Part ONE
 

>> By the Vortex, LeMonAde Version
>> January 21, 2002 :: 1200 hrs

    "Open it up, haunter," said Leprechaun, eager to read the contents of the book that lay before him. The book looked out of place on the drab, dull gray ground with the cover's swirls and splashes of color. It was like someone decided to pour paint all over the cover.
     Haunter floated lower and held the cover gently. The book seemed like at any moment it could just crumble away, but Haunter held it firmly as he turned the cover to the left. A yellow fruit, who immediatly began explaining that he was paper, looked over haunter's shoulder grinning. Behind him stood a tall man with a sword in a sheath and muscles rippling over his folded arms.
     The leprechaun stared at the script of the paper. It was an old, old way of writing. It might have been Courier New. He took a breath and began to read the story out loud.
     "This is an account of certain occurances happening dating from the year 1995 to 2001....

>> Amra's Lab, Real World
>> July 13, 1995 :: 0800 hrs

     "Dad!!" Young Mike ran from his room on the second floor into the lab of his father. The seven year old child watched his father with shining eyes. He was sitting in front of a paper scattered with equations, his glasses had slid to the bottom of his nose. Amra looked up unsmiling; but he didnt have to smile, he had that rare gift of smiling with his eyes.
     "Mike! You're up early!" Thats when Amra smiled. As a matter of fact, it was an hour after Mike should have been up. But Amra could not bring himself to repremand the young child. Anyway, Amra knew Mike just wasn't the type for a hard-working scientist.
     Mike quickly ran toward his desk, as he did every day. Amra had apprenticed him for a scientist in hopes that the boy would become a great scientist comeday. But Mike just wasn't cut for the job. It wasnt that he couldnt of done it, or that he didnt want to, it was just that he was much more for ACTION. His idea of fun wasn't sitting around checking equations about new experiments, even if it WOULD revolutionize the world.
     But today, Amra held up his hand. "Stop there, son. I have something different for you today." Without another word he dropped his hand and walked toward a round white door to his left. Mike stopped for a moment, puzzled, and then set down his pencil and followed his father.
     Amra led his son into the basement. Mike had been down there on occasion, but recently his father had been doing something secretive down below. Mike had been wondering when it would be revealed to him. As he descended down the stairs, he saw a glimpse of a green mist that seemed to cover the area.
     Finally, at the end of the steps, he saw them. There was lots of equipment all over the small room. But what caught Mike's eye were the three large tanks right in the middle. Inside the tanks...were people. Just standing there. They looked like they could just start moving, but the fact that they werent clued Mike in that they werent alive.
     One was a thin, sky blue robed man. His face was pugnacious and his blond hair seemed to shine. The second was a muscular man with a sword in a sheath and arms folded. The third was a boy Mike's age in a dark, almost purple blue robe with his face hidden deep in his hood. Their eyes stayed open, unblinking. The site was almost creepy, and Mike instinctivly inched toward his father.
     Amra's eyes twinkled, but his mouth stayed straight. "These are my new creations. I've told you about my being into genetics for a long time. But I have finally been able to create a body. My only setback is the soul inside. I cant replicate that from anything.
     Amra sighed and leaned against a long, vertical shaft. In the darkness it seemed to Mike that the shaft went up, and up, and up. He stared upward for a moment, trying to find a glimpse of the ceiling, but finding nothing, he turned back to his father. Amra had fallen asleep.
     Mike grinned and turned toward the tanks that fascinated him so. He didnt understand what his father had told him. Why wouldnt he let the poor people out?
     Now, Amra had set up a piece of equipment that, if it worked correctly, would transfer his soul into one of those people. But he was still working it out, and besides, he was still very apprehensive of it. But young Mike, without a fear in the world, walked right up the machine and placed the head peice right onto his head happily. He could set those people free.
     The main reason, however, that Amra had not used the machine was that he wasnt sure if it would be a copy or a transfer. Well, the machine turned out to be a copy, but an INCOMPLETE copy. A copy of Mike's mental prowess went into the dark blue robed boy. His ego went into the sky blue clothed man. And his physical strength went into the muscular man with his arms folded.
     Suddenly there was a crash, and Amra woke with a start. Mike was slumped over, unconsious. In the middle of the room, the large muscular man was breaking the sky blue robed man from his tank. The dark blue robed boy was nowhere to be found.
     Amra yelled, and the muscular man turned to him. He grunted and smacked Amra in the head with the back of his huge hand before he and the sky blue robed man ran from the room away from the laboratory.
 
>> By the Vortex, LeMonAde Version
>> January 21, 2002 :: 1215 hrs

     "Oh no!" yelled Leprechaun. "The rest of the book!"
     Ade looked down at the book in horror. About half of the entire book was eaten away by some rodent. He frowned. "Well, doesnt that beat all-But don't worry. I can tell you what happened after that." Leprechaun turned toward Ade, and Haunter floated upward as Ade began to speak.
     "It's quite simple, really. I am Ade, the muscular man mentioned in that. Conar was the sky blue robed man. And the boy in the purple robe was PsychicJack. He never joined us because he teleported away immediatly after becoming alive.
     "Sometime afterward, Conar got it into his head that it was all Mike's fault if anything bad happened to him. He was convinced Mike gave him 'all bad things' and was a cruel creator. Of course, I wasn't too bright at the time because of only recieving physical things, but this just gave me more of a reason to join Conar, which I did. After a while of not finding him, we were seperated during a storm. Somehow, Conar got to Blood, and I got there by a random chance..."
     Leprechaun stood up and dusted off his knees. "What's that?!" A loud sound, like a buzz, was coming from somewhere around them...

 SHADOWY FIGURE appeared!

 Part II of the War's Beginning will take place in GHOST VERSION! Now, click HERE and post feedback!