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THE GATEKEEPER Chapter 1
Atlantis City A young man groaned as he leaned against a pole beneath a clock in the middle of a bustling city square. "She’s late," he said.While looking for the girl he was waiting for, the man kept an eye on the crowds that were going by.He had fair skin, looked about seventeen or eighteen years old, and even though it was midsummer, he was wearing a plain white t-shirt and a black leather jacket.A brown belt with a silver buckle supported his blue jeans, and brown boots with no lace covered his feet.His head was covered in spiky black hair, and a pair of sunglasses covered his eyes.Drake was his name, despite its oddity.Atlantis City, a floating city built on the ocean floor about 100 miles off the coast of the south-eastern United States, was the square in which Drake was standing.The ruins that are believed to be the real Atlantis were discovered about a decade ago on the ocean floor beneath the current city, so this location was chosen.The Atlantis City Construction Project
THE GATEKEEPER Chapter 2
Drake crossed the road out of curiosity and joined the other people gathered around the girl.The wind carried her clear as a bell voice further down the street.A sizable crowd had gathered to listen to her before she closed her mouth and stopped playing the guitar, spilling onto the road and causing traffic issues.People began depositing cash into the open guitar case that was lying on the ground next to the girl after there was a brief moment of silence and loud applause.Drake stayed to try to speak with the girl as the crowd began to disperse.She had already put the tips in her purse and was carrying her guitar case over her shoulder when he got close to her.When he began to clap once more, she stopped and turned to face Drake.That was actually pretty good," he said.Despite the fact that most people in this city are American, you heard them singing a Japanese song.That simply goes to show you don't need to comprehend the language to like the melody."The young lady smiled and said a
THE GATEKEEPER Chapter 3
Alice exhaled.I already told you;Until I left, my father was all over me.I ended up running out the door on him because he wouldn't give me a single minute to myself.When he gets home this evening, he won't be happy with me.Drake made a comment, "He sounds more and more like a stick in the mud every time you talk about your father."Is he unfamiliar with the idea of having fun?They had arrived at a sky rail station at this point and entered it.Atlantis City was only a few square miles in size, so someone came up with the idea of connecting the entire city with sky rails—basically sky trolleys—that would let people quickly get to the main area where they wanted to go and walk the rest of the way.The idea that was put forth was adopted unanimously due to the fact that there were few roads for cars and the sky rails occupied very little ground space.Since Atlantis City only had sixteen stations, there were stations all over the city and trolleys that led to other stations at each statio
THE GATEKEEPER Chapter 4
“Mind telling me why you decided to run?” Drake panted, pulling Alice over to a nearby park bench and sitting them both down on it.Alice panted for a few moments before smiling at Drake. “Just because I felt like it,” she wheezed.“I swear, girls really are complicated,” Drake moaned as he leaned back on the bench. “I can never understand what’s going through that head of yours.”Alice pouted. “Well, at least I’m not socially awkward,” she retorted.“I’m not, though. I have my reasons for keeping to myself,” Drake reminded her, taking off his sunglasses. “Anyways, I thought we were going to the talent show venue. I hope you didn’t forget that in your sudden need to run around the city.”“Of course, I didn’t!” Alice shot back. “This park is actually a shortcut over to the venue; you can see the building from here, see?”Drake followed the direction Alice’ fingers were pointing in and did see the talent show venue on the other side of the park from them. Walking there from the station
THE GATEKEEPER Chapter 5
6:02 pm"Well now, I feel that went better compared to we might have envisioned," Drake remarked.Alice agreed, "Yeah."We probably wouldn't finish in second place in the competition.Drake and Alice were seated at the same outdoor cafe where they first met in section B of Atlantis City in the late afternoon.A small silver trophy was on the table between them.There was an engraved "2nd" surrounded by a laurel on the surface of a large clear crystal set in it.All of the other performances had finished a few hours earlier, and the judges were tallying the audience's votes while all of the performers went to a waiting room.They started calling for a few performers to return to the stage over the intercom system about an additional hour later.When Drake and Alice got the call, they didn't know a thing about what was going on until they got to the stage and saw the trophies on a table there.After the award ceremony, one of the judges, dressed in a full white suit and shaded glasses, approa
THE GATEKEEPER Chapter 6
"W-what's happening?"Alice asked apprehensively.By then, Drake's ears got on an alternate sound from the far off shouts.Mr. Tyrion, Alice, and he all looked up at the sky.They did, as did everyone else around them.Car windows, houses, and shops that lined the sidewalk, all had heads sticking out;The sky was in everyone's view.A long line of planes were flying side-by-side in the distance.Drake's back neck hair stood up as they got closer;There were no distinctive markings on the planes to help him determine where they had come from.A cold steel grey was used to paint them all."Why are all those planes flying in our direction?"Mr. Tyrion, still pale from the destruction of the clock tower, questioned.For the remainder of the day, there shouldn't be any more seaplanes arriving to deliver anything;in point of fact, they are not even seaplanes."The belly hatches opened as the planes in the line got closer to the city's edge.As soon as he saw this, Drake broke out in a cold sweat and v
THE GATEKEEPER Chapter 7
Why is the ground trembling so much?The sarge screamed,Give me an answer, please!Sarge: "A-Atlantis City must be falling apart!"A man from his men yelled."The bombing must have destroyed the supports!"Another yelled, "We'll end up going swimming if we don't leave right away!"Bless it!"Sarge bleated.He turned away from Drake, who was having trouble standing up.Get out of here before this building collapses!The men then started to run away."W-wait, you scumbags!"Drake yelled and extended a hand as he stood up once more.Where the f--- do you think you are?Drake lost his balance and fell into the ladder shaft as a result of a subsequent violent shaking.He closed his eyes and waited for the moment when he would fall to the ground and splatter, "Damn, I guess this is really it."I'm sorry, Alice, that I was unable to safeguard you.I hope that when I get there, you will forgive me.Following a couple of additional seconds, Drake opened his eyes once more.I ought to have reached the bott
THE GATEKEEPER Chapter 8
Flying between two of the stone pillars was a massive figure, certainly larger than any of the dragons currently present at Drake’ location. Close behind the figure followed two more, slightly smaller than the first, one on the right and the other on the left. As the figures approached the thunder of dragons already gathered, they began to lower their altitude until they landed on the very edge of the topmost outer ring of steps.They were dragons, but very different from most of the dragons Drake had seen thus far. The most prominent difference was their size; unlike most of the other dragons in the crowd, who all stood about three to almost four times Drake’ height, they were somewhat bigger. The one in the middle was about five times as tall as Drake, while the two behind him were about four and a half. Drake could also get the feeling that these three were very powerful; the whole crowd of dragons grew quiet as they approached.A humanoid dragon flew out of the crowd of dragons ga