Run With the Hunted

Chapter 1: Sean of no Trades

"Sean McLoughlin." A very bored sounding voice calls. A boy with brown hair and bright blue eyes gets up and shoves his hands in his hoodie pockets. He just graduated that whole training school and now he was getting his power and weapon and all that good stuff, it should be exciting, but he's not happy about it.

He's trained for a few years and he already knew all his strong and weak points, he was always close to home when training. But now he was very far from home with no one that he knows in a big white building in a clean and futuristic city. His whole family was excited to hear that he was becoming a warrior or whatever but he probably wasn't gonna ever get to see them again, and that made him upset. But he had to do it, for his family.

Sean slowly walked up to a desk and a rather bored man was clicking a pen and glanced up. "Are you Sean McLoughlin?" He asked. Sean nodded. The man behind the desk groaned in annoyance and pulled out a pice of paper, read it over, then set a small rock on the desk. "Take the rock and step in there sir." He said and went back to clicking his pen and called for another person.

Sean looked at the rock in his hand and walked over to the room and cautiously stepped inside. It was all black with a screen on one side and a mirror on the other and another door across from him. He was confused. 'They didn't go over this in class...' he thought to himself. "Hello Sean, please confirm your name or change it at will." The screen finally blurted out. Sean walked over to the screen and thought for a moment. "Sean" didn't really have the effect he liked. He never really minded it but he didn't want to be some badass warrior called Sean. He remembered a friend made up a name for him because of that exact reason so he typed in
'J-A-C-K' and hit enter. The screen beeped and continued "Is Jack McLoughlin correct?" Jack clicked confirm again.

The screen beeped again. "Please hold out the personality stone on the palm of your dominant hand and hold still" it said. He was confused but did it anyways. The stone started glowing white and shaking in Jack's hand. He was so confused and kinda afraid but he was too boss to be really afraid. Then it cracked and a neon green slime shot out and whirled around Jack and back onto the rock. The rock turned into a little green squishy eyeball toy with an optic nerve (more like a tail but whatever) at the end. Jack looked it over. "What do I do with this...?" He asked, hoping the screen would tell him what to do. Sadly enough, it didn't. He tried to think back to what the real warriors did. He saw someone change into their armor before and it was awesome. If it's an eye... then maybe he had to hold it up to his eye? Jack shrugged and looked the eye... well, in the eye and it didn't do anything. Then he slowly turned it until it was facing the same way he was and it started glowing.

The eye turned into light and traveled down his hand and all over his body. Jack closed his eyes because the light was bright but when he opened them everything was tinted green. He then realized he was wearing some sort of glasses. Excitedly, Jack ran to the mirror and smiled brightly. He was wearing a bright green chest plate that only covered his top half, the rest of his torso and arms was covered by a tough fabric with a hood. He also had dark green skinny jeans and elbow and knee pads with tall green and black boots that laced up. Over his chest was an "X" design with a circular gem in the middle that was blue on the inside and green on the edges. His hair even changed, the top turned green. In short, it was awesome.

He had the look but what was his weapon? And how do you summon it? So many questions with no way of answering them. Great... Now what? Does he just swing his arm around and wish really hard? That was stupid but he tried it. "I look like a fucking idiot!" He growled until his hand brushed past his eyes and a green, blue, and black see through shield strapped itself to his arm. "Woah!" He jumped back in shock. "A shield?" He asked. "Not a sword or a gun or something?" What the fuck is he supposed to do with a shield!? Throw it at people and play frisbee!? This sucked. Jack was upset and confused. Then that stupid screen chimed in. "If you have your armor and weapon please take the book and exit the room, thank you and have a nice day!" Then it clicked off. Oh boy, more reading. Jack picked up the book and read the cover
'Shield Wielding for Dummies'
Har har har... he carried it out with him in a huge room filled with people in line. Oh boy... waiting...

As he waited, he found out how to put his weapon away and he read over what having a shield meant and what he could do. Apparently he was a protector, and he should have more than one shield if he wanted and a power that helps. He couldn't try any of that because he was in a room full of people but whatever. The person in front of him seemed to be just as confused. She was wearing teal armor and She had brown long hair and a high pitched voice. That's all he found out about her because he wasn't up for talking to anyone. Standing sucked and as he looked around he saw people talking to their friends and showing off and having fun. Jack didn't have any friends yet and he wasn't gonna make them now.

Finally he made it to the front of the line. There was a tall woman with very bright yellow armor on and glasses. "Are you Jack McLoughlin?" He nodded. She scoffed "This personality sheet says you're a loud guy yet I haven't seen or heard you say one word this whole time." Jack nodded "Yeah... Guess I'm nervous..." he said. She rolled her eyes. Well Jack, you'll be in group number 12371712. I'll send the base coordinates to your glasses to show you where to go. She then poked his lenses and they chirped. There was a path leading him to somewhere. "Have a nice day." She said and shooed him away.

Jack walked out and followed his glasses' directions through town. Lots of people pointed and smiled at him. Kids would jump happily and smile excitedly at him. He remembers being that excited when he saw someone in armor. It was a cute and happy thing to see. The city was huge and very beautiful, very different from his old country home.

All of a sudden a black blotch covered part of the road and a tall goopy monster thing stepped out of it and roared. Jack knew that was a dark matter being and it had to be stopped. He pulled out his shield and threw it at the blob. It looked over at him and charged forward. Jack jumped out of the way just in time and called his shield back to him. It appeared back on his arm and he noticed the blob about to attack a child and father. He ran over to them and held his shield up, blocking the attack. Jack was pretty fast but not that strong so he fell when it hit the shield. The father thanked him and pulled his daughter away and ran. Jack then got hit in the face and it cracked his glasses. "Fucking Hell!" He shouted. Good thing they repair themselves when he takes the armor off. He saw the next attack coming and covered his face with his shield. He wasn't gonna beat this thing alone! It was too strong and he doesn't know how to use a shield. He remembers from class that the teacher said to know when you need help and he needed it now.

Like a prayer being answered he heard a shout and something blue hit the blob and it flew off of Jack. He looked over and saw a blond guy in bright blue armor and big light and dark blue gauntlets. He only saw the back of the guy but he wasn't complaining about having anyone help him. The guy dragged the dark matter being away and then there was a flash of blue.