Eclipse (Chronicles of Ajax Kwiksilver)

Eclipse is the first story of the Chronicle of Ajax Kwiksilver and revolves over Nightmare's upbringing of Ajax Kwiksilver. This happened before Nightmare's defeat at the hands of Marcus and James Kwiksilver until Ajax reformed to the Good Guys.

The Story

Prologue

And so the tale of a brave hero begins;
In the future, he shall save Antarctica from great evils'
In this time though, he shall be a champion of evil;
Is it right for a former villain to save Antarctica?
Especially after he attempted to kill one of history's greatest hero;
However time is flexible; it can be changed, though time travelers to not like to intervene.
It shall come to a time traveler, in the same family of this brave hero, to save him;
Will he do what justice commands him and save him from eternally becoming evil;
Or will he play by the rules and stand by while Antarctica is destroyed?
I do not know; I just know that my prophecy may me wrong.

Chapter 1: A Career Move

17th July, 1646, 00:00

Ajax sharpened his fangs with his knife. They glistened in the moonlight and were the key to his survival. Without them, how could the drain the blood of his prey? How could he feast on blood? How could he go on a blood frenzy?

Tonight was going to be a toughy; they were going for an Orca. Ajax's family never hunted penguins; while they may attempted to burn a Vampenguin, he should remember that his ancestors were once penguin and that he himself inherited the warrior blood of Marcus Kwiksilver. He stood on the edge of the ice, his black eyes searching the water for any movement.

Edward dipped his webbed foot in the icy cold water. He swayed it around, hoping that an Orca would here. Sophie kneeled beside Ajax while his parents, Jacob and Alice, stood behind.

Lucy was the middle child and his only sister. Born three years after Ajax was born, she prided herself in her Vampenguin heritage. Unlike Ajax, she had never drained a penguin.

Ajax's only taste of penguin blood was when he was six years old. His family was being hunted by a group of twelve High Penguin Vampenguin Slayers. Scared, Ajax leaped at them, bite the lead one and drained him dry. The sensation was too much and he quickly got into a blood frenzy and drank the other slayers. However, he was badly injured.

Edward was the youngest and he had drained penguins as well; he was also six years old at the time. He was waddling down the street when he saw a lesser being mugged by a High Penguin. Edward couldn't bare it and tackled the mugger. He then feasted on him. Without thinking, he hunted the victim of the mugger and anyone else he could see. Eventually, Jacob was able to bring everything under control.

Jacob was the father; he was an experienced Vampenguin of one hundred forty six years old. He looked as if he was twenty, for he was a Vampenguin and a High Penguin, with the latter having a long lifespan and the prior having no fear of death at all. He had Ajax at one hundred years old. Kwiksilver's branch of the family tended to do that. Jacob had also hunted penguin before; when he had met Alice, she was a Penguin hunter and Jacob became hooked on blood. However he was able to resist eventually and turn Alice over to the light.

Suddenly, a black and white fin rose from the water. An ordinary penguin probably wouldn't be able to see it but the Vampenguins weren't ordinary penguins. Being a Vampenguin, he had excellent night vision. Jacob dove into the water first and when the whale raised his head, he jumped onto it and put his flipper down the Orca's breathing hole.

The rest jumped on the Vampenguin and began to feed. The whale was starting to sink, and was heavily injured. However the Orca fought back; he slapped his tail fin at Jacob in a last ditch attempt. Despite it being weak, he lost balance and fell from the Orca. The Orca, now able to breathe, was able to fight the hunters. It used every maneuver it knew but it was no use. Then, it fell limp. Edward had destroyed several of the coronary arteries and the orca had an heart attack. It took several hours for the group to swim the whale to shore.

That was the average night for Ajax; in the day, he was just a student at some High Penguin private school.

---

22nd July, 1646, 17:00

Today was a special day. It was graduation time! After six years of education, he was now free to make his own choices as a naturalized citizen.
Only one quite liberal state in High Penguin Confederacy automatically naturalized Lessers on doctrine of jus soli. No, Lessers had to earn theirs. In Ajax's state of residence, citizenship required twelve years of education in the public circuit- often loaded with pro-HP doctrines that depressed many a Lesser from pursuing their dreams in the Confederate governments -or six years of private school. Private school had the advantage of speedy, non-biased, and efficient education, but it cost a boatload of gold, so Ajax was particularly fortunate for being here.

Among the hundreds of other students who would choose his path. Ajax had already chosen his: the military. Providing he got his grades, which he did, he would be able to join it easily without problem. (Ironically, the military was a shortcut for naturalization, but Ajax took pride in learning, and certainly didn't want to be starting as some lowly Private.)

He asked the other students what jobs they'd be doing. He didn't really like his snobby peers. Most of them told him that they'd manage some area of the land for the Confederacy, because they were the son of some Governor or Prefect. Unlike the rest of these peers, Ajax didn't come from privileged background nor friends in high places. His friends told him the same. He was quite literally the only one wishing for a career in the military in this school.

For fifteen minutes, they had been seated in the assembly; the seats were arranged in a circle, as if it was a Provincial council. Ajax had got a front seat on the right wing. One of the students next to him called Victor had a discussion with him.

"So what are you doing then?" he asked.

Ajax was surprised that someone was talking to him. He preferred to keep his distance from other students, after all, he didn't want to risk the urge to bite someone. Victor, from appearance and accent, didn't sound like the son of one these Governors. He spoke excellent English, compared to the other High Penguins, whose primary language was Penguinian. The school encouraged it's students to speak English rather then Penguinian; this was to increase the efficiency of teaching the language. Ajax had learned both languages from birth and could speak both of them fluently and often better then his equals.

"Oh, I'm going to military academy." Ajax replied.

Victor smiled, unlike the other penguins Ajax had told. He obviously wasn't the son of some Governor; rather, his parents were merchants, hunters, farmers, or something like that. Like him, this penguin worked to get his fortunate ticket to private school. Ajax liked this penguin and had been surprised that he hadn't met him throughout his school life.

"What about you?"

"Military academy too." Victor replied.

Wow! It seemed that Ajax wouldn't be alone after all. It looks like someone had picked the same career path as him.

Finally, the headmaster, Lion Khanz, came forward onto the stage. He was a Khanz Penguin with a thick moustache and a fish hat on his forehead. Just a grumpy as any other Khanz, he was unpopular amongst the students.

Like any confederacy, the HPC did not impose national standards, so states had free reign in almost everything. The schools, being unregulated, pretty much did as they wish. Lion took advantage of this, having introduced many Khanz punishments: having your head being put into the mouth of a fish, having to eat fish until you're sick, gutting fish and of course, fish slapping. He was also an ex-soldier, which made Ajax believe that this was why no one else wanted to be a soldier.

"LION KHANZ SAYS WELL DONE TO ALL YOU STUDENTS! LION KHANZ SAYS HE WISHES YOU WELL FOR THE FUTURE!"

Oh, how he hated that illeism! Hopefully, he wouldn't meet any other Khanz that spoke like that. He shivered at the thought as his mind drifted off. "What if", the Vampenguin nervously considered, "what if a state had one of those in charge?".

"LION KHANZ SAYS THAT THE FIRST STUDENT TO COME UP AND RECIEVE HIS BACCALAUREATE IS AJAX KWIKSIVER!"

Ajax snapped out of his train of thought. Everyone clapped in the hall as Ajax stepped onto the stage. He had a sense of nervousness about what he has to say about his future career, however he knew Victor would be behind him... right? He went onto the stage and looked down at the Khanz headmaster. Ajax tried to hold back his laughter as the grumpy Khanz was put onto a stool to appear taller by the school's caretaker.

"LION KHANZ SAYS WELL DONE FOR GETTING YOUR BACCLAUREATE!" Lion said, passing the diploma to Ajax. "LION KHANZ DEMANDS TO KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING IN THE FUTURE!"

Ajax stepped onto the edge of the stage. He took a sniff of the air, just to smell penguin blood once more... oh crud. He looked up to the back of the room and into the hallway. He saw several large penguins shoving some dork into a locker. No doubt, he had cut himself on the wooden doors that were slammed on him, and was bleeding. This scent was so much; he wished he hadn't sniffed, for now he was desperate to bite a penguin.

"Err... I'm doing... err... I'm going to the Ard Mhacha Military Academy." he said. Everyone chuckled and Victor smiled, waving to him from the auditorium. Faint conversations met his hearing.

"Toothy's 'gonna regret that."

"I KNOW RIGHT?"

"He'll get killed!"

He hated that nickname. Toothy.

"LION KHANZ THINKS YOU'RE SMART FOR BECOMING SOLDIER! YOU WILL BECOME LIKE LION KHANZ! WELL DONE!"

Ajax left the building as quickly as possible before he could bite anyone. He was tempted to bite Lion, if not only to shut him up.

---

28th September, 1646, 10:33

At last. The beginning of a new career. A new 'life'. Ard Mhacha was a beautiful High Penguin majority city but in the military academy, there seemed to be more lessers then High Penguin; many seemed to be young and were probably dropsout out of the mediocre public school system. In front of him was the gate of the academy with one sentry in front of it, at a desk, sitting on a chair with a lot of paperwork and documents. He could overhear the two penguin's in front of him conversations with him.

"Name?" the sentry asked.

"Sion Firespirit" the penguin replied.

"Education?"

"Queens College".

"I assume you're High Penguin and of the Yeoman caste?"

"No, landed elite".

"Turn right, look for the officer academy.

The next penguin was up.

"Name?" the sentry asked.

"Jack Withers".

"Education?"

"Archet High School 52".

"Lesser I presume?"

"Yes".

"Caste?"

"Serfdom".

"Take the left, find the barracks".

It was Ajax's turn.

"Name?"

"Ajax Kwiksilver".

"Education?"

"King Ulmos College"

"High Penguin?"

"Yes".

"Caste?"

"Yeoman".

"Same as the penguin before the penguin before you then".

Ajax continued to notice the inequality; all Lessers have almost immedietly been moved to the barracks, where they'll start as lowly recruits, while Ajax, High Penguins and the landowning community seem to be officer cadets. All of this drama could be written into a book.

He approached the officer barracks, where he could see another sentry.

"Name?" the sentry asked.

"Ajax Kwiksilver".

"What are your qualifications?"

"A Bacclareate in English, English Literature, Penguinian, Penguinian Literature, Mathematics, History, Geography, Latin, International Relations, Law and Economics". He handed over his diploma to the sentry, who smiled.

"Alright, you got bed 12, Officer Cadet Barracks 5; it's the top bunk".

"Thank you".

The young Vampenguin put his rucksack over him and waddled towards the Officer Cadet Barracks 5. It was a large tent pitched up. The bunks were beside each other. A tap and a shower was in place but both were dirty. A Lesser Penguin stood on guard outside, holding a register. The penguin was an Emperor Penguin with clearly signs of old age by looking at his grey hair. On his uniform there were four stripes and two dots; presumingly it meant that he was an high ranking officer.

"Vhat's your name and rank?" he asked. The gruff voice signified an old veteran of conflict, but the accent indicated he was from the distant mountains.

"Ajax Kwiksilver, Officer Cadet, sir." Ajax saluted. The DCO skimmed through the clipboard and write a few things in with his pen. The DCO then looked at the Cadet and saluted back.

"General John19 Necisty......."

Ajax's eyes widened. A general? Here?! What an honor!

".......Vinen Specialvist." he replied, saluting back. He looked over Ajax. "You seem like a soldier from hatching - may 'zee Sky Programmers be with you!"

Heh heh. Linen specialist. He was apparently the highest penguin in the military that oversaw... bedsheets. Still, judging by his appearence and his voice, he must have been hiding something else. Surely there was more to the General than just overseeing all of the bedsheets of the army!

Ajax went into the tent, found his bunk and climbed onto the top. He put his rucksack down on the other side of the bed and put on his pajamas. He took his toothbrush and some toothpaste and brushed his fangs. With that done, he went back to and and wrapped himself in the sheets. He had to give General Necisty credit. These were the softest, most comfortable sheets he had ever slept in.

More and more cadets arrived as he slept; Ajax could hear the slightest movement. He wasn't that excited of his first day of training tomorrow; he knew that his life was going to really stink from now on. He could hope that the "sky programmers" were with him.

---

Chapter 2: Morals

TO BE CONTINUED!