The bright, full moon was high in the sky. It rested its midnight rays throughout the empty, deserted street. Sam emerged from the alley with Dye slumped over his back.

“Damn,” said Jason, following Sam. “Next time I see that punk I’ll kill him.”

“Jason!” Shouted Mack. “Shut it!”

“Dude, you’ve been off, my guy. What’s up with you?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Mack replied. “We need to get Dye home safely and not get caught by Mom and Dad. Sam, what time is it?”

Sam adjusted Dye on his shoulder. “Gee, let me pull out my handy dandy moon dial.”

“I don’t need the attitude.” Mack said scornfully.

“Oh you need every ounce of it!” He replied with the same level of disdain.

Sam sighed, trying his best to keep his attitude at a minimum. “It’s a little after ten.”

“Great!” Mack sighed. He grabbed the body of his little brother from Sam and threw him over his shoulder. “Come on,” he said to the other two and together they made their way home.

After a long walk, they finally made it home. Their street was quiet but the lights were on in their home. Parked on the street was Mack’s truck.

“Um… has anyone checked their phone? I have like a million missed calls from Mom and twice that from Dad.” said Jason.

“Shit, Mom and Dad must be having a panic attack,” said Mack. “We gotta come up with a cover story.”

“We were studying!” said Jason. Both Sam and Mack looked at him tiredly.

“Right, like they’re gonna believe that coming from you…” said Sam. “Okay, this is the plan. Dye was studying at the library, I had my science club, Jason you were surfing, and you were at football practice. We all met up and decided to catch a late movie and then we got food.”

“That’s your plan?” said Jason. “How do you explain the passed out kid on Mack’s shoulder?”

“Do you have a better one?” Jason was silent. “Didn’t think so!”

Dye was beginning to move. Mack crouched down and laid Dye down on the sidewalk. His eyes slowly opened.

“Dye, you okay?” asked Mack

Dye groaned in response, blinking as he woke up, trying to regain his sight.

“What happened?” he croaked.

“Good, he’s alright,” said Sam. “Dye, where’s your backpack?”

He sat up, rubbing his face. “My what?” he said hoarsely.

“You’re backpack!”

He reached for his shoulder, probably trying to feel for the strap. When he realized it wasn't there he finally remembered.

He exasperated. “I must’ve burned it off when I last transformed, not realizing I had it on my back. Great! My English essay was in there…”

The door to their home opened.

“Great…” said Mack.

“Inside! All of you! NOW!” their Father commanded.

“How irresponsible are you?” The brothers were sitting on the couch, nearly shoulder to shoulder. Their father glared at them individually with the same level of scorn as the next. Their mother stood off to the side. “You do have phones, right?”

“Yeah, but like we said we were in a movie…” Jason tried to believe that.

“Right! How long are you going to play that move?” Jason’s eyes lowered. “We get home and no one is here. No note. No one is picking up their phone, nothing! How do you expect us to feel? And Dye, you were supposed to be home!”

Before Dye could speak Mack interjected. “It wasn’t his fault, we forced him to come with us. A sort of brotherly bonding kind of deal.”

Their Father looked at Mack. The contempt on his face seemed to grow.

“Oh really?” he said. “Well, then, can you explain to me, Mackenzie Michael Robert Haven, why you didn’t tell us that your football season was canceled?”

Sam, Jason and Dye shifted towards Mack. They were surprised but they didn’t want to make any sudden movements that would draw the angry gaze of their father.

“Coach Connelly called us two weeks ago to apologize that there wouldn’t be a season this year. Half of your team was injured during practice?” Their mother spoke.

Mack sighed. “I didn’t know how to tell you. I know you guys were banking on me to get scouted. I didn’t want you to be disappointed.”

Their father eased up his tirade. They saw him put his hands on his hips and lower his head. “I don’t know what’s gotten into you boys. You used to tell us everything. Now we have to find out from the school that Dye is getting into fights, your season is over before it even began,” he turned to Jason, “and you’re cutting school.” Jason was caught by surprise making a face that suggested he was busted. “What, you thought your teachers wouldn’t notice?” Their father’s tone had lessened, as he tried to empathize with his children.

“We’re sorry, Dad,” said Mack.

“Sorry doesn’t cut it this time, Mack. You’re the oldest and you need to set a better example.” He glanced at his wife and they exchanged soulful looks.

“Go to bed. It’s late. We’ll figure out a punishment later!”

The four boys got up and headed straight for their rooms.

“Dye, where’s your backpack?” asked his mother.

“Uh…” he was without an explanation.

“It’s in the truck,” Jason interjected. “Little dude figured he'd save a few minutes tomorrow getting ready.”

“Fine. To bed!” their father ordered.

As they entered the hallway, Mack grabbed Jason and Sam. Dye was about to enter his room when he noticed Sam was not following. Mack looked at him, “Dye, go to bed,”

“Oh…okay,” he said without any tone of protest. He entered the room and closed the door behind him.

“You two with me.”

Sam and Jason exchange looks and went into Mack’s room, closing the door behind them.

“Dude, your entire football team got wrecked? How?” Jason said as he laid on his bed.

Mack pinched the bridge of his nose. “I don’t want to talk about it!”

“Well we gotta talk about something…” said Sam. “What the hell was that tonight? You acted like you didn’t care what was happening to Dye. You let that leather wearing freak take Dye’s Ka, or spirit, or whatever…”

“He did that because I asked him to.” Mack replied.

Sam was dumbfounded. “You did what?”

“It was only a matter of time before Dye seriously hurt someone or worse, himself.”

“That wasn’t your call to make!” Sam protested.

Mack was about to fire back when he stopped himself. He didn’t want this to turn into another argument with his brother. He waited, allowed his emotions to lower and opened his mouth. “Dye burned TJ’s hand. He was lucky Dye didn’t burn it off.”

“So? That piece of trash deserved it!”

“So everyone who doesn’t play nice deserves to be burned because Dye can’t control himself? He’s just a kid. Sooner or later, he would’ve slipped up and probably would’ve killed someone.”

“You’re wrong!”

“Yeah bro, I gotta go with Sam on this one,” Jason chimed in. “It was Dye who saved those two kids from that apartment fire.”

“And it was Dye who came up with the idea to save those train passengers.” Sam added.

“Yeah man, I don’t think you give him enough credit. Dye might be young, but his heart is in the right place.” Jason said proudly.

“Well, it’s done. And now Dye is back to being a normal kid, living a normal life. Let’s leave it at that.”

“Why did you lie to us?” Sam swiftly asked.

Mack looked at him. “Because I didn’t want to deal with this.”

“You couldn’t have just said that?”

Mack snickered. “Are you serious? The moment I would’ve told you that, yeah I saw the strange lights too, you wouldn’t have let it go because you’re obsessed with finding answers and I had more important things to do than become your lab rat.”

Sam looked away, slightly offended at his brother but understanding. He knew deep down he was obsessive when it came to the unknown. He couldn’t help that.

“So, did you experience anything weird?” he asked.

“See? that’s what I mean,” Mack looked at Jason. trying to get his point across.

“Yeah, but you’ve been acting weird lately, Bro. So spill it.”

Mack rolled his eyes and sighed.

“The first day of practice, Coach Connelly was giving me a hard time and I don’t know what happened. We ran a play and, I don't know, I just snapped. I bulldozed through the offensive line like they were cheap rag dolls. All of them were hospitalized. I basically trashed any shot at a good season and threw away any chances I had at a scholarship.”

“Whoa…the whole offensive line?” Jason asked, amazed. “Those are some big dudes.”

Mack nodded, the guilt of hurting his own teammates coming for him again. “Originally I wanted Arayan to take whatever this was away, but then I heard about Dye and what he almost did to TJ. I didn’t want him doing something that he’d regret…like me.”

Sam was quiet. He was beginning to understand Mack’s perspective. He still didn’t agree with it. He knew that he was only trying to protect Dye.

“You’re a good brother,” said Sam.

Mack gave a faint smile.

Sam yawned. “It’s time for me to turn in.” he said as he went for the door.

“Sam…” called Mack. “You guys did good tonight..”

“Thanks,”

“And if Dye asks about what we talked about…”

“I’ll tell him the truth.” he said as he opened the door and left.

The night slipped by and Dye woke up the next day back to his normal life. There were no dreams of spiritual foxes or armored people. No dreams of an apocalyptic world. There was nothing but a normal night's sleep because that was what he was now.

Normal.

He went to school like he always did. He didn’t know how to feel. All around him, news of his heroics last night were everywhere.

Who were these armored people?

Where did they come from?

Were they friend or foe?

Those and many more questions surfaced as students tuned into the news story on their phones, read articles, and watched raw footage of the daring rescue. Students all around Dye were immensely preoccupied with the startling revelations of how he and his brothers saved the passengers on the train. He walked through the crowd and came to his locker. Dialing in the combination he popped it open and prepared himself for his first class. He was half expecting Joss to pop up and start raving about how awesome these people were.

On second thought, he was actually relieved that he didn’t. Dye grabbed his backpack, a spare one Sam had from years ago, and slung it over his shoulder. He headed towards the library to reprint his English essay or risk getting an F from Mr. Samson. He moped through the crowd, hoping he could get by undetected by anyone.

He couldn’t help but overhear the loud talks about the new superheroes. Students to his left threw out theories about their origins. Others speculated other things that Dye couldn’t even begin to comprehend. As he collected his essay from the printer he returned to his computer and got online. On the homepage was a picture of him and his brothers, dressed in their armor.

Superheroes Save Passengers from Speeding Train.

Dye’s mood sank even more. The more he looked at the cover story the more it hit him that that wasn’t him anymore. Those few weeks he enjoyed being a superhero were the best time of his life and now, just like that, they were gone. He was back to being plain ol’ Dye, freshman in high school and the youngest of his brothers. There was nothing special about him anymore, so he grabbed his backpack and went about his normal day.

He handed in his essay like a normal student.

He took notes like a normal student.

He went to lunch like a normal student.

“My mind is blown over it all,” said Joss. “I can’t believe they saved all those people!”

“Yeah…” Dye replied as he ate his sandwich.

“The way the gold one just sped off. Wow! How fast do you think he was going?”

“I don’t know,” Dye shrugged, chewing his food.

“You still don’t care, do you?”

“Not really,” he replied with a mouth full of food. But he did care. He cared that that wasn’t him anymore. He cared that while everyone praised him for what he did, he couldn’t enjoy it because his powers were gone. He took another bite of his sandwich.

“Oh I see,” said Joss. “You’re on edge because you don’t know where to take Jenny Saturday.”

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

Oh, that was right. Through all the revelations of the Xenton and Quailocian stuff he had forgotten all about that. Suddenly his mood perked up.

“Yeah, yeah I am.”

“No worries my friend. I gotchu!”

Though his date was still contingent on whether or not his parents would extend his punishment. For now, he pretended as though that wasn’t a problem.

The week ended with Dye going about his usual routine. Everyone still talked about the train incident though, but the more the days carried on the better he started to feel about himself. He was able to focus on his school work and he got to enjoy looking forward to the weekend where he was going to be spending time with Jenny. He did, however, dodge a bullet with his punishment. While Jason and Mack were grounded for the next month, Dye was actually given a pardon by his parents. Which he thought was unusual but he didn’t ask any questions. This lifted a huge weight off his shoulders as the uncertainty of having to cancel their date plagued him heavily. He didn’t know if he could ask Jenny out a second time.

Dye spent his Saturday morning finally finishing his issue of Warrior Knight. The big reveal of Warrior Knight’s sister being the main villain was something Dye wasn’t expecting. How would Warrior Knight save the day when his archenemy was his own flesh and blood? Dye would have to wait until next month to figure that out.

He glanced over at his clock and saw it was ten. He grabbed his phone and scrolled through his contacts. He came to Jenny’s number and started to compose a message.

Good Morning, you want to meet at the pier at around noon?

He hit send and the worry that she would just ignore him began to rear its ugly head. He put his phone down and went to do something else, just to ease his mind. He washed up in his bathroom, taking a quick shower and brushing his teeth. He tried to style his hair but the curliness wouldn’t settle so he stuck to his natural look. He came out of the bathroom and reached for his phone.

There was a message.

His stomach was in his throat as he hoped it was Jenny and not Joss.

Sure, I’ll see you then!

He was relieved, but now there was a bigger problem.

“What do I even wear?” he asked, almost panicked.

He walked over to his closet and rummaged through his clothes.

“No…” he said as he held up a shirt.

“That’s lame” he pulled down a pair of cargo shorts.

He saw some black jeans. “Might be hot today, I'd rather not!”

Sam barged into the room seeing Dye in nothing but his underwear. He snickered.

“Shut up…” said Dye.

“What are you doing up? You usually sleep until one on Saturdays.”

Dye picked up a shirt with Warrior Knight on the front. He tossed it aside. “I’m going out with a friend,” he said.

“A friend who happens to be a girl?”

Dye didn’t respond. He picked up a pair of jean shorts and threw them aside.

“Dye has his first date. Wait until everyone hears about this.”

Sam walked over and shoved his brother out of the way. “Move aside!”

Sam pulled down a gray T-shirt and handed it to his brother. He slid down the clothes and found a nice overshirt for him. He looked and found a pair of stylish jeans and took a pair of sneakers from the shoe rack.

“There you go!” said Sam. “That’s three you owe me!”

Dye dressed himself immediately, putting on his socks and slid on his pants.

Sam sat at his desk. “How are you doing?” His words were unsure.

Dye put on his t-shirt and looked down at himself. “This fits really well.” he said, and then he processed Sam’s question. “I’m fine.”

“Are you sure?”

“I mean, not having my powers in the beginning was a drag. Everyone kept talking about us saving the train passengers and it….”

“Got to you?” Sam finished.

“Yeah,” he threw on his overshirt. “But then I realized that it is what it is and I just have to live with it.”

Sam looked at his brother interestingly. Dye saw him and felt awkward. “What?”

Sam smiled. “Look at Dye, growing up. Going from Xenton to maturing adult. I’m impressed.”

“Yeah, it only took me saving a train full of people to realize that growing up was a thing…”

Sam laughed. “What about you guys? You haven’t had to armor up since the train rescue.”

“Yeah, there hasn't really been any trouble. I think you locked up all the bad guys.” Sam jokingly said.

“Yeah,” Dye strapped on a belt. “Have you heard from Arayan?”

“No, he hasn’t contacted us.”

Dye sat on his bed and started putting on his shoes. “Listen, Dye, I just want to make sure you understand why Mack did what he did.”

He laced up his shoes, listening to Sam. “Yeah I get it,” he said with no change in emotion. “He was just looking out for me. Making sure I didn’t hurt anyone.”

Earlier in the week, Sam found it necessary to tell Dye everything they discussed in Mack’s room that night. At that time, however, Dye had already accepted it and getting upset over it wouldn't have changed anything. After he heard about what Mack did to half of his football team, he couldn’t really blame him and Dye knew from certain instances he couldn’t control his powers. It was for the best, he told himself.

As though his name summoned him, Mack stuck his head in the room.

“Hey, Jason and I are having a movie marathon downstairs. You guys in?”

Mack was more upbeat than he’d been recently. Finally being able to tell his brothers what happened must’ve relieved his stress.

“Aren’t you supposed to be grounded?” asked Sam

“Mom and Dad never said anything about watching movies.” he replied.

“It…sorta comes with the definition.” Sam replied.

“You guys in or not?”

“Or not,” replied Sam. “I have homework to catch up on and test on Monday to study for.”

“Dye?” Mack looked over to him, “Sounds like fun, but I’ll pass.”

“Oh…” Mack said passively.

“Dye has a date today.” Sam blurted out.

“OOOOOOH!” said Mack, suddenly intrigued.

“Did I hear Dye has a date?” said Jason, poking his head in.

Dye sighed, rolling his eyes. “Great, now everyone knows.”

“Not everyone. Mom and Dad aren’t here but we all remember how Mom was on our first dates.” said Jason. “Get ready for that craziness.”

“And with that said I’m out of here.” Dye passed between his two brothers and headed for the stairs.

“Dye, wait up,” said Mack. He turned around to see Mack reaching into his back pocket. He pulled out his wallet and snatched some green paper from its folds.

“Treat her right.” he said with a smile, giving his brother the money.

“Thanks,” Dye said unsurely.

“Listen, I know this probably doesn’t make up for what I did but, I hope it’s a start.”

“It’s fine Mack, really.” said Dye.

Mack wasn’t too sure that his brother had truly forgiven him. His passive behavior and sudden dive into his school work made Mack regretful of what he did. Still, he stood by his decisions for Dye’s sake.

“Okay,” Mack replied awkwardly. Dye turned away and descended the stairs.

“So, what’re we watching?” asked Jason.

“Nightmare on 5th Street?” Mack replied.

“DIRECTORS CUT?” they said at the same time, pointing at eachother.

“I’ll get the snacks!” said Jason, heading for the kitchen.

Dye walked down the street, admiring the clear blue skies and soft breeze. His feelings were at ease with everything. Despite going on almost a week without his powers, things didn’t seem so bad. He was able to focus on his studies and enjoyed hanging around Joss and Jenny. However, whenever Joss brought up the Xenton, a term Dye only knew, he unknowingly made Dye feel slightly miserable. He tried not to concern himself with it though. The good news was he was able to avoid any more detentions. With that being said, his run-ins with Vice Principal Charles were pretty much nonexistent. Regardless, things were starting to look up and that was weird to say considering a few days ago he could run at really high speeds, shoot fireballs from his hands, and don cool armor.

“It was for the best,” he thought to himself.

Dye finally made it to the pier and checked his phone. There were no missed calls or any texts. He looked around, getting nervous at the idea that he was getting stood up.

“Stop it!” he said to himself. “It’s not even noon yet.”

He looked at his phone and the time read ten minutes before. He sat on a bench he saw near the railings and watched people as he waited. A car pulled up and he recognized the passenger immediately. He got up, straightened out his clothes and approached the vehicle. As he did, Jenny was getting out of the car with her purse.

“Hi,” he said to her.

She smiled. “Hi,” she closed the door.

The window rolled down and a man with a rugged beard leaned over. “You must be, Dye,” he said. Dye saw Jenny roll her eyes.

“Um…Theodore…” he said nervously. That was the first time in years he corrected someone on his name. He did so because he believed his real name would’ve been more impressive to the father of the girl he was taking on a date. First impressions mattered. Dye reached through the window for a handshake. Jenny’s dad grabbed his hand firmly and immediately Dye knew he was strong. Even if he had his powers, he wouldn’t want to tussle with this guy.

“Nice to meet you!” he said with a smile.

“Okay, Dad, you can go now,”

“Have her home by five, and not a minute later,” he grasped his hand harder.

“Yes, sir,” Dye didn’t dare be the one to leg to. Jenny’s father held his hand for a second more, as though he was trying to get a read on him. He disengaged his hand and Dye let go. He stepped back with Jenny and the car did a u-turn and drove off.

“Sorry about that. My Dad can be a little overbearing at times.”

Dye giggled. “It’s okay. I like your Dad.”

“For the record, my dad doesn’t like to be corrected,” she said with a sly grin as she turned to walk away, making Dye feel as though his attempts at a good first impression went down like a dumpster fire.

Dye paid for a round of mini golf. The course had eighteen holes so it was perfect to try and stir up some kind of casual conversation. Though, what he had intended didn’t go as planned. Instead it turned into a fierce competition between the two and Dye was losing badly. Jenny putted the ball from eight feet away and it gently rolled and fell into the hole. Dye groaned as Jenny cheered.

“How?”

“My Dad might be an avid golfer…”

Dye jokingly smiled. “Then this was a complete misfire then.” she laughed and Dye accepted his defeat.

They left the mini golf and strolled down the street.

“Hungry?” he asked her.

“Starving.” she said.

They strolled along the strand engaged in conversation about various topics, mainly about school. It seemed sort of generic considering they saw each other everyday practically, but then the conversation started to steer into other directions. They talked about movies and Dye discovered they had similar tastes in films and television. Dye wasn’t a fan of sports but Jenny was into golf mainly because her Dad loved to play.

“Yeah, it’s a way for us to spend time together.” she said.

“You ever thought about getting into competing?”

“Me?” she said with disbelief. “Nah, that’s not my jam.”

“Well, you’re really good at it.”

“Please, a game of mini golf ain’t nothing.” she said with a laugh.

“Well, if you change your mind, I’d come watch you.”

“Really?” she said with more disbelief.

“Really!”

She giggled. “I might just take you up on that just to see how long you could actually watch a full game.”

They came to a small burger restaurant along the strand. It had only a small window to order. People stood in line waiting while others stood around listening for their food. There was a small dining area off to the side but those seats were full.

“The Burger Shack, huh?” Jenny read the sign.

“Don’t tell me you’ve never been here,” asked Dye. She shook her head. “What? It’s like the best place in town.”

“If you say so,” she said with a playful, cynical tone.

Dye grabbed a menu and handed it to her.

“Oh, wow,” she said as she scanned down the menu. Dye immediately saw what he wanted and he couldn’t wait to order.

“Next!” cried the cashier.

“Ladies first,” Dye looked at her. She took a moment. “I’ll have your double stack with bacon and mushrooms.”

The cashier began scribbling. “Fries with that?”

“Of course, with a drink.”

“And for you sir?”

“I’ll have the same, no mushrooms, extra bacon, large fries and drink!”

“Alright. Is that all?”

Dye looked at Jenny and she nodded. “Yep!”

Dye paid the cashier and they stood off to the side to wait for their food. They continued their conversation about movies and TV. To Dye’s surprise, she was a fan of horror movies.

“I love them, give me all the gore and blood PLEASE!”

Dye was slightly grossed out considering he was about to sink his teeth into meat, but that soon passed.

“We have the entire Directors Cut of Nightmare on 5th Street.”

“No way!” She got excited. “We have to watch it sometime!”

Dye heard their order and went to pick it up. With no place to sit over in the cafe area, they sat on the ledge that separated the strand from the beach. They tore into their food like a couple of starving children. Jenny’s face showed signs of being impressed.

“See? I told you!” Dye tried not to talk with as much food in his mouth.

She rolled her eyes with a playful smile. They sat quietly and ate their food, not taking long to finish off their burgers. Dye started on his fries as he sipped his drink with Jenny soon following.

“I’m impressed you finished that so fast,” said Dye.

“Don’t let my tiny size fool you. I can eat!”

She started on her fries.

“Clearly,” Dye smiled.

“So, I gotta know,” she bit a fry. “What’s your take on these superheroes we have running around the city?”

That caught Dye off guard. However, her wanting his thoughts on the topic was a slight departure from when Joss asked. She was more curious as opposed to Joss who was always overly excited about them. Dye wouldn’t have been surprised if he started a fanclub. With or without his powers, he told her the same thing he told Joss.

“I really don’t have an opinion,” he said.

“How could you not?”

Before that was a lie he told Joss, and himself, to keep from saying something that could raise suspicions that he was one of them. Now that he didn’t have his powers, that was longer a lie. He really didn’t have an opinion because he wasn’t a Xenton anymore, merely a civilian.

“I mean they’re here. They saved those passengers. One of them saved those kids from a burning building.”

“Well, did you hear about the exploded oil tanker and the plane that had to make an emergency landing?”

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, it was briefly in the news last week.”

“What happened?” Dye’s curiosity was immediately growing.

“An oil tanker blew up out to sea and that blue armored guy not only put out the fire but saved all the workers on board. There’s video of him pulling the entire ship to shore where the coast guard got everyone to safety.”

Jason did that. That explains how he got his armor. He wondered why Jason never told him.

“Then the one with wings saved a plane from going down.”

That was Sam which also explains his armor’s sudden emergence.

He assumed that with everything that’s happened since they got their powers, his brothers probably just didn’t get around to telling Dye. That had to be it. Jason, Dye could understand because of his two-second mindfulness, but Sam on the other hand? That was odd. Dye made a mental note to ask Sam about it when he got home.

“Now with this whole train disaster everything is starting to change.” She stuffed fries in her mouth.

“Yeah, I understand that.”

“Can I tell you something?”

Dye swallowed his drink.

“Anything,” he replied.

She paused and took a sip of her drink. “I was on that train.” she said straightforwardly.

Dye knew, obviously, but again he couldn’t make any indications that he did.

“Really? What happened?” he asked, successfully diverting suspicion, though it probably wasn’t needed.

“I was on my way home when all of a sudden the train started to speed up. I closed my eyes through most of it though because I was terrified, but it all happened so fast. When I opened my eyes, there he was, that guy in the gold armor.” Dye remembered. “It's weird though, and you’re going to think I’m crazy but…” she looked at Dye, her eyes heartfelt. “I remember him from when I was a kid.”

Dye’s mouth dropped. How could that be? He was just told by Arayan that he and his brothers were the last of the Xenton. Could there have been other hosts prior to him and his brothers?

“How?” he asked.

“I don’t quite remember, but he saved me and my mom from a falling car. I hadn’t seen him since that day. So when I saw him again a few days ago….” she trailed off. “It’s crazy I know.”

“No, no it’s not.” Dye reassured her. “You’re saying these guys have been around a lot longer than what most people think. That’s….interesting.” Wait until he tells Sam about this.

“I knew it was him, that golden armor. How could anyone forget?”

She was right about that.

Before Dye could respond there was a loud boom in the distance. It sounded like thunder but that was impossible as there wasn’t a cloud in the sky. There was a second one, but this time plumes of smokes started to arise in the distance. People started to run towards them, away from whatever was happening.

“What’s going on?” asked Jenny.

Dye grabbed her hand. She looked at him, “We gotta go.”

Whatever was happening Dye knew it wasn’t good. Loud explosions, running people, he needed to get Jenny to safety as soon as possible. They left their uneaten fries and joined the crowd in running. They turned onto a street, away from the strand and in the middle of the avenue were fires and signs of an attack. Dye and Jenny stared at the destruction up the street, their eyes glued to the scene as people fled. Dye and Jenny were distraught.

“What the hell is going on?” Asked Dye. Jenny squeezed his hand.

There was a shadow emerging from the flames. As it stepped out of the fires, Dye immediately noticed the purple shine of bizarre armor, the light of the fires bouncing light off it. His heart thumped against his chest.

He recalled his dream.

He recalled the night he and his brother saved the train passengers.

It was the same exact being walking towards him.

A purple, armored Xenton.

“Where are they?” the Xenton growled. From his hands a purple beam decimated a building. “I will continue this carnage until they show themselves!” Another building was blasted.

Dye couldn’t move. Visions of his nightmare came rushing back. This was what his Ka tried to warn him about. Jenny tugged his hand.

“DYE! LET’S GO!”

He came back to his senses but he noticed the Xenton raising his hand towards them. It was like he was reliving his dream. The hand started to glow and the quick shot was fired.

CLANK!

The beam was deflected. Dye covered Jenny in anticipation of being hit, but when they weren’t he looked up. Jenny’s eyes widened.

“There he is…” she said with almost no breath.

Standing in front of them was the golden, armored Xenton. Dye knew who was, and Arayan didn’t acknowledge him. Dye couldn't decide whether that was good or bad. In his hand was a gold and red sword that he must’ve used to save Dye and Jenny just now. The bystanders all looked at Arayan standing in his golden armor.

Something broke the sound barrier and slammed into the ground from the sky. Sam, dressed in his Xenton armor, stood up next to Arayan. He didn’t say a word to him. A torrent of water tore through the ground. The liquid turned into a form and before everyone’s eyes materialized into a blue, armored figure.

Jason had arrived.

The purple, armored Xenton acknowledged the trio. Taking a lingering look at each of them.

“You are but three. Where is the Earth Bearer?” it asked.

“Taking a nap!” said Jason. “Who are you and what do you want?”

“Now that I have your attention, be aware that I will not stop until I have accomplished my task. You can either join me, or stand against me. Oppose me, and you will fall.” Sam, Jason and Arayan did not speak. “You have been warned.”

The purple, armored Xenton turned around and with a sudden crack of lightning, the entity was gone. The bystanders looked upon Sam, Jason and Arayan as though they demanded answers.

“What the hell was that, Arayan?” Asked Jason.

Arayan didn’t answer. Instead, he accelerated his body and left the scene.

“Hey! What the hell, bro?” Jason yelled.

“Let him go,” said Sam calmly.

“Well, what do we do now?”

“I don’t know? But I’m sure we’re in for the fight of our lives,”