Samuel bowed and motioned for the student to begin his attack.

The student thrusted his arm towards Samuel's head but he parried it sideways and struck the boy's chest. The boy fell back with a loud thud. "What did I tell you, Cristoph? Never extend your hand outright or you might break it." Samuel repeated.

He bowed again: "Ok, everybody take a ten-minute break." The young students bowed back and walked away.

Samuel walked into the manager's office and stepped in. He paused as he saw an attractive Far-Eastern woman sitting on the chair opposite the manager. "Oh, sorry Si-Fu, didn't know you had a visitor..."

Johnny Boomerang waved his hand: "It's ok Samuel, Miss Ridgway was about to leave. Sorry, Jenova might be a very lucrative business indeed, but the Dojo is enough of an enterprise for me at the moment, find someone else."
His accent did not conceal the fact that he was Australian.

The woman shrugged: "The Dojo? Something you won in a poker hand, I'm sure you've invested A LOT in it."
Samuel looked at the manager in surprise. "Poker hand?" He thought.
Johnny: "I don't know where you heard that but it's none of your business how I got to own it, the fact is, I do, and you don't, right? Samuel, show Miss Ridgway the way to the door, please."

Samuel escorted her outside.

"How much do you know your boss, young man?" She asked with a whisper. Samuel blinked.

"Thought so. " She smiled as she walked off into the sunny day.
"Oh, by the way." She said as she stopped and turned back, "The 'fish' form that I saw you perform earlier, when was that invented?"
He laughed: "Oh, that's a form that master Boomerang invented, you see, he's a Sensei, he was assigned that title from an actual Shaolin Temple in China!"
She frowned: "Is that so? Which... Uh.... Never mind." she sighed.
"You've been in a Shaolin temple before, haven't you?" He asked with a smile.
She looked at him and smiled back. "Yes. A long time ago."
She shook her head: "Well, I have to go now.. Zai Jian [Goodbye], Samuel."
He smiled: "Zai Jian, Miss Ridgway..."
"Call me Cristy." She winked at him as she started to walk away, but suddenly stopped as she caught a glimpse of something shiny on his chest.
She slowly walked back to him. "Not to sound nosy, but may I look at your necklace?"
He reached for the talisman tucked under his shirt and showed it to her.
"It's a talisman actually. Really old apparently, no one knows where it's from or who made it." The gold and silver eagle and dragon glittered, and it shone on her face as it reflected the sunlight.
"Oh... My God..." She said and a tear formed in her eye.
He looked at her and felt worried: "Uhh.. Cristy? Are you ok?"
She wiped her tear and walked away without a word.

"Samuel, I have to take the rest of the day off. I have an important meeting today." Johnny said.

Samuel nodded as he started closing the door but jumped with a start as Lorraine Turner walked in and ran straight to John and hugged him. "I missed you, baby." She said.

Johnny nodded as he cleared his desk. "Mak got the contract signed?"

She nodded: "Yup. We're all set. Ten... Uhh..." She looked back at Samuel, and then he snapped himself out of his rude stare and walked back to his awaiting students.

Thirty Minutes Later...

"Hmm... Almost as sunny as home." Johnny thought.
His attention was distracted as he heard the annoying sound of a tug-boat's air horn.
He looked out at the bay and sighed. "I hate New York." He said.

"What brought you here then?" A man asked as he walked closer to him.
Johnny Boomerang turned around and saw a tall man with curly blonde hair and sparkly green eyes, as if they were mirrors reflecting the sparkly greenish blue waters of the bay.
"I came here because... I used to have nightmares...." Johnny said.
The other man placed his hands on the railing and looked towards the water.
"I used to be chased. Sometimes by demons, sometimes by centaurs. Sometimes by angels." Johnny paused. "..Heh. For some reason... The angels scared me the most."
Johnny lit a cigarette. The other man looked at him steadily and waited for him to continue.
"Then one day. I had an amazing dream. I dreamt I was on some sort of fish. It had a body like a dolphin's, but it had a neck... It was like a half mermaid, half dolphin creature, I don't know how to explain it. Anyway..." Johnny took a drag and blew it slowly as he thought aloud: "I was underwater, yet I could breathe as if it was air. The creature leapt out of the water and into the air and I saw a tall man, he held two cups on his hand, one pouring into the other. And I noticed he had one foot on an island, and the other was on the water."
Johnny took another drag and inhaled it deeply. "The creature dove into the water, then leapt into the air again. This time, it was night, and I could see the stars. I could saw the stars of Aquarius brighter than any of the other stars."

The silence was eerie.

Johnny: "The creature dove for the second time, and when it came out, I saw the statue of liberty. Then I woke up."
The other man sighed.
Johnny looked at him. "Since then, I stopped having my nightmares."
Johnny: "I had to find out who that man was, and what his relationship with the constellation of Aquarius was, because whoever that man was, he was my destiny."
"It took me years and years to seek that man. And now.." Johnny took a step towards the man.
"...I've found you." Johnny finished.
The two were quiet for a moment. Johnny took the last drag out of his cigarette and flicked it into the bay.
Johnny looked at him again. "Raziel... Uhh... Mr. Dimitri, you cannot fathom how much respect I have towards you."
Elonas rubbed his scruffy chin. "Johnny, I don't know why you saw what you saw in your dreams, but, what you cannot fathom is the severity of what's going on, and what's going to happen."
Johnny shook his head: "With all due respect Mr. Dimitri, I am well trained for military and covert operations. I used to be a member of the Royal Australian Navy, then I worked for the Australian Secret Intelligence Service's Electronic Crimes division. I spent twenty years of my life training to be strong, smart, dignified, for whatever it is that we're up against."

Elonas: "So tell me about your team."
Johnny: "We are a team of warriors, at your disposal. I've had Lorraine Turner, a professional assassin and also the Second-In-Command make an order of ten Gunships, and that is just the beginning."
Elonas shook his head: "For what we're up against, Gunships are as harmful as jellyfish."

Johnny clenched his fists and Elonas looked at them. His fingers had turned to claws.

"Whatever's going to be up against us, doesn't know what it's dealing with." He said.
Elonas Dimitri turned his head and saw a teenage girl holding a Frisbee a few feet away from them. Her eyes were wide.
"Umm... Just grabbing my Frisbee." She had a scared smile planted on her face. "I'll go now, heh." She ran off.
Johnny calmed his nerves and his bone-claws sank back into his hand.
"What is it that you want me to do? Anything. Give us a mission, so we can prove to you what we can do." He said.
"Fair enough." Elonas said,

"I want you to steal the King of Cups."

Johnny blinked.

"Raziel... Are... You serious?" Johnny gulped.
Elonas nodded.

"That is why I came to New York, to find The King of Hearts token. I know where it's hidden now...
But it won't be easy to get inside." A soft breeze played with his curly hair.
Johnny stuttered: "You... Are talking about the Holy Grail?" he was still stunned, in fact, a little scared as well.

Elonas nodded: "I don't think any of them realize that it's here, otherwise they would've tried to obtain it long ago."
"They who?" Johnny asked with a frown.
"The other heralds." Elonas said.
"There... There are others like you?" Johnny asked.
"Yes, three. My sister's one of them. The other two are Aryel and Neria. Both extremists."
Johnny gulped again: "Who's helping them? Do they have an army?"
Elonas rubbed his scruff: "I don't believe so. It's too early in the game."
Johnny raised his eyebrows in sarcasm: "You're calling the war a game?"
Elonas laughed. "Oh yes, it is very much a game. Very much."
Elonas looked at Johnny and it was obvious that he was waiting for an answer.

"Johnny... When you first met me, you called me the creator of destiny." Elonas began.
Johnny nodded: "But you are. You drew the constellations in the sky, created the pre-alphabet and built the timework of every being's destiny. It's all in Enoch's book! Correct me if I'm wrong, but you wrote the book in heaven back when you were God's right-hand man?"
Elonas sighed: "Johnny... Yes I wrote the book and yes I gave the book to Enoch during this exile on earth many many years ago. But... God created destiny, I was just the tool to write it with. His scribe."
Johnny shook his head: "But... The letters, Eve showed you how to invent writing and you created the pre-alphabet which the angels use till today! Without you, I don't know, Many things wouldn't have existed, from magic to science!"
"There used to be a time, Johnny." Elonas explained, "That I believed that I was all of those great things you are just describing. But then I realized, I was dreaming. Because I was an angel."
Johnny shrugged: "So?"
"So? Angels cannot will. Our wills are automatically submitted to God's. So everything that we do, is simply what God wants us to do." He explained.
Johnny smiled: "I understand now. You did it on purpose."
"What?" Elonas asked.
"Fall from heaven." Johnny replied.
Elonas was quiet.
"You were tired of being played around, and wanted to have your own life. Experience the world from a first person point of view, instead of third." Johnny continued.

Elonas nodded: "Perhaps. Nevertheless, we're still bound by destiny, no matter where we may be."
Johnny shrugged: "We're not BOUND. We're free to do what we want."
Elonas sighed: "Not quite, Johnny. You're just acting out your part in the play word by word, the only difference is, you didn't read the script. You don't know when it's going to end, and don't know what the outcome is."
Johnny shook his head with frustration: "What do you mean, script?"
Elonas shook his head softly as he realized how hard it was to explain things like that to humans.

Elonas pointed towards a star northwards. Inspite of the daylight, it was nevertheless visible. "See that?" Johnny looked at it and nodded: "Yeah, Polaris. What about it?"
"Once every twenty-six thousand years, that is, once every complete zodiac cycle, the Earth's magnetic field calibrates itself towards another star." Elonas said.
Johnny thought for a moment. "Yeah I think I read that somewhere once. The magnetic north will become Vega. But, won't this calibration cause earthquakes and stuff?"
"Yes, there will be a lot of calamities. Worst part is, during the calibration, even though it will only last for a split second, the Earth's magnetic field will turn off, two gigavolts of electromagnetic pulses will bombard the surface. And the fact that technology today is electronically inclined doesn't help. In short, end of civilization... Yet again." Elonas explained.
"Yeah I understand that it would be a mega disaster, but we still have time right? At least a few thousand years?" Johnny asked.
Elonas nodded: "I'll explain it to you later, but no, it's a few decades now, not millenia. But my point is, whether you knew it was going to happen or not, it isn't going to stop the world from continuing in its own course. From people following the paths they were written to do. I may have drawn the stars to warn people about it, but the constellations didn't stop the previous civilizations of the Aztecs, the Ancient Egyptians and the Ancient Mesopotamians from dying anyway, even though they had the means to read the stars. Today, science is just as accurate as it was during those civilizations, nevertheless, it's not going to save humanity from the inevitable."
Johnny: "But if I understood the legends correctly, this is the sixth age of man, the sixth sun. Isn't there one more sun left before the end of time?"
Elonas shook his head: "No. On the seventh day, God rested. There is no seventh sun."

Johnny stood paralyzed. "So. That's it. The universe will be over?"

Elonas nodded: "The age of tokens is the final age. Basically, this is where destiny ends. Beyond
destiny, it's not been written. So in other words, it's upto us how the universe turns up. Whoever
controls the tokens, controls the future."

"Johnny, " Elonas said abruptly, "Back to the present tense." He continued: "The Holy Grail cannot stay on Earth. Your team needs to steal it so that I can take it to Atlantis, where it will be safe."

"Atlantis? You can go there?" Johnny asked.

Elonas sighed: "No. I can't. But I'll find a way. If I timed it correctly, then the dimensional gates should be unlocked by now, so there's no key...

We just have to find the door."

(Continued...)