Jack Jackson vs The Midnight Army

by Emlyn Hall

  "Well," replied Mr Grimson, turning his attention to Jack, with a particularly mean looking expression across his face. "Get off the bus then!"

  Jack stood up immediately and exited the bus; the black smoke was filling up inside the cabin now and was starting to burn Jack's eyes. There was black smoke everywhere outside, so Jack walked to the back end of the bus and found a wall to sit on where the air was a lot cleaner.

  Jack reached into his bag and took out his old notepad and a pencil, then began sketching to kill the time. Jack loved to doodle, he particularly liked to draw big battle scenes where the goodies took on hordes of baddies. He would construct huge armies on either side of the page and then they would start to fight. Jack would make noises to himself as the lasers whooshed across the page and crashed into the goodies and baddies. There would be explosions and tanks and aircraft and giant robots, depending on how the moment took him. But there would always be a final showdown:

  The main goodie vs the main baddie.

  It was just as Jack was about to fire the decisive laser bolt from the last goodie that his concentration was broken by a tapping sound. He pulled his pencil from the page and looked around, he could not figure out where the tapping had come from.

  Mr Grimson was pacing back and forth impatiently and biting his nails, he stopped when he noticed Jack looking at him. Jack quickly looked away, but it was too late. Mr Grimson marched over to him and began shouting.

  "What do you think you are looking at boy?! I would keep myself to myself if I were you! I wouldn't be surprised if you or one of the other little animals had something to do with this! You horrible little children!" Mr Grimson paused and took a breath, as he did so Jack heard the tapping. He looked around again, he still could not figure out where the sound was coming from.

  "You will look at me when I am talking to you, boy!" He continued. "Why I put up with you bunch of noisy little urchins is beyond me! Bunch of no good freeloaders who think they are better than me!" Another pause for breath. Jack spotted the source of the tapping sound, it was coming from the window of the house's wall he was sitting on. A little, very old frail lady with a very cross look on her face was tapping away on the window with the handle of her walking stick. 'Oh dear.' Thought Jack, I think she wants me to get off her wall. Jack stood up and started to back off from Mr Grimson.

  "And where on earth do you think you are off to, lad?! You will sit yourself back down immediately and listen to me or you can just about forget about getting home at all! Yes young man, I am very much in charge here and you will do exactly what you are told for a change! I am fed up with your generation thinking that you can just do whatever you like when you?" A huge thudding sound spelt the end of Mr Grimson's rant.

  The frail little old lady that had been tapping on the window moments before had sprinted nimbly across the lawn, hopped over the wall gracefully and brought the palm of her bony hand down with terrific force, right on the top of Mr Grimson's head. He stopped shouting immediately, stumbled into the side of the bus, fell on the floor and began snoring.

  "Don't you worry about him; he will be just fine," said the very old lady in a very croaky voice. "It was what I like to call a 'sleepy slap'. He will be on his feet in exactly thirty minutes and won't remember a thing. In the meantime, Mr Jack Jackson, I think you need to come inside with me. There is something I would like to talk to you about."

  Jack just stood there in complete shock, mouth open and unable to make sense of what had just happened. Who is this old lady? How does she know my name? How do you knock someone out by patting them on the head? Why does she want me to come inside with her? Those were just a few of the questions buzzing around Jack's head!

  The Greenhouse and the Stone

  "I'm sorry, miss, but I'm afraid that I am not allowed to talk with strangers," said the still very puzzled Jack as he took a cautionary step backwards.

  "And rightly so," came the very croaky response. "You have been raised very well, Jack, and are a credit to your father."

  "Do you know me?" asked Jack.

  "Yes, well in a manner of speaking, my dear boy. We have never actually met, but I have met your father many times, I also know that he too is called Jack. I am not too sure that he would remember me though," said the very old lady as she took a seat on her wall. "Take a seat, Jack. We can speak here a while."

  Jack took a further step backwards and perched himself on the wall. The old lady was very strange but did have a kind face, he guessed that it would be OK to sit and talk for a while.

  "OK," said Jack.

  "I used to see your father when he was a little boy. He used to come to my house in the summer and play with my niece and nephew in the garden. You see, I never had children myself, I never married in fact, but my younger brother used to come and visit and he would bring his children over to play. I have a very big garden, it's perfect for building dens and playing football," said the old lady.

  "How did my dad know your nephew and niece?" asked Jack.

  "Your granddad and my brother were best friends. They grew up together, went to school together, the same school that you go to actually, although it had a different name back then. As they both grew older my brother moved away to work in London and when he came to visit me, your grandfather would come and spend time with us and bring your young dad over to play in the garden. Your grandfather passed away when your dad was about your age and sadly, the visits stopped," said the old lady.

  "So, if you haven't seen him since he was ten, how do you know who I am?" asked Jack.

  "Another good question, young man," continued the old lady. "I am a very old lady and I don't get out and about very often, most of the time I just sit at the window. Your bus stops outside my window every morning as I'm sitting at the window having breakfast. You look an awful lot like your dad you know and you sit in the same seat that he did when he used to catch the school bus. I guess I just put two and two together," said the old lady.

  "But how did you know my name is jack though?" asked Jack.

  "Well that was a bit of a guess, Mr Jackson, one of the games your father used to play in the garden was 'happy families'. My niece was your father's wife in the game and my nephew was always the son who they always called Jack or Junior. My niece went on to have a son and she too called him Jack. The things we do when we are children are the most important things we do," said the old lady.

  "So what is your name?" asked Jack.

  "My name is Penny," said the old lady with a smile.

  "You mean, you are the girl that ran down the hill?" asked Jack.

  "The very same," said Penny, bowing comically.

  "But I thought you stopped speaking after you won the completion," said Jack.

  "I did, young man, I did. This is the first time I have spoken since then," said Penny with a childish grin.

  "So why stay quiet for so long? And why speak now after all this time?" asked a very confused Jack.

  "I had to, Jack," said Penny. "At the top of that hill I discovered that I had won a lot more than the land that we now stand upon. The eccentric landowner also gave me a stone, a stone from another world. The competition's real aim was actually to find someone with the bravery and strength needed for a secret and special purpose. To accept the stone and responsibility I decided to also accept a vow of silence, it was just made things easier. Today, I am going to give the stone to you, Jack."

  Jack looked even more confused and was completely lost for words. "What did you?? Why would I?? What is?? What can I??"

  Penny laughed, a croaky but friendly laugh. "I know how you feel, Jack, I really do and please understand that you can say no, I will not force you to do anything you don't want to do. But you will, Jack, you will."

  "I'm sorry, miss, I think you have got the wrong person," said Jack

  "I am certain that I have exactly the right person, Jack. I think it's time for you to see. The stone is in my greenhouse, in my garden. You will have to come with me, Jack." W
ith that, Penny stood up and held out a hand for Jack to hold.

  Jack looked at her hand and Jack looked at the happily sleeping Mr Grimson snoring away on the floor.

  Jack was not sure what to do. He knew that he should not go with the very strange old lady but he was really intrigued and wanted to know more.

  He looked at Penny's face. It was a kind face, a happy face, a face that filled him with confidence.

  He reached out and took Penny's hand.

  A Jump into the Light

  Penny led Jack across the garden, down the side of her house and into the garden. The garden was beautiful, it was clear that a lot of love and time was put into it. The concoction of smells was bliss, sweet from the left, herby from the right; it was just what Jack needed after inhaling lungfuls of the rancid black smoke.

  "This is the garden your father used to play in when he was a boy, what I have to show you is in the greenhouse at the far end," said Penny.

  The pair walked through the beautiful garden, past an old rusty swing, past a fish pond packed with goldfish, past a neatly decorated blue shed and past a series of very neat raised vegetable beds. All the while Jack's heart beat like a drum roll. He still wasn't sure whether he had made the right decision to take Penny's hand.

  The pair reached the very back of the garden and the greenhouse. It was a very ordinary looking greenhouse, filled mainly with tomato plants and seed trays sat on the potting tables that lay on either side.

  Penny led Jack into the greenhouse and stopped at one of the potting tables.

  "There it is my dear boy. The stone I was given when I was a little girl. The stone I was given that changed my life forever. The stone that I was given, that I shall soon give to you, Jack," said Penny.

  "I don't see any stone," said a rather confused Jack.

  Penny let go of Jack's hand and pointed to an old and cracked flowerpot. "In there," she said with a smile. The pair of them peered into the pot.

  The stone was indeed sat in the flowerpot. The stone looked like any other regular stone. It looked like a pebble, much like any you would find on any beach. It was a perfectly smooth stone, no chips, no scratches, but something about it made it look very old. Behind the thin layer of dust, Jack could see that the stone was steel blue in colour with thin bands of brown which ran around it.

  "This very ordinary looking stone is called the 'Stone of Waking Veil'. It is from another world," said Penny. "Pull up a seat and I will tell you a little about it."

  Penny gestured to an old fold-up chair which rested against one of the potting tables, Jack opened it and sat down. Penny retrieved another and did the same. Jack thought that Penny must have been crazy, but thought it best to sit and listen, plus it was definitely the polite thing to do.

  "We need to start at the very beginning," began Penny. "The universe started with the Big Bang - a huge unimaginable explosion of energy that created tiny particles out of nothing. Time began and those little particles made from the energy of the Bang raced away from the point of the explosion, they raced and raced, faster and faster. The particles joined with other particles, bigger and bigger they grew until they formed unimaginably vast clouds of particles. Millions upon millions of vast clouds in a dark sea of nothing. One of those millions of clouds grew and grew and started to spin, eventually forming the galaxy within which we now live, the Milky Way. You see, Jack, the Milky Way, like all galaxies, is a huge, vast place, like giant star cities. We live at the very edge of the galaxy within the solar system, which I am certain you have studied in school."

  Jack nodded.

  "Just before the Milky Way was formed from its vast cloud, a rip in the newly formed universe appeared and the first black hole was born. The cloud was moving away from the rip, but the pull was so great that the cloud was torn into two. Two identical clouds. One travelled into the black hole, the other carried on moving away.

  So you see, Jack, there are two Milky Ways in the universe. The one that we are in and another made from the exact same ingredients which made ours. The black hole sucked up other half of the cloud and spat it out on the opposite side of the universe. It is identical in almost every way." Penny paused for a moment and smiled towards Jack. "You look a little confused, Jack."

  "I am a little confused. Are you telling me that we started as a big cloud of stuff, half of that cloud got sucked away and two identical galaxies were made?" said Jack.

  "Exactly!" shouted Penny excitedly, clapping her hands together. "The ingredients were identical, half went one way, and half went the other."

  "But there are bound to be differences aren't there?" asked Jack.

  "You really are a very clever boy, Jack; I knew I had chosen well. You are right, there are differences. Everything is identical physically, all the stars are the same, the solar system is the same, the Earth is the same, even the way the countries are arranged are the same, but it is the living things which are different," said Penny.

  "Different how?" asked Jack.

  "I will show you," said Penny standing up. She reached forwards and picked the stone out of the flowerpot. "Using this."

  "How?" asked Jack.

  "This stone is part of the 'other Earth', my dear boy. It was brought here many thousands of years ago. It is a link between here and there," said Penny. "Its name is the Great Stone of Waking Veil."

  Penny walked to the door of the greenhouse and gestured for Jack to join her. Jack stood up and left the greenhouse as instructed.

  Once outside, Penny held the Great Stone of Waking Veil to her lips then high into the air.

  "Jack, hold my arm and when I say jump, jump. Anything touching me will travel too," said Penny.

  Jack had loved the story and found it all so fascinating, but he still didn't believe a word of what Penny said. 'I will just hold on to be nice and then go. Mr Grimson should be awake very soon and I really just want to go home, see my dad and have something to eat, it's been a long day and I'm starving.' Thought Jack.

  "OK. After three then," said Penny moving her thumb across the surface of the stone in a bizarre pattern. "One, two, three, jump!"

  Jack jumped as he was instructed and was immediately engulfed in the brightest light you could possibly imagine.

  Penny and Jack disappeared from the garden.

  The Seekers Rise

  Siinjid Azzar was huge. Standing at a little over eight feet tall he was far bigger than most Brachanids. Brachanids were a strange race of beings who had two legs, four arms and were covered in a spikey thick black exoskeleton. Brachanids are large beings, but Siinjid was particularly large.

  His four arms were similar in size and shape to those of a gigantic bodybuilder, his shoulders gave him the width of a double decker bus. Siinjid's chest looked like he had two suitcases attached to him, two suitcases full of iron that is.

  From his enormous chest, Siinjid's body narrowed to his waist, then back out again to reveal two of the most powerful legs you could imagine. Siinjid was built for one thing and one thing only - war.

  Siinjid was born to fight and trained to kill as soon as he could walk. He was born in the Brachanid capital of Vassash and enrolled in the Midnight Army when he was just two years old. It is customary for strong Brachanids to join the army when they are five, but because Siinjid was such a huge child and his father was a very successful and respected section leader within the army, his family was given the great honour of having one so young taken into the ranks.

  Siinjid trained very hard from the moment he joined and he excelled as a natural warrior. He grew stronger and stronger and bigger and bigger. By the age of five he was a better warrior than most teenage Brachanids. By the age of fifteen he was promoted to the Doffu Kane, the Special Forces section of the Midnight Army. Siinjid was the youngest ever Brachanid to be given that honour. By the age of twenty-one, Siinjid was a section leader like his father had once been and he began to take part in a number of battles during the Great Gannish War against the Zephods. The Plains o
f Gannish were lands which historically belonged to the Zephods but were highly desired by the Brachanids because below them lay a vast source of valuable spring water. Fresh water was very scarce.

  The Great Gannish War ended in victory for the Brachanids and Siinjid's ferocity as a cruel and merciless foe was an essential ingredient for the Brachanids in winning the war.

  The Zephods were crushed during the war, with many tens of thousands of them losing their lives and many more Zephods were taken as slaves by the Brachanids. The Brachanids did not treat their slaves well. They were not fed well, were forced to live in ridiculously cramped conditions and made to work for eighteen hours a day. The work they were forced to do was backbreaking and very hard, mainly digging pointlessly through solid rock. Some dug for water. Some dug for the one thing that the Brachanids desired more than anything else in the whole world, the Great Stone of Craksik Mull.

  Thousands of years ago, during the reign of the Ungan Dazafs, the Brachanids were a race of slaves. The Ungan Dazafs were a formidable race. They were huge warriors and extremely intelligent. The Ungan Dazafs had fully grasped the science of the universe and were technological geniuses. The Ungan Dazafs had terrifying weapons and were many in numbers. They developed the Great Stones by harnessing their great technology and understanding of the laws of physics. Some Great Stones were used to travel great distances, some were used to help defy gravity, others to alter the way people think. All were very powerful and together they made the Ungan Dazafs the most powerful force on the planet - and maybe even in the whole universe.

  But one day the Ungan Dazafs just disappeared. Gone without a trace, that is apart from the Great Stones. Wherever the great race of the Ungan Dazaf's went remained a mystery, as did why they left the Great Stones behind, scattered as they were, across the four corners of the world.

  The Brachanids were free. They flourished in the rich lands that were once occupied by the Ungan Dazafs and vowed never again to become the slaves of anyone. They would in time rise up as a powerful warrior people and claim the planet as their own, so began the Midnight Army. So began the age of the Brachanids. They grew in numbers; they grew in strength. They became cruel, they became feared. They became the dark rulers of the world.