Tyson Grey

Half torn posters of celebrity’s were plastered over the walls in a poor attempt to hide the ugly grey concrete beneath.

An old, almost archaic Bluetooth box in the corner played a poor quality version of baby from Justin Bieber.

Michal hated the song, really. But it would be hardly appropriate to argue his friends taste in music when they were about to die defending free artistic expression.

The motto was even written on his torn and dirty Hawaii shirt. He had found it in his fathers attic, a relic from back then, before they started censoring for „style“.

He had vowed to buy one for his son when he had children, but that hardly mattered any more.

Looking into the downcast expressions of his friends and comrades, slouched on the torn pink and green couch in front of him his heart hurt. And then he felt it, a strange intuition,a feeling invigorating him, sharpening his senses, pulling him forward. It had been there, every time he faced impossible odds and took on world head on, and never had it let him down.

Michael decided it was time to act

„There still is some hope.“

His smile not quite reached his eyes.

Jaffar didn’t even look up, his face half hidden by his grey hoody.

„There are what, four of us with barely a few blasters against hundreds of professional killers. I want to believe you Michael but that is a tad too optimistic even for your standards.“

Michal Andrew Jonson stood up with resolve in his eyes.

„Not for us, but for the future children of a free America. Children that can grow up to be whatever they want to be without fear or oppression.“

He stared at Jonas, their engineer and weapons expert.

„You said the older models were prime to explode. So here is the question, can you build a bomb out of them?“

„Would work, but the explosion would be delayed by about two minuets.“Jonas mused.

And then it dawned on the other peoples faces.

„You plan to blow yourself up with the dark one?“Jaffar stared, eyes wide. „They say he is immortal.“Kevin whispered and cashed in a friendly jab from Jonas.

„What chance do we even have to reach him, especially with our weapons turned to scrap?“Jaffar again, couldn’t the man be a little more optimistic?

Michal shook his head and squeezed himself on the couch next to his old friend laying his arm across his shoulder.

„I may have never met him, but after all those years I know the man. He is smart, but oh so insufferable arrogant. He will come and see us, if only to watch us suffer.“

Nobody said a word.

„So, got any better ideas?“

Roughly two hours later, the old steel door burst open with a powerful kick.

There was only barely enough time for Michal to activate and hide the bomb.

A figure entirely decked out in black armor with only the eyes a glowing red slowly walked inside.

Jaffar lunged at him, hidden next to the entrance, knife in hand. He was squatted away like a fly, crashing against the wall.

The small distraction however was enough for Kevin to get into melee range, smashing a pipe against the helm of the elite solider. It only moved his head a little. Then, the figure stretched out his hand and lifted the giant muscle mass that was my friend with apparent ease. This was the reason you never tried to fight against a man decked out in tier two power amor in close combat.

I could only scramble out of the way as the large silhouette came flying at me.

„Really, I expected some more from a group that managed to take down a freighter and crash it into the pentagon.“

A deep baritone voice cut across the room, and the solider stepped aside as a figure walked through the door.

Perfect black suite and crimson tie, an unblemished sharp middle aged face with a goatee and perfectly styled hair. And a monocle, a fucking monocle. It was even gold rimmed.

The only thing substracting from his aura of confidence was his slightly crooked poise supported by a black cane.

„Wow, and here I thought we were lying to the young kids when we made those propaganda posters. You look like a villain straight out of a bond movie.“

Instead of the Kevin’s boisterous laughter Michal got a the slim smile from Tyson Grey. The man that had ruined all of their life’s. And he looked so damn satisfied.

„So this is it, for five years your little band of ragtag Terrorists ruined many peoples life’s and now all can breathe a sight of relief.“

Around three minutes had passed, and cold sweat ran down Michals back when something started getting very hot behind him.

We may die here, but this will be the first in a series of victories for the rebellion.

The explosion went off.

Michal could feel the heat, burning away his clothes, smoldering his flesh but best of all he could see the shock, the terror and helpless on the face of the man feared and revered by most of the world.

Tyson Grey was fuming. He had died. Not by the hands of a backstabbing official or a military push.

No in the ruins of Detroit, inside half collapsed basement. Not because someone outmanoeuvred him but because his scanner hadn’t detected the bomb.

Years of test and trials. Not one reported failure from thousands of Prototypes all across the world.

And then, when he decided to take a little bit of liberty and celebrate his victory it cost him his life.

Why just why?

Life just wasn’t fair. And apparently Death too. Because he was dead wasn’t he?

Floating in an endless void with nothing but his thoughts.

Well not that he knew where he was floating, as he lacked any eyes to see.

Tyson didn’t remember how long it took. Enough time to resigns and wonder what he had done to deserve this, and too little to start going insane.

A light, almost blinding in the great emptiness, appeared before him. And it pulled.

The pull was weak, and he realized it would take not too much of his will to resist, jet he let himself float along.

Dim red light streamed into the attack, from a small opened window. Dust reflected upon the light.

The wooden floor was covered in strange symbols drawn with white chalk.

And in front of Tyson sat a small boy with brown hair, and wide green eyes staring at him. An old book opened at the side. Somehow he looked familiar, but Tyson couldn’t quite place it.

Wait, had he been summoned, like in a fantasy story? Was this a final joke from the universe, look how much of a demon you are?

„Damn, can’t believe that worked. If only we had magic back then…“The boy said in perfect English.

Anyway, he would not let himself be controls by whatever magic was employed to bring him here. The boy was maybe eleven, and although he looked quite big, Tyson was sure he could take him on. He would even spare his life, in case it was required for him to remain here.

Gliding forwards, apparently that was a thing, he tried to take the initiative before the boy recognized the danger.

And crashed into a blue transparent wall. Dammit, would all end again before his new life even began?

„Michal, Dinner is ready. Stop playing with your school utensils and come down immediately.“

A strange, jet somehow comprehensible foreign language sounded from beneath him. Now the boy was panicking.

„Just a moment“

he shouted back in the same language and then turned to Tyson.

„Herby I invoke the ancient pact between master and summon mage and spirit. Accept so we may be bound to each other, sharing our strength. Decline so you may return, waiting for another.“

We are running out of time. Many thoughts passed through Tyson’s head in this very instant.

For one, he noticed that his body was made entirely out of a dark shroud entirely unrecognizable.

His hated enemy had offered him a strange magical contract, that he knew from a feeling stemming from deep within his soul would bind them together for a long time.

He didn’t want to go back.

And a mothers call for dinner never remained unanswered for long.

So, forced to decide he accepted.

Contract accepted.

He had little time to consider the red letters appearing and vanishing in front of his eyes before he headed heavy steps heading up the stairway.

„What is so interesting, that….“

The women, from Tyson's perspective a giant, reacted immediately. Her hand glowed like embers and fear gripped Tyson as her green eyes stared him down.

Almost as quickly, she lowered her arm the magic fading.

„You made a contract.“she stated in a flat monotone voice.

And that idiot Michel had the audacity to look away grinning sheepishly.

„Maybe."his voice held an exited undertone.

„Do you have any Idea how dangerous that was? You could have summoned a blaze demon or even higher.“

Tyson was still shrinking away from the women, when he noticed the strange comedic undertone.

„Mom, that was a first rank summoning circle drawn in chalk.“

Michal giggled disgustingly.

„We already went over this with your father, you were suppose to grow up here on the farm. And both of us agreed. Now come with me we have many things to discuss.“

Michal took one look at Tyson still smiling, mentioning him to follow. His body was still strange to him, but gliding around wasn’t that hard, so well, he followed downstairs.

Wait no, I don’t want this, this terrorist has no right to command me.

Sadly he had, well kind of. Written clearly in the contract, which Tyson could recount word for word(probably another magic shenanigan) was stated that the master could command the summon, as long as the command did not conflict with the summons well-being. And no matter how he interpreted the it, walking downstairs was hardly life threatening. He couldn’t even tumble and fall.

This would not do, he needed another strategy.

The house was warm and comfortable. The laughter of two younger siblings could be heard from the already decked table, Tyson reckoned they were around three and five years old.

And the father, a bit smaller than his wife but build like an ox, looked at Michal with worry instead of anger as they entered the door.

„I hoped the day would never come.“

the man rubbed his hand across his wild hair, sighting.

„Let me guess you found your moms old book?“ Michal nodded, still beaming.

All the while the younger sister ran towards Tyson, stars in her eyes. She was stopped by her mother, but came dangerously close anyway.

„Magic, Brother, can do magic!”she looked at her mother with puppy eyes.“Can I have one tooo, it’s so cute.“

Tyson almost killed himself at that very moment, only stopped by the fact that he had no idea how he could do that.

He tried to speak, defend himself but no sound came out.

„No, one magus is enough for the family.“

The father cut across, stern.

„Son there is much your father and I have to discuss with you.“

His mother spoke, still with that mischief twinkle in her eyes.

And than came a long talk about responsibility and whatnot, while Tyson tried to learn more about himself finally unbothered.

He found out he could float, roughly one and a half meter high. He was as fast as a three year old trying to sprint, had no easy access to magic and could somehow shape his body into something else that an undefined cloud of black smoke. Barely, the best he could do right now was to make something noodle like.

And he could not phase through walls, or any other object that is.

Life for a magic fart sucked.

Finally he was pulled away by something interesting.

„Come son, now that is all over, let me teach you about familiars.“

They had finished eating it seemed and Michal was already running towards some room, shouting at Tyson to follow. Although the boy was 10 for Tyson’s sake, act with a little bit more style!

Sadly he could only tag along.

The room revealed itself to be a study, full of dusted books a few potted plants and a big table.

Michal was already sitting on its edge, his mother taking place on the chair in front of it.

„So, this is the moment you have probably been waiting for.“

His mother explained with a calm patient voice.

„The system activates for a human when they reach their fifteenth year in life or they contract a companion.“

She looked at the small cloud that was Tyson.

„Now as you might have realized, it is not fully initiated jet.“She raised a single finger, a serious look in her eyes.

„Once that happens, you will immediately be offered the choice to choose your class, and that choice is determined by your perks, achievements and capabilities. You are barely ten so you should not take that choice.“

She stared him in the eyes.

„Now while you can choose a new class once you have reached the candlelight order, your choice now is important for your future that’s why you should…“

Michal interrupted her.

„Not choose a common class, think about an uncommon choice, strive for a rare variant, but do not be greedy for epic, as that is reserved for those with a lot of fortune or of higher order and most of all never chase that elusive fifth rarity.“He smiled with a genuine happy face. Tyson bet he was just a good liar, no one was that happy all the time.

„Okay okay.“The mother raised her hands in mock defeat.

„So we will skip all the other stuff you already know and go straight towards summoning and activating your system.“

Tyson tried to scream and shake the little child. For one he actually wanted an info dump. His form only wobbled a bit.

„You might have realized by now, that your companion is not that smart.“

A lie, plain and simple. Still that idiot Michal nodded along as if now it all made sense.

„That's because it has not jet chosen it’s evolution. Different than us humans spirits only gain true sentient after reaching the ember order, growing in intelligence with each ascension. Spirits as high as blaze or higher are rumoured to be as smart as humans.“

Could he become even smarter, Tyson mused. That would be unfair to the rest of the monkeys surly.

„The spirit you summoned seemed to be aligned with the dark, so expect something in that direction, but it could be anything truly. Now to activate both your systems, it’s quite simple actually. Just say:system initialization.“

„System initialization.“

Michal shouted with his childish voice.

A moment nothing happened, then a screen popped up in front of his, more or less face.

Name: Tyson Grey Race: Spirit Order: Insignificiant Mana 0/0 Strenght: 1/1 Agility 3/3 Constitution 2/2 Magic Densety 0/0 Magic concentration 0/0

The dark one

You are an oppressor and dictator so feared, you shall be remembered for millennia to come. Dark machines and thousands of bioengineered clones followed you into battle.

Sadly your kind is a big red target for hero’s and gods alike.

Mastermind

You have weaved together plans to bring down governments. Schemed and betrayed for your own benefit. At the same time you are faczinated by nature, and how you can bend its rules for your benifit.

Sadly your kind are often so enamored with yourself that you forget that no plan is perfect.

Mad scientist

You are a scientist and you are mad, clearly.

Man of paper

You have braced many battles, fought many wars, jet not a single time have you stepped up yourself. And then, when you finally found the courage to face an already beaten opponent, you died.

Skills: None

Evolution choices:

Darkness element: common

Sprite of mischief: common

Shadow raven : common

…..

Tyson stopped reading through the exhaustive list of common and uncommen choices and instead scrolled to the very bottom.

Bloody Tyrant(epic)

Millions have perished under your rule, as you pushed forward your dark schemes. But even in Death they can be useful, as their blood fuels your rituals and spells you devise in your laboratory deep below the earth.

Your body long forsaken, you craft yourself an avatar of blood that will only perish once the core is destroyed.

Now go on and conquer once more.

Dark one, mad scientist, life experience

Ancient nightmare(epic)

Ages past, you ruled over an empire spanning the vast world. Under your hand wonders were build and people enslaved. Now only few ancient ruins remain, but people still whisper of you. Many might not even realize their myths and legends were once true, but those that still remember fear for your eventual return.

Curses and rituals dark spells and ancient secrets aid you as you build your forces in the shadows.

Dark one,mad scientist, mastermind,man of paper,life experiences