from now on, the story will be told kinda differently.

Chapter 1 - K.O.R.E City

Fernando started pulling on jeans over his shorts, in a cheery mood along with everyone else for their win.

"Tell me why we were savage today," one of his teammates said.

Everyone chuckled, picking up their bags and starting to walk towards the parking lot.

"Tell me why I scored a goal today," the same teammate said. "Tell me why Ivan missed that shot, though."

There were mixed replies of laughter and 'naaahs', and Fernando beckoned over to him, smiling.

"Tell me why I'm about to beat your ass," he said.

Omar shrugged.

"Cause you always ask why," he said, bumping him in the head and making him stumble back against the sidewalk. Everyone laughed at him, with increased intensity when he slipped on a puddle.

They were all walking together in a small group, either going home or to get picked up by their parents or someone else. Most of them were all in their last year of high school, and this included Fernando, who was relatively tall, with an athletic and typical soccer player build, with toned and defined muscles but still appearing relatively thin with clothes on. He had tan skin and straight hair that was flat on the front, going on to his forehead slightly, and spiked at the back. His eyes were dark brown.

The group started to diminish as some went ahead to walk home and others found their rides already waiting for him. Soon, Fernando was left alone. He roamed around, looking for people he could talk to and checking his cell phone to see what time it was. The school wasn't very fancy once you delved deeper into it, but the front parking lot was the one area that seemed better set up. The small lanes for the cars were glossily painted and the sidewalks seemed newer and less chipped around here. There were a few pine trees outlining the walkways and a large grassy area with a stone wall and letters outlining the name of the school in the middle of all this, like an island along the crowds of parked cars. He always ended up being the last one of the team around here because he had to wait a little longer for his parents to pick him up after they got out of work.

A shiny black Mercedes drove up and stopped in front of the yellow benches in front of the school. Fernando looked around, wondering who was getting picked up in that car, but no one stepped up. The window pane rolled down and a young man with sunglasses was looking at him from the interior, around his age or maybe one or two years older.

Fernando ignored him, knowing that it was not a wise idea to have anything to do with this stranger. When the man saw this, he stepped out of the car and walked towards him. Fernando tensed his muscles, ready for anything.

"What do you want?" he asked.

*****

Once Daniel was outside the city and in the country that lay outside, he took out a cell phone and called the headquarters.

"All right, I got him in the car. Do you want me to go ahead and take him to the base?" he asked, his blue eyes sparkling slightly. He had straight, blonde hair that could be seen coming out on his forehead under the white hat he always wore, and he had a muscular build. He had white skin and deep blue eyes.

A deep and commanding voice came from the other line. "Remember to make sure no one is watching."

Daniel placed the phone in the passenger's seat and opened the glove compartment, taking a small gadget with a small blue button in the middle. He grabbed it at the ready with one hand and steered the wheel with the other. He quickly looked around. There were grape vines on both sides of him, and a few cars along the road, but none of them seemed to be cops. He pressed harder on the gas, accelerating nearly to the top speed In a few minutes, he finally came across the desired street and made a right. The grape vines were still on both sides but the road was now dirt instead of cement. A house finally came in view, and he started paying closer attention to the land around him, looking for haystacks. Finally he came across an open piece of grass with a haystack and a large piece of tin propped up against it.

This must be it, he thought. Accelerating to the top speed of the car, he drove over it, making the car fly in the air. He pressed the button on the small gadget and a large blue portal appeared in the air, straight to where the car was flying into. He quickly looked to the side. From the window of the house, a man in black clothes was nodding.

*****

Jasmin woke up in the back of a dark and dirty alley. She looked up and found, to her surprise, that she couldn't see the sky. It was covered by a thick, iron plate, and the light that made things visible around the place has a greenish tint, making everything look even slimier than it was. The alley seemed to extend a long way forward from what she could see, and it seemed to be a very bad part of the city, if this place was a city, for the walls were cracked and seemed very old. There was graffiti all around this particular area, and it all semed to be screaming out obscenities to something called KORE.

"Hey there," a voice said behind her. She quickly snapped her head back, her straight hair waving in the air as she did. It was honey colored, and she had light skin, but not exactly white. Her face seemed hard and cold, as if she did not open up very easily or was unfriendly. Her eyes were a soft green color, and she was tall, at least for a girl, about 5'7''.

The person in front of her was nearly 2 inches taller than her, with tan skin and looking as if he had also just woken up.

"My name's Fernando," he said. "Looks like he finally woke up. I guess you're wondering what's going on. Well, I'd like to know that too," he said, looking around with a confused expression at the dirty alley and holding out his hand.

Jasmin hesitated for a moment, not really wanting to shake his hands. He could be dangerous, after all. For some reason though, she could tell that he was being honest. He seemed rather laid back and cheery despite knowing that they had been kidnapped, and personally, she couldn't understand why. In the back of her mind, she felt a creeping sense of initial fondness for him, and his rather attractive features didn't help, but she quickly shut the thoughts away and roughly shook his hand, quickly turning away afterwards.

She snapped her head up as the sound of falling objects came from above. To her right, there were two large things coming down, but she couldn't distinguish what they were, and above her another two objects were coming down, but they were smaller and even harder to make out. She quickly moved aside and let them fall to the floor, then looked down at them. They were strange looking pistols, silver and very shiny. They had a large letter J engraved in them in a swirling manner. The strange thing about them was that they had dagger-like blades sticking out from the part where it bent at a right angle, making it a double weapon.

"What the...?" she muttered softly to herself, picking the pistols up. Turning to look at Fernando again, she saw that he had two larger weapons with him. They were long swords that had a small curve at the end, with a large F engraved in the middle of the blade in a spiky way, but they were also pistols like her own, except of a bigger and different make. The pistol had a longer and wider barrel, as well as a revolver in the center.

"Hey, these are pretty sweet, huh?" he said, looking up at Jasmin.

She didn't reply but merely looked at her own weapons again, starting to really wonder what could be going on.

"So what's your name?" Fernando asked. "You know, if it's okay for me to know," he said, still good-humoredly.

Well, it looks like he finally knows I'm not friendly, Jasmin thought, satisfied yet at the same time feeling a little bad for it.

"Jasmin," she replied after a small pause.

"Well, I know that you don't care to hear it, but I think that's a really pretty name," he said, a little more coldly now.

Jasmin turned her eyes back towards him and consented to give a small smile.

"Thank you," she said. Feeling a little angry with herself, she continued to examine the pistols.

Then, unexpectedly, the tall man with white hat that had captured them came down in the same manner that the weapons had, with the difference that the man made a much louder sound when he landed on the ground, looking at them both with hard, blue eyes.

whoa, thats awesome! your story is getting really interesting, ive got a feeling that its like a spy book with something else
its really cool though, i cant wait to read more!!

thanks

Chapter 2 - Walking Towards

Daniel eyed the two persons he had captured closely. He was only a few years older than them, and yet in his eyes it was almost as if they had a twenty year gap. They seemed so young in every aspect that he wondered if they would even be fit for the path that lay ahead of them. The girl, however, had something interesting... she actually seemed hardened, something the guy lacked. Sighing, he threw some sheaths for their weapons.

"Hang those on your hips," he said to both of them. "Except I didn't have any more gunblade sheaths for the hips, so that other one is gonna go on your shoulder," he said, pointing to Fernando.

"All right, I'll cut to the chase," he said. "Those are your weapons to keep. Report to that building over there, the tallest one you can see, in about an hour. Basically, you're going to fight for us. Don't ask any questions, you can save those for later. You're going to get a special chemical placed inside of you, but I was one of the last ones to get back from the recruiting, so you will each receive a very small portion, like the other 100 in the same situation. This will mean you'll be weaker, but still useful. Explaining anything else to a pair like you would be a waste of my breath, so I'll leave you now," he said. "Do whatever you want in the hour you have, just don't cause any trouble."

With that said, he slowly turned around to walk off. He was rather surprised that they didn't follow him with questions or some kind of hostile intention, but he didn't turn back, merely continuing in his way. He drew his two swords and looked down at them, ignoring the people who looked at him with near reverence in the streets. Far from finding happiness, this place had only brought him close to death and a strangely feeling of emptiness in his heart. Still, it was probably better than an aching heart, which is something that he had tried to escape for a long time. He looked up at the plate covering the city, seeing that the light was turning blue.

*****

Fernando watched as the man walked away, clenching his fists as hard as he could on his gunblades. They were extremely heavy, and something about their heaviness frustrated him. Whatever was happening, he felt an increasing desperation with every second that passed, all due to a strange feeeling of helplessness that was welling up inside him. It reminded him of soccer games, where he was always irritable if they were losing and he was incapable of making a difference himself, either because he was hurt or playing defense.

Slowly, he buckled the sheaths on his clothes and put his weapons away in them. It seemed strange to have one on his hip and one on his shoulder, but when he placed his hands on them he realized the movement would be rather smooth anyway. The shoulder sheath was across his left and the hip one on his right.

"So how the hell are we supposed to know when an hour passes?" he asked, in an annoyed voice.

"Don't be stupid," Jasmin said.

Fernando turned around and saw her pointing ahead. He realized that they had been subconsciously walking towards the end of the alley. There was a large building in front of them with a huge clock at the top. It was an hour from noon, but it didn't feel like a morning to Fernando at all, probably because of the gloomy half light of the place. He saw that he had also failed to notice that the light had changed to blue.

He tried to think of what to do, but his frustrated mind held all answers in a heavily locked area inside of him. Growling, he felt memories tug at his conscience, and he remembered how he was never able to do anything in soccer when he got frustrated. He would calm himself a little first, then keep his head cold and use his anger only to fuel his actions and provide a supply of energy. It always worked great.

Slowly, he started to calm himself down, and in a short amount of time was able to have a functioning brain once more. Finally, he was able to sort out the man's words. So they were supposed to be weak, huh? All because that stupid man had been slow. For now, he kept questions of what was going on out of his head. As the man said, the best time for those would be later. At the moment, all he knew was that he didn't want to be weak, and there couldn't exactly be nothing they could do about it.

"Hey... he said to go the building in an hour, right?" he asked, mostly to himself. "Well... what if we went there now? Maybe there's a line or something, and we can cut before the last ones so that we get the full amount of whatever they put in us," he said.

Jasmin looked at him with a skeptical expression. "They'll probably catch us and then we won't get anything," she said.

Fernando sighed. "I don't think there's anything to lose," he said. "So I'm going. Bye."

He started to walk away, hoping that she would come but not really expecting it or needing it to do what he planned. He walked several steps before he heard Jasmin start to walk as well.

"All right, let's see what happens," she said, walking behind him.

Fernando smiled and made his way along the streets, noticing that the farther they progressed, the cleaner and better set up they were. He looked around, wondering what kind of place this was. It seemed just like any other city, with streets full of houses and some full of stores or restaurants. The big difference was that there was hardly any plants, everything was lit up as if it was night, and there were strange buildings every now and then that were built in a short, pentagonal shape with no sign or visible door. He didn't know what the people that lived here thought, but he found it rather depressing and gloomy, especially the lack of trees.

Soon, the building that they had been looking for was in front of them, and they only needed to go around a long house that barred a complete view of the bottom. When they did, Fernando held his breath for a moment. Before, they had only seen the top of a large building with the letters K.O.R.E at the very top. Now that they could see more at the bottom, he saw that it had a huge front courtyard, as big as a park and set up like one as well. This was the only place he had seen so far with grass, and it had an abundance of trees and plants with small dirt paths winding up to the entrance. In the paths there were long lines of people, but the lines were moving fast and smoothly. The entrance was a large double door that was very shiny, and Fernando wondered whether it was made of crystal.

"All right, let's do this," he said, smiling.

*****

Jasmin had no idea why she consented to follow him. Obviously the whole idea was rather stupid and had no real point, at least to her. She doubted that she would follow along with anything that anybody in this place told her. The most likely thing was that she would desert everything here and head somewhere else, though probably not home. There was nothing she wanted there, and plenty of things she didn't want. Sighing, she followed Fernando through the strange city.

As she got her first full view of the building, she had to admit that even to her, the sight was rather amazing. Still, she suppressed any sign of surprise, not wanting to get rid of her outer shell so easily. She followed Fernando when he started to move on again, noticing with great anger that she had started to smile. Almost subconsciously, she noticed the light begin to turn red as they neared the lines of waiting people.

"Hold on," came Fernando's voice.

"There's guards at the entrance looking out over the whole lines. They'll notice us if we go any closer," he said. "But hold on. I'll give you a sign when to move, then you just run as fast as you can following me."

Jasmin nodded, and felt her own hands jerk towards the gundaggers hung at her hips. Shaking off the strange feeling, she attentively watched until Fernando moved his hand forward and ran. She stuck close to him, keeping up right behind until he stopped behind a large tree trunk.

Fernando's voice came again.

"Alright, you see that big tree over there. It's at a bend in the line ans is right next to it. Even better than that, though, is the fact that it's very close to the entrance. If we can get there without being noticed, I think we'll be able to slip into the line without any trouble. We'll have to move fast, though, because we're gonna have to make a big trip around if we want to be sure we won't be seen," he said.

"Okay," Jasmin whispered back, looking at Fernando. Despite herself, the expression on her face was curious. She had not thought that he would be able to think of so much so fast, and had not seen herself doing this with him when she first saw him in that dark, dirty alley. She allowed herself a soft smile as she quickly followed his signals from tree to tree.

Soon, they were only two trees away from their destination. This one was thinner than most, so they had to move quick so their cover wouldn't be blown. Before they moved, however, Jasmin felt to her surprise Fernando's body stiffening next to her.

"What happened?" she asked, feeling a little nervous.

"They're looking over here. Don't move a muscle. Maybe they won't spot us," he whispered.

Jasmin wanted to take a peek at the guards but didn't dare move her body. She wanted to fidget herself into a more comfortable position as well, because she was standing with her legs slightly bent, making her struggle to stay still. Her body was closely pressed against Fernando's, and with a slightly guilty feeling she felt that he would be a perfect shield for her at the moment if anything went wrong.

After what seemed hours, Fernando finally let out his breath and gestured to move on, which she happily consented to do, glad to be able to finally move again. Soon, they had reached the last tree.

"All right, when we move out from here, you're going to have to hold my hand, okay?" Fernando said with a strangely firm and serious voice.

Jasmin hesitated for a moment before agreeing. "Okay. Tell me when," she said.

Fernando seemed very hesitant to make the last move, or maybe he was thinking ahead for something. Finally, he gestured forward, but before moving held out his hand back without looking at her. Jasmin slowly placed her smaller hands into his larger ones and felt herself being rushed forwards at great speed. Before she even really got a chance to look at what was happening, he was roughly pushing her in between two other people who at first seemed to get rather angry but stayed quiet. They had somehow managed to squish themselves into the line, and she felt relief wash over her, though she felt rather uncomfortable with what the people around them would say. However, it seemed that Fernando was already talking to the young man behind. He had a large scar that went from his eye to his lips.

"Hey man, do me a favor. I'll owe you big time when we meet again, so you can ask me a favor in return or something, okay? Because of us, the line is gonna stop its routine momentum for a little, and the guards will probably notice. So when they come investigate, just call them over and say that you bent down for a little to tie your shoes, so the line was held up a little, okay? Please, just try act honest and natural, I'm sure they won't do anything to you because of it," he said, in a great hurry.

The man looked at him for a moment with an unreadable expression, then nodded. "All right, I'll do it," he finally said with a small smile and hint of humor.

Fernando then turned around to look at everyone else around them. "Okay, everyone just try to play along with this okay? I talked loud on purpose so you could all hear me, and the ones who didn't just ask around to know what's going on. We just wanna have a little fun here," he said with a small laugh. "So just act like all you saw was this guy tie his shoes, okay?"

Everyone nodded and there were a few 'yeah's' and small laughs among the near crowd, and Fernando finally let out his breath in final sigh of relief.

Jasmin looked at him, her eyes almost wide with surprise. If he had seemed intelligent before, now she was even more amazed. The way he had planned everything out so quick seemed incredible.

"Hey, that goes for you too, okay? When they come, just act natural. Don't show any nervousness," Fernando said, looking at her once more.

Jasmin nodded, still looking at him.

"You know, when I first saw you, I thought you were one of those stupid reckless people... but I guess you do have a head on those shoulders," she said.

Fernando laughed. "Thanks, but I don't really think so. We just snuck into a line of some crazy people who are going to make us more powerful or something, in a weird city that has no sunlight and that we've never been to. Isn't that reckless?"