Breaking From The Norm

A brand new start

Beach City. A beachside town located in the US state of Delmarva. On the vast beach, we see a young man who appeared to be no older than nineteen. He had a slim build, a mop of dark brown hair with a pair of dark brown eyes, he wore a lavender gray open hoodie with gray undershirt and a pair of black jeans. This young lad is Cody Black. Now everybody had an origin story, and Cody is no exception. Well, let me tell you, it's not pretty. For starters, he wasn't born in Beach City, nor was he born in Delmarva.

He was born and raised in a rural area in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Cody was from an average family. His mother had him when she was only in her early twenties, and his biological father died in a car crash. She was pretty much on her own at the time considering that Cody was born out of wedlock. Eventually, his mother married another woman, and as such he now had two mothers in his life, as well as a stepsister. At first, things seemed to be all fine and dandy for him. He'd finally have a role model in his life, and a sibling too. But things have a tendency to change.

Well, we can save the rest of that story for another day.

So, ever since that night, he's been traveling on his own. He didn't know where to go, but he didn't care as long as he was far away from his family. It wasn't easy, but he managed to get as far away from his hometown as possible. He pretty much became bitter and contemptuous towards his family, his parents and Jennifer in particular.

So here he is now, enjoying the calm beaches and salty sea air of Beach City. Out of all various places Cody traveled to, Beach City is possibly the most calming place out there.

Suddenly, Cody heard a screaming sound not too far off. He looks to a nearby pier to see people screaming in terror and running from something. But from what? Eventually, Cody saw something unlike any he has ever seen. It resembled a large, green six-legged scorpion-like creature with a pincer-like mouth, a long tail tipped with a barb that looked like a spearhead, and what appeared to be a green rectangular gemstone centered on the creature's forehead with a large crack on it. Whatever this thing was, it was not friendly to say the least.

"Momma!" A child's voice called out. He sees a little girl hanging onto the ledge of the piers, clearly scared out of her mind. And he noticed the strange creature slowly zeroing in on the child's location. Thinking fast, he ran as fast as he could to the piers and ran double-time to the creature, which was now dangerously close to the child.

Cody grabbed the nearest object he could stand before tossing it at the insect-like creature, hitting the creature's gemstone and causing more cracks to appear. The creature screeched seemingly in pain, and even looked like it was glitching a bit before the creature took notice of Cody. Luckily, the creature was distracted as the child's mother came in and saved her daughter before running off.

"Alright you... whatever you are." Cody said fearlessly to the creature. "You wanna mess with somebody? Try me on for size." Cody then grabbed a nearby oar before spinning it like it was a bo staff and aimed the paddle end at the creature "If you dare!"

The creature shrieked before glitching yet again, surprising Cody a bit. The creature then lunged at Cody, but he swung the creature oar and sent the creature flying into the water below.

"Yeah. Hope you're a good swimmer, bug brain!" Cody said with a smirk. But then the creature skittered back into the dock. And it seemed a bit different than before. It was longer, its legs were longer and looked like spider legs, its barb blade looked longer and sharper, and its mandibles looked like those of a stag beetle now. "What the..." The creature released another shriek before swinging its tail at Cody, knocking the oar right out of his hands. The creature then scuttled towards Cody and pinned him down. Before anything else, however, the piers beneath the two gave in, and both Cody and the creature were plunged into the water.