It is far into the future and all of the respective planets in the galaxy have been inhabited for thousands of years now. They each have their own governments and cultures. At the center of this lavish world lies the SUN KINGDOM. Built around a thousand years ago, no one is sure exactly when. The queen and king live their lives, trying to keep a balance and safety within the kingdom. To help protect the galaxy, there are nine guardians. Each chosen from their home planet, they have inherited powers from some higher source (no one is sure where these powers come from or how they got here.) They fight the evil that attempts to overtake the SUN KINGDOM. The queen and king house an object simply known as the ESPICAL. No one but the king and queen know about this object, or so they thought…
Syner flew through the air, his black hair streaming behind him. He dove down onto the intruder and got in a blow to the man’s face. The man reached up and grabbed Syner, sending him crashing to the ground. Syner felt the wind knock out of his as he stared upward at his attacker. The man was massive, over eight feet tall with long, red hair. His metallic blue eyes locked onto Syner’s deep blue. Syner averted his eyes and grimaced in pain as the man hit him on the chest.
A blast of green light flew at the man and hit him squarely in the chest. The man was knocked back a step, but kept his ground. He looked over at the woman who had hit him. Her blue hair streamed across her face as she leapt up into the air, her sword in her right hand. She did a flying kick, hitting the man in the stomach. He grabbed her leg and twisted it. She screamed in agony as he sent her crashing on top of Kago. They both lay on the ground for a second as the man stood above them. He readied a charge of energy and blasted it down upon them. Kago grabbed the girl under the arms and flew up into the air just in time to miss the deathly blow from their attacker. He landed on a ledge and let the girl slide down onto the floor.
“Are you ok?” Syner asked her.
“As good as I could be under the circumstances,” she said as she massaged her leg.
They heard a scream of rage as the man below looked up at them. He shook his fists and yelled obscenities at them.
“Can he get us?” she asked fearfully.
“I’m not sure, but we seem safe for now…” Syner suddenly flew down upon the man.
“Hermes! No!” the girl yelled trying to stop him.
Syner dove at the man, taking him by surprise. He punched him hard in the chest sending pain throughout the man’s body. The man stepped back, taken aback by the sudden attack. When he regained his control, he tried to pin Syner to the ground. Syner dodged him and flew high into the air. He dove back down and hit the man again. I can’t beat him with brute force, I have to go and out speed him. Hermes dove again but this time the man caught him. He threw Syner hard onto the ground and electrified him with some hidden force. Syner screamed out in pain.
The girl, Mirna, sat upon the ledge, unable to jump down the great distance to the floor below without causing serious injury to herself. She sat, agonized by what she saw below. Where are the rest of the guardians, what are they doing? She looked down at her smashed communicator, so much for using that.
“Syner, what are you doing?” Nihat asked the man sitting behind the computer. “Either find someway to help them, or come with us to fight!”
Kago sat at the control panel, watching the fight develop between Syner and the intruder. “I’m trying my best to help them. If only their communicators hadn’t been broken! Damn it!”
“Well, I’m actually going to go do something useful! See ya!” Nihat ran out of the control room and caught up with the other guardians who had already transformed. “Which way are they?”
“They are in the Sunlit Room,” Kago said into Nihat’s communicator.
“Well, that doesn’t help me! How do you get there?” Nihat asked impatiently.
“Take the next right, then turn left, and continue down the hallway into the elevators. Then go up to the thirtieth floor and take the fourth door on your right. Sera, Teete, and Tyka are already up there. Hurry!”
“Some easy directions,” Nihat said as he ran alongside the transformed Grayson. Natuka was leading the way in front of them. “Turn right up here!” Nihat yelled to Natuka. She turned her head and nodded to him as she veered around the corner. Nihat called upon the spirit of Zeus to transform him into the guardian of Jupiter. With a flash of blue light, Nihat transformed into his battle garments.
Tyka transformed and raised her bow and arrow and shot at the intruder that was attacking Syner. The arrow hit him in the back of the neck and went through it, burning the flesh around the wound. He turned towards her and grinned as he pulled out the arrow. The hole in his neck healed itself shut, leaving no trace of a mark.
“Shit!” she said as the man dropped Syner and headed towards her. She sent blasts of ice at him, but he dodged them and ran towards her. He raised his hands and blasted her against the wall. He next turned to the other girls who had just entered.
The transformed Teete took out her gun, ready to shoot the oncoming attacker. He knocked the gun out of her hand and grabbed her neck. He slammed her head against the wall repeatedly until her brown eyes fluttered close. Sera transformed and jumped in the air and kicked him hard in the side. He dropped Teete on the floor and made a grab at Sera’s leg. She jumped over him in the air, doing a somersault over his head. She picked up the dropped gun and shot him over and over again at his chest. She took out her glowing sword and cut him in the heart while he knelt on the ground trying regain his strength back. He fell to the floor and she stabbed his leg, twisting it as she took it out.
He lay on the ground, a slightly dazed look filling his black eyes. The other three guardians ran into the room breathing heavily.
“You did it!”
“Good job!”
“I thought we would never beat him!” said Syner, changing himself back into his former self.
“Well, no thanks to you,” The transformed Sera said.
Grayson walked up to the man lying on the floor, “Now its time to find out why he was attacking us.” Grayson stood over him and kicked him on the side. “Why did you assail us?”
The man looked back up at him, as though not really seeing him.
“I think you did too good of a job Sera,” Tyka said.
The man on the floor grunted, “As if I would tell you. You’ll never get any information out of me!” He coughed blood and tried to sit back up on his elbows.
“I have an idea,” the transformed Mirna said as she approached the man. She placed her finger on his forehead and used her psychic abilities to tap into his mind.
“Espical…espical…must get the espical.” She delved farther into his mind, what is the espical? She asked herself. It was as if she slammed into a brick wall. She opened her turquoise eyes and found herself lying on the ground.
“You ok?” asked Tyka as she changed back from her transformed state.
“Yes, but someone didn’t want me going any further into his mind,” she looked up at the ceiling as if the person behind the attacks would be sitting up there, laughing at them. “Someone powerful.”
“Did you find out anything?”
“Yes, I kept hearing over and over: ‘Espical…espical…must get the espical.’”
“What’s that?” The other asked her.
“I don’t know,” she said looking back at them, “And I’m afraid to know.”
“We should take him back to the king and queen, maybe they have some ideas of how to get past the barrier in his mind.”
All the guardians had now changed back into their former selves. They started to head out of the room. Sera took a gun and shot a fatal blow at the unconscious man on the floor. The blast hit him square between his eyes.
“Sera!” they yelled as they turned back to see what she had done. Sera dropped the weapon and walked towards the door.
“Why did you do that?” yelled Grayson at her.
“He was dangerous and needed to be taken care of,” she walked out of the room and left them standing in dumbfounded silence looking at one another.
The current guardians, in light of their last futile battle, have now been debating about retiring. They are sitting in the room held for usage of their discussions. Sitting at the places of the table assigned to them, they debate with fervor and zeal.
“We can’t just give up because of one bad battle,” angrily said Sera, guardian of Saturn. “If we had stopped fighting after every battle that went wrong we would have stopped before battle one!” Sera sat back, her pink eyes flashing angrily and with emotion.
“But this time is was different,” Tyka, guardian of Pluto, tried to reason. “It’s time we realized our limits, we are too old to be fighting any longer.” Tyka pushed a strand of her green hair away from her brown eyes.
“We would just be passing the problem onto a new set of guardians, one that isn’t ready to handle this kind of battle,” Sera, pushing back her chair, stood up.
“Sera, listen to us,” Syner, guardian of Mercury said softly. “We should stop before we’re in over our heads. Soon we’ll be too old to even handle little battles. Listen to what we’re saying Sera.” Syner walked over to Sera, holding her shoulders and staring into her eyes. She looked back into his blue eyes, and for a moment it seemed as if the years were erased and they were young lovers again. Sera shook his hands off of her and walked towards the doorway.
“Fine, decide what happens. But listen to me now, you all now what my thoughts on the subject are,” and with that she stormed out of the room.
“Sera,” whispered Syner as he watched her copper hair swish behind her as she walked out of the room.
“Well, should we take a vote?” Mirna, guardian of Venus asked. They all agreed assent and took a vote. They agreed unanimously (not counting Sera), to tell the Kind and Queen they felt a new group of guardians should be chosen to take their place.
“Who should tell Sera?” Grayson, guardian of Mars asked, hoping it wouldn’t fall upon him.
“I’ll tell her,” Syner said quietly, heading in the direction Sena had stormed off in.
“Who should tell the queen and king our decision?” Natuka, guardian of Uranus said.
“I will,” said Mirna, rising from the table. “I will also give the report of the battle to them.”
***
“So you believe that this is what the guardians should do? What are your opinions on the subject?” The king looked down upon Mirna from his high throne encrusted with sapphires and diamonds in rich gold.
“I believe this is the safest route to take,” She looked up at them, their thrones sat three feet above where she was standing. “We’re not young anymore. We have been fighting for twenty years already, and well… we know our limitations.”
“Well, if that’s what you think should be done,” the queen sat upon her throne next to the king. A strand of her red hair was wrapped around her finger nervously.
The king sat on his throne, contemplating the matter. His brilliant gold eyes were lost deep in thought. “Well, we’ll have to discuss the matter thoroughly before we reach a decision on the matter. Now, about the battle today…”
“Oh, yes,” Mirna related the events of the battle to the two rulers as they sat looking down upon her. The queen almost screamed as Mirna conveyed her search through the man’s mind and how she came upon his thoughts on the espical.
“Are you sure he was thinking espical?” the king asked trying to control the shaking in his voice.
“Positive,” Mirna said, wondering why that had affected them at such great lengths.
“Did you find out what the espical is?” the king asked again, this time not able to control his voice.
“Ahhh,” Mirna was a little taken aback by his lack of composure. “No, someone had blocked off his mind from me.”
The queen took the king’s hand and they looked at each other worriedly. “Please go now, we will come to our decision on the matter of the guardians shortly.”
“As you wish,” Mirna said as she strolled out of the great entrance hall decorated in lavish gold and blue hues.
“What do you think my queen?”
“How could someone have found out about the espical? Not even we are sure of its powers, and no one but us knows about it…” the queen trailed off as she saw the look on his face.
“At least,” he said looking across the hall, “That is what we thought.”
“It must have been someone close in the royal circle. Someone who might have heard us talking about it.”
“I guess you’re right.”
They sat in silence a little bit longer until the king finally broke the silence.
“What about the guardians?”
The queen sat contemplating for a second, “I guess that they would know if they needed to be replaced. So I guess we should consent to their request. What do you think my love?”
“I agree with you, they know their own limitations, and because of recent matters we have found out, it would be better to have stronger guardians to protect the espical.”
“Yes, they know when they are weak, and we need all the strength we can get. We should acknowledge their plea…”
“Wait right there!” screamed an out of control Sera as she burst into the great hall. “Those weaklings may not be able to fight any longer, but I sure as hell can!”
“Your outburst does not help your situation,” the king said behind angry blue eyes.
“I apologize my king and queen,” Sera said curtseying lowly before them. “I feel, in contrast to their decision, that I am still able to fight in future battles.”
“We realize that Sera,” the king said from his throne high above Sera. “But you must realize something as well- If we get a new group of guardians, yet keep you as well, soon you will have to be replaced and that chain of trust that forms between the guardians will be broken as a new guardian will take your place. You may still be able to fight, but we cannot allow you to remain as a guardian.”
Sera backed up, surprised, “So you HAVE decided to replace us guardians?”
“Yes,” the queen replied unemotionally.
Sera choked and took another step backwards. “I g-guess I’ll go now.”
“Sera.”
“Yes your majesty,” Sera said turning around. “If it’s the money your worrying about, all the guardians are to be well taken care of…”
“You should know that’s not the reason I’m fighting this decision,” and with that Sera stepped on her heel and walked out of the hall.
“I feel sorry for her,” the queen said looking down at her lap. “This was her whole life, she was always the guardian who put forth 100% effort. I guess she’s just wondering what she’ll do now. She a person that doesn’t like change.”
“Don’t feel sorry for her,” the king said looking towards her. “She knew the day would come when we had to replace them and get new guardians, she just can’t accept that face. What I’m worried about the ESPICAL. Who knows about it but us? Do you know what would happen if it fell into the wrong hands?”
“I don’t know, you don’t for that matter either,” the queen said grabbing her scepter and holding it up to the light, letting the rubies and sapphires glitter with radiance.
“I know, no one, not even us, knows the power capable of the ESPICAL. I do know this, if it fell into evil hands, it could destroy the world as we know it.” The king and queen sat there a second, contemplating what should be done.
As they sat there, a small, dark man walked in. His dark blue robes helped him to slink around and observe people without them knowing it. He was in charge of the spies of the kingdom. One of his assignments had been to find new guardians to replace the old in case the need every came up. Now that he had heard the final decision to replace the guardians, he was here to tell the king and queen the possible candidates. He slinked closer, his black eyes watching the king and queen for signs that they knew he was there. Walking a few steps closer he cleared his throat.
“Chelan, don’t creep up on us like that,” the queen reprimanded as Chelan crept closer to the two thrones.
“I’m sorry your highnesses, you were just in such complete thought you didn’t notice me enter.”
“That’s all right, just don’t do it again,” the king said, stopping the oncoming fight between the two who didn’t exactly like each other. “What is it you want to speak to us about?”
“The new guardian candidates,” he said, straightening up. “I wanted to run them past you and see if you agreed with our decisions.”
“We trust you, you don’t have to run your decisions past us,” said the king.
“Still, it might be nice if you had an idea of the new guardians coming,” he argued.
“All right Chelan, have it your way,” the queen relented. “Show us your candidates.”
Turning on the viewer, a machine that was capable of showing three-dimensional figures, Chelan walked closer to the thrones. He adjusted a few switches and a picture came up of a tall, fair man. Looking upon this creature was like seeing Apollo himself. All his features seemed golden, even his eyes were golden.
“This is Mikael, he is from Mercury and one the gold medal for running in the galactic Olympics last year,” Chelan went on to tell about this boy-god. “He is from a small family that is in the middle class without too much money to afford many luxuries.”
“Would he be good in combat?”
“He is very agile and fast, he might not be the strongest fighter, but he can easily outmaneuver people.”
Chelan pressed another button and a new figure appeared. This figure was on that demanded attention. Anyone in the universe could see this and would know Eponine, the biggest model in the industry right now. Her luxurious red hair cascaded down her body. Her long lean body was one that men lusted for. Her green eyes looked very attentive and thoughtful.
“Is this a joke?” asked the queen. “Picking some beauty pageant winner for the guardians, can she even fight?”
“On the contrary she is very good at fighting. She has a black belt in karate and she has won many contests. We feel she would be a very strong guardian for the planet Venus. She is also very strong in the field of psychosis.”
The queen sat back, losing interest in the feats of this Eponine. You might have said the queen felt threatened by having this model come to the Sun Kingdom to be a guardian, but you could never confront her with that contemplation.
The next figure took Eponine’s position. This girl did not have the looks or body that Eponine commanded. She was far shorter, with short pink hair. She had a simple and homely look to her as she stood among this hall filled with riches.
“Her name is Adelia and she is from Earth. She is strong in the ways of healing those who are wounded.”
Adelia disappeared and a very muscular man appeared. His untidy brownish-red hair seemed to add ruggedness to his looks. His name was Bane and he was a famous weight lifter throughout the galaxy. Next came Troy, prince of Jupiter. His black hair contrasted to his pale skin. His blue eyes looked alive, as if this was actually him standing here and not some holographic projection.
“What’s so great about him?” the king asked. “I’ve always heard he was the black sheep in his family. Youngest of six brothers, no real talent to him.”
“Actually,” Chelan said sheepishly, looking down at his feet. “His father, the king of Jupiter wanted us to…well, choose him as a guardian as a way of getting rid of him. He’s paying us handsomely.”
“Chelan!” the queen said emphatically.
“He’s paying us rather well for doing as he asks,” Chelan tried to defend himself. “Look, you told me you trusted my judgment. I’ve been in charge of choosing the guardians for many years now, I’m asking you to trust me this time too.”
“Chelan!”
“We trust you Chelan,” the king said contradicting his wife.
“We do?” the queen asked her husband in disbelief. “Do you know what he’s asking of us? What if this decision puts the lives of innocent people in jeopardy?”
“It’s not as if Troy has never fought before, he was taught karate and other forms of fighting,” Chelan tried to persuade the queen.
“Dawn, please listen to me. If he doesn’t do well during the training we can always replace him. Give it a chance,” the king looked onto his queen’s face.
“All right, next candidate.”
The next figure was a very pretty young girl. Her purple hair was very fine and soft and framed her face and her violet eyes. She was tall compared to most girls her age and she seemed to command a certain amount of respect.
“This is Senara, princess of Saturn and eldest daughter to the King and Queen of Saturn.”
“Her parents aren’t paying you as well are they?” the queen asked under her breath. The king looked at her with a look of disappointment and the queen shut up.
“She is very skilled in the arts-music, singing, dancing, painting. She is very good with flying…”
“She can fly?” the queen interrupted.
“Ahem, she is very good at flying spacecrafts and aircrafts, we value these talents as a must have for the guardians.”
Senara disappeared and a young man appeared. His brown hair fell low across his face and his green eyes were kindly.
“This is Necail…”
“I’ve heard of him, he’s a famous painter isn’t he? I’ve been to one of his shows and they were amazing!” the queen interrupted once again.
“Yes, he has talents for painting and is very talented in the arts of fencing. He would be a very good ally to have in the guardians. ”
A very interesting man replaced Necail. His blue hair and turquoise eyes was not the half of it, literally. His bottom half was composed of a blue tail that allowed him to swim in the waters of Neptune. Of course, as with all citizens of Neptune, they were able to adapt their tails to legs to come onto land. Not many of them did this as it was an inconvenience for them, and it took them awhile to get adjusted to walking. But Arik, prince of Neptune, was used to walking on land. He had one many awards for his swimming abilities in the Olympics and other competitions. The queen and king accepted him without any questions.
“Our next candidate is, well, very interesting,” Chelan admitted as a woman appeared on the viewer. She was dressed in clothes of a vagrant and her dark green hair was unkept and messy.
“Now why in hell would you choose this…this…creature?” the queen asked with shock. She was used to seeing all people before dressed in the finest and richest outfits of the century, not in, well… rags.
“Aragon feels that she is a good choice. She will be able to show the views of the lower class citizens of the galaxy. This way we can help them benefit from the guardians as well as the upper class citizens. Also, some of our scouts feel some sort of power emanating from this creature, we’re not sure what it is at this moment, but we hope to find that out soon. We think it would be a good idea to add her to the list as well.” With that, Chelan turned off the viewer and stood before the queen and king.
“We think you have done a good job Chelan, please collect them and bring them here as soon as possible for their training. That is all.” Chelan walked out of the room leaving the king and queen on their thrones in the great hall.
***
“What?” screamed angry Sera. “How could you make that kind of decision? This is our life! How can we just throw that away, and try to live another life?” Sera stood there, her chest heaving heavily from the hurried breaths she was taking.
“Sera try to understand where we’re coming from,” an irritated Kago, guardian of Jupiter, was saying. He was angry and tired of Sera’s bad attitude. He had never liked her, not even in those first few days of their guardian lives, where everyone had seemed so young and fresh to life. Sera had always seemed like one of those people dedicated to getting their way. Kago stood up and walked over to a window set into the golden walls of the room. Through the window he could see the vast gardens of the Sun Kingdom’s revolving fortress around the sun. He would miss it here too, just like Sera, but he wasn’t so bent on staying here as she was. There time here was over and she would just have to accept that fact.
“I don’t want to understand anything but how you could do this to me? I have nothing but this…this way of life. I won’t be able to go on!” Sera’s pink eyes held pools of anger inside of them and she walked over to Kago as if she were challenging him. He stared back at her with his green eyes. He wouldn’t be threatened by the likes of HER.
“Stop it you two,” a peaceful Jeina came over to stop the eminent fight between them. Those two were always two seconds from breaking out into a deep angered fight. Jeina, guardian of Venus, was usually the problem solver of the group, and more often than not she had gotten hurt trying to come between these two. “I know how you feel Sera, but this is how it’s got to be.” Jeina’s free, green hair was a bright contrast to Sera’s copper bun.
“You people make me sick! I won’t give up that easily!” Sera stormed out of the room leaving a quiet room behind her.
“That woman is seriously disturbed,” a worried Nihat said. He shook a mass of curly black hair and looked down at the pine table at which he was sitting. A guardian of Earth, he was eager to give up this life of continuous fighting and suffering. No one, not even Sera, would stop the inevitable from happening.
“She needs to grow up!” Kago said, turning from the window.
“She’s always been too obsessed with being a guardian,” Natuka said, speaking her mind now that Sera was out of the room.
“She…she just isn’t used to change,” Syner said in Sera’s defense, “It’s all that…”
“Oh, knock of it Syner!” Kago said, facing Syner. “Ever since that little romance between you two, you’ve always been on her defense. Well, she isn’t the little angel that she pretended to be. You need to get over her!”
“Kago,” Mirna tried to calm him down, “Please don’t let this age-old feud go on like this. Let the past be past and try to forget. OK?”
Kago stared at Mirna and stormed out of the room. The rest of the guardians sighed relief and tried to sort out the rest of the matters concerning the arrival of the new guardians. It would be a long day if Kago and Sera clashed again, and undoubtedly they would.
***
“Ha-ha!” the evil laughter shook forth across the small damp room. “They think that a new group of guardians can defeat me?” The dark figure stood up and lifted his hands high to the ceiling. “They have only seen the beginning of the oncoming battle! And, once I have the espical, everything will fall into place and I will rule the Sun Kingdom.”
A small man cowered before this god-like figure. He tried to get the courage to look up and meet his master’s eyes, but his small and feeble mind was too scared to allow him to do that simple task.
“So, did you get the information I need?” the evil man asked of his servant.
“Yes, it was simple to grab the sheets of Chelan’s desk and copy them. They have all the information on the new guardians- their weaknesses and their strengths. We will be able to determine how best to defeat them now,” the humble servant addressed his god.
“You did good Gryman. And for your hard work you will be well rewarded,” the robe bearing figure took a step toward Gryman and led him into another room. Here was a chair that he helped Gryman to sit into. He locked some iron around poor Gryman’s wrists and legs and signaled another servant to turn it on. In a few minutes there was nothing left of poor Gryman. “At least now I know that the device works, I will be able to use it on any captives we may obtain.”
The evil laughter filled the whole of the domain that was ruled by this evil villain, and all those, servants and slaves alike cowered in fear of it.