Imperium: Volume 1
Chapter 1.

"Get up Juniper! Stop wasting my god damn time and do it again!" He yelled.

"I can't!" I said gasping for air.

"You think the Dominion is going to stand there and give you time to catch your breath!? Do that..and you might aswell consider yourself dead. Now get up!" He yelled again.

"Dad. I can't do it anymore!" Still trying to replace air to fill my lungs, and pushed to my limits, I laid there on the bare floor, completely drained of energy.

"Juniper! get off the floor. We aren't done till I say we're done! Now get up!" He yelled again.

"Stop it!" I covered my ears to stop the relentless screaming that echoed through the room.

"Juniper!"

"Just stop it..I can't...." I was pleading.

"Juniper!!"

"I said STOOOOOPPPP!!!" My body felt super charged by the sudden surge of energy. A thunderous explosion expelled from my body forcing out a shrieking scream that even deafened me. The force of energy I just released ended up propelling my father from where he once stood, into the wall, and landing stomach first onto the cold concrete. I watched as he tried to catch his breath. He then looked at me with a smile.

"Good June....good." He said.

He slowly got up and dusted off his clothing, removing the wall debris from his shoulders. He took in a deep breath and looked at me.

"Again."

......................

I woke up sweating and clasping my chest, gasping for air. The pain tightening and burning, while I threw myself onto my knees. I took deep breathes in and out trying to calm my nerves as I tried to put together the memory that just so violently woke me up.

I sat with my back against the wall, when I was able to control my breathing again.

It had been 6 years since that day happened with my father. Many days were spent like that, trying to harness my power and gain control over it. Making myself one with it.

He started training me when I was 10. It started out small, where I could only project small amounts of energy from my fingertips, but after years of diligence and countless sessions, I was able to surge the power throughout my entire body.

Once I was able to do that, we found numerous ways to put it to use. I could use to force or implode away objects, aswell as harness the energy into impenetrable force fields. We also learned that my emotions could also change the severity of the implosion. That was something we learned that night when I was 15.

I was born into a time where an army called The Dominion, ravaged cities, looking to put and end to our kind. Ruled by General Elias, he and his Dom Squad were ruthless believers in the eye of god, and that any man, woman or child that pocesses an unnatural power, were either executed on sight or imprisoned. Any one who helped us, were treated no differently.

My father escaped the grasp of the regime, before they attacked our city. We lived in hiding for a few years before he felt I was ready for training. During that time we came across many refugees that fled from cities and towns. There were only a few other imperiums that I came across during our travel to abandoned waste lands. Many of them being caught or killed.

A year ago, a group of us who travelled together got ambushed by the Dom Squad. They managed to kill a few of us, taking some for imprisonment. One of those being my father. I was able to get away with the help of my abilities, but not before they caught up to him. I've been on the search for him, and with word making it's way around camps about a resistance, it didn't take too long before I set out looking for them.

All I had to do was replace them, but navigating through Dominion territory and outposts prolonged my efforts to seeking the resistance. I kept my head down, and never used my powers unless absolutely necessary.

They couldn't detect whether you had one or not. The only thing that did was a brand they gave you, that sat on your forearm shortly after you were caught.

If you were caught and posed a threat you were immediately shot on sight. Anything lesser, and you were sent to a life of misery. Other then that, they assumed you were human, and could pass unscathed through borders as long as you had the fake documents to prove it. My father would kill me, if he knew I was walking into the lions den, but if I was going to replace him, I would choose to be killed by him then The Dominion.

That is....if he's still alive.

I got up from the place I laid, and packed up my small amount of belongings into my back pack. Scarfed down a granola bar, and placed my cap on to hide my face. I made my way out of this small rundown shed and continued on foot down the dirt path, that was going to lead me to a small town named Gypsy.

A town that consisted of mainly human refugees, and was known by other imperiums, to have helped or even housed my kind temporarily. There I would try and replace some answers.