Prologue

The sun shined in Jerry’s eyes and blinded him temporarily as he covered his face from the sun with his hands. He walks down the hallway and into his bathroom for his morning shower. As he undresses, he looks into the mirror.

‘Today’s the day’ he thinks to himself.

Turning on the shower and looked into the mirror to see himself. He waits a little more for the shower to reach a temperature he’s comfortable with and then hops in. Today is the day he’s to meet with an old friend that would practice sword fighting with him. He moved away 5 years ago and this is the first time they’ve seen each other since then.

Jerry turns the shower off and drys himself as he exits the shower. He moves to the mirror and does his hair.

“A little more to the side and…” he says as he sways his hair the right to fit his image he’s always had.

“Perfect” Jerry looks into the mirror with a big smile as he checks himself out. After he’s done, he gets dressed and moves downstairs. He’s dressed in casual clothes as he grabs his keys and exits his house.

As he locks his door, he hears a familiar voice.

“Jerry, you bastard. Where’ve you been?” The voice seemed all but too familiar as he turned around.

“Ah, Kreig, I was just leaving. Why’re you here?” Jerry asked as he looked at his old friend, Kreig.

“You were taking too long. So, I came to see you. Knowing you, you probably overslept”

“Kreig, it’s 9 AM. You said to meet you at 10 AM”

“What?”

Kreig takes out his phone and looks at the time.

“What do you mean? It’s 11 AM now.”

“Did you forget to change the time to compensate for time zone differences?”

Kreig looked at Jerry silently.

“Fuck” Kreig said

“Dumbass. Well, since you’re here. Wanna go now?” Jerry said, gesturing to his garage.

“I already ate, though”

“No worries, I can just go to McDonald and grab something to eat.”

“Alright, that’s fine then.”

Jerry gets into the driver side while Kreig gets into the passenger side.

“So, what’ve you been up to?” Kreig said.

“Oh, nothing much. Just the usual”

“Really? No jobs come up lately?”

“Look man, just cause I’m a mercenary, doesn't mean jobs spill in”

“Right, what about the government? Aren’t you some sort of Spec-Ops guy?”

“That was a one-time thing man. And just FYI, I totally kicked all their asses”

“Is that right?”

“No, I got completely fucked man. They did some fuckin Spec-Ops, Tacticool hot breach with flashbangs, breaching charges, tear gas and roundhouse kicks”

“Really”

“No fucking lie dude, they were operator as fuck. We were going over the recordings, you know? Like, we were the training dummies, might as well watch it too since it was there.” Jerry then put his shirt up to his mouth, covering it and look at Kreig.

“Krrk, Epsilon Eleven, this is Echo Four, we’re in position and on standby. Over.” Jerry then looked to the other side.

“Kingpin, this is Epsilon Eleven All callsigns are in position and are ready to breach. Over” Jerry looked at Kreig again who was looking at him with a smug face.

“All callsigns, this is Kingpin. Burn ’em” Jerry then focused on driving, looking down the road.

“And then all the explosions, flashbangs and dropkicks landed on me and everyone else in that room. After that, everyone talked a bit, and I learned a few things from them. Even got to do a couple drills and sims with them” Jerry said as he returned to driving

“Sounded fun. Oh, hey, McDonald's up ahead. It’s on me. What do you need?”

“Really? Well then, Kreig. I would like some pancakes with a nice cup of overheated coffee, please.”

“Asshat” Kreig said as he exited the car.

Jerry took his phone out of his pocket.

9:15 A.M

Jerry tapped and held his finger on the phone screen, for 3 seconds.

Please Enter ID

Jerry typed in his ID as he looked around to see no one else was looking

ID: 98041491

Password:*********

Processing

As he entered his ID, he looked around to see if anyone was nearby. Scanning the area like a hawk, he could see no one nearby. He looked at his phone to be greeted with the basic welcome message.

Welcome, Foxtrot Nine-One

‘I also landed a job with them’ Jerry thought to himself. He swiped a couple times on his phone, looking for jobs that were occasionally posted on the application he was given. Nothing too interesting. Security details, drop-offs, assassinations. Nothing too interesting with the price tags that were on them. He quit looking for jobs and browsed some other information on the application. Seemed to be that there were guides on survival, and manufacturing.

As he was looking at guides, he spotted Kreig come out of McDonald's, with a bag, and a coffee in both hands. He got out the car and helped Kreig out by taking the bag that had his pancakes and hopped back into the driver seat.

“We’re going to the park next. We’re gonna hit each other with long metal sticks next” Kreig said.

“Sword fighting?”

“Yea. You got the swords, right?”

“Yea, I dulled the blades and covered the edges with the safety. Still hurts though”

As they reached the park, Jerry had finished his pancakes while driving as was just finishing his coffee. He took out his phone as he exited his car to check the time.

10:03 A.M

Kreig got out the car while Jerry went to his trunk and opened it. Inside were 2 swords with a cover on them. He picked them up and finished his coffee. He put the paper cup into the trashcan, closed his trunk, and headed over to Kreig. Each sword weighed about 3 pounds each.

“Ready?” Jerry asked

“As I ever will be” Kreig said smugly.

Jerry decided to go for a stabbing attack into Kreig’s stomach. However, it was easily deflected and was followed up by Kreig with a stab toward’s Jerry’s head. Jerry braced for the hit, but it never came.

“Bit rusty there man. What happened while I was gone?” Kreig asked jokingly

“Ah well you see, I use guns more than swords. I’m not gonna use a sword a lot, so why should I?”

“You never know. Now, again!”

Jerry got into a fighting stance, put his sword in front of him to act as a ward.

Kreig went for a stabbing motion just like Jerry had. Jerry, using his sword, pushed Kreig’s blade to the side and did a quick dash toward’s Kreig's neck.

“Nice, is it coming back to you?”

“A bit. Let’s do it again”

Jerry put the pommel of his blade on his hip, and pointed the sword down, towards the ground.

“Okay then, play like that.” Kreig said as he did a quick overhead strike.

Jerry quickly brought the pommel up towards the sky, keeping the blade towards the ground causing Kreig’s blade to slide off Jerry’s sword as he brings it down, exposing him. Jerry took advantage of that and twisted his wrists, striking Kreig.

“Ow, you bastard. Good hit” Kreig said

“That’s what you get for underestimating me. Come, let’s do it again.” Jerry said.

“You’re on” Kreig said, getting into a fighting stance. They both continued to spar for the next few hours until the sunset.

“Hooh, that was fun” Kreig said with a hearty laugh.

“Indeed it was. Where are you staying? I’ll drop you off.”

“Ahh, nah man, that’s fine. I need to do a little walk anyway.”

“You sure?”

“Yes, Jerry. I’m sure” Kreig said as he tossed Jerry the sword

“Okay man” Jerry said, catching the sword by the blade, where the guard was.

Jerry got into his car and put the swords in the back seat and drove home.

As he got home, he got undressed, took a shower, and slipped into his sleepwear. Some short pants, and a t-shirt reading “Grunt Work”. He checked his phone for a while before falling asleep, with his phone still in his hands.

When he awoke, he was in another world.