The Ahn'Ger Stone Chapter 1: Beginnings (Patreon)

It was before school on a late April Friday morning in Shermer Illinois when everything changed. It was a pretty nice morning in the Chicagoland area small town, the spring dew catching the rays of the rising sun, a low mist creeping across the shadows of the trees, birds singing as they fluttered among the blossoming leaves. Even the temperature was great, it was on track to get to 78 degrees fahrenheit today. Just a great day to walk to school, as the lone teen sitting on the front porch of his modest home was preparing to do.

Bill Strasserman was your everyday 'geeky' teen. There was nothing truly outstanding about him; he stood at the average height of a eighteen year old male, he was a little overweight from his sedentary hobbies, his hair was cut short and brown. Whereas other teens his age might have enjoyed getting out and doing exciting things, Bill was content to spend his nights playing video games or watching Marvel movies…Or any sci-fi fantasy movie, really. He wasn’t really a ‘sports guy’ and couldn’t really tell you who had won the last Super Bowl, World Series or…whatever the NBA called their last game. He only even knew about the Chicago Cubs simply because of the proximity to the major city and due to cultural bleed through. In fact, his worst grade was always Physical Education! No Bill was a geek, and he was proud to be a geek, but he wasn’t some neckbeard or isolated nerd that hyper-focused on just one topic. No, Bill liked a lot of things and liked to talk about them online with his Internet friends be it through just hanging out on Discord or while gaming, but he also had a small group of flesh and blood friends from school he hung out. Some more often than others, like his best friend, the all-star sports king of Shermer High Tom Ackerton, but still, Bill was otherwise just a pretty normal dude.

Normal, aside from his problems that is. Bill was nearing the end of high school and outside of having a persistent bully problem his only real concerns were an annoying little sister and lack of a girlfriend, though they were small problems in the grand scheme of things. After all, college loomed on the horizon and Bill was confident that he'd find someone interested in him there. Hopefully. But the most pressing concern was the ‘bully problem’. Shermer was overall a pretty safe town but it had a problem with some of it’s more…rough and tumble individuals that hailed from the Shermer Fields trailer court on the far side of town. There, far from the upper middle-class neighborhood that Bill lived in, festered Bill’s Bane to his self-styled Batman.

Bill listened to the sounds of his family, still in the house, as they finished up their morning routines and prepared to face the day. His dad, Greg, would soon be heading off to his accounting job, his mom, Martha,  dropping his little brat of a sister off at Shermer Middle School and then leaving for the bank. But as sick as Bill was getting of waiting, riding to school with his sister would have just gotten him laughed at. And probably late anyway, as his mom would insist that ‘Kimmy’ would be dropped off first and make him tardy by the time they circled back to the high school. No, Bill would just keep waiting for Tom whilst he ruminated on his troubles, petty though they may have seemed in the grand scope of things.

Originally the problem had just been Rob Bolstrum, and his group of lackeys known as ‘Bolstrum’s Bullies’. Rob himself was a hulking, twice held back redheaded slab of meat with a side of anger. The scarred not-quite-a-teen-anymore had dogged Bill through his life though especially once Bill had gotten into high school and Rob dropped his ‘wouldn’t beat up little kids’ rule. No, Bill had spent the first year of high school getting running from the Rob and his gang of goons…Or getting ambushed and bribing his way out of having the ever-loving crap punched out of him. But Rob was more like a storm; scary and a little dangerous but you could ultimately just wait for him and his bullies to pass you by. No, the bigger threat to Shermer High and Bill in particular arrived last year, and in the form of Jonathan Ingerman. Jonathan, or ‘Big Jon’ as he was quickly nicknamed, was the improved, master bully. Incredibly handsome, with strong Nordic good looks, wavy blonde hair and almost as heavily stacked as Rob, all of that was combined with an even more sinister trait; intelligence and being absolutely filthy rich. Big Jon had come home after getting kicked out of some private school on the East Coast. Son of the international businessman Ragnar Ingerman, CEO of IngerCorp and one of the wealthiest men on the planet Earth, Jonathan had wasted no time in establishing his dominance of the entire school body. Including Rob Bolstrum and his bullies.

And where Rob was a storm, Big Jon was a predator. Big Jon would stalk you and wait for just the right moment to pounce. He’d offer you something, a shot at popularity, test answers, you could even take out loans with him! But he held it over you with interest. And once you were on Big Jon’s radar, you NEVER got off of it. There were rumors he was exerting control over last years Seniors, now away at college! Where Bill had preferred Bane, he eventually had to deal with his own Lex Luthor. The good one from the old Justice League cartoon. And maybe a little Jesse Eisenberg. Either way, Bill had stood up to Big Jon and had even managed to embarrass the petty crime lord of Shermer High, and now Bill had to watch his back; no one had EVER seen Big Jon that angry.

That was why Bill was sitting on his front porch getting ready to walk to school instead of driving his beat up little car. He was waiting for his best bud Tom. There was strength in numbers, after all, and Tom was no slouch. Tom wasn’t nearly as strong or buff as Big Jon or Rob, but he was tough and could throw a mean punch. And he was, or at least had been, pretty untouchable. Shermer High’s administration might have been terrified of Big Jon, but Tom was the best athlete the school had, who was the star of the baseball, basketball AND football teams. The superintendent, Mr. Chandler drew the line and had demanded that Big Jon leave Tom alone. And the petty kingpin had, up until Tom’s otherwise sterling reputation was dragged through the gutter by one Gloria Vanapolous.

Gloria was the ‘queen’ of Shermer High. Absolutely gorgeous, with long, raven black hair, large and natural boobs, a tight ass and a impeccable fashion sense, Gloria was second to the top of Shermer’s teenage social ladder, having only been ‘unseated’ by who else but Jonathan Ingerman. She and Tom had been together for…well, she, Bill and Tom had all been friends in kindergarten up until fifth grade. After which Gloria’s need for control and popularity had shoved Bill away like rotten and used toilet paper while she hung on to Tom. The two had been an on-again/off-again couple for years and now, at the height of her, well, queen-bitchiness, Gloria had seemingly dumped Tom for good and had drug his name through the dirt by spreading horrible rumors about her ex. It had taken a toll on Tom, as Gloria had a way of convincing people that she was right; her lies were always the perfect amount of extravagant and grounded. Even Tom’s PARENTS believed the rumors!

So now Tom wasn’t as much protection as he used to be. But still, Bill was Tom’s best friend. Maybe his ONLY friend right now, and Bill wasn’t going to abandon him. Plus it was still safer than either of them taking their vehicles to school and risking them being vandalized. But as Bill looked at his smartwatch, and watched as the minutes ticked closer and closer to 8AM…He was going to have to make a decision; he couldn’t be late again so would he have to risk going alone, or wait for Tom and the two of them sprint to school? Even if the school district was a few blocks away, Bill didn’t fancy having to be that energetic this early, plus getting that sweaty and stinking for the rest of the day. With a heavy sigh he made his choice.

But as Bill stood from the porch chair he’d been sitting in, deciding that he’d risk walking alone, there was a strange green flash around him. He’d been reaching for his backpack when it had happened, staring down at the collection of nylon and zippers so he didn’t see where it came from, but he jerked his head up anyway, eyes darting around in confusion. Was Rob or Big Jon hiding out in the bushes with a laser pointer, getting ready to shoot him with paintballs? But then Bill saw it.

There, sitting on the painted wood of the porch railing, was a tiny, teardrop shaped gemstone. It was a vibrant and deep green, an emerald…But there was something inside it!

“What the…” Bill muttered, and he leaned in close to inspect the gemstone that he KNEW hadn’t been there a moment ago.

Inside of the gemstone was another teardrop, though this one seemed shaped out of solid gold! Bill slowly reached out and plucked the mysterious emerald up, holding it between his index finger and thumb as he brought it within an inch of his eye. Was the gold…moving? Bill could swear that the gold flakes that made up the inner teardrop were flowing! In an endless loop!

“Holy shit!” The teen exclaimed, pulling the gem away from his eye and letting it sit face-up in his palm. It was almost like the Time Stone from the Marvel movies! But Infinity Stones were fake...right? Bill had to admit, sometimes he really, REALLY liked the idea that the Multiverse may truly exist and he was just...existing in some far off one that was completely normal and that all the heroes were just movie actors and superheroes were fiction. But the brief moment of hyper-imagination passed as Bill came back down to Earth. No, this was just a regular gemstone but...

Where had this thing come from? Was it his mom’s? Did the old fashioned and conservative Martha Strasserman even own something this flashy? Or had it truly just appeared out of nowhere?Bill looked around, thinking maybe this was some kind of prank by the bullies, maybe he’d catch them leering in the bushes or something…But no, the street was quiet and peaceful, nothing but the birds singing in the trees. Bill felt his hand close around the gemstone; he’d show it to Tom when he got here and-

But Bill’s train of thought paused just then. Where WAS Tom!? He was going to make both of them late and Bill didn’t need another detention just because his friend was being all sad and pathetic! That loser of a former all-star was always doing this to him now! ARGH, it just made Bill so…so ANGRY! Without realizing it, Bill’s had closed tighter around the gemstone, but the geeky boy was too busy glaring down the street to notice the green-gold glow that was flickering from between his fingers. Bill’s temper continued to rise before he couldn’t take it anymore and he bared his teeth as he began to say “I wish-“

“HEY, BILL!” A voice called out and jerked Bill out of his rage. He stared, dumbstruck at the figure rounding the corner and heading across the street towards him, never noticing the verdant aura fading away within his hand. And there Bill Strasserman stood, on the front porch of his home as the figure approached him.

Who was it?

VOTE IN THE POLL FOR WHO IS WALKING UP TO BILL! INFLUENCE THE STORY AND VOTE!