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Chapter Seven: Earthbound

"We have gathered her today, to celebrate the life of someone with a better understanding of life then we even knew. Molly was sweet and nice and a friend to everyone. She would understand your problems and always have a grip of life and she savored it." A priest said as he read from his heart looking down at the dugout grave for the bird. Molly's funeral was attended by her family, but the Outsiders were not invited.

Molly's mother knew what they had did and she had blamed them for what happened. She held them back from her funeral proceeding and only through a perception filter were they even allowed near the funeral. Koji, Jackson, Twilight and Eric stood beyond in the distance from the funeral. They were standing under the tree line keeping them invisible to the family.

"We are held here on the planet by our bodies; we are kept Earthbound until our soul severs and we can float back into the kingdom of heaven. Now that she isn't Earthbound anymore; she is free to explore the universe and all its glories. She will be missed but that is the fate of all people, to leave their earthbound bodies and be free to no longer be constrained by the physical laws of the universe."

"So say goodbye to your daughter, friend, sister or relative; as she did when the Space Needle fell on her body. However soon one day you to shall be reunited in the kingdom of heaven, no longer afflicted by mortal pains, and one day we will all be gone." The priest said as the pall bears grabbed the coffin and slowly descended it into the dugout grave. Molly's mother cried for her as they slowly started to cover the grave with dirt, filling it in.

Koji teared up but had moved on from what happened to Molly, everyone by then had accepted her death and accepted the fact that she knew her death was slowly coming for her. They looked around and walked away from the funeral and gave their last respects towards Molly.

"Thank you for giving me the strength to defeat Afternoon and letting the battle end." Koji said as he walked away.

"Thank you for returning Eric back to me, and saving us from Afternoon." Jackson said as he blessed her, for returning the most important thing to him.

"Thank you for saving me at my worst and allowing me to be freed from that freak." Eric said as he walked past, grabbing on and holding Jackson's hand as they left.

"Thank you for allowing me on the team and helping me win the trust of Jackson, I will never forget you." Twilight said as he made sure that his appreciation and admiration for her was felt as they left the graveyard.

...

Then nothing happened with Ruby and Afternoon dead the only thing they had to worry about was keeping Ruby's gang from reorganizing. Thus an age of peace began on Las Vegas. Jackson and Eric loved the new age of peace and one day decided to celebrate with a date.

They sat down during the Las Vegas underneath the evening sky; going on ordering their dishes and embarrassing each other as they could focus on each other now that their work didn't have to be on the top of their mind. They looked at each other and just were able to work off each other.

"So yeah I walked all the way from Las Vegas to Seattle, all the way through sewer pipes and the whole way through I kept fighting, trying to get back control and save you; I wish I got some mental training; I could feel Molly trying to exercise control over his body." Eric said as me made small talk with his boyfriend, something he missed so very dearly. It was the little things, spending times after missions cuddling on the couch, talking about their days and enjoying each other's presence.

"You must have stunk afterwards, no wonder you took so many baths afterwards." Jackson joked as he put his hand on Eric's. They looked at each other and giggled at each other. Eric leaned in and started to kiss Jackson over the table. They stopped and stopped kissing.

"So, who is the new guy; he's just been there; I heard Afternoon speak of him but I never did really ask." Eric asked as he thought of Afternoon. The team hadn't really met and he never introduced himself to Twilight or neither did Eric. Without Molly the team spilt into two; working their own cases and dealing with people from both ends of a candle.

"He's Twilight, he too is one of the ten Kagen Gods but he's good. He trying to protect us and keep us in line. I think that Koji has a bit of crush on him; I don't blame him." Jackson said as he looked around making sure no one heard him as he spoke to his boyfriend, half admitting that Koji had it luckily.

"Oh, interesting please keep yourself on one sexy beast for a while." Eric said joking with Jackson and keeping the orca's mind off the non-existence competition. He knew that Jackson wouldn't leave him, or would he leave the orca; he was loyal to Jackson and wanted to say with him for the rest of his life.

"I would never leave you; trust me no one could deal with my personality twenty-four hours a day." Jackson said, "I may have never said this, but you are just so amazing; I feel so poor when compared to you. There is no way I could ever compare to you." Jackson looked into Eric's eyes and smiled as they looked around.

"I think you're amazing as well; you are so dedicated to your work and you manage so many things. You're sometimes too dedicated to your work, but you should never feel bad about work and you do so many things for Las Vegas and if only the people of this city knew what you did, they could never repay you." Eric said as he became blustered and embarrassed.

"Ah come on." Jackson said as he behind Eric for a second, viewing a strange man standing behind them. "You amazing but strange man on your twelve o'clock; don't move. I'm going to the bathroom." Jackson stood up whispering all but the last part as he stood up and walked towards the strange man watching them. Over the years the orca had gotten a feeling that most men strangely looking at him were never that good.

He walked over and strangely the man didn't run away, instead he nodded acknowledging that Jackson was next to him. He reached into the pocket of his long tan coat and pulled out a video tape. It was strange Jackson had never seen a video tape, and was confused at the offering. He looked at it and it said "For Koji."

Jackson looked back up at the man and was confused for a second until he caught a peak under the man's covered face and saw a blue face with fins on his back and gills on the neck. That made his more confused but the evidence quickly pieced itself together and Jackson knew that it had to be Koji's father.

However, the man to realized that Jackson would have a realization and quickly ran away his tan coat disappearing as he ran into an alley. Jackson realized that he needed an anti-alley shield generator for these types of situations and he groaned as he put the videotape in his pocket and began to run after the man. Eric followed after him, going towards the alley.

"Stop wait, Koji needs to see you; you can't leave!" Jackson yelled as he tried to convince the man to stop running down the alley. However, the presumably older shark didn't listen to Jackson and knocked over a can of garbage as he tried to block the alley way and end the chase.

"Up front!" Jackson yelled back to Eric, informing him of the can as the Orca jumped over it, using it to slow down time and instead use his increased speed to land against a wall and run above a dumpster before jumping off and going for the shark. However, the one thing that Jackson couldn't expect was the alley ending right before him. Instead of landing on the other wall, he slid out into sidewalk.

Barely catching himself Jackson kept his momentum as he jumped out into the busy street, slowing down and jumping over the hoods of cars and then using the metal street divider to push himself over the second half of the street. Eric was caught behind as he waited for an opportunity to cross.

Jackson landed in the continuing alleyway and continued chasing after Koji's father as he tried to catch up with the quick shark, he admitted for Koji's father he was quite fast and Jackson would need his best moves to catch him. He jumped on to a dumpster and jumped forward, but nearly got his head taken off by a fire escape. He grabbed the fire escape and swung around as he tried to keep his momentum as he tried to keep up with the shark. Even at full speed the shark seemed so much faster than Jackson could run.

Jackson ran forward, avoiding scattered boxes and other distractions as he almost caught up to the shark. He reached out and almost grabbed the shark. He almost felt it as his hand got closer and closer to the tan jacket of the presumed father. Jackson pushed himself as he tried to grab the coat and stop the chase.

However, Jackson had to react as the alley made a sharp turn. He jumped as the shark made a left turn on the alley. Jackson slowed time down and pushed himself of the wall, towards the other side of the alley. With the alley straightened out again, Jackson pushed his legs again and crossed back on the other side.

He started to run with timed slowed down, his body sweating and screaming out in pain as the longer he pushed his body to continue to run forward. Another street appeared at the end of the alley and as the shark arrived at the threshold, Eric appeared and blocked his exit.

The shark almost stopped where Eric stood, but unfortunately even Eric couldn't calculate another alley offshoot appearing. Jackson groaned and jumped on the top of the other wall facing towards the alley, before pushing himself off and sticking the landing.

Jackson continued running as he hoped that Eric would be able to cutting him off again. He continued running again, slowing time down to let his body rest as he continued running down the alley. He could see the shark, navigating the turns and path of what must have been a pretty messed up alley section.

Jackson was so close and yet it felt so far as he slowly approached to the older shark, all he needed to do was get his hand in grabbing length of the jacket. He just needed to grab it, he sped up time and got the Jacket, stopping and coming to stop as time returned back to normal.

Then the Jacket slid off, the shark managed to raise his arms and the long coat slid off like a scarf as the shark ran into what looked to be an apartment complex parking lot. Jackson made a face of pure disappointment as the shark got away. Suddenly in the complex one of the doors opened and Koji's father was knocked to the ground, causing Jackson to make another face as he viewed the disbelief act that a door took him down.

The person walked out of the door and suddenly Jackson became afraid. A man, a plain human stepped out in a red and white coat as he realized it as one of Nick Ruby's last generals. Behind him he heard the click of footsteps and took more of Nick Ruby's men came out. Jackson put his hands up as they pointed large automatic rifles at him.

Eric walked into the apartment complex but realized his mistake as he too put his hands up. More of the late Nick Ruby's men came into the apartment complex, surrounding them as they captured them. Jackson looked confused as he had no idea on how they could plan to end a spur of the moment chase.

"Ok, spill the beans; this was a completely random chase there is no way even Afternoon could predict that you would know what was happening here." Jackson said as he slowly grabbed his gun and put it on the ground, before sliding it over to the general.

"Easy, Afternoon wouldn't be able to predict this but allow me to introduce myself, I am General Graham Grainer. However, we as Nick Ruby's old men have reformed to get revenge on the one known as Riptide, and we are led by a different Kagen God; Noon, who's ability to predict chaos and see such perfect random possibly by his madness allowed us to do this."

As he listened to Grainer's speech one world popped out from the rest, Noon. Its closeness to Afternoon suggested to Jackson that they were working together or at least involved in a way. Jackson remembered Twilight mentioning Noon a few times and always in conjunction with Afternoon. It was also at that point Jackson realized that Kagens were named after times of day.

"So then another Kagen God seems that he's trapped for now. We ripped up the black book, and its shards are protected." Eric boasted as he joined the conversation. Grainer looked over and must have known that Eric was a werecroc, as he smiled snapped his teeth at him.

"Now then you two will only be punished to work in Kagen Labor Camps when we get back the shards, you only worked with Riptide and Twilight, however as for the father, and the being we shall execute them." Gainer said showing off a level of seriousness as he commanded some of his spare men to pick up the shark. As they did, his hood fell off and Jackson gasped.

"Koji is nearly a spitting image of this man." Jackson said as he saw the shark's face. He didn't have to worry about Gainer learning about Koji's real identity, or the contacts that would lead to as the perception filter automatically turned on, as if recognizing danger.

"Now then off to the warehouse with them, once we find the other two we can ask both of them for the locations of the shards." Gainer said as two men came behind and put handcuffs on Jackson. The other set did so as well, but Eric's handcuffs were large and had an aura as to possible protect against his now controllable werecroc powers.

A van pulled up and Jackson, Eric and Koji's dad were lead into the back along with a few guards. They left and once again they were captured by another member of Nick Ruby's army, what seemed like it happened multiple times a month at this time. Jackson needed to make sure that this time had destroyed the entirety of the army before it came back again to haunt him once more.

...

"Does it appear that there is anyone down their?" Twilight asked as he looked down into one of Nick Ruby's bunker; Koji descending into the darkness first as he searched around for one of the light switches. After Nick Ruby's death, they set off laser sensors in the bunkers in order to make sure that no one else was entering and exiting them.

"No I think, whoever was here left." Koji said as he passed through the threshold; suddenly on Koji's phone another alarm went off, signifying that they had passed through the sensor system. Koji searched on the wall for a light switch, pressing his hands up against the walls of the bunker.

"Well, then maybe we should seal all these places up fill them with concrete and take only the data we need, or systems that we can't emulate." Twilight said as he searched around the central pillar for a source of light. Koji thought of it being a viable solution but the resources that the bunkers provided were very important.

"Well, these bunkers were specially designed by Ruby himself to endure a nuclear blast from the entrance of staircase. A steel-nanotube alloy door, five inches thick that can survive the force from twenty two thousand atmospheric pressures, Ruby must have been paranoid." Koji said as he finally found the light switch. "And we have light."

As the light turned on, Koji found nothing strange in the bunker, all the equipment seemed in place but if Koji knew Nick Ruby's men, they would be like crafty rats hiding their evidence or destroying whatever they needed or could give the outsiders an advantage. Koji turned and saw Twilight near the main computer.

"Move on over." Koji said as he walked towards the main computer; he plugged in his phone scanner and before the file explorer could appear, the computer crashed giving his phone the blue screen of death. Koji looked confused as the computer rebooted itself, starting itself up quickly and forming an empty file explorer.

"It's empty, they took all the files. Not just from this computer, from all computers. Even the operating system, it just storage disks." Koji said as he loaded a scanning program on to the file system, so that it would store whoever accessed the file system.

"Well then what do we do? We have no idea who's coming down and taking these resources, and they seem to be covering their tracks, so we need to survey this area. Make sure no one comes back here afterwards." Twilight suggested as he looked at the laser scanner. It didn't store pictures or any information; it was just a trigger wire. Twilight looked at it and was confused as he tried to figure out what would trigger it, he pressed a few buttons and hologram with the dates of breaches appeared. Twilight looked confused as there was only three dates listed on the hologram. Koji already said that two of breaches were them when they came in and no one could avoid the laser grid when they left, if they knew about it.

"Koji, there's only one date here, it doesn't say if a person left. Which means one person either flashed their hand through or someone never left?" Twilight asked as he had a realization, suddenly someone, bathed in shadows appeared behind Koji pointing a gun at his head.

Koji suddenly disappeared as the man commanded, and the man quickly rushed towards Twilight and put his hand over Twilight's face. Twilight was about to scream but suddenly they were stuck in a force field cage. Twilight was alone and instead there were five force field cages each with a different person inside of the cage.

Twilight scanned along through the other cages and saw what must have been a teleported Koji; Jackson and Eric and a third strange shark. Twilight was confused as he tried to figure out what happened. After that a dolphin teleported into the building; his hand on his chest. He must have had the ability to teleport objects by touching them.

"Oh, me we're in this warehouse before. It was when..." Suddenly General Grainer appeared before Twilight and the Kagen God groaned. "I wonder how dedicated you are to your little leader, even in his death you can't get over him. You guys are helpless, you need a real leader."

"Trust me, we do have a leader someone much better than Nick Ruby have you ever heard of Afternoon." General Graham said as he walked to the other outsiders. Twilight gasped as he realized that he missed a different current Kagen. He put his hand on his head and groaned as he realized that Noon, the Kagen God of chaos was now the single Kagen with control over the Earth.

"Oh dear, Noon thought that Afternoon could handle then humans, well he was really wrong about that but anyway; we might have a different Kagen God to deal with again." Twilight said informing the rest of the team as they did a continuous groan about the situation.

"Well then, the first time is always the hardest, this time we'll met up with him and then we'll kill him." Koji said being threatening as he talking to the general. "Now then Graham cracker, who's the old shark?" The general smiled as Koji asked it as he would know how to perfectly respond to that question. He walked over to the shark, still knocked out from the door.

"Look familiar, through your probably can't see it with these bars in the way and a few people in the way. If you can't see, right here is a shark you'll find yourself very close too. He is as you say sharing DNA with you, and quite a lot in fact. You could say that this man shared so much DNA with you that you could say that he was your father." General Graham reached in between the bars and shook the man. "In fact if we were to test your DNA's with each other the results would be so close that in fact a DNA examiner would have say that without a doubt you two are in fact father and son."

"No, I don't have a father, he died on Zero Day." Koji said as he started in disbelief at the shark. He looked old, very old, he had wrinkles and a white beard but besides that he looked really similar to Koji.

"You think you were born after Zero Day, you're about say twice as old as you think you are, you're as they say about similar to a sixteen year old shark but in fact you are thirty two years old. Of course you don't remember much of your beginning life, and you forget Zero Day was nearly thirty years ago." General Graham said as he tried to definitively spell out what was happening to Koji. "Of course your aging is exactly twice as slow as it sped up about five years ago as you entered the equality of puberty."

"No, he can't be my father. That's impossible, I don't have a father, but Zero Day, and I can't take it." Koji said as his mind tried to comprehend what was happening but suddenly his subconscious mind stepped in and showed him memories of time he never visited. He saw himself holding his unseen mother's hand as he walked out of a massive portal. Koji's previous self-looked confused and looked to his mother for answers. She smiled and shushed him as they walked out with a series of sharks.

"Your entire life is a complete lie, while this man is your father, he only provided a template to complete your body once you entered the real world. He is nothing to you, he was only special to your mother." General Graham said as he pulled out a gun, cocked it and quickly shot Koji's dad through the force field, killing him in cold blood.

Koji didn't know if the man was his father, but he was still horrified of all the deaths occurring around him and he didn't know if he was cause of all the destruction happening in Las Vegas, he wondered if he should surrender and end it. He stood still and looked down at the floor as he wondered how easy it would be just give up.

"No don't give up Koji, I believe in you I should have told you sooner about your powers and your destiny. What it all encompassed and your legacy on the Earth." Twilight said as he sounded a lot like Molly. He grabbed the edge of the bar and showed his face to Koji. "You know me; believe in me."

"You insist on fighting, yet it seems so helpless to keep fighting. Surrender, and you may be forgiven by the Noon for your sins against the Kagens god." General Graham said as he tried to figure out what was powering Koji to keep fighting, no matter how horrid the threat was, how power it appeared to be, how hopeless and how many deaths happened, and yet he kept going on.

"I will not surrender, and you will be taken down. We have plenty of powers and I believe Eric is one of them." Koji said as he pointed at the wolf, who was currently bugling out as scales formed on his body, his height increasing as he was forced down by the cage. The cage started to bend and tremble as Eric was about to break out of it.

"Oh, sorry we have precautions for that." Graham said as he pointed at the cage and one of his goons, pointed with a gun and fired, a tranquilizer dart entered the cage and pierced Eric's skin. Eric screamed before the medicine could take affect; pulling it out and looking at the comically oversized dart. His body stopped transforming and the medicine quickly took effect, Eric falling on the ground and getting knocked out.

"Ok, anyone with a plan B?" Koji asked looking to Jackson or Twilight for help. Jackson looked at the bar and made a shrug as he tried to figure out what to do. He had no idea on what would help with the situation. General Graham deactivated the force field of Koji's father and pulled the shark out of the force field.

"You sad sap, all dead and never got to meet his son." General Graham said as he looked at the wound he inflicted, and then he realized that his bullet hit the shark's shoulder. Koji's dad shocked to life and grabbed General Graham's throat, before turning him around as a human shield.

"Go one shoot and deal with me but kill your leader; I've seen how precious you think you leaders are so instead my turn." Koji's father said as he held General Graham at his owns member's gunpoint. "Sorry Koji, but I have my own family now, I only meant to give you the tape."

Koji's father threw Graham to the ground, running off at full speed. He hit the cage button and as the cages opened, Koji's father ran off, exiting the warehouse as he escaped. As gun fire descended on them Koji chased after his father, Jackson grabbed Eric and then Twilight followed as they ran away.

Koji felt like he was running for days, trying to catch up with his father. Eventually his father disappeared and Koji stopped running. He fell on the ground and stopped looking forward as his last family left. Twilight, Eric, and Jackson caught up and Twilight comforted Koji as they went back and decided to end the chase.

...

"So are you certain that this will work?" Koji asked as he examined the video cassette tape, he looked around and while Eric didn't have a VCR, he did have a camcorder and he managed to connect the replay output to a television recorder. Eric stood back and checked his wires as he turned the television on. Pressing the replay button the screen showed static as the tape replay started.

"Sit back and enjoy." Koji said as he sat down on his couch wondering what could possibly be on the tape. He waited a few seconds and then the tape started showing a home environment. He looked around and there was a window shown with a strange night sky, Koji figured it was the home dimension, one slightly easier to move through once the dimensions combined.

"Bill come on, hold him." A female voice said from behind the camera as a young man, similar looking to Koji was sitting on the couch. He reached down and pulled up a tiny young Koji, sucking on his thumb as he was indifferent to the camera recording.

"Ah who's that cutie behind the camera?" The woman said as she gave attention to Koji. Young Koji stopped sucking his thumb as he noticed the camera being pointed at him and then hid his face. "Ah someone is shy."

The video feed cut out and instead switched to a woman holding a camera in front of a large portal, on top of a building above a large crowd. She looked happy as she looked back at the portal.

"This is for you Koji, I can see your spirit all the time now. William can even hold you now, but you're not there yet. You need something different to create a physical form for yourself; something that hasn't existed before we were on the Earth. But know we are so close to the native lands, something that hasn't happened since before the war." She said as she looked behind the camera and towards where they would soon end up.

"Our dimensions are nearly connected, hopefully it isn't filled with Kagens. Either way in order for your spirit to get a body, you need my body basically. I am glad and I believe that when the Kagens come you will restore our relationship." She said as she focused the camera lens on the portal. Zoon revealed a large rust covered bridge, the Golden Gate Bridge, in San Francisco.

"Your father never got this, but you are nearly immortal. You'll age for about 60 or so years until you appear about what would be humanities 25 year old appearance, after that you can live forever." She said as she explained.

"Come on Lorraine, the crowds are starting to move." Off the camera, Bill said off screen as Lorraine turned around and focused on him. "Are you ready, are you sure you want to do this?"

"Yes, I am Koji will be amazing." Lorraine said as she turned the camera towards her and showed Koji her face. She looked amazing, and so familiar like a face you cannot forget and is always stuck in your mind. Koji felt his face as he looked in to his mother eyes; he wished he could see her.

"Koji, isn't not wonderful. The world where going to, so many possibilities to explore; and one for everyone about to exit the portal. Koji, you and I are two sides of the same coin and I have to die in order for you to live and basically we can't both exist. I going to be you, and every moment you love yourself and the world your around, is loving me." Koji's mother said as she spoke to him through time and even through the video tape the shark could feel her love.

"You are an Energywalker, beings of energy given the form of another race, and my race, our race was involved in a terrible war with the Kagens. One day you might meet the nicest Kagen, Twilight. Stay with him and reunite the races and end the million year long war. Koji I believe in you, and I love you." Lorraine said as she put the camera down and turned it off leaving with a look of the portal.

Koji had tears coming out of his eyes as he realized what he was, and how everything finally fit together. He felt that everything made sense, and that somehow it was all good. The door opened and Twilight walked in wondering what was happening.

"I get it now, I am Energywalker." Koji said as he walked over to Twilight and began to hug him. "I get it now."

"Oh, you learned about that, how we were going to have a talk about that, but it was never that important. What did your father give you?" Twilight asked as he was surprised by Koji hugging him.

"It was my mom, he only passed on a message of love." Koji said as he started to cry to tears of joy. Eric walked passed the two and got out his cellphone. After seeing Molly's mother and Koji's mother; he felt he needed to make up to his own. He knew that during his time as a werecrocodile, he couldn't communicate with parents. He was dead in their eyes and he needed to give them a last message.