Chapter Four: The Finale

The truth behind the attacks, finally revealed!

TheThe man in the straw hat spoke, “That’s right.”

Everyone looked closely at the man in the straw hat and realized something. It was Jack. He was even wearing his signature geta styled shoes. Everyone quickly turned back towards the shadow creature.

“You didn’t have to break my door open Jack.” said Mod as he waited for the shadow creature to attack.

“Settle down everyone. He won’t attack you anymore.” explained Jack.

“What are you talking about?” asked Mod.

The hooded figure added, “This creature attacked a few of us over the past few days. And mentioned your name. He wants to kill us all.”

Jack explained, “I know that already.”

“And how is that?” asked Mod.

“Because I told him to?”

Everyone eased up and looked back at Jack.

“What did you just say?” asked Barbra.

“That’s right. I told him to attack you guys. Not all, just the ones I wanted to test.”

“Wait let me get this straight…you sent this creature to attack some of us? Why?” asked the hooded figure.

Jack explained, “In this line of work you are all about to get into, we will no doubt create enemies overtime. And those enemies will be hunting us down, either together, or one by one. You all should be prepared for an enemy attack at any time. This was just a test to see how you all would have handled that kind of situation. He (the shadow creature) is probably the strongest out of most of you. So I sent him to test you all. I knew he’d put up a real challenge, and he’s told me of how you all responded. I’m very proud to say that you all are ready. See, this sight right here is proof. All of you, faced him ready to fight. You all might have been nervous but you didn’t hesitate to defend yourselves. The moment I opened the door and saw you all standing strong in front of me, I knew that this was meant to be. So now I say WELCOME! Welcome to our group first meeting.”

“Wait what?” went Ben.

“So whose this creature supposed to be?” asked the hooded figure.

“He’s your new teammate.” said Jack.

“So we have to trust this guy after he tried to kill us?” asked Barbra.

“He wasn’t trying to kill you. He was only pretending to. All I wanted him to do was put up a decent fight. Which is why all of you are still alive now.”

“So now you’re saying that we wouldn’t have been able to kill him if it was a real fight?” asked the hooded figure.

“No, I’m just saying that it’s most likely not possible. I mean I don’t know what each of your full potentials are. I just guessed based on what I’ve seen from each of you. But look, the job is done, and no one was hurt.”

“He slammed me into a wall” explained the hooded figure.

“Look if you’re hurt he can heal you. He has the power to heal others and himself, which makes him a big asset to this team.”

“Woah really?” asked Ben.

“Yes really.”

“Where’s uh Sharp at Jack?” asked Mod.

“Oh right behind me. See…”-Jack stepped to the side and exposed the mask wearing boy behind him- “All of the members are here. Get acquainted, get to know one another, and let’s get started with our journey.”

The blob slid up to the mean faced shadow creature and smiled, then said, “Hmmm, so you’ve been a good guy all along. I guess we can meet the traditional way now”-the side of his body stretched out and formed the shape of a hand- “Nice to meet you.”

The shadow creature responded, “Don’t think were friends. I meant everything I said to you all before. You all are weak and pathetic. Don’t get in my way.”

“Oh…well…”-The blob went from friendly to slightly angry- “It didn’t seem that way when you attacked me. You found out that physical attacks don’t really affect me and became helpless. Maybe next time you’ll find an actual way to harm me.”

The blob then began to walk away. Jack and Mod walked into the kitchen and talked privately.

“I think your shadow friend has some sort of anger issues.” said Mod.

“Well yeah. He doesn’t really like working with others. And all he really wants to do is kill things, anything really.” explained Jack.

“Hold on, so why would you let him join your group?”

“Because, he’ll be really helpful against the bandits. And he does cooperate with me. You see how he did what I told him to. Everyone’s alive and well.”

“What if he gets super angry or something and attacks one of us? Huh? Then what?”

“Then I’ll handle it don’t worry.”

“And how are you gonna do that?”

“Don’t worry about it. Trust me, he’s not as hard to work with as you think. Plus, he’s great with his healing powers ‘n all. I’ve seen it firsthand.”

“And what about that blob creature. Is he really healthy enough to be doing this?”

“Don’t worry about it man. I’ve helped him get his body right. He’s been eating greatly. Don’t worry. Everyone in that room is great. So are you ready to start this thing?”

“Huuuuuuuhhh…It’s been a long journey. And we’re finally at this point.”

“I know. But I also know that our journey as of today is a whole lot longer.”

“I know you HAVE to be really excited. ‘Cause I’m excited for you. Eheheh.”

“Yeah, this has been a dream of mine for a long time. Finding people who want to help get rid of these stupid bandits. I’m trying not to smile too hard. I’m really struggling to hold back my excitement. I wanna be as professional as possible.”

“Yeah…nothing says professional like sending a bunch of strangers to kill other strangers.”

“Ahaha oh shut up. So you ready?”

“I asked you that.”

“Well okay then let’s do this.”

“Ooookay.”

Jack and Mod entered the front room where everyone else was.

Jack then spoke to everyone, “Okay everyone, I would like you all to have a seat so we can get started.”-As everyone sat down he began to speak again- “Alright, welcome everyone to our first official meeting. Each of you have met me individually while I traveled around the northern hemisphere. Each of you have come here because you all share the same feelings I share about the state of our world. As you have seen, humans are in a state of crisis. Ever since the war most humans have been in poverty. But even though a large number of us have made a way to live well, there are those who have not. Another large number of humans have this mindset that...instead of working hard and doing things peacefully, they can just do whatever they want. They truly believe that everything is theirs for the taking. All they do is take from those who have. They take money, they take food, clothes, and especially…lives. We all may know of a person, or some people, whose lives were lost by bandits. People…whose homes were raided by bandits, and burned down. Of course there are those who do not have to worry about bandits, like those who live in one of the three kingdoms. However, for those who live outside of kingdoms, which are most humans, they have to deal with this threat EVERY SINGLE DAY. And it’s uncalled for. We’re all citizens of this earth and we should all live together in peace, but the bandit mindset is built differently. They kill without any emotion or mercy. They’re ruthless. But…the saddest part is that humans are too afraid of them. Because in the war all of the human warriors died in battle. The ones that humans saw as the strongest were wiped out. So now they live in fear. But I was different from them. I chose not to let them bully us. When I was 18 I went out and trained with war veterans to become strong. But I knew I couldn’t do it alone. So after my training I went out and looked for anyone and anything who felt the same way I did. What I found was all of you. Living beings of this world that have seen the hate, despair, and pain brought on by the bandits. And you know that they must be stopped. You all are willing to fight with your bear hands for those who are too weak and afraid to defend themselves. Together, we will show them that there is hope. Together we will show the bandits that their time of rain is over. Together, we will save this world.

Now this will be no easy task. As you know there are those out there who are strong. Some bandits out there have abilities unknown to many. Not to mention they out number us by thousands; and every day they seen to be increasing. But I know, that together, our passion and our determination will power through all of our enemies, especially alongside the skills that we possess. So now I want everyone to come by me and huddle up.”- Jack then puts out a fist- “I want everyone to place their hand over mine.”

Everyone proceeded to get up and move to where Jack stood and stacked their hands over one another.

Jack continued, “Now as we stand here, joined together, I want you all to get a good look at each other. These new people, are now your family. You must protect them and care for them. We all have the same goal, so there should be no reason for us not to be able to get to it together. It’s time for this world to go in a much brighter direction…and WE are the ones who will do it. It’s time for us to get started, so on three I want everyone to shout “Let’s do it” and then well eat the meal that my boy Mod made for us today. One, two, three.”

Mostly everyone shouted, “Let’s do it!”

Shadow didn’t participate in the shout. Everyone then disbanded and went over to the kitchen area as Mod presented the food. Across the country in an open grass plain stood a tall castle under construction. A masked man and an old man stood on top of the castle and watched as bandits below continued to build it.

The masked man spoke, “Hmph…this area around here…it’s different then when we first arrived.”

The old man replied, “Yes, I felt a sudden change as well. I wonder if it’s…”

“Maybe. But it’s too early to tell.”

“Well hopefully, we can finally find that someone we’ve been looking for. We’re not as young as we used to be aha.”

“When the time is right we will find what we need. But we have other duties to tend to. Our partner should be here soon. I believe it’s time for us to start the preparations for his arrival.”

“Yes sir.”

The masked man and the elder turned around and headed downstairs.

 

And thus the journey of this new team had begun.

A group of odd strangers all fighting for the same dream.

Including a small chubby boy

A hooded figure

A blob

A muscular woman

A fat guy

A shadow creature

A masked boy

And a man in a straw hat

Author's Note

Note: Anything about a character that wasn’t explained will be explained later in the book “Jack and Friends Adventures”.
1. What is your favorite part and why?
2. Who is your favorite character and why?
3. Was there any part of the story that felt boring and/or wasn’t that interesting?
4. Do you feel like you understand the area (not world) that the characters are living in?
5. Was there any thing that happened in the story that didn’t make sense to you besides characters hiding their identity?
6. Did you run into any grammar mistakes outside of character dialogue? If so estimate how many? About 1 to 5? 5 to 10? 10-20?
7. Did you ever feel like there was too much going on at once and/or that the story was moving too fast?
8. Are there too many characters to keep up with?
9. How badly do you want to read the rest of the story?
10. Overall thoughts?