The nightlife of Starlight City is a bit more peaceful than it usually tends to be. Most people are just heading home after a long and busy day at work. Others are healing out to find a nice place to eat. Some of the shops begin to close down for the day, but one shop still remains open. That shop being the ‘Spring Breeze Bakery’.

And it’s that very same bakery where we find Alex Smith, running out of carrying a cake inside of a box.

As Alex runs down the street with the cake, the streets start to get even more crowded than usual. The hot-headed teen tries to weave his way through the crowd trying to make sure it isn’t damaged.

“Shit, I’m gonna be late!” Alex thinks to himself as he makes his way through the crowd, “And how the hell did I get myself into this situation?!”

SEVEN HOURS EARLIER...

Inside Amnestor’s classroom at Starlight High, The Miracle Clinic is having a meeting discussing some next steps to do for the club.

"So it's already October and we haven't really been doing any miracles for a solid week," Ronnie begins to say, "any ideas?"

"Maybe we could help X complete a test on time," Marcus suggests.

"Too unrealistic," Elizabeth retorts before adding, "It'll be much easier if we decided to maybe help renovate the cafeteria."

As the club continues to come up with ideas, Alex notices that Mr. Amnestor, who is sitting by his desk, is looking a bit concerned.

"Hey, what's got you twisted like that?" Alex asks.

"Oh, nothing much, it's just that some of the juniors who were supposed to help with the carnival tonight had to cancel," Mr. Amnestor states.

"The carnival?"

"Oh you didn't know?" Mr. Amnestor questions before explaining, “Around the start of October each year, the school likes to hold a fundraiser inside the gym. We set up several carnival games there that anyone who pays can enjoy.”

“Oh sounds like fun,” Ronnie states.

“It would be if the student council president didn’t drop out of volunteering alongside most of his friends at the last minute,” Amnestor laments.

An idea strikes Ronnie’s mind as he states, “Y’know I’m sure we’d be happy to help out!”

“I don’t know,” Alex begins to say, “This all seems pretty last minute–”

A FEW HOURS LATER...

Alex sits on a chair inside the school’s gymnasium as he’s blowing air into some of the balloons while many others set up around him for the carnival. Ronnie is filling up the water for the dunk tank, Elizabeth is sweeping the floor with a rickety old broom, Amnestor is applying clown makeup to a volunteer, and Marcus is helping Miss Zesti Champion place several desserts all on a table.

“Alright, that’s all of the homemade ones,” Miss Champion remarks as she sets a tray of three-layer brownies down.

Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“These all look so good, you made them yourself?” Marcus questions.

“Yep! I wouldn't be a culinary teacher if I couldn’t, though it was tough trying to get my roommates not to eat them,” Miss Champion admits before saying, “Alright Marcus, the only thing we need left is the starfruit upside-down cake, it should be in the box and we’d be all set.”

Marcus looks around and opens up the box to see…there’s no starfruit upside-down cake inside.

"Uh, I don't think we have one," Marcus says.

"......we don't?"

"Nope."

"This isn't a joke?"

"No, I'm being totally honest."

"Okay give me one second," Miss Champion says as she walks towards where the 'bobbing for apples' station is and submerges her head under the water so she can scream.

After 10 seconds of that, she stands back up and walks over to Mr. Amnestor, the volunteer, & Marcus.

“Well, you sure screwed the pooch on this one,” The volunteer in clown makeup remarks.

"Don't worry Champion," Amnestor says, "I can just order one from the bakery and all of this will be fixed."

"Is the cake that important?" Marcus asks.

Miss Champion turns to Marcus and begins to say "Kid, each carnival we have an event called the cakewalk where we hand out cakes and other desserts as prizes, and that cake is the one everyone wants to win. Without it, our whole fundraiser is ruined!"

"Well, what if someone goes and gets it!" Marcus asks.

"Yeah but everyone's too busy preparing the area," Amnestor states.

"Not everyone," Marcus says.

As he says that he as well as Ronnie & Elizabeth look over at Alex.

"Do I have to?" Alex begins to ask.

AN HOUR LATER

Alex is trying to make his way through the crowd of people as he makes sure the cake doesn't fall.

"Of course, I never get a say about if I wanted to do this or not," Alex thinks to himself as he spots an empty yet dark and disgusting alleyway up ahead.

Not having any faster option, Alex breaks from the crowd and enters the alleyway, much to the delight of three people following him.

As Alex walks down the alleyway, he decides to take a peek inside the box. Luckily, the cake is completely unharmed. However, right when Alex closes the box he hears someone.

"HEY!" a person says behind him.

Alex glances behind him to see a pair of three teens all dressed in black leather jackets over white shirts, blue jeans, sleeveless gloves, and black boots.

"Uh...I'm busy," Alex says as he doesn't want to damage the cake in a fight.

"Oh that's cool we're only going to take three minutes of your time," one of the thugs says.

"That's nice but-"

"You wanna know why?" The second thug asks "it's because we can beat anyone up in just three minutes!"

"Allow us to let you know who we are, we're The Three Ts!" the third thug says.

Alex chuckles at the comment at the end.

"You makin' fun of us?" the first thug says, "Us, the Three Ts! The most frightening trio in this city!"

"No I just think you guys are cringy as hell," Alex says, "besides I have no idea who the hell you guys are."

"My name's Tim!" The first thug says.

"And I'm Tom," The second thug says.

"And I'm the head of the gang, Tim-Tom," the third thug says.

Alex begins to laugh out loud, which causes Tim & Tom to get enraged, however, Tim-Tom stops them.

"Hey don't worry, he'll take us seriously when I show him this," Tim-Tom begins to say as he reaches into his pocket.

"Show me what?" Alex says while trying to stifle his laughter.

Luckily for Alex, he manages to stop laughing. However, that's because Tim-Tom took a gun out of his pocket.

"Yeah we aren't so funny now are we Alex!" Tim The First Thug says.

"Alex? You know my name?!" Alex asks.

"Of course we do," Tom The Second Thug says, "A bunch of folks in your math class paid us a huge sum so that we’d kick your ass.”

Alex reflects back on all the possible reasons why this would possibly happen and remembers that he used to beat up most of his class for money.

"Look, can you beat me up some other time," Alex asks, "I'm kind of busy right now."

"Yeah and we're busy too," Tim-Tom The Third Thug begins to say, "Those classmates really fucking hate you, like you'd be surprised how much they paid us just to kick your ass because it was a lot. But if we don't do it tonight then there goes our money. So just let us do this, please?"

“We’ll be gentle,” Tim remarks.

“No we won’t Tim, that's the whole point of beating him up,” Tom explains.

Alex stares down the gun Tim-Tom is holding and notices that it looks somewhat funny. As Alex squints to try and see why he realizes that the gun is just a water gun, and he wasn't able to tell due to how dark it is in the alleyway. With this knowledge, Alex quickly books it down the alleyway as The Three Ts begin to chase him down.

"AFTER THAT GUY!" Tim-Tom yells.

As Alex is running, he's making sure not to drop the cake he is holding all the while The Three Ts give chase.

See You Next Chapter!~