'Why does the universe hate me so much? I didn't fuck the universe's mother, and yet this shit keeps happening!' Jack thought in frustration as he bounded down the boardwalk, making sharp turns as to elude the creature. He made the mistake of turning his head and saw the beast only a few yards behind him. It was a massive, four-legged animal with a dozen eyes and a yellow gemstone embedded in it's forehead. The monster growled loudly when they made eye-contact, promptly causing Jack to veer off towards the beach in an adrenaline rush.

As terrifying as this situation was, it was nothing compared to the one that had happened two weeks ago, or two months ago for that matter. Jack could only groan as he recalled how shitty his life was, always being chased out of town by some freak and narrowly escaping with his life.

Jack could feel his legs wearing out as the exhaustion caught up with him. 'Fuck, not yet! Damn it, why'd I run to the fucking beach?!' He looked around to search for any possible escape routes, but got stuck staring at the cliff in the distance.

The cliff hung over the ocean, with a hill leading down the other side of it, but the strange thing about it was the fact that the whole cliff side was a carved statue of a magical looking person. The whole scene was so breath-taking, in fact, that Jack lost his footing. "SHIT!" he yelled as he fell hard onto the sand. He rolled around quick enough to watch as the beast pounced, blocking out the sun. Jack squeezed his eyes shut, bracing for the impact of instant death.

It never came.

Jack opened his eyes to see three strangers forming a barrier between him and the monster. The one in the middle shouted, "Protect the human!" and all three leapt into action. Stunned, Jack sat there and watched.

The middle one was a pale shade of pink, and was covered in flowy white clothing. They summoned a gauntlet over their right hand and hit the ground with enough force that the beast was knocked back. The tall one was a shade of magenta, and wore a body suit like a superhero that was part black, part red, even part polka-dotted. They jumped what seemed like a hundred feet in the air, effortlessly. As they reached the peak of their ascent, they whirled around mid-air and shot beams of light out of two hand guns. The monster growled in irritation and stayed distracted. The last one, a purple, masculine being with muscular arms protruding from cut-off sleeves, sensed an opening and produced a magnificent sword. They charged at the creature and slashed it twice, causing it to howl in pain. In a fit of rage, it's long tail whipped out and flung the purple one across the beach, landing near Jack.

The creature bounded towards the purple one at an alarmingly fast pace. Jack snapped out of shock-induced stupor and looked toward's the purple one's friends. Both were racing towards him, but there wasn't enough time! Pushing himself off the ground, Jack sprinted towards him and stood between the purple one and the beast. His heart pounded loudly, and the others shouting at him to move barely registered. The monster closed in, and instead of feeling petrified, Jack felt like something was inside himself, ready to protect them. A flash of light blinded him for a moment, then died down to reveal...

A green shield.

The monster crashed into it, destroying both itself and the shield. Jack watched as the shield dissipated into light and receded into his stomach area. He touched his hand there and wondered 'WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?'

"Woah." Jack spun around and looked at the purple one, who looked extremely confused. He also looked like..... a guy. "How did you...?" he started, then shifted his focus past Jack.

"Mark! Are you okay?" The pink guy said as he arrived with "Mark's" other friend.

"He's fine." The other one said, almost automatically.

"Dil, we talked about this, let Mark answer the damn question!"

"I'm fine!" Mark chimed in.

"See?"

The pink guy groaned and pointed at Jack. "What is that?"

"How do you expect me to know that??"

"Oh, now you don't answer my questions?!"

Jack's head was started to spin from listening to this conversation. Suddenly, Mark grabbed Jack's shirt from behind and pulled it up. Jack blushed furiously and tried to pull it back down, but Mark's grip was like iron. The three of them stared at Jack's stomach. Right where his belly button should have been, there was a round, pale green gemstone.

Mark's gripped faltered and Jack tugged his shirt back down self-consciously.

"He's... a gem? Felix, have you ever seen anything like this?" Dil asked nervously.

"No. This is something entirely new." Felix said, narrowing his eyes.

"What do we do with him?" Mark asked.

The dizziness hit Jack again, and he found himself losing balance and falling into someone's arms. All energy left him as he slipped into darkness.