This was shaping up to be an evening to remember.

Sonja had, somehow, gotten her hands on the last "Dragon Square " movie which had just came out in japan. I had called Taylor, Keisuke and Aimée and they all dropped their plans and agreed to get to my place around 6 PM. I had three six-packs in the fridge, five pizzas in the freezer, one bottle of cheap whisky on the counter and ten grams of weed in my pocket. Everyone was supposed to gear up before coming in and I knew my friends well enough to know that they were all going to bring their A-game.

5:45 PM. Two pizzas were already in the oven and I had smoked two and half joints. I was getting all giddy inside. The last time I had seen Taylor and Aimée, my dreads were barely reaching the top of my ears. Now, they're dropping well below my shoulders. My buzzer rang. Sonja was already downstairs.

" Open up, Mop-head!"

I sighed.

" Are you ever gonna let that go ?"

Two years earlier, I had to cosplay as a Tekken character, Leroy Smith, after losing a bet and I tried to dye my hair white to complete the look. I still don't really know how but not only did my hair turned greyish instead of white, it also went completely stiff, making me look like I had glued a used mop on my head.

I remember Sonja's face when she saw me turning up at Keisuke's party. I think it took her 0.4 seconds before she bursted out laughing and blurted that oh so well thought out nickname. And the best part is that it stuck. Like stuck stuck. That's how my friends introduce me to theirs now.

Anyway, I let her in and eight minutes later, I heard some loud pounding on my door. Literally sliding on the floor, I opened it with a wry smile. Sonja was staring daggers at me, looking all huffy and sweaty with a bulgy back-pack and two heavy-looking paper bags.

"Wait, did I forget to tell you the elevator's out?"

She flat-out ignored me and, pushing me back, she went straight into my living room and droped the bags on the table before my couch.

" You know I'm going to make you pay for this affront, young man!" She yelled out while I was going into my kitchen.

"Oh come on, that was only nine floors, I'm sure that was easy for you!"

I grabbed two beer cans out of my fridge and went back into the living room. She'd already laid out three enormous bags of funions on the table and was taking out a giant soda bottle out of her back-pack.

"It would have if I didn't have to carry all of that with me ! I know how y'all get when you get the munchies."

She let herself fall on the couch and I threw her one of the beers. She grabbed it without even looking.

"Damn, even like that..." I started.

"I'm still styling on you, yeah!" she laughed.

Unbuttoning her red jacket, she put her feet over the table and grabbed a flash drive out of her jean's pocket.

"Curtesy of Hirohito-san ! Fresh of the theater!"

I almost jumped over the table before she threw the thumbdrive towards me.

"Damn ! I still can't believe he managed to sneak a camera in ! He could go straight to jail for that shit!"

" Yup!"

I looked at her while raising an eyebrow.

"Seriously, why is he doing that for you?"

"Our love is deeper than any jail cell!" she said innocently before taking a sip.

I'd known her for almost fifteen years at that point. The only reason her pride flag was tattooed on her back and not on her forehead was because her lawfirm forebade it.

"Come on, spill it!"

Sonja noticed my half-finished joint in the ashtray and lit it back on.

"You know I don't kiss and tell!" she said with a wink.

"Nah, you're more of a "fuck and blab" kind of gal'."

Sonja started to choke on the smoke she had just inhaled.

"Cough-cough...touché, young Padawan."

I smiled and folded my arms, still expecting an answer. Sonja slowly took another long sip of beer.

"Let's just say that I'm doing some...compensated secret safe-keeping."

"Ah ! Some good old blackmail! See, now that makes sense."

Sonja suddenly put her hand on her chest, looking exaggeratedly outraged. I started to laugh then I heard the familiar ring of my oven back in the kitchen. I grabbed one of the paper-bag and I went back to take out the pizzas and put some more into the oven.

"Oh, hey, were you outside around two hours ago?" Sonja yelled out from the living-room.

"No, I was already home, why?" I yelled back.

"You didn't even take a look outside?"

"What? No, what are you...wait, is that about the lights over Slade Park?" I asked while slowly emptying the groceries from the bag on my kitchen counter.

"Ok, so you did see them!"

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

"Not really, I just saw Rachid's story on Instagram. What happened?"

"No idea. I was going back to Haziva LLC when I saw them. Dude, it straight-up looked like some beams coming down from the sky for like...three or four whole seconds."

"Huh, it only looked like weird white flashes on Rachid's video."

"Guess that's what he gets for keeping his Iphone 6 instead of buying a new one."

I rolled my eyes at that remark. My own phone was an old beat-up Samsung and she knew that perfectly. She'd been egging me on to get a new one for the last few months but I didn't feel like it. She was just mad she couldn't show me her GIF game since my phone couldn't even open them.

"Did he go into the park after? I didn't have the time to check it out myself." she asked.

"Yeah he did, but like, half the city was already there when he got in so I don't really know what happened after."

"Okay. Hey, can you get me the peanut butter?"

I grabbed it on the counter and went back into the living room to find Sonja on her phone with a little smile on her face. She mouthed "Taylor's almost there", I smiled back and put down the peanut butter. All of a sudden, I heard some very loud pounding on my door.

"That was fast." I said.

"Yeah, 'cause that's not him." Sonja replied while still on the phone.

I frowned. Maybe it was a neighbor? We'd been yelling pretty loudly for our whole conversation and I did remember getting chewed out once or twice about the noise coming from my place. Already preparing an apology speech, I went to my door and looked through the peephole. And then my jaw dropped.

On the other side of that door was...the most beautiful person I had ever seen in my life till then. I say person because they were so androgynous, I had no way of knowing if they were a man or a woman. They were wearing a green hoodie which hid half of their face but I could still see their glistening caramel skin and luscious lips despite the hallway's terrible lighting. Something about their face was deeply fascinating, I could almost hear the gears in my brain grinding to a halt. The person was talking with someone I couldn't see from the peephole but it seemed like the conversation was kind of heated. The mind-bending beauty was still looking to their left when the pounding on the door came back with a vengeance. Apparently, they weren't the one knocking.

"Jeez, did M.Fronswick start lifting?" Sonja shouted from the couch."Do not tell him to knock it off, he just might!"

"It's...it's not him." I mumbled, my gaze still glued to these otherworldy lips.

"So...Why aren't you doing anything?"

This snapped me out of my trance.

"Who...Who is it?" I meekly asked.

The pounding stopped and the person got just in front of the peephole. Their eyes were as breathtaking as their mouth. Their color was some kind of bluish purple I'd never seen before. For absolutely no reason, I held my breath.

"Is that you, savior ?" they asked.

Their voice was just as mysterious as their gender. But it felt soothing to the ear.

"D'you really think he'd answer to that?" suddenly asked a burly voice.

I guessed that it must have belonged to the one who was doing the knocking. I still couldn't see anything because the beautiful stranger was still right in front of the door.

"I don't know, maybe? What if he already knows what he is?"

"We should just grab the guy'n be off..." grumbled the second voice before seemingly backing off.

"Hum...I...I don't know any, hum...savior. Are you sure you got the right ...apartment?" I asked haphazardly.

"Yes! Definitely! We followed the voice of the world and it led us to this place. There can be no mistakes. You are whom we seek."

I frowned once more. Did the Jehova's witnesses get some new competition I didn't know about? Whatever was happening right now, I had no idea what I was supposed to answer.

"Ha ha, Tay' just found out the elevator's out." Sonja suddenly yelled out.

"What? How'd he got in? I didn't hear my buzzer!" I screamed back.

"Apparently, the door was completely busted. He asked me if he should call the cops but, knowing how much we're holding, that wouldn't be the smartest move."

"I don't think he's alone." seemed to notice the person behind the door.

"Doesn't matter. We don't have much time." replied the other voice. "We gotta move."

"You know what the Elder would think about that!"

"Well, they're not here, are they? So..."

The two voices seemed like they were going to argue and I really wasn't interested in finding out what was happening with them. I was just sincerely hoping that they wouldn't be here by the time Taylor showed up. That thought got me thinking about the door and I went back to the living-room.

"Hey, did he tell you how busted was the door downstairs ?" I asked Sonja.

She was setting up my computer next to the TV.

"Oh, yeah, he told me it was like, smashed in."

"What? Literally?"

Sonja turned her head toward me.

"Bro, it's a ten centimeter thick glass door, I'm pretty sure he meant figuratively."

All of a sudden, we heard a thunderous "BANG" coming from the hall and we both saw my front door fly through my hallway and smash into my window. I blinked. I don't think my brain really registered what had just happened. Sonja was just as shocked as I was and couldn't say a word. That's how I knew I wasn't dreaming.

"See? Only broke a window this time. No way he's not gonna appreciate that." said the burly voice while sounding closer and closer.

"Devos, that is the second time you break something that might belong to the savior! What if he finds that off-putting?"

"I'm sure he won't mind!"

The two strangers finally stepped into my living room. The guy who broke my door down was short and stout, with arms as big as tree logs. He had red hair hidden under a baseball cap and a red beard that reached the middle of his chest. Actually, he looked like he had just walkeout of a game with his blue jersey shirt and his big brown boots.

To be absolutely honest here, I barely registered his presence at first. 95 % of my attention had been eaten away by the stunning stranger.

They were still as androgynous as before despite dropping their hood. They had shoulder-lenght glimmering auburn hair and their half-worried, half embarrased face had my heart racing. Looking pretty apologetic, they were staring at me, seemingly unable to move. I wasn't going to anyway because my mind had finally decided to give up when I saw their ears. Long, pointy elf-like ears.

"The Ebony Warrior..." They whispered with awe.

"The what now?" I said dully.

"Do you know these guys?" Sonja asked while looking at me.

"No..."

"Are ya sure 'bout this one, Neivytoa ? I don't feel much sifo coming from him..." Devos said while eyeing me out.

"Yes, he looks just like in the Elder's scrying !" Neivytoa answered excitedly.

"Why did they kick down your door like that? Wait, no, HOW did they even kick it down?" hurriedly asked Sonja.

"I don't...I don't know! I guess he... punched it?!" I confusedly answered.

"That's not what I'm asking!" She screamed back at me.

That's how I knew she was just as scared and confused as me. Sonja had quite a talent to stay calm under almost any situation. I guess that's what made her a good lawyer. Not that it really mattered at the moment.

"Oy, she a bit too lively that one! Can't ya do somethin'?" Devos suddenly asked.

"Excuse me?" Sonja exploded.

"You could ask more gently." Neivytoa answered while ignoring Sonja's reaction.

She waved her hand and suddenly, a green ball of light shot out of her hand and hit Sonja's forehead. She fell down on the floor and my heart stopped.

" WHAT DID YOU DO?" I yelled.

"Don't worry savior, she's alright." Neivytoa calmly said.

"Oh, yeah, sure, you just shot her with something and she's supposed to be ALRIGHT?"

"By Kelor, this is takin' too long!" Devos moaned.

The short man suddenly disapeared from my field of vision and re-appeared less than a second later right in front of me. I saw his fist coming towards my face and then...well, you can guess what happened.