Chapter 1: The First Steps

The introduction of the book Defineing the Lines, which is the first book in The Formation Trilogy.

Chapter 1: The First Steps

Emmett

Emmett Galloway awoke on a late Saturday morning, as jumped out of bed. He had a nightmare; the same nightmare he always has.

He is in the back seat of a car. His dad was at the wheel, and he was having a conversation with his mom who was in the passenger seat. It was in the evening; they were on their way home from the grocery store. Then a car skids over into their lane and smashes into the Galloway’s car. The car does several flips in the air, and then lands with a sickening crunch. Emmett finds himself okay, and his father is alright; not a scratch on either of them. Emmett then looks over and to try and see his mother, but he finds nothing. He only sees an ambulance driving away.

Emmett still haunted from his nightmare walked across the hall over to the bathroom and he got ready for the day. He combed his short brown hair that has a strange green tint in it but it went along with his dark green eyes. His unique tint especially seemed to pop out more in the summer when the sun was brightest.

When Emmett had finally felt awake lazily went down the stairs. Emmett started making breakfast, but he noticed that his father wasn’t downstairs; he was always awake before Emmett was. Then Emmett remembered what day it was; July 13th, it has been exactly fifteen years since his mother died.

Emmett painfully remembered the dream that has haunted him for the past several years. Emmett wasn’t in the car when his mother died. His parents had decided to leave him home since they were only going to get a couple items from the grocery store. Emmett had never understood his mother’s disappearance when he was younger; his dad had always told him she had just taken a vacation. Shortly after Emmett’s fourteenth birthday his father had a talk with him about why Emmett’s mother wasn’t really home, because she had been hit by a drunk driver and died on impact.

It was noon before Emmett’s father had finally come downstairs. He seemed weak; his eyes were red and puffy. Emmett’s father sat down in one of the kitchen chairs, it had looked like he had been awake for three days. Emmett sat down opposite from him, and his father was looking down at the floor.

“Son, there is something I need to talk to you about.” His father said, Emmett was expecting to hear something about his mother but instead Emmett’s father looked up and said,

“It’s time for you to meet your grandfather.”

“Are you serious?” Emmett replied. “Why now?” Emmett filled up with joy; he had never gotten to meet his grandfather before. When Emmett would ask his dad would always tell Emmett that he would meet his grandfather when the right day came. Emmet didn’t know what to expect from his grandfather. He assumed that there must be something different about his grandfather if he has been prevented to meet him.

“You probably already know son,” Emmett father said looking right through him. Emmett’s filled up with confusion. He wasn’t sure what his father meant.

As Emmett got into the passenger seat, he was nervous about what was coming next. He didn’t where they were going; the unknown gave Emmett some uneasiness. Not a word was said between Emmett and his father as they left the small town of Goldsten, North Carolina and into the wilderness.

Emmett desperately tried to think of something to make the time pass, but he hadn’t brought anything with him, Emmett would tried to talk to his dad, but he was fixated on driving. Emmett looked out the window to the marvelous trees that surrounded him. They were healthy thick trees all around the dirt road. That’s what Emmett loved about living in the small town of Goldsten, the nature was all around the town. Emmett, with no other options, finally gave in to sleep, hoping it would make time go by fast.

The car had come to an abrupt stop when Emmett woke up.

“We’re here,” Emmett’s dad whispered, as the color rapidly left his face. In front of the car was a large all-white mansion that casted a large shadow over the vast field in front of it. Emmett was nervous; he didn’t know what to expect. He felt some resentment towards his father for not telling him what was happening but by his father’s actions; Emmett didn’t want to know what was about to happen.

As the two got out of the car they slowly approached the mansion. When they reached the doors; they swung open. The father and son entered the mansion, to find it empty. Before they could get a good look around of the entrance room of the mansion two green discs appeared, one under each of the two guests. They then flashed and the two were teleported into a different room. The room was all white. It was in the shape of a circle, the ceiling was a hundred feet above, along the walls were white pillars and there were no windows. Then ten white chairs appeared floating ten feet up in the air. Emmett slowly approached the chairs, when the flashing green light appeared over the chairs. Emmett then jumped back and went back towards with his father at the center of the room. Ten men in hooded white cloaks appeared in the chairs, each of them having the hoods covering their facial features. Then the man in the center of the ten men said,

“It’s very nice to finally meet you Emmett. I am your grandfather.” Emmett’s grandfather said in a booming voice, he then paused for a moment. “Emmett I have seen your future, and I know about your power. Why don’t you show the rest of us here and your father your powers?” One of the men waved his hand and a patch of grass appeared in the white room.

Emmett panicked for a moment, he became very nervous, and he never tried to intentionally use his powers before. He had only used his power a couple times before but that was on accident. Then Emmett was determined to show all the men in white cloaks that he was strong, and they obviously must be interested in his powers. Emmett then channeled his thoughts. He then raised his hands and the grass blades began to grow and forming together. They kept growing; they became several feet tall and grew hands and feet. Then they each developed a sword and shield. The now mutated grass soldiers aliened in a V formation over by Emmett.

“What is your request lord Galloway?” The grass soldier in the lead asked him. A sign of delight crossed Emmett’s face, but he quickly hid any sign of emotion. Emmett was determined to look like he was in control in front of the council. Then Emmett told his warriors with as much power in his voice that he could muster:

“No request. Your assistance for the time being is not needed, you may depart.”

“At your wish Lord Galloway.” The grass soldiers said in unison, there was then a flash and a patch a grass was where the grass soldiers had previously stood.  Emmett turned towards the elder council and every one of them seemed as if they were in a conversation with all the other’s although no words were being exchanged. Then the council member on the far left spoke out, in his raspy voice.

“He is the one; he must be informed of the perilous situation he must encounter.” Emmett’s dad stepped up for the first time and began to spoke directly at his father.

“Dad, isn’t there something you can do? He isn’t even an adult yet, there has to be some other way. I can’t risk losing him; I have already lost Tracey to that car accident so fifteen years ago. Please, you must reconsider I have already lost my wife. Don’t make it so I lose my son.” Emmett’s grandfather looked at Emmett’s dad.

“I’m sorry Markus, but there isn’t another way. You know this day has been coming. Ever since Tracey’s funeral I told you that Emmett was going to have to embark on this journey, you have known that he must go and protect humanity from the great evil.” Emmett’s dad then sulked off, taking this situation much worse than Emmett himself was. Emmett’s grandfather switched his gaze to Emmett and started his speech.

“Now, Emmett before you are informed about your upcoming situation I believe I should first give you a little history lesson. You, Emmett Galloway are a mutant. That means since the moment you were born you have had some special ability that most humans don’t have. In your case Emmett you have the ability to make certain plants to transform into warriors or soldiers and fight for you. There are hundreds of different powers out there. Now, mutant’s aren’t in the news often anymore because of us, we are called the elder council. We oversee all the mutants in the world.

Fifty years ago the elder council was once a very powerful group of twenty-five of the strongest mutants in the world. We had defeated every evil in the entire world. Once we had defeated the world of all evil, some of the members wanted to rule the world, and run things the way they wanted it to be run. There was massive arguing and it sparked a battle between all of the members. It lasted for a week and ended in many lives being lost. Out of the twenty five members our group, only thirteen of us survived. Ten of us are right here in front of you. The other three are in hiding; they wanted to be able to live in seclusion and not have to worry about another future argument to break out. After the battle the ten of us decided to form the elder council, we also made an oath to never use our powers in battle again.

However; after the formation of the elder council there were barely any new mutants on the planet. Any people that did start developing their mutant powers would go and seclude themselves from society. They were under the impression that they were going crazy. Since there was no evil on Earth, there was no need for their powers. But now, some kind of evil that we cannot see is approaching Earth. Now, teenagers all over the world are having powers be presented to them. This is where you come in Emmett. We need someone who can go out and prevent this evil from destroying this world. You will have to create a team and travel to one of the other three living elder mutants to receive mentorship in developing your power.”

Emmett thought over his entire situation. Then without hesitation he said,

“So when do I start?”

Reviews

[ScarlettTheDreamer]

Interesting. The only question that popped in my mind is 'what kind of evil does he mean?' because at that point, I think it would have worked better if he would just explain what the evil is. And the idea of using mutants seemed different. His powers sound different too. Guess I will read and find out :)