Chapter 1

Chapter 1

"You've gotta be kidding me." Michael shook his head with a smile as he watched Neeko threw the ball into the grass, showing victory for the latest touchdown. Neeko, once again, was on fire. No, forget that. He was still on fire. He had been this way all summer. Dates with hot girls, none of which really kept Neeko's interest (he said he went on the dates to get to know them, but none of them were relationship potential), he was making more money from mowing lawns in the fastest timing Michael had ever seen anybody mow a lawn (About three minutes per lawn). There was just no stopping him.

Neeko and the gang had come down to the park earlier that morning, getting the last bits of the last week of summer to be enjoyable. The two had gathered a couple of other guys they hung out with during the school year come with them. It was going to be their senior year, and they wanted to just hang out before going in for one last time (Neeko started school late when he was a kid, hence the eighteen year old).

After they all hung out for a bit, a few girls came up, most of them knew the guys. They were the cheerleaders from school, the ones who were out of the guys' league. Yet, they found themselves very comfortable with Neeko once he gave his morning hello to them.

Michael had no idea how where Neeko had become so suave. Over the months, he had gone date after date with several girls. He was becoming one of the popular guys without becoming a jerk like Scott Parker.

Speaking of which, Scott Parker had ended up to the park soon after Neeko was entertaining the group of girls with a story from boarding school, talking about some kids by the name of Rai and Sage getting into another argument. But when Michael had seen Scott's face, he wasn't happy at all. Not only did Neeko punch Scott and leave town last year, Michael realized that Neeko was talking to Scott's girlfriend. If there was one thing that Scott had a reason to kick anybody's ass, even his own friends, it would be because they were talking, or as Scott put it, "Making a move", on his girl. Michael tried to get Neeko's attention, but it was too late. Danger was here.

"Hey, Hendrixson!" Scott shouted. Neeko's story had then stopped, and Michael noticed Neeko's face. It wasn't scared. It wasn't even intimidated. It looked like he did with everybody else he had met: with a warm smile and a gentle hello.

"What's up?" Neeko asked.

"Don't you 'what's up', me!" he barked. He looked over at his girlfriend. "What's up, baby?" the two shared a small peck, and Scott took his attention back to Neeko. "Where the hell have you been?"

"A boarding school." a girl answered for Neeko with excitement.

"I didn't ask you!" Scott yelled. He looked back at Neeko. "So, is this school for pussies like you?"

"I guess you could say that." Neeko said with the same warmth and happiness.

"Well, I hope you know I haven't forgotten that little incident that happened last year." Scott pointed at Neeko threateningly.

"Of course not." Neeko grinned. "Who can forget a defeat from a kid half your weight and strength?"

Everybody laughed, which made Scott flustered. Last year was the first time Neeko had defeated Scott physically, and now he just did it emotionally. Scott wasn’t going to let Neeko get away with this. Especially now that Neeko ran away last time.

Scott had thrown a punch, which made one of the girls scream with fear. But Neeko simply caught Scott's beastly fist, and gently gave it back as Neeko gave him a grin. Scott threw another angered punch, but Neeko dodged it easily. Scott threw several punches, but Neeko only dodged them. Eventually, Neeko had dodged one, and threw a fist back. But the moment before it was suppose to hit Scott in the face, Neeko stopped. Scott felt a rush of wind pass him by, the force of the punch-to-be. If Scott were to be hit by that...

"I'm not much of a fighter." Neeko stated calmly as he put Scotts fist down. The way he said it, the way he moved away from Scott, the way he looked at Scott... all of it had some sort of taunt. And yet, it didn't. Whatever was going on, it was pissing Scott of.

"C'mon, guys." Neeko was speaking to his friends. "We should go. I don't want to start problems."

The guys started to get going, and one of Scott's girlfriend's friends slapped him on the arm. When Scott demanded what that was for, she shouted back, "You drove him away, you big dinosaur!"

"Yeah," another girl said. "He wasn't doing anything, and you had to take swings at him!"

Scott's girlfriend only gave him a look that had said exactly what her friends were saying. Scott sighed. He didn't know how Hendrixson had brain-washed them all into liking him and his little group of friends, but he was going to put an end to it.

"I'm sorry, baby..." he told his girlfriend. "Let me make it up to him. Maybe they'll enjoy a little game of football."

"Maybe," his girlfriend gave him a little smile.

Scott ran towards Neeko and his friends and shouted his name. When Neeko turned around, Scott was panting and finally caught up.

"Hey, man..." he said, out of breath. "We were wondering... you wanna play a game of football? With us? I mean, after I was being a jerk, it's the least I could do."

Neeko looked at his friends, who all looked terrified and gave any sign of not wanting to play in silence. Neeko saw them and smile. He looked over at Scott. "Sure. Sounds like fun."

"Great." Scott stated. "We'll get ready."

As Scott walked away, he started to grin darkly. Football is one of my fortes. I'm going to crush the little bug, and nobody's going to be able to yell at me about it.

But, unfortunately for Scott, it hadn't been that way at all. Neeko had dodged any tackle that was about to come his way. Not only that, but he intercepted every ball that was thrown, and half the time he tackled people, the ball was blown out of their hands.

Neeko's team had scored more touchdowns than could be remembered, and Scott's team only scored one, possibly two. Scott didn’t understand how such a little guy could have done so well. It was like he was some new freak of nature. He was like some sort of superhero in disguise. But Scott knew that all of that was fiction... wasn't it?

After an hour of playing, Neeko got a phone call. Neeko simply gave noises of acknowledgement, and after a minute, Neeko was off his phone. He looked at the others and gave a small shrug.

"I gotta get going. There's somebody from my boarding school at my house, and I need to have a meeting with them. It was nice hanging out with you guys." he gave a small wave and started to jog away.

As Scott watched Neeko jog away, he had shaken his head in spite. How had a nobody become so good at something. Was he really super human? Scott decided to follow Neeko, but when Scott peered around the corner Neeko had taken, he was nowhere in sight. How could he be gone. He knew that Neeko lived a few blocks away, so he wouldn't have driven. Than where did he go so fast?

But up in a tree, well hidden, was Rowen with a cell phone in hand. When the person on the other line picked up, Rowen cleared his voice.

"I have an approximate estimation on how fast that Neeko Hendrixson can go."

"Really, now?" the Dean of Clearwood spoke.

"He's above the speed of sound."

"Good work..." The Dean chuckled. "Now, move on to study your next target."

"Yes sir..."

XXX

Rai walked down the crowded streets of Tokyo, not going in any place in particular. For one thing, even though Rai had been the largest part of his guild, he was still amazingly bored. Sure, assassinations were fun, but the lower jobs he still got, like getting groceries, or getting cats out of a tree, were becoming irritating. Although, he was the number one employee from the number one guild in all of Japan.

But since the summer was ending, people were preparing for school, which had left him and his guild with almost nothing left to do. Not even some political sabotage, or a few kills here and there. There was literally nothing to do.

Rai wished that the summer would end already so he could get back to Heroics. There was always something to do there. And if he was bored, Rai could just make fun of Sage until his boredom cleared. Rai smiled at the thought.

Rai walked down the streets of Tokyo for another half hour, only buying an apple the entire walk. As he started to eat, he started to hear a noise. It wasn't the crowd that he was hearing either. It was... music. And not just from stupid stereo that some kids were blasting. The speakers that the music was coming from had power. Severe power. Rai started to pick up his pace and followed where the music was taking him. When he found the warehouse where the music was playing, he saw an anime convention inside, several people dressed up as their favorite characters.

He sat there, eating his apple, and when he finished, he looked at the anime convention again. They were made of people who's dreams and such were anime and video games, people who devoted their entire times to nothing but fantasy. People who pretty much had no lives. Sounded like his kind of people. Rai started to walk into the convention when he was stopped by two women.

"Hi," one of the girls out front greeted. She was dressed in a female version of a Santa coat, and handed him a flyer. "And welcome to the thirteenth annual 'Tokyo Goes Anime' convention."

"We hope that you enjoy your stay." another girl who was dressed up as Sheena from Tales of Symphonia. "There is plenty of different types of food inside, along with the premiere of the new RPG, 'New World', and plenty of small shop booths."

"We hope you enjoy your visit." the two bowed and spoke in unison as they began to look at the next person wanting to come in.

Rai walked in and looked around. The first thing that he noticed was the circles of people all around the convention area. Inside the circles were people acting out scenes that they've recreated or made up by the characters they were dressed up as. Some were great, some were poor, others in the middle, and each group was given money based on the performance. Rai stood around and watched a few from the characters he knew from TV shows and such.

After he grew bored of that, and tired of the puppy eyes people gave him for money after their performances, he decided to get some food. After a few moments of walking around the convention, he decided that he wanted a pretzel. After retrieving his cinnamon covered pretzel, he felt a strong, fierce, threatening presence behind him. When he turned around, he only saw a group of characters, a samurai suit, a cat, and manikins. Once he turned around, the presence was gone. He looked around for a while, not seeing anything, and then turned around.

But once he turned around again, he felt the presence. When he turned around, he saw the exact same things. Rai was growing irritated, and turned around once again. He wasn't sure what to do yet until he finds out who this person was. When he turned around a third time, and felt the presence again, he saw that one of the boys in the group was looking at him, and quickly turned his head away when Rai looked in his direction. Rai found his presence, and decided it was best to take a fight outside.

He walked, and the entire group started to follow Rai. So the whole group was in after it, huh? Rai wasn't sure how strong these kids were, and he wasn't going to underestimate them. Plus there had been a great number of them surrounding him. He wasn't about to try and guess their strengths with so many around. Sometimes it was best to run away and fight another day.

But as he casually tried to lose them, even using Ninja tricks, they still managed to hang onto his trail. Rai had taken out a hidden kunai and kept in secret, close to his body. It was a good time to face them while public could see everything. That way, they wouldn't go all out, fearing of hurting somebody.

When he turned around, the group spread out around him, not letting him escape at all.

"What do you guys want?" Rai demanded sharply.

"Are you Rai Kyotomo?" one of the kids asked.

"Yeah. What's it to you?"

Every single one of the kids grabbed something from their pocket and rushed towards Rai. Rai started to raise his hand with the kunai until he heard five words: "Can we have your autograph!?"

Rai suddenly stopped, and then looked at the kids, not sure if he heard right. But when the kids revealed that a pen and paper was all that they were holding, he knew it was all they had come for.

"My... autograph?" Rai repeated.

"Yeah," a boy said. "You're awesome."

"Only the best assassin in all of Japan!" a girl rephrased.

"Well, I wouldn't say I was the best..." Rai said as he started on one autograph.

"Are you kidding me?!" one of the other boys questioned. "You raised your guild's income by a quarter of a million yen in just a summer. You're telling me that's not good?"

"Well, I suppose..." Rai said modestly.

After the signing, the kids spoke of how they were going to show the autograph to all their friends. As Rai watched the kids, he couldn't get a bad feeling out of his system. What was that presence he felt. That presence had malice, threat written all over. But for some reason, it was gone. It just disappeared all of the-

Rai ducked just as a sword swung over his head, and he leaped forward, low on the ground. Rai rolled and turned around, only to find himself dodging another sword attack. The third one was blocked by the kunai that Rai had in his hands. After the block, Rai backed up to see his attacker. But that didn't help; it was somebody in a Samurai suit, mask and all.

"So, you're the threat source." Rai spat.

"And you're the one they call Rai." the voice was muffled and distorted from the helmet. Rai couldn't tell if it was a grown man, or a boy, or what. But whatever this person was, they had skill. The way they threw their sword around was well trained.

"And so what if I am." Rai asked.

"Well, I'm here for your head."

"For my head, huh?" Rai asked, he was suddenly a lot more relaxed. He had gotten threats like this all summer, and they were all weaklings. He had beaten them all, and it was growing tiresome.

"Yes."

"And what could I have done to tick you off so much at me that you would want to kill me?"

"Don't act like you don't know!" the person shouted. But this threw Rai off. Rai really didn't know what he did. The other threats were random. From how he stole the last sample at a grocery store to how he killed a family member in an assassination. The reasons had been varied, and Rai couldn't have guessed why for this one.

"Refresh my memory." Rai stated after some thought,

"You're the number one ninja in the land."

"Yeah, that's what I keep hearing..." Rai grinned.

"You've been getting more and more customers from different places a lot, getting more money. But those customers used to be other customers from other guilds."

"And let me guess: you're from the Samurai guild."

"Yes, actually." the voice said as they prepared their weapon for battle. "And because of you, we're losing sales. I've been ordered to kill you, Rai Kyotomo."

"So your guild can get money again?" Rai asked. He took out a handful of bills and threw them at the Samurai. "Here have it. I don't want to stir any unneeded violence."

"I didn't come here for money, Kyotomo. I came for you life!"

The samurai charged, swinging at Rai, who dodged and blocked all the attacks with grace, but the samurai wouldn't give in. They were actually getting better. As the fight went on longer, Rai realized that the samurai was learning his moves within the battle. They were grasping on to Rai's strengths and weaknesses quickly. Rai needed to end this quickly before they learned too much.

When Rai had seen an opening, he had dodged an attack, and kicked the samurai like an uppercut. The helmet of the Samurai had flown off, along with the mask, and Rai went for the kill. He started to run, but the person, swung their sword. Rai was forced back, and Rai had seen a prop he could use. He quickly attempted to pick up the helmet to throw at the person. But the moment he tried to lift it, it wouldn't budge. Rai had to give all his strength in the second try for it to raise off the ground. The thing had to weigh about a hundred pounds alone, and he chucked it at the Samurai, who hacked it in half. Not only was this person good and strong, so was their weapon. But with the person splitting open the helmet, giving their attention away for a quick split second, Rai's plans had worked.

Rai rushed over to the busied samurai and grabbed the person by the neck as they both started to fall, knocking the person's weapons out of their hands. But the moment before Rai was going to bring the Kunai down onto his foe's neck once they hit the ground, he stopped. Before him was a long silky black haired, stunning eyed, perfect faced angel. Rai had suddenly stopped what he was doing, having the largest brain fart in the world.

"You... you're a girl?" Rai stammered.

"Yes. Is that so hard to believe?" she spat.
"But... a girl in the Samurai guild?"

The girl struggled to get free, but Rai remembered she was an enemy, girl or not, and he had to control the situation.

"I'm recently new." the girl said when she knew she couldn't force her way out.

"And so they sent you to kill me as a test of some sort, didn't they?" Rai's voice was more a statement than a question.

"How did you know?" her expression softened for a bit.

"Seems all guilds are the same." Rai smiled, then he had to force himself to realize she was the enemy again. "So, since you know my name, what's yours?"

"I refuse to give my name to a low life like you."

Rai held the kunai to her throat and smiled at her.

"I don't think you have much of a choice, really."

The girl pursed her lips for a moment, and then looked straight into Rai's eyes. Those stunning eyes looking into his.

"Aimi. Fujibayashi Aimi."

And for a split second, Rai had her beauty weaken him. Those eyes, her voice, the sound of her name, all of it was just weakening. And Aimi took that second to knee Rai in the crotch. Rai kneeled over, losing all control of the situation. But instead of getting her sword and killing Rai, she simply picked up her sword, and looked at him.

"This isn't over Rai Kyotomo. I refuse to kill my enemies in such a weak state. We shall meet when it's a worthy battle."

She ran off, outside, and Rai had just realized there were people circling him. They were throwing bills of money out to him, most of them clapping, some demanding an encore. As Rai managed to stand up, Rai nodded to the audience, playing it off like it was a play, but in his mind, he couldn't get his mind of two things: if her helmet was so heavy, how heavy was her suit in general? And how had a human been able to compare beauty to Zoe?

As Rai started to leave, somewhere in the dark corners of the convention, was Rowen, talking on his cellphone.

"Rai Kyotomo. Strengths: fast reflexes, fast thinking, ingenious, good with illusions and tricks. Weaknesses: Pretty girls, fast and concentrated attacks."

"Great," the Dean of Clearwood was on the other line. "Move on to your next target. We have no time to lose."

XXX

There had been a dark and damp pub in Düsseldorf, Germany. There was more smoke than if the building were on fire, drinks were passed around and intoxicating everybody, and prostitutes filled almost a quarter of the occupants. Sage had never seen so much disgusting things go on at once in a small pub like this before. It was the definition of Sin.

Sage walked around, eyeing for one person. Bjorn Dannenberg was the guy they were looking for. There had been a spill from somebody they encountered with, and they said that Dannenberg had known something about "The girl who had wings of angels, but the eyes of a demon" and the project she was involved with. And Bark was being a really big. Ever since Sage had tried to go on this journey, Bark insisted he went with Sage. He said that he might run into Thyme's murderer soon enough.

Sage looked around, looking for the described person. He wasn't finding him. It was a blond haired person in his early twenties. All he was seeing were whores and old men trying to pick up those whores. He couldn't find this Dannenberg guy. Perhaps the person who gave him the lead was wrong. If so, Sage couldn't do anything about it. The guy was already-

Sage had seen a door behind the counter. Sage's gut feelings screamed out that that was the place where the Dannenberg guy was. Sage looked over at Bark, who was scoping out the room. When he had Bark's attention, his eyes fell on the door, and Bark saw what he was looking at. The two started to walk over to the door behind the counter, when the bartender started to speak them quickly, shouting, in German. Neither of the two knew what he was saying, but Bark simply batted the man out of the way with the butt of his gun.

Sage had put his head to the door, listening in for any sort of noise from the room. The first thing he heard was a large ring of women's laughter. And then he heard a single male's voice. It sounded like he was telling stories of some sort. Sage looked at Bark, and the two nodded at each other. Bark kicked down the door, and flooded into the room.

"Alright!" Sage shouted. "Where is this Bjorn Dannenberg guy?"

The entire room had been of classy women, a few sluts. but they didn't seem like they were interested in being bought. Everybody circled around the guy like he was a story teller. But this guy had the descriptions that Sage was given.

"You!" Sage shouted as he pointed at Dannenberg. "Where is the girl?"

"Wie heißt du?" the man demanded for Sage's name.

"I don't know what the hell you just said, but if you don't start talking in five seconds, I swear I'm going to bust your head in!"

"You don't like to waste time, do you, Master Sage?" Bark laughed in his gruff voice.

The Dannenberg guy had spoken, shouting words of German at rapid fire, Sage not understanding anything, he looked at Bark. Bark took out his usual shot gun and pointed it at Dannenberg as several of the girls screamed.

"Shut up!" Sage snapped. He turned his attention to Dannenberg. "So, tell me, where is the angel girl."

Dannenberg started to speak in German again, and Sage grabbed him by the throat, bringing him closer to Sage's face.

"I know you speak English, you idiot! And if you don't start talking in a matter of seconds, Bark's going to blow your mother trucking head off!"

Dannenberg looked at Sage, and then Bark, and then started to grin. He slapped Sage's hands off of him, and then backed away, fixing his collar.

"So, you did a little studying before you found me, Ja?" Dannenberg asked with an accent, not too deep, but it was still there.

"Of course." Sage said. "If I can find out where Savory is, than I'll do anything to find her."

"Anything, huh?" Dannenberg said. "Well, I'm sorry to inform you, but I don't know anything about your little-"

"Don't give me that crap!" Sage shouted. Bark's gun was closer to Dannenberg's face now. "If you don't tell me where Savory is, we'll blow your head sky high."

"You really don't recognize a fellow vampire when you see one, do you?" Dannenberg laughed. "Do you honestly think a gun is going to stop me?"

"You underestimate me. When I did my homework on you, I did it all. That's why we loaded these babies with a few vampire-poisoned bullets."

Dannenberg's face had gone completely pale, and he seemed unsure of what to do. He looked at Sage, trying to see if there was any bluff in his eyes, but he found none.

"Look, don't do anything rash." Dannenberg warned. "I'm just a middle man. I just give the information I receive."

"Perhaps you can tell us where you've been hearing all this information."

"I... I can't do that!" he stammered. "They'd kill me!"

"And what do you think we'll do if you don't? Give you flowers?"

"I'm sorry, Master Sage, but that was lame."

"Shut up, Bark!" sage turned around. "All you've ever done on this trip is ridicule me and make fun of anything I ever try to do! I already get enough of that from a ninja, and I don't need to take it from-"

A shot rang out, and Dannenberg fell to the floor. When Sage had realized what was going on, he realized that the shot came from Bark.

"You IDIOT!!" Sage shouted. "He was our only lead, and you shot him!?"

"He was running away. I'm sorry, but I'd rather have a dead lead than a lead telling people in high places who we are."

"But... we worked so hard to find out who this guy was and you just go around and shoot him!"

"I'm sorry, Master Sage. I promise to find another lead for you."

"You make it sound like you dropped a bottle of milk and you'll buy me another one! These leads aren't easy to find! And if you keep killing them all, we're not going to have any left! That's the fifth one we've lost because of you!"

"My, my, Sage. You're as harsh and energetic as usual, aren't you?" one of the ladies spoke. Sage looked at her, and Bark aimed his gun at her.

"Who are you?" the two demanded in unison.

"I'm a secretary from Heroics. And I'm suppose to talk to you about coming back to school. The times, dates, etc."

"Heroics?" Sag repeated. "Is summer coming to a close that fast?"

"Afraid so."

Sage thought about how much time he would have left. He could maybe visit Austria and look for a lead, and then go back to school.

"When do we start."

"That's what I'd like to talk to you about. Let's get out of here before the police come, and we'll discuss business..."

As the two three left, Rowen was on his phone again, talking to the Dean of Clearwood.

"Sage Angel: Rash, has a temper, quick to anger, faulty. However, compared to recent reports, it seems he's growing in his thinking."

"Growing in his thinking?" the Dean questioned.

"He's growing to learn how to trap his enemies. You said before he couldn't think his way out of a paper bag, right?"

"Yes. And now he's able to think with strategy?"

"More or less."

The Dean was silent for a moment and the sighed.

"Get over to the next target. We only have a couple of weeks before we execute our plan."
"Yes, Sir."

XXX

Cal walked around the Oregon forest, looking around. He couldn't feel any presence other than the trees and animals around. And because of that, Cal grinned. Her had been training Michael to work on his element of surprise, and if Cal couldn’t sense him, all was good.

Cal had gone to Maria and Michael a few weeks after Cal had heard about the plane crash that his father was on. He mourned for a few days, and he later got a call from Maria, who had gotten wind of the news. Cal didn't know how she found out; probably the Dean or something. She invited Cal to come live with her for the rest of the summer, and Cal went, not seeing anything else to do. There was nobody else to turn to, no other family.

The moment he came home, Michael was more excited than a puppy going to the dog park. Just like the first time Cal had met him, Michael had shot out rapid questions, but Cal was able to answer them the speed they were given.

Even thought Michael still had his spaz stage, he had seemed to mature over the last time they had encountered. Cal was surprised. There was still a youthfulness about him, but he had surely grown into somebody who understood the important things in life. He seemed like he knew when to be serious and quiet, and when it was okay to act hyper. If Cal could have guessed, he had more self-control than Cody.

And since Cal left, Michael had worked on his plant summoning abilities. And from what Cal had been able to see, he had gotten good in the small amount of time he had been given. He could use heavy objects such as logs and trees to his advantage, but he couldn't manipulate things, like pine needles into spikes. But that was something the team had decided to work on together.

And that's where this is where they were: on an exercise to grow Michaels' strength. Cal looked around, still not feeling anything. This was especially good for a child of Michael's age. Even Cal had trouble keeping his power level low from being so obvious. But Michael had the ability to just let all go, completely disappear... that was a special gift not even Cal could teach him.

As Cal walked through the forest some more, he was forced to go back into his tracking skills. If Michael could cover his presence, he would have thought he didn't need to cover his tracks. But little did Michael know that Cal was an expert tracker. And before Cal could even begin to look far, he had seen footsteps, newly printed in the ground. Cal grinned and followed them. He followed them in a hurried pace, wanting to find out where Michael might have been. But when he came to the point where the tracks ended, he came across a stream. So, Michael had tried to lose Cal in all of this.

Cal looked downstream. It was the one place a child would go. He wouldn't want to fight a current. The farther out you go, the more time drags on, the more your enemy losses his edge. The adrenaline losses its effect after a while. And downstream would be the place that would be able to carry him fastest. But perhaps he had thought about this. Michael wasn't stupid. He was a really bright kid. So which way did he-

Cal leaped to the left just as a giant tree crashed where he was, and he spun around to dodge some pine cones. Cal had then thrown the tree in a direction, and all was still. He wasn't sure where Michael was, but he hoped he hadn't hurt him. But a tree thrown towards Cal had told him Michael was just fine. Cal leaped away from it, barely dodging it, and then Cal had thrown a log in another random direction. Where had this kid been?

When all was still again, and Cal had summoned the entire creek and shot it out in all direction. With such a strong gust of water, Michael was knocked out of a tree not far from Cal. He landed with a thud but didn't appear to be hurt.

"That's no fair..." Michael rubbed his head as he got up. "I only get to control plants."

"That's all I knew how to control when I met you. You seemed to be impressed back then."

"Yeah, but look at you know! You're a god! You control every little thing on this planet."

"Not true..." Cal smiled. "Can't control what's man-made. Glass, certain metals, different kinds of liquid gas..."

"You're still a god." Michael muttered.

"Don't complain." Cal instructed. "All you have to do is find my weaknesses, and you've got it covered."

"You? Since when do you, Cal the god, have a weakness?" Michael asked. For a moment, he sounded like one of the guys back at Heroics.

"Trust me. Just because I've got a couple of cool moves-"
"Like controlling the world." Michael muttered under his breath.

"-Doesn't mean that I don't have any weaknesses. Everybody does. Some just hide it better than others."

"Why? Because people like you are a bunch of warrior hard-asses?" Michael grinned.

"How old are you? Seven? And you're using language like that?"

"I'm ten, thank you very much." Michael spat at Cal. "Just because my body is young doesn't mean I don't know anything."

"I know, I know..." Cal said as he looked at Michael with a feigned cautious look. "Never said that."

"Your lucky your girlfriend's not here. She would side with me with the way you're, jerk."

"Girlfriend?" Cal repeated, almost scoffing. "Since when do I have a girlfriend?"

"Oh, c'mon!" Michael laughed. "I saw that girl you were looking at all googley-eyed at the tournament."

"Which one?" Cal thought about it. There were plenty of girls, but he didn't ever remember seeming interested in any of them.

"That dark haired girl that's in your group. She killed that one girl in all the white in the tournament."

"Zoe?" Cal asked in surprise. He didn't think his emotions had ever spilled out when they were at the tournament. He didn't want them to come out in the public, and he didn't want Zoe to know how he felt.

"Yeah, Zoe!" Michael said with a grin. "Your girlfriend."

"She's not my girlfriend." Cal stated.

"Whatever. You love her..." Michael grinned.

"Yeah, I know." Cal said with a smile.

"You mean I'm right?" Michael asked in complete shock. Cal never let him win in an argument.

"Yeah. No use fighting you. I mean, you're not going to see her ever again."

"Whatever! I'll find a way to tell her!"

Just then, something had gone through Cal's spine; a shiver almost. This only happened when he felt the presence of a powerful enemy. Cal had stopped doing whatever he was doing, and searched around for the feeling. But the moment he felt it, it disappeared. He couldn't find it anywhere.

"You alright Cal?" Michael asked.

"Huh?" Cal turned his attention to him. "Oh, yeah..." his voice seemed distant, like he wasn't paying attention. Cal was looking around, and he still didn’t see anything, or anybody.

"I think we should get back into the house..." Cal stated as he gently pushed Michael's back.

"Why?" Michael sounded concern.

"No reason. Let's just go back."

"I'm not stupid, Cal! I know there's something you're not telling me."

"I'll tell you once we get in the house." his attention was on Michael now, getting irritated that he wasn't budging. Michael almost didn't comply, but the look on Cal's face had made him think it would be best to get out.

"Fine. But you're telling me the moment we step foot in the door, you got it."

"Yeah..." Cal's voice was distant again as he guided Michael back to the house.

In the trees, trying to hold his power the bare minimum, was Rowen, who had started to dial the phone once the two had left.

"Hello?" the Dean questioned.

"Cal Aurion. Strengths: controls everything nature has to offer, strong at sensing strengths, sharp, smart, quick to surprises."

"Any weaknesses?"

"People that he loves. One person being a girl in his group by the name of Zoe."

"Zoe, huh?" the Dean's voice was filled with a grin. "I know that girl. She's your next target. Make sure to keep a close eye on her. They all seem to have some attraction with her."

"Yes, sir." And then there was only a dial tone.

XXX

"WE'RE LATE!!" Reid shouted as she ran through the apartment. Zoe was in the bathroom, fixing her make-up as quickly as possible.

"How the hell did you over sleep?!" Zoe yelled from the bathroom.

"How did you not wake me up!? You're a VAMPIRE! You don't need sleep like me!"

"So, I spaced out! Sue me!"

The moment that Reid had found her apron, Zoe had simultaneously finished her make-up, and the two rushed out the door. Since they'd started work, they had been cutting it close when it came going to work. They ran down the street, rushing as fast as they could. They left twenty minutes early, as usual. But lately, there had been a little problem that made them late. And it always occurred right about-

"You!" they heard the voice they had always dreaded. And of course, like usual, it was out in the open public. The two had turned to see the sixteen year old problem they always had. When they turned to see what he had today, it was an air-soft gun.

"Great..." Zoe sighed. "Logan..."

"I was hoping we would have a day without him." Reid pouted.

"Don't speak of me like I'm a minor threat!" Logan shouted. "Today, Zoe. You will be mine!" he pointed the air-soft gun at the two.

Logan had become a problem a couple of weeks ago. It was a day Zoe and Reid wouldn't forget. Zoe had helped Logan with an order of coffee, and he had complimented with her looks. She replied with a thank you, and he kept staring at her. She asked if anything was the matter, and he simply shrugged his shoulders and stated, "I know what you are."

"I don't understand what you mean?" Zoe replied, trying to act as casual as she could. He could mean anything else. He could have meant an angel who fell from the heavens by the way he was looking at her.

"I know what you are..." he repeated. "You blood sucker."

Zoe froze for a split second, but regained her posture. She continued to work, but she threw out an, "Are you joking?"

"Does this look like a face that jokes?" Logan asked seriously.

Zoe simply ignored him, and Reid asked what that was about. Zoe shrugged and told her it was nothing. But later that night, once they locked up the store, Logan was outside with some sort of dagger.

"Um... hi?" Zoe asked.

"I've come to catch you, vampire."

"Are you still seriously going on about this vampire-"

Logan rushed towards her with high speed, faster than any normal human. Zoe was able to block at the last second, and stepped back. Her and Reid were taken back at the speed.

"Call me weird," Logan said with a grin. "But I'm a high speed demon hunter who enjoys you vampires as a challenge."

"So, you're pretty much a vampire hunter?" Zoe asked bluntly.

"And how many vampires have you caught successfully?" Reid mused out loud.

"Well, that number doesn't matter!" Logan shouted.

"So, technically, none?" Zoe retorted. Every word that came out of her mouth in that sentence seemed to piss Logan off more and more.

"Shut up!" Logan charged quickly again, but this time Reid had been the one to punch Logan away. Reid knew that Zoe was having a bad day, and she thought it would be nice to help (it was hard getting out of "good deeds" mode after doing it for three thousand years). When Logan skid off the ground, he looked up at Reid with a shocked look.

"What the hell are you?" Logan demanded.

"Just the summoner of death." Reid smiled warmly.

Logan looked at the two and then sighed. Once he got up, dusting himself off, he started to grin.

"You two are going to be my fortune someday. Not only do we have a vampire, we also have the goddess of death. Whatever that even means, it sounds expensive."

"You sure are a freaky little kid." Zoe stated. And with that, her and Reid turned around and started to walk away.

"Hey!" Logan shouted. "You can't just walk away from me! I'm Logan Harter, Vampire Extraordinaire."

"Yeah, with zero catches, I can see that." Zoe shouted loud enough for him to hear her. And the two simply walked away in the midnight moonlight.

Logan had eventually found out where they lived and attacked them inside their house after work a few days later. And ever since that, handing his butt to him was a routine thing to do. But with Logan being a vampire hunter, he had a load of stamina, not making it easy for him to quit. And because of that, the girls had been late dealing with this kid every day. Strange thing was, he acted normal whenever he came in to get a drink at their Starbucks. There wasn't even a hidden look of demise or trappings. Just... a kid who wanted coffee.

But today, he had a new weapon. He usually carried around weapons that look harmless, but with his tweaking, he had managed to make them powerful and dangerous. The last weapon he had was a bottle of kitchen spray that actually managed to shoot out UV rays, a vampires weakness. He eventually found out that Zoe had a strong resistance against the sun, especially with her covering herself with her shadows everyday.

"Do you wanna know what's in here?" Logan asked, indicating the air-soft gun.

"Not really, Logan. We're kinda in a hurry today."

"Nothing is more important than me! I am life or death!"

"Somebody has a god-complex." Zoe muttered.

"Logan, would you please let us through? We really need to get to work. It would be nice of you to not go through this until after we get off of work. We might even be exhausted from all the work that you may win this time." Reid tried compromising.

"No!" Logan roared. "I will have the both of you today! These bullets have enough power to take out a family of vampires for 24 hours with a single shot! To hit the both of you with a shot each will be easy. All I have to do is-"

Zoe didn't wait for him to finish. She simply punched Logan in the face as hard as she could, sending him into a car. The moment he crashed onto the ground, she used his own shadow to tie him to the car. It was too fast for anybody to realize she hit him across the street.

"What the hell!" Logan shouted.

"It's a vampire trick. I know how to manipulate shadows. All full blooded vampires know how to use it. It's just, I guess I'm kind of a protégé, so I can use it to my advantage more than most people can."

"Zoe!" Reid cried, showing her the time on her cell phone.

"Oh. Right. Well, see you later Logan."

The two rushed to work, making it two minutes early, and started to work hard, making coffees faster than people can process. But after a half hour of work, a bashed and battered Logan. The two gave him a greeting, wondering how he got out.

"How are you ladies doing?" Logan asked warmly as he stepped up to the counter.

"How did you get out?" Zoe whispered.

"It wasn't easy, I'll tell you that. But Marble Mocha Macchiato would be nice, please."

"Sure thing, sir." Zoe said politely. And she started to work as Logan sat down to read a book, looking as peaceful as he did every day. Why he was always so kind when inside, but outside... The last thing Zoe thought after giving him his coffee was, I wonder what kind of tricks he has for us after work.

In the background, with a notepad and cell phone was Rowen, sitting on as he took a sip on his coffee. He held the phone to his ear, waiting for a reply.

"Hello?" the Dean of Clearwood's voice came over.

"Zoe Aeryn. Strengths: Shadow manipulation, speed and strength. Weakness: rash at times, and too close to friends."

"Good. Now, come back and we'll talk about what we’re going to do. School starts in two weeks. We'll think of a plan to execute."

"Yes, sir."

As the Dean hung up, he looked at his secretary.

"Well, the plan is about be executed."

"And what are we to do with Rowen once everything is done with, sir?"

The Dean thought for a moment. He then grinned at her.

"Do to him what we do with all our problems. Kill him."