Zach Slinger

**Zachary Calvin "Zach" Slinger** was an American police officer and member of the brothers of the boat. Zach attended the Police Academy in Queens, NYC from 2007-2011 where he graduated at the top of his class. He began his career as a police officer in New York City and gained the nickname "Gunslinger" because he never missed a single shot and he caught many criminals. He was considered a celerity in New York City.

In 2017, Zach was one of two humans abducted from Earth and taken to Monstropolis to help with the construction of Polisto 2. He spent five years away from Earth and the public forgot about him. In 2022 he was rescued by the Brothers of the Boat and joined them, living on the boat for another five years. When the brothers split up in 2027 Zach attempted to regain the fame he had before his abduction. He tried explaining to the public that he was abducted by aliens for five years but nobody believed him and he was unable to get his job as a police officer back.

In the following years Zach moved back to his home state of Alabama and lived alone on a farm practicing shooting guns and exercising. In 2041, Owen Tuckerson sent out a signal to all the original brothers of the boat and Zach was one of the first to return. He went on many missions with the brothers and gained a reputation as the Gunslinger again. In 2044 when half the population of the Earth was killed, Zach helped the brothers collect the ten aspect stones to get everyone back. Zach's final mission with the brothers was fighting the Grand Emperor in his attempt to kill every God which ended when he was killed in battle by the Grand Emperor on December 31st, 2049 at the age of 61.

## Biography

### Early Life

#### Childhood in Alabama

Zachary Calvin Slinger was born in Mobile, Alabama on November 15, 1988 to Eric and Meredith Slinger. Zach grew up in a small farmhouse in Barnwell, Alabama with his parents and three dogs. He attended Fairhope High School in Fairhope, Alabama from 2003-2007 and always dreamed of being a police officer. For the first 18 years of his life he never once left the state of Alabama. The farthest he ever travelled was to Birmingham. He had a deep hatred for the state and wanted to leave it but his parents never had enough money for any sort of vacation and all his immediate family lived in Alabama. Because of this, Zach always hated the song Sweet Home Alabama and every time the song played he got angry, to the point where he shot his radio out of frustration when the song came on once when he was 15. Zach worked hard every summer as a landscaper and saved money to one day leave Alabama.

### Police Career

#### Police Academy

After graduating high school in 2007, Zach traveled to New York City to attend police academy. He worked hard and always did his work which earned him the highest marks in the class. The other students were envious of him and all the praise he received from his teachers. He didn't have many friends but he didn't mind because he considered friends a distraction from his career. The area that Zach particularly excelled at was shooting. From the first time they practiced shooting guns, Zach was a natural and had the best accuracy ever seen at the academy. Zach graduated from the New York Police Academy as the valedictorian and impressed everyone with his speech.

#### Becoming an Officer

Zach became an officer almost immediately after graduating and despite being young, he was one of the best officers in New York City. Zach didn't have to shoot people very often but when he did his accuracy was very impressive. He was always assigned to the most exciting cases, making the other officers envious of him.

#### Gaining a Reputation

Zach became a well known figure and the public gave him the nickname "Gunslinger." He appeared on many news broadcasts and did many interviews. He was involved in some of the most famous police chases of the century, one of which lasted seven hours and ended with a shoot out in Washington D.C. Zach was paid a large salary and he was able to afford a penthouse apartment in Queens. He met lots of women during his career but never let any of them tie him down, preferring to live life on the wild side.

### Going Missing

#### Abduction

One day in 2017, Zach was walking down the street in Queens when a spaceship appeared in the sky above him and sent down a beam of light, bringing him and another man standing near him into the ship. Zach was terrified and confused, two humanoid aliens explained to him and the other man that they were searching the galaxy for a species of life capable of working together to create an entire moon. Zach had trouble processing what was going on and convinced himself it was just a dream. A few days into the journey across the galaxy he realized it was really happening. He discovered that the other man's name was Evan Mason and he was just as terrified as he was. Evan and Zach quickly became friends because they had no other choice. The aliens explained to them that they were being taken to the planet of Monstropolis where they would be tested and experimented on along with many other alien species from throughout the galaxy.

#### Arriving in Monstropolis

When the alien ship landed on Monstropolis and they were let out, Zach and Evan were in shock that they had travelled through the galaxy and were now on a new planet. Many other ships landed nearby and different aliens of all shapes and sizes exited them. They were given uncomfortable beds to sleep in and told that the experiments would begin the next morning.

#### Getting Experimented On

The aliens from Monstropolis conducted many experiments testing the strength, coordination and cooperation of Zach, Evan and all the other aliens. The experiments continued for 30 days and each day a pair of aliens was killed. Zach was terrified of ending up like the other aliens so he performed as well as he possibly could in the experiments. Eventually he and Evan were the only ones remaining. The aliens announced that the humans were chosen to work together to create Polisto 2, the second moon of Monstropolis. They announced that they would summon 4 billion humans from Earth and brainwash them into creating the moon. Zach realized what they had done and he asked the aliens to reconsider. They told him that the decision had been made and they would summon the humans the following day.

#### Creating Polisto 2

4 billion humans were summoned from Earth and brought to Monstropolis. The aliens took control of everyone's minds including Zach's and as one collective consciousness, the humans used materials from Monstropolis to create an entire moon in one day. When the moon was complete Zach and Evan were given their conciseness back and told that because they did so well in the experiment stage, their lives would be spared. The aliens said that every other human would be killed because they served no further purpose.

#### Sending Everyone Back

Soon before every human was going to be killed, the Brothers of the Boat arrived in Monstropolis to rescue everyone. Seeing humans who weren't brainwashed, Zach and Evan quickly explained to them everything they knew about Polisto 2. There was a generator in the center of the moon capable of beaming everyone back to Earth. The brothers hurried to the center of the moon with limited time. When they arrived, Even volunteered to hold down the lever to send everyone back to Earth. Everyone entered the room and Evan held down the lever, the generator began to overheat as it attempted to send all 4 billion humans back to Earth. Evan told everyone to leave the room and to leave him behind, as they left they realized what he was doing but it was too late. Evan closed the door to the generator room as it exploded, killing him. Zach was devastated, having developed a close bond with him over the past month. Before they could process what happened they were all sent back to Earth.

### Returning to Earth

#### Losing Five Years

Having left Earth in January 2017 and being gone for a month or two, Zach expected the date to be February or March 2017 but he was shocked when he found out it was August 2022. The brothers explained to him that it probably had something to do with time dealation on Montropolis. Zach was confused and didn't know what to do in a world five years ahead of him. He went back to Alabama for the first time since 2007 to visit his family only to discover that his father died in 2021. His mother was happy to see him but she didn't believe him when he explained that he had been abducted by aliens for five years. The brothers offered Zach a bed on their boat for as long as he needed and Zach accepted the offer, excited to explore the world with them.

#### Sailing With the Brothers

Zach spent the remaining months of 2022 sailing with the brothers and relaxing, going places such as Puerto Rico, Haiti and Cuba. He spent this time getting to know each of the brothers individually and formed relationships with them. He and Percy got along especially well. He learned about Elbatilla from the elves and he learned about time travel from Owen, greatly expanding his worldview. The brothers told him about their mission to send Owen back into the future and how they planned on creating a functioning time machine.

### Creating a Time Machine

#### Making a Plan

In early 2023, Zach and the brothers stopped sailing and returned home to Miami, Florida to spend the rest of the year creating a time machine to send Owen back to the future. He met James, the father of Luke, Percy, Jake and Will and got along with him well. Over the next month, he helped the brothers make a detailed plan of everything they would need to create a time machine including multiple items from distant planets. When their plan was complete it was time to execute it.

#### Traveling to Elbatilla

Now that their plan was complete, the brothers decided to collect the most challenging item first, a time gem from Mt. Elvantarious on the snow planet Elbatilla, home of the elves. The brothers took a plane to northern Russia then sailed to the island where the elves had crashed three years before. They went inside the elves ship, discovering it to look exactly the same as they had left it, and entered one of it's escape pods that had sustained little damage from the crash. They flew the escape pod out of the ship and into Earth's atmosphere where they found the secret artificial wormhole that lead to Elbatilla orbiting Earth above the Pacific Ocean.

They entered the wormhole and instantly appeared in the atmosphere of Elbatilla. Zach was amazed, despite going to Monstropolis he had never seen another planet from space. Honna flew the ship towards the northern hemisphere of the planet and landed on a small landing pad in the Elvantarian mountains, on the outskirts of city Encho. Honna told them she couldn't land any closer to the mountain because the time gems would interfere with the ships technology so it would be a few day hike until they arrived at Mt. Elvantarious.

Over the next few days, Zach and the brothers hiked through the mountains of Elbatilla, the oxygen got thinner and the weather got colder. They camped in caves and crevices, building campfires and eating small amounts of food. Honna informed them that this was the warmest of the five seasons on Elbatilla and if they had been here in the coldest season they would not be alive. Several days after landing on the planet, they finally saw Mt. Elvantarious emerge from the fog. It took them another day to reach it and after hiking deep into a cave on the side of the mountain, they finally retrieved a time gem. Honna collected it using a glove made out of the hide of an Oronian Chuuka, the only hide strong enough to not melt at he touch of a time gem. She placed it in a thick bag made out of the same substance and they bagan their hike back to the escape pod.

The hike back was just as long as the hike in but it felt shorter because they could recognize more landmarks. Zach took in the view of the beautiful mountains rather than focusing on how cold he was, enjoying every step. Eventually they returned to the escape pod and flew back through the wormhole to Earth, returning nearly a month after they left.

#### Completing the Time Machine

Throughout the rest of the year, Zach and the brothers continued building the time machine, collecting materials from many different places. In September, Luke R. Tuckerson, James' brother, returned to the boat and apologized for being a psychopath. He explained that he had seen the error of his ways and wanted to help with the completion of the time machine. The brothers were not quick to forgive him and Zach watched as Luke and James had a big fight on the boat. Eventually James agrees to let Luke stay on the boat but if he so much as touched one of his sons, James would kill him. Luke agreed and for the next few weeks he helped the brothers complete the time machine. Zach tried to help as much as he could but he wasn't nearly as smart as most of the brothers. In early October the time machine was finally complete and they set it up in a swampy marsh in southern Florida.

#### Traveling to the Future

Zach watched as the brothers activated the time machine and a portal opened to a dark and desolate world 17 years in the future. They all stepped through the portal and arrived in a future Washington D.C. where the white house was painted black and all the surrounding buildings were destroyed. Huge barricades surrounded the white house, protecting it from whatever caused this damage. Owen walked to the door of the Whitehouse and knocked.