Altered Cosmos

Chapter 1; It Begins

The year is 2099.

On a large island located a distance away from the coast of South Africa…… a group of 10 men dressed in modern brown hunting outfit were hiking through the thick forest… they were a mixture of different races with a pick-up truck with an empty trunk following them while two men lead in front… 

One of the leaders was a tall, muscular dark-skinned man of about 50 years with a long moustache and beard. His outfit was unique with a hood covering his short black hair and a long metallic spear on his back.

He turns to the other man leading with a cheeky smile. “I still can’t believe you’re hunting with us. Can you still use that thing?” He chuckled with his tone that of a Ghanaian.

The other man of 45 years of age who was not as tall and wasn’t that muscular turned to him and smiled. He was light-skinned unlike his very dark companion and his black hair was short and curly.

“I admit that it’s a long time since I’ve hunted myself…” He said with an almost normal American accent if not for his surprisingly deep voice. He chuckles and pats the rifle on his side. “But I still know the ropes, John.”

John cackles and pats the man’s shoulder. “Whatever you say, Chief. Just make sure you hit the prey and not us.” The other men with them chuckled at John’s joke while the man shrugs.

“Who knows…I might even catch more prey than you.” He said with a cocky smile and John raises a brow at him.

“You’re on but be warned…” John grins and slaps his muscular chest, proudly. “Just because you’re the Chief of the village doesn’t mean I’ll go easy on you.”

The Chief chuckles and lightly punches John. “I expect no less from my head hunter.”

They walk some more distance when John suddenly gives a sign and they all stop. He motions to one of the men whom used a small metallic scope to scout ahead and spots three grown antelopes.

The man indicates three with his fingers and John signals two men to positon themselves with the Chief following. 

“Don’t miss it.” John whispered and the Chief smiles as he pulls out his rifle. After a moment of silence, John gives the signal and the three men fired, taking down all antelopes through headshots.

The men cheered as the antelopes fell to the ground with loud thuds and John pats the Chief’s back with a smile. “Nice shot.”

As they go to collect the bodies and place them in the truck, one of the men noticed a rumble on the ground and signals John.

“Looks like we got company.” John said and the two men guard the truck while the others got ready as the sound gets closer.

John grabs his spear and swings it around a little before clutching it tight in his hands just as a stampede of wild boars busted out of the bushes.

The men open fire, taking down some boars while John hurls his spear at the beasts, ripping through three of them at once. “Guess our hunt startled them.” He mumbled as he charges forward and pulled out a handgun to take out some other boars.

The Chief takes down five more boars with headshots before speaking up as he reloads. “Lucky for us.” He rolls to the side as a boar charges just past him and prepares to attack the disoriented Chief when a familiar spear rips through its skull and its body comes to a halt.

The Chief turns back to see John running over to him. “Thank you, John.”

John shoots another boar with a side-arm before reclaiming his spear and turning to the Chief. “No problem. Besides, if you die here, I’m more scared of what Mrs West will do to me than the entire village.”

The Chief laughs as he gets up with his rifle clutched in his hand. “My wife does have her scary side.” He chuckled before taking point and shooting down another boar.

After about 10 minutes, the men were already halfway done with loading the captured boars on the truck when Mr West lets out a tired laugh. “I think I’ve had enough hunting for a while.”

John wipes the sweat from his head and throws his arm around Mr West. “Looks like I won the bet.” 

“It wasn’t an official bet, so it doesn’t count.” Mr West mumbled and John laughs as he releases Mr West who suddenly wore a worried look. “John?” John turns to Mr West with a raised brow. “Is it alright to trust my son to go off by himself?”

John chuckles and places a comforting hand on Mr West’s shoulder. “I’ve told you a hundred times, don’t worry about it. Your kid’s a tough one and I respect that…” Mr West hangs his head a little but John shakes him with a laugh.

“Don’t get all worked up. I treat Levi like he’s my own son, too. Besides…” He reaches for his hood and removes it to reveal his short-low hair. “He’s the reason I’m still alive, remember?” He gestures to his neck where a large beast scar was seen.

Mr West lets out a sigh and chuckles. “I guess…but the main reason I’m even here was because I wanted to see how he hunts. Do you even know where he is?”

John shrugs. “I never know where that boy goes to hunt.” Mr West raises a brow at John who laughs and waves dismissively. “Come on, chief. It’s not like anything’s actually capable of hurting him out there…”

“We’re ready, sir.” A young man said and John nods as he motions them to head back. Meanwhile……

Deeper in the thick forest, on one of the trees was a concealed figure in the thick leaves, observing a group of five antelopes grazing on the vegetation.

He was a young guy with bronze-coloured skin, a tiny black mole on his nose and smooth-silky black hair in a basic bowl haircut. He was just wearing a black tank top, blue shorts and sandals. He was also a little muscular and based on his facial appearance, he appears to be Mr West’s son, Levi.

He closed his caramel-coloured eyes and takes a deep breath…the air around him suddenly feels chilly as he opened his eyes with his iris now glowing deep sky-blue. 

“Five antelopes and a boar…” He mumbled as his vision was now in thermal mode which allowed him to make out the boar covered in the bush. He grins and stands on the branch with his eyes on his targets. “Easy enough.”

His eyes glow brighter and he lunges forward, the force snapping the branch he was standing on. 

The sound startles the animals but Levi moves with a blur as he snaps the neck of an antelope before smashing the heads of two more antelopes together then he immediately takes out the last ones as they tried to escape.

He turns around as he hears a grunt and a heat signature was scurrying away. “Not so fast.” He quickly picks up a rock and hurls it into the pig, sending it to the ground with a thud.

He lets out a sigh and both hands on his hips when he feels something and quickly crouches down. He closes his eyes and focus on his environment……

An abstract coloured-drained holographic image of the trees, grass, the captured prey all formed in his mind including a creature approaching him from behind. He turns around just as two foxes appear from the bush and growls at Levi. 

“Nice…” He mumbled with excitement as he stood just as one of the foxes growls at him angrily and pounces. But Levi ducks below before smashing his palm under its jaw, breaking its teeth and cracking its skull.

The other fox growls at Levi before suddenly lunging forward with its sharp jaws but Levi dodges to the side and grabs another stone from the ground.

As the fox prepares to attack again, Levi spins around and hurls the stone into the fox’s head. It hits the ground with a heavy thud and Levi grins at his new captured prey.

15 minutes later, Mr West and John with the rest of the hunting team were already at the village with their captured prey. 

The village was found in a valley bounded by two massive hills to its sides and the sea to its northern part with the southern side leading to the jungle. It was as big as a small town but it was as modern as technology was around the year 2050.

This is because the island was a by-product of the World war created by Trons to serve as a refuge for civilians and after the peace treaty was made, many refugees returned to their homes while others regarded this island as their new home and stayed creating the multi-race residents now present. It was called Asylum Bay partly due to its port system. 

John leads the men to the hunting centre and as the men carried the goods into the building, John catches Mr West staring at his rifle with a smile on his face. “Looks like I underestimated you, Chief. You’re still the hunter I knew before you took over this village.”

Mr West lets out a sigh and rubs his head. “My carefree days…” He looks up at the now setting sun and places a hand on the fence of the building. “It’s getting late. Where is-” He was cut off as some people cheer and they looked in the direction of the main gate feet away.

John folds his arms when he sees the figure running up to them. “Looks like our yearly feast’s going to be especially festive tonight.” He chuckled as he noticed the large mixture of different animals tied together by ropes over Levi’s head.

He comes to stop in front of the centre and grins at John. “What do you think? Too much?” John shakes his head and chuckles. The workers by the building gathered a cart and Levi gently lowers the large pile of prey unto the cart just as John and his dad approached.

“Hey dad.” He said with a smile as his eyes returned back to its normal brown but Mr West raises a brow at him.

“You’ve been hunting for a year but you never told me you did it alone…and neither did the man I told to watch you.” He said with a slight angered tone and a glare at John who whistles as he avoids eye-contact.

Levi rubs his neck and chuckles awkwardly as Mr West continues to give a stern look to his son before sighing. “I have my hands full now with the feast, so……” Levi’s face lights up with a grin. “I’ll just leave the talk to your mum.”

Levi flinches a little and shakes his head slowly. “Can’t you just talk to me yourself?” He asked with a nervous laugh and Mr West laughs.

“Too late. I’ve already told her about it and she’s waiting for you back home.” 

“I’m dead.” Levi mumbled with his head hung and John chuckles as he gives Levi a strong pat on the back that makes him stumble a little. “Hey…” He mumbled as he rubbed his back before glancing at men who were lifting the foxes into a different cart. “Oh, yeah. I told you I’ll get something awesome today.”

John glances at the large prey with its head lulled to the side and grins at Levi. “I never had a doubt.”

Levi lets out a proud laugh and turns as his father touches his shoulder. “Yeah. Nice work, Levi.”

“Thanks.” He said and Mr West gives his head a little rub before letting him go.

“You should head back. I’ll be back by dinner.” Levi nods and waves at John before moving away. “Oh and Levi?” He suddenly stops but doesn’t turn back as his father gives him a stern look. “No powers.” 

The blue glow already in Levi’s eyes fade away as he chuckles with a hand on his head. “Okay.” He gives a little wave and runs off. As Mr West turned to John, Levi glances back and takes a turn by a building before using his powers again.

His speed suddenly increases as he zooms across the village of buildings and houses of which the tallest were only as high as 3-storeys.

He smiles as he gets more excited and jumps up, ricochets off a wall and leaps onto the roof of a two-storey house. He startles the woman spreading out clothes to dry on the roof and she smiles when she sees him. 

“Levi. If you wanted to visit, you could have just asked.” She said with a chuckle and Levi chuckles as waves at her and continues to run.

“Sorry, Mrs Dean.” He said as he jumped off the roof to the next. He laughs and grins as he leaps across buildings and trees with inhumane speed and agility. He leaps off the side of a building and performs a loop-d-loop with a tree branch, launching him back into the air.

As his body soars through the air, he catches the sight of some kids playing soccer on a small field, although it appeared upside-down because of his mid-air position.

The kids along the rest of the world were moving in slow-motion to Levi due to his senses and brain which processed events several times faster than a normal human. He finally lands on the ground with a flip and was already moving through the streets while glancing at the slow world around him. 

<Sorry, dad.> He thought because as much as his parents try to stop him, he can’t resist using his powers and he loves being a Tron.

He looks up as he approaches the boundary of the village where a large cliff can be seen with three outposts on the cliff-surface but he kept moving because he knew what was on top of the cliff. He then skids to a stop some distance from the cliff then crouch down as his eyes glow brighter. 

“Here goes.” He mumbled as he suddenly leaps leaving behind a cracked floor as his body hurls upwards, past the outposts and as his body began to slow down, he digs his fingers into the cliff’s surface and flings himself up again until he reaches the top.

He grins as he takes a look down at the village below from one of the cliffs that makes the valley.

“5 seconds. A new record.” He mumbled as he heads towards the large duplex after easily flipping over the secure fence.

His landing caused the guard that was asleep there to fall from his chair and his hat drops from his face. “Sorry, George.” Levi said as he goes over to help him up.

George groans as he stands up and dusts off his security uniform. “You know; normal people use the passageway to get up here.” He said with a half-glare at Levi who was already inching away.

“Good thing I’m not normal, am I?” He chuckled and George sighs as he puts his cap on while Levi speeds towards the house.