Date: Sat, 8 Jul 2006 01:11:43 -0700 (PDT)
From: Silvenfox <silvenfox@yahoo.com>
Subject: The Chosen - 2

The following is a complete work of fiction.

Any resemblance between the characters and any real life person is
completely coincidental.  Please do not copy or distribute the story
without the author's permission.

Disclaimer:

The following story may contain erotic situations.  If it is illegal for
you to read this please leave now. Also expect blood, gore, incredibly
funny scenes and super-powered teenagers with a destiny to save the
world. If you're not a fan of any of these plus strong cursing and
violence than this is not your type of story.


Chapter 2


How was I going to kill a werewolf when I didn't know any magic?
Nathaniel's quiet urging from the ground below brought me back to
reality. One step at a time. First, I actually had to get outside. I hope
I didn't break my leg doing this. That would be a fantastic way to start
off my superhero career. I put my foot on the windowsill, took a breath,
and jumped. My cloak seemed to catch the wind and I fell at a slowed rate
that had me mystified. Landing perfectly beside Nathaniel I stared at his
smug face.

I rolled my eyes feeling a sting of annoyance. "You can wipe the look
from your face. So I can jump from a second story window and land easily.
Funtastic! But I still don't know any magic. This werewolf is going to
tear me to shreds. I'll be cut into little bitty pieces. And^×"

Nathaniel held up his hand, cutting me off. Irritation flashed in his
eyes. "Must you always ramble so much?"

I grinned happy that he was showing a different emotion other than calm.
"Its part of the charm."

"I'm sure," he said, sarcastically. Nathaniel laid a hand on my shoulder
and squeezed. "You do know magic." He took his hand and pointed at my
heart. "Its here. You are the champion of magic. In this life and in the
last. Never have your powers let you down."

That was kind of true. The whole jumping from my window act proved my
powers were a go. I didn't need any special magic spells for that. I
suddenly had a feeling of something that I was starting to attribute to
my past life memories. Nathaniel was right. The magic was inside me and I
could make it do anything I wanted it to do. As long as I had a strong
will and focus then I could influence the physical with the metaphysical.
Whoa. Where did that come from? I took a breath. Confidence or as much
courage as I could muster filled me now. I could do this. I think...

"Where do we start?" I asked, my voice steady with a new strength.

Nathaniel nodded at me in approval. "We shall start in Preston Park. That
is where the first and the last victims were found."

"How do we get to the park?" I asked, looking around for the batmobile or
the invisible jet. Silence. I turned toward Nathaniel to see if he had
heard me.

Nathaniel had a weird look on his face. "I'll be getting there by what we
wizards like to call Flickering. A kind of teleportation."

Oh sweet. A real freaking teleportation. We were going in style I see. A
little Nightcrawler-esque maneuver. Hey, so sue me, I was kind of a geek.
Comic books, Sci Fi channel, and television shows with anything
preternatural was my life story. Shh, don't tell anybody. No one at
school knew about my gayness or my inner geek. Hmm^Å I wonder does that
mean I'll have to come out of the closet in more ways than one. That
sucks. Wait. Back the truck up. Did Nathaniel just say 'I'll be getting
there' as in singular, one, uno?

"Umm... Nathaniel?" I asked giving him a hard look. "What do you mean
you'll be flickering there?"

He smiled. It was one of those sphinx smiles that meant he had a secret
and definitely wasn't sharing. The bastard. "Think of this as an exercise
in using your magic. You'll be a step up in taking out the werewolf."

My mouth dropped as his whole body seemed to actually flicker and fade
from sight. Oh hell to the no! I thought inwardly seething. I picked my
jaw up from the ground and crossed my arms. I walked over to the side of
the house blending in perfectly with the shadows. It would definitely be
an awkward moment if Mom came home to see me standing in front of the
house, dressed in my Chosen uniform trying to magic my way to the park
where a crazed werewolf lives. Yeah awkward was the word.

"If nerdy Willow from Buffy can be all uber super witch then I can do it,
too," I told myself, whispering into the night air.

I closed my eyes. Concentrate, think, I told myself over and over. A part
of me was saying go back inside and call it a night, but a bigger part
was saying I had to do this. This was my destiny. As soon as I finished
that thought something clicked inside of me. I don't know what it was but
I felt like a spark had ignited within my mind. I let my instinct guide
me. I pointed my palms at the ground right above my shoes. Words appeared
in my mind and left my lips without pause.

"Angels above me,
Clouds circling thee.
Lend me your wings
So I can jump higher
Than the tallest tree."

I clapped my hands and quickly thrust them back toward the ground. "Leap
of faith!"

I grabbed at the energy inside of me and focused it out through my hands.
My boots glowed at the ankles and in a burst of sparkles appeared a pair
of small, white wings. My jaw dropped for the second time in less than
twenty minutes. Magic was surprising me all the time it seemed. I peered
at the wings attached to my ankles. I looked like Hermes, the Greek
messenger god or something. I bent over and gasped as I felt them. They
were real and not just some figment of my imagination. The feathers were
downy and strong beneath my probing fingers.

I smiled. Looks like I was capable of the hocus pocus stuff after all. My
smile left though replaced by a determined air. I had to get to Preston
Park. Nathaniel was waiting on me. Sucking in a breath I let it out
slowly easing away my tension. Here goes nothing. I lowered myself and
then sprung up, jumping into the sky. A little scream, all man I assure
you, left my lips as I shot up higher than top of my house. I flailed my
arms about as gravity brought me back down and I landed on the rooftop of
a house. Even though I was a klutz in the air, I was surprised at how
graceful I landed. Magic had its perks it seemed.

I turned around and once again my jaw dropped, I really had to get over
that, as I surveyed my surroundings. Somehow I had covered three blocks
with one single leap. I flexed my muscles and did a little victory dance.
Beat that Incredible Hulk! I grinned stupidly at the moon feeling like I
had proved something within myself. Maybe, just maybe I could do this. I
jumped again and let out a loud, "Whoop!" as I sailed across the starlit
sky. I felt weightless and free as bounded from rooftop to rooftop, my
jumps becoming more swift and confident with each giant leap.

I made it to Preston Park in no time at all. I landed in the parking lot
and I mentally willed the wings away. I don't know how I did it. I just
wanted them gone and they vanished in the same burst of sparkles that
they appeared in. Clapping, Nathaniel walked toward me. The light from
the moon and the tall lampposts illuminated his smiling form. I wanted to
smack him real good in the face. Cheeky bastard.

"I knew you would be able to do it," praised Nathaniel coming to stand at
my side. "That was once your favored bit of magic. Your leap of faith
spell was often used in close combat to make you more agile, avoiding
devastating blows."

I was not obliged. In fact I was feeling a little pissed. "You left me."

"For a reason and you performed most excellent," he said, half smiling.

I rolled my eyes. He really was slow on catching the sarcasm. "So, how
come you cant take out the werewolf on your own. You seem way more
powerful than me."

Nathaniel shook his head. "I am not even at half your power. I am a
wizard. I had to study the craft and I use tools and focuses to use
magic. You are unlike any of the magic users on the planet. You are an
enchanter of the highest order. You create magic the way artists create
paintings. It's a natural ability within you that is honed with
practice."

"Oh," I said, suddenly feeling like I had been kicked in the head. That
was a lot to take in. I guess being one of the Chosen made me high on the
magic food chain. "Will the others be making with the magic?"

"The other Chosen?" asked Nathaniel. At my nod of confirmation he shook
his head. "No. The other Chosen are each talented in different areas. You
are the only one who uses magic."

Well whoop the do. No pressure or anything. I sighed. "Let's just go find
this werewolf. I'm starting to feel the need to lie down. It's all a
little much, you know?"

"I understand," said Nathaniel. "It was not easy for me when my memories
started to come back either and I learned it was my destiny to again seek
out and become the advisor of the Chosen."

A loud, continuous wolf howl broke the somber air. Startled, I snapped my
head up looking around in fear. I looked back at Nathaniel and he grimly
nodded at me. I guess this was it. He flicked his wrist and a long staff
materialized from nowhere. It was brown, knobbed, and carved with symbols
going up and down its surface. I stared. Of course the wizard would have
a staff. How stereotypical was that?

"Let's go," said Nathaniel walking past the clearing that held the
playground and picnic tables. He gestured at the disturbed and broken
branches that led into a cluster of tress.

I followed behind him surprised at the lack of sound in the woods. It was
an eerie quiet that made all the hairs on the back of my neck stand on
end. I shuddered a bit but continued on. We walked quietly trying our
hardest to not step on any branches or twigs. The howl came again and
this time it was louder, closer. I gulped. I was feeling the nerves
again. My hands shook and I wiped my sweaty palms against the sides of my
legs. Who was scared of the big bad wolf? Me. Definitely me.

We stopped suddenly and I almost bumped into him. Nathaniel stared into
the distance and I followed his gaze. A set of gleaming yellow eyes
stared at us from the darkness between the trees. I tried to call
Nathaniel's name but my throat wouldn't work suddenly. Then faster than
human a large furred body jumped out at us. I couldn't help the girly
scream that left my throat. Hey, I wasn't some Power Ranger. I was just a
sixteen year old, with a destiny, and more magic than I knew what to do
with. I stepped backward and tripped over a log falling hard on my ass.

Nathaniel pointed his staff at the werewolf. "Kalibar!" He shouted with
force.

The runes etched onto the staff glowed red and a burst of wind, like a
mini
cyclone, appeared throwing the werewolf back and into the ground.I
scrambled to my feet feeling a little braver now that it had been knocked
on its ass. The werewolf got up quickly and gazed at us with cold eyes.
The eyes were calculating and frightening to view. It was the gaze of a
predator. The werewolf had a dark brown coat of thick fur and it was
bigger than a normal wolf. It opened its mouth and I felt my heart speed
up at the sharp teeth that practically glinted into the moonlight.

The werewolf reared back onto its hind legs and it jumped toward us. Or
well me. Shit! Move legs, move! I froze on the spot and I almost fell
over as Nathaniel pushed me out of the way. He shouted another word in
some language I didn't recognize. The air before us rippled like a
disturbed pool of water. Nathaniel had thrown up a shield. I had seen the
same effect done in many a Sci Fi show.

The werewolf hit the rippling air and fell over. The shield must have
been too week because Nathaniel flew backward with the attack to his
barrier. The werewolf was up quicker than Nathaniel who was kneeling on
the ground breathing hard. The fall had knocked the wind out of him good,
making him dizzy and slow to react. I shouted his name in panic. I was
doing a lot of panicking around here. Somebody really needed to slap me.

The werewolf circled us, its gaze hungry. We couldn't die here. Not now.
There had to be something that I could do. Nathaniel had expected
Superman and instead he had me, who was acting more like Dudley fucking
Do-Right than any helpful super powered warrior. This was not how I was
going to let it end. I needed to let my instincts guide me into taking
this preternatural beast. They had steered me right earlier. I focused on
that part of myself that I listened to when I incanted the leap of faith
spell.

"Umm... Ball of fire thing," I said unsurely, stuttering slightly.

I held out my hand as I kept stepping backward, courage leaving me.
Amazingly. A flicker of fire appeared in my hand. A small spark but it
was something. Those hungry eyes stared at me intensely noticing the feat
of brief magic. The werewolf could see that I was a threat now and it
came at me, fast. I squealed and closed my eyes thinking death was at
hand. Then before I could become werewolf dinner something within took
control. I snapped my eyes open and squared my shoulders feeling like a
man possessed.

"Fireball!" I shouted, determination and courage coming from some unknown
source within my body.

I whipped my arm out and a basketball sized shape of fire shot through
the air. The fireball caught the werewolf in the muzzle making it howl in
agony and tumble toward the ground. The smell of smoke and singed fur
filled the air. I stared at my hand in wonder. Did I just do that?
Nathaniel appeared at my side holding his staff. He looked at me with a
half smile.

"I told you that you could do this," he said, something akin to pride in
his voice.

I nodded dumbly. "I guess so," I muttered watching the werewolf quickly
recover from my attack.

The fireball had actually done some damage. I raked my eyes over the
creature as it struggled to stand upright. Its entire right side of its
face took the brunt of the blast. The fur was gone, burnt away by the
scorching flames. Its entire right face was raw, red, and looked like
melted mess. Oh god. This bastard was going to come right at us again and
I pissed it off. I was going to get my freaking throat torn out. What
could I do? I had to do something to kill this thing and finish this
fight. I reached down into myself trying to mentally urge forth some
knowledge from my very soul. My reincarnated soul that worked magic like
poets created poetry. And like magic it answered my call. I don't know
how it happened but I gasped and my vision began to swim.

A memory came from nowhere. I was in a battle fighting against creatures
straight from a nightmare. It was me yet not me. I knew instantly that
this was my previous reincarnation. Others were at my side. My friends.
The other Chosen. I couldn't see their faces. They were obscured by mist
hiding them from my view. But my soul knew who they were. Even though the
mind didn't know my heart recognized my comrades in arms. We were dressed
in all white tunics and gleaming silver chain mail. The me in my memory
roundhouse kicked a demon in the throat.

"I think it is time I send you foul creatures back to hell!" I in the
memory said. Me of then held up my hand. Words, a spell, tumbled from my
lips at a furious pace and power exploded across the field.

Then everything went white.

I shook my head clearing away the memory. That was bizarre. I knew what
to do now, hearing the spell still echo in my mind. These memories and
instincts always seemed to come at the right moment to help me out. Maybe
my subconscious was trying to tell me something that my conscious mind
was unable to accept. Not even a second had passed from my brief
blackout. I stepped forward away from Nathaniel. The werewolf came at us
again and I didn't let it get far.

"Sit boy!" I said on reflex, extending my middle and index finger at the
werewolf.

The creature blazed with a golden light and it growled in fury as it
collapsed hard into the ground, with a deafening boom, as the gravity in
the air around its body increased tenfold. I had to work quickly before
the spell faded. I traced a circle in the air with my finger and quickly
thrust my palm in the center. White light appeared in the shape of the
circle I just drew, and my hand buzzed with energy as I gathered power to
incant.

"Uranus, planet of wind and strength, I invoke thee," I screamed into the
night air. The circle disappeared and reappeared underneath the werewolf,
glowing brightly, making the entire clearing light up. Thunder rumbled in
the distance and wind blew the through the woods, making the branches
creek and the trees lean with its strength. I narrowed my eyes at the
werewolf and completed the spell. "Bring divine justice on my enemy."

"Heaven's Symphony!"

The circle pulsed with a brighter light that had us shielding our eyes.
The sounds of agonized howling, mixed with a haunting song of softly
singing voices, filled the air and I looked into the light. Feathers
filled the circle that trapped the werewolf. They circled around, faster
and faster, masking the creature in a tornado of white. Between feathers
I thought I caught a flash of a pair of angels, white wings extended, and
silver armor shining radiantly. There was another pulse of light and I
closed my eyes again. I looked once more and the light receded leaving
behind nothing. A quiet had descended that was so sudden after the cries
of pain and melodious music just moments before.

I stepped closer to look harder. The circle had left a charred width of
grass in its wake. That wasn't the only thing. In the charred circle were
chunks of werewolf. The creature had been torn into so many pieces of red
bloody mush that no one would have a hope of identifying it. I caught a
flash of white. The spinal cord peeked out from a piece of hind,
glistening and white amidst the dark blood. An eyeball lay near a mangled
paw, partially sliced in half with thick clear mucus coating its surface.
Blood pooled around in the circle and slowly leaked outward. The smell
hit me at once. It was like meat, raw and rotting, sticking to the back
of your mouth making one smell it even when you walked far enough away.

"You did it," said Nathaniel breaking the quiet of the woods.

I nodded, more on autopilot than confirmation to his affirmation. I felt
numb. Life. I had just taken a life. It wasn't human but life was life
and my head was crying out at me for committing such a damming act. Yet
my heart and my soul, my reincarnated soul, were telling me that I had
done the right thing. For now the parts telling me I had done the right
thing were the sides that I was listening to. There was nothing that
could be done. The werewolf had killed almost a dozen people. Mortals
hadn't a hope of taken out this creature from the Ever After. I was a
Chosen and this is exactly what I was chosen to do.

"I'm going home now," I muttered suddenly feeling wary and more tired
than I have ever been in my life.

Nathaniel reached into his pocket and slipped a card in my hand. I looked
at it, my eyes scanning quickly. It was a white card, blank, except for
the words Nathaniel Ruiz with his address and number written in bold
black ink. I slipped it in my pocket.

"I want you to meet me tomorrow at five," said Nathaniel. "We will start
your training as soon as possible."

Who the hell? Can I get a chance to say yes. "Um... How about no. I have
Student Council meeting tomorrow. Homecoming is coming up and we have to
raise money for decorations, food, and the DJ. And we also have^×"

"Skip it," said Nathaniel simply, cutting me off.

I narrowed my eyes at him. "Hell to the no! I worked too hard to just let
my academics go to shit. Destiny or not I have stuff to do. If my grades
start falling, my GPA drops, and if that drops my chances at getting into
a good college go straight down the drain."

Nathaniel wore one of his calm expressions that was quickly starting to
get on my nerves. I looked into his eyes and saw the apology and also the
unrelenting determination at their cause.

"You can be a great warrior only if you choose to be," said Nathaniel,
seriously, his green eyes boring into me with that intense gaze that only
he could do. "You were in the past and you can be now. All the grades in
the world wont matter if you don't take up the mantle of the champion of
magic and complete your destiny. If you don't fight then there will be no
future to look forward to." He took a breath and placed a hand on my
shoulder. "Here's where you make a choice. Do you want to be just Chad or
Warlock? Are you ready to truly be all that you are?"

His words hit me like a ton of bricks. Nathaniel was right. There were no
other Chosen awakened now. I was alone in this fight and if I didn't hold
the fort till my comrades joined me then who would? School was important
but so was making sure that the world stayed free from an apocalypse was
more crucial. People were counting on me. Mom, Kevin, Satan... Umm
Morgan. I sighed. I knew what I had to do. I know what my choice now was.

I looked at Nathaniel and nodded. "I don't want to be Chad and I don't
want to be just Warlock. I want to be both." I smiled, watching the
flicker of emotions of doubt and then relief swim in his eyes. "I want to
be Chosen."

"Then I'll show you the way."

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

This chapter was shorter than the previous one but that one was more of a
prologue and a first chapter combined. Plus, I think that it was better
that I ended it here. Next chapter look forward to some training and
another battle with a creature from the Ever After.

I want to thank everyone who emailed me. They were really encouraging and
I appreciate it. There was one from like four people in one that really
made me smile! Thank you. For feedback here is my email. Tell me
thoughts, comments, ideas whatever. Silvenfox@yahoo.com