Chapter 1: Present, Year C. 110XX

The stasis machine finally ran out of juice. The now young man awoke. His head rang with faded memories of the past, disturbing memories of that night; all he knew were those memories. He had dwelt on were those memories for the past 14 years. He was now in a jungle someplace on Earth. Fortunately for him, he had landed on the only planet that was habitable. Unfortunately for others, he was about to raise a whole heck of a lot of heck.

All he knew was that he was cold. He thought this in wordless thoughts. All he knew was those two smiling faces staring down at him, now gone. He looked around for something to cover himself with. He searched in all the trees, but he couldn't find anything. After a while of searching, he tripped in a hole. When he examined it, it was a staircase that led down into the earth. He went inside. It was dark inside, but he worked his way to a back room. He opened a closet and quickly figured out how to put the clothes on. They were a little big, but they would suffice for now. Something in the corner caught his eye. He walked over and picked it up. This shiny blue object might come in handy. He heard a sound outside. He looked for a place to hide. He shut himself inside the closet.

"Why do we have to spend the day looking for some dead coot's secret hideout when we could be out smashing those Hunters?" The boy couldn't understand the words, but the voice didn't appeal to him. The answer came, "The doctors seem like reasonable men. I'm sure they have a reasonable explanation why they want this place found." The young man liked this new voice even less. "He said it should be about this area." "Hey, I think I see something up ahead," the first one said. "You stand guard as I go in," The more sinister-sounding of the two said. "I'm tired of this bright sunlight." He stepped into the cave. He could see everything clearly as if it were the daytime he despised so much. He could immediately tell this was the place he was looking for. But before he told his partner, he might find something he wanted. After a while the one outside became impatient. "What's going on in there? What have you found?" "Nothing yet," came the reply. He worked his way into the back room where the boy was hiding. His silent footsteps approached the closet. "Hmm... Something doesn't feel right..." As he began to crack open the closet, the boy saw the glistening yellow eyes of a vampire.

But before his eyes reached the corner where the boy was hiding, his partner outside called, "Shade Man! Come quick! Someone's coming!" The eyes disappeared into the darkness. "What is it now Vile?" "It... It's Zero!" For some unknown reason, through all this unknown gibberish, the word Zero sparked a flame of hope in the boy's spirit. "Come in. Quick!" The heavy metal feat of the Vile dropped into the hold. "Did he see you?" "I don't think so." Footsteps above could be heard. There was silence. Then, "BANG!" A sonic grenade was dropped into the shelter. Though the boy covered his ringing ears, he could still hear the shrieking of Shade Man. Zero had then dropped into the hold and started blindly slashing at shadows. But he had hit enough times to wound both enemies. They both fled from the shelter. After he had made sure they were gone, Zero returned to the shelter to see what it was they were after. It immediately became apparent. He knew that this was the secret shelter of a Thomas X. Light, the scientist who had created his closest companion. He found a computer in the back room and began to download all the data to scan through later. He realized that it wouldn't take those two long to lick their wounds or call reinforcements, so he needed to act quickly and destroy what he didn't need. Once all the files were downloaded, a few slashes of his saber made quick work of what had once been the good doctor's computer. Before he left, he took one last look around. He opened the closet. There sat the boy, huddled in the corner holding on to his one possession. "Well, well, well. Whadawe have here?"