The Omni-Gods:Genesis part 1

                                            Prologue chapter: Some time in the future

          The three legends stood side by side their climatic battle having come to a sudden stand still. Its combatants drew themselves away from the center of action to rethink their strategies; neither had gained any ground at all since the start of the fight, despite the three-on-one odds. Our heroes having the upper hand in numbers could do little to push against their current foe who had proven himself their foulest of adversaries through the years, though only now were they realizing that very fact.

Rain pelted the four men who occupied the large barren cliff, which had once been full of life only hours before but had since been stripped of its inhabitants by the traumatic battle that was being raged on its surface. They faced each other watching, waiting for the other to make the first strike that would throw them back into the chaos of battle. The black and grey clouds churning over head created a ocean tide of black while the thick endless rain created the swirl of thick mist that no normal human could possibly see clearly through past three feet in front of them.

  Samuel, who appeared as nothing more than a speck of blonde in the swirling darkness, due to his favor of dark attire. He stood in contrast to his elder brother Tyler who appeared as a shining angle of white with his stretching white feathered wings and stark white hair. He had earned the name the White Flash among his peers accordingly. Meanwhile the third man Vincent stood seemingly bland save for the fact that he harbored the most menacing form of the three. An exotic mixture of the most dangerous species on the face of the planet Earth. As he was part human, vampire, werewolf, and demon. All three stood with together with more than the experience of brothers in arms. They stood as brothers who survived struggles of the decades with one another. Few could honestly say they had lived with the harsh fates these three had to endure.

These three men had changed the world in many ways giving humans hope for the first time in centuries. Feared by their enemies, loved by their friends and people, the legendary three Gods of Omni faced the last enemy they would ever face as the legendary three. Their last enemy would prove to be the end of the greatest and most peaceful era humanity had ever known. The white haired seemingly elderly man that stood before them held enough power to take on the three as no one before him had since the very inception of their abilities had come to pass.

    However, the four saw each other as if the rain or pre-night dark didn't even exist. Lightning flashed across the sky lighting up the darkened ground below. The climates brilliant show also foreshadowed the end of the sad tale that was the three’s lives that had led up to this very moment. This would be the last day the Omni-Gods would hail as the supreme fighters in the universe, in this world and the next.

  The mysterious man that faced the Omni-Gods braced his footing as he leaned forward his leg muscles rippled as they contracted to push his body forward. The standoff was shattered with the sound of crunching rubble, the one named Samuel, saw every motion of the fiber the man wore with a kind of sight the other two did not posses until he knew that his enemy meant to attack.

  In the space of a second Samuel disappeared from his friends' side reappearing inches from his target a large blackish-purple orb, radiating an unnatural reddish-purple glow into the air that could be seen for quite a distance even through the thick of rain, in the palm of his right hand bringing it down for the kill. A large explosion made the thunder in the sky sound mute by comparison as the orb connected with something solid, destroying it completely with its unknown but definitively awesome show of power.

                                            Chapter 1: Day of the storm: years before, present day.

                                                                Samuel Aumann

          Luck an odd theory of fortune which can’t be proven but is believed by all to some degree. Like all great things it comes in a set of three. There is of course the good luck which is, obviously, desired by all. The ones who get the most of this you either already know or envy them. The middle type we have is the side of luck where nothing good nor bad ever really happens, nothing happens. Most average people happen to experience this kind of luck most the time, or so it seems. Then finally there is the side of luck we call the bad which no one ever likes or wants. I, myself, seem to have this type of luck and a very severe case at that. My whole life was one disappointment after another. It was as though if the worst possible scenario could happen, would happen to me. Then on the day that should have been my death turned my life in a entirely new direction, one that I would never have dreamt of.

        The day my life took the turn for the strange, which is the only word I can apply here the words for the worst or for the better just wouldn't suffice in my opinion since all things have their ups and their downs regardless to how grand or fantastic they seem in thought. The day started off like any other. There wasn't anything special about that day. No cosmic signs of the legends the three of us, myself, Tyler, or Vincent would become. Frankly the day was actually quite foreboding if anything. Despite the fact that today's date was June 6, 2006 or as it was being called the new day of 666 which as everyone knows as Satin's number or something like that. I didn't care; I wasn't much for Christianity or their superstitious beliefs in numbers or holy symbols. I was a huge mythos freak and that for some reason in my head also meant I had to learn an abundant amount of information about their religion as well. No offense to the people who practice the belief just I'm a little dubious about people who center their lives around a multi-millennia year old book that had more of a chance of being authored by a hypocritical B.C. version of Steven King than a divine word of a god. Still the failing of the human belief system wasn’t in my right to correct.

  "Hey Sam, did you hear me?" Tyler, my own personal annoying older brother, asked me waving his hand in front of me. The Tyler standing before me appeared quite different from his future self as he had short jet black hair and his eyes where a dull blue-green not white and he currently had no evidence of wing growth though neither I nor him where aware that one day he would have. He was only slightly shorter standing 5’ 9” compared to his even six foot future other. "Dumbass wake up and stop day dreaming."

  "Shut up, dumbass." I retorted sighing into a slouch from my forward leaning position I always found myself in when deep in thought. Like Tyler I looked significantly different my hair had a much more natural cut to it and it matched Tyler’s own hair color, jet black. My eyes where the color they would retain through most of my life, icy blue, and I was as tall as I would ever get. I would eternally stay standing at 5’ 5” incredibly short for an American or even a European male. Vincent always joked it was due to all the coffee I drank disregarding the fact that he drank more than me.

  I had retorted with more anger and annoyance than I intended my agitation having been mounting all day with the seemingly unhindered rising temperature of the day. It felt like hell really was raising from its crypt perhaps the Christians weren't so wrong after all. The temperature was currently clocked in at 120 degrees; Fahrenheit of course I don't do Celsius. I was raised American after all despite my major German-European descent.

    "I was saying I wanted to go into Hot Topic for a moment." Tyler repeated the sentence that had been lost on me when he'd first said it.

    I suddenly become aware of the fact that I was still sitting on a bench inside the closest mall to where we lived. Which wasn't too far outside of the Texan city of Dallas. Despite its air conditioning systems it did little to impede the increasing heat of the southern climate of the world beyond the concrete walls. The noise my ears were picking up suddenly increased as I become more aware losing my ability to drown out all the insignificant things while I was in deep thought. It wasn't a difficult state for me to attain but few could do it and I had the problem of not doing it to subjects I should listen to but had little interest in keeping the energy necessary in order to do such a thing. I had my faults, actually many faults, but it was who I was and I like me for me. Some might consider that being self centered but in my opinion I was anything but self center.

  "We heard ya dude and we don't care." Vincent said from my left also on the same bench which made a full circle around a tree, though I wasn't sure if it was real or artificial but the latter seemed more likely considering the absence of a sufficient window above. Vincent looked drastically different from his future self as he was far shorter and his hair was buzzed cut short and so far he was as human as everyone else. It wouldn’t be until later that he would become the hybrid beast of his future.

    Vincent was a great guy with an incredible sense of humor having been friends since I was twelve, he a year younger. We met a few years back at the worst point in my life. After a series of very unfortunate events my family which other than Tyler and myself consisted of my mother Tracey Aumann, well now Cruiser but she had recently gotten married, and my excessively annoying older sisters Jesse, a short foul tempered and very disobedient woman who resembled a younger version of my mother she was the oldest at eighteen. My second sister a year older than Tyler Michelle was an odd ball in the family because while Jesse resembled my mom and Tyler and I looked similar to each other she didn’t look like anybody she was well tempered, in our family that meant a lot, and probably could have been a beauty queen or model but didn’t have the tolerance for the drama.

After boarder lining it for so long we had finally hit an all time low of being homeless. Having been so close to the inevitable for a while I had already experienced a bit of my new life style though it wasn’t grand nor would anyone have wanted it I adapted trying to see the silver lining within the situation. One day bored and with nothing else to do I decided to look around the apartment like homeless shelter for anything to do and stumbled upon a recreational room with board games and several other things though they didn’t draw my attention. That is where I first met Vincent he too had had a pretty crummy life probably worse than my own.

I found him playing chess with some other attendants of the shelter. Being great at strategy games as I was I challenged him and as we played we chatted about a wide range of things. Later on that same day we ran into each other on the top most floor of the homeless shelter, which was the fourth level of the complex not including the basement. We discovered we lived directly across the hall from one another which needless to say boosted the time we spent around the other. Come to find out on my first day to my new school there I found that again I shared the same school and classes with Vincent. To explain why I was in a grade a year behind what I was supposed to be in was not because I was slower than anyone else but because I had the misfortune of having a ninety year old bat as a teacher who at the end of the year decided to hold me back because of a 'bad attitude' problem.

Years past and Tyler and I eventually came to accept Vincent as a sort of unofficial third brother. One day Vincent his mother and his sister finally moved out which was a drag but people had to move on. They moved from Ft.Worth to Dallas not much distance though it was still almost two cities over. My mother meanwhile had been dating some doctor from a rich family and three months after Vincent left my mom married Alex and we followed Vincent to Dallas moving into a nice house just outside the city when Alex was offered chief resident position at a newly constructed hospital. After being enrolled at the school there the first day I was surprised to find that Vincent had moved into the section eight apartments in the same neighborhood and that we had mange to draw the same lunch shifts.

      "I thought we were all here to hang out." Tyler said annoyed.

      "Ya, that doesn't mean having to walk around the mall all day in hundred degree weather." Vincent said visually setting into a more comfortable position to tell Tyler he wasn't going to be talked into moving.

    The three of us had made the not so brilliant conclusion of thinking that it would be cooler at the mall since the cooler at our house, Tyler's and mine I mean Vincent lived separately from us, had the unfortunate timing of failing just this very day and it would take a technician sometime before he could come out to fix the thing. So we made a dozen mile ride in a car with very little and insufficient air cooling system, that had seen the end of its heyday several years previous but had managed to keep from the car compactor from sheer luck of necessity, to the mall which we thought would be several times cooler but ended up not being the refreshing haven we had thought it to be. Still a lunch at the food court from the in housed Taco Bell was still quite enjoyable.

    "Fine, whatever dudes!" Tyler exclaimed exasperated lacking the energy for a true argument.

    "What do you even want to go in there for?" I asked curious.

      "To check out all the hot goth chicks." Vincent chuckled a little at his own joke.

      "You're a douche!" Tyler retaliated for being so simplistically thought of or because he was embarrassed that Vincent had nailed his intention on the head."You guys are boring!"

      "Bite me; you two were the ones who dragged me down here in the first place." I spat at him slushing around the ice in the 20 oz paper soda cup that I still retained from lunch. I was attempting to get at the remaining beverage that I suspected was hidden beneath the unmelted ice. Still it would be in vain in this weather. Something more substantial would probably be called for not long from now anyways.

        "Still you're always such a mood killer." Tyler told me."You never ask any girl out and those who actually try to talk to you you just shrug 'em off and ignore their entire existence!"

    I felt my face flood red with anger and humiliation. Tyler was right though that I could not deny but I had the worst luck of all time when it came to females in general. I could never seem to get my actions straight. I would suddenly find myself becoming the biggest klutz of all time despite my great physical coordination or talk about something in scientific standards that would seem insignificant to everyone else and scare the girl off with my big mouth. It was both a complicated and embarrassing situation to be in and I had no love for such situations. So I came to the conclusion that I would annoy fewer women if I just kept an overall distance unless I could find one that could truly stand me. If that day ever did come.

    Although now that I thought about it I didn't have much luck with people in general. I had a bad habit of speaking my mind, trying to be too intelligent about everything significant or minor, I always tried too hard not to shame myself in public, and for some odd reason I had the ability to make snap sarcastic remarks when someone said or did something I deemed stupid. All these traits you probably would think were good since if you watch anime or Fox they have numerous shows with the main antagonist having something similar to my personality but in real life things work completely different. Just my luck that I didn't live the life of some drama show. After awhile of offending and alienating people I just got tired of getting into trouble so I developed a bad habit of being anti-social. Though perhaps I was always anti-social. I couldn't remember when I exactly had become distant from society at any rate.

          "Dude, bite me." I repeated lamely, unable to come up with anything else. "I already told you I just don't have some allure everyone else has. I'm not smooth and I sure as hell don't have any moves."

          "Still you can try." Tyler told me.

          "I'm content with biding my time for now." I shrugged, taking aim at the nearest trash can to me and tossing my paper cup at it under handed at it, it bounced high off the lip before falling into its mouth perfectly. I smiled to myself thinking how I was lucky enough to be able to do simple tricks like that at least. I amazed myself with how I could always be so content with the simplest of things while it took so much more for everyone else to become reasonably content. Perhaps I was just optimistic despite how I always expected the worst of outcomes. Ironic, I was a optimist with a pessimistic outlook.

        "You know what, fine then if both of you are going to be asses ya'll can find yourselves your own way home." Tyler grinned unpocketing and then proceeding to twirl his car keys around his index finger while he said this.

    "Fine!" Vincent growled angrily. The car may not be that refreshing but it at least had a speed advantage to walking and neither Vincent nor I could drive yet.

        "Thought as much." Tyler smiled wildly letting his key ring to leap from his forefinger then catching them in his right hand with a slight jingle.

          Vincent gave an exasperated sigh as he stood up to follow after Tyler."Stupid, black mailing, son of a...

        "Finish that sentence and I'll have you eat the dirt off my tire treads." Tyler threatened turning his back to Vincent already heading for his selected store.

      "Bitch!" Vincent continued to say defiantly in a very low, almost unhearable voice that only I managed to be within range, to Tyler's disappearing back.

      "C'mon, Vince." I smiled at him nodding my head in Tyler's direction.

    Arriving at the retail store titled Hot Topic with bold deformed red lettering, Vincent and I found that Tyler had already entered through its propped open glass doors into a giant mass of people gathered into the too small cubic store. My mind doing math at a high speed calculated that there were too many people per cubic foot though even a complete imbecile could have managed to see that as people were literally squeezing around each other, several pushing. There were two things to blame for this many people just having to go to one single store all at the same time instead of waiting, trend and summer break, there was just way too many late middle schoolers to young adults most likely in high school or college.

      "See this is why I didn't want to come here." Vincent complained. "There's just waaay too many people to stomach. I'm outta here."

          Quick as lightning I snatched the hem of Vincent's T-shirt collar to prevent him from taking off I started to pull him forcefully toward the store's open doors and the mass of people.

    "I don't think so." I told him calmly I didn't like this many people any more than he did. "I don't want to listen to Tyler and you later when he decides to screw with you for not coming in as he asked earlier."

        "Fine!" He growled for a second time slapping my hand away, not that the crowd wouldn't have forced my grip away to begin with.

      Taking a quick survey for the most available route through the store I found that it was as thick near the back as it had appear at the front of the store. There was no avoiding bumping into people. Shrugging I decided to forgo niceties and barreled straight for where I thought Tyler may have gone. Forcing my way through males several inches taller than me and women a bit large for their size I managed to with my smaller than average body to get through the pack of people and find Tyler who was, not so surprisingly talking to a girl. Though it wasn't just some random girl, Tyler was better with the opposite sex than I was and in no contest but he wasn't the type to just talk to complete random girls in a very poor attempt to get a date either, no he was speaking to his latest girlfriend whom he'd been dating for a month or so now I wasn't exactly sure how long and couldn't care less.

      "Wow, no wonder you were so persistent." I announced my arrival smiling deviously a thousand different ways I could possibly embarrass my older brother went flying through my mind, but I decided I would do none of them and instead be courteous." Kelsy, right?"

      The young, hazel-eyed, girl gave me a polite smile, I hadn't met her but only twice and neither of them did I ever actually try to get to know her and it took more than a few momentary meetings for me to remember a name to begin with. In my opinion it wasn't my place to do so since this wasn't a serious relationship despite whatever feelings the two may have for each other. It was teenager love the kind that was liked and enjoyed but brief and often ended in drama blown out of proportion. As I had previously said. “Not my forte and definitely not my place.”

      "Right, Samuel." She replied sweetly.

      Turning to Tyler after being polite in at least say hello to Tyler's girl I got straight to the point. "Tyler there's way too many people here so Vincent and I are going to head somewhere else unless you would like to finish your business up here quickly or take it elsewhere at least."

        "Hold on Kelsey’s finishing up here and I was going to give her a ride." Tyler told me.

        "Alright." I nodded slightly annoyed. “Great back seat for me.” I thought silently.

        I decided to start heading for the CD racks to pass the time and attempt to get away from the mass of the crowd. Vincent intercepted me half way there.

    "Dude, why didn't you tell Tyler that we're leaving because there is just too many people here?" Vincent assumed that was what I had intentionally planned from the start. He wasn't as dumb as he looked after all.

    "I did but he's busy with his girlfriend and wants to give her a ride somewhere after they're through." I told Vincent. "I'm going to the CDs."

    "Damn." Vincent cursed just as annoyed as I was by the predicament that Tyler was forcing on us just for his girlfriend. "Alright."

    With that Vincent started off into the crowd heading to where ever he pleased I guessed. Shaking my head at the amount of people around me I didn't happen to notice someone being pushed by one of the overly anxious shoppers and they flew right into my stomach with the crown of their head. Letting out a whoosh of air I fell together with them to the floor where my hand got crushed by another shopper. I thought I could literally feel the bones in my hind snapped into pieces beneath the weight of the overweight man who had unintentionally manage to walk over me. Stumbling to my feet quickly not keen on getting walked over again I glanced down to find the person who had fallen into me still struggling to get up off the ground.

    "Here let me help you up." I said to them bending over to help them get to their feet. I somehow manage to avoid noticing the long brown hair and flowing dress in spite of my strong ability at observation. The girl gave me her hand while I wrapped my arm around their waist to get a better supporting grip. I got her to her feet before her hair moved to reveal her astonishing beautiful features. She had beautiful brown eyes that were complemented by her long curly brown hair and to top it off she had a perfectly detailed face. She gave me a polite smile obviously not noticing my astonishment. Becoming painfully aware of the fact I had my arm around her waist I immediately removed it and stepped away some paces from the girl.

        "S..sorry." I immediately apologized, stammering slightly, giving her an awkward smile in return. I wasn't apologizing for the fact that she had fallen but rather if I had somehow offended her. I wasn't entirely sure if I had but I had the mystical ability to offend someone just by looking at them. I couldn't figure out how I managed to do so but I didn't understand people completely to begin with.

      "Oh it’s fine it’s not your fault that I fell." The girl told me. "One of my idiotic friends apparently thought it would be funny to shove me!"

    Without another word the girl spun around and headed back into the crowd most likely hunting for the friend who had pushed her. Sighing, thankful that the situation hadn't escalated unnecessarily out of proportion. Standing there a bit longer somewhat annoyed that the girl didn't find me the least bit important to at least introduce herself to me I just let out a shrug and continued onto the CD racks, my original destination.

      For the next hour I pretended to hold a high interest in the music I was listening to. In truth I had no true interest in the music I had just seen it as a plausible pass time until Tyler and Kelsy were ready to leave. I hadn't counted on it taking such a long time. In the space of that hour the amount of people had dwindled significantly enough that I could see clearly around the store now. I found Tyler at the opposite end of the store still chatting with Kelsy while they walked back and forth near a wall of clothes and accessories. They probably weren't even paying the slightest attention to the clothes. A tap on my shoulder directed my attention to the person behind me which I believed to be Vincent so I didn’t turn to face him.

    "What do you want Vincent if you’re going to annoy me just go away." I said before turning to give him an annoyed look only to find the girl that had bumped into me earlier instead. Slightly surprised I pulled the head phones from my ears curious what she would want.

      "Who's Vincent?" The girl asked
.
    "Ummm, some idiot I know sorry thought you were him." I apologized.

    "That’s alright; I came to apologize again for my idiot friend they can act like little kids sometimes."
She told me.
    "Ya, I can understand that." I nodded my head glancing in Tyler's direction.

      The girl gave a slight chuckle following my gaze. "Sibling, huh?

      I nodded. "Very perceptive, yes, my older brother he's been taking forever, the bastard!"

    "I can understand that, I have a younger sister and she too can annoy me beyond my patience." She laughed to herself." My name's Emily and again sorry for slamming into you."

    "Samuel and it’s no problem it wasn't your fault by the sound of it, anyway." I assured Emily.

      "Hey, Emily, we're leaving." Came a call from someone standing in the entry way from the store.

Glancing up I found that it was a tall, broad, muscular man around seventeen or eighteen with an almost unscathed handsome face. I knew him though not his name just that he was the best football quarterback in my school. I instantly realized that Emily was probably his girlfriend and I silently took a step back from her distancing myself. I knew how guys like him were and I had no intention of causing any unnecessary problems. I wasn't in the mood to be hassled over something I deemed minor.

    "Well I've gotta go, see ya." Emily flashed me a brilliant smile before whisking away to go join her friends again.

    "Well, that was awkward." I said to myself finding that I was annoyed. I wasn't very popular and I wasn't mysterious or intriguing nor exceptionally good looking. I was out of my league with guy such as him and I for some reason found myself simply annoyed by that fact.

  "Hey Sam," Tyler spoke up breaking me from my depressing thoughts. "Who was that you were talking to?"

    "Ya'know I have no idea." I replied half truthfully. I only knew her name that was all.

    "Alright lets go. Where's Vincent?" Tyler asked.

    "Not sure he took off awhile ago." I replied then noticed someone else was missing. "For that matter where's Kelsy?"

  "Some of her friends came along and she decided to go home with them." Tyler replied. "Well since Vincent isn't here and I don't want to go looking for him let's just leave."

  "Oh so you're finally ready to leave?" Vincent spoke up having appeared just then holding a 20 oz paper cup of soda. " 'Bout damn time."

    "Oh, sonofabitch, now you show up!" Tyler exclaimed in disbelief.

      "Why do you sound like that’s somehow a bad thing?" Vincent asked offended.

    "Never mind let's just go." Tyler shrugged taking the lead.

      Quickly replacing the head phones to the music preview station I stepped in behind Tyler and Vincent following them absent mindedly my attention drifting away from reality. I didn't snap out of my day dream until we came across an ancient Egyptian expose. Something the mall had been advertising for several months now.

  I personnally had a peaked curiousity in the ancient Egyptian culture but I doubted that they would bring the really fascinating artifacts to a mere shopping mall. So I hadn't planned on going to see the exhibit and it wasn't until now as we were passing it that I decided it might be, if slightly, fascinating.

    "Vincent, Tyler, yo let's stop for a minute to check out the Egyptian exhibit." I called to the other two.

      "Are you freaking kidding me?" Tyler growled annoyed."I don't think so, no, we're leaving."

      "I've been waiting on you for hours the least you can do is let me look around for a bit." I snapped.

      "Nerd." Tyler replied.

    "Ass." I retorted heading on into the exhibit so that Tyler couldn't continue to refuse me.

        To my relief they decided to follow me in instead of just leaving me. I wasn't keen on walking so many miles in this scorching heat.

    "Hey look a mummy." Vincent mentioned offhandedly.

    I glanced back over my shoulder at what Vincent was looking at."It’s a fake."

    "What a millennia old corpse is forbidden in a mall or something?" Vincent asked.

    "No probably didn't want to go to extensive procedures just to bring a dead body to some mall." I replied.

    I continued to walk around the exhibit area which was a round spherical domed room that the mall had allowed the Museum of Ancient Egypt, the museum that was holding the exhibit, to use. The museum was also holding a presentation closer towards the far end of the room near the mall's food court with a large rectangular television screen. After several minutes I discovered nothing of interest just old scrolls with a short description attached to each view case and a couple of small stone slabs with glyphs etched into them, none of them got bigger than my three times the size of my palm. It seemed I had been right in my assumption.

    "They really punked out on this." I sighed disappointed. "They have nothing of true value here no mysterious objects or supposedly cursed relics. Hell, a nice story would be somewhat satisfying."

    "I thought you didn't believe in supernatural phenomenon?" Vincent said.

      "Meh, I'm more fifty-fifty." I replied shaking my hand. "I believe in unexplainable phenomenon."

    "What?" Vincent asked confused.

    "If you boys are looking for something more exciting you aren't going to find anything. The Museum doesn't bring its most prized artifacts on road trips." Came a raspy voice from behind.

    Turning I came to face an elderly woman with shock white hair and wrinkled aged skin. She looked to be very old but her eyes glistened with something that made her seem older than even her body was letting on. There was no way of telling if she had once been beautiful in her youth or not she was far too old now.

    "Umm, hello, are you a member of the museum?" I asked, smiling, trying to be polite.

    "Not quite, it’s more of a hobby of mine. I've been to Egypt many times myself even found a few things there." She replied but didn't smile in return.

    "I'm sure you have." Vincent blurted out.

  I heard Vincent hiss in pain as Tyler hit him hard on the shoulder. “Don’t be an ass.”

  The elderly woman actually smiled at Vincent's comment. "I look that old, huh?"

    "Umm, no?" Vincent replied not sounding the least bit convincing.

      "Hard to hide it at my age I am quite old." She said truthfully.

    "How old?" Vincent asked not even hesitating.

      I turned and gave him the annoyed glare as the elderly woman replied. "Older than you'd believe."

      "So what kind of things did you find in Egypt while you were there?" I asked trying to change the subject. Vincent might have wanted to pursue the age topic and I didn't want to offend an old lady today.

    "Several things." She replied giving a cryptic smile pulling out a packet of cigarettes.

    "I don't think you're allowed to smoke in here." Vincent told the woman.

    "I know but because I'm so old people just assume I'm senile and don't even bother to tell me off." The woman said.

  "Oh just thought some courtesy for the public might be nice." Vincent shrugged uncaring.

  "You're a smartass, ya know that?" The woman said to Vincent lighting up a cigarette with a lighter.

  "And you're old; see how pointless it is to point out the obvious?" Vincent retorted.

    Both Tyler and I just kept a distance finding the fight between the old woman and Vincent to be somewhat entertaining. I had given up trying to stop Vincent's arguing. Besides, the woman seemed to be antagonizing it.

    "You're a spunky one. I like you." The woman smiled inhaling deep on her cigarette. "Tell you what I'll show you something special. I never leave it at home because it's highly valuable and I couldn't stand if it was somehow stolen by some hard headed prick."

    "Paranoid much?" Vincent asked.

    "When you're at my age it’s what keeps you alive and going." The woman said bending over in her chair and reaching beneath to a large sack she had between her feet.

    She pulled out what looked to be a large sphere but still able to fit comfortably in the palm of her hand, bringing it up she laid it gently on the table. The ball looked to be made of pure gold and it had odd drawings on it though they did looked to be Egyptian hieroglyphs.

    "What is this?" I asked walking up to it to examine it closer up.

      "It’s a orb of knowledge, or supposedly, it is rumored to contain all the knowledge of the gods themselves." She answered.

      "What?" Vincent asked.

      "It's an object that is suppose to retain the memories and experiences, or knowledge, of a person in the sphere then it’s suppose to transfer it to a future wielder, am I right?" I told Vincent looking up at the elderly woman for confirmation.

      "Close but this is done supernaturally, on a spiritual plane." She nodded.

    "Quantum physicists have theorized the possibility of instantaneous learning through objects from other people's lives and experiences but nothing that was obtainable by Egyptians." I continued.

    "Sam, anyone ever tell you that you read waaaaay too much?" Tyler piped up for the first time in the conversation.

    "Several times actually." I nodded indifferently.

      "Ya'know I have this odd feeling I've met you before." The old woman suddenly claimed.

      "I don't think so I've never actually been to the museum." I said the woman nodded but kept staring at my face trying to remember where'd she had supposedly met me before.

      "Cool, how's it work?" Vincent asked. "Is there an on switch somewhere on that thing?"

      "You wish it worked so simply." I sighed chuckling. "Besides it’s a myth."

      "And it only works psychically, in the mind." The woman added. "Or so it goes."

      "Have you gotten little flashes or visions from that thing?" Vincent asked smiling.

      "To accept psychic information from an object you must be a psychic." The woman answered. "It’s to keep from overloading a lesser beings mind."

      "Where was that in the Egyptian spiritual guide to the underworld?" I asked sarcastically.

        "There are something’s that aren't known yet about Egypt so don't think those Egyptologists know everything there is on the Egyptian civilization." The old woman snapped.

      "Why don't they just ask you, grandma?" Vincent asked then let out a pained sound as Tyler elbowed him hard in the ribs. "Sorry that just came out."

      I didn't pay any attention to Vincent I was too preoccupied with the sphere. "These are some terrific glyphs here. I'm no expert but I've never seen ones like these they look to be like a series of pictures telling a story of some event."

      Staring at the glyphs I realized they weren't hieroglyphs but rather just pictures or drawings that were telling the story of two men, one with power of light and one with power of dark however instead of the usual ying-yang, good vs. evil, light vs. dark scenario, the two men were fighting alongside each other. In each frame, the sphere seemed to be divided into sections which looked to flow from right to left, the two fought more menacing looking beasts. Eventually the frames came to a drawing where the two men had looked to have conquered all the darkness and the two men stood in what resembled a prairie a sun shined behind them while they were surrounded by others, "peace" I thought. The next frame showed one of the men, the one who controlled darkness apparently as he was always shown with the moon behind him, held the drawing of a female in his arms. Though it was hard to tell it looked like the drawings of some kindergartener. In the one next to that it showed that the darkness had consumed the man and he and the one with power over light fighting in the previously peaceful prairie, which was now transformed into a hellish battlefield of light vs. dark, the moon and the sun clashed above while the two men clashed below in what was drawn to be an epic battle.

    "Figures." I smirked smiling.

      "Sam!" Tyler's voice rang in my ears.

    "What?" I cried surprised that I'd been that hypnotized by the orb and irritated that Tyler was distracting me from finishing it.

    "What are you staring so hard at that thing for?" Tyler asked.

    "The drawings look to be telling a story." I replied.

        "What about?" Tyler persisted.

      "The beginning of light vs. dark, I think." I answered.

      "Figures." Tyler repeated me. "That’s so overused though."

        "Don't complain to me about it." I agreed moving in closer to the golden sphere, I had reached the end of this side. "Do you mind if I turn it?"

      "Knock yourself out." The old woman nodded absent mindedly busy with talking/arguing to Vincent and smoking her cigarette.

      I reached out my hand towards the dome of the orb but no sooner did the tips of my fingers touch it did my vision burst into white and then retract into darkness. I felt a huge jolt in the pit of my stomach as if my body had been swallowed whole by the orb. Though this got my heart racing, or what I assumed to be my heart, the experience was completely painless. Suddenly I found myself flowing through frame after frame of memory and emotion that was utterly alien and confusing to me. Only then did pain flair. My head felt to be splitting in a thousand pieces. I opened my mouth to cry out but no sound came out. In fact I couldn't feel my body at all. I felt nothing or was nothing only my mind and spirit existed here. Although I could obvious still experience pain.

    Suddenly a voice spoke though in a language I could not understand. It sounded exotic and different to my ears. I had had several experiences in listening to foreign languages. I couldn't speak any of them but they all had distinctive sounds to them. This one wasn't any of them. The person speaking or the orb, I'm not sure what was real, realized in some way that I couldn't understand and I found myself having tons of information shoved into my conscious self until I could understand its language.

      "You should not have come here; you are not yet ready for this knowledge. Be gone before your mind is destroyed!" The voice repeated what it must have said before but this time I could understand what language it was using but it sounded as if it were more worried than foreboding.

    I attempted to tell it that I had no intention of activating the orb or shoving my consciousness inside of it but before I could a painful shock went through my head as though my brain was being literally cut in half. The next thing I knew I found myself standing in the praire that had been so terribly illistrated on the golden orb. But like in the second showing of the prarie it had been twisted and warped into a hellish scene. Dead plants and animals scattered the landscape giving it the view of some kind of horrible graveyard. If the prarie had contained grass at anytime it had been entirely stripped of greenry. It now resembled a more lifless barren type of terrain. All evidence of the life it had entertained erased from existance by the devistating battle that was taking place atop its surface.

  I saw two men before me. One had long pitch-black hair that obscured his facial features. He stood in front of the second who had similarly long hair however was a frosted white color hair. He laid bloodied, beaten on his chest before the other saddness spread on his face while his enemy held contempt and rage. The two looked at one another with discolored eyes I had never seen before. The dark haired man's eyes were a red and black that intermingled over his iris and sclera but his pupil retained the normal black as everyone else. The white haired one's eyes were completly white the iris, pupil, sclera, everything. It resembled the same effect that happened to a person's eyes who had gone blind long ago.

    The wind picked up in a severe gust kicking up red dirt that shrouded the two even more. Making out their faces was impossible. I had to rely on sound alone as the two were conversing very heatedly. The anger in the dark haired one actually spilled out into the very air that surrounded him in a type of blackened energy. When it reached me it felt as if the world had come crushing down ontop of my body. I fell instantly to my hands and knees all hope and will had been sapped from every inch of my corperal body. I could feel the evil murderous intent. The hate and desire to see the universe brought to shambles was evident in the energy. It was so powerful, so angry, and full of hate that it was killing me, sufforcating the life inside my body.

    "Why?" Spoke the white haired one true sorrow filled his words. "Why are you doing all this brother?"

      I couldn't understand how the man was still alive. The vileness of the energy alone could kill anything that came into contact with it.

    "Because everyone betrayed me!" The Dark One exclaimed. "They betrayed me! You betrayed me! Even HE betrayed me!"

      "Brother please see sense!" The White haired man pleaded hopelessly. Dispite being a new spectator to this struggle I could already tell his plea was lost on the Dark One.

      "For your treason against your true Lord, I herby, sentence for all eternity that you will never grasp the power of light henceforth!" The Dark One declared. "May Oblivion have mercy on your pitiful soul, my lord brother!"

      Raising his hand a red-lined black orb expanded from the air. Knowing exactly what the man intended to do I cried out in an effort to save the defeated brother. Deep down inside my soul I felt this event had already happened. This was not a vision or glimpse into either a possible or inevitable future. And I felt a profound connection of regret. It did not matter, neither heard me. I was attempting to yield an event seperated not by distance but by time. A measurement I could not hope to lapse.

  With a flick of his wrist, the Dark One, sent the orb to his broken and beaten brother. On contact the orb appeared to consumed the white haired figure devouring the whole of his physical body. At the moment his body ceased to exist a bright figure burst from the quickly evaporating shell.

    "No, I shall deny the afterlife to you as well." He whispered in such an odd form that it carried on the wind so that even I could hear it without difficulty.

    To my amazement the Dark One's single eye that I could see glew a bright red until it was all that filled my vision. The black of his eyes then began to melt back from the iris and sclera creating a vast dimensional portal just behind the man. Dust concealed the portal from my sights along with my already wavering consciousness. I could only listen to the remainder of the scene before me.

    "You shall forever regret disappointing the God of this realm!" Those words resounded as the scene of the prairie vanished not to be replaced by the mall once more but by a sudden materialization of what appeared to be black concrete.

      I rouse to examine my new surroundings closer only to have the pain, which became agitatedly worse, return. The abrupt change in environment strained my eyes, agonizingly, as they had to adjust to the scenery at a inhuman speed made me fall to my knees again. Seconds after getting to my feet in the first place. Dazed and terribly noxious I nearly threw up on the pavement before me just managing to avoid doing so by gulping down the bile while slapping my hand to my mouth. Dignity refusing to let regurgitated food back through the opening.

  I stayed kneeled there until the wave of noxiousness subsided before I attempted to return to my feet. That resulted in another dose of pain in my head, however, milder than the first. I raised my right hand from my mouth to my head in an effort to appease the horrible ache ripping my head apart. I was forced to stand for another moment before the torturous spasms subsided enough that it was bearable to move around with. Still I suffered a mild headache, burning eyes from wet tears, and nostrils that felt as if I had just snuffed fire up them. Reluctantly, afraid of aggravating my sore head, I started looking over some of my surroundings hoping I would recognize were I was.

  The location had changed durastically. I learned that I was standing in the middle of a three lane highway.