I'm back my loyal friends, I promised I'd be back shortly, Time to introduce the first new Guardian, I hope y'all enjoy it.
"Come on, get up!" the school bully Jacoby snarled as his victim, a fifth grader.
"Please, just leave me alone." the younger kid begged his attacker.
"You should have thought of the consequences of our actions." Jacoby laughed as he hoisted the younger kid up by his shirt collar.
"Hey!" Jacoby heard a voice call out from behind him, and he didn't bother to turn around. "I'm talking to you!" the same voice called out as Jacoby felt a strong hand grab his shoulder and yank him away from the younger student.
"Beat it" Jacoby snarled as he whipped around like an injured snake and delivered a mean right rook to the face of the kid who had grabbed him, drawing a blood flow from the kids right nostril.
"That all you got?" the kid laughed as he wiped away the blood, and Jacoby was no able to see who this kid was.
"Dean, of course!" Jacoby hissed as he balled his hands into fists. "Dean you really want to go through this again?" Jacoby asked in a mocking tone, as he remembered beating Dean in a fight two months ago.
"You had help then, but not this time!" Dean snarled as he cracked his knuckles and flexed his shoulders, and made a 'come get it' hand gesture.\
"Your dead!" Jacoby laughed as he charged at Dean, only for the young man to step out of the way, and due to his momentum, Jacoby ran head first into a metal locker, where his head connected with a loud bang.
"If your lucky you'll only have a headache." Dean said with a serious expression on his face. The crowd that had gathered in the hallway was in stunned silence, for rarely did anyone stand up to Jacoby.
Much to everyone's surprise Jacoby rose from his injured state and threw another right hook at Dean, who dodged to the side of the attack, and countered with a left hook, which struck Dean in his already injured nose, and a long sickening crack could be heard as Jacoby screamed and fell to the ground, clutching his broken nose.
"What is going on here?" a teacher asked as he approached the group of kids who had gathered. Upon getting through the crowd he spotted Jacoby writhing on the ground, clutching his broken nose, and upon spotting Dean, the teacher let out a sigh.
"Dean and Jacoby, how am I not surprised?" the teacher said with a sigh as he hoisted Jacoby up, and also grabbed Deans arm, and began yanking them towards the principles office.
"I'm sorry but I'm going to have to suspend you both for a week." the principle, Mr. Sullivan said with a sigh.
Dean was silent, there was no point in opening his mouth, or risk more trouble.
"I'm sorry Dean." Mr. Sullivan said in a sincere tone. "I respect that you stood up for him, but you know the schools code about fighting." Mr. Sullivan said as he stood up from his office chair, and walked to the door and opened it, allowing Dean to leave the office.
"Can't believe this." Dean muttered under his breath as he made his way towards his locker to grab his things, so he could make the short walk home. With a sigh he pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and sent a text message to his father, explaining what had happened.
"You did good back there." Dean head an unfamiliar voice call out to him, and upon turning around he saw an African-American kid wearing a blue shirt with yellow lightning bolts on the shoulders.
"I got a lot of respect for someone who's willing to stand up to bullies, especially Jacoby." the kid said with big smile on his face.
"You are?" Dean asked in a skeptical tone.
"Ish Taylor." Ish said with a smile on his face as he held out a right hand for a hand-shake, which Dean shook.
"Anyways," Ish began "I saw the whole thing, and I'm impressed." Ish informed Dean.
"Well, at least someone is." Dean said with a heavy sigh as he closed his locker and turned to leave.
"Hey Dean, I couldn't help but notice the Lions banner in your locker." Ish said as Dean once again turned to face him.
"Yea, what about it?" he asked.
"My mom happens to work at the Hall of Fame." Ish began, and it was clear he had hooked Dean's attention. "Would you like to see the bust of Barry Sanders?" Ish asked.
"Sure." Dean said with a giddy tone.
"Excellent, my mom is outside waiting for me, I'll make sure you get a VIP tour." Ish said with a big smile on his face.
"Why are you doing this?" Dean asked his new acquaintance.
"Cant a guy be nice?" Ish answered.
"Fair enough." Dean said as she followed Ish out to his mothers car, and soon they where on their way.
"Dude this is amazing." Dean said in a giddy tone as he looked over the bust of Barry Sanders.
"It is isn't it?" Ish asked as he placed a hand on Dean's shoulder. "Trust me, it never gets old." Ish said as he as well looked at the legendary running backs bust.
"I've always wanted to visit this place, never got a chance though." Dean said in a still excited tone.
"You wan to see something really cool?" Ish asked.
"Lead the way." Dean said, as Ish lead him to a hallway that had a giant mirror. "This is the really cool thing you wanted to show me?" Dean asked as he looked over his reflection.
"Nope, that's on the other side." Ish said with a smile as he raised his left wrist and Dean spotted a weird looking device on his wrist and a small white beam emanated from the device and it reached the mirror, and the mirror appeared to get all wiggly and squishy, and Ish walked though it, leaving a stunned Dean behind.
"You coming Dean?" Ish asked from the other side, and with a gulp, Dean stepped through the mirror, and was met with a very unusual sight.
Dean now found himself inside a rather large room, with a large blue glow keeping the room lit, and a giant blue floating head on top of a weird device.
"OK, what is going on?" Dean asked as he slowly started walking backwards.
"There is no need to be frighted Dean." the giant head said in a clam tone, "I am RZ 6.0, artificial inelegance of the highest order, proprietor of this Hall Of Knowledge, and keeper of all things NFL." RZ said, and that made Deans mouth drop open an wave like a flag.
"That explains that." Dean mumbled under his breath.
"Dean, you have been chosen–" RZ began before he was interrupted by Dean.
"Chosen for what?" he asked in a suspicious tone.
"You have been chosen to be the next Guardian–" RZ began.
"Guardian!" Dean said in a shocked tone. "I'm no Guardian, this must be a mistake or a trick." Dean said as he began looking around for a hidden camera.
"Believe me, I was the same way." Ish said with a small gentle laugh.
"What do you mean?" Dean asked.
"Enter the Rush Zone!" Ish yelled as he raised his left wrist, and in moments his clothing was replaced with his Guardian armor, and that made Dean's mouth open ever wider.
"This can't be happening." Dean whispered as he dropped to his knees in shock.
"I can assure you what you are seeing is very real." RZ said with a big smile on his face. "Like I said Dean, you have been chosen as the newest Guardian ." RZ said slowly as he let Dean take it all in. "You are not the first, you will also not be the last." he informed the young man who continued to stay on his knees.
"Why me?" Den asked after a moment of silence.
"That's for you to discover, like every Guardian before you." RZ said as Ish walked up to the weird device and took something off the top of it, and walked up to Dean.
"Dean, it is time for you to join our ranks." RZ said as Ish handed Dean his NFL-R, which Dean took and slipped it unto his lft wrist like how he had seen Ish's.
"This is just unreal." Dean said as he finally got back to his feet. "How do I do what you did?" he asked Ish.
"Shout 'Enter the Rush Zone' into your NFL-R." Ish instructed, which made Dean nod his head.
"Enter the Rush Zone." he shouted as his NFL-R's armor replaced his clothing with his armor, which was dark blue and white, and he gazed at Ish from behind a white visor.
"This I like." Dean said once again in a very giddy tone as he began looking over his armor.
"There will be time for you to practice in the coming weeks." RZ informed the rookie. "It will take hard work to earn your shield coin–" RZ was interrupted again.
"I'll do what it takes." Dean said in a determined tone.
"Excellent, welcome to the team rookie." Ish said as he patted Dean on his shoulder, and began walking him towards the simulation room.