Kayden’s eye flashed open at the sound of his alarm clock as he woke up in a sweat and was thoroughly shaken up. It had only been a dream. He trembled as he combed his hand through his hair nervously. Kayden walked to his closet, reached up to his normal statured rack, pulled out a similarly styled black leather jacket, and put it on. He went to his chair and rested his feet on the steering console as he lounged and put his hand on his face covering his eye.

“Not that dream again…” he remarked somberly. An alert sounded throughout the ship. A red light flashed to signify it was near a docking port just as he went to the controls. He set it to auto dock his ship at the Quarter Six trading post and successfully connected to the docking station, and it shifted and jerked as it locked in. He waited for a loud clang as he successfully lined up to his door. He went over to it, pulled the release switch to open the door, and was greeted by the Cyril he had talked to before.

“Where is Ezekial?” he asked.

“He’s in the back. Follow me. Did you bring a dolly?” Kayden asked.

“Yes,” the Cyril said as he motioned for the two other Cyrils that were lesser built than Kayden to follow the other Cyril, and one had a dolly. Kayden unfastened the cryogenic freezing pod from its master unit and helped lift the whole thing onto the dolly.

“Your payment, 2,500 ruplets as per agreed,” the Cyril said as he handed a stack of opalescent paper that was the shape of money but wider and not as long with various iridescent colors on it, making it shimmer in the light.

“I’m sticking around to recharge my ship and resupply. If you need me, leave a message on my comms, and I’ll get in touch. And don’t forget to replace my cryo-pod,” Kayden said. The Cyril nodded as the three of them left with the frozen Ezekial. Kayden sighed as he closed the room to the cryogenic chamber and walked to his console pressing a few buttons to power it down. He walked through the connecting corridor to his ship, went out of the exit, and appeared in a large hangar.

“I need a supercharge, and any repairs that it needs now. I don’t care about maintenance unless it’s in dire need,” Kayden said to a maintenance worker, and he nodded.

“Yes, Mr. Kayden,” he said before running to look after his ship. Kayden made it to the elevator and went in, sharing it with a couple of authorized Guardians who suddenly saw him. They stared at him as soon as they saw his black metal left hand. He groaned as they looked over their shoulders and started whispering back and forth.

“You ask him,” one Cyril said.

“No, you do it!” the other Cyril argued.

“Just get it the hell over with. We’re almost to my floor,” Kayden said in annoyance.

“Can we take a picture of you, Sir Kayden?” one Cyril asked, and Kayden sighed.

“…Make it quick,” he said as they both stood around him and took out a paper-thin device with a screen and pressed a button. A blue light emitted from it and scanned their bodies within two seconds. The Cyril that had the object inspected a 3D rendering of the three of them, and he looked at his height compared to theirs.

“You’re so tall, Kayden, you were born the real deal!” one Cyril commented. Kayden forced a smile before he felt relieved that he made it to his floor. He left as the other two saluted. For a Cyril, his stature was substantially bigger and more intimidating than most of his kind. He was born quite differently than the others and looked daunting as he wore a serious expression most of the time. But then again, he wasn’t actually just a Cyril—he was a Cyril hybrid with something else no medical doctor could pinpoint or understand. He had lived his whole life not knowing what the other part of him was, because his parents died when he was a child when they went off to war.

Kayden made it to the lower levels of the colony, where there were streets and vehicles everywhere, and people lined the metal grated sidewalks. Since it was a cheaper grade colony, hovering vehicles could only lift up to five feet off the ground. Airborne vehicles were not allowed since the buildings were connected with towering bridges crisscrossing each other overhead with a gray metal roof above them. There were bright lights everywhere illuminating the colony, but there was no sense of day or night. Kayden detested the cheap glaring lights used on lesser colonies—they were unlike the vibrant hue of the well-lit Guardianship Citadel, which he once called home. Even if he wasn’t a Guardian anymore, he certainly did miss the cushy living sometimes from the Guardianship after sleeping several months on his bottom bunk.

He walked quickly up the street in an area of vendors and merchants and passed through the crowds of countless aliens from fairly humanoid kinds to ones on all fours. Others with tentacles, horns, spines down their backs, and even gelatinous blobs that left slimy trails that slowly drained through the grated sidewalk. He made his way to a small shop with red lights and various aliens interacting with each other while smoking pipes and other paraphernalia. He made it all the way to the back of the shop to a counter where a woman with a lizard’s face with big orange eyes, green skin with orange splotches, and had pink hair tied in a bun was. She was an alien called a Tersar. She was wearing a burgundy robe with an orange sash across her chest to her opposing hip. She turned to face him.

“Kayden! It’s been ages! What brings you back here?” she asked, and he sat at one of the stools. He towered over her.

“I need some more of those sleeping pills, I’m having nightmares again,” he said in a disturbed voice as he rubbed his eye. The woman nodded and reached behind the counter and shuffled around. She placed a bottle of blue glowing capsules on the counter; there were about two hundred pills inside.

“That’ll be 200 ruplets,” she said.

“That’s a rip-off, you know they’re only worth 50,” he said. She smirked.

“It’s been a while since you’ve come in, and the popularity of the ingredient just rose in the last month alone,” she argued, and he sighed after putting 200 ruplets on the counter and grabbed the pills.

“Make sure it doesn’t go up again,” he groaned before he left the establishment. He went to a diner, found the nearest booth in the back, and looked at the table. There was a screen projected. He put his hand through it, and it suddenly projected a keyboard on the tabletop. He scrolled through the menu and looked at the neon-colored food with disdain, and kept scrolling. He let out a sigh and started ordering. He added several dozen items to his cart before ordering a drink. He moved his wristband over and showcased a small white keycard with a photo ID of him and a barcode with his name. He put it through the screen slowly, and it beeped before processing his order. The screen and projected keyboard vanished, and he put his elbows on the table. He rubbed his hands together and let out another sigh as he waited for his meal. 

His stomach growled loudly as he slumped forward and groaned.

“I should have eaten a ration…” he mumbled as he rubbed his aching belly. Within ten minutes, a female Dimitress waitress came with a cart with several plates. She had shiny dark blue skin, pink eyes, and small features on her face. She started stacking one plate after another of eclectic and colorful alien food: noodles, mash, pods, shrubs, roots, and a fillet. The portions were large, and it almost looked absurd as his entire table was filled with eighteen plates. She let out a sigh as she left, and he picked up his fork. He started shoving food into his mouth quickly and without a single bit of manners—as if he were in a mess hall eating as fast as he possibly could. He guzzled down half his drink, one quarter through his plates but continued stuffing his face. He made short work of his food, and by the end of his meal, he had a melon-sized gut. He put his organic hand on his stomach and let out a sigh as he sat back. Five minutes barely passed before his belly shrank completely, and his toned abs returned as if he’d never had otherwise in the first place. He rubbed his abs and got to his feet before leaving the diner. Cyril ate a substantial amount of food to meet their minimum diet required to maintain their purely muscular physique.

 

Kayden marched down the street. He suddenly noticed a large neon sign advertising a sign in particular. He eyed it to read: “Now offering Sluff—the Cyrilin choice liquor!” He paused before he went inside.

The bar had numerous Cyrilin patrons including actual Guardians who were enjoying themselves and even being a little rowdy.

Kayden went straight to the front of the bar and sat down. The barkeep—Tavalon with pink skin, small horns on his scalp, white spiky hair and green eyes approached the counter.

“Sluff—the strongest label you’ve got,” Kayden ordered. The man stepped away for a moment. He grabbed a bottle of bubbly green liquid that was absurdly big compared to the alien—it was made for a giant, which was exactly what a Cyril was.

The man handed it over and then brought a glass big enough to hold the drink. Kayden went past the glass and straight for the bottle. He immediately started guzzling it.

“Careful there, that’s a strong label,” the barkeep said. Kayden sighed and took out a wad of ruplets—alien currency in iridescent ink on white shimmery paper and plopped it on the counter.

“Just keep it quiet and keep it coming,” Kayden said crossly. The barkeep sighed and grabbed another bottle just as Kayden finished the first one. A group of Guardians were nearby being rowdy that Kayden barely noticed—he was deep in his head thinking about Ezekial and what he’s said about never being able to regain his honor. Kayden made an irritated grimace as he started to down the other bottle. One of the Guardians was shoved into Kayden and knocked his drink on his front.

“Hahaha—whoops,” the Guardian said. Kayden got up and wore an angry snarl as he patted down his front that was now soaked. The Guardian suddenly recognized Kayden and sweated.

“K-Kayden Royal?” the Guardian asked. Kayden threw a powerful hook that knocked him down.

“You ruined my damn shirt,” Kayden growled as he spat. The Guardian got to his feet just as six others stood in an intimidating row.

“You’re some piece of work,” the Guardian said. Kayden groaned and turned back to his drink. One Guardian grabbed his shoulder.

“That wasn’t nice, Kayden,” he said. Kayden shoved the man’s hand off his shoulder.

“Don’t fracking touch me, asshole,” Kayden snapped. The Guardians eyed each other and growled.

“You think you’re so damn high and mighty because or your reputation…but it’s slowly tanking with your career—you’re a good for nothing not even the Guardianship wants anymore,” one Guardian said. Kayden made a tight fist as he heard him.

“They wouldn’t even take you back if you came crawling!” the other Guardian chuckled. Kayden sneered before he got up and started throwing punches. The Guardians grinned and snarled before they threw punches back. The barkeep groaned and pressed a button under the bar as the Guardians and Kayden went into a tussle.

Within minutes, four Enforcer Cyril in armor came in with batons that arced electricity. Kayden spasmed as the baton electrically shocked him in his back. It left him open for a punch to the face that knocked him back. Another baton struck him in the stomach. Kayden muscled through it and started throwing strikes to the Enforcers next. They struggled against him but teamed up with all four of their batons as they switched them to maximum charge and shocked him all at once, making his body spasm and seize up.

Kayden woke up on the floor in a cell with drool on his broken and bruised lip. He groaned as he felt his head throb from the leftovers of the alcohol. He slowly sat upright to notice he was indeed in a cell. There was an Enforcer sitting at a table on the other side of the cell who was reading an old-fashioned newspaper. Kayden let out a sigh and sat down on the bench.

“So, you’re alive after all,” the Enforcer said. Kayden wore an irritated fret as he looked up at him.

“How long have I been out?” Kayden asked.

“Two hours. I’d be surprised if you didn’t feel the effects of the tasers—they shocked the shit out of you, after all,” the Enforcer said as he licked his finger and turned the page. Kayden tousled his own hair and groaned.

“It had a kick to it, I guess. I don’t remember blacking out,” Kayden said. The Enforcer chuckled and put down the newspaper.

“You were hard pin down from what I heard. They had to use their batons on full charge,” he said. Kayden groaned.

“No wonder I feel like hell,” Kayden complained.

“Now that’s partially the alcohol talking, I’m sure. You may be Cyril, but you sure took in a lot of the Sluff—the strongest alcohol on this side of the quadrant,” the man said. Kayden suddenly felt nauseous as he bent over the side and hurled. The Enforcer chuckled as he watched him. Kayden sat back and looked in a daze. The Enforcer tossed a vial into the cell.

“Do us both a favor and drink that so you can sober up,” the Enforcer said. Kayden bent over and picked up the supplement before opening and guzzling it. He made a sour face as he groaned and spat.

“What the frack is this?” Kayden asked.

“Deezaka—it’s a supplement that helps fight toxins—that’s all that Sluff is for us Cyril, after all. It’ll get the liquid out of your system within an hour without you puking your guts out,” the Enforcer said. Kayden sighed and sipped it again.

“Thanks,” Kayden said before downing it. He let out an exhaustive sigh as drool caked his lip from the foul taste. He sat back and just stared at the ceiling. Within the hour, a Guardian came down into the cell and stood at the bars.

“Kayden Royal, you’re free to go,” the man said as he opened the cell. Kayden got to his feet and sighed.

“Are there any charges?” Kayden asked.

“No, the Lieutenant General cleared you,” the Guardian said. Kayden sweated as he heard him before he lowered his gaze.

“…Briggs?” Kayden asked. The Guardian nodded.

“He wants you to call him as soon as you return to your ship,” the Guardian said. Kayden quietly nodded.

He recovered his wallet, pistol, and holster as he left the building and went straight to the docks.

 

He tossed it to the floor and grew to his original size of ten feet seven inches, and then sat down and put his feet on the console. He pressed a series of buttons on it, and suddenly the image of another cyclops—a Cyril projected from the center of the console.

“This is Kayden Royal reporting. I’ve apprehended the suspect. I’ll be arriving within seven hours at the Quarter Six trading outpost. Send someone over to collect him. He’s on ice,” Kayden said, and the Cyril nodded. The man on the other end of the comms was quite aged looking with several wrinkles on his forehead and at the corners of his eye. He had to be way beyond several tens of thousands of years old and then some, but no gray in his short brown hair. Cyril did not get gray hair, only occasionally white hair naturally but that had nothing to do with age.

“Good work, Kayden…for a rogue Guardian, you still haven’t lost your touch,” the Cyril said. Kayden winced.

“You know you are sorely missed. Have you ever thought about coming back?” the Cyril asked.

“I’ve thought about it enough. It’s not on my list of things I plan on doing in the near future. Kayden out,” he said as he pressed a button, and the conversation ceased as the image disappeared. The truth was that he was let go as a Guardian after he lost his shit. But the ever low-recruitment rate and growing threat in the galaxy made a position with the Guardianship Citadel possible once again. However, he would be starting at the very bottom. He looked out at the stars as he traveled past them to where they were literally streaks of lights. He passed the occasional planet on his way through space. He stood up and walked over to his private quarters and set an Earthling alarm clock for six hours and thirty minutes. He jumped onto his lower bunk and rested his head against his hands as he folded them under his head.

“I better not be heading back to Earth anytime soon. I hate that place,” he said bitterly.

 

He closed his eye, and he saw the image of a woman—a brunette with curly long hair and green eyes laughing as she held his hand and they tackled each other in the grass in a park on a sunny day. Kayden was disguised as a human with two eyes and at the height of seven feet tall—which was a bit on the abnormally tall side. He refused to go any shorter since he was proud of his height, even as a Cyril. The rain started to come down, and before long, it was a downpour. They raced to the cover of a shop, and Kayden looked for his car keys.

“I’ll bring the car around, stay here,” Kayden said as he headed out to the rain and got drenched, but he made it to the car. He drove a couple of blocks, hearing a sudden loud POP! Just as he got close to where he’d left her. He glared through the rain to find the woman on the sidewalk lying in a pool of blood. Kayden gasped as he exited the car in a hurry and ran to her side.

“Felicia!” he shouted while he tried to staunch the bleeding in her stomach.

“Kayden…I…I love you,” she whispered painfully.

“I love you too, but, please—save your strength!” he exclaimed.

“Listen, Kayden…while you were away, I had our daugh—” she stopped mid-sentence as her head rolled back and her eyes closed.

“Felicia?!” Kayden gasped. He gently shook her body, but she did not rouse.

“Felicia!!” he cried out as he lunged his face against her bosom. His eyes merged to one in his moment of distress, but his total transformation did not let up, not yet. The downpour of rain muffled his cries as he howled in sorrow while clutching her limp form. He gently rocked her in his arms as he wept, barely noticing two men in hoodies—one man holding a glock. They both had thuggish tattoos—one had a tattoo of a snake on his throat while the other had a teardrop tattoo under his left eye. Kayden barely noticed them until he saw the gun in the man’s hand who had the teardrop tattoo.

Then he inspected her wound, it was a gunshot wound. Rage filled Kayden’s hearts as he looked up at the two thugs while rising to his feet.

“What have you done!?” he bellowed.

“Bitch was trying to call the police!” the man with the teardrop tattoo growled as he pointed his gun. Kayden got up and towered over the thug with the gun just before he got shot in the chest, but it didn’t stop or even scathe him. Kayden cried out in anguish and pushed the thug down—his restraint on his Cyrilin strength which was always so careful to use with humans was gone in that moment as he lost himself in anguish and anger.

“Get up and fight me!” Kayden growled.

Kayden sneered at the other man until he noticed the downed man did not get back up.

He saw the man with the teardrop tattoo unmoving with his eyes open and his mouth agape.

“Y-You killed him…” the other man said warily.

Kayden’s eyes went wide as he realized what he’d just done. He looked at the thug with a stunned expression—his tears blending in with the downpour of the rain on his face. The thug with the snake tattoo cried out and started to flee the scene. Kayden looked to the downed man before his eyes drifted to his lover’s body. He grimaced as he marched over to her and knelt.

He suddenly came back to himself as his rage was overshadowed by the intense dread and sadness overtaking his hearts.

“No…No!!” he cried out as he fell to his knees in the rain.

A man exited the shop and gasped at the sight of Kayden, who was now shirtless, taller than him even while kneeling, and with blood up to his forearms. Kayden just stared at the shopkeeper before it dawned on him that he should leave. He picked up his lover’s body and cradled her as he headed for his car. He tried to focus on sizing down with his artifact but all he could do is barely hold her body without gripping her too tightly. He cried out as he rushed past the car and down the street. People shrieked as they saw him run past in his giant form. He wasn’t exactly sure where he was going but knew he had to get away from the scene. He immediately had an idea and pinged someone on his wristband. He suddenly staggered in his gait as he felt his hearts struggle to remain in a rhythm. He felt the onset of Heartbreak. He grimaced as he felt one heart stop beating and his second one slow down considerably. He trodded down an alleyway and fell to his knees. Kayden gazed down at his lover’s body with her still features and tried to keep conscious but felt himself wane. He set her body down gently as his arms trembled and he felt his remaining heart slow even more dramatically. He breathed out a foggy vapor as his eye split to two before his irises turned white and his sclera black and a line appeared down his lower lip and chin. A man with short silver hair and white on black eyes appeared clothed in white robes. He knelt to him and wore a fret.

“No, Kayden, you’re not going to die here,” the man said in a deep voice. Kayden just stared up at him as if in a daze.

“Ping your location so they can find you,” the man said. Kayden silently complied and pinged his location on his wristband. He slowly passed out.

Hours later, Kayden stirred to find himself in a bed while still in his Cyril form. He was hooked up to a heart monitor and several leads, in a medical room of some kind. He felt hazy and slowly looked around. A female Safaress with four purple eyes wearing a lab coat and a name tag that said ‘Akala’ on it stood nearby looking over a digital tablet while taking a puff of a cigarette.

“Felicia…” Kayden whispered, catching the woman—Akala’s attention.

“Easy does it, big guy. You’re experiencing some pretty severe Heartbreak,” she said. Kayden eyed her and then looked at the heart monitor. He focused before realizing he heard only one beat which was slow in its pace.

“Where is Felicia?” Kayden asked hazily. The woman sighed.

“She’s gone. But you’re still here,” Akala said. Kayden grimaced as he gripped his chest and turned on his side.

“Don’t even think about killing over until the Guardianship comes to get your ass and pays for it, alive and well,” Akala said in annoyance. Kayden reached for the leads to his chest and ripped them out before he started huffing for breath. He teared up as he felt his single beating heart slow. His eye parted to two eyes and changed to white on black once more as he breathed a frosty vapor. A line appeared down his lower lip and chin as he struggled for breath. Akala’s cigarette fell out of her mouth as she witnessed it. She growled and grabbed two circular panels and charged them. She shoved them against his chest and pulsed them like a human would do similarly with a defibrillator. Kayden cried out as his body spasmed. The man with short silver hair appeared again, but somehow, he wasn’t visible to Akala. He put his hand on Kayden’s forehead and gently pushed back his bangs.

“No, Kayden. This isn’t the end for you,” the man said. Akala pulsed him twice until hooking him back up to the leads and hearing a racing heartbeat. Kayden’s eyes slowly returned to normal but filled with tears. He looked up to the silver-haired man and just stared—unsure if he was hallucinating.

“I’m assuming that woman was your lover, just think what she would think of you if she knew you tried to kill yourself off like that,” Akala said sternly. Kayden eyed her as tears striped his cheeks. He looked back up to the man who gently smiled.

“Don’t waste what the Creator gave you,” the man said sadly. Kayden bit his lower lip and shut his eyes as he lost himself to the bitter sadness.

He stood out wearing all black in a crowd of people wearing white robes. He disregarded it and felt plenty confident to approach Ezekial as he was. He marched right up to the podium, and Ezekial’s eyes went wide as he saw him grab a pistol with a red handle. Kayden tapped it, and the handle turned blue—set to stun. Ezekial heard the charge of a laser. Ezekial put his hands together and pressed them down on the podium, and two horrifying malformed abominations came out of two black circles next to him on the ground. They had glyphs and magical markings. The beasts that were multiple human bodies sewn together crudely with large straw as stitching and two gaping mouths with jagged, sharp teeth and four arms approached Kayden. They hulked through the crowd goring the people as panic-struck, and the masses went running.

“Damnit,” Kayden grumbled. He switched the color of his pistols to red—to ninth-grade kill shot mode, and started shooting at the abominations. It didn’t faze them. He holstered his guns and grabbed the hilt he’d equipped earlier and approached one of them, and looked up.

“You know I’d still be taller than you,” Kayden remarked. He pressed his thumb against the hilt of the sword and activated it. Suddenly, a large red blade emitted from the hilt of pure light half as tall as him. He wielded the two-handed sword and swung it around wildly, chopping both abominations in half. Ezekial summoned more as he fled, and Kayden started running after him slicing up one abomination after the other until, suddenly, his stride was inhumanly fast. Ezekial looked back and panicked before he lifted his hands, and the abominations stopped spawning.

“You won’t take me in!” he exclaimed. The ground started to tremble before dust and pebbles fell from the ceiling. Kayden halted before looking up to see cracks in the ceiling. He witnessed large pieces of concrete fall around him. He turned and looked to see a dozen humans running from the falling shards of cement—he saw one large piece in particular that had to be twenty feet across.

“Damnit!” he exclaimed as he faced them. He grew back to his height of ten feet seven inches and ripped through his jacket just as he leapt one hundred feet across the stadium right between the group of humans. He lifted his arms and caught the large chunk of debris and didn’t even break a sweat. The humans looked up to him in fear and panic.

“Don’t just stand there, run!” he exclaimed. They screamed and fled. He looked around and didn’t see any more humans in the stadium. He tossed the chunk of concrete effortlessly before he turned to see a fleeing Ezekial. He ran after him until a chunk of cement blocked his path. He turned to go around it, but another piece landed in his way then too. He paused to look up and saw the entire stadium on its way down.

“Ah, hell,” he remarked. The entire stadium collapsed on him. Humans screamed as they fled several dozen feet away in every direction from the fallen stadium. Rubble trembled and scattered as Kayden shoved chunk after chunk off of himself. He coughed as he stood and patted the cement dust off his front and legs and let out a sigh.

“This is such a pain in the…” he started before he noticed Ezekial one hundred feet away near a car. Kayden grinned and crouched down. He used all his strength to leap the distance and landed on Ezekial’s back, who let out a loud groan. He grabbed him by the wings and held his sword up to his neck.

“Stop struggling, or I’ll slice your precious wing off,” Kayden threatened.

“The bounty doesn’t say to take you in alive either,” Kayden added with a wicked grin, and Ezekial grimaced. Kayden materialized shackles out of his wristband.

“They were happy!” Ezekial exclaimed.

“No one feels happiness under the power of suggestion—which is what you used, Ezekial. I know what your tricks are,” Kayden said. He led him out to the charger and put him in the back seat with his hands behind his back, and got into the driver’s seat after sizing back down to seven feet tall. He activated the console and started the car. He headed back to the highway through the crowds of chaotic people running back and forth.

“Look at the mess you’ve made for these people; it’s going to take months for them to get their lives back together,” Kayden said with disdain.

“Like you care, you’re just a rogue agent, Kayden Royal. Black hair, red eyes, a silver metal left arm. Yeah, I recognize you,” Ezekial said. Kayden looked in the rear view mirror and gazed at him.

“You’re space trash. Not even the Guardianship wants you!” Ezekial laughed. Kayden sped up suddenly as he buckled his seat belt and then purposely turned the wheel to swerve to a stop, knocking Ezekial to the other side of the car hitting his head in the process against the glass.

“I may no longer be a Guardian, but that’s bad news for you. That means there are certain rules I don’t have to follow to get you to your destination of Macca Nine. You could go there in pieces in my irresponsible care. Who knows?” Kayden asked with a menacing smile, and Ezekial cringed as the look of horror spread across his face. Kayden suddenly sped up again. He saw the bleeping on his wristband start to turn into a solid light, and he slammed on the brakes causing Ezekial to fall between the passenger and driver’s seat and hit his head against the windshield in the process. Kayden stopped the car and opened both doors, and dragged Ezekial out.

“Not Macca Nine! I didn’t commit that bad of a crime!” Ezekial pleaded.

“Macca Nine is where they want you. You’ve grown some notoriety out here on the lesser planets gathering followers and exposing them to the dangers of black magic. What awaits you is a long sentence in the cryogenic freezer and a life of a memory wipe and reform,” Kayden said as he pressed buttons on his wristband and lowered the hatch of his ship. He marched Ezekial in and led him to a room at the side of his ship. He pressed in a code at the side of a double door, and they rolled back. There were several upright glass containers with a metal casing around and over them. Kayden shoved Ezekial in one after taking off his shackles and closed the glass door on him. Ezekial banged on the glass and pleaded, but Kayden didn’t want to hear it.

“You’ll never get back the fame and honor you had as a damned Guardian no matter what you do or how many of us you put away, Kayden!” Ezekial shouted angrily. Kayden sneered and pressed one big red button on the side of the freezer pod Ezekial was in, and it instantly frosted him into a cryo-state. Kayden plugged in the pod to his ship’s main system to support life and safeguard Ezekial’s vitals. Kayden left the room with a metal barred holding cell that was roughly twenty feet by twenty feet with black bars made of Obliturium, one of the strongest metals found in space at the time. The same metal his armor was made from. His arm, however, was made of a lesser metal to his dismay. He sighed as he looked at his view of the horizon and sat there for a moment pondering to himself.

“Time to get the hell off this planet,” he remarked, and he went to the helm and picked up the joysticks, and lifted off the ground with his ship, ascending into the sky. He made sure to exit the planet away from their spacecraft but heard a loud CLUNK! As he collided with a satellite.

“Damn humans and their space trash,” he groaned as he sped up and set his console to an automated location and pressed one button, and leaned back in his chair. He put his index finger between his eyes as he closed them, tracing from the tip of his nose up to his forehead, and his cyclops eye reformed.

“Much better,” he said as he stood up and took off what was left of his leather jacket.

Kayden Royal grumbled as he stepped sideways to squeeze out of the shower, hitting his muscular shoulder against the shower head anyway. He was half Cyril—a cyclops from the race of giants and even though his ship was made by Cyril, Kayden was abnormally exceptional in both size and stature… and had the bruises to show for it. He always chalked his largeness up to the biggest question mark currently in his life—what else was the other half of his bloodline? Always the burning question, just never anyone around able to give him the answer.

After drying himself off, Kayden grabbed a good palm size of medicinal salve to rub on his sore muscles, which there was no lack of either of the two. He had a light tan complexion, his entire body riddled with battle scars.

He kept his jet black hair long to just past his shoulders in memory of his late mother, a silky smooth trait they shared. He paused and gently squeezed his hairband without realizing it, as he did every time he touched it. It was a gift, after all.

His left arm from the bicep down to the fingers was made out of silver metal—it was a cybernetic arm. Tying back his hair in a half ponytail, he headed into his room to get dressed. Kayden rummaged through his dresser drawer, halting when his finger nudged his old Guardian badge. His brows furrowed in frustration as he shoved it further back into the recesses of the drawer where it belonged. His crimson red eye momentarily fell to the top of his dresser. Abandoning his search for a pair of socks, Kayden reached out and picked up the intricate gold locket that lay atop the dresser and brought it close to examine it. Every time the locket made a small click upon opening, his hearts both quickened and sank. He looked at that locket every morning.

“Felicia…” He whispered as he stared at the beautiful, human woman smiling back at him in the photo. With a frown, Kayden gently closed the locket shut and placed it carefully back where he knew he would always find it.

 

His Command Console was circular and had buttons on all around it with a projection unit in the center that could display a full vibrant array of colors mimicking realism in every picture it showed. He was on autopilot headed for Earth, a planet he visited four years ago. When everything went wrong. He pressed a few buttons on his console and brought up his mission briefing. “Wanted: Ezekial Armstrong. Race: Avian. Wanted for illegal use of black magic,” It read. Magic wasn’t unknown in the galaxy, it was caused by the naturally occurring phenomenon of mana, an invisible force that flowed through air and space. Earth was no stranger to magic; they had learned about its existence and used it on a day-to-day basis. This Ezekial Armstrong was abusing the power of mana, and on Earth. Avians and other aliens utilized mana in a much more powerful way than Earthlings could and were considered highly dangerous. He was gathering an army of followers by his use of dark magic and summoning dark apparitions to threaten those who didn’t want to participate in his plot. At least, that’s what the report said.

Kayden sighed as he neared the International Space Station and pressed a button, it cloaked his ship and even hid the electronic signal. As if it were invisible. Cloaked. It was a Guardian-issued ship he had still managed to hold onto. Cyril technology was the apex of the known universe and had been for several hundreds of thousands of years. The only alien species to come close were known as the Ressix. The Cyril people themselves easily lived for several hundred millennia and then some. Kayden was considered very young and not anywhere close to being in his prime; he was considered a young adult at best at the age of nine-hundred and thirty-five. Kayden grabbed his joystick steering control at his helm and began to pilot the ship himself as he entered orbit and brought up the map of his intended target location. Every time he entered Earth’s atmosphere, he could see her beautiful face.

“Damnit, that’s too close to the city…” Kayden muttered in his deep and masculine voice as he hovered over the desert just outside of a small town—it was a small town to him compared to the ones on many planets he’d been to. A few hundred thousand people weren’t nearly enough to inhabit what he considered a city. Kayden was wearing dark gray cargo pants and boots to his shins, but his torso was bare—revealing many scars and scrapes. He had an intensely muscular physique and well-toned chest under his scars—the Cyril were a hardy species that were naturally made that way. That’s why Cyril were only allowed to become Guardians above other species.

Kayden lost his upper armor in a fight somewhere and never managed to get a new piece before losing his rank as Guardian and had to travel without it. He stood up, went to his closet, grabbed a shirt of stretchable fabric that was black and sleeveless, and put it on. He sighed as he looked in the mirror. He put his left index finger to the center of his forehead and closed his eye as he traced down the middle of it and to the bridge of his nose. As he did, his eye separated into two eyes equally set apart. He opened his eyes and blinked a couple of times, inspecting them in the mirror, and grinned.

“Still got it down,” he remarked.

“Now the hard part,” he muttered as he walked to the corner of his closet. There were white tick marks of measurements. One marked his current height at ten feet seven inches—322 cm, and another marked seven feet—approximately 213 cm. He looked at the seven foot tick mark, grabbed his silver belt buckle, and closed his eyes. He began to shrink in stature all the way down to seven feet tall, and a much smaller frame. His metal arm shrank and reformed with him. He opened his eyes and measured himself, and nodded. Then he returned to his closet and went to the lower rack with a black plastic label marked for a shorter height. He sorted through some clothes and found a black leather jacket, and put it on. He walked over to his small armory which wasn’t much to speak of—a rifle, two pistols, a black hilt of a sword, a couple of grenades, and small silver discs. He took off his jacket for a moment and put on his gun holsters before putting it back on and put his two black pistols with red grips in them. He picked up the sword hilt, equipped it to his belt latch, and walked back over to his Command Console. The hilt didn’t look like much at first glance, but there was a button on its side that activated a full physical manifestation of a red ninth-grade laser blade once powered on. He dialed in a few numbers, and the hatch of his ship opened up. He stood outside his ship and gazed at the horizon.

“Always leave my homing beacon on for safety,” he muttered as he pressed a few buttons on his wristband. It took up his whole forearm with a black band and a screen emitting from it before he minimized it and headed off his ship. As he exited, he turned back and pressed a few buttons on his wristband, and the door shut, making the ship virtually invisible to the naked eye.

Kayden approached a long stretch of highway and examined it. There wasn’t a single person for kilometers. He saw something that stood out to him across the highway in the parking space of a diner that was long vacated. He approached a car that made him grin—it was a red charger with black racing stripes. He put his right organic hand to the handle, and something pulsated from his hand as the door unlocked. Another pulsating wave came from his hand as he wrapped it around the steering wheel, and the car turned on. Kayden backed out of the parking spot, put it in drive, and cruised down the highway at ninety miles per hour.

He drove for several minutes, noticing empty cars on the side of the highway as if abandoned.

“He’s been here alright…where is that bastard now?” Kayden asked out loud. He frequently talked aloud to himself over the course of his life as a nervous tick; only when he was with other people did he do it less. He drove into town and slowed down as he went down streets heading for the city center, where many cars congregated. Then he saw a person wearing a white robe. He drove up to the woman who had short curled hair and green eyes wearing black glasses. He rolled down his window.

“Where are you going dressed like that?” he asked.

“To where he is,” she said eagerly.

“Who do you mean?” he asked.

“Our savior,” she said with a smile as she turned and continued walking.

“Hmph. This is way too easy. I guess I know why the bounty was so low…” he muttered as he rolled up the window and drove slowly, following her. He eventually made it to a stadium and saw hundreds of people filing in. He parked the car, turning it off in the process, and got out. He walked through the front gates and through the crowd to make it inside. He went to the second floor and looked down. There was a man with two angel wings on center stage near a podium. Kayden grabbed a small black circular device and put it on his temple before a red screen appeared in front of his left eye. He started scanning the crowd until he positioned it to target the man with wings, and it flashed and beeped at him.

“We’ve got a match,” Kayden remarked as he disabled it and put it away before he made his way to the bottom floor.

The first episode of the webcomic, "The Legend of Guardian Kayden" is live! This includes 3 episodes of the Prologue. I had a bit of difficulty on Tapas uploading all of the content, so I had to split the prologue into three parts. One way or another, it's live and that's what matters!

Read it on Webtoon and Tapas!!

 

Episode One is planned for March! Stay tuned for updates!!