I imagine myself perched on a ledge. No... a precipice. The sun is just starting to crest over the peaks to the right of me, and my world turns a thousand shades of violet, crimson, amber, white, lavender and brilliant deep blue, as it illuminates the snow and ice that surround everything. I have already conquered the world; I have outposts and deep-space reconnaissance posts on the moon, Mars, Io, Europa, a number of super space stations in orbit of various outlying bodies in this Solar System, and a fleet of deep-space vessels exploring our galaxy and perhaps beyond.

I dont know where they are. They are on their way, I have seen to that much.. the rest it out of my hands. But only by choice. After creating the largest human entity in existence, a monster in and of itself, I have retired to pursue my true passion. After spending 4 years in Thailand to study Muay Thai, walking to the Shao Lin temple in China for 6 years to perfect my Wushu, Tai Chi Chuan, Wing Chun and Shaolin Kung Fu, and traveling to Japan to pursue NinJiutsu, I have come here. This is it... the test. Either it is the end, or yet another beginning.

As the sun cleares the jagged shred of Earth behind and to the right of me, I turn around and face my adversary. A wall of rock and ice; a testament to the extreme. Directly behind me lies tens of thousands of feet of empty space, followed by a sudden stop. I breathe the fresh air in deeply, and cringe slightly as I feel the moisture in my lungs freeze just a bit. Mmmmmm.... Mt. Everest, I am here. I am wearing an outfit of my own engineering, conceived and constructed by me personally. I am fond of the garb of the ninja, and as such have created a micro-fiber suit with thousands of nano-layers of reactive and ultra-insulating material. It is not bulky, but it provides adequate enough heat retention. Enough for me to have nothing but that, and a small bag of equipment slung across my back, not even heavy enough for me to notice.

If I reach the top of my home planet with nothing but this, I will have done everything I was set on this Earth to do. If I make it back down alive, I clearly was not made to die yet. My next course of action is the final frontier...


Here goes nothing..

I look up and leap..