(Insert Name Here)

Darkness hovers over Dark World like a cheap throw rug. Rain creeps through the seeping abyss of thundering clouds. A single creature, a single man, can be seen standing under a withered, tortured tree on a cliff looking over Kain’s kingdom. “If I’m to follow you, Kain, then you must prove your worth to me.” The man slips into the darkness from whence he came, leaving only a single word carved into the trunk of the tree. Shadow.

Kain, the ruler of Dark World, stands over his X BOX. “I am lucky that I have back-ups for all my saved games.” He reboots his entire memory system. In a moment of silence, Kain plots his vengeance against the one who formed this attack on him. Biosoldier would pay dearly for this. Only his blood would ease Kain’s hand, for it was a well-known fact that Biosoldier’s blood is a good painkiller. “I will find him, and destroy him. Freido, get my sword. I wish to hunt tonight.”

“That really isn’t necessary. If you want to kill him so badly, make him come to you.” Freido had a point. Nothing Kain did would get him any closer to Biosoldier. No, Biosoldier would have to make the first move. That is the way it would have to be. If Kain made his move, it would leave him wide open to an attack of a more serious kind. Kain must bide his time. Kain retires to his chamber as a space pod soars through Dark World’s atmosphere.

“Damn it!” Biosoldier tries frantically to get the emergency landing to work. The pod crashes abruptly into the field of one of Kain’s main “agricultural” facilities. Biosoldier emerges with only a few bumps and scratches. As he climbs out, he notices a small floppy disk in his exhaust. “So this is the bastard that took me down. Don’t know what’s on it, but I’ll check that out later. I have important things to do.” With that, Biosoldier leaves the smoldering wreck.

Loud crashing can be heard in a small white house on the edge of the fields. Another crash. The old farmer has been thrown clear across his kitchen. “Where is Kain?!” Biosoldier’s demands are met with fear as the farmer spills his guts about Kain’s location. Biosoldier then causes him to spill his guts all over the kitchen. Walking out of the old house, Biosoldier distinctly hears a muffled laugh from inside the house. He stares into the attic window. His wide-open eyes filled with a new horror, yet a fascination can be seen as the cloaked face and evil, crooked grin continues to laugh at him and his blood covered hands.

Kain sits in the darkness of his chamber, spinning with his sword on its sharp, clean edge. The door quietly opens. “Do you ever knock?” The harsh tone of his voice almost made Freido stumble backwards. “I didn’t mean to disturb you, master, I just came to inform you that Cheesy Boy spotted Biosoldier about fifty yards from the gates.” Kain pondered this for a moment. “Cheesy Boy is a slave. Do you listen to slaves, Freido?”

“But sir, I just thought...”

“No, leave the gates open. If Biosoldier does come crawling around, I’m sure we can deal with him.” Freido slowly backed away and left. Freido knew what Kain was getting at. He believed Cheesy Boy was right. He wanted Biosoldier to enter...so Kain can kill him personally. Freido feared the worst. Kain may be losing his sanity, Freido thought to himself. If Biosoldier enters, then we may not have Kain as a leader for long. Kain has grown too weary of battles and deaths. We’ll have to watch him.

A cloaked man watches as Biosoldier walks into Kain’s trap. He moves silently to a box he has placed next to a castle pillar. “One last part of my plan. You know what to do, right Alicia?”

“I know, my master.”

Biosoldier slips quietly into Kain’s throne room, too arrogant to realize that it was all too easy not to be a setup. Biosoldier flies from behind the throne, swings around, and places a machete into the heart of...a peasant? With an incredible force, Biosoldier is sent sprawling into the middle of the room. Kain walks from the shadows into the dim light of the room. He draws his sword. Biosoldier, realizing his danger, leaps to his feet and lunges at Kain. Kain tries to side step but is caught on his side. Both fall to the floor with a sickening thud. The first to his feet is Biosoldier. Kain quickly gets the upper hand back by heeling Biosoldier in the chest. Biosoldier springs back to his feet, but is immediately caught by a clothesline. Biosoldier tries desperately to get to his feet. A thick crack and Biosoldier can feel the pain twisting in his ribs and tastes the blood from his lungs. Kain grabs him by the back of the neck just as Biosoldier flings his head back into Kain’s chest. Kain stumbles backward as Biosoldier flies elbow first into Kain’s stomach. Kain doubles over and falls to the floor. Biosoldier kneels over him about to make a final blow. Kain’s arm shoots upward, grabbing Biosoldier’s neck. Biosoldier gasping for air is hurled into a pillar. Kain picks up his sword. He holds it high into the air. He prepares to swing.

A thunderous explosion rocks the foundation of the castle. A falling pillar hits Kain, shattering his shoulder. “The damn castle is falling!” Kain turns and runs for an exit. Biosoldier does the same, but in a different direction. Biosoldier, finding no exit, hides in a reinforced closet. Kain makes it to his underground tunnel. He is about to go to the shores of the Blood Sea until a melodious voice is heard just barely over the rumble of the falling castle. “Follow me.”

Kain has nothing to lose. He follows the girl into the heart of the Illusion Forrest. “They will never look for you here. I am the only one who comes here now.” Kain has yet to decide whether to trust this beautiful young girl, but he figures “what the hell.”

“Your shoulder is too damaged to make it to your retreat. We should follow this path to the Fountain Caves. It is only a few days travel.” Kain knew his predicament well enough before she blurted it out. “Your name, what is it?”

“Alicia."

“Alicia? An arrogant girl, aren’t you?”

“And you’re not arrogant?”

“Just precise.”

She giggled at Kain’s come back and turned and started walking. Kain and Alicia had started their walk to the Fountain Caves. Over the next few days, Kain’s shoulder healed enough to use it, and he became quite fond of the idea of trapping Alicia in a big hole and watching her trying to scurry out while cursing him. Kain does have his moments. Kain had also done what no one had gotten him to do in all his life...think of someone else. Of course, this really wasn’t the way people wanted him to think of others, but you take what you can get.

Biosoldier narrowly escaped the collapsing castle with his life. The fact that Kain was able to leave easily, even with a shattered shoulder, was more reason for Biosoldier to kill Kain. He would free these people. He would rule the world himself. Only under his iron fist would the world be truly a place of peace. Biosoldier skewered the countryside looking for Kain, all the time building his militia group. He would be ready and willing to take Kain on again, even if it meant having snipers keep him from attacking as much. Biosoldier would have revenge for his humiliation.

Kain and Alicia found their way to the Fountain Caves with limited trouble. Wolves attacked Alicia and Kain managed to fend them off (although while Alicia wasn’t looking, Kain threw a pork chop at them to attract more). Kain did, however, reinjure his shoulder. “Here. This is the cave that provides the most protection. We will be safe inside.” Kain followed here, not suspicious of her at all. He trusted her ignorance. He liked being smarter than her. He was a fool. Before Kain even got seven feet into the cave, a man jumped out of the shadows, kicking Kain hard in the chest. Kain hit the wall with a wild, echoing smack. Dazed and confused, Kain jumped up and staggered about. He felt a massive blow, as the man gave Kain an uppercut to his chin. Kain flew backwards, landing on his lower back. He felt the blood spewing from his mouth. He felt it run down his chin. Kain slowly got back up, and was greeted with a knee to the gut, followed by more blood being spewed from Kain’s already crimson lips. Kain almost fell face forward, but managed to keep himself up. The man hit Kain as hard as he could in the right eye. Everything got darker and blurred. The last thing Kain saw was Alicia pulling the trigger of a tranquillizer gun. The last thing he felt was a sting of a dart in his side, the warm blood running down his face, and the rage burning inside.

“Sir, the toaster’s on the fritz again.”

“Argh! Kain gets to go into hiding, probably having the time of his life, and I am stuck camping out with a toon full of losers...no offense”

“Uh...what does that have to do with the toaster?”

Biosoldier decided that it might be a decent idea to look harder for militia troops. It would take a while before Biosoldier would be able to fight against Kain’s Nemesis. Nemesis. The almost invincible army of Dark World. No one but Transmetal dared take on the Nemesis. Transmetal would have been a great whipping boy to test his ideas out on, if only he had stayed on Dark World a while longer. “That brings up the question: What is Transmetal doing and is he plotting to take his revenge as well?” The militia soldier stands in front of him looking confused, not knowing what Biosoldier was thinking or talking about.

In space, where the moon should have been, is the orbiting colony of Bingo. Transmetal, sitting at his end table, is playing chess against his election opponent for presidency of Bingo. “I win! That makes one for me and 657 for you.”

“Actually, that was my piece, so I win.”

“...damn it.”

As Transmetal and Vladimir Forin continue trying to outwit each other, the people in the colony are deciding on which policy is best for them: Transmetal’s “All Animé All The Time” policy or Forin’s “Make Peace with Dark World” policy. The people await the final debates.

As the darkness swirls into light, and what was blurred is now focused, Kain finds himself on a semi-comfortable bed, or, wait, no, it’s a big block of cement. “Well, at least they didn’t put me into the...boiler...room.” Kain looked around at the room he was in, at the shiny boiler in the middle of it, and at the hamster running on its wheel in the cage next to the block of cement. “Damn that Alicia. So I thought she was a ditz, so I took advantage of her ignorance, so I paid a hobo to run at her pretending to be a cannibal while I sat there laughing at her. She didn’t need to turn on me, to betray me.” Kain wanted blood. He wanted to kill all those who hurt him. Biosoldier, Alicia, the mysterious man who ambushed him, and the pillar that broke his shoulder. He focused all his anger on one target: Transmetal. “He is solely responsible for this. I don’t know how, but he is. He’s gonna pay!”

Suddenly, the door swings open. In walk Alicia and the masked man that attacked Kain. Kain tries to think of a way to get out of here alive while killing these two as well. “I’m sure you want to know why I did this, Kain.”

“Not really, I’m more interested in why I’m rooming with a hamster.”

“Listen, I am a mercenary for the one name Transmetal. I was sent to trap you so you can’t lead your Nemesis against Transmetal’s invading forces.”

“No way! You mean to tell me that Transmetal actually did an intelligent military maneuver?”

The man chuckled. Kain was obviously not so easy to deceive. The man seemed to like this. The more he heard from Kain the happier he seemed to get. “We’ll leave you now so that you can have some quiet time to think about your little Dark World falling to Transmetal,” Alicia said toying with Kain’s anger.

Kain’s eyes grew dark, his voice cold. “And if I decide to try and break free? Who would be able to stop me?”

Alicia and the masked man just left, discarding the obvious foreshadowing of events. When they were far enough away so that Kain could not hear them, Alicia started speaking, “Shadow, tell me, again, of our plans.”

“Very well, when Kain escapes our dungeon and gets back to his Retreat at the shores of the Blood Sea, he will, no doubt, think of Transmetal as a threat and start a war to end all wars. With this in play, we will come out of hiding after both sides are weakened, and our army will wipe them out leaving us as sole rulers of Dark World.”

“I love that idea. What If Kain doesn’t start the war?”

“He will. I know of Kain’s arrogant ways. Now that he thinks that we work for Transmetal and that Transmetal will invade Dark World, Kain will let his pride take control and he will attack Transmetal first. This will cause Transmetal to retaliate. The only thing that worries me is this election that is happening on Bingo. If Transmetal is not the president at the time of Kain’s attack, then Forin might be too cowardly to try and fight against Kain’s Nemesis.”

Alicia nodded in silent agreement. They walked into their chamber. Shadow remembered how he and Alicia met. They were ten years old and Shadow had saved her from a bunch of trying to rob her. Alicia had stayed with Shadow ever since. He was her best friend. They spent almost every waking moment together and trusted no one but themselves. “It’s a shame,” thought Shadow, “That before all this is through, Kain will kill Alicia, with the way I set it up.”

Dark World Illusion Forest. A place of wonder and magnificence. Biosoldier wondered how long it would take him to search through the entirety of the forest. The caves on the far edges would also have to be searched. “This would take days, maybe years, to complete.” The militia group understood what he was referring to. Biosoldier divided them up into five teams of eight. He gave them all specific orders. “Search for as long as you can, be stealthy, and if you find Kain, come back here and get me. Do not try to fight Kain. I want first dibs on him.” The troops go into the forest, not knowing what to expect.

To Be Continued...

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