"Heads up!" came a voice from behind me. I turned around and grabbed the football before it smacked me in the head. I smiled, and tossed it back to my best friend, Steven Jackson. "You don't even play football, Steve." I said, walking towards him. "We're soccer guys." He shrugged. "I found it laying around." he said. "I figured you would know what to do with it."
I laughed. "You're such a dork." I said, giving him a friendly shove. He backpedaled, laughing, and we walked up the steps leading into our school. We go to Merrimack High School. It's like a typical high school, pretty much. The teachers are alright, and it's a fun place to learn.
As we entered the main lobby, we heard a voice call our names. "Eric! Steve!" We turned to see a tall, muscular athlete head our way. His hair was trimmed short, he wore a tank top with shorts, and had a big smile on his face.
"Malcolm Bourne!" said Steve. We walked up to him and shook his hand. "You guys ready for senior year?" he asked. "Oh, absolutely." I said. He laughed. "Listen, I need to head up to Mr. Smith's room." he said. "I'll see you at lunch." He patted me on the back, and headed to the history wing.
"This is going to be a great year." said Steve. "We've waited 4 years for this moment, and I'm going to make the most of it." "Really?" I asked. "I've been looking forward to graduation." He laughed and punched my arm. "You can't rush senior year, Eric!" he said. The bell rung, and we sighed. "Off to chemistry." I said.
After sleeping through a couple of classes, I finally had lunch. Since I didn't trust the school lunches, I brought a four cheese pizza from home. I opened the box just as Steve and Malcolm arrived. Seeing the pizza, they immediately dumped their lunch trays in the nearest trash can. "Barnes, you're the real MVP." said Malcolm. As we ate and talked about our summer, another tray was placed at our table.
We looked up from our pizza to see Stephanie Miller smiling at us. Stephanie was the head cheerleader, and she played volleyball and lacrosse. Occasionally, we did unified soccer together. Her grades were second to none, and she was well liked by every teacher in the school.
She sat down next to me and stared at the pizza. "Please tell me you brought this from home." she said. "That's right." said Steve, his mouth stuffed. "Barnes did us a real favor." She nodded, grabbing a slice. "I can't stay long, but are you busy after school?" she asked me. I shook my head. "I'll walk you home." I said.
She kissed my cheek, and stood up. "I'll see you later." she said. She threw her tray in the trash, and left the cafeteria. I looked at Steve, who was clapping slowly. "Bravo, Romeo." he said sarcastically. I threw a pizza crust at him. The bell rang once more, and we devoured our lunch.
By the end of the day, I could barely stand up. I had forgotten how boring school was. I walked to the office lobby to see Stephanie waiting for me. "You're slow." she said, poking my chest. "Whatever you say." I said, smiling.
Since we both lived five minutes from the school, we walked together, and talked about summer. I really liked talking to Stephanie. She had an interesting choice in words, and always knew how to keep a conversation going.
A glare from her lawn stopped me in my tracks. "Eric? What is it?" she asked. "Hold on." I said. I walked to her lawn, with a curios Stephanie following me. As I got closer, I noticed a weird rock in the grass. I picked it up, and my eyes grew wide.
It was a ruby, a bright red gem, just sitting in her lawn. I showed it to Stephanie. "Is this yours?" I asked. Her eyes grew wide, and she shook her head. "I've never seen anything like it before." she said. But looking at her, I saw her mouth twitch, like she was trying really hard to suppress a smile.
I studied the ruby, staring at my reflection in the gem. As I watched, my eyes flashed from brown to red. Stephanie caught her breath. "Eric-" she started. Suddenly, it glowed, and I fell back, losing my vision, and feeling an intense pain in my hand.
When I regained my sight, I looked around, but I wasn't outside, and Stephanie was nowhere to be seen. I was in some kind of a courtroom. I heard a sudden bang, and I turned towards the sound.
There was a man sitting in a chair, and he wore dark robes, obstructing his face. He leaned towards me, as if he was trying to see me more clearly. "Eric Barnes, I assume." he said, his voice booming. "You have acquired the powerful Ruby of Warriors. Use it wisely."
"I'm sorry, what?" I said. "The Ruby of Warriors?" I shook my head. "Look man, if this is yours, I'm sorry I took it. You can have it back." I tried to give it back, but I was blinded again, and landed back in Stephanie's lawn.
"Eric! You're awake!" she said. She hugged me, almost breaking my ribs in the process. She pulled away and stared at me. "The ruby...your hand…" I closed my hand, but the ruby wasn't there. "Where is it?" I asked. She pointed. "In your hand."
I almost threw up. "In my what?" I said. I looked at my hand, and sure enough, there it was, staring back at me. I nearly fainted, but Stephanie caught me. "It's okay, calm down." she said. "Everything will be okay." "Easy for you to say." I said. "You don't have a gem in your hand."
I went to touch it, but Stephanie screamed. "No!" she yelled, and pulled my hand back. I flinched, and put my arm down. Seeing my face, she softened. "I'm sorry." she said. "I don't think you should do that yet." "What do you mean?" I asked.
"Okay, I'll show you, but...please don't panic, or tell anyone, okay?" she said. I nodded. She held out her hand, palm up, and something came out of her hand. It was green, and shiny. An emerald.
I opened my mouth to scream, but she covered it with her other hand. "Shh!" she whispered. "Please." She removed her hand, and I took a deep breath. "I know you're freaking out real bad," she said. "But I need you to bear with me, okay?" I nodded.
She sighed. "Thank you." she said. We stood up and walked inside her house. We entered her room, and to my shock, my best friend, Steve, was sitting on her bed. We were pretty surprised to see each other.
"What are you doing here?" we said, at the same time. Stephanie quickly intervened. "He has a gem." she told him. Steve's eyes grew wide, and looked at me. I nodded. "Wow." he said. "Do you have one too?" I asked. He nodded, and held out his hand. A shiny blue rock appeared in his hand. A sapphire.
"Listen, Eric." said Stephanie. "We have a special power besides this. We can summon things with these stones. Did you see a man when you fell down? He wore dark robes, you couldn't see his-"
"The Ruby of Warriors." I said, cutting her off. "That's what he called it." She nodded. "I have the Emerald of Wisdom." she said. "And I have the Sapphire of Swiftness." said Steve. "What does that mean?" I asked.
"Can you summon a weapon?" she asked. "What?" I said. She rolled her eyes. "Sorry, I forgot you just got this two minutes ago. Touch your gem, like this." She touched her gem, and a green bow appeared in her hands, causing my eyes to grow wide again. Steve touched his gem, and a staff appeared in his hand, and he nodded at me. "Try it." he urged.
I stared at my hand again, and touched the ruby. It glowed, and suddenly, I held a double edged sword in my hand. It was perfectly balanced, and it was a bright red color. I nearly dropped it from shock.
Steve's eyes grew wider than mine. "That's so much better than mine!" he said. "Want to trade?" "Steve, you know we can't." she said. "They're attached to us. We can't take them off." "Oh right." he said. "I forgot." She smacked his shoulder. "Anyways, Eric, we were about to practice with these, if you want to join." said Stephanie. I looked at my sword, and nodded.
"Great, I get first dibs!" yelled Steve, running downstairs. I looked at Stephanie, and she gave me an apologetic look. "I'm sorry that I didn't tell you immediately." she said, as we walked downstairs. "I wanted you to take some time to process all of this." "I'll live." I said.
We walked into her backyard, where Steve was twirling his staff around like he was a flag twirler in a marching band. "Oh, good, you're out." he said, pointing his staff at me. "I want to fight you first, Eric." he said. Stephanie quickly stepped in front of me. "No, Steve." she said. "He just got-"
"It's fine." I said, walking from behind her. "It's not the first time that I've kicked his butt at something. Steve smiled as I stepped in front of him. "Is that a threat, Barnes?" he asked. "Fine. First one to lose their weapon loses." I nodded, raising my sword.
I've been a decent swordsman over the years, if I do say so myself. I used to practice with toy swords when I was a kid, pretending I was a pirate, or ninja, or something. As I got older, I eventually took classes, and I knew how to use a sword. I could beat Steve, no problem. Right?
He charged me, staff pointed towards my chest. I stepped forwards, swiping my sword. It cut off the tip of the staff as he ran by. I stuck my foot out, and he ate dirt. He got up, looking at his staff.
"I see how it is." he said, smiling. His staff grew, until it was the same length as before. "It's time to get serious." he said, charging again. This time, he shrunk his staff before I could cut it again, and swept his staff towards me. I barely blocked it, and retaliated with a swipe. He backed up, expanding his staff until it slammed me in the chest, sending me sprawling towards the ground.
I coughed as I got to my feet. I heard his laughter in the background. "Too slow, Eric." he said. I looked at Stephanie, who was watching me, concern in her eyes. I raised my sword once more, and charged him.
His staff expanded again, but I dodged it, continuing my advance. Before I knew what I was doing, I touched my gem with my other hand, summoning a second sword. I slashed upwards with my original sword, cutting his staff, and using my new sword to defend against his thrusts.
I saw the panic in his eyes as he tried to back up, but I quickly caught up to him and slashed. His staff was swept from his hands and landed behind me. I smiled and pointed my sword at him, the other resting on my shoulder. "Does this mean I win?" I asked him. He laughed, and disappeared. I quickly turned around to see him picking up his staff. How did he get behind me so quickly?
He knocked both swords out of my hands, and smiled. "You tell me." he said, swinging his staff towards my chest, catching me off guard. To our surprise, on contact, his staff broke once again.
He looked at me, a dumbfound expression on his face. I shrugged. "I'd call it a tie." I said, looking down at my chest. It was perfectly normal. Confusion overwhelmed me, but I brushed it aside. I raised my hands, and my swords came flying back to me, resting in my grip, which I found awesome.
We walked back to Stephanie, who looked like she wanted to strangle both of us. "What were you two thinking!?" she yelled. "You weren't supposed to go all out!" "Relax, Stephanie." said Steve. "No one got hurt." "Eric almost did!" she said. "If it wasn't for his power, his ribs would be broken right now!"
"What power?" I asked. "Besides summoning weapons," said Stephanie, "We can summon either weapons made of energy, or some sort of other power that affects us. It looks like yours is armor, and Steve's is super speed." "What's yours?" I asked. "My sight sharpens." she said. Steve nodded. "So you pretty much get falcon vision." he said. "That's pretty cool."
"What about our energy weapons?" I asked. "I can shoot energy balls out of my hands." she said, "And that was Steve's energy weapon. He didn't use his regular staff like I told him to." I looked at Steve, who shrugged. "I wanted to have a fair chance to win." he said.
"And mine?" I said. She shrugged. "No idea." she said. "But I have a feeling we'll see it soon enough." Steve looked at the sky, and narrowed his eyes. "Hey, guys." he said. "Was it supposed to rain today?"
"No, it was supposed to be sunny." I said, looking up at the sky. "Why would you think- oh, that's probably not normal." The sky was covered in black clouds, not a single ray of sunlight to be seen.
The wind picked up, and we almost got thrown. "What's happening?" yelled Stephanie, over the wind. "Look!" said Steve. In front of us, the shadow of a tree became hazy, and a hand emerged from the ground. It pulled itself up, and a man stood in front of us. He wore black clothes, and wore a hood.
"This can't be good." I whispered to Stephanie. She nodded. "I don't like this." she said. The man brushed himself off and turned to face us. "Well, well." he said. "What have we here? The new Knights?"
We looked at each other, and the man laughed. "It appears so!" he said. "This will be easier than I thought." "Who are you?" I asked. The man laughed again, and held out his hand. "You don't know who I am?" he said. "And you call yourself a true Knight? I'm hurt!" A gem emerged from his hand. An onyx.
I heard Stephanie catch her breath next to me. "Spectre." she said. "What?" I said. The man raised an eyebrow. "The girl knows who I am, so I guess you're the Knights, after all." Steve inched closer to us. "What's the game plan?" he whispered.
"We can't fight him." she said. "He's too powerful." "You know him?" I said. She shook her head. "I read about him." she said. "All I know is that he was the first Knight, turned evil. And he's strong."
"Well, it doesn't look we have much of a choice." I said, looking at him. He was watching us. "Any day now." he yelled to us. "I have things to do." Steve and I looked at each other, and nodded. "We got this." we said. "Guys, no!" said Stephanie, but she was too late. We were already charging him. "Boys!" she muttered, summoning her bow.
Running towards Spectre, we summoned our weapons. "I'll hang back." said Steve. "Gotcha." I said. "Expand your staff to hit him." I raised my sword and went in for a thrust. He sidestepped, using his hand to push me to the ground. As Steve extended his staff, Spectre quickly got out of the way with a burst of speed and kicked Steve in the chest, causing him to fly back and crash into Stephanie.
I got up and charged him again. He turned and raised his hand. "It's useless, boy." he said, touching his gem. There was a dark flash, and a scythe appeared in his hand. "Let's see if you know how to use that sword, Knight!" he said. He swung the scythe in front of him, and charged me.
I stopped in my tracks and deflected the blade. I went in for another trust, but he parried it, hitting me across the face with the hilt of his scythe. I backed up in pain, and summoned another sword. Instead of holding both, I connected the swords, making a double sided sword.
I charged him once more, and slashed. He parried, and I followed up with another slash. He ducked, swinging his scythe. I deflected it, then swung the sword towards his head. To my surprise, he reached up and stopped my strike with his hand.
He smiled, and swiped with his scythe. He connected with my swords, and they were thrown from my hand. Not wasting any time, he stabbed with his scythe, aiming for my chest up. Instinctively, I raised my right hand, closing my eyes.
When I didn't feel any pain, I opened my eyes, and immediately noticed that my hand had deflected the blade, and was surrounded by some sort of energy that seemed to be powered by my gem, giving it all the qualities of a sword.
Spectre narrowed his eyes. "So, there is more to you than I thought." he said. He backed up, and his scythe disappeared. "You intrigued me, boy." he said. "I look forward to our next encounter." He stepped back, walking into the shadows, and vanished.
I ran towards Stephanie and Steve, who were fighting to get off each other. I helped them up, and they brushed themselves off. "Where's Spectre?" asked Steve. "He walked into the shadows and disappeared." I said. Steve smiled. "Spooky." he said.
Stephanie was watching me. "What?" I asked. She pointed at my hand, which was still encased in energy. I touched my ruby, and it disappeared. I looked at her, and she shook her head. "I wasn't much help, was I?" she said.
"Steve got thrown into you." I said. "It's not your fault." "Nice catch though." said Steve. I narrowed my eyes, and he softened up. "I mean, yeah, it wasn't your fault." he said. "I tried to change my direction, but it's hard to do that in midair."
Before she could answer, we heard a voice come from inside the house. "Stephanie?" It was her younger sister, Emma. We quickly put our weapons as she walked into the backyard. She saw Steve and I and waved. "Hey, guys." she said.
"Where have you been?" asked Stephanie. "You weren't home when I arrived." "Uh, yes I was." replied Emma. "I was in the basement." Their basement was awesome. Big TV, pool table, air hockey, and assorted games. I loved it down there.
"What are you guys doing back here?" she asked. Stephanie looked at us with her eyes wide, as if to say "Help me!" Steve coughed. "We were...playing football." he said. Emma narrowed her eyes. "With no football?" she said suspiciously.
"Of course we have one." he said, and to my surprise, he pulled one out from behind his back and threw it to her. She caught it, laughing. "That was a pretty neat trick." she said. "I couldn't even tell it was behind your back."
She threw it back, and looked at Stephanie. "It's your turn to make dinner tonight." she said. "I'll see you later." she walked back inside, probably heading to the basement. I almost followed her, but Stephanie stopped me.
"Where did the football come from?" asked Stephanie. Steve smiled, and the football disappeared in his hand. "I summoned one." said Steve. "I didn't even know you can do that." I said. "I'll never lose another pencil again."
"Guys, we need to focus on Spectre." said Stephanie. "How to beat him?" Steve and I looked at each other, and nodded. "We hit him really hard." said Steve. I nodded. "That sounds like it will work." I said. She threw her arms up in the air, and trudged off. "You guys are unbelievable." she said.
"Seriously," said Steve, "How do we beat him?" I shook my head. "I have no idea." I said. "Let's sleep on it." "Are we staying here, or going home?" asked Steve. "I'll ask her." I said.
I walked into her house, and headed to her room. Her door was closed, so I knocked. "It's me." I said. "I'm sorry I was being a jerk. Can I come in?" Silence. I was about to walk back downstairs when I heard a muffled voice on the other side. "Come in." she said.
I opened the door and walked inside. She was laying on her bed face down, her head buried in a pillow, but she wasn't crying. She looked up from her pillow and I sat next to her on her bed. "So…" I said.
"For once, I don't know what to do." she said, hugging her pillow. "How do we beat someone like that?" I shrugged. "I don't know, but I know this." I said. "We'll find out soon, and when we do, we'll find him, and beat him."
She scoffed. "You sound so sure of yourself." she said. "Where do you get this confidence from?" "No idea." I said. "But we should sleep on this. You want us to stay here, or go home?"
She sighed, and got up. "I suppose you guys can stay." she said. "My parents are on vacation, and I know that your parents are okay with it." They usually were. They also weren't home either. Being 17 has it's advantages.
I got up and pulled her in for a hug. "Just relax." I said. "It's not healthy to be stressed out so much." "Shut up." she said, laughing. She broke from my hug and called downstairs, "Emma! I'm making dinner now!"