The Nightwatcher Chronicles: Hunt Turned War

“Are you okay?” Jessie asked, sounding concerned.

“No, not really,” I groaned as I sat up. “It has been two years since Mom and Dad died and the nightmares are just now haunting me.”

I got out of my bed and walked over to my dresser. In the top left drawer, where I put my small belongings, were three checkbooks. The checkbooks were given to me by Bruce Wayne when I stayed in Gotham City during my mission there.

“What do you need those for?” Orange Bunny asked.

“Just in case. We’ll need a place to stay. Plus Bruce said I could use them for anything that isn’t illegal,” I replied. "Well anything that could be traced back to him."

I grabbed my wallet which had at least $2,000 in it. We spent the next 15 minutes loading our things in Jessie’s truck and I went over to my motorcycle while Jessie closed down the house

I glanced at my watch, it was 6:50 pm. We were twenty minutes late. I got on my motorcycle and cranked it. Then, drove down the driveway towards the highway. I turned left and sped off toward the Junior High.

The wind howled as I reached the speed of 80 mph and I arrived at the bus lane two and a half minutes later. All of the guys were there. Hannah was in the band van. Frankly, they looked bored. I told them to meet me there about half an hour ago. The front of their vehicles was facing the gate.

Ten of my friends were there, including Brody and Hannah. Consider this an introduction to the team. All of them had the same physical and sensory enhancements as me. All of them, except Hannah, had the memory chip installed in their brains. A few had the invisible shield surrounding them.

The first two mutants I laid eyes on were Dylan and Devin Cochran, a pair of fraternal twins. Dylan could teleport to anywhere that was in his line of sight. Devin could read anyone's mind and see memories without touching them. They both can communicate telepathically, which kind of weird me out. Dylan and Devin carry a pair of Desert Eagles as firearms. Dylan carries the Hollywood-famous ninjato sword, while his brother carries a bo staff that has retractable spearheads on each side. Both of them also carry M3 trench knives. Their bladed weapons are made of proto-adamantium. Dylan calls himself the Blitzing Knight, and Devin calls himself Mind Probe. In TOCB, Dylan plays secondary lead guitar, and Devin plays the bass.

Then there was Dalton Lunday. During a Skrull attack in Dallas, Texas, Dalton was exposed to the energy that Scarlet Witch (Wanda Maximoff) used. A blast landed near him and he absorbed the powers. Instead of his hands having a red aura when he uses his powers, there is a light-green aura. He also carried a pair of Desert Eagles. As his bladed weapon, he wields the same kind of katanas as me along with the M3 trench knife that is the same as the twins. Dalton calls himself Brain Freak. In TOCB, Dalton was a rapper.

Next is the friend I mentioned earlier, Justin Williams. His powers are similar to the X-Man, Colossus. Except for a few things. Justin can transform his body into a proto-adamantium. Plus, he can form any weapon that exists in his hands, with proto-adamantium bullets and unlimited ammunition. Think of an M1911. Boom. There is one in his hand. Most of us have weapons that Justin created. The guns and swords are the generic weapons he makes for us. He calls himself the Arsenal. In TOCB, he plays rhythm guitar.

After he is Daniel Baxter. Think of the character Heatblast from the TV show, Ben 10, and that is the gist of what Daniel can do. His fire form is different, though. The rock is obsidian and his veins, arteries, and eyes turn into lava. He can produce unbreakable obsidian katanas from his back and throw obsidian shards that are six inches long. Since he was born in Hawaii, he calls himself Lava Pit. In TOCB, he plays the violin.

Lance Wallace is another mutant that went with us. He can turn invisible, and anything touches will turn invisible if he is invisible. He uses a collapsible compound bow and, of course, he has plenty of arrows. He also has a proto-adamantium katana, which he rarely uses. He calls himself the Cloaked Hunter, and he plays the cello in TOCB.

Eric Molina is another mutant that went with us. He has Iceman's powers, but with a little extra. He can shoot ice that has a temperature of absolute zero and throw icicles. He is armed with a proto-adamantium katana painted with ice-like colors. Eric calls himself Iceberg and, as a part of TOCB, he is a rapper.

The last mutant to come with us was Leviticus Rodriguez, but we call him Levi. He can turn into a snake-humanoid, which is cooler than you think. He can extend his fingernails that can secrete fast-acting neurotoxin. He has two proto-adamantium sais and katanas. As a part of TOCB, he is a rapper. He calls himself Black Mamba.

Just in case you are wondering, Brody is armed with, you guessed it, a proto-adamantium katana that Brody can channel his lightning through. It was developed by the government, by the way. He also has two Beretta 96A1 pistols. Brody is also our drummer. As for Hannah, she is our female vocals, rythum guitar, and keyboard player.

Sorry for the information dump there, but the mutants have to be introduced. Anyway, back to the story.

“Look who decided to show up,” Brody said sarcastically.

“Sorry, I’m late. I overslept,” I explained.

“As far as excuses go, that’s a good one, mi amigo,” Levi interjected.
“It’s because you take a siesta every day,” Devin replied.

“Hey. Where's your girlfriend and Orange Bunny? Aren't they supposed to come with us?” Dalton asked.

As soon as he asked that, Jessie pulled into the bus lane. Orange Bunny rolled down the window. From her facial expression, she was pissed.

“Fuck you, Matthew for leaving us behind, asshole,” Orange yelled.

I rolled my eyes. I turned to the guys and Hannah and I told them to turn on their vehicles. Hannah was driving the band’s van. Then, all of their vehicles came on along with mine. The smell of fuel filled the air.

“Davayte razberemsya, rebyata!”

(Russia) “Let’s rollout, guys!” I yelled.

We all hit the acceleration, or gas pedal, and we sped forward. As we neared the gate, there was a flash of pink. It was like I was driving through mid-air. Bright pink, blue, and green stripes were all around us. I turned around to see if my group had come through as well. They did.

“How much further?!” yelled Daniel.

“I don’t know!” I yelled back.

We drove for about a few more seconds until we came out to the other end of the portal. For some odd reason, we were teleported onto a highway. I noticed the sun was barely poking out from the horizon. I glanced at my watch, and it was 6:30 am.

Eventually, we left the highway and arrived at an intersection in the suburbs of a large city and I noticed an empty lot across the street. Despite the laws of running a red light, I ran it and drove into the empty lot. The rest of my crew followed as we turned off our vehicles and got out, or in Jessie’s case, and off them.

“Where are we?” Brody asked.

“I don’t have a clue. Did we go to a different dimension,” I responded?

“I would think so because I don’t think there’s any city that is named Canterlot City in our dimension. There was a billboard that was advertising the local news, the Canterlot City Channel 10 Evening News, about three miles back,” Daniel put in.

I looked over across the street and found a small building that had a sign that read, “Sugar Cube Corner. Canterlot’s Favorite Cafe.”

“So are you saying that we found a new dimension?” asked Dylan.

“Yeah, am. This is cool. When this little adventure is over, we need to tell everyone. This will change everything about what we know about the universe. This isn’t some Earth-2 or -3 stuff. This is a whole brand new dimension,” Daniel said.

“No. We can’t just tell anyone. I don’t feel like sitting in a holding cell at a UN black site answering questions about alternate dimensions.” I interjected.

“Wherever we are, I’m hungry. I haven’t eaten since breakfast.” Dalton said.

“What the fuck is wrong with you. You need to eat something,” Orange snapped.

“For your information, I was working on an 18-page essay for a psychology class,” Dalton countered.

“Wait, you’re in college?” I asked. “I thought you decided not to go.”

“Oh, I’m a part-time student. Just in case, you decide to jerk me into one of your missions.”

“Are we going to eat or not? I’m starving.” Brody asked.

Quite frankly, I was hungry, as well.

“That cafe is open. I’m pretty sure they have some grub,” I suggested.

I told Orange to stay in the truck while we got something to eat. I said I would get her a cinnamon roll if she didn’t mess anything up.

We walked inside, and I was a bit surprised at what I saw. There was a woman behind the counter, but here’s the catch. Her skin is light blue and her hair is pink. Despite this revelation, I walked up to the counter and acted like everything was perfectly normal.

“You guys find a place to sit, and I’ll get you something to eat. My treat,” I told the group.

The lady looked at me and smiled. Now that I was closer, she was sort of a plump lady with a neatly designed apron on.

“What can I do for you?” the lady asked, kindly.
“I would like 7 cinnamon rolls and 4 kolaches, please,” I responded.
“Sure thing.”

She set two bags of cinnamon rolls and one bag of kolaches on the counter. The lady looked at me funny, and I could tell she was staring at my facial scar from Hamato’s sword cut.

“If you don’t mind my asking, what happened to your cheek?”

“I don’t like to talk about it but since you asked nicely. I got cut by a guy who tried to rob me,” I lied. “How much does the food cost?”

“Ten dollars,” the lady responded. I pulled out my wallet and set a ten-dollar bill on the counter. Strangely, enough the bill had changed it to what I assumed was that dimensions currency.

“Do you mind if I get your name? Just in case.” I asked.

“Sure. My name is Cup Cake. What’s yours?” the lady asked.

“Matthew Wilson.”

“That's an odd name but nice to meet you, though.”

"Nice to meet you, too."

I grabbed the bags and walked over to where everyone was sitting. I passed out the food to everyone. Then, I sat down in a booth next to Jessie and handed her a kolache. She looked tired and sad. She normally was not like that.

“Are you okay?” I asked

“No, not really. I don’t know how and why you talked me into this. I didn’t want to leave Dad. With Daniel in Afghanistan and Mom gone, Dad gets lonely and restless when he is alone,” she responded.

“Then why did you come?”

“I guess I wanted to have an adventure that I can be a part of. I’ve always stayed within my comfort zone. I tried getting out of my ‘zone’ by doing cheerleading, drama club, and even the debate. Now it's my chance. You know what I mean, don’t you?”

“Sure, I do. The band for example. That was stepping out of my comfort zone for me,” I responded. "Or becoming a teenage assassin for the CIA."

Jessie leaned forward and kissed me. I was facing the window with my eyes closed. When Jessie pulled away, I reopened my eyes and noticed four people in the empty lot where our vehicles were.

“Matthew, are you okay? You seem distracted,” Jessie asked.

“Look at the empty lot where we parked. There are four people near our vehicles. Three people are dressed in sweats and one is wearing an armored ninja uniform,” I responded.

Jessie turned around and looked at the suspicious people. I looked at the ninja. There was a symbol on the shoulder armor. It was the Black Snake terrorist symbol. A black snake with two red sais crossing behind it. He had a single katana on his back with a single pistol on his hip. The civilians were dressed in sweats and hoodies. Their faces were obscured.

“Holy crap,” I whispered.

“What is it?” Jessie asked

“The ninja is one of the Black Snake terrorists. See the symbol on his shoulder? The symbol is… “

“I don’t need a history lesson, Matthew,” Jessie interrupted.

“My question is who is he talking to? They are not being very discreet, either. Hamato’s terrorists usually prefer to meet with people on top of buildings, alleys, and abandoned buildings."

I didn’t like that a Black Snake terrorist is near three innocent civilians. However, there was something suspicious about the civilians. My suspicions were confirmed when the terrorist handed the civilians what looked like a flash drive. That did it.

I got up out of the seat. I sprinted out of the cafe. Jessie yelled at me but I couldn’t tell what she said.

I made a mad dash across the street. I’m used to running on tip-toes so I can run silently, so the terrorist didn’t notice me until I was about twenty feet away.

“Nē! Soko ni tomaru!”

(Japanese) "Hey! Stop right there!” I yelled. The Black Snake terrorist pulled out two katanas from the sheath on his back.

As I approached him, he swung the katana in his right hand horizontally. I ducked and performed a typical roundhouse kick. My shoe hit the terrorist in the chest. The terrorist quickly recovered and thrust his katana at my head. I leaned back to avoid the katana, and then I dropkicked him. He dropped his katana, and I picked it up.

As soon as he stood up, I plunged the blade into his chest. He fell to his knees. I pulled out the katana and decapitated him.

Then, I heard two gunshots. Rifle shots, to be exact. I felt the two bullets bounce off my shield. They would’ve hit me in the head and throat. I honestly didn’t care where they came from. My main concerns were the three strangers that were dressed in sweats and hoodies. When I turned around, the civilians were gone.My guess, they fled the scene to avoid being killed. Justin, Dylan, Devin, and Brody came running out of the cafe.

“What is going on here?” Dylan asked

“This Black Snake terrorist handed a flash drive to some people,” I explained.

“Do you know what was on it?” Justin asked.

"No clue. It could be anything," I replied.

“And what about this body?" Devin questioned.

"Put it in the dumpster over there and hurry. Somebody has to have heard the gunshots. Take his katana while you are at it."

Devin carried the body to the dumpster behind the cafe. He returned shortly after.

“That’s going to start stinking soon,” Brody said. “I hope the trash people don’t notice on trash day.”

There was a problem with that statement. The blood was at the spot where the Black Snake terrorist died and a trail across the street to the dumpster.

By this time, everyone was there. Some of them were still eating. They were all talking, but the two gunshots made me nervous. For all knew, Mrs. Cake could've called the police. Getting arrested before even finding a place to sleep. I needed to get that ball rolling.

“Alright,” I said to get everyone’s attention. “This mission last minute. In other words, we need a game plan.”

“We need to find a place to stay, for one thing. Also blend in, as well. We don’t need to be wearing our assassin clothing all the time,” Devin said. “Except for Hannah and Jessie, of course.”

“I have an idea, just spitballing here, we can enroll in a local high school and pose as students. I mean, technically we are high school age,” Justin suggested. "Maybe Levi will get a girlfriend."

"That’s a very good idea, the high school part that Is,” Levi responded. "However, I'm not what girls call attractive."

“If you didn’t turn into a humanoid snake, the girls would think otherwise,” Justin added. Levi stuck his tongue but it was in its snake form so it flicked out like a snake.

“You do realize we are out of high school? Why would we pose as students for cover? We look nothing like students, except for college-age,” Eric said. “Tracking Hamato and capturing him will take years since we don't have the technology that we used to track him with us. Plus, he is probably not going to let us find him like he did last time.”

“That’s why we lie, Eric. We’re mostly assassins for crying out loud. Lying is what we do.” Justin responded.

“Your argument collapsed on itself. One, Jessie is not, by any means, is an assassin. No offense. Two, Hannah is a heroine-in-training under Flashy Boy,” Daniel informed.

“You get my point.”

“No. You need to clarify more. Some people will get confused, especially when you don’t enunciate your words.”

“I do enunciate my words.”

“No, you don’t. You sound like a drunk-"

“For the love of everything holy on Earth, can we please cut to the chase? We need to find a place to stay. I’m not going to sleep in that bucket of bolts you call a van. Much less, drive it,” Hannah said irritably.

“I agree with Hannah. Can someone look up to see if there is an apartment complex nearby? If our phones even work here?” I asked.

Only one person pulled out their phone, and that was Jessie. She usually spends around seven to eight hours on her phone each day. Well, not on school days.

Before she even put in the password to her phone, Orange opened the passenger’s door to Jessie’s truck. She had her laptop open with something on the screen. I was pleasantly surprised.

“I looked up if there were any apartments near us. The closest one is two and a half miles from here. What’s even better is that a high school is about four-hundred yards away.”

“How much is the apartment?” Dylan asked

“I haven’t gotten that far but I’ll take a look.”

Orange moved the cursor to a tab and clicked on it. The website looked like an inexperienced web maker made it.

“From what this website says, if you want to rent one, the cost is $3,500 a month. If you want to buy one, it costs $10,000,” Orange informed. “More or less a ripoff.”

“How many square feet is it?” I asked.

“It’s about 530 square feet. It has a master bedroom with a queen-sized bed. A large, open concept living room, and medium-sized kitchen. The complex, on the other hand, has a laundry room, a workout room, and an Olympic-sized… wait, I misread that. It says the pool Equestria Games sized pool,” Orange Bunny responded.

“I’m guessing that is this dimension’s version of the Olympic Games,” I said.

"My question is why it's horse-themed," Levi added.

“What about the high school?” Justin asked.

Orange “x-ed” out of the webpage and took a look at the map that showed the location of the apartment complex. She zoomed in on the picture. She leaned in and squinted at the picture.

“According to the map, the school is called Canterlot High School. I guess it looks okay,” Orange Bunny responded. “I’ll take a look at their website.”

She resumed typing on her laptop. Within seconds, Orange had the school website pulled up. From where I was standing, the website looked a lot like Carleton High School’s website.

“From the high school’s website, new student enrollment applications are always welcome. Also, they are at the beginning of their spring semester. Plus from what I can tell, their mascot is the Wondercolts. That seems like a dumb-”

“Orange, stay on task,” Eric snapped. Orange gave him the finger.

"I think we are set. Let’s go buy an apartment and track down Headhunter,” Jessie said.

“I agree. Everyone, load up,” I responded.

Everybody got onto their vehicles. Daniel had to ride with Hannah since he can’t be seen flying in public. Orange text-blasted the address. We drove for a couple of minutes until we eventually drove up on the apartment complex named Edgewood Estates. We pulled into a parking lot close to the main office.

I motioned for Brody, Devin, and Dylan to come with me. I turned off my motorcycle, got off, and put down the kickstand. As Brody, Dylan, and Devin followed, we walked over to the main office and went inside.

Standing behind the desk was a man with remarkably long hair that was put in a ponytail. He looked a bit taller than six feet tall. He also had a very long and scruffy beard and skin almost glowing along with piercing blue eyes

On his name tag, it had “Иисус Христос” written on it. Russian for “Jesus Christ”. I raised an eyebrow.

“Oi, Meu nome é Jesus. Como posso te ajudar?

(Brazilian Portuguese) “ Hello, my name is Jesus. How can I help you?” he asked.

What he said surprised me. Since it was a different dimension, I expected it to have very different languages. Then, what he said next through me for a loop.

“Oi, Mateus. Tudo bem, meu filho?”

(Brazilian Portuguese) "Hi, Matthew. How are you, my son?” the guy asked.

“ Você sabe meu nome?”

(Brazilian Portuguese) “You know my name?” I asked

“Of course, I do. I created you,” the guy responded.

Brody walked up to the desk and slammed his fist on the desk. A glass container of pens fell over. I saw Brody’s eye crackle with electricity.

“Listen, bub. I don’t know who you think you are but-”

Realizing who the clerk is, I elbowed Brody in the stomach. Brody doubled over, trying not to throw up. He started mumbling something in Spanish.

“What was that for?” Jesus asked, sternly.

“Brody was disrespecting you, Jesus. I couldn’t let him keep doing that,” I explained.

“You could have handled that much differently,” Jesus responded calmly.

“Nope. I deserved that,” Brody groaned.

“Why are you here and how. It thought you only came back in person was at the Rapture?” Devin asked Jesus.

“ I’m here to help. And I'm only here via as a projection of myself. Hamato is a tricky young man. Satan twisted his mind and as you can tell, he’s become more evil than any terrorist. Satan is helping Hamato. First, he revealed the location of the portal that leads to this dimension and has been creating and expanding his army,” Jesus explained.

“That’s unfair. We are fighting our arch-nemesis, who is allied with the creator of all evil,” Dylan complained. “ Now Headhunter is more OP than ever.”

“As you know, I’m the only one who can fight and beat Satan. Without me, you wouldn’t stand a chance. I’ll give you mental and spiritual ammunition. I will only appear to you four for the moment. Do not tell anyone we met, yet,” Jesus informed. Jesus turned around and took a key off the wall. What was strange was my vision went black and when it returned, there were eleven identical keys on the counter.

“These are the keys to your apartment. Give these to your friends,” Jesus ordered.

“Aren’t we supposed to pay for the apartment?” Dylan asked.

“Don’t worry, Dylan. I’ve got you covered. I’ll supply your needs. Go home and relax. Watch TV, play video games, or something. Be sure to enroll in that school.”

Brody, Dylan, and Devin grabbed the keys, leaving one for me, and left. I had a feeling that Jesus wanted to have a private conversation with me. I grabbed the key and stuffed it in my pocket. Then, I decided to break the ice.

“How are Mom and Dad?” I asked.

“They are doing just fine, Matthew,” Jesus responded.

“Jesus, I’m sorry for accusing you of ruining my life by taking them away. It was wrong and I am sorry. I know I've apologized a lot but-”

“Matthew, Matthew. You should know that you already apologized and I forgave you. But that’s not the reason I wanted to talk to you.”

“Really?”

“You have a lot of responsibility on your shoulders as the leader of this group. You can only reveal your identity to people you can trust.” Jesus said. “Not to anyone else.”

“Why would I reveal my and everyone else's identities to a random civilian? What if they freak out and report us?” I asked.

“Clark Kent revealed his identity to Lois Lane. She didn’t freak out. Joe West didn’t freak out when Barry Allen revealed his identity,” Jesus responded. “And every vigilante has civilian allies.”

“How will I know that I can trust that certain civilian?”

“I’ll let you know. In the meantime, settle in your apartment. You’ve got a terrorist to catch.”

I turned around and walked towards the door. I pondered what Jesus had said. He considered us vigilantes instead of government assassins. Well, Hannah was already a vigilante but that’s not the point. I turned to say goodbye to Jesus but he had already disappeared.