D. Gray-man Fan Fiction ❯ Twilight Generation ❯ Power I ( Chapter 1 )

A young man sat quietly in his seat, a marble white chair with a high back in the shape of a crown. He had a mess of short dark green hair and dark blue eyes that were concealed by the light reflected by the oval glasses that he wore. He was sitting in the center of a large cylindrical platform that rose like a pillar in the midst of an endless darkness. The whole pillar was covered in stained glass with the floor of the platform itself depicting six large symbols. These symbols formed a ring around the young man and what stood at the very center of the platform. Before him was a large round table with a design similar to the one on the floor. High above, in the middle of the table, were several medium-sized crystal spheres.

“Authorities are still on the trail of a serial rapist who has been haunting the New York subway...”

“…still no word from the President on the actions with regards to United States presence in the Middle East...”

He watched silently as the smaller spheres were now playing news reports from various parts of the country and the world.

“Ten people were killed while twenty-five more were critically injured in yet another suicide bomb attack in Pakistan...”

“…the murder victim was identified to be none other than political activist Kim Tara Traydor…”

However, it seemed that his meditation would have to be cut short for the largest sphere, the one at the very center, had now begun to give off a foreboding red glow. He lazily flicked his wrist and all the smaller spheres transformed into wisps of luminous smoke before returning to the bright mist that engulfed the largest crystal orb.

In the larger crystal, he saw the image of a classroom with students all looking mockingly at him through the projection. On the far end, he could see an old woman, dressed in a blouse with ugly brown flower patterns and a matching dress to boot, heading sternly towards him.

With a tired sigh, he calmly closed his eyes.

After a few moments, He opened them again and found himself sitting in a chair with the very same old lady now standing in front of him.

“Back to the realm of reality once again, Mr. Munroe?” she asked him sternly, much to the class' humor. Her eyes stared coldly through the copper pince-nez that she wore. He glumly stared back at her. Her wrinkled face and frown lines were clearly visible because of the fact that she ties her hair in a bun like most old Literature teachers her age.

Seeing that the young man didn't respond she then continued, “Well then, let's see if that little trip to this dream world of yours has given you insight to the question that I just asked your equally ignorant classmates.” She was now circling him before standing imposingly behind his chair. “That is… if you were even listening.”

Everyone in the room laughed but then quickly went quiet when the teacher shot them a strict glare. All of them though were still smiling eagerly, hoping that the boy would receive the humiliation of not being able to answer.

After a moment of silence though, the boy replied, “You asked what influenced Charles Dickens when he was writing Oliver Twist.” He had a rather low yet smooth sounding voice with a British accent.

Noises and sighs of disappointment rang throughout the room as the embarrassing moment they expected did not come. “Silence.” the teacher ordered dangerously, though she too appeared irritated. Perhaps she felt she was robbed of an opportunity to abuse her power to discipline. She then took a deep breath and then asked a second question. “And… what would be your answer Mr. Munroe?”

“Charles Dickens experienced poverty first-hand at the age of twelve when his father was sent to Marshalsea debtors' prison. After that he was forced to work in a boot-blacking factory in order to support his family and pay for his lodging. His exposure to the harsh life in the overpopulated slums of London influenced all his works, not just Oliver Twist.” he began to explain, albeit grimly.

Everyone moaned irritably as he explained, though it seemed that the young Munroe didn't really care. After finishing his answer, the teacher looked carefully on what was on his desk. The book Oliver Twist laid completely closed and untouched. “Very good… almost memorized.” she said suspiciously.

“I'm not holding up anything, Miss Kensworth.” the youth said absentmindedly. After a while, when Ms. Kensworth could find no possible sign of cheating, she resigned to going back to her desk. Meanwhile, somewhere from behind the young man, someone muttered, “Dork…”

Ms. Kensworth removed her pince-nez and massaged her forehead tiredly. After fixing them back on she turned to the young man, “You know Merrick, I don't know what mystical hearing method you seem to be pulling off and I couldn't care less where you picked it up. However, mark my words, if I catch you sleeping in my class again, I will put you in detention regardless if you answer my questions correctly or not.” she said threateningly before finally sitting down.

“Now,” she then said as she resumed the lesson, “knowing that his brief time experiencing the harsh conditions of the poor in 19th century London did in fact play a major factor in his work, we shall now try to identif-”

RIIIIINNNG!!!

Everyone gave a huge sigh of relief as the bell signaled the end of the day. The teacher looked extremely livid as all her students then began packing their things and heading out the door. “All right don't think you've escaped yet! Remember, your paper on the work of Charles Dickens is due next Monday. If you're submission is even half a millisecond late, consider your paper wastebasket material.” she tried to announce loudly as she heard students cheering wildly outside.

“Ugh… I hate Fridays.” Merrick heard her say as he too exited her classroom.

While the blue-eyed young man walked through the halls of Reever High, he silently took in the various snatches conversations that buzzed all around him. It's amazing what you can learn about the day if you knew how to filter the noise.

“So you coming there tonight?”

“Totally!”

“I hear Trixie's parents won't be in town tonight.”

“Whooaa… dude, we all know what that means.”

“Babes and booze man!! Yeah!”

Merrick slowly shook his head as he opened his locker and looked over the group that was doing the loudest of the cheering. Jocks…he thought cynically. It's amazing on how much intellect one can lose by simply ramming yourself silly along with twenty-two other idiots on a football field… and yet…he looked over to the group of red jersey-clad jocks along with their slutty female counterparts, the cheerleaders. They are always the ones given the glory and praise…

The boy quickly stuffed his unnecessary books and took out a medium-sized cloth sack with various pockets stitched all over it. As he then passed by the self-proclaimed rulers of this miserable high-school, he could hear their snickers and snide side comments.

“Hey I thought only Girl Scouts sell cookies on campus?” Merrick heard one say loudly from behind him. He ignored it and continued heading out towards the campus grounds despite the sound of laughter that followed him. Without even looking, the young man automatically headed towards a particularly gnarly tree near the school gates and set the bag at its feet. He then rummaged through the contents of the large pale green sling bag that he carried and pulled out a cardboard sign. He lazily set the sign in front of the sack before sitting down himself. The sign said,

“Rune Cookies. A dollar a bag.”

With everything seemed to be all set for him, Merrick reached into his bag again and pulled out a large thin, brown notebook. He then pulled out a pencil and immediately began scribbling on it. The notebook's contents consisted mostly of writing but every now and then, a drawing of a strange symbol or two would precede several of the paragraphs.

For a while nothing happened as he seemed apparently busy with whatever he was writing down. Even though many of the students who walked past him laughed at the sign on the large sack sitting next to him, the young man appeared too preoccupied with what he was writing down to care.

Suddenly from behind the tree, a girl who looked a few years younger than him appeared. However, it seemed that she didn't want to be noticed for she was slowly sneaking behind Merrick (who seemed too busy to notice).

The girl had dark blue eyes like him, but she had long golden blonde hair which was tied into two large bunches that hung loosely on either side of her head. Unlike the rest of the students though, who were wearing street clothes, she was wearing a private school girl's uniform. It consisted of a maroon tie, a white blouse, a black jacket, and a dark blue tartan miniskirt. She was also wearing a pair of long black socks and brown shoes. On her back was a small, sky blue backpack with the head and arms of a brown, goofy-looking stuffed toy sticking out of it.

The girl carefully looked over the young man's shoulder to see what he was doing. When she saw that he appeared completely distracted, she grinned sneakily and slowly reached for the sack of cookies…

To her surprise, she felt the ground underneath her feet shift violently and she was soon stumbling down right next to the sack. "Whoa!"

“Ow!” she cried as she looked at Merrick reproachfully. The young man continued writing in his notebook, but after a while said, “You know that Mum said you weren't supposed to eat these Annie.”

“Aww… come on bro…” the young girl called Annie pleaded, “Just a tiny widdle nibble?” she then added, her voice was extremely child-like and energetic especially when she just tried to sound cute.

“No.”

Annie quickly sat up and crossed her arms, “Hey, I'm your sister!” she said angrily.

“All the more reason.”

A cartoony vein appeared on Annie's head as she then puffed up her cheeks in a pout. “What's the point anyway, it's not like anybody's buying them.” she then muttered later as she sat next to the sack.

She carefully looked over to see if her brother was once again busy writing on his notebook. “Besides, who here wants to eat something stamped with those creepy symbols of yours?” she then said casually while her hand crept once again towards the sack. This time she managed to reach inside and snatch up a small brown parcel. She then grinned evilly in triumph as she quietly ripped off the top of the paper bag.

“You seem to be enjoying them…” she heard her brother say, his eyes still on the notes that he was writing while she was about to toss a cookie in her mouth.  “…you owe me a dollar now by the way.” At this, Anna closed her mouth and ridiculous stream of tears started flowing from her face. “Why are you so heartless?” she whined.

Suddenly they heard a loud giggling and both of them looked up to find the group of cheerleaders from before smiling smugly at them. “Aww… if it isn't little Annie.” said a brown-haired girl in a mock pampering voice. “What's the matter kid? You still need your precious big brother to take you home?”

“You kidding me, Trixie? The guy doesn't even have a car.” muttered a taller girl with a thick, black braid and all the girls laughed.

“Don't worry though Annie. You're brother may be a lost cause but we still think there's hope for you.” Trixie then said in a snide, seductive tone. “In fact, we can let you win a chance to come to my big party tonight.”

Annie simply popped the cookie into her mouth, “Sorry,” she said, her face now cynically looking back at Trixie, “but I've got better things to do than play harlot for a bunch of muscleheads.”

Trixie looked like she was smacked with a bag loaded with bricks. Before she could say anything though, Merrick loudly clapped his notebook shut.

“Time to go.” he announced quietly as he calmly picked up his sack of wares.

“See ya biatch.” Annie said slyly as she followed after her brother.

Trixie looked murderously at the pig-tailed girl's retreating back, “She is so lucky she doesn't go here.” she whispered dangerously.

Later, when the two siblings were half a block away from the school, they suddenly heard a small young female voice calling after them.

“Wait! Please wait!”

Both of them turned around curiously, “Hey that sounded like…” Annie began but not before she spotted a girl running towards them. She was very pretty, with a pair of cute golden yellow eyes and long purple hair that went wavy around halfway. She was also wearing the same uniform as Annie's and was carrying a small black Japanese schoolbag. When she finally caught up with them, she was panting heavily, her hands weakly clutching her chest.

“A-Ayame?” said Annie in surprise, “Wh-What are you doing here?”

When she finally caught her breath, Ayame looked up at Merrick who stared back at her emotionlessly. Her face quickly turned red and she tried look away. She then rubbed her arm shyly and asked, “Um… (ano)… c-can I buy some cookies?”

Annie gave a massive sweatdrop, “You came all the way here to buy my brother's cookies!?” she said, completely dumbstruck.

“Ah! No, no, no!” Ayame then said as she frantically waved her hand defensively in front of her, the redness of her face growing brighter.

“I, um, well… I'm working now.” she then said bashfully.

“Whaaaat?” Annie asked incredulously. “Ayame, you and your dad are pretty well off don't you think?”

“Y-yes…” she muttered nervously. “but... I wanted to know what it was like to have a job… and my dad thought it was a nice way for me to spend less time at home. In fact, it's my first day of work today.”

“Oh… is that so?” Annie said thoughtfully. “Well then!” she piped. “Where are you working now?” she asked, smiling brightly. Ayame however, looked at her uneasily before answering, “Th-the library next to your school.”

For some reason, Annie's lips curved into a sly smile. “Really?” she said suggestively as her brother now began reaching into his sack, “You know that's funny, Merrick goes there sometimes after school. Ain't that right bro?” she then said as she nudged her brother.

Merrick simply nodded as he took out another paper bag of cookies, at the same time not noticing that Ayame was sweating nervously at Annie's comment. “Here…” he said as he handed it to Ayame, “…on the house.”

Annie's eyes instantly popped as she looked at Merrick, not willing to believe what she just heard while Ayame's face had once again flushed scarlet. “Oh no, please! You don't have to. I can pay for it.” the purple-haired girl said frantically as she tried to open her bag to get her wallet.

“Yeah Merrick, she can pay for it.” Annie said through gritted teeth, obviously ticked at the fact that she still had to pay him yet Ayame gets a free treat. Merrick however, simply pressed the small brown bag into Ayame's hand and said, “It's okay…” he looked at Annie in the eye, “After all, it's not like anybody bought them.”

Annie crossed her arms and looked at Merrick grudgingly as they both turned around and resumed walking home. As they slowly began vanishing into the city crowd, Ayame clutched the small bag close to her chest and smiled albeit guiltily.

Later, Annie and Merrick sat next each other in the subway train leading home. While Merrick decided to busy himself by writing again on his notebook, Annie was looking at him intently as she slowly munched on the cookies that she got earlier.

For a while, neither of them spoke as Annie hoped that her staring would somehow provoke her brother to say something. When it seemed that it was not the case, she crumpled up the empty paper bag and said, “`On the house'?”

Merrick's pencil immediately skidded as he looked back at her, he felt slightly irritated now. “It's her first day at work, just thought I'd give her something.” he explained in a firm, slightly forceful tone in the hopes of ending the conversation at that.

“Riiiiight…” Annie replied disbelievingly, “and the fact that she was blushing when you gave her the cookies” she said as she whisked her hand in a mock dismissing manner, “has noooo meaning to you.”

“Of course not, she was merely shy about it. She was trying to be polite by insisting on paying, how much more could it mean?” he replied indifferently as he stuffed his notebook into his bag.

At the next subway station, people suddenly jumped when they heard a loud angry shout coming from the train that just arrived.

"YOU ARE SO THICK!!!"

Later, Annie was storming up the stairs leading into a nice, white, two-story row house with dark blue shingles on the roof. “We're home.” she mumbled, looking very disgruntled as they entered.

“Hey guys, how was your day?” asked Mr. Munroe, a tall man with dark green hair like Merrick although his was more neatly trimmed. He was sitting on a sofa in the living room already reading the evening paper. Annie passed by him grumpily and said sarcastically, “Great, I just made a recent discovery.”

Mr. Munroe quickly folded up the paper excitedly, “Really? What?”

“Your son is not only a dork, a weirdo, but he's also romantically DENSE!!” she said irritably as she went into the kitchen. Mr. Munroe gave a curious look to his son who was already climbing up the stairs. “Hey uh, Merrick, that Egyptian tablet that you wanted me to borrow from the museum for you, I left it in your room. You know you really should clean up that desk of yours.”

“Hm.” was all Merrick could say.

“'Hm'?” repeated his father disapprovingly, “I had to go through a rigorous procedure at work to get you that tablet and all ya can say is... `Hm'?”

The young man regretfully walked back down the stairs and said, “Sorry, thank you Dad.”

“You're welcome.” he said politely as he opened up his paper again.  Although he could no longer help but notice the loud feminine conversation that was now emanating from the kitchen. “Hey, uh, what happened with you and your sister?”

“Nothing, your daughter just made it more difficult for me to understand women.” he said grumpily as he resumed going up the stairs.

His father gave a low amused whistle, “Hoho… that makes two of us.” he mumbled.

In his room, Merrick dropped his bag onto the floor and looked around. His room was actually quite simple. A small window was across him but its shutters were pulled down. Right next to the window, facing sideways left, was a desk with a computer on it along with a printer. Beside the desk was a tall shelf filled with a lot of old books. On his left was a simple but neatly made bed followed by a tall ancient-looking closet.

Merrick gave a tired sigh as he closed the door behind him and walked towards his desk. It was fairly large with his computer on one side and a few scattered documents and books piled up on the other. As he sat down, he picked up a large rectangular box that was piled on top of all the mess and opened it. Inside was a large, sand-brown, stone slab with hieroglyphic text carved all over it. At the supposed head of the slab, there was a picture of a man who appeared to be causing sand to rise out of the earth.

He took the slab carefully out of its box and placed against the wall. For a while he simply stared at it, taking in the letters and analyzing what it meant. Then he slowly began to close his eyes…

He found himself once more on the rising platform, the runic table once more before him. Instead of the crystal ball from before though, it was a hazy blue holographic image of the Egyptian tablet that floated in the center. Merrick sat in his chair and continued to carefully study the stone slab, his right hand moving around as if he was controlling the image with it.

Suddenly a gigantic form emerged from out of the darkness and loomed over where Merrick sat. The young man however, was unmindful of this large presence and continued to study the tablet. The creature's body seemed to be made of rough, jagged stone and its form somewhat undistinguishable though one could make out arms, body and a head. The eyes of this strange creature though were two bright orange lights on its face. While on its forehead, a bright similarly colored symbol shone like a jewel and matched one of the runes on the platform's floor and the table.

“Master, will that tablet aid us in our pursuit?” It spoke; its voice was very deep and was as rough as its stony body.

“Most likely, Behemoth… this tablet seems to hold the information that we've been looking for.” Merrick replied, “With it, we might be able to complete the spell.”

Then, another giant entity emerged from the shadows besides Behemoth, this time its body appeared smooth and aqueous as if it was made of water. Like the first creature, it had a symbol on its head that matched one of the symbols on the platform, only this time it was colored blue.

“The power to manipulate the sands… quite an intriguing spell art.” the being spoke, its voice was soft, mellow, and surprisingly feminine.

“Hmph! Spare me Nereid!” spoke a fierce and growling voice as another giant appeared across the other two, this one was covered in searing flames with its eyes and the symbol on its forehead a bright burning red. “What is so significant about controlling insignificant grains of sand?”

“These `insignificant grains', my dear Ifrit, can move beneath whole armies and swallow them whole while waves and sandstorms can bury entire cities with vicious intensity.” Nereid retorted, clearly antagonized by the comments of her elemental opposite.

Then there was a fierce of gust of wind that blew all around the three large guardians, followed by a loud crack of thunder before the wind gathered up in a fierce tornado besides Ifrit. Although the silhouette of a creature within could barely be seen, its green eyes shone through the whirling gales along with an equally bright green symbol on its head.

“Come on! Less fight! More study! Are we getting close master?” said the mysterious entity within the tornado. “Patience, Garuda… if my understanding of this text is correct, the prerequisites to this spell will require much on your part as well as on Behemoth's.”

“What does the tablet require of me, master?” Behemoth growled boldly. Merrick leaned forward and pointed his finger at the image of the tablet. The hieroglyphics all then began to give off a bright azure glow after which the stone body vanished, leaving nothing but the Egyptian letters themselves.

“I cannot give a direct translation,” Merrick began, “but it basically says that the powers of Earth must bend to the will of the Wind…”

At this, Garuda suddenly started laughing hard at Behemoth and the stone being scowled at him. “Hahahah! Me get to tell Behemy what to do?” he then said excitedly.

“…at the same time the powers of the Wind must have the strength and firmness to bear the weight of the Earth.”

This time Garuda stopped laughing and it was Behemoth's turned to brag, “Bah, Garuda's spells may be strong but they barely scratch the ground. Even at full power, his spells only manage to suck up dust and debris. They're not strong enough to lift the Earth itself.”

“Maybe if the Earth wasn't so fat and heavy, master would not have hard time.” Garuda replied waspishly

“The Earth wouldn't be too heavy for your power if you learned to focus it more instead of letting it run loose you hyperactive windbag!” Behemoth retorted.

Merrick sat back and massaged his forehead as Behemoth and Garuda continued bickering. Just then, while he was still studying the writings on the tablet, it disappeared to be replaced by the crystal ball once more. It was glowing red.

The young man closed his eyes and he found himself back his room with Annie knocking loudly on his door. “Come on Merlin, dinner's ready!”

Dinner was a simple steak and potatoes though it would've been a lot better for Merrick if Annie, and now his Mom, didn't keep bringing up the events that happened earlier that day (along with the fact that his cookies didn't sell again).

“Seriously dear, you can't fool me.” Mrs. Munroe said. She was rather fair lady for someone of her age, with blonde hair like Annie's only she kept it in a bob. “You and Ayame have known each other ever since kindergarten. Despite going to different schools, you still see plenty of each other. Certainly you must have some feelings for her.”

“Mum, we've been through this. She's merely my friend, nothing more.” Merrick replied feeling extremely annoyed at this point.

“Don't push it hon. You don't have to carry on your own mother's legacy of getting confessions out of people.” Mr. Munroe said anxiously to his wife as he noticed his son's growing irritation with this conversation.

After dinner, as Merrick was about to return to the sanctuary of his room, there was a knock on the door and he was the only one conveniently close enough to answer it. When he opened the door though, he immediately caught a black sports car driving off. Inside were some of the jocks from earlier and they were all laughing to themselves and jeering at him as they drove away. Merrick shook his head and was about to close the door when he felt his feet touch something. He looked down and he saw a brown paper bag with a note that said.

We cud use sum of ur cookies geek, mite wanna send dem along wid ur little sis. lol

Merrick shook his head in disgust as he crumpled the note and looked inside the bag. He immediately groaned and rolled his eyes as he took out another note among the bag's contents.

Dese r 4 her, hands off little weener.

The young man quickly went over to the nearest garbage disposal and dumped the bag without a second thought. When he got back to his room, he decided to save the tablet for another time and began to write again in his notebook.

“Jocks…” he muttered, “could their brains be filled with anything else besides women, sex, and booze? Then again, I doubt they have enough brain-space for anything el-.”

BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!

Merrick tiredly put down his pencil as his cell phone began to ring. Who would call me at this hour?  he thought wearily as he took out his phone. It looked like a simple, slightly battered, flip-open phone except it had a strange stub on its back that had a white ring around the center. When he saw who it was that was calling though, his brows suddenly curved and his face turned from miserably exhausted, to strictly serious.

He quickly flipped his phone open and answered, “Munroe here.”

“Merrick, reports have confirmed the location of the target.” spoke a cool female voice. “Your assignment is to take him out, but be warned: the location has many new potential victims. We're sending you the coordinates right now.”

“Roger.”

“Oh and Merrick,” the woman then said before the young man could hang up, “I've requested that all the Captains are to meet at another location that we will be sending you. Please head there as soon as you've eliminated your objective.”

“Understood, Supervisor.” he replied formally as he opened his closet and looked upon something that hung on the far left: A dark blue coat with an emblem that resembled a rose cross with numerals around the center.

“God bless you on your mission… Exorcist.”