Everything began nine years ago. 2003 was the year everything changed for Johan and his friends.
During the time they were in high school, things had always been quite peaceful before they entered their high school lives.
The reasons were many... They were just kids before, who knew nothing of the reality they were living in.
And compared to the recent incident they have seen and experienced, one would say that they were living with much ease before.
This was true; in a majority of Europe, there weren't many riots from the powerless and genocides against the powerless.
Many of the power users and the powerless were living together in a peaceful arrangement.
But perhaps this peace filled the minds of the higher authorities with a desire to stir chaos...
For what reason?
No one knows; no one can tell if they were willingly trying to create a fire to burn both sides or if they were manipulated by the power users' society for controlling the world.
Most of the powerless believe in the second reason; most people believed that the power users had a ridiculous and rather primitive way of thinking... That is.
'Might over reason'
One of the main reasons as to why people believed that it was the power user's society that manipulated and partially controlled the government at that time, and now they completely control it, was that nine years ago, there was an incredibly powerful power user; he wasn't a world ranker.
That person was the one who created the juries of death... He hunted all the corrupt power users who wanted to reign over the powerless or committed crimes against them.
At first he started alone, but then as his fame and notoriety grew among both the power users and the powerless. People started following his actions on the same basis.
And before he noticed, there was an army formed... That was carrying out his desires.
That man turning against the power user's society was one of the reasons as to why a war between the powerless and power users began after many decades of peace.
Many of the top ten at the time were enraged at his actions and demanded help from the government in order to bring down 'a group of terrorists', as they had labelled the juries of death.
The news about there being a group of terrorists among the commonfolk was kept a top secret, and the juries of death had kept their identities and organisation a top secret as well.
During that time, the founding members of the organisation were Vsevolod and Carmilla, and the strongest was their leader...
All of them called him...Zilch.
It was not his real name; he never told his real name to anyone. It seemed like he was never given a name from his parents.
This was the most difficult task for the power user's society... Locating his origins. No one knew where he came from, how old he was or if he had any family of any sort.
Zilch remained a ghost for the rest of his lifespan.
Before the war had begun, Johan, Hans and Anna used to be ordinary kids.
All three of them were complete nerds, though; they met and befriended Irina in their college. Before that it was just them three.
Johan, Hans and Anna all went to the same middle school; that was when they became best friends.
Johan always had an interest in robotics and mechanoids. Hans had an interest in nukes and other physical phenomena (pretty strange for a middle schooler to be interested in nukes...but I can't complain anyway).
Anna didn't have a particular interest in anything, but she absolutely loved nature; she loved the wind, the water, the serenity of silence in forests, the soil and even the fire.
They were not built to survive something like a war if the war had reached the throats of normal people.
But...
The war had started in complete silence at first; it was started as a war under the shadows, with no ordinary citizen knowing at first what was happening.
For them, everything was still peaceful.
But then the war slowly started spreading; at first the effects were not much noticeable.
Then one day, the power user's society suddenly declared war on the powerless.
They had announced it during the afternoon; during this time, Johan, Hans and Anna were still in their high school.
Suddenly the school staff were in a frenzy; all of them started running away. Some of the teachers took the kids out of the school to send them to their homes, and some ran away without helping any kid.
At that time Johan and Hans were together, but Anna was separated from them; she was on the opposite side of the school.
Johan and Hans informed the teachers who were helping the kids, but the teachers were helpless as well. The power users could have attacked at any time.
The power user's society had publicly declared that for the head of each powerless human, they would get respective rewards.
The reward amount differed according to the influence and fame and social standing of the person they killed.
Only the teachers knew of this, but Johan and Hans still ran away from the crowd of kids in order to go get Anna from the other side of the school too.
While they were running towards her classroom. Anna was trying to get towards them as well, and then suddenly she heard a shriek coming from the staff room that was near her classroom.
She decided to go help that person first and then head towards Johan and Hans.
She had always been brave, never showing any weakness to anyone. But still, even though she was heading to the staff room fearlessly, her legs felt weak.
She wanted to run away as quickly as possible.
When she reached the staff room, she saw that one of the teachers was lying on the floor.
That teacher was an old, obese woman who had difficulty walking quickly because of her weight.
What Anna saw at first was the teacher...
To be more precise...her lifeless body was on the ground; she was gutted, her intestines were coming out of her fat stomach, and her neck was slashed so many times that it could have been detached from her body with just a slight pull.
The blood gushing out was so much that it could have covered the entire floor of the staff room with blood.
Anna was horrified, and finally her legs gave out and she fell on her knees. She didn't even notice the two men that were present in the staff room, the ones who had killed the teacher.
They were speaking something, but Anna couldn't hear anything; she was in extreme shock.
"This one looks good; let's take our sweet time enjoying her body..."
Said one of them.
Their hands were reaching towards her chest and neck.
Then suddenly a hand pulled her out towards the corridor; it was Johan. He had reached in time and instantly understood what was happening and pulled her away.
Johan only noticed the two men and Anna; he didn't notice the body.
A moment later, Hans also reached there and helped her get up. They backed up a bit from the two killers.
They were ordinary humans; they didn't have any powers. All they had was a machete and a baseball bat.
Johan and Hans decided to run away, as they knew that they stood no chance against them.
Johan saw that Anna was still in shock, so he decided to carry her in his arms and then ran away with Hans, towards the direction where they came from.
Johan had little to no physical strength; after running at full speed for a while, he got tired quickly, as he was carrying Anna as well.
Still, they had gained some distance from the perpetrators. Hans saw that there was a science lab near them.
"Here... Let's hide here for a bit and run away when they go past us..."
He said in a low whisper.
The science lab was a big room; it had two sliding doors that could be locked as well. There were one-sided visibility windows, by which only the people inside the lab can see the outside.
They hid inside but decided to not lock the doors to avoid suspicion.
Johan put Anna down. Now she was back to normal, but she was still shaking.
They crouched down; the perpetrators had not reached that side of the corridor.
Johan decided to quickly grab some things that were around him.
They were whispering to each other, then suddenly they heard the two killers' voices and went quiet.
They still didn't know what exactly was going on. All they knew was that those two people meant no good.
Those two were walking around checking the classrooms; they figured that the kids were hiding in one of the classrooms.
Suddenly fear gripped Johan, Hans and Anna. Those two killers were going to open the door of the science lab.
In that moment, Johan nodded at Hans.
They were going to tackle the killers the moment they opened the door. Then suddenly they heard one of them speak up.
"The door's open... I don't think those sneaky bastards would hide inside an open room."
"Yeah... You're right."
Then, they were going ahead. Johan and others took a sigh of relief. Then suddenly the two killers jerked open the door while saying.
"Well...it won't hurt to just check in case."
They saw Johan, Hans and Anna and smiled.
"Ah...yes, see we were correct. I guess they aren't that smart after all."
One of them held the baseball bat up high and was going to swing it at them.
Johan then threw one of the things he grabbed before towards the bastard's face.
The killer let out a terrible scream; he dropped the bat and fell to his knees.
The thing Johan threw at him was hydrofluoric acid; he then proceeded to throw a small flask filled with bleach at his face.
The other killer was confused at first, but then he kicked Johan away, all the way to the back of the lab.
He was confused as to whether to help his companion first or to kill Johan and Hans first.
After a while the one whose face was hit by concentrated hydrofluoric acid and bleach stopped screaming...
He had died from inhalation of the chlorine gas formed from the reaction between hydrofluoric acid and bleach.
The other killer was saying his name out loud, telling him to respond. But there was no response.
"YOU...YOU FUCKING BASTARDS...I WILL SKIN YOU ALIVE!"
He said this and charged at them.
Johan was unconscious because of the pain he received from the kick; Hans and Anna were holding him up.
The guy attacking them suddenly stopped midway; he felt a sharp burning pain in his chest. He glanced below to see where the pain was coming from.
He saw a hand that was pierced through his heart and chest.
His body started lifting up, then his now lifeless body was swung to the other side of the lab.
The person who stabbed him was...
Zilch.
Blood was dripping from his hands... Hans and Anna were even more terrified of the stranger that saved them. They couldn't tell if Zilch meant harm to them or not.
Johan was still unconscious.
Zilch then bended towards them and spoke in a voice they had never heard from anyone while smiling at them.
"Do you kids study here...? Don't worry; I won't cause any harm to you all... That friend of yours...who's knocked out. Carry him and bring him with me."
He said.
They had heard countless people talk in the same voice to them, a voice that meant kindness and reassurance.
But after listening to his voice and tone.
All of the past voices which were filled with kindness seemed to be fake. They could feel his words resonating through their hearts.
They were convinced that he clearly meant no harm.
Then the next minute they heard loud bangs coming from outside and above them. It was as if a plane was dropping bombs on the building.
But surprisingly, other than the ground shaking and loud noise, the building seemed unharmed.
Zilch reassured them that they will be safe as long as they stick close to him.
He carried Johan on his back and led the other two towards the front exit.
Even though there were loud bomb-like sounds coming from outside that felt like they could blast away the roof above them at any moment.
Zilch was walking normally, with a smile on his face, as if nothing was wrong.
After a few more minutes they reached outside, to the foreground. The school was completely empty now; others had fled long ago.
When they reached outside, Hans and Anna were completely shocked at what was happening above them.
First of all, they saw a continuous shower of fireballs that seemed like small grenades but were causing blasts even bigger and louder than missiles.
But all those fireballs stopped midair and burst by hitting something like a wall?
They assumed, that it was the work of an abiltiy users. They were correct, it was an power user's ability. Though that person is no longer alive in the present.
Then both of them glanced at what was in front of them. They saw around fifty people that were on one of their knees and all of them were on either sides of the path that took them outside.
"Sorry for being late sir!"
All of them apologised to zilch in unison.
Both Hans and Anna could tell that that man was not ordinary at all, they knew that he was a power user from witnessing his physical prowess, but they didnt knew he was someone who held leadership of a big group.
At first they thought that he was some sort of mafia, but they couldnt believe that someone like him can be a mafia.
They then glanced at his face and were suprised to see that he was sweating.
"....ah fuck....im not comfortable with this many eyes looking at me...i might faint at any moment, im attracting too much attention."
Zilch thought to himself.
Zilch had many weaknesses, but one of his biggest weakness was...
His terrible social anxiety, and introvertedness.
They stopped in their tracks as Zilch stopped too, there was someone approaching them.
"Adopting more kids...? What are we? an orphanage?"
That voice was of...Vsevolod.
"These kids arent orphans...sir, they are school students...they werent able to escape quickly enough. I sensed their fear and rushed to get here... And, you didnt need to bring these many people.
You know im weak in the presence of many people."
Replied Zilch.
"Oh, yeah i had completely forgotten...so anyways what are you going to do with them?"- Vsevolod.
"For now take them to the base...we will drop them at their homes after things have calmed down a bit."- zilch
"As you wish, leader.." - Vsevolod.
They were going to their base through a secret passage that was several meter below the sewers.
After a while Johan woke up, by that time they had already reached their base.
The first thing Johan saw was the sumptuous palace that was thier base.
Zilch noticed that Johan had woken up, he then asked him.
"Are you alright now...? Can you stand up and walk?."
"Uh-huh." Johan replied while nodding.
Johan looked behind and saw that Hans and Anna were there too...
They were too mesmerised by the beautiful place, that was supposed to be several hundred meters below the surface.
Then a moment later they noticed Johan as well.
"Johan!..." Anna shouted and ran towards him, hugging him.
"Hmm? Whats wrong?" Asked johan.
"Nothing....im glad you woke up."- anna
"Are you feeling okay?...you were kicked pretty hard." Asked Hans.
"Oh... Yeah, wait nevermind that. Where are we? and...who are these people." Johan asked them both, he was greatly confused at what was happening.
"Lets go inside...i will explain everything to you all on the way..." Said Zilch.
They went inside and on the way Zilch and Hans explained to johan about what had happened after he was knocked out.
Johan was also easily swayed after hearing his kindness filled voice.
When they reached inside, they couldnt believe their own eyes. The palace was even more beautifull on the inside than the outside.
They were awestruck at the sight.
"Come on now... Keep following, dont zone out." Said zilch to them.
They were following him but they couldnt take their eyes off of the place, as a result they kept crashing into others.
If they werent with Zilch, they probably would have been killed by them.
They followed him into a room filled with people. All the people there were the strongest members of that time.
All of them were menacing, faces and bodies filled with scars, carrying weird scary looking weapons.
Johan, Hans and Anna were obviously very much scared by looking at them.
Zilch noticed and said.
"Ah...dont worry, they are as much as kind and caring as their scariness. Sit down."
They hesitated for a minute but then sat down.
Zilch immideatly started explaining about what was happening, who they were and why did he bring Johan,Hans and Anna to this rich looking place.
It took an entire hour to explain everything to them while answerimg their questions as well.
"So i will ask you once again...will you join us and help us in this war. Do you want to sit back and watch as your families and loved ones get mercilessly killed or will you fight and protect them?... Now, i know you all are just high schoolers, but let me tell you that...there are even middle schoolers who are fighting alongside us..."
There was silence for a while, but then the first reply came...
It was from Johan.
"I...will absolutely join you in this war..."
Chapter 14: completed