The Knights of Tekka (Part Two)

Gray stood there with his arms crossed “I brought you here because you were chosen by my lord.” Ryan shook his head and stepped back “Chosen? What do you mean chosen? What could anyone want with me? How did I get here? What do you want with me? What in the hell is this place?” Ryan lost it; he began to barrage Gray with questions. Gray grabbed Ryan by his shoulders “You’ve been so calm since you got here, now your going to loose your nerve? All of your questions will be answered in due time.” Ryan snapped back away from Gray’s grip on his shoulders. He stumbled backwards and his foot found hold on a small sapling tree and he fell backwards. Yet he didn’t hit the ground as you would expect; his fall had slowed to what would be a mere crawl and he came to rest softly on the grass. The expression on his face changed from one of surprise due to the fall to one of sheer confusion. Gray stood over him shaking his head “You have much to learn my friend” He offered a hand, which Ryan hesitantly took. Gray lifted him back to his feet, “Come with me.” Gray motioned as he started walking towards a tree line far off in the distance.

The two walked in silence, the tree line to the forest was only a few moments away. “What the hell?” Ryan said as he closed is eyes for a moment. He put his arms up and covered his face. “Where is all that heat coming from?” Gray didn’t even look back at Ryan, he just kept walking. “Hey, are you listening to me?!” Ryan yelled. Gray looked back “Don’t worry about it, walk over where I am and it’ll go away.” Ryan did as Gray said and the heat dissipated. “What is that?” He asked curiously. Gray stopped walking and lifted his arm near his face. He looked at what appeared to be a wristwatch and pressed a button on it. In front of them an aircraft of some sort appeared out of thin air. The sound of its engines came to life and lights flickered on its wing-tips. “Holy shit!” shouted Ryan as he stepped back away from the machine. He looked at it in awe. “So that’s where that heat was coming from. Why couldn’t we hear it?” Gray looked at him and laughed, “The cloaking mechanism on this thing creates a sound barrier which prevents it from being heard outside of a few meters from it. Let’s put it this way, where you come from, this kind of technology is far out of your grasp, it’ll be another 1,000 years before your people will be creating shit like this.” Ryan just let out a low whistle. “Now, if you don’t mind, we need to be going.” Stated Gray as he unfolded what looked like foot holds on the side of the nose of the aircraft. He climbed up and opened the canopy that covered the cockpit and motioned for Ryan to climb into the back. The two of them climbed in and got themselves seated. A moment later the aircraft hovered into the air and sped off over the tree’s and disappeared into the distance.

After about an hour worth of flying over a foreign landscape a large city came into view. “Is that where we are headed?” Asked Ryan curiously, rubbing the back of his head with his hand. Gray peered back over at him, his armor reflecting the sunlight into Ryan’s eyes. “That is the kingdom of Tekka. Your new home my friend.” Gray turned back forward and continued flying towards the city. “The kingdom of Tekka? My new home? No way! I can’t stay here; I’ve got a family to take care of!” Ryan shouted from behind Gray. Gray ignored him; he looked down at the console in front of him and punched some numbers on a keypad. They were over the city now; the aircraft flew around in a large circle then came to a halt mid-air above a large circle painted onto a concrete surface on the ground. Slowly the aircraft hovered down and settled onto the ground. Ryan looked around and sighed, thinking to himself “Maybe I can get some answers now.” After a moment he realized they were still going down, just then the ground passed him and he was looking at a skeleton of metal and stone. Looking up he could see the sky. “We landed on an elevator?” Ryan poked up looking forward in the aircraft. Gray nodded.

The ride down in the elevator seemed like forever to Ryan. Finally the elevator had stopped in a large room that seemed to span for miles in any direction. He could see hundreds of vehicles; they all seemed to be war-machines of sort. He could also see workers, what seemed like thousands of them, busy at their jobs. The canopy on the aircraft opened and Gray jumped out. Ryan followed, hopping over the edge of the cockpit and landing unsteadily on the ground. Moment’s later Ryan found himself in a room, sitting in front of a desk with Gray standing beside him.

A man walked into the room and traveled slowly behind the desk and stopped just before sitting down in his chair. Gray abruptly stood straight and saluted the man. “At ease Gray, good job getting him here.” The man said as he saluted in reply to Gray and took a seat in his chair. “So you are Ryan. You’re a lot smaller than I’d thought you’d be.” He said as he leaned back in his chair. “How do you know who I am? And just who the hell are you?” Ryan asked puzzled. “Well, we only just found out about you a few years ago. We’ve been tracking you down for some time now. Should have guessed you’d live on Earth, with a name like that.” The man said lightly, “You can simply refer to me as El-tee. You don’t want to try and pronounce my full name, you wouldn’t be able to finish it in one breathe.” He laughed. Ryan sat there and shook his head “You still aren’t answering my question, how in the hell do you know who I am?” “Calm down boy, I’m getting there. We found out about you from someone named Elena, although she didn’t bother telling us ‘where’ you were, she just informed us you existed. So we spent the next few years looking for you. Supposedly, according to her, you possess a great deal of power.” Ryan just stared at him, speechless and unsure of what this man was talking about. “A great deal of power? Your full of shit old man, I don’t possess any powers, and who the hell is this Elena girl? I fall off my roof and all of a sudden I’m in some strange land with not a fucking clue, clad in clothing that a wandering soldier would wear in the medieval ages. And yet, apparently, you people possess technology that makes my home look like it’s still in the medieval ages. This city looked fairly normal coming in, but as soon as we entered this underground facility, that changed very quickly.”

Gray looked at him “You’re wearing that clothes, because we are going to take you to a place where that is precisely what age they are in. We are going to see if you really are as gifted as Elena says you are. We aren’t entirely sure of Elena’s history, but she has left us a lot of very helpful intelligence in the past, so we do believe her to some extent.” El-tee nodded his head in compliance to Gray’s statement. “Listen, I’ve watched you ever since you showed up here, you didn’t freak out or anything and that is rather strange. Aren’t you a bit curious even to yourself as to why you were so calm?

Have you ever been scared in your life?” he asked simply. Ryan looked at him and shook his head, “No, I’ve never been scared of anything or anyone for that matter. I figure it’s just my nature.” El-tee nodded, “It’s a possibility, but I think it has to do with something else, there is a great power buried deep within you, and it gives subtle hints to it’s existence, but they are so subtle not even you notice them, and that is why you’ve never been scared. A regular person goes through something terrifying at least once in their lifetime and in your existence, you’ve gone through your days without a trace of fear. It was apparent when you got here. You took off to the land in search of civilization. With Gray right there with you, being ever watchful, until I told him to make contact with you, little did I know he was going to play a game with you.” El-tee looked up at Gray and shook his head. “Shouldn’t you get out of your armor now Gray?” Gray looked at him and nodded, “Oh shit, yah. I forgot I was even still in this thing” he laughed. Gray lifted his arms and balled his fists. “Tek Off!” He yelled and a blinding light burst from his body, as the light subsided, Gray stood there in normal clothing. “Ah, better sir?” El-tee nodded and looked to Ryan. “There is much to be talked about and much to explain, but that will come tomorrow. For now you need to rest. Gray will take you to your quarters.” Ryan nodded and stood.

Gray led him to what seemed an apartment complex and slid a card into a scanner next to a door marked “317”. “This is your place for now on. I will be here to pick you up tomorrow morning” Gray said as he opened the door and walked in with Ryan following. Gray walked over to a little box sitting on an end table. “This is similar to a telephone, see this red button. If you need anything, push it. Other than that, make yourself at home, everything in here belongs to you now. “He announced and headed back towards the front door. “So that’s it huh? You practically kidnap me and the only choice I have is to stay here forever?” Ryan spoke with a short demeanor. Gray stopped and turned around “Frankly, no we didn’t kidnap you, but if you’d really like to know, if I hadn’t brought you here, you’d be dead right now. The fall from that roof would have killed you. We left a double in your place, so as of now, you are dead on Earth. But in truth, you are alive.” Ryan looked at him in disbelief, “Do what?! Everyone thinks I’m dead?! You’re deceiving my entire family! What kind of people are you?” He shouted angrily. Gray shook his head, “I’ll be back in the morning” and he walked out the door, shutting it behind him. Ryan ran to the door and tried opening it. “Son of a bitch! Open you piece of shit!” Ryan tried profusely to open the door. “Whatever damnit…this is bullshit!” he yelled and he stormed back into the room and sat down on a couch. He sat there for hours and eventually fell onto his side and went to sleep.