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Paths of Glory, Book 2: The Tesla Connection, Page 4

Rich Cerow

He's been waiting all year for the AVP&LST, and he'll never be your friend until your old man mentor beats him up.
The weight of your laser sword feels so natural, you swing it with the greatest of ease. As though this was the weight your hand was naturally meant to have, and you just now are filling that void and moving at your natural gait. The laser swoops through the rich air of SR-388 with space-lightning quick grace and ease. Soon, you're showing off, pulling off complicated space blaster shot blocks and sending it flinging through the air using only The Power, which you have been honing your ability to use since day one. You think you might even be impressing that special someone you've had your eye on in the corner for the past couple of weeks, after your last significant other dumped you for Brad, the hunky Star Robo-cylinder Hyper League star who you didn't know was a member of your secret underground sect. You'll show that Brad, when you end up besting him in the Final Exam, the All-Valley Power & Laser Sword Tournament. And then when he sees how skilled you have become, he'll grudgingly respect you.

Unfortunately, you'll never get the chance to smack him with your Intergalactic Crane Kick, because the Mysterious Stranger, whose name you still do not know, hurriedly calls you into his chambers. He seems overjoyed, disturbingly so. Frankly, it has been rare in these many months of training, for you to see him smile. But now he is baring his hideously malformed teeth to you in the widest grin you've ever seen on his face. You think, perhaps, those teeth could pry the flesh off a Zeeprak's bones.

If you don't work hard you might lose a lot of training matches, or have your hand severed. These high-powered energy weapons are sort of dicey that way.
"My young apprentice, the time is finally at hand. The Zargons approach. We are ready. I have watched you train, and become stronger with each passing day. You are easily the superior of your many fellow students. The Power is strong with you; it flows through your bones and animates your movements. It makes you strike deadlier than any of your competitors. It sharpens your mind, so you see the battle before it's even begun. Which is why, when we enter into our battle to the death with the Zargons, on that holy day, I want you by my side. I ask you, young warrior, if you will be my field commander, and lead your fellow students into battle for the ultimate freedom of the galaxy?"

Your heart sinks. Your gut wrenches. How, how can you lead your fellow laser sword / Power students into battle? Are you able to accept the responsibility that entails, that all their deaths will be on your hands? But, with risk comes reward, and if you succeed in driving back the slimy Zargons to the Molok-pit from which they crawled, you, as their leader, would be a hero, and remembered forever. Think of the glory, think of the power... and think of the blood, and the suffering that could all fall on your shoulders.

To accept the stranger's invitation to lead, please turn to page 14.

If you choose to merely fight alongside your fellow students as their equal, please turn to page 15.