The Luna Chronicles: Discovery

Chapter 1: Awakening

Gentle gales caressed the walls of a large suburban manor on the outskirts of Chicago. Birds sang loudly to each other as a slight woman trekked through the woods. An elaborate bow, strung tightly and laying over an engraved quiver hung on her back. Tight black leather with red linen detailing clung to her silhouette, bright silver eyes piercing out of a black hood. She approached the house, silent and graceful as the mythical Nemean Lion.

A two sided argument could be heard from the ajar second floor window of the house as the woman soundlessly scaled the large oak tree in the side yard.

"Come on baby girl! You can't go out with them! You're only 16!" Walter Korus exclaimed to his daughter, gesturing with his hands exasperatedly.

"I can do what I want, Dad! It's no big deal." Luna Korus shouted back, her arms churning through the air violently. Walt looked taken aback at his daughter's calm facade breaking, and his silence permeated the air along with Luna's guilt.

"Please, Luna, you know I'm only saying this because I'm worried about you. Minerva would drop from the heavens and beat me with my own antique books if she knew I let you do this." Luna's mouth dropped open at the mention of her mother, 13 years of him ignoring her questions about her, and now he just dropped her name like it was nothing. Walter's voice softened, pleading with his daughter.

"Please Luna, just please, if you really want to go, at least let Alex go with you. You can't go cross-country with an 'up-and-coming' rock band without at least some form of protection." Walter said. Alex, Walter's bodyguard and ward, stood from the nearby couch in their living room and seemed, to look intently at Luna. He was staring past the two of them, his right hand resting on his sheathed sword.

Alex preferred a more close up type of defense, and the bulletproof shield on his back did enough against more modern hooligans. The bulletproof, cybernetic limbs didn't go amiss either. Alex turned his glance away to survey the room, and a flash of white in the window caught his eye.

A note hung posted on the window, from the outside. "Et casus deducet eos." was written in a feminine scrawl. Alex's eyes widened in fear and the giant adolescent turned his body to Luna and wrapped his arms around her protectively, gesturing Walter frantically to the floor. The light-bulbs burst as the windows broke, a clearly accomplished marksman's doing.

"Down, Walt! Code Black!" Alex's shouts rang out into the dimly lit room, the moonlight illuminating Luna's terrified face. Walt made a mad dash for the panic room on the far side of the room. His hand grasped the doorknob tightly, and as he spun, Luna's world shattered.

A bright silver arrow impaled itself in his spine, causing his body to go limp and him to cry out in agony. His screams were promptly cut short by another arrow impaling itself in his throat, a note pinned on it's shaft and a small cord tracing its flight path through the large picture windows.

"You had your chance, Walt. No more." A simple message, scrawled in the same feminine handwriting. Luna shrieked, struggling against Alex's hold to get to her father's body. Alex threw Luna over his right shoulder and unstrapped his shield. Luna furiously punched Alex's back, but Alex steadily carried her down the stairs, and out the front door, knocking away arrows from multiple shooters with his shield.

"There's a hell of a lot about the world you don't know Luna. Your mother made your father promise to only tell you on your eighteenth birthday. But right now, the string on that arrow is Det Cord. Your house is rigged with explosives. So, if you would be so kind, stop busting your own hand on my metal ass!" Alex shouted, picking up the pace towards the corner of the street. He lowered reached his right hand frantically around Luna's legs and slammed a button on the exterior of his shield. A beam of ethereal light shot out of the center of the shield, impacting somehow with air and spreading into a square doorway on the sidewalk. Alex set Luna down and made eye contact.