A/N: This is chapter 1, FINALLY REVISED!

"So anyway," I said to my friends as I walked along the road to the colourful lights of the carnival, "Will had this massive gash up the side of his leg. Said it was from saving a chick from a mugging."

Matt shook his head in amusement. "He's so full of shit, probably stacked his board. Again."

Matt was my best mate. He was 6 foot 3, pale as an albino polar bear, and was almost always accompanied by his girlfriend, Brittany. Brittany was about 5 foot 7, with black hair down past her shoulders. She was gorgeous, but seeing as she was dating Matt, I would never admit it. We reached the edge of the fair ground, and paid our way in.

"Thanks again for inviting us, James" Brittany said to me, despite the fact that I hadn't invited them. I had run into them on the way to the carnival, and decided to give them some company. But if she wanted to make me out to be some kind of considerate, great friend, I wasn't going to argue.

The three of us strolled down the middle street of the fair, having a look at all the booths and little shops that lined the sides. It took all of my strength to drag Matt away from the hand-crafted musical instruments he saw at the end of the path, while it only took a fraction of his strength to lift Brittany and pull her away from the antiques stall opposite.

We headed down to the big field in the middle of the grounds as it was starting to get dark, to get a good spot for the fireworks that were about to go off. Matt and Brittany both sat down on the ground, curled as far into each other's arms as was publically acceptable. I decided to leave them to their privacy for a few minutes, maybe find them again after the fireworks had finished. I wandered through the crowd, catching glimpses of other people I knew, from school, work, even random people I had spoken to on the street.

As I walked through the crowd, fighting the current of people that were trying to get through to the fireworks spot, I noticed that there was someone standing at the gap between two pavilions.

Almost looks like a guard, I thought. As I walked past, I looked behind him, and saw, in the dim light, what looked like a scene from a movie. There was a girl, pinned against the left pavilion by a semi-circle of four guys. The one I could see side on looked like he had a knife. The guard cleared his throat. I shifted my view to him, and saw him advancing.

Well, time to see if that "Learn Karate in 30 minutes" video was worth the money.

The guard, who was a good head taller than me, threw his fist at me, obviously trying to end this in one move. I ducked under his flying hand, and brought my own fist up into his throat. He fell to his knees, hands flying to his throat in instinct. I pulled back my fist and punched him in the base of his skull, and he collapsed to the ground with a shudder. I turned to the alley, and saw another person flying towards me, arms outstretched. As they approached, I put my hands out, ready to grab onto his shoulders. As soon as my hands made contact, I flung myself to the left, without removing too much of his momentum. He kept going and the other three guys from the alley all ran toward me. Only one of them had a knife. At that moment, the air exploded. They all shielded their eyes allowing me to punch the knife wielder in the stomach, take his knife and slam the handle into his head before the others had recovered. That changed though. As the first one went down, someone grabbed me from behind and lifted me into the air.

The tackler, I thought.

Doing my best to determine how far off the ground he had lifted me, I threw my head back, and felt it slam into something soft and pointy. There was a CRUNCH as his nose broke. He released me, and I fell to the ground, staggering slightly. Next thing I knew, a fist was colliding with the side of my head, and there were more bright lights, which I hoped were fireworks. I continued with the momentum, and rolled out of harm's way as the next fist narrowly missed me, flying to where I would have been if I had stopped. I rolled onto the ground and quickly got up as the fireworks finale went off. I had my back to the field, so I didn't see it, but what I did see was the effect it had on my attackers. It blinded them for a moment, and I hoped that was all I needed. I ran forward, my fist flying beside me. It slammed into the throat of the biggest guy, sending his stumbling backwards. I grabbed his shirt and used his momentum to throw him into the two guys standing beside him. That left just the tackler. His ham of a fist flew straight at my face, but I dropped to my knees and brought the handle of the knife up into his jaw, causing his head to snap back. I then punched him in the side of the head and he crumpled like the rest. I panted, looking at the groaning forms around me. I looked at the knife in my hand with disgust, and tossed it into the bushes.

The girl they had assaulted in the alley slowly walked out of the alley, nervously eyeing the bodies on the ground.

"They won't be getting back up for a while," I told her, walking over and putting my hands on her shoulders. "Are you okay? What did they do to you?"

She took a deep, shuddering breath. "They came up to me earlier today, and asked if I wanted to come back to one of their houses for a party. I said no, and they looked like they were about to attack me. They probably would have, if there wasn't police coming down the street to set up for this carnival. They left at that point, and I didn't see them again until they cornered me in that alley. The big one, him," she motioned to the one who had tackled me, "threw me against the wall and started to get his cock out. That's when you showed up."

I pulled her into a loose hug, trying to reassure her that everything was going to be alright. After a moment I let her go.

"What's your name?" I asked her, stooping slightly to look her in the eye.

"Chloe," she replied.

There was silence for a few moments, and then we heard the crowd returning.

"We should go," I said, looking down towards the field. Chloe grabbed my head and led me away.

"Would you mind walking me home?" she asked me as we reached the gate at the edge of the grounds.

"I was about to suggest the same thing," I said, gesturing toward the open gate. She started walking, but turned around, just to make sure that I was following. We walked together for several blocks.

"I just realised," Chloe started, causing me to stop and look at her. "I never asked you your name."

"It's James," I replied, "So, how far are we from your house?"

"It's just around the corner," she told me, blushing slightly in the soft light of the street lamp.

We walked around the corner side by side. She put her hand on my shoulder, stopping me from walking any further.

"I never thanked you for saving me," she said, leaning in close to my face, eyes half closed.

I knew she wouldn't be doing this if I hadn't just saved her life. I had to think of a great line to use that doesn't sound like I'm rejecting her.

"And you'll never have to," I said, taking a small step backwards. And watching her eyes snap open. She looked slightly disappointed, but walked up the path of the house closest to us, waved to me, and went inside.

I turned and headed back the way I had come, trying to remember where I had parked my bike before I had found Matt and Brittany.

After searching for twenty minutes, I finally found it. And not just it, Matt as well.

"Where did you disappear to?" he asked me as I approached.

"I met a girl," I said in a nonchalant way. Even in the dim light, I could see the look of astonishment on his face.

"Anyway," I continued, "I should get going. Do you need a lift?"

"Nah, I'm right, Brittany's calling a taxi. See you Monday."

"Later," I said, pulling my helmet on over my head. I turned my key in the ignition and the bike rumbled to life. I waited for Matt to move out of the way, and rode off home, wondering if there was going to be any repercussions for what I did tonight.