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The Tragic Frontier: The Lost World
Chapter 8
Jay leaned up against a large barrel, that sat outside the pub. Keno stared at the door. "So we're going in there for a job?"
"That's right. To earn a living while the girls spy at the school, we'll have to do the low end jobs."
"You mean like being workers for hire? Whatever they want us to do, we do it?"
"Well not everything. We won't do anything illegal."
"Jay, this is the world of darkness. It's a sure bet we'll have to do something illegal."
"Well..." Jay said.
A large man came out the door. He wore a large apron with colorful stains on it, many stains that Jay had no intention of knowing what they were. He carried a large butcher's knife and his face resembled that of a pig. "So you two are looking for jobs?"
"Yeah. Could you help us?"
"Yeah. I need you to head out to the mountains and track down a village of Terrans. My customers enjoy their meat a lot so I need you to go kill some and bring them here."
"What?!" Keno yelled. Jay nudged Keno to be quiet.
"I see. Is there any other job we could do?"
SLAM! Jay smirked as the door slammed in his face and he turned to Keno. "This will be harder than I thought."
"I thought you had a plan!"
"Well so did I but it turns out that it'll he harder than I thought," Jay said. He folded his arms.
"So you guys need some income while your girlfriends are in school?"
Jay turned around and saw a cloaked figure standing behind them. He laughed. "You could say that."
"I'm surprised you don't recognize me Jay."
"Why should I?" Jay asked. He looked at Keno and exchanged a confused look. Keno shrugged.
"It's me, A.J," he said. Jay growled. He figured his younger brother might be in a place like this but if he had to get help from him, Jay would lose it.
"I see that you can't comprehend the fact that you're coming to me for help."
"You just offered your help," Keno said. He folded his arms and A.J laughed.
"What are you guys doing here anyway? Up to no good, I bet."
"Up to no good? Heh, aren't you talking about yourself?"
"Oh you're funny. You aren't going to get many high paying jobs here."
"Okay smart guy. Tell us where can we get some real work."
"I'll show you. Are you sure leaving your girlfriends in the school is a good idea?"
"They aren't our girlfriends. I'm married and last time I checked, Jessica is a lot older than Jay," Keno said.
A.J smiled. "Jay is just as old as her first of all."
"Huh?" Keno said. He looked at Jay but Jay shrugged.
"Don't listen to that guy. Besides what does my age have to do with this?"
"A lot. If you're lying about your age, what else could you be lying about?" A.J asked. He looked at Keno, who looked at Jay. "Like how you lied about your true self."
"Your true self? Jay, is this guy full of it?" Keno asked. Jay folded his arms. A.J was ruining a lot with his big mouth. He didn't feel it too important to tell anyone that he was part Acaia, especially since it didn't seem relevant to their mission to stop Nightmaren. The Acaia blood in him didn't allow Nightmaren to control him but he wondered if Keno knew that.
"Tell him Jay. Tell him how you are part Acaia and we were both raised to serve Nightmaren when he sets up his new empire."
"What?" Keno said.
Jay frowned. "Funny, he can't control me even if I'm part Acaia. I have total control over myself and nothing he can do will make me serve him! Besides Keno, if I had told you that I was part Acaia, would you have come along?"
"I don't know what I would have done," Keno said. "But I think I'm more willing to trust you than just some random guy on the street." Keno pulled out his sword. "If you want to cause trouble, then leave us alone so we can go on about our business."
"You think I'm just going to let you two go? You are full of it," A.J said. Jay pulled Keno back.
"Let me handle this. He's my brother and I know him better than anyone."
"What do you mean?" Keno asked.
Jay glared at his brother and pulled out his sword. "I dare you to attack me."
A.J charged at Jay and began to unleash a flurry of attacks. Jay didn't bother to block them and let A.J get all of his shots in. A.J kicked Jay to the ground and laughed. "You're finished before it even started! Why did I even bother with you?"
Jay held out his hand and time began to wind back for him. All of his bruises and wounds he got from A.J vanished and he was back at full strength. Jay stood up and smiled. A.J paled. "Those powers of yours."
"Yes. I'm sure you forgot about my powers of time and space manipulation. Thanks to Acaia, I've put them to good use to stop him."
"What are you talking about?"
"When Nightmaren killed Star in their first fight, I was the one who turned back the clock to bring him back to life. I used my powers again to do the same for Miles. I've used them countless times to thwart Acaia and it's going to be like that until he is dead!" Jay said.
A.J backed away for a moment and growled. "It seems that you have no intention of ever joining our cause."
"Serious? It took you that long to figure out?" Jay asked. He leaned back against the wall and laughed. He couldn't believe his brother was that dense. Either he was that dense or he was calling Jay's bluff. Jay stopped laughing and A.J smirked.
"You seem to have caught my mood. I don't care if you have decided to not help us. In fact, if you aren't going to help us, you won't be needing all of those powers!" A.J said. He held out his hand and his hair began to rise up, like a wind had begun to blow from under him. Red flames began to swirl around his body and the winds pushed Keno and Jay back. Jay pushed against the wind but the force kept him pinned to the wall and unable to attack, defend or do much of anything. A.J laughed again. "You seem powerless against me! Don't tell me you are giving up this easily!" He yelled. He held out his hands and the flames jumped from the ground and began to swirl around his hand. He swung his hand and threw the flames at Jay. They flew right into Jay's chest and gave Jay the sensation of being exposed to an enormous furnace. The force along drove him deeper into the wall and he began to black out from the pain. A.J walked up to him and grabbed him by the neck. "You're finished brother," He said. He flung Jay to the ground and Jay bounced off the ground before coming to a stop.
Jay struggled to his feet but fell back down again. "Man, what happened to me? I feel a lot weaker."
"That's because I just took away your powers. You are now just a regular Terran again. I even caused you to forget all of the skills and techniques you learned along the years! Now we'll see if you are so willing to oppose us now!" A.J said. He kicked Jay in the chest and shrugged. Keno charged at A.J but A.J caught him by the arm and flung him into the wall, as if he weighed next to nothing. Keno slid to the ground and A.J walked off.
It took Jay a good couple of hours before he could sit up. It felt like he had broken every single bone in his body and his head throbbed in pain. He looked at Keno. "Keno, are you okay?" He asked.
Keno struggled to look up and gave a thumbs up. "I'm okay. Well I'll be better once we can get some help. If Jessica was here, she could heal us up in an instant."
"She has no way of finding us. It could take days and we might be dead by then," Jay said. He rested his head back on the ground and stared at the sky and the pale crescent moon. He looked at it again and it dawned on him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small crescent moon pendant. "I just remembered I had this!"
"So? What good will that do us?" Keno asked.
Jay dragged himself up and sighed. "It's a friendship pendant. You can use it to track your friend if they hold the other half. It's actually an ancient fairy tool, but it's highly more symbolic than that."
Keno sat up. "Hold up! Just what are you getting at Jay? Are you suggesting that...you and Jessica are good friends? How is that possible?"
"I already told you that I was the one who used my powers to bring back Star and Miles, right? Well me and Jessica knew each other long before she met Star."
"Oh man. This sounds like a long story."
"Sorry but it is," Jay said. Keno sighed.
"Jay, Keno! What happened to you two?" Jay turned to see Jessica walking towards them. He shrugged.
"Well, we picked a fight with the wrong customer. I forgot how rough it is here."
Jay felt Jessica's healing powers restore him to full health and he jumped to his feet. "Now that's much better!"
"Hold up Jay! Jessica. I think you two need to explain some stuff to me," Keno said. He folded his arms. "I'm getting quite sick of this secret business. I think I should know."
"Keno, what are you talking about?" Jessica asked.
Jay looked at Keno and Keno gave him a look that said, "You need to tell her." Jay sighed and looked at Jessica. "I suppose you don't remember this?" He asked, holding up the pendant.
Jessica looked at it and pulled out her identical pendant. "Where did you get that?"
"You don't remember? I'm not surprised since Acaia used its powers to a great effect. It's a friendship necklace. I won't go into details yet but what is on the back of the pendant?" Jay asked.
Jessica turned it over and Jay tapped his foot. She looked at it several times, often straining her eyes to. "It looks like the initials JM. Those are your initials Jay."
"I know that. I gave that to you, a while ago."
"Huh? What are you talking about?" She asked.
He smiled and cleared his throat. "You once lived in a fairy village a long time ago. You befriend me and a young girl named Lena. We were good friends and I gave this to you. You left the village soon after and joined the village of the Keepers. During that time, Acaia gave me and A.J superhuman powers and also blocked any memory of me in your mind. He also made me a lot younger. It was all in his mission to make me, Glenn and A.J into his trio of super generals when he took over."
"If you knew that, how come you didn't tell me?" She asked. He looked at her for a moment with a smug expression and she nodded. "I doubt I would have believed you if you had told me."
"Does that mean you sort of remember now?" He asked. She looked at the pendant and shook her head.
"I don't know and I think I'll need to sit down and think about this. This is a little too much to take in, if it's true."
Jay turned away. "Take your time. I have things of my own to deal with," He said. He looked at her again and walked away. He left the alley and walked down the street. Many of the large and alien residents looked much more threatening now. It must have been because he felt a lot weaker now without his powers. He couldn't even remember how to teleport or even use a sword skillfully. He kicked a rock and watched it hit a lamp. He kept his head down to avoid casting a threatening glance at anyone or anything. He walked down the road for a while until he left the small village and came to the entrance of a dark forest. He sat on a rock by the entrance and stared at the ground. He saw a large stick on the ground and grabbed it. He swung it around like a sword but it came out very awkward and sloppy. He flung the stick to the ground and sighed. "How can I possibly stop Acaia now? Before at least I had all my skills and powers but now I'm nothing!" He said. He could almost feel his brother looking down on him and laughing his head off.
The next day, Jay awoke and found Keno standing by the door. He sat up in the semi darkness and yawned. "What's wrong Keno?" He asked. He got up and rubbed his face.
"I heard that Nightmaren has been spotted in town. The whole village is abuzz."
"What? Are you kidding?"
"Not really Jay," Keno said. Jay looked at the ground and stomped his foot.
"Where is he at now? Maybe we can keep a far distance from him if we don't get in his way."
"He's at the academy, where Leigh and Jessica are at."
Jay got up and flung a plate across the room. It missed Keno and hit the wall, breaking into hundreds of pieces. "It can't get any worse! If he sees them, he'll know that we are around and then it'll be impossible to escape! But we can't just leave and leave those two out to dry!"
"So what do you propose?" Keno asked. He turned to Jay and folded his arms. Jay looked down at the ground.
"No doubt it's heavily guarded now. We'll just have to sneak in and drag them out. We just can't go in gungho and start causing fights. Without my powers and my skills, I'm a lot less useless. I hope you got a better idea."
"Not at the moment so we'll have to be very secretive. I hope you're ready in case we do get into any fights."
"I'm not very confident I can handle myself in a fight," Jay said. He grabbed his sword and it felt like a foreign tool in his hand again. He swung it around for a while, more like swinging a dead fish than an extension of his arm. He practiced stabbing and sweeping motions for several minutes. He stopped and held it to his face. "I guess we're ready."

Description
The Tragic Frontier: The Lost World
Chapter 8
Jay leaned up against a large barrel, that sat outside the pub. Keno stared at the door. "So we're going in there for a job?"
"That's right. To earn a living while the girls spy at the school, we'll have to do the low end jobs."
"You mean like being workers for hire? Whatever they want us to do, we do it?"
"Well not everything. We won't do anything illegal."
"Jay, this is the world of darkness. It's a sure bet we'll have to do something illegal."
"Well..." Jay said.
A large man came out the door. He wore a large apron with colorful stains on it, many stains that Jay had no intention of knowing what they were. He carried a large butcher's knife and his face resembled that of a pig. "So you two are looking for jobs?"
"Yeah. Could you help us?"
"Yeah. I need you to head out to the mountains and track down a village of Terrans. My customers enjoy their meat a lot so I need you to go kill some and bring them here."
"What?!" Keno yelled. Jay nudged Keno to be quiet.
"I see. Is there any other job we could do?"
SLAM! Jay smirked as the door slammed in his face and he turned to Keno. "This will be harder than I thought."
"I thought you had a plan!"
"Well so did I but it turns out that it'll he harder than I thought," Jay said. He folded his arms.
"So you guys need some income while your girlfriends are in school?"
Jay turned around and saw a cloaked figure standing behind them. He laughed. "You could say that."
"I'm surprised you don't recognize me Jay."
"Why should I?" Jay asked. He looked at Keno and exchanged a confused look. Keno shrugged.
"It's me, A.J," he said. Jay growled. He figured his younger brother might be in a place like this but if he had to get help from him, Jay would lose it.
"I see that you can't comprehend the fact that you're coming to me for help."
"You just offered your help," Keno said. He folded his arms and A.J laughed.
"What are you guys doing here anyway? Up to no good, I bet."
"Up to no good? Heh, aren't you talking about yourself?"
"Oh you're funny. You aren't going to get many high paying jobs here."
"Okay smart guy. Tell us where can we get some real work."
"I'll show you. Are you sure leaving your girlfriends in the school is a good idea?"
"They aren't our girlfriends. I'm married and last time I checked, Jessica is a lot older than Jay," Keno said.
A.J smiled. "Jay is just as old as her first of all."
"Huh?" Keno said. He looked at Jay but Jay shrugged.
"Don't listen to that guy. Besides what does my age have to do with this?"
"A lot. If you're lying about your age, what else could you be lying about?" A.J asked. He looked at Keno, who looked at Jay. "Like how you lied about your true self."
"Your true self? Jay, is this guy full of it?" Keno asked. Jay folded his arms. A.J was ruining a lot with his big mouth. He didn't feel it too important to tell anyone that he was part Acaia, especially since it didn't seem relevant to their mission to stop Nightmaren. The Acaia blood in him didn't allow Nightmaren to control him but he wondered if Keno knew that.
"Tell him Jay. Tell him how you are part Acaia and we were both raised to serve Nightmaren when he sets up his new empire."
"What?" Keno said.
Jay frowned. "Funny, he can't control me even if I'm part Acaia. I have total control over myself and nothing he can do will make me serve him! Besides Keno, if I had told you that I was part Acaia, would you have come along?"
"I don't know what I would have done," Keno said. "But I think I'm more willing to trust you than just some random guy on the street." Keno pulled out his sword. "If you want to cause trouble, then leave us alone so we can go on about our business."
"You think I'm just going to let you two go? You are full of it," A.J said. Jay pulled Keno back.
"Let me handle this. He's my brother and I know him better than anyone."
"What do you mean?" Keno asked.
Jay glared at his brother and pulled out his sword. "I dare you to attack me."
A.J charged at Jay and began to unleash a flurry of attacks. Jay didn't bother to block them and let A.J get all of his shots in. A.J kicked Jay to the ground and laughed. "You're finished before it even started! Why did I even bother with you?"
Jay held out his hand and time began to wind back for him. All of his bruises and wounds he got from A.J vanished and he was back at full strength. Jay stood up and smiled. A.J paled. "Those powers of yours."
"Yes. I'm sure you forgot about my powers of time and space manipulation. Thanks to Acaia, I've put them to good use to stop him."
"What are you talking about?"
"When Nightmaren killed Star in their first fight, I was the one who turned back the clock to bring him back to life. I used my powers again to do the same for Miles. I've used them countless times to thwart Acaia and it's going to be like that until he is dead!" Jay said.
A.J backed away for a moment and growled. "It seems that you have no intention of ever joining our cause."
"Serious? It took you that long to figure out?" Jay asked. He leaned back against the wall and laughed. He couldn't believe his brother was that dense. Either he was that dense or he was calling Jay's bluff. Jay stopped laughing and A.J smirked.
"You seem to have caught my mood. I don't care if you have decided to not help us. In fact, if you aren't going to help us, you won't be needing all of those powers!" A.J said. He held out his hand and his hair began to rise up, like a wind had begun to blow from under him. Red flames began to swirl around his body and the winds pushed Keno and Jay back. Jay pushed against the wind but the force kept him pinned to the wall and unable to attack, defend or do much of anything. A.J laughed again. "You seem powerless against me! Don't tell me you are giving up this easily!" He yelled. He held out his hands and the flames jumped from the ground and began to swirl around his hand. He swung his hand and threw the flames at Jay. They flew right into Jay's chest and gave Jay the sensation of being exposed to an enormous furnace. The force along drove him deeper into the wall and he began to black out from the pain. A.J walked up to him and grabbed him by the neck. "You're finished brother," He said. He flung Jay to the ground and Jay bounced off the ground before coming to a stop.
Jay struggled to his feet but fell back down again. "Man, what happened to me? I feel a lot weaker."
"That's because I just took away your powers. You are now just a regular Terran again. I even caused you to forget all of the skills and techniques you learned along the years! Now we'll see if you are so willing to oppose us now!" A.J said. He kicked Jay in the chest and shrugged. Keno charged at A.J but A.J caught him by the arm and flung him into the wall, as if he weighed next to nothing. Keno slid to the ground and A.J walked off.
It took Jay a good couple of hours before he could sit up. It felt like he had broken every single bone in his body and his head throbbed in pain. He looked at Keno. "Keno, are you okay?" He asked.
Keno struggled to look up and gave a thumbs up. "I'm okay. Well I'll be better once we can get some help. If Jessica was here, she could heal us up in an instant."
"She has no way of finding us. It could take days and we might be dead by then," Jay said. He rested his head back on the ground and stared at the sky and the pale crescent moon. He looked at it again and it dawned on him. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small crescent moon pendant. "I just remembered I had this!"
"So? What good will that do us?" Keno asked.
Jay dragged himself up and sighed. "It's a friendship pendant. You can use it to track your friend if they hold the other half. It's actually an ancient fairy tool, but it's highly more symbolic than that."
Keno sat up. "Hold up! Just what are you getting at Jay? Are you suggesting that...you and Jessica are good friends? How is that possible?"
"I already told you that I was the one who used my powers to bring back Star and Miles, right? Well me and Jessica knew each other long before she met Star."
"Oh man. This sounds like a long story."
"Sorry but it is," Jay said. Keno sighed.
"Jay, Keno! What happened to you two?" Jay turned to see Jessica walking towards them. He shrugged.
"Well, we picked a fight with the wrong customer. I forgot how rough it is here."
Jay felt Jessica's healing powers restore him to full health and he jumped to his feet. "Now that's much better!"
"Hold up Jay! Jessica. I think you two need to explain some stuff to me," Keno said. He folded his arms. "I'm getting quite sick of this secret business. I think I should know."
"Keno, what are you talking about?" Jessica asked.
Jay looked at Keno and Keno gave him a look that said, "You need to tell her." Jay sighed and looked at Jessica. "I suppose you don't remember this?" He asked, holding up the pendant.
Jessica looked at it and pulled out her identical pendant. "Where did you get that?"
"You don't remember? I'm not surprised since Acaia used its powers to a great effect. It's a friendship necklace. I won't go into details yet but what is on the back of the pendant?" Jay asked.
Jessica turned it over and Jay tapped his foot. She looked at it several times, often straining her eyes to. "It looks like the initials JM. Those are your initials Jay."
"I know that. I gave that to you, a while ago."
"Huh? What are you talking about?" She asked.
He smiled and cleared his throat. "You once lived in a fairy village a long time ago. You befriend me and a young girl named Lena. We were good friends and I gave this to you. You left the village soon after and joined the village of the Keepers. During that time, Acaia gave me and A.J superhuman powers and also blocked any memory of me in your mind. He also made me a lot younger. It was all in his mission to make me, Glenn and A.J into his trio of super generals when he took over."
"If you knew that, how come you didn't tell me?" She asked. He looked at her for a moment with a smug expression and she nodded. "I doubt I would have believed you if you had told me."
"Does that mean you sort of remember now?" He asked. She looked at the pendant and shook her head.
"I don't know and I think I'll need to sit down and think about this. This is a little too much to take in, if it's true."
Jay turned away. "Take your time. I have things of my own to deal with," He said. He looked at her again and walked away. He left the alley and walked down the street. Many of the large and alien residents looked much more threatening now. It must have been because he felt a lot weaker now without his powers. He couldn't even remember how to teleport or even use a sword skillfully. He kicked a rock and watched it hit a lamp. He kept his head down to avoid casting a threatening glance at anyone or anything. He walked down the road for a while until he left the small village and came to the entrance of a dark forest. He sat on a rock by the entrance and stared at the ground. He saw a large stick on the ground and grabbed it. He swung it around like a sword but it came out very awkward and sloppy. He flung the stick to the ground and sighed. "How can I possibly stop Acaia now? Before at least I had all my skills and powers but now I'm nothing!" He said. He could almost feel his brother looking down on him and laughing his head off.
The next day, Jay awoke and found Keno standing by the door. He sat up in the semi darkness and yawned. "What's wrong Keno?" He asked. He got up and rubbed his face.
"I heard that Nightmaren has been spotted in town. The whole village is abuzz."
"What? Are you kidding?"
"Not really Jay," Keno said. Jay looked at the ground and stomped his foot.
"Where is he at now? Maybe we can keep a far distance from him if we don't get in his way."
"He's at the academy, where Leigh and Jessica are at."
Jay got up and flung a plate across the room. It missed Keno and hit the wall, breaking into hundreds of pieces. "It can't get any worse! If he sees them, he'll know that we are around and then it'll be impossible to escape! But we can't just leave and leave those two out to dry!"
"So what do you propose?" Keno asked. He turned to Jay and folded his arms. Jay looked down at the ground.
"No doubt it's heavily guarded now. We'll just have to sneak in and drag them out. We just can't go in gungho and start causing fights. Without my powers and my skills, I'm a lot less useless. I hope you got a better idea."
"Not at the moment so we'll have to be very secretive. I hope you're ready in case we do get into any fights."
"I'm not very confident I can handle myself in a fight," Jay said. He grabbed his sword and it felt like a foreign tool in his hand again. He swung it around for a while, more like swinging a dead fish than an extension of his arm. He practiced stabbing and sweeping motions for several minutes. He stopped and held it to his face. "I guess we're ready."