The Adventures of Hand

Sio wrote:Holy crap. Lary went from friend to foe. Update...soon.

heh, yeah. Just wait for the next part
Also, only those who have read the other version would know what that means

Yeah. The last one had Hand and Larry working together. And some different enemies...

Sio wrote:Yeah. The last one had Hand and Larry working together. And some different enemies...

Course, this is still only the 2nd chapter:P

??? Is that supposed to mean

Spoiler:

, or that they

Spoiler:

?

Smash get these published please! I want to read something again

Yes! Please updates!

Prologue

Before I get into this story, I must inform you a little bit about this world. The people of this land are very different from you or me. You see, these people are hands, but these are unlike the hands that are attached to our arms. They are not as developed as they are today.
The average size of a hand is 3 feet. They also haven’t grown a ring finger, so they walk on they’re index and middle finger. Their thumb and pinky are like our hands, they can pick things up with them. The thumb is also as far down on the hand as the pinky is. They also have no fingernails. Their wrist’s are also equivalent to our heads. This is the average appearance of a hand.
Now that you know all you need to know for now, let’s move on.








Chapter 1 : Freefalling

Hand was just like any other hand, he has a name proclaiming what he is or does, he goes to school, and he has a freckle on his thumb, signifying he’s from Handville. But one thing that’s different about him is that he’s small. He’s about three fourths the size of the average hand, and is picked on often because of it. But what Hand and the other kids don’t know is that Hand has a power, a power that will be brought out soon enough.
One day, as Hand was strolling home from school, he took a detour over to Handclap Mountain, said to have been made by the god hands. Two of them clapped themselves together and the mountain simply sprouted from the ground. As Hand was climbing but the path, he saw that a boulder fell off the top of the cliff. When he went to the side of the path to see if it hit anything, it wasn’t there. Hand had no idea how that could have happened, but he intended to find out. So he continued on up the path to see who, or what, pushed it off.
When he finally reached the top, four more boulders had fallen, and all of them had disappeared. Once he looked up, he saw there was a huge, hairy hand,, on all five of his fingers, the primitive way to travel. Sadly Hand didn’t have much time to sightsee. There was a blinding light, an explosion, which knocked Hand back, and than the boulder reappeared, right next to the huge hand.
“Wh… What was that!?” Hand screamed, fear rising.
“Magic,” the big hand responded coolly, “but now that you know, you must die.”
“Wha..!” but before Hand could even finish the word, the big hand had disappeared. All of a sudden, Hand felt something grab his wrist, (which is equivalent to the human head) and before he knew it, he was falling off the cliff, face first toward the ground. When he flipped over, to look up at the cliff, he saw the boulder was trailing about 10 meters behind him. Hand had no idea what to do, but to pray. He prayed to everyone he could think of, his dad, his mom, and even his comic book hero, SuperHand. He had no idea why, he knew SuperHand wasn’t real, but he prayed anyway. He knew he had to be close to hitting the ground, so with his last grasp of breath, he spoke out loud, hoping his parents heard him, even though they were miles away…
“I love you.” And with that, Hand felt himself hit the ground, it was worse than anything he could imagine, it wasn’t even the pain that tortured him, it was the cracks of bones. He felt everything slipping away and closed his eyes. But the pain he felt it didn’t feel like death, though he knew it would come when the boulder crushed him… But it never came. He never felt the pain come. So he than thought he was in heaven, and drifted away.


About five days passed before anyone found Hand. The one who found Hand was known throughout Hand land for his courage and bravery. It was his dad, Dad. Dad had gone on adventures ever since he was 15. He was rarely home, and Hand didn’t consider him to be his father, because of it. Once Dad found Hand, he took him to the hospital. When the nurse asked him for his name, Dad told her it wasn’t imported and drifted out the door in the drenching rain.
Two more days passed before Hand came too, and the first thing he noticed was the pain of hunger and thirst. He looked to the left and saw a window. Out the window, it was storming with deep dark clouds, and deafening thunder. Well isn’t this a great way to wake up, Hand thought to him self. To his right, he saw a tray of food, and three glasses of water. Hand tried to roll over to get closer to the delicacies but when he rolled on his right finger, pain immediately pumped through it.
“AAUUGHH!” Hand screamed out of the pain. The pain was like nothing he ever experienced, other than the cliff. A nurse, hearing his cry, came in to help.
“Hello, are you okay?” The nurse soothed, “I’m Nurse, and I was told by a mysterious man, who brought you in, to take care of you, and bring you this special candy bar everyday. I don’t know why he would say that, candy isn’t really the greatest thing to help heal…”
“Let me see that,” Hand asked as Nurse handed it too him. Just as I thought, Hand examined. It’s a nutty supreme, my favorite, and only one person knows my TRUE favorite… Dad.
“Well, here let me help you with your food. You’re going to be immobile for the next few days, just try to relax, and let me feed you your food.” Hand didn’t complain, though once he tasted the food he felt like he was about to. He didn’t, he was too hungry to do much of anything.
As the days passed, Hand slowly started to feel stronger. Enough to the point where the nurses thought he could be released. When his mom, Mom, came to the hospital, for the 50th time, she was relieved to hear that Hand could come home. Once in the car, emotions changed.
“How in the world did you fall of the cliff?” Mom exclaimed. Mom was like any typical mom, always wondering what’s wrong, even when things weren’t wrong. The Naginator, is what Hand sometimes calls here.
“I don’t know,” Hand lied, “I guess I just tripped.”
“How can you trip off a cliff? Were you that close to the edge?!” Mom nagged.
“It was all really fast, It’s hard to remember,” Hand exclaimed, agitated, “and excuses me for being injured.”
“Oh sweetie, you know I care for you, “ she said affectingly, “Its’ just hard to believe that you tripped. You’re normally so careful.” After a few more minutes of nagging, they finally arrived home.
“I’ll have dinner ready in a few minutes, than we need to get you to Hand-Fu practice,” Mom said as she walked into the kitchen. Hand-Fu practice, Hand thought, I just got out of the hospital, and she wants to go to a place where I can just as easily get sent back? As Hand continued to ponder, he went upstairs to get some new clothes on, wearing the same thing for a week really starts getting to you. After he took a shower and got dressed, he headed back downstairs, for dinner.
“I made your favorite, butter noodles and a cheeseburger to welcome you back!” It may not be the greatest combination, but its one heck of a meal. After Hand snarfed his dinner down, he headed out the door with his mom to Hand-Fu practice.
Hand walked into the dojo, where most all of the students were already there. As he sat down, the master, Master, started the lesson.
“Everyone leave, there is no training today,” some people cheered, and the rest sighed. Hand was stunned, Master never canceled practices, I wonder what’s wrong, Hand thought. As soon as Hand was about to leave, Master stopped him.
“Except you Hand,” Master said, “You need to stay.”
“Ummm… Okay, why?” Hand questioned. Sure he was happy that Master acknowledged him but it was still strange.
“Let me get straight to the point, we need to train,” Hand was stunned. There had been only one other hand (as far as Hand knew) that had been personally trained by Master, and that was his dad.
“I… I,” Hand mumbled, he didn’t know if he should accept. If he did, He’d have to go on dangerous adventures, just like his father. Hand didn’t know if he wanted that. Risking his life almost every second, he didn’t want that. He already knew the pain of death; he couldn’t bear any more of that. Hand was about to respond but when he looked up, everything was gone. Absolutely everything, Master, the chairs, the walls, everything was gone! It was pitch black, though he could still see himself clearly.
“What the,” Hand started.
“This is the realm of death,” Master’s voice replied.
“What!” Hand yelled.
“If you were to die, this is where you’d go. For the rest of your death, you’d wander here, helplessly.”
“But why, and how for that matter, am I here?”
“I sent you here while you were thinking. This is the only place I could talk to you were, HE, wouldn’t hear.”
“Wait, who’s HE?”
“The one who tried to kill you on the mountain,” Master replied.
“How did I get here?” Hand asked, gradually freaking out more and more.
“Magic,” Hand flinched; he hasn’t had the greatest experiences with magic. That’s the whole reason he was in this mess wasn’t it…
“This is what I need to train you in. The hand who pushed you off the cliff, his name is Chersontae,” so that’s his name, Hand thought, “He possesses great magic, far beyond mine. But what I can teach you will give you the power to defend yourself.”
“What if I refuse?” Hand asked.
“Than Chersontae will hunt you down and kill you. If you let me teach you the art of Hand-fu, and the magic I know, you’ll at least have the power to defend your self.” Hand didn’t know what to say, he knew if he didn’t, he would die, but if he accepted… what would happen? Would he learn the magic and, poof, everything will be better? No, it wouldn’t, nothing ever is. It takes time, patience, sweat, blood. He didn’t have time to think, everything was coming back, and than he’d have to give Master an answer. After a few more seconds, everything was back, and Master was staring at Hand.
“Well?” Master asked.
“I’ll do it, Hand replied with confidence, though that’s definitely not how he felt. He felt like he was ordered to assassinate the mayor, he felt as if he was wanted to do the impossible. Why did Master think Hand could learn all of this? Why did I say yes? Hand thought to himself. When he looked up, he realized than Master was trying to talk to him.
“Good, I’ll go get the equipment, stay here,” Master demanded, though smiling. Once Master had left, Hand started praying. For the outcome of his training, the love of his Mother, and in hopes of making his father proud.
















Chapter 2 : Magic


When Master returned with the equipment, mostly body pads and wooden staves, he handed Hand a staff and body pads.
“I will first be teaching you the basics of fighting,” Master started as he and Hand put the equipment on, “a staff should always be your weapon of choice. Almost anywhere you are you should be able to find something resembling a staff. In the wild, you should be able to find a stick that’s of good length. In a building, you can find a pole of some sort, or if you’re desperate, yank up some of the floorboard.”
“Wait, how could I do that?” Hand questioned, he didn’t know of anyone who could take the floorboard out.
“With training, comes strength. Now try coming at me with all you’ve got,” Hand had never wielded a staff before and this was a lot heavier and longer than he thought it would be. It was about five feet long, one and a half foot taller than he was. He grabbed the edge of the staff with both fingers, and held it like a sword. It felt a little off balance but he figured that’s because he had never held one before. When he finally had it in a way he thought was comfortable, he charged at Master. When he was about three feet away, he swung the staff horizontally. Hand was surprised at how easy this was, that is, until Master ducked.
“Whoa!” Hand shouted, as he did a three-sixty, and crashed into a wall. Dizzily, Hand noticed that the momentum of the staff must have been too great to stop.
“Sigh… This is going to be harder than I thought,” Master groaned, as they continued to train.

ᦏᘋᦏ

A few days had passed, and Hand had almost completely mastered the staff.
“It’s time we had a ‘test’, as you may call it,” master started, “You and me, one on one. If you win, I think it will be time to teach you’re your first magic.” Hand grinned; he was starting to get impatient, waiting to learn magic.
“Though if you lose, I will not teach you this magic, ever.” Hand gasped, he had to beat the one who had taught him everything? How was he supposed to do that! Master knew all of his moves, and has watched how Hand fought. All Hand ever saw was Master ducking, and sending him into the wall. Hand had to think of something Master hadn’t seen, and quick!
“Let us begin,” Master said, as he charged at Hand, Hand gripped the staff, both fingers half of a foot away from the center. When Master swung, Hand neatly dodged and swung at Master’s index finger. Master jumped and dived at Hand. He’s a lot more agile than I thought, Hand studied as he whacked Master straight in the wrist with the center of the pole. Though not agile enough. Master grunted, and started going on the defensive side, which signaled to hand that it was his turn to attack.
Up! Down! Jab, jab! Uppercut! Nothing was working, it was as if Hand was fighting a tree with a pillow, nothing was working. That’s when he got an idea, Hand backed up to the wall, and hoped Master would play along. At first Master stood his ground, but when he noticed hand was moving away from the wall, he started for him. What started as a stride, turned into a full on charge at Hand. This was great, Hand thought, now I just have to time it right. When Master was a few yards away, Hand did a back flip, and landed on the wall, which he than pushed off as hard as he could. Just as Hand planned, he was right over Master. He swung as hard as he could, and whacked Master in the back of the wrist. The force was so great, it knocked Master straight into the wall, and the wall collapsed!
“Ha!” Hand yelled, “I did it! I beat Master!”
“Not quite,” Master exclaimed, as he struggled to get up. Hand was amazed, he was surprised Master wasn’t even knocked out. He was going so fast when he crashed into the wall. Either way, it was time to finish this. They both charged, as fast as they could. Master swung, but Hand ducked and tripped Master with his pole. Hand swore he saw Master do a complete flip.
“This time I win,” Hand exclaimed as he pinned Master to the ground. But than the weirdest thing happened. Master melted into the ground. Where did you go? Hand wondered. He looked all around the dojo, but Master was nowhere to be seen. That’s when Hand noticed the clapping.

“Well done Hand, You’ve beaten my clone,” Master congratulated.
“Wait… clone!?” Hand shouted, “What clone, and where are you!”
“Right here!” And Master popped out of nowhere. “There are more types of magic than you could possibly imagine. The one that you saw just a moment ago was the clone. When you clone yourself, you make a complete carbon copy of yourself. Though the only difference is that it’s half as strong as you are. It’s as if you cut yourself in half, and gave one half to your clone. That’s the reason that you were able to win.”
“Oh…” Hand moaned feeling a little depressed.
“You should be happy; no one has ever been able to beat my clone,” Master explained, “There was a pupil of mine, about a year ago… I thought he was ‘the one’ who I would train and transfer my magic to.”
“Am I supposed to be ‘the one’?” Hand asked.
“That’s what I’m hoping,” Master sighed, “My other pupil, Larry, had the potential to be the one. He had strength, he had wisdom, he even had the personality of one… but he couldn’t take the pressure. I was about to teach him the first magic, but thought I should test him first. That’s how I came up with using the clone. Though try, and try as he might, he couldn’t beat my clone. I gave him a brake after he lost, about a week. When he came back, you could tell that he had changed. He was stronger, he could hone in on his senses better than ever, but one thing had changed. He seemed angry, I don’t know at what, but… he just had a bad look on his face, like he wanted to kill something. Bloodlust. When he saw me, he came right up to me, and punched me in the face. I wasn’t expecting that, I hadn’t even gotten to make my clone, but I could tell what he wanted. He wanted to kill me.
“What!” Hand shouted, “Why?”
“To this day I still don’t know why, but I could tell that he was going to do anything in his power to beat me to a bloody pulp. So we started the fight, and he had a whole new fighting style. There was no defense, he never let up, he just kept attacking. If I had used my clone, in fact, if I had used two of my clones, he probably would have still won. But it wasn’t two of my clones, it was me. It may have taken awhile, and I was definitely worn out after the fight, but I still won. I’m also sad to say, that I knocked him out when I won. When he finally came too, I told him what had happened, and he went on a total rampage. He destroyed half of my books, broke a hole in the wall, and tore off one of the doors when he left.”
“That’s horrible,” Hand said, “What did you do after that?”
“The only thing I could do, search,” Master said, “I searched high and low, in every possible place, but I couldn’t find him. I thought I had found him in the forest at one point of time, but it turned out to just be a kid searching for his ball.”
“We’ve got to do something!” Hand exclaimed.
“It’s too late for that; it’s been about a year, by now Chersontae would have gotten him, even though he isn’t ‘the one’.” Hand cringed at the name. Chersontae. He had only met this guy one, and he completely despised him. Sure he pushed him off a cliff, but Chersontae isn’t just a criminal, he’s the embodiment of evil. He kills anyone in his way of reaching his goal. Though what is his goal? Hand thought to himself.
“Master,” Hand started, “What is Chersontae trying to achieve? It can’t just be to kill hands, there has to be more to it than that.”
“There is, my boy, there is a whole lot more,” Master sighed, “but we will talk about that another day. Now, I must teach you the magic of teleportation.” Hand almost giggled in glee, he completely forgot about Larry, and was now anxiously waiting to learn magic.
Hand and Master moved all of the weapons and body pads out of the way, so they could get a clear vision of each other. When all was moved along the edges of the dojo, Master started to explain.
“Magic is very easy to learn, once you get the hang of it,” Master started, “And teleporting is definitely the easiest, because it uses up the least amount of strength, and you can use it whenever you want. As long as, of course, there’s no one around. First, concentrate on where you want to be, trying right in front of me for now. Second, clear your mind of anything else that may block your sight. And lastly, yell the word, portant!”
“Portant?” Hand questioned, “Why portant?”
“Portant, in Latin, stands for ‘carry’,” Master explained, “So with this magic, the powers are carrying you to your destination. That is why.” Hand still didn’t fully understand, but he did as he was told. He concentrated on the floorboard in front of Master, and cleared his mind, which is hard when you’re a fourteen year old hand. When Hand finally felt as if he had cleared his mind, he shouted the word.
“Portant!” Hand yelled and looked up to see if he had done it, which he quickly realized was a mistake. When he looked up, his concentration swayed from in front of Master, to behind Master.
“Uh oh,” Was all Hand could squeak out before he was teleported behind Master. But it wasn’t just behind Master, it was all the way out of the dojo. Before Hand realized what was going on, Master was by his side.
“I think you may have over shot it a bit,” Master said, sarcastically as he grabbed Hand, and teleported him back into the dojo.
“Thanks,” Hand said as he plopped down on the floor. Teleporting really took a lot out of him. And this was supposed to be the easiest magic to learn! Hand didn’t know how he could stand doing that more than twice a day. Master let him sit there for about 5 min, to let Hand recuperate.
“Kay, let’s try that again, “ Hand said as he concentrated on the spot in front of Master again. He found it was easier to clear his mind this time, maybe it just came with training, he thought. When his mind was completely cleared, he yelled “Portant!” and was sure to stay focused on the spot in front of Master. This time when he teleported, he was ready for it. It was as if he could actually feel himself being taken to his destination. It felt as if he was dragged down a water slide, though a whole lot smoother. It was as gone as quickly as it came. For a second Hand thought he actually like the feeling of being teleported, that is, until he felt exhausted. He had almost forgotten how much it took out of him. He quickly fell to his knees, and started gasping for air. He didn’t know how Master did it. When Master teleported, he was there and back, and nothing had happened to him. Needless to say, Hand was stupefied.
“I think that’s enough for today,” Master told Hand as he walked to the door, “Come back tomorrow after lunch, okay?”
“Okay,” Hand replied, “Though why stop now? I’ve only tried it twice.”
“Yes, but those 2 times have nearly knocked you out,” Master exclaimed, grinning, “Now go home, I bet your mom is wondering where you are.” And he was right, it was almost 2 hours past the time when he should normally be back home. Hand said “Good bye” and rushed out the door. He questioned if he could try teleporting back home, but thought it was too far, and would surely knock him out, so he ran home, wondering what the next day might bring.

Chapter 3 : A Hero



“Where have you been!” Mom shouted as Hand walked through the front door, “I’ve been worried sick about you! You were supposed to be home an hour ago! You could have been kidnapped, why didn’t you call!” With this, Hand saw an opening.
“Well, that’s because I don’t have a cell phone, and the dojo doesn’t have a phone, even if I had thought of it I couldn’t had called you,” Hand felt as if he had worded that perfectly.
“Well, um…” Mom stumbled trying to find a way out of this, “You’re just not old enough yet. We’ll just have to make sure this never happens again.”
“What do you mean I’m not old enough yet?” Hand asked, temper rising, “Every single person at school has a cell phone!”
“Hand, please, don’t argue,” Hand knew he couldn’t win now, Mom’s mind was set.
“All right…” Hand sighed. He hurried up stairs, and plopped himself down on the bed. Before he knew it, Hand was asleep.

ᦏᘋᦏ

“HAND! It’s time to go to school!” Mom shouted the next day.
“Ugh… School?” Hand mumbled, trying to wake up. That’s when Hand remembered, he still has school! He had forgotten all about it since he was hospitalized for a week. This worried Hand, because now, he had no idea how he was going to get to the dojo once lunch was over, since school doesn’t end until 2:40. Hand had 3 choices. He could either go to school, stay the whole day, than head to the dojo right after. Or, he could stay until lunch, than try to find a way to sneak out. The final option is to stay home, and act sick. If he stayed at school the whole day, this may be a problem, seeing as Master may have wanted him there for a reason. If he skipped part of the school, he may get caught, and not be able to go at all. If he stayed home, acting sick, than there was no way his mom would let him out of the house. So, he decided he would wait the day out at school.
So Hand quickly took a shower, got dressed, and headed downstairs for breakfast, eggs and bacon. Once he finished that, leaving neither egg nor bacon left alive, he headed to the car, all before Mom was even finished taking her shower. Once she was out, and had had her breakfast, she strolled to the car, surprised to see Hand already there.
“Well you’re sure in a hurry, what’s the occasion?” Mom asked.
“Ummm,” Hand stumbled, “My friends told me to meet them there, to tell them what happened,” Hand lied.
“Oh, well that’s nice of them, glad to see there are people who still care,” Mom said, “Where would you like me to drop you off?”
“In the normal spot, we’re meeting in the cafeteria,” Hand told her. They were quiet the rest of the way, which isn’t that far. Hand’s house is right in the middle of Handville. The school, Junior-Hand Middle School, is to the west of the city, along with the park, which has baseball fields, a pool, a playground, and a small field. To the north is the dojo, along with another district for houses along the way and Handclap Mountain on the outskirts. The east side is the shopping district, with restaurants a small amusement park, HandTastic. The south has the hospital, and more houses. The center of Handville is the main district for houses, and the most popular place to hang out for kids. Hands two best friends also live there, a few blocks down.
When they arrived at the school, they were almost the first people, which was strange, seeing has Hand was almost always on the verge of being tardy.
“I don’t see your friends anywhere,” Mom noticed.
“They’ll be here, gotta go, bye!” Hand said, rushing out of the car door.
“Bye…” Mom mumbled, as she started back home. Hand rushed to the cafeteria, just incase his mom was out side, looking in through the window. He waited patiently, waiting for his friends, because he still wanted to tell them about what happened. When they finally arrived, 15 minutes before the bell is about to ring, Hand quickly burst into what had happened the past week. From Chersontae to the magic.
“You are such a liar,” Kyle said, a short pudgy hand, “My mom already told me what happened, you tripped off the cliff, don’t try to lie.”
“Yeah,” Chris agreed, a tall hand with spiky hair, who hangs out with the cool kids, but is still Hands friend, even though he may not be popular, “My dad told me the same thing.”
“No, no! Its true, see, watch this. Don’t blink,” and with this, Hand concentrated on the tile behind of Kyle. “Portant!” And then Hand was gone.
“Boo,”
“AAH!” Kyle yelled, as he turned around, and saw Hand there, “How’d you do that.”
“Hmmm, let’s see, maybe it’s what I’ve been trying to tell you this whole time!” Hand replied.
“Well, yeah!” Chris said, “But how? Can anyone learn how to do this? Where did you learn this, how did you learn this!”
“Whoa, whoa, slow down there,” Hand replied, “I learned from Master, the teacher down at the dojo. I don’t know if anyone can learn it, but he told me that he’s teaching it to me because I’m supposed to be this ‘chosen one’. I’m apparently supposed to stop Chersontae or else the world will blow up of something.”
“You speak about it like its no big deal,” Kyle mumbled through a mouthful of muffin.
“I speak about it that way because I don’t really believe it,” Hand replied, “I’ve always believed in magic, I just didn’t really believe it would be so powerful. Though saving the world? Nah, if they were to save the world, they wouldn’t have asked some 14 year old, they would have asked someone like SuperHand.”
“Oh, don’t give me any of that ‘SuperHand is real’ bullshit,” Chris said, “He’s a comic book hero, he’s not real. And all of those supposed photos of him are too blurry to tell what it really is.”
“Well either way,” Hand started, straying away from his comic book superhero, “Why would they choose me? I’m just a kid.”
“Wait, who’s ‘they’?” Chris asked.
“The powers that be, I think that’s what Master called them,” Hand replied, as the bell started to ring., “Well, I guess I’ll see you in 3rd period.”
“All right, see yah,” Chris and Kyle replied, and headed off to they’re 1st period. Hands 1st period class was Geometry. Hand is exceptionally smart for his age. He’s in 8th grade, and takes 10th grade geometry. He also takes honors History, Science, and Writing. He switches History and Science every other day, so one day he takes History for 2nd period, and takes Science for 2nd period the next. He takes Writing 3rd period, which he also takes with Kyle and Chris. 4th period is Gym, is least favorite class, because Moe is there, the school bully. It doesn’t matter if the kid is in 6th grade, Moe will still pick on them.
1st period went normally, except for the fact that he had to complete the entire make up work in that one day alone. It wasn’t easy, but Hand was able complete it and still finish the work for that day. He had Science today for 2nd period, which went by fine, they’ve been doing experiments the past few days, so he just had to get some notes from someone else. When 3rd period came, Hand immediately started his story called The Adventure of Finger, about a world where there are only fingers. Once 3rd period was over, he headed down to the gym, trying to avoid Moe. He was almost there, when he was slammed into the wall.
“Where d’ya think you’re goin’ Hand?” Hand recognized that voice immediately, it was Moe’s.
“Just heading down to Gym, why do you care?” Hand replied.
“Just thought I’d show you a shortcut through the bathroom that I found,” And with that, Moe grabbed Hand by the wrist, and dragged him to the bathroom. Hand was powerless; he was too small to do anything against Moe, who was about twice his size. He knew what Moe was really going to do. All Hand could do was hope some teacher would see Moe carrying him by the wrist, and try to stop him. He knew none of them would, they never do. That’s when Hand got an idea, right as they entered the bathroom, he started to devise how he would pull this off.
“Here buddy let me show you where it is,” Moe said as he dragged Hand to the first toilet. Moe flipped him around, so that Hand was facing the toilet.
“Let me give you a push,” And Moe pushed Hand face first towards the toilet. “Portant” Hand whispered, and than he was gone, and Moe fell face first into the toilet water. Hand, of course, had no idea of what happened after he disappeared. He had teleported himself right outside the Gym doors, luckily there was no one around to see him magically pop out of nowhere. He quickly ran inside to meet his friends again and tell them what happened with Moe. When they heard, all they could do was laugh.
“Wow, that is so awesome,” Kyle said.

“Yeah, he deserves it, the ass,” Hand didn’t really like it when Chris cussed, but he didn’t say anything, because that’s exactly how he feels about Moe. Gym went by smoothly, though he didn’t see Moe anywhere, probably to embarrassed to come out soaking wet. Once it was finally over, he asked Kyle and Chris if they wanted to come down to the field in the park, so that he could show them the new moves he learned. They gladly accepted. Once they arrived, Hand quickly found a sturdy branch that had fallen off of a tree. Hand quickly started spinning it around and feigning hits like an expert. He than challenged each of them to try and land a hit on Hand. Kyle went first. Because Kyle was the largest out of the three, he wasn’t as swift, and was easily disarmed. Chris was able to last a bit longer, but not much. He also was disarmed quickly. This went on for about an hour, until Hand remembered.
“I have to get to the dojo!” Hand yelled as he ran off towards the dojo.
“What? Why?” Chris yelled back as he chased Hand. He never got a response. He just chased Hand as far as he could until he eventually got tired and had to stop. But Hand didn’t, he ran the whole way there, never slowed down once. When he was almost there, he started to notice something on the ground, it was red and it kept repeating every few inches. Then he knew, they were fingerprints, blood stained finger prints. “Portant!” He yelled, and he was carried to the entrance to the dojo. This was the third time he had teleported this day, and he felt as if he were about to pass out any second, but he had to see what had made those fingerprints. When he opened the door, he didn’t see anything there. He looked all around the room, and noticed that there wasn’t anything there, and that the lights were off. When he turned the lights back on, he almost screamed. The walls were stained with blood. And it was new, so it was still falling down the wall.
“Master!” Hand called, but there was no answer. Than he remembered Master’s secret room which he used to hide in when he fought his clone. He quickly ran to it and opened the door, which you had to pull one of the floorboards in to open. He couldn’t believe his eyes. Master was there, but he had a sword through his heart.
“Master!” Hand screamed as he rushed over to pull the sword out of him, “What happened!” Luckily, Master was still alive.
“Cher… Chersontae came, he attacked me… I wasn’t ready,” Master told Hand, as he coughed up blood, “Even if I was, it wouldn’t have made a difference. He’s become stronger, much stronger than I remember.”
“Wait, you’ve fought him before?” Hand asked as he tried to find a rag to cover the wound with.
“Yes, only once, and I could have killed him there, but I didn’t,” Master said, “I’m now regretting that I didn’t.”
“Master, do you have a phone anywhere!?” Hand asked, trying his best not to panic.
“Hand, even if we were to get me to a hospital, it wouldn’t make any difference,” Master mumbled, “The sword he used has poison on the tip of it, even if we were to fix up my wound, I would still die in hours because of the poison.”
“But, isn’t there something we can do?” Hand panicked, “Don’t you have some type of magic you can use to heal yourself?”
“No, there hasn’t been a healing magic found yet,” Master sighed, “Hand, you must find Larry, if you combine your powers with his, Chersontae will be no match. I may not have been able to find him, but you may.”
“But what if I can’t?” Hand started to cry, he couldn’t lose the only one who could protect him from Chersontae. Not only that, but master was starting to feel like family.
“You must, it is your destiny.” Master’s voice was getting quieter with the second, “The powers that be chose you for a reason, you will be the one to stop Chersontae.” This was too much for Hand; he finally collapsed and started to cry. He couldn’t take it anymore, the fact that he had to save the world from Chersontae. The fact that magic is real, and it’s bigger than he could have ever imagined. The fact that he would have to do it along with a kid who went crazy trying to learn magic. And for the fact that he was turning into his dad. But the biggest reason of all was because he started to believe.
















Chapter 4 : Searching

By the time Hand stopped crying, which was about 7:00, 3 hours after he arrived at the dojo, several things happened. First, Master passed away. Second, Mom had sent out fliers searching for Hand, and had also notified the police. And finally, Handsville Central Band was robbed, and the perpetrator is still at large.
After Hand had gotten up and left the dojo, his first destination was to get home. Before he left dojo, he took the training pads, a 4 foot staff, and a book that Master had on training magics. He stuffed the book and the pads into a bag he found in a corner of the dojo. The staff he held in his hand, almost breaking it in half because of how scared he was. It was dark, and there was a maniac after him, he was taking all precautions.
Once Hand finally reached his house, he found out that doors were locked.
“Dang,” he said, as he kicked the door trying to knock it down. He knew his mom would be searching for him, and wouldn’t be home. He didn’t want to risk teleporting anymore today either, especially in the state that he was in now. He finally gave up, finding it useless to try any further. Since he couldn’t get in, he decided to head down to the next stop, his friend’s houses. He had to tell somebody, and he needed they’re help. Luckily for Hand, Kyle was spending the night at Chris’s house. When Hand reached they’re house he immediately rang the doorbell. Chris’s mom answered.
“Oh, Hand, so nice to see you,” Chris’s mom, Mother, greeted Hand, “Would you like to speak with Chris and Kyle?”
“Yes ma’am,” Hand replied as he rushed downstairs, to where Chris and Kyle would be playing games.
“Guys!” Hand yelled, as he rushed into the room.
“What, what is it?” Kyle asked, as he paused the game.
“Master is dead!” Hand told them, through deep breaths.
“What!?” Chris screamed, quickly quieting down, in fear of annoying his parents. Hand quickly told them what happened.
“Come on, I’ll show you,” Hand said, as he raced back upstairs.
“Hand, wait!” Chris replied racing up, and out to the porch where Hand was waiting, “We can’t go, it’s already 8:15, way too late to be going out. My parents would never allow it.”
“Than sneak out, I think this is a bit more serious than curfew,” Hand explained, getting a little impatient.
“He’s right, Chris,” Kyle said, “This is big, and I think we should help any way that we can.”
“Yeah, but Hand never even said where we were going, or why were heading to wherever we’re heading,” Chris spat back.
“Were heading to the dojo, to get equipment,” Hand told them, “We need to get the equipment, and I need to prepare you, I have no idea what may happen.”
“Well couldn’t this wait until tomorrow, when we’re all refreshed?” Chris asked.
“Well…”
“Yeah, come on Hand. We need to get some sleep,” Kyle said with a yawn.
“Well… I guess,” Hand replied, defeated, “But we need to leave as early as possible tomorrow.”
“All right, want to come play some EarthBound with us?” Chris asked.
“Nah, but do you mind if I spend the night? My mom isn’t home and the door is locked.” Hand asked.
“Fine with me,” Chris said as he called his mom to see if Hand could. So Hand spent the night, watching his friends play games, as he sat and worried what might happen, and how he would explain all of this to his mom.

ᦏᘋᦏ

The next day, Chris’s mom got a call from Mom. A call looking for Hand.
“CHRIS!” Mother called, “I just got a call from Hand’s mom, asking if I’ve seen Hand.” Just waking up, a bit dazed, Chris nudged Kyle and Hand awake.
“Dude,” Chris whispered, trying to make sure his mother didn’t hear, “What am I supposed to do? There’s no way out of this. I can’t think of anything I could tell her that will get us out of this.” Hand wasn’t paying attention to Chris’s worried rants; he was devising a plan to get all three of them out of there. But the only thing he could think of was to teleport all three of them out there, which he didn’t even know would work. For all he knew, it could just send him outside, and leave them to get the butt of Mother’s rants. Though since he couldn’t think of anything else this would have to do. Before he had the chance to say anything, Mother burst through the door.
“Chris!” Mother screamed, “Tell me right now what is going on!”
“I…”
“I’ll tell you what’s going on,” Hand said, voice darkening, “Things that you could never imagine are happening, so I advise you to step out of the way, and let us through.”
“Hand?” Chris whispered, a bit distrusting, “What are you doing?”
“Trust me on this,” Hand replied, the same darkness in his voice.
“Young man!” Mother bellowed, “That is not how you speak to an adult! Now say you’re sorry, and come with me back to your mom.” As she said this, she grabbed Hand’s thumb and started to drag him. This got Hand angry, and he slapped Mother away.
“Hand!” Chris yelled, “That’s my mom!”
“No time!” Hand yelled back, Chris could feel the pain in his voice, “Grab my staff, and Kyle, grab my bag.” The two friends immediately listened, and did as he said. As soon as Chris had the staff, and Kyle was touching the bag, Hand grabbed them both, and yelled “Portant!” trying his best to concentrate under the tree outside. When Kyle and Chris opened their eyes, feeling it was safe, they saw that they were under the tree. The two laughed, at the fact that they were just part of magic. They quickly stopped laughing, when they looked down, and saw that Hand had passed out.
“Hand!” They yelled, as they helped him up. They dragged him off to the forest past the house. When they finally felt like they had gone out of sight, they stopped, and propped Hand up against a tree.
“How are you doing?” Kyle asked Hand once he finally came too.
“As if I had been driven over by a tornado,” Hand replied, weary, “And trust me, it doesn’t feel good.”
“Well, you just rest here,” Chris told him, “Though my mom will be looking for us soon. We better get moving as fast as we can.”
“All right,” Hand said, as he tried to stand. He quickly fell back down. This went on for about 15 minutes. When Hand was finally able to stand up, and stay up, they traveled through the forest, trying to find a path they recognized. They quickly found a road about 2 blocks down from Hand’s house.
“So where to Hand?” Kyle asked.
“To the dojo,” Hand replied, “We still need to get you two ready. At least give you guys weapons, and if we have time I could try to train you.” So they headed off towards the dojo. They had to hide off into the bushes or behind a house when they saw a police car come by, or if they saw someone they knew walk down the street.
“There it is up ahead,” Hand said, as they neared the dojo, it started to rain, “I hope none of you are squeamish.”
“No way,” Kyle said proudly, “I ain’t afraid of anything.”
“Alright than,” Hand replied, “Let’s go.” They reached the spot where the blood prints start, Hand thought he heard someone gasp, but quickly pushed it away from his mind. The blood prints had started to wash away by now, and were dripping down the road. They continued on, through the ongoing downpour. It started to thunder, which didn’t help things. They finally reached the dojo, where the walls were stained with blood, when Hand heard a scream. He turned around and saw Kyle running away from the dojo, as fast as his pudgy fingers would take him.
“And he was the one who said he wouldn’t be scared,” Chris commented.
“Yeah,” Hand said, shaking his wrist, “Come on, I need to first show you Master, and the secret compartment in case we need to hide.” And so Hand pulled on the floorboard to open the door. What he saw inside almost made him scream.
“Where is he Hand?” Chris asked, because Master was no longer in the room. The only thing left in the room was the blood stained sword.
“How is he not here!?” Hand said, worried, “There’s no way that the police could have found him in this room. And I don’t think Chersontae would have come back just to take Master away.”
“Than what could have happened to him?” Chris asked.
“I don’t know…” Hand said, confused, “But it doesn’t matter anymore. Master is dead, and there’s nothing we can do to change that. Let’s go ahead and get the equipment.” As soon as Larry had left the room, Hand picked up the sword, and stuffed it into his bag.
“I will avenge you Master, I swear I will,” Hand said to himself.
Once Hand had came into the main room, they quickly found another bag, some more training pads, and a 3 foot long staff, which seemed to fit Chris really well. Then, Hand closed the front doors so that nobody saw them.
“Alright, we don’t have much time” Hand told Chris, “So we’ll train until 8:00, that’s when we head out.”
“Head out?” Chris asked, “Where are we going to go?”
“Remember what I told you?” Hand said, “Master told me to find Larry, and that’s what I’m going to do. Though he never said I couldn’t bring and train a friend,” Hand smiled, “You ready?”
“As I’ll ever be,” Chris replied, getting into a fighter stance and grinning himself.
Hand taught him the basics, mainly how to defend. He taught him how to counter a normal swing, how to knock the weapon from his opponents fingers, and how be ready if someone were to teleport away, than attack. Chris was a fast learner when it came to fighting, defending was also his specialty. Though what Chris really wanted to learn, was how to teleport. It couldn’t be that hard, Chris thought to himself.
“Alright,” Hand said, exhausted from all the teaching, “It’s now 3:30, let’s take a break.”
“Fine with me,” Chris replied, collapsing. They started to train again around 4:10. Hand now started to teach him how to fight. Chris already had a good grasp about it, but he needed to learn more. Hand taught Chris how to use surroundings to help the fight; Hand also taught him what type of things could be used for weapons. Chris was a bit disappointed at 7:00 when Hand told him they were going to stop and switch topics. He was finally getting good at fighting, and thought he may have stood a chance against Hand.
“Alright, the final thing I need to teach you before we go searching for Larry,” Hand started, “Is to teach you how to teleport.”
“Alright!” Chris yelled in excitement.
“You may think it will be fun,” Hand told him, “But it’s hard, and takes a lot out of you.” Hand quickly explained what to do. Larry concentrated on the floor in front of Hand, and was sure not to look up when he yelled “Portant!” Hand jumped a little when he saw Chris right there in his face.
“Wow!” Hand chirped, “Well, you did better than what I did the first time.”
“Thanks,” Chris replied smiling. This went on until 7:50, after Chris’s 19th time teleporting.
“I have no idea how you can keep that up,” Hand said in disbelief, “I can only do it about 5 times a day without collapsing. You have some crazy endurance.”
“Heh,” Chris said, “Thanks. Ready to head out?”
“Yeah,” Hand replied, getting back to business, “I’ll check the west and south part of town. You check out the north and east part of town.”
“Alright,” Chris said, as they walked out of the dojo, seeing it was now pitch dark, and it had stopped raining.
“If you find Larry, call for me,” Hand told Chris.
“Okay,” Larry said as he headed to the back of the dojo
“Better get cracking,” Hand said, as he teleported to the park

Chapter 5 : Larry

Larry was spending his day like any other, training. He hung out at the out skirts of town, by Handclap Mountain, hoping that as he trained, the gods looked down to him and helped him. He knew it was superstition, but he still had faith. No, he lost faith months ago. He had hope. Larry now trained with an assortment of weapons that he had stolen from several shops in town. He had 3 foot long staff with spikes on either end of it. He had several assortments of swords, double sided and single sided. He also had an assortment of bats which he used when he stole from town. Surprisingly enough, he has never been caught, or even accused of the things that he’s done. There have been plenty of witnesses, but he’s never been stopped. Nobodies even tried to stop him.
It’s pretty hard to forget what Larry looks like. He is smaller than most hands, and has an unmistakable green and purple hat that he always wears. He is also extremely filthy, not having taken a bath in a month. His clothes are baggy, and several sizes too big. He also has a dark look on his face at all times. But the most recognizable thing about him is the scar going down the right side of him. He got this scar when he met Chersontae the first time. He merely looked at him, and then Chersontae got a sword out of nowhere, and cut him. That’s all he did. Than Chersontae disappeared, not to be seen again. This is why Larry trains, he trains to kill Chersontae, and avenge his parents.
Larry hides in a small hut he made himself out of the trees in the forest. It is in the third tree away from the mountain. He camouflages it using the leaves of the tree, which he positions on his house to make it look like the hut is part of the tree. It isn’t the greatest, but he doesn’t mind. Its shelter, and that’s all he needs it for. The recent storm had shaken up the hut quite bad, but Larry quickly repaired it to be even better than before.
Today, Larry had been training with his staff, not his favorite weapon, which was the double sided sword, but still a great tool. The day was like any other day, nothing exciting, he had enough food to last him the week, and it was a sunny day. A perfect day to train. Larry hadn’t been able to do much since he left Master, seeing as it’s hard to train by himself with no one to spar with.
“Gee, it sure is boring around here,” Larry said to himself as he swung the staff towards a tree and got the spikes stuck in the tree. It had gotten late now, and was about 7:50. Larry didn’t even notice, as he usually doesn’t. He was about to climb the tree, when he felt it. He felt someone else use magic.
“What the…” Larry said to himself. He hadn’t felt anyone use magic since Chersontae pushed that kid off the cliff. Larry wasn’t able to get to the top of the mountain before Chersontae was gone. It was the closest he ever got to finding him. The magic that was used was simple, teleportation. The magic that drove him to leaving Master. But that was the past; he now knew magic far beyond teleportation. He knew it was by the dojo, but he had no idea who. He also didn’t know where he teleported too. It must have been out of his range. And lastly he knew that it wasn’t in the dojo, because he wouldn’t be able to feel it because of the barriers. And this person had been teleporting for a while. It wasn’t Master, because he knew that Master wouldn’t use magic outside of the dojo. It must have been the kid who was pushed off the cliff, though he had no idea how he could have survived. Maybe that’s why Master chose him, Larry thought to himself. Either way he had to find out who it was. “Exploro: Handsville!” This is Latin for ‘search’. This allowed Larry to have a bird’s eye view of the city. He quickly found there was a hand, a bit taller than him, searching around the dojo, though he had no idea what for. He thought of going to ask, but he hasn’t talked to another hand since he left the dojo. He quickly erased this thought from his mind. He decided to continue to watch, to see what he was after.
After about 10 minutes, the hand left the dojo, and headed towards the mountain.
“Uh oh” Larry said, as he quickly ended the magic, and teleported to his hut.
“Hello?” Chris yelled, “Is Larry around here?” Larry gasped; the hand was looking for him. Should he confront him, or stay where he was. Hiding never helped anyone, so he teleported back to ground.
“Who are you?” Larry called out.
“Ah!” Chris yelled, surprised, and turned around to see another hand facing him, “Why should I tell you?”
“Because, ‘Portant’!” Larry teleported behind Chris, “I could just as easily take your life.” Chris chuckled.
“You think you could take my life with a few magic tricks?” Chris fluently bent down, and did a 360° kick and tripped Larry. Chris then got the staff that he was hiding in the darkness, and got in a fighters pose.
“Well,” Larry said, picking himself up, “You’re no average hand. Please, tell me who you are. I am Larry.”
“Larry?” Chris said, astonished. How could this run down hand be Larry? This looked nothing more than a street hand, a beggar, “Right, well, I’m Chris. Do you know who Hand is?”
“No I do not,” Larry said innocently, “But neither do I know you!” Larry said as he charged Chris with the staff that he had stuck in the tree earlier.
“Whoa!” Chris yelled, as Larry swung the staff at him. Chris quickly dodged, and tried to knock the staff out of Larry’s fingers. It didn’t work, but it gave Larry momentum to swing horizontally down at Chris. He easily swatted it away, and kicked Larry in the side. Larry than backed off, trying to regain balance. Chris noticed this, and took advantage of the opening, he quickly jabbed Larry in the gut. Larry coughed up some blood, but this didn’t stop him. Larry fell to his knuckles, trying to keep steady. Chris, not letting up an inch, quickly swung the staff into Larry’s palm, knocking him down. Larry knew that any normal hand would think that he’s won, so he feigned consciousness.
“Ha,” Chris said, “You said that you could easily take me out. Now who’s the one on the ground?” Chris, thinking that Larry’s knocked out, thought it was a perfect time to call Hand.
“Hand!” Chris called, “Hand? I found Larry! Are you sure this is the one Master told you about?” Nobody came. Chris continued to call for about 15 minutes without luck.
Larry was starting to get annoyed with how long he was laying there, he was also losing patience. He couldn’t stay there much longer without making a noise. The only thing he could think of was to teleport to his hut, and get one of his better weapons.

ᦏ§ᦏ

Hand was starting to lose hope on finding Larry. He had searched throughout the whole park, even some of the places that normal civilians wouldn’t dare go. He searched the school to the best extent, he teleported inside, but didn’t want to teleport anymore, in case of wearing himself out. He searched all the rooms that were left unlocked, and had to look in through the window for the rest of the rooms that were locked. Once done with the school, he teleported back out, and headed to the other housing district. This was more challenging than going through the park or school; since he had people he knew who lived here. He had to be as careful as he could be, so he wouldn’t be caught. There were about twenty different blocks to search. It was all in the shape of a square, so if he searched all the streets, he would eventually start back where he started. The forest from the north side of town didn’t stretch this far south, so he didn’t expect him to be around here, unless he was still living where he used to live, which wouldn’t be the smartest thing to do.
Once Hand was finished searching the housing district, unsuccessfully, he decided he would check up on Chris, see if he was still at the dojo, or if he had gone on to the east side of town.

ᦏ§ᦏ

Chris, finally giving up on calling for Hand, decided to take Larry to the secret room in the dojo, so he wouldn’t be able to escape. When he turned around to get Larry, he wasn’t there. He looked all around, but couldn’t find him. Panicking, Larry picked up his staff and tried went silent. He was waiting for the slightest sound. If Larry moved, than he would know about it.
“There!” Chris thought to himself, “In that tree!” He quickly scanned the tree, and noticed the hut. “Portant!” Once he was in the hut, he looked around as well as he could. His eyes were pretty adjusted to the darkness by now, but there was no moonlight in here, so it was really dark. He had to rely on his senses, until he was able to see. He took a few steps forward, when he heard something behind him. He swung his staff horizontally, and felt it hit something, but it went straight through it. When he had the staff back under control, he noticed that about a foot of it was cut off.
“Uh oh,” Chris moaned. He was starting to be able see in the darkness, and he saw something moving around him in a circle. The figure, who must have been Larry, had something sharp in his finger. It was about two and a half feet long, and was definitely lethal. Once he could make out features of the figure, confirming that it’s Larry, he started to wonder what Larry was waiting for. Larry had been circling him for about five minutes now. What was he planning?

ᦏ§ᦏ

Hand was about halfway to the dojo, when he heard a noise. It was coming from an alleyway a block down from where he was. He thought he heard a girl scream. He quickly rushed to where he heard the scream. When he looked down the alleyway, there was no one there. He decided to push it out of his mind. He had taken a few more steps, when he heard the scream again, he was sure of it this time, he rushed into the alleyway. When he reached the end of it, he saw that there was another section to it, which led into several other sections. He continued to run down the alley, in hopes of finding who made the scream. The more he ran, the louder the screams got.
Hand was starting to lose patience, and just give up, when he finally found who was making the noise. It was Izuna, a new student to Junior Hand, and she wasn’t alone. Moe was there too.
“Hand!” Izuna cried out, “Please help me!” Moe turned around almost jumping when he saw Hand.
“What are you doin’ here Hand?” Moe asked, with a sneer on his face, “Me and Izuna here are just settelin’ some business.”
“Get your fingers off of her, Moe!” Hand yelled.
“And why should I do that?” Moe asked, grinning.
“Because,” Hand replied, pulling out his staff expertly, leaving the sword for more serious things, “I said so.”
“Ha!” Moe taunted, “You think a puny stick can get you anywhere? I can beat you blindfolded, all fingers behind my palm.”
“Than bring it on fat wrist,” This angered Moe, who charged as fast as he could. As soon as he was about five feet away, Hand swung the staff against Moe’s wrist and slammed him into the wall.
“Graaah!” Moe yelled, as he was smashed against the wall. He continued to yell, until he finally passed out.
“Are you okay?” Hand asked.
“Yeah,” Izuna replied, shaken up, “I’m fine. Though don’t you think that was a bit much?”
“I’ve been waiting to do that my whole life,” Hand replied, grinning, “If you’ve seen half the things he’s done to me, you wouldn’t think it’d be too much. Here, let’s get you out of here.” And so Hand escorted Izuna back, and out of the maze of alleys.
“Thank you Hand,” Izuna thanked, “How can I ever repay you?”
“As long as you get home safely, everything will be fine with me,” And so Izuna headed home, constantly looking back to Hand, who eventually started to head back to his original destination.
Hand had almost reached the dojo when he heard another scream, but this one he recognized. It was Chris, and this was a scream of pain.

ᦏ§ᦏ

Eventually, Chris got tired of waiting for Larry to attack, so he did a complete spin, holding his staff out as far as he could, in hopes of hitting him. Unluckily, all this did was made him dizzy. Surprisingly enough, Larry continued to circle him. This confused Chris even more. He had a clear opening for an attack, why didn’t he take it? Chris thought to himself. That’s when he heard it, something on the ceiling moved. As soon as he looked up, he saw Larry falling down towards him, wielding his sword, ready to strike.
“Take this!” Larry yelled, as he swung at Chris’s finger that was holding the staff.
“AHHH!” Chris yelled in pain. As soon as Larry landed, he smiled, accomplishing his mission. He had taken out the enemy. It was the first time he had actually used a weapon this lethal against anyone. When he looked up at Chris, he cringed. He saw the pain he was in. He heard the pain he was in. He felt the pain he was in. It was exactly how he was when Chersontae gave him the scar.
“Chris!” Came another voice at the bottom of the tree. Larry looked out the window, but no one was there. When he looked back at Chris, he saw another hand by Chris’s side. This Hand was about his size, and had a sword in his finger, apparently ready for a fight.
“What have you done?!” The hand yelled, “You’re going to pay for this!” The hand neared Larry. Just as he was about to swing, Chris moaned something.
“Hand…” Chris moaned, “Help… Pl… Please…” Hand looked back at the hand, who was on his knuckles, looking as if he was about to cry.
“I’ll be back for you!” Hand yelled as he went over to Chris, “I don’t know who you are, but…”
“Larry,” Larry choked out, “My name is Larry.” Hand’s eyes widened, but quickly got back on target.
“Don’t leave, I’ll be back,” And they were gone, both Hand and Chris. With this, Larry finally broke down; he couldn’t believe what he had done. He had completely severed the finger of someone he didn’t even was a friend of foe. He had no idea what he would do to make up for it, but he knew that somehow, he would. He would make up for the wrongs that he’s done. He would finally do what he set out to do. He would find Chersontae, and kill him.

Chapter 6 : Grudge

When Hand arrived at the hospital, taking about three teleports, he was feeling a little winded, but that didn’t stop him.
“Nurse!” Hand called, “Someone! Please, help him. He’s been badly wounded!”
“What happened?” A nurse called back, bringing a stretcher.
“Ummm,” Hand had no idea what to say. He couldn’t just say that his arm got cut off by some maniac, that would draw attention, and they may not believe him, “He… uh… He was trying to carve some wood into a sword and he slipped and cut off his finger.” The nurse gave him a strange look.
“Ummm, okay,” The nurse said, still not sure what to make of it, “We’ll bring him in right away, also, we need some information from you. Like, who you are, how you know him, how you found him, and exactly how this happened, no lies.” She gave him a disapproving look, and walked off. Uh oh, Hand thought to himself, I can’t tell them who I am, than they would call my mom, and I’d never be able to leave the house again. “Excuse me?” Hand looked up to see that a nurse behind a counter was calling for him, “Yes, you. Please come over here, I have some questions to ask you.”
“Ummm, okay,” Hand said wearily as he slowly walked over to her.
“Okay, first, please tell me your name,” The nurse asked.
“Ummm,” Hand decided to tell her the first name he could think of, “My name is Larry.”
“You’re Larry!?” The nurse asked, astonished. He immediately realized what he had said was a bad idea, “So you’re the one who has been stealing from stores.”
“What?” Hand asked, having no idea what she was talking about.
“Don’t play dumb with me,” The nurse snapped, “Everyone in the city knows about you. Master made a public announcement, telling us to allow you to do anything you want. Whether that be stealing, or just asking for stuff, we had to let you do whatever you asked. I never agreed with this, but it was what Master wanted, and of course, we couldn’t argue. He didn’t tell us why either, he just expected us to do this. Even we had tried to call the police, they wouldn’t do anything, because they fully agreed with Master.” Hand hadn’t expected this. He had no idea what Larry had been doing, or that Master even wanted to protect him. He had no idea what to say.
“Ummm,” Hand stumbled, “What’s the next question?” So the nurse continued with the questions, which Hand answered to his best ability. He told them he knew him from school, and that he was at his house when it happened. But when she asked how it happened, he told her that they were sparring when it happened. This made her have an even darker look on her face, though Hand didn’t care. This was all under Larry head, anything he said, would be as Larry, so he didn’t care one bit.
Once he was done telling the nurse what had happened, she told him what room Chris was in, and he rushed to see how his friend was. The room was around the same room he was in, it was about three doors down by it. When he reached the room, he rushed.
“Chris!” Hand yelled when he walked through the door.
“Shhh!” A nurse quieted him as he came in, “He’s sleeping, please be quiet, or leave.”
“Oh,” Hand whispered back, “Well, I really need to tell him something.”
“Than you can wait in that chair over there,” The nurse said as she pointed to the chair on the left side of the room. Hand quickly rushed over to the chair and plopped himself down. The nurse continued to help Chris for another 5 minutes. Once she finally left, Hand knew this was his chance.
“Nice job on tricking the nurse,” Hand congratulated.
“Yeah…” Chris moaned back, “But how did you know I was awake?”
“You snore,” Hand replied, “Your snores would be heard throughout the hospital.” Chris couldn’t help but laugh at that.
“Yeah, well,” Chris said, still weary, “I still feel like crap, so, tell me what you want to tell me, so I can sleep.”
“I just wanted to tell you that I’m sorry,” Hand told him, “I’m sorry I got you into this. If hadn’t come to your house to ask for help, you would still have your finger, and your mom wouldn’t be ticked at you. I should have done this alone.”
“Hand, it’s okay,” Chris said, “I’ll get a new finger, sure it may sting a bit, but everything will be okay.”
“Yeah…” Hand replied, “Well, I have to go, I have to get back to where Larry is, to make sure he won’t leave.”
“Be sure to give him hell,” Chris told Hand.
“Heh, don’t worry, I will,” Hand said, as he walked out the door. He felt a little bad about leaving Chris there like that, but he said it would be all right, so he kept going. Once Hand was outside, and felt like no one was watching, he yelled “Portant!” and teleported to the dojo.
Once Hand had arrived in the hut, he was surprised to see Larry still there, huddled in a corner.
“Look,” Hand said, getting straight to the point, “I don’t like you. Okay?” Larry nodded, “But Master told me too…”
“Master?” Larry interrupted.
“Yes, Master asked me. But if you truly cared, than you would know that he’s dead now.” Hand noticed Larry’s expression changed. He already looked sad, but now he looked on the verge of crying. Hand couldn’t help but feel a little bad, “Sorry… It’s just, you sort of cut of my friends finger. I’m not going to forgive you for that… Ever.”
“I’m sorry,” Larry apologized, as he sank a bit lower. Hand could hear the sincerity in his voice, but that still doesn’t cut it.
“Look, let’s just get to the point. Master told me that to stop Chersontae, we needed to work together. But just because he said that, doesn’t mean I’m going to do it willingly.”
“Well than why are you doing it?” Larry asked, gaining control again, “I don’t need your help to stop Chersontae. I can do it by myself. I’ve already mastered magics beyond your belief.”
“Just because you know a few magics doesn’t mean you can stop Chersontae!” Hand snapped, temper rising, “And I think that scar of yours proves it.” Larry ran his finger down the scar and shivered remembered how much it hurt, “I may not like it, and you may not like it, but we have to work together. You may know some magic, but that doesn’t mean that your fighting’s good. Seeing as Chris almost stopped you, that pretty much means you’re fighting sucks.”
“Why you…” Larry started, getting onto his feet.
“Sit down,” Hand snapped, as he teleported behind Larry and whacked him in the back of the wrist, knocking him to the floor, “Seems your reflexes are off too. See, if we work together, than we can stop Chersontae. But we’d still have to train. If you continue to grow with your magic, and I continue to grow with my fighting, we could be unstoppable.”
“Ha,” Larry laughed, picking himself up to a sitting position, “Have you ever seen Chersontae in battle? No, I bet you haven’t. He’s violent, he doesn’t play by the rules. If he sees an opening, he’ll take it, even if you don’t have a weapon in finger.”
“And how would you know this?” Hand asked, curious.
“How do you think I got this scar?” Larry chirped, catching Hand off guard. He hadn’t even thought that the scar could have been from Chersontae, “Look, if Chersontae could stop Master, than why do you think we stand a chance?”
“Because the powers that be…”
“Don’t give me any of that ‘powers that be’ bull crap,” Larry snapped, “It’s all bogus, I don’t see why you believe it.”
“Because that’s what Master said!” Hand yelled, “And you should believe it too! Did Master ever tell you a lie? Did he? No, I don’t think he did! And if it was a fake, and we aren’t supposed to stop Chersontae, why do you think he would go to such extremes as to kill your puny family?” This struck a nerve in Larry, and he couldn’t take it anymore. He rose to his feet and called out “Compuit Gladius!” Which Latin for ‘raining swords’.
“Don’t you dare talk about my family that way!” Larry screamed, as he raised his fingers in the air. Hand had no idea what was about to happen, so he crouched, ready for anything. Than it came, swords flew at Hand every which direction. Hand dove, jumped, and ever fended some off with his own sword. The floor of the room started to flood with swords. This continued on for about 10 minutes, and Hand was exhausted. When he couldn’t take it anymore, Hand grabbed a sword mid air, and tossed it at Larry. The sword pierced the top part of Larry’s thumb, and pinned him to the wall. With this, the swords stopped coming.
“So,” Hand panted, “The swords stop once they pierce skin. Glad to know that.”
“Gah,” Larry spat.
“Look,” Hand said, getting to the point, “The only way this is going to work, is if we stop trying to kill each other, which means you have to control your temper, and I have to stop throwing insults at you.”
“Like that will happen.”
“It can, if you try!”
“What if I don’t feel like trying?”
“Than your single handedly destroying the world!” Hand yelled.
“Why do you even think that this one hand can destroy the world alone?” Larry spat back. Hand didn’t listen to him, but he did make a good point. Master never told him how he was going to do it, or why Master even thought that Chersontae could destroy the world. Is he just going to end it all? Or something else, like ruling it? Hand had no idea, and it now made him question more than ever.
“I don’t know,” Hand replied, “But I do know that he’s definitely capable of doing some major harm to anyone he feels like.”
“Yeah…” Larry moaned, the wound starting to bleed, so he took the sword out with one swift movement. There was a moment of sharp pain, and Hand crouched, ready for Larry to strike, but Larry stabbed the sword in the side of the hut next to himself, “Look, we both want to stop Chersontae, but for different reasons. I want to avenge my parents, and you just want to help the world. I couldn’t care less about the people of this town.” This made Hand cringe, how could someone not care about others? It’s just so… selfish, “Though we may want to stop him, I don’t think we need to work together.”
“He’s evil Larry, and we’re good, well… for the most part,” Hand stated, giving Larry distrusting look, “Going in alone won’t stop Chersontae. If you really want to avenge your parents deaths, than you’re going to need some help.” Larry started to pace the room, thinking. Should he join up with this hand to help stop Chersontae. He knew, deep in his heart, that he had no chance against Chersontae alone. But would this hand betray him? Or would he leave this hand. He knew that if he joined up with Hand, that he could progress in his fighting skills. Hand could help him, and he could help Hand. But would it be worth it? He didn’t need to go after Chersontae right now, but if he were to join Hand, he knew that they would start searching right away. This hand is too eager to go into battle. He thinks that he’s invincible, and he needs to learn that he’s not. Though he himself has some problems of his own. Larry had no idea what he should do. He wanted to avenge his parents, but he didn’t want die. Death, that’s what Larry feared most at this point. If he were to leave now with Hand, Chersontae could come out at any time and kill them both without wasting a breath.
“Alright, I have an idea,” Larry started, “I do agree that it will take both of us to rid the world of Chersontae, but neither of us are ready. We need to train, and I have a perfect place to do it.”
“Where at?” Hand asked, glad that Larry is starting to see it his way.
“There’s a city, quite a few miles from here to the north,” Larry stated, “This city is filled with crooks and criminals. Are you seeing where I’m going with this?”
“No, not at all,” Hand replied, dumbfounded.
“Well, because the city is ridden with these hands, we can get some training in,” Larry explained.
“By beating the crap out of crooks?” Hand asked sarcastically.
“Well, yeah,” Larry replied, “We could bring them into the police and get paid for each creep we bring in.”
“Sort of like bounty hunters?” Hand asked, starting to see where he was going with this.
“Yeah, and we can train our skills while we do this,” Larry continued, “We can build a new fort when we get there, buy the supplies once we get the money. By the way, do you have any money?”
“Well, I do but it’s at my house. I’d have to sneak in and grab it, and hope that my mom doesn’t notice. I have about $125 that I’ve been saving.”
“That’s great, that will be enough for food until we’ve made the fort,” Larry replied, grinning
“Alright, I’ll go ahead and get the money,” Hand said, getting ready to teleport.
“Wait, Hand,” Larry stopped.
“Yeah?”
“I think this may be able to work,” Hand grinned.
“Well, I sure hope so,” Hand replied, right as he teleported. When Hand reached his house, he noticed the lights were on, so he quickly ducked into some nearby bushes. Another thing he noticed, was that he’s teleported about three times today that were all across town, and he didn’t feel very tired. Teleporting was becoming easier for him. He tried to map out the house in his head, and once he had a clear idea, he tried to map out his own room. He tried to remember it to the slightest detail, where the squeaky floorboards were, and where there might be clothes. He then tried to remember where his wallet was. He thought he might have put it under his bed, or was it in his drawer? Hand decided that he’d be able to remember once he was in the room. “Portant” Hand whispered as he was teleported to his room. The first thing he noticed when he was in his room, was that he had teleported onto a squeaky floorboard. Luckily, it wasn’t one of the squeakiest.
Hand immediately searched around for his wallet. He searched under the bed, and in his drawer, but it wasn’t there. He decided to check around his bed again, when he stepped on another squeaky floorboard.
“Hand?!” Mom called from downstairs, Hand could tell that she had been crying. Shoot, Hand thought to himself, I can’t let her see me, I have to get out of here. Hand quickly searched his room, not caring if he was making noise anymore. Then he remembered he had put it in his pillow, so he rushed for his pillow, took it out, and was about to teleport.
“Hand?” Mom yelled, as she burst down the door, “Hand! It really is you!” She rushed over to Hand crying, Hand couldn’t believe this. How was he going to leave, it would have been better for her not to have seen him until he was done with Chersontae, “Oh, Hand where have you been? Why haven’t you come home?”
“I… I can’t tell you mom,” Hand replied softly, “You wouldn’t believe me anyway. And even if you did, you wouldn’t let me do it.”
“If it involves leaving this house, than no! I’m letting you leave this house until you learn how wrong what you did was.” Mom scolded.
“If that’s the case, than I’m sorry,” Hand replied in sorrow, “I truly am.”
“What are you sorry for?” Mom asked, but her answer quickly came as Hand teleported away, “Hand?! Hand! Where are you?! Please don’t leave me again! Please don’t leave you how your father did!” And Hands mom burst out crying.
Outside, Hand could hear everything she said, and he started to cry himself, but quickly told himself that it was for the best, and teleported back to the hut, to tell Larry that he got the money.

Chapter 7 : Glove Brothers

“What took you so long?” Larry asked, when Hand returned.
“I ran into my mom,” Hand replied crossly.
“Oh,” Larry replied, looking away.
“So when should we head out?” Hand asked.
“Well, it will take no time at all teleporting there, and there’s no way we’d want to get there at night, so we better sleep here for the night,” Larry explained.
“Fine with me,” Hand replied, looking around, “So where should I sleep?”
“You can sleep over there on the floor,” Larry pointed.
“Kay, but where are you going to sleep?” Hand asked.
“I’m going to sleep over here on the floor,” Larry explained, chuckling.
“Oh, heh,” Hand laughed, walking over to his side of the hut, “G’Night.”
“Night,” Larry replied, plopping down, immediately falling asleep. Hand on the other hand, took awhile to fall asleep. There was so much running through his head. How long would it be until he saw his mom again? Would he ever see her again? And what about Chris, what would happen to him? Would Chersontae go after either of them? He shivered just thinking about it. After about another 10 minutes of worrying, he finally fell asleep, dreading the next day.

ᦏᘋᦏ

Hand woke up, startled, because he felt the tree shaking. He had no idea what could be making that noise. When he sat up, and surveyed the hut, he noticed that Larry wasn’t there. When he looked out the small window, he saw Larry using his staff against the tree.
“Hey!” Hand called, “What do you think you’re doing?”
“I’m testing out your weapon,” Larry called back, “It’s pretty basic, and not carved the greatest. The sword on the other hand, is great, it’s perfectly balanced, and is marvelously crafted, where did you get it?” Hand decided not to tell him that he got it out of Master’s heart.
“I got at an antique shop,” Hand told him, as he teleported down next to him, “But what’s wrong with the staff? It seems fine to me.”
“Well, don’t get me wrong,” Larry explained, “The staff is a weapon that you should always have, it’s just that this one is really basic. Nothing on it that’s lethal, it must have been carved by a beginner, and is pretty off balanced. Try this staff,” Larry bent down to grab his staff with the spikes on both ends. He expertly tossed it to Hand over his wrist, who caught it without flinching. Hand spun it around to few time, and quickly tossed it into the tree.
“It’s nice,” Hand said, “But I still like mine more.”
“Whatever you say,” Larry replied, shaking his wrist. He tossed the staff back to Hand, Hand catching expertly.
“Hey, what’d you do with my sword?” Hand asked, looking around.
“Oh,” Larry exclaimed, looking around himself, “I needed the size of it so I could make this.” Larry held out a wooden sheath, attached to a belt, “Thought you might’ve needed, in case you were in a tight spot. I also made one for myself for my favorite sword.” Hand stared at the sheath with awe, the fact that Larry had made this in the time that he did was astounding, and the craftsmanship is amazing, it’s nicely edged, and is a perfect fit for the sword. Hand saw his sword sticking out of the ground a few feet away. He strolled over to it, yanked it out of the ground, spun it around, and fit it inside the sheath. A perfect fit.
“Thanks,” Hand thanked, “What did you make this with?”
“There was a willow tree out in the forest somewhere,” Larry started, “It was a pretty small tree, but it’s wood was very fine, so I decided to cut it down, and use it for this. I think it turned out okay, I’ve made better. If you give me a piece of wood, I can make practically anything out of it.”
“That’s amazing, how did you chop down the tree?” Hand asked.
“I’m sure to keep a small hatchet in my bag at all times, in case I find a tree as I did,” Larry showed him.
“Nice, think we should head out?” Hand asked.
“Yeah,” Larry agreed, “Concentrate on about five hundred yards that way,” Larry pointed, as he went and got his staff out of the tree.
“Alright,” Hand said, as he teleported for the first time that day. When Hand reappeared, he noticed he was on a long road, with a dusty desert on each side. When he looked up the road, he saw Larry a few yards up ahead, so he ran up to meet him.
“For now on, just teleport as far as you can see, which is about three hundred some yards each time,” Larry explained, and so Hand listened. Each time, they were a few feet away from each other, but they continued on. After they had traveled about ten miles, Hand couldn’t take it anymore.
“Please…” Hand panted, “Can… we… please… stop!” Hand collapsed into the sand.
“Yeah, I was starting to feel a little tired myself,” Larry sighed, as he sat down next to Hand. They each took a water bottle out of their bags, so they didn’t get dehydrated. Once Larry was finished with his bottle, he got up, and started to wait for Hand. He paced up and down the road, and started to kick a few pebbles around.
“You’re quiet impatient aren’t you?” Hand said. Larry turned around to Hand and respond to his question, when he saw two Hands far out in the desert. He couldn’t make up any features, except for one distinct one. They were both wearing gloves, with a giant red ‘X’ on them.
“Hand!” Larry exclaimed, “Look behind you!” Hand quickly turned around, but there was nothing there.
“What are you trying to pull Larry?” Hand asked, finishing his water, “Well, let’s continue on.”
“But, there were,” Larry started, but was cut off by Hand.
“Look,” Hand said, annoyed “Stop lying, let’s just go.” Larry decided not to try any harder. For all he knew, it could have been a mirage. So he continued on with Hand down the road. He had no idea how far away it was, but he knew it couldn’t be more than twenty miles.


Here is the link to the Microsoft Word document, if you want to read it how it should be read.
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=IOD1CP7W

Yay! You posted the updates! Hehe. So they are going to be in there.

holy jesus thasa lot of words. must blow up to 25 font to make it seem more inviting.