I hurried out from the school grounds and finally had a weight lifted off me. No more pee boy, no more laughter and no more Alexis. I chewed on my nails and tried to hurry home. However, no matter how far I got from the school building, my mind hadn't left. The kids' laughter replayed in my head over and over again. Then there was the cherry on top. Alexis finally admitted it after months. She likes Zack.

I really should’ve seen this coming. I'm so stupid for thinking I had a chance. I'm just the weird quiet kid. No wait, I'm the weird pee drinker kid now. I'll never compare to him. Zack was cool, he had style, he could dance, and he's funny!

Like someone as cool as her would date someone as lame as me…

I looked up and my hand dropped from my mouth. All my thoughts came to a stop and I just stared. There before me, was Zack himself, who waved excitedly at me. Huh, come to think of it. All of the problems I had today were because of him… A flicker of rage hit me and I stomped over to him, forcing on a big smile.

"Hey Stry—!" He stopped and squinted his eyes. "Oh, this isn't good," he mumbled and started to take some steps back.

Before he could run, I grabbed his shoulder and kneed him in the nuts. He dropped onto the floor and whined.

"Ah! Can't you take a joke!?" He yelped and curled up into a ball.

"That's for the face paint, and oh yeah, Alexis wants you to ask her to Homecoming " I said cheerfully.

"Oh come on man have mercy! I can’t control my devilish charms!”

I looked him over for a moment. Even if I can knock him to the ground, it's not like it changes anything. I sighed.

"Alright, get up."

Zack managed to struggle to his feet, but stayed hunched over.

"Look man! I can't control my sexiness!”

I grumbled.

"Look, I know I may seem a bit mad-"

"A bit? You crushed my walnuts!"

"But! All I want is for Alexis to be happy. You talk about her enough, so I know you have a thing for her too. So don't worry about me. Just take her to the dance, alright?"

A pit formed in my stomach and I suddenly felt sick. Even the smile I had on was beginning to feel like a workout. But I needed to keep smiling. This wasn't about me, it was about her and Zack. Besides, this isn't that big a deal right? It's just a girl.

I looked him in the eye and he looked back into mine. We stared at each other for a moment, until Zack finally looked away.

"Fine!" he groaned. "Man, I don't think I'll ever win one of those."

"Good. Now let's get out of here."

With that, we headed out of the school grounds and started our trek down the road. Most of the walk was me yelling at Zack over the face paint. But as we were about halfway to my house, we saw two Red Steel gang members walking toward us. One was tall and had a Red Steel beam bandana tied to his arm, while the other guy had his hood up and a bandana covering his mouth. As we got close, they stopped walking and blocked our path.

"Hey kids, remember me?" The guy with the hood said.

He reached up and pulled his hood off, revealing his shiny head. Then it clicked.This was the same guy from yesterday! Before I had a chance to say anything, Baldy ran in and buried his fist into Zack’s face. Zack instantly dropped and I charged in, but Baldys friend anticipated me. He leaped forward and dropped his fist on my head. I stumbled back and grabbed my face, damn that stung! When I looked forward again I saw the tall guy running into the alley, while Zack and baldy were gone. I took a breath, then darted toward the alley.

When I turned the corner, I saw them both atop of Zack, beating the crap out of him. I charged in and tacked them off. Then rolled to my feet and hopped up. I turned back to check on Zack and I lost my voice. Zack was up, and running away!

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"He didn’t just—"

I didn’t even have time to worry about him. Baldy was up and running in at me with a raised fist. I moved forward and held up my guard. He started to throw punches and I decided to just dodge and wait for my opening.

He swung like a child and stumbled with almost every strike. So I took advantage of that. I ducked a right hook and came up with an uppercut. He stumbled back from my strike and I followed up by punching him in the face over and over again. His blood painted my fist and I went in for what I hoped was a finisher. But right before I could get him, his friend ran in and sucker punched me.

I exaggerated my stumbling and got some distance between us. I could taste that familiar coppery taste in my mouth. I eyed the two men and spit the blood out.The big guy just glared at me.

"Bet you think you're tough huh?" He growled. I didn't respond. Which seemed to piss him off even more. "You speak when spoken to brat!"

He ran at me and his friend followed behind. I darted forward at baldly and kicked him in the nuts. He dropped toward me and I grabbed his body, shielding me from his friend. I stepped back with him and then kicked him at his partner, who hopped back.

"Ahh Danny…kill this kid.." The big guy whined.

"Low blow." His friend snickered.

I couldn't help but smile. The stinging on my knuckles, the back to back blows. This felt amazing.

"A fight’s a fight right?" I said.

"Smiling, what a freak." The tall man said and went into his pocket, pulling out a switchblade.

Damn, you’ve gotta be kidding me…

I tried to think of a strategy, but something stole my attention away. From out of the corner of my eye, I could see Zack at the entrance of the alley. He was making gestures for me to come back to his end. That knucklehead didn't leave me after all!

I took a step back and the man suddenly lunged at me. My eyes traced over him and my body just moved. I let the blade stab into my arm, while I got ahold of his. Then, I turned and flipped him over my shoulder, slamming him into the pavement.

"Come on! Get back!" Zack yelled.

I turned back to him and charged.

As I got closer to him, I could see he was holding something up in his hands. I couldn't make it out at first, but when I got to him, it all became clear. Zack was holding a lit molotov! I started debating if this was even real, but my heart almost pounding out of my chest answered that for me.

"Suck it you freaks!" Zack roared.

He leaned back and chucked the bottle at the two mens feet. As soon as it hit the ground it erupted to life. The crimson, white flames blanketed the alley. The men's silhouettes flailed around inside the fire that worked desperately to consume them whole. I tried to get myself to move, but my entire body was frozen. The bodies eventually lost their will and just dropped to the ground, the flames picking at them like Vultures.

"Z-zack, we need to hel-"

My words were suddenly ripped from my throat. There weren't just two figures in the fire anymore, there were three. The figure of an angel appeared behind the men. Its wings stretched out and curled around the two. Then, they were just gone. The weight that was holding me down vanished and forced myself up.

"Zack did you s-"

"Yeah I did."

We both watched as the fire rapidly began to die down. Till there was nothing left. Leaving no sign behind that it had even happened.

"No, it can't be. The fire...it's...it's gone!" Zack croaked.

He darted back into the alley and started running his hands over the brick walls. I followed behind and looked around. As far as I could tell not a thing was out of place. No ash, no scorch marks, just some old dirty alley. That's when I had the realization, this was the same Alley we saw the old man in.

"It's cold," Zack muttered.

I wanted to believe I was hallucinating. But Zack's reaction said it all. We both definitely saw this.

My thoughts were interrupted as an intense stinging pain shot through my arm. The knife wound cut deeper than I thought. As I focused on the pain, I could feel the cold trail of blood that raced down my arm. I moved my hand over the wound and tried to add pressure. But it didn't help. I grunted and walked over to Zack. The pain reminded me.

"Hey, you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah, I just got a few bruises," he muttered, his eyes still glued to the walls.

He seemed lost, like he had seen a ghost or something. But then again, we just might have.

......

Zack sat back in the chair and tried his best to not leave blood stains on our kitchen table. He had a bloody nose and a few cuts and bruises that I decided to wrap up. As I put a bandage on his arm, his eyes were fixated on mine.

"Woah, Woah dude, your cut looks pretty bad. Fix yourself first."

I ignored him and continued to patch him up.

"Don't worry about me; you know how I am."

Zack sighed and shook his head.

"My hero..."

After I finished with him, I sat back and wrapped up my arm the best I could.

"So let's talk about what's been happening," I blurted out.

"What's there to talk about? I'm sure you know just as much as me," he shot back.

"Well, after what just happened, I don't think it's a coincidence anymore."

"What are you talking about?"

"Think, who else suddenly vanished out of nowhere on us?"

"Every girl you come in contact with."

"Focus you dunce, the old man, remember?"

"Oooh right, the old geezer. I thought he just had the munchies."

"Even if he did, it doesn't add up. Unless he was Houdini."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it. He just so happens to be in the same alleyway the gang just jumped us at? And vanished too? It was a dead-end area, and he vanished as soon as we turned our backs, with no trace. Did you ever stop to think about how random it was for him to have only two masks? And for them to be in perfect condition? He also seemed really poor and frail. I'm sure we would've seen him begging before."

"You have a point, I guess. But what does it mean?"

I sighed and leaned back in the chair.

"Zack, yesterday, do you recall any odd voices?"

"Now that you mention it." He sat back and hummed in thought. "When I went home, I kept hearing these voices saying 'you will be our w-i-z-a-r-d'." He mimicked the words like he was telling a ghost story around a campfire. "I thought it was the TV, or some druggy outside."

"I heard something really similar, they were calling me their knight."

"So Sir Stryder the knight? What a fitting title for you. But anyway, what's your verdict on all this?"

"Well, in every way I look at it, I think something wants to use us for something. The titles I can't figure out. Maybe it's something with our personalities? I don't know."

It was silent for a minute. My mind raced with ideas and possibilities. The knight and the wizard, but why? Why the fire. Why the masks? And why save the thugs? Then something else hit me.

"Zack, what the heck were you thinking!"

He jumped like a startled dog.

"What, what?" he spazzed.

"You brought a Molotov! We could have been killed if that went bad!"

"Well, you always told me to start thinking ahead, so I did," he said with a nervous laugh.

"Not like that!"

"Well, I thought since you're a ninja or whatever, you could handle it, but all I saw was you getting your ass kicked."

"Don't turn this around on me! And watch your language!"

"I thought you said you did martial arts for thirteen years; why the hell did you lose so bad?"

"Shut the hell up. I'm rusty okay!? I can still kick your butt any day!"

"Ha! I got you to say hell," Zack snickered.

I didn't respond. I was going to kill him.