Orb of Power
By: Josh Lyon    
Date: 9/15/06  

            You start your evening off by going to subway to order a foot long cold cut trio. You order to go and eat the sandwich at home. The sandwich is delicious. After you finish eating it you realize that there was a note inside of the subway bag directed at you! You read the note, which says "meet me at the corner of 17th and Main Street at exactly 11:30PM. I urge you to not be late. I will explain more later." You decide that you better do what the note says; it sounds serious. It’s only 8PM, what are you supposed to do until then?
            You decide to go to a Barnes and Noble to have a coffee and read your favorite book for the 13th time: Revenge of the Orange Navy: Backwards and Forwards Through the Chasm of Time, Reality, and Space, Part I. You arrive and park your car, but you forget to lock your door, a mistake that would later come to haunt you. You go inside, order your special (they know you by name) and find Revenge of the Orange Navy. You sit and read for about 2 hours, pee a couple times, and then decide to leave.
            As you approach your car you get a strange feeling. Did you just see a shadow quickly move away from your car? You shake off the feeling and get inside. You quickly realize something: The steering wheel is missing! You begin to become worried. It's 10:23PM and you have to be 5 miles away in an hour and clearly you're not getting there by car. Also, who would take your steering wheel...and why? As you begin to call the police on your phone, it rings. The call is coming from a blocked number. Curious, you answer the phone.

"Are you safe?" a voice says.
"Yeah...I'm fine, who is this?" you reply.
"Our plans have changed, meet me now." "
"Well, uhm, my steering wheel was stolen and I'm a few miles away..."
"No! They couldn't have found you already!"
"Yeah, I guess they have..."
"Look under the passenger seat. You will find a small cardboard box. Open it."

You open the box and before you know it, you have passed out in a cloud of gas.
            You awake in the daytime inside a small, empty room. You vaguely remember the sound of a plane engine as you slip back into consciousness. You are free to move around. You look out the window and see the Hollywood sign in the distance. You wonder to yourself how much time has passed; Hollywood is quite the distance. Questions of bewilderment quickly come to your head and you start to become quite dizzy, perhaps an after effect of whatever gas knocked you out. You sit down for a moment, but you are quickly interrupted by a door opening. A man enters the room and you start to piece together what is going on.

            Three years ago, you were on vacation in Madagascar. You were walking down the street to your hotel when you heard the sounds of screaming coming from an alley. You ran to see what was going on and you saw a man with a whip, whipping a small goat. You continued running towards the sound of the screaming. What you saw changed your life forever. A man, the very same man who you would encounter three years later, was cutting off his own arm! You exclaimed, "what are you doing!?" and he continued in his excruciating battle. Clutched in the hand of the arm that was to be soon removed from his body was an intensely glowing ball of light. As his arm fell to the ground, the light slowly faded, and the man fell out of consciousness.
            You took him to the hospital, along with his severed arm and the now solid black orb that was still clutched in his hand. The doctors were unable to pry the orb from his deathly grip and the man would remain armless. The doctors told you that you saved his life. Any more blood loss and he would have been a goner. You occasionally checked back on him every couple of days in the hospital, and the two of you became friends. He thanked you for saving him. You asked what the orb was, but he refused to talk about it. For the next three years this mystery would often keep you up at night.

            As the man enters the room, you realize that he now has a prosthetic arm. He gives you a hug, and says it's good to see you again. You say the same back. You ask what's going on.

"Why am I in Hollywood?"
"There is a power beyond your comprehension that has been unleashed. I thought I eradicated it three years ago, but clearly I am wrong. We are in Hollywood because I need your help. You saved my life and you’re the only one left I have to turn to."
"Does this have to do with that orb?"
"Yes"
"What is it?"
"The orb is an ancient device, created by the Egyptians thousands of years ago. It connects both physically and spiritually to whoever holds it. It was created to give its beholder the power to build magnificent creations: the pyramids, the sphinx, eagles…they all were created using its power. It makes the user a god. But its power was abused. Such is the character of mankind, never wanting to create, but always wanting to yield power to control. When I tried to destroy it three years ago, it even took over me. Even the best of souls can be corrupted by its power. That's why I had to sever my arm. It makes a permanent connection to its user that can only be removed through death or dismemberment."
"This is insane...so who has it and what do they want with it?
"His name is Gray. His parents were killed by the government in a rebellion, and he has sought revenge since. His hatred of the United States has grown so strong that he has gone insane. He wants every American in the world to be eliminated, eventually, but he's
starting with the biggest target--the entire country. In a short amount of time the orb
will reach its full potential and he’ll  be able to destroy us in whatever way he wants.
"So what do we do?"
"We have to stop him, and at this point the orb's power has grown too strong in him. He
must be killed.
            The two of you head out of the building and into the street. Gray was apparently last seen on the Universal Studios lot, so you hail a cab and go there. Admission tickets are $50 per person, but that's a small price to pay to save the country. You use your debit card.
            You head straight to the line for the back lot tour. It's a moderately busy day at Universal Studios Hollywood, so you have to wait about an hour and a half in line. You ride the tram ride for a little while, and make a quick exit off of it when no one is looking.  
            You and your companion begin investigating. Why would Gray be at Universal? Maybe he was just taking a day off? You find the clock tower from the Back to the Future movies. It makes you reminisce a little of the time you and your brother drove a car into a brick wall at 88 MPH trying to reenact the movie. Thankfully no one was hurt, somehow. You decide to go inside the clock tower just to look for clues.
            You enter and realize it's nothing but a façade and you begin to leave, but something catches your attention. There appears to be chanting coming from the other side of the wall. It progressively gets louder, then fades away and repeats a few times. A red glow begins to emanate from the opposite side of a plywood wall. The two of you find hammers inside of an old rusted wheel barrow. As you slowly round the corner to brutally assault your target, your companion suddenly screams. Gray rounds the corner and gives on an evil laugh. You realize your friend is being choked through some sort of power. You try to throw the hammer at Gray, but it stops in mid throw and falls to the ground.
"We're dead," you think.
            Suddenly, four Universal Studios security guards rush into the room and begin telling you the reasons that you shouldn't be back here. “It's not for visitors of the park,” they say. “We have you all on camera”, they say. “Blah blah blah,” they say. It distracts Gray for a key moment and you lunge for your hammer and do a sweet little roll and then get up and hit him in the back of the head.
"OW!" He exclaims.
            Your companion takes his hammer and hits him in the face! The two of you begin assaulting him to death. Meanwhile, the security guards and looking quite confused. Gray cannot be taken so easily, though. He's bleeding profusely, but refuses to die. You let your companion beat him down for a while. You remembered that you saw an axe in that wheel barrow. You grab the axe and you head towards your victim. Before you begin to finish him, you remember all the times that you had to cut down trees for your dad to clear your cabin home's back yard in West Virginia. You always hated dad for that. Why didn't anyone else have to cut down trees? Before you axe him in the throat, Gray exclaims "I'll be back for you!" You finish him off.
            You and your companion are arrested by the four guards. The court date is scheduled for December 12. You have little choice of proving your innocence. “An orb of power? Yeah right," the judge would later say.