Five

Barque was told by snake, his own pet King snake, Princess. In all the years they'd been together, this was the first time he had ever heard her talk, yet somehow her voice was not very different from how he'd always imagined it would be. Princess herself seemed ashamed, and held a look in her eyes that expressed the notion that none of this was her idea, and that the words she spoke were not her choice. Barque realized this and patted her head gently.
"The Hidden One, you say? Aha! So she does exist! I thought so. Never believe anything anyone tells you, Princess. Take it from me and don't believe a word."
Barque sprang to his feet from a squatting position and leaped a few times into the air, vainly trying to snatch at the leaves of the Black Walnut tree above him.
"Adventure time!" he announced with glee, and wrapping the snake around his bare shoulders, he strode off with great speed, as if it was a matter of great urgency. It was his way. A sixteen year-old, and having been sixteen for a few decades already, Barque loved nothing more than to maximize his physical attributes. He was tall, lean, extraordinarily fit and full of far more energy than he could ever exhaust. Nothing moved fast enough for Barque, not the wind, not the swiftest bird, and certainly not the world itself. He often felt as if he could soar beyond existence if he could only find the path. He searched for it continually.
Barque was a Striker, and it was the only thing that kept him sane. He was driven to be the best, and for a few seasons in a row now, he was. No one amassed more points. No one was more dreaded by the Saviors, who secretly banded together in futile attempts to stop him. He knew all about their weaknesses, and realized they spied on him continually, either in person or through paid agents. He trusted no one. Even his own teammates might be controlled by this illegal gang of salvation artists. It didn't bother him at all. In fact, it merely boosted the sense of challenge and his already quite overgrown pride.
He had his followers too, some perpetual eight-year olds among them, but mostly a legion of sixteen year old girls and thirty-two year old women who competed for his attentions in a continuous carnival of temptation. Others called it 'The Barque Parade' when they saw these females lining his path when word spread of his appearance in the region. This season was yet another tour of triumph for the Striker. He had pounded home goals in every quadrant, against every competition, compiling a near perfect record. Only two times so far had his shot been thwarted, both times by his greatest nemesis, little Ember, or as he called her, 'The Dwarf'. Somehow she'd managed to spring from nowhere both times, at the very last second, to divert his ball from the goal.
He'd sworn his revenge, but secretly admired her while considering her compatriots with contempt. All he had in this world were enemies or groupies, with the exception of Princess, of course, and he was ready for a change. He had no doubt The Hidden One had selected him, and him alone, for a mission of critical importance, because obviously she would need the strongest, the fittest, the most talented, not to mention the best-looking immortal of the bunch. It did not occur to him that any mission might not call for any such qualities. No such task could be important enough to associate itself with the legendary Hidden One, she who had not been seen or heard from for what seemed like decades. Most people said there was no such creature, it was merely a fairy tale told to pass the time, like the legend of the Green Ripper, or the story of the Lone Grizzly who still wandered the forest, somehow eluding its hundreds of inhabitants. It was true that Barque also believed in the Grizzly, having seen some impressive footprints by the shores of Lake Thor. And he would not have been surprised if he happened to encounter the Ripper in person. He still remembered metal, and blades, though it had been a very long time since he'd seen them. Despite the sage advice he had recently given to Princess, Barque himself believed almost everything anyone told him.
This is how he knew he must go to the Particular tree. It was a tree unlike any other, although any casual observer would have noticed upon arrival on those parts that this forest contained nearly every variety of tree that was known to the planet. It had in fact begun as a private arboretum, the property of a famous scientific institution which had specialized in experiments of genetic variation. The forest had expanded over time until one day an accident occurred in a lab on the campus, an error which ended up swallowing the institute's buildings entirely and creating a zone of disturbance unlike anything that had ever been seen. People who ventured inside were never known to come out. From the outside there was nothing unusual, but soon it was discovered that anything that went in there stayed in. It became a sort of handy disposal, a kind of infinite landfill. Initially the trash stowed in there were results of other failed science experiments, genetic mutations gone wrong and gone wild, but eventually anything at all undesirable was consigned to the black hole they called the Canopus.
Barque was an undesirable too. A star athlete since childhood, he'd found himself the adored quarterback and captain of the high school football team. He excelled to such an extent that his team made its way to the national finals. There he was recruited by colleges, and he went to the best, the most famous and, unfortunately for him, the most exposed. He was measured and inspected almost daily. It could not go unnoticed that his body didn't change. He didn't gain weight. He didn't build muscle. He was exactly the same at allegedly nineteen and then twenty. He won national championships and trophies for his college, but the rumors leaked out, the media picked up the story, and 'the boy who could do no wrong' became 'one of them'. The tables turned quickly on him, and he was suddenly just as reviled as he'd been previously worshiped. Now he was considered a cheater, a phony, a fraud. They suspected him of being much older in years than he was. In fact, he had only been sixteen for a few years by that time, but he was hauled in one day and sent to be "studied".
Barque was a willing participant at first. Always eager, ever optimistic, he was certain they'd find their mistake and set him back on his great path to glory. They didn't. The poked and they prodded and they took lots of samples. They twisted and bent and they drilled lots of holes. They took lots of notes. They kept him a prisoner for who knows how long. All he knew was the food wasn't good and the gym was quite insufficient. He spent most of his time doing jump rope or push-ups or running. He would run for at least twenty miles every day. Finally they simply gave up. Putting him down was considered, but he had such charisma and such were the times they decided to dump him instead. He was lucky at that. Most of his generation were disposed of quite differently. It was an era of "Ultimate Purging".
In the forest he fit in right away. He'd come into the game right away and soon became Striker. He'd found this world to his liking and in a short time had almost completely forgotten the other. Now he sped on his way toward the Particular tree.
"This is good," he said to himself. "It's about time we had something new".