audible crack.

The giant howled in pain as it reached up to swat Jack away on instinct, the human jumping away just in time as the giant's hand slammed into the spikes to yet more enraged roars, losing its balance and taking several steps to the side, trampling yet more of the smaller hostiles.

Maybe I can thin their numbers to escape. Jack reasoned. Can't do it with the big guy chasing me though - his long legs'll catch up to me. I'll have to stop it somehow.

Carefully falling to the ground, Jack awkwardly rolled to try and reduce the impact, still getting up sore but not majorly injured. There were fewer psychos now, but Jack could hear even more coming. The giant yanked its hand free from its spiked shoulder to cover the bleeding in its eye. Jack knew he'd have to get up high to finish it off, or he'd have to bring the giant down to his level, but how?

The giant was many times the size of him, and he wasn't going to risk climbing up its body. The ruined walls surrounding him were an option, but were crumbly as hell. He supposed he could trip the beast up somehow, but it'd be a risk - better to hobble it with something sharp.

Then Jack spotted it. A weakness. Of course!

Jack narrowly dodged a careless swing from the hulking brute and got in close, readying his attack before bringing the bat down in a bone-shattering strike…

…right into the balls of the giant!

The very air around him rumbled as the beast cried out in pain, stamping his feet around, trying desperately to squish the human, but instead only taking out his own guys once again.

Hmm. Jack thought as he dodged the easily predictable feet. That seemed to work. Let's do it again!

The second strike raised the pitch of the beast's howls several octaves. The third brought it to its knees as it collapsed to the ground, grabbing its crotch.

Now's my chance! Thought Jack as he picked up a big enough jagged piece of metal from one of the bodies and charged at the hulking monster, jamming the metal into the beast's neck, before a backhand from the giant sent him flying, crashing through a nearby wall.

His body aching as he got to his feet, adrenaline refusing to keep him down, Jack watched as the giant foolishly grabbed at the wound, yanking out the metal to a torrent of blood and gore and making it several steps before collapsing to the ground.

Jack staggered out as quickly as he could. He had suffered some injuries, but as long as he was breathing, he could move. There was a low hum in the air as he used the bat as a crutch, stumbling over to where he saw the rubble.

Jack's senses screamed at him as he dodged a swipe of some sort of axe as the psychos came back, sensing weakness. The hum in the air grew louder as Jack swept forward, catching the alien in the legs and taking him to the ground before following through with several brutal bashes to its skull.

The next two came together with knives as Jack wildly swung with the bat to keep them away, before feeling a burning sensation in the small of his back as someone stabbed him hard.

"MOTHERFUCKER! COME ON THEN!" he yelled, paying no heed to the cuts he received as he pushed forward, swinging wildly and allowing the pain to fuel his rage, smashing his bat into the head of one and the arm of the other with a sickening crunch. Spinning to the one behind, he swung full force, catching the unfortunate creature in the neck and completely decapitating him, destroying the bat in the process.

Jack turned to the rest, at least ten or fifteen more. Could he take them? Even if he did, could he carry on?

A thunderous crack rang out as a bolt of blue light from above him smacked into the closest attacker, putting him down instantly. A split second later, two more lights took out two more. Jack looked up and saw what closely resembled a military helicopter floating above him, humming as it hovered and allowed its passengers to line up shots.

One of the psychos screeched something in its inhuman tongue, the rest echoing it as they charged Jack, before several forms dropped out of the sky, slamming into the charge and tearing the attackers apart. Jack could see the lead newcomer, a wolf-like being, use an actual sword to tear through two of them at the same time before quickly swapping to a rifle and blasting those that tried to run away.

And just like that, they were all dead. With practised movements, the other newcomers fell into formation around their leader, who holstered its weapons and made a few growling noises and gestures at Jack.

"What?" Jack asked. "I don't understand you, stay back!"

The wolf-creature made some more noises, adding in some hand gestures that Jack still didn't understand.

He took a few stumbling steps back and tripped, his ruined leg no longer supporting him.

The wolf-creature raised a calming hand at Jack as she addressed her comrades, who hadn't made any threatening moves towards Jack so far, keeping their weapons holstered, but with their hands not too far from them.

The wolf then made some more hand motions and appeared to be shouting something before stopping.

Then she spoke.

"We mean you no harm! We can help you!"

"Holy shit!" Jack pushed himself back on his hands and feet in panic. "What the fuck?"

"Please! I know you're frightened, but you're safe now!" The wolf-creature desperately called out to him as she slowly took a step forward. "I know this is a lot to take in, but you're not on your home plane of existence any more!"

"What the hell is going on?" Jack barely managed to get out as he pushed back. "This isn't happening!"

Feeling the pain in his stomach Jack immediately retched, twisted himself over to his hands and knees and threw up on the barren ground.

"He's hurt!" the leader called out to her team. "Get our healers on standby back home."

Jack stopped and rolled away on hearing more footsteps.

"Stay away!" he cried out, reaching around him for some kind of weapon.

"Please! We're not here to hurt you!" the wolf-creature called out. "This place is dangerous! We can get you somewhere safe and help you!"

Jack stopped, seeing what could only be genuine empathy in the eyes of the creature.

"My name is Cornelia." she spoke slowly and soothingly. "What's yours?"

"J-Jack!" Jack replied without thinking.

"Okay, Jack." Cornelia nodded, getting closer as she saw Jack no longer backing away. "We have people that can fix your injuries and hopefully get you back to where you belong, but you've got to come with us. It's still dangerous here."

Jack didn't respond, only staring blankly in shock as Cornelia stopped in front of him.

"I know you feel like the unluckiest person in the galaxy right now, Jack, but I swear to you by the light of Astara herself that I am telling you the truth. We can help you!"

She raised a paw to Jack to help him up.

"If you understand me, take my hand."

Jack took it, and was pulled up.

Only he didn’t come face to face with Cornelia this time, as it had been that night.

Staring at him with a curious expression, was the hooded face of Devil's Daughter.

Reacting without thinking Jack lurched back…

And woke up.

Dante quickly nuzzled up to him as he calmed his nerves and breathing before there was a quiet knock, announcing the presence of Chiyo, who gave him some water.

I saw what happened. she messaged him. I'm so sorry.

"Don't be." Jack sighed, as he gulped the water down. "It's in the past. Devil's Daughter’s fucking with me again."

I only briefly detected her presence. But you woke up before I could help.

Jack sighed, exhausted. "How long until we need to get up for school?

Still a few hours.

"I think I need a stiff drink”

******

Svaartal had been summoned not long after he and Svaarti had finished unpacking. Their new apartment was much larger than they had been used to, with two bedrooms, a decent kitchen and living room and a clean bathroom, and Svaarti was mostly happy with it.

Except for the fact they were in Drow territory.

Svaartal had dismissed her concerns, though. The Mal'Kars had wanted information out of him concerning the human, and he was all too happy to provide it as a down payment, along with some of Jack’s blood and flesh samples he had scraped off his tongue and sword.

He came to a stop outside of where his commlink told him the meeting chamber was. The three Mal'Kar males stood outside the double doors, stopping Svaartal when he wanted to knock on the door.

"I wouldn't," Kravel stated simply. "Our sister does not wish to be disturbed at this moment. Our guest has yet to arrive anyway."

"Yes, very fortunate you got those samples of the Outsider." Soren grinned. "Though it is such a shame I will not be the one to kill him."

"I think now is a good time to be clear on something," the largest Drow, Ull growled.

There was barely a brief pause before, without warning, Ull suddenly grabbed Svaartal's neck and pinned him to the wall. The Nirah panicked and prepared to shoot acid, but Ull's other arm snapped his mouth shut.

"Go ahead," Ull mocked. "Use your acid or your Slevaash venom on me."

"What do you want?" Svaartal managed to grunt out, trying to think of a spell to get him out of this. Even blinking wouldn't work now that Ull had a hold of him.

Ull leaned in close. "If you ever even think of betraying us, I will personally make your death painful. And as for that weakling sister of yours? She will end up wishing she shared in your fate. Do you understand?"

"Yes!" Svaartal quickly replied, trying not to sound as terrified as he was.

"Good!" Ull gave a growling reply, letting the Nirah go as he moved back to where he was before.

A few minutes later, the double doors opened and they were ushered in. Svaartal waited until the others sat down, glad he had researched Drow customs as he sat in his assigned seat. Izadora sat at the head, Ull on her right, Soren and Kravel on the left. Svaartal sat on the left next to Soren.

Izadora pressed something on the table and ordered to the slave on the other end, "Escort our guest here, and please inform the twins that their presence is required after he leaves."

She addressed the room. "An anonymous ally has learned of the Deathworlder and has assigned additional resources to us, most likely the unknown party adding to our bounty. It seems they also have an interest in wanting the Outsider dead."

The door opened and in strode a short, pale man with red hair and unnatural wicked scars across his face.

"Doctor Grine," Izadora greeted. "Please take a seat."

The doctor did not. He looked bored as he took in each of them before finally speaking in a quiet, refined tone. "Your agent told me you had something to assist me in eliminating Devil's Daughter and gave me funds to ensure my attendance. Talk."

"Very well." Izadora involuntarily bowed nervously as she took out a briefcase and opened it, revealing the three vials of Jack’s blood with bits of flesh that Svaartal had given them to secure their pact. “We have several DNA samples of a confirmed Outsider species, the one you placed your mark on, in fact. It is my belief that we can work together to eliminate our mutual enemies.”

“I care not for the status of the Outsider. I only wish to kill Devil’s Daughter and ideally harvest her body for my research,” Grine snapped, shutting Izadora up. “However, these rare DNA strains may be of benefit. Show me your report on the Outsider.”

Izadora slid him the report they had compiled, mostly from Svaartal’s account. The Nirah was a little perplexed by the reactions of the Drow, who he always saw as portraying a constant aura of strength.

But here they were afraid! And openly so! Just who was this guy?!

Svaartal subtly extended his magical senses just enough to try and make sense of it, but strangely enough, Dr Grine didn’t seem to be a mage as he had guessed. Something was off about the guy, but what? And why were the Drow so scared of him?

“There are a lot of ‘possibles,’” Grine dismissed as he read the report. “…possible champion of Astara…possible Null capabilities…possible Demon Lord…unknown magical potential. This seems almost too good to be true for my research. If this is inaccurate…”

“It isn’t that we know of Doctor, and we hope your insight into the samples will confirm it for us. Regardless, we believe you are the best person for the job of eliminating both the Outsider and Devil’s Daughter, with assistance from House Mal’Kar forces.”

Grine stared at her with unnatural red eyes for a moment. “I am not interested in a complex alliance. However, I have something useful that will aid you in your efforts that I am willing to sell to you in exchange for the samples. The question is, what else do you have to offer me?”

Grine’s price was high, but an accord was finally reached. Almost a minute passed after the doctor left before Izadora pressed the button on her desk. “Send the twins in.”

The door opened and two Drow entered, a male in a pristine suit and a female in a white dress wearing a pair of thick shades.

“It looks like we have a new mission, sister-of-mine!” the male spoke in a lazy drawl, his insane grin somehow permanently affixed to his face as he spoke.

“Most wonderful, brother-of-mine!” the woman spoke with a matching Cheshire cat smile. “It has been too long! Will it be the Outsider I’ve heard so much about? We need a new friend to play with!”

“Now that you’re here,” Izadora continued, asserting herself and ignoring the insane ramblings of the newcomers. “Here is what I propose…”

It had been an hour of back and forth, but finally, The Twins left in full understanding of their mission, specially selecting the most elite of House Mal’Kar’s forces to form a Drow killteam, making use of Dr Grine’s….products. The other Drow Nobles left and Svaartal moved to join them.

“Wait.”

Svaartal stopped, turning and seeing Izadora looking at him with an…unusual expression. The Drow Matriarch waited until the room was clear before moving closer to Svaartal. “Join me in my chambers. It occurs to me that you have proven yourself valuable and I should properly welcome you to the fold.”

Svaartal knew better than to refuse.