MLFW Part 1- "Welcome To My World"

"Welcome To My World" is the first Part of "Miracula Luxia: Four Worlds". It was released on 28.01.2020.
== Plot ==
The story begins with Jared, Annie, Lancelot and Stephanie trying to help the people of Paris overcome the nightmare that is the destruction of their dear city.
Knowing that there is almost no time left before another attack occurs, Jared makes the task to keep the people of Paris safe a top priority, above every other task he was thinking about (Including the task to search for his family).
== Story ==
"Wake up, Jared! Wake up!"
Jared heard a mysterious voice calling out to him, trying to get his attention.
"D-Dad?"- He said, not realizing that he wasn't really with him anymore.
"Jared! Please, wake up! Stop worrying me!"
Jared finally realized that the voice wasn't a male one. It was that of a girl.
Someone very familiar to him.
He slowly opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on the ground, surrounded by three people.
One of the people was Annie Mitchell, his best friend-turned-girlfriend. The second was her brother- Lancelot. And the third... well, the third was a mysterious priest known as Stephanie Whitebrand (whose past was almost unknown to him).
He looked at his girlfriend and smiled, seemingly realizing what had happened to him.
"Annie."- He said and gently touched her cheek with his fingers.
Annie blushed.
"Thank Goodness, dear! Do you know how worried I have been for the last few hours?!"
Jared looked up and saw a ruined city.
His hometown was in ruins and there was little time for him to rest.
"Hours?"- He asked Annie quietly.
She nodded.
"Yup. For three hours, you've been sleepin' like a dead thing. And we've been watching over you, killing anyone who tried to hurt you."
Jared stood up and shook up the dirt from his clothes and hair.
Then he noticed something weird. He touched his hair and noticed that it was longer.
"How long has it been?"
"What do you mean?"- Annie asked him- "Did you have a dream or something?"
"I'm not sure. It feels weird when you're sleeping. I dreamed of my father, you and John. I dreamed of my mother as well."
"I also dreamed of my uncle. Saw how he died."
He turned to Annie.
"Did... did it really happen? Was it a reality?"
Annie shaked her head.
"I'm sorry, Jared. It did happen."
Jared fell to his knees and started crying.
"No, Uncle. No... "- He cried for his uncle, but was stopped by Stephanie who made him stand up.
"Oh, come on, Jared. You need to man up! Those events happened many years ago, your uncle is long gone! And the rest of your family is missing. But that's not important, because we need to save this godforsaken place from more harm!"
Jared was speechless to hear what he didn't know earlier. Stephanie sighed.
"Listen, Jared, you shouldn't let fear overtake you. You must let your past be a past, not a present and think about our future. You're the person who knows the most about how to save this place and we need your help. Remember how you showed me that I can believe in myself? Until recently, I didn't, but now I know that this is what we have left- the belief that we can succeed and defeat those bastards. You get it, don't you?"
Jared nodded.
"Yes. But... what happened to my family?"
Stephanie sighed and explained how his family left Paris shortly before its destruction, two months ago.
Jared sighed.
"Well. Any traces of them?"
His allies shaked their heads.
"Not a trace."- Lancelot said- "We searched. And searched. But they left no clues to where they might be located. Secretive folks, I should say."
"I hope that we can find them later. Well, what do we have to do now?"
Annie, Lancelot and Stephanie looked at him, surprised by his question.
"I thought that you know what we have to do!"- Annie exclaimed.
"You're our leader, after all. You have to know!"- Lancelot added.
Jared raised his eyebrow.
"What do you mean "I have to know"?! I just woke up from a bad dream!"
Lancelot shaked his head.
"I know. But you're our leader. A leader always knows what to do next. It is his priority."
"Just because I'm the leader of this party doesn't mean that I have to know everything! Please, give me a break."- Jared yelled.
Stephanie stepped in and stopped a potential argument.
"Leave the kid alone. He just woke up and needs to regain his senses. We should think about a plan with our own heads, people!"
Annie thought about this.
"Well, helping people is a very good thing, but we must think about building an extra layer of defense for the city, in case of a potential attack from the hostiles."
Gears started turning in Jared's head. He interrupted Annie and said what he thinks they should do:
"We should split up. Two of us will help the people in the city feel safe and sound and the other two will help building the defenses of the city."
"Most of the defenses are already build and ready to "Shoop and Woop", so it should be a piece of cake to build the rest."- Lancelot noted.
Annie stood close to her boyfriend and hugged him.
"I volunteer to be with Jared. I feel safest with him!"
Jared looked at her and shaked his head.
"In my current state, I cannot offer you a lot of protection, Annie. You should go with your brother. I will go with Steph."
"Oh, come on, J!"- Lancelot said- "She's your girlfriend, not mine! You promised to keep her safe when the two of you fell in love and I expect you to do so. Got it?"
Jared looked down and nodded.
"You're right. I just thought that it would be better for her to be with you, since you're her brother."
"I know. But she trusts you the most and depends on your love and support. So, you know what to do."
"As you say."- Jared said and looked up.
"Looks like a lot of damage has been done here. And we need to fix it. Okay, team: The two of you will go and make sure that the construction is going well while me and Annie help Paris's residents who are in need."
"Then it's set. We'll go separate ways, but we won't stop communicating."
Lancelot handed Jared a walkie-talkie.
"Use this to speak with me. Tell us if something's amiss and we'll come to help you."
Jared nodded and smiled.
"Thank you, Lance."
Lancelot smiled.
"No problem, J. Stay safe and don't forget to protect my sister."
"I will."- Jared said and went to the west with Annie.
Lancelot and Stephanie went the other way, to the east.
"So, how old am I now?"- Jared asked Annie.
"Really? You don't remember that your birthday was three days ago?"- She wondered- "Jesus, Jared. You're 19! Does that answer your question?"
Jared looked down and hugged her.
"I'm sorry. I'm just really confused."
"I know. I know. Don't sweat it. Save your energy for helping the cityfolk."- Annie said and kissed him on the cheek.
For a moment, Jared felt more relaxed. As if he was around his family.
Yes. It is now more than clear that Annie is quite important to him when it comes to "feel safe" and "have someone to love".
He kissed her back.
"I love you, Annie."- He said.
Annie smiled.
"I love you too, dear."- She responded.
They continued walking towards the western part of the city.
Jared noticed a beggar on the street and approached him.
"Hello there, kind sir."- The man said- "Do you have a coin to spare? I lost my home and I need some gold to rebuild it."
Jared looked at him and noticed that he had burns on the palms of his hands.
Annie shaked her head.
"Listen, Jared. We help people, but we can't just give our coins away like charity boxes!"- She whispered to Jared.
Jared, however did not listen to her and decided to give a few coins to the miserable man.
He found a few coins in his pocket. Without hesitation, he gave them to the man who was overjoyed by the donation.
"Thank you, oh almighty Kaos! Today you saved the life of a poor, grieving man. For that, I will always praise you and your family!"
Having said that, the man entered the ruins of his house and tried to plan about what to do next.
Annie looked at Jared coldly.
"Really? You... gave him your coins? But you could have used those to buy the crossbow you've always wanted. And you just, just... gave them away. Why?"- She scolded him.
Jared raised his eyebrow.
"Does it matter that I have a fancy crossbow or not? The man needed the money more than I do. And that's why I helped him."
"It reminds me of how I helped you once. Do you remember that."
Annie smiled and hugged him again. Boy, she is surely a cuddly type.
"I will never forget it."- She said.
Jared and Annie looked around. They saw a person, trapped under the wreckage of a shop. They quickly helped him get away from the rubble, knowing that even a single mistake could mean certain death for him.
The man thanked them and introduced himself as "Bartholomew".
"You can call me Bart. Anyway, that doesn't matter now. Thank you, folks. I thought that I was gonna die there, but now I'm out of this rubble. I cannot thank you enough. I am the owner of this shop, maybe I can give you something as a reward?"- He asked them.
Annie tried to say "Yes", but Jared stopped her.
"Listen, mister. There is no need for you to give us anything. Your thanks are enough for us. Just go back to your shop and try to scavenge your supplies out of the rubble, okay?"
"Oh, no!"- Bart said- "I know that you're of the righteous type of heroes, but I still want to give you something for the efforts. My honor demands me to do so. Wait here."
Jared and Annie waited for a few minutes as he entered the ruined shop. Finally, he came out with a beautiful, red crossbow.
He gave it to Jared and smiled.
"High quality. It is able to shoot bolts infused with every element. Just click the button and it'll change the element. Gotcha?"
"Incredible."- Jared stared at the powerful new weapon in his hands- "The "Mega Crossbow x3000 K"! One of the newest models of mechanical crossbows. I'm... I'm thrilled."
He shed a tear and smiled, reminding himself of his sister who loved to use crossbows when they were fighting the evil together (three years ago).
Bart patted Jared on the shoulder and grinned.
"Good luck, righteous heroes. May the light of Godcat shine upon you! and illuminate the right way for you to go."
"Thank you, sir."- Jared said and left the area with the shop, along with Annie.
Annie looked at him and wondered what was going through his head now. She hasn't seen him so conflicted for quite a while. 
However, this was pretty familiar to her and she knew how to cheer him up.
In a fun way.
"Jared, I wanted to tell you something."- She said to him.
He looked at her.
"I'm listening. What is it?"
She smiled.
"Well, I'm... I'm... "- She stuttered.
Something was clearly on her mind.
"You are... ?"
She got close to him.
"I'm pregnant!"
"Ah!"
Jared stood back, surprised by the unexpected news.
"You-you're... p-pregnant?! And you say it n-now?!"- He stuttered.
Annie giggled.
"I got ya, didn't I?"- She said.
Jared looked at her, confused.
"What do you mean by that?"
"I just wanted to cheer you up a little! You seemed so down ever since you woke up."
"Sorry about that."- She added.
Jared sighed and looked at her.
"So. Are you really pregnant?"
Annie grinned.
"Well, not really. If I was, I would have told you immediately after you woke up. But no, I'm not."
Jared smiled.
"Well, maybe one day when you tell me "Jared, I'm pregnant" it will be true."
"I promise that it'll be! No jokes and fuzzles!"- Annie said.
Jared leaned forward to kiss Annie, surprising her and making her blush.
Just as she was about to do the same they heard a scream coming from nearby.
Jared looked up and saw a bunch of people fighting.
"Hostiles!"- He yelled- "Annie, we have to help the innocents! They don't deserve this!"
"Well, I... wait, wait!"- Annie beckoned Jared to wait, but he didn't listen to her.
She sighed.
"He's always in a hurry for a reason. He wants to save the world and has no time for romance. Poor him."- She said to herself and went after him, wishing to see what was going on there.
== Trivia ==
* "Welcome To My World" mentions the name of Godcat. Godcat is the name of a god who created the kitten race in the "Epic Battle Fantasy" series. She has two personalities which she uses to protect her children and destroy all who oppose her and endanger the kitten race. Eventually, the cats befriended the humans. As a punishment for that, Godcat removed their arms and legs, making them practically unable to do anything (an example is NoLegs- a character introduced in the series of games who doesn't have any arms and legs, just like the rest of his race. During the events of "Epic Battle Fantasy 4" Godcat was idolized by the kitten race who wished to summon her, despite the danger she was going to pose to the world after it happened. However, this didn't happen thanks to the actions of the main characters (Matt, Natalie, Lance, Anna) who managed to defeat her and force her to leave their world for good, but not before wishing them good luck.
The small story told above is included in the canon story of the "Epic Battle Fantasy" series.