Star Ninja: Alpha

    Jack Harding is returning home from his last day of middle school. The end of the school day gives him the same reaction every time. The effect is only greater on the last day. He gets outside, but after being overjoyed about school being over, his smile flips into a frown once he steps foot outside. He stares at the Elementary as if he’s waiting for someone to walk through the doors, yet his eyes never get to see the person they seek. He stops just to get on the bus home.
    Jack arrives at his house. His parents offer him a warm welcome. “Welcome home, honey! How was school?” As always he just ignores them and walks on by to his room, where he shuts the door and sits on the bed. On the bed, he crosses his arms and lays his head on them before grabbing a picture of him and his younger sister.
    It was his sister's birthday. His sister was only preschooler then.
    “Come on, Socorro! I want to show you something,” Jack said to his sister.
    “Okay, I’m coming!” Socorro replied, sitting by him on a hill near their house.
    Jack pointed toward the sky. “You see that? That’s the constellation called Scorpius. You might not be able to see it, but some of those stars, if connected by lines, would look sort of like a scorpion. Here, let me show you a drawing I made of the constellation, and I’ll let you find it.” Jack then handed a piece of paper with a sketch of Scorpius on it to his sister.
    Socorro started looking for the constellation illustrated by the drawing. Once she found it, she pointed at it, saying, “I found it! I found it!”
    “Very good! Scorpius is the constellation for the zodiac known as Scorpio. The day you were born, our parents saw that constellation. Its name reminded them of the name Socorro. That is where your name came from. Isn’t that neat?”
    “It sure is! Hey, what about those other stars? Do they have constellations?”
    “Yes, there are other constellations that I can see right now, but it’s time to go to bed.”
    “Awww…”
    “...Tell you what? Every year, on this day and around this time, I will tell you about a new constellation.”
    “Do you promise?”
    “I promise.”
    Socorro then hugged Jack, and they went to bed.
    Something from the crevasses of his mind crawls out, submerging the constellation chat.
    Now Jack remembers a time fairly recent when his family was shopping in the largest store in the city. Jack’s parents had left him with his little sister. He and Socorro wanted to go to a different area of the store. Jack got distracted on the way and stopped to look at something. Meanwhile, Socorro continued toward their original destination.
    “Hey, Socorro,” Jack said, not yet realizing Socorro continued on, “What do you think of-” Jack realizes Socorro is not there. “Socorro? Socorro!” He spots her, but she’s talking to a stranger.
    “Who are you?” Socorro said.
    “You’ll get to know soon enough,” the stranger said. He then grabbed her and started running toward the doors.
    “SOCORRO!” Jack said as he sprinted after them.
    Socorro’s kidnapper continued through the doors with Socorro. Jack followed them, but he couldn’t figure out where they went until he heard his sister cry for help.
    “Help!” Jack saw the kidnapper trying to get Socorro into his car. Socorro was struggling. Finally, the kidnapper managed to get her in and shut the door.
    Jack was trying to catch up to them while all this was happening, but he didn’t make it in time. He had to watch as the car drove away with Socorro inside.
    Jack starts hearing soft screams from outside of his room that interrupt his flashback. However, it is knocking that gets him to leave his seclusion.
    “I’ll get it!” Jack yells to his parents as he runs to the door. He opens the door, but no one is there. Instead he finds a package on the ground. He looks around for someone who might have left it there. He doesn’t see anyone, so he decides to pick it up and take it inside.
    Inside, Jack realizes the screams were coming from the TV. His parents are watching a live program depicting a guy running away with a girl. Jack realizes he recognizes the man.
    “What are you watching?” Jack asks his parents.
    “This girl is being taken away by a man,” his mother replied. “The man trying to take her must have not realized that there was a news reporter there. The news has been tracking him since before he even got out of the building.”
    “The police have been trying to stop him, but apparently most of the police force around there is busy,” his dad adds. “A police officer has already been shot.”
    “Why hasn’t he been stopped yet?” Jack asks.
    “The remaining police officer is just a rookie.”
    Jack goes to his room. He opens the package to find a mask that looks like a headband with holes cut out for eyes. He tries it on.
    Jack starts pretending like he’s a ninja stopping the kidnapping in the city. He accidentally knocks a lamp over in the process. He catches it and places it back where it was all in one second. That might have just taken him a second, but it took him a minute to figure out what just happened.
    A blur runs out of the house toward the city. A white cloaked figure watches from afar. After smirking for a bit, he starts bounding the rooftops after the blur.
    Meanwhile, the parents are inside trying to figure out why Jack left the house suddenly. They’re looking around the house for him or any clues about where he might have gone. His mother finds the empty box in Jack’s room. His father finds a clue in his room.
    “Honey, I think I found something,” the dad yells to the mother.
    “What?” the mother replies as she bolts into the room.
    “I guess I should rephrase that. It’s not really what I found, but rather what I didn’t find,” the dad says to the mother, who is now in the room.
    “Your katana!” she exclaims.
    An empty rack on the wall is missing its katana. There is a note in its place, and it says, “Star Ninja was here!”