The week rolled by like normal…if you ignore all the gossip that spread throughout the school. Word about Diego and Brick's big fight caught the attention of everyone in the school. People were saying stuff like, 'Brick's going to decimate him', 'Diego will be in the hospital for weeks after this', and 'I hope he breaks his bones'.

Diego roamed the halls casually, oblivious to all the comments. His friends, however, grew more worried as the gossip increased. From what Diana and Rebecca learn from the boys, Diego has never gotten into a fight with Brick before. And Brick once tackled a guy over the football field. The difference in strength was kind of obvious.

Diana, however, was probably taking it the hardest. It irked her that he accepted a fight without taking in the possible consequences and that he was acting like it'll be a regular Friday. Yet, despite her immense anger towards him, she couldn't help but feel deep worry for him. He was a jerk, yes, but she may have overthought the good traits about him. The ones she didn't take into account.

It was Thursday afternoon as students ran out of the school to head home. Jacob, Kerian, and SkyArrow waved goodbye to their friends as they headed in a other direction.

Diego whistled innocently as he walked ahead of the others. Rebecca looked at Chase and whispered, "Seriously, how is he so calm? If I didn't know any better, I'd say he completely forgot."

Chase shook his head and whispers, "Oh no, he still knows. In fact, all he's done was say it's going to be a complete waste of his time."

"If that's the case, why bother fighting him?"

He shrugs. "Beats me."

Adam sighs. "Maybe it's because he wants to show off, as usual. Remember when he rigged the auditorium with speakers when he sang at the talent show?"

"How could I forget? I can still hear that ringing in my ear." Chase said as he rubbed his left ear.

"I'm not sure what his motivation for fighting is, but if he wants to, that's his choice…even if it is a stupid one." He turns a corner. "I'll see ya all later." He runs down the sidewalk.

Diana sighed. "Maybe one of us should talk to Diego."

"Tried, he just kept shutting me up." Chase responded immediately.

Diana scratched her chin. "Rebecca, maybe you can try and get something out of him."

"Get something out of him? Like his lunch? Or a kidney? Because that's gross. I mean, I remember when Mom took us took us to her job at the hospital and we saw that guy being operated on. There was blood everywhere and-"

Diana slapped her hand over her mouth. "Never mind." She thought she imagined it, but she could have sworn she saw Diego shiver a bit. "Something wrong, Diego?"

He looked back with a grin. "No, I'm fine." He looked at them while walking backwards. "And seriously guys, you need to stop worrying about me. I can handle that raging brute on my own."

Chase frowned. "Dude, this is different from the Skateboarding Combat Blitz. This is an ACTUAL fight you're pitting yourself into."

He shrugged and starts walking normally. "Hey, not my fault the brats tricked him."

Diana narrowed her eyes. "You still were the cause that led up to it. If you just were a little more mature, none of that would have happened."

"You see, that's where I stop caring. I can't predict the future, so I just roll with it. I bend it to my standards and everything turns out fine."

She glowered at him and grabbed his shoulder. "That arrogant attitude of yours is starting to irritate me. Don't you even care about your health? Brick is three times your size, obviously has greater strength than you, and could send you into a coma if you tick him off!"

Diego gave a look of disinterest and shrugged her hand off. "You worry too much, you know that?" They came to their neighborhood and Diego heads into his house.

Rebecca rubbed Diana's back as she was practically glowing in anger. "Sis, chill. He says he'll be fine and he will. Why are you getting so worked up?"

"Because…because…I DON'T KNOW!" She ran into her house and slams the door shut.

Chase and Rebecca stared at the door with surprised looks. "Man, I haven't seen her this upset since grandma passed away."

The Pikachu narrowed his eyes in concern at looked at his house. "Well, she doesn't know Diego like I do. Once that guy has his mind set on something, kind of hard to change it." He scratches his head. "Still, he could talk to her without his usual personality doing it for him."

"And how are we going to get those two to talk to each other? I don't think they want to be in the same room as each other."

Chase smiled, an idea popping into his head. "We could invite you guys over for dinner." Rebecca gave a confused look, not seeing how this would help. "Think about it. Diana can easily avoid him in your house, but, if we invite you over, your parents will make her stay."

She smiled. "Ooh, I like that. Mommy and Daddy always say it's rude to leave someone's abode when having dinner."

"Exactly! Convince your family to come over and I'll speak with Diego! Then those two can work this whole thing out!" They nod in agreement and head to their respective homes.

"No."

"Oh come on!"

"I said no." Diego was in his room doing some calculations on his whiteboard. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm busy. I need to plan for my fight tomorrow and I can't have any distractions."

Chase pulled on his arm. "You can worry about that later. It's just dinner with the Montoya's."

"Chase, I know you just want me and Diana to talk things out about my actions towards this fight." Chase sighed, knowing it wasn't going to be easy keeping that detail out. "She's mad, so let her be mad."

"You said you wanted to be friends with her. This isn't exactly helping your case." He reminds.

Diego shrugged and writes down some formulas. "Even so, she's the one acting immature, not me. I may have accepted the fight, but I'm doing it for my own reasons."

"I know, I know. But can't you just explain that to her?" He begged.

He sighed in annoyance and narrows his eyes at him. "You're not going to leave me alone, are you?" Chase nods frantically. He places his marker down and crosses his arms. "Very well, invite the Montoyas over while I prepare a dinner."

Chase responds by hugging him happily. "Thanks bro!" He dashes out of the room.

This makes the Charmeleon rolls his eyes in amusement. "Crazy Pikachu…"

A little while later, the Montoyas come over at the request of Chase. They were quite happy to be invited over, with the exception of Diana who was still peeved from earlier. Her parents forced her to come because, as Rebecca explained before, it would have been considered rude. That, and she would have been grounded.

Diego was cooking up some chicken in a skillet. "The food will be ready soon."

Harold looked around the living room and whistled. "My, you two have quite the home."

Chase nodded. "We made some money during our time living here. Especially helping out our neighbor."

Linda sat down on the couch. "Oh, he sounds like a nice man to be paying you."

This makes him chuckle nervously. "Not exactly. He's kind of a grump and rarely comes out of his house. It's best not to get on his bad side."

Diego shrugged. "Eh, he isn't so bad. He's one of the only people who really talks to us. The worst he's ever done was yell at us." He turns the heat off and slides the chicken platters onto each plate. He hears a ding in the miniature oven and opens it up to get the rolls.

Rebecca started bouncing up and down. "Yay!" She grabs her plate and two rolls.

Diego chuckled. "Feel free to sit on the couch and enjoy some TV." He takes his plate and heads to his room.

"Where are you going?" Harold asked.

"I'm working on something at the moment. You just enjoy yourselves." He shuts the door behind him.

Linda looked at Chase. "He's certainly the busy Combee."

"Yeah, he tends to be like that. Still, he knows how to relax." He picks up the remote and switches the TV on.

They spent the half hour watching some sitcom and chatting. Diana chose to stay out of the conversation as she felt herself glancing at the hallway where Diego left. Chase and Rebecca were very aware of this and decided to get things in motion.

Rebecca taps her sister. "You know, you could just go and talk to him."

She shrugs it off. "Not interested."

"Come on, you've been moping around ever since we got here. Can't you just try and be nice to him?"

She whispered, "After all the insults he's made and his arrogance over that stupid fight tomorrow, what makes you think he deserves kindness?"

Rebecca narrowed her eyes. "Maybe because you're treating him unfairly." Diana's eyes widen in surprise. "I know he doesn't seem like he's upset, but don't you think you were being a teensy bit harsh about judging him? I'm sure under that ego of his is a friend who just wants to make you smile."

Diana turns away and crosses her arms. "Even so, how do I know he'll talk to me after all of that?"

"Well, sitting around and not doing anything isn't going to help! So get your caboose off the couch and start traveling to your destination!"

Diana chuckled a bit at her sister. "Alright, alright, if it'll get you to shut up." She said jokingly. Rebecca smiles brightly. She pushes herself up and walks over to the hallway.

She stood in front of Diego's door, a little hesitant of making her presence noticed. She takes a deep breath and knocks twice. The following sound is an explosion in the room, making her jump in surprise.

The door unlocks and swings open to show Diego wearing a lab coat and covered in soot. "You knocked?"

Diana chuckled sheepishly. "Sorry." She tries to look past him. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Now then, if you'll kindly-" As he tries to shut the door in her face, she stops it.

"Wait…" She takes in a deep breath. "Can we talk for a minute?"

Diego, generally surprised by this request, gives it some thought. He opens the door. "Come in."

Diana walked in to his room. "Nice place."

"Thanks." He makes his way over to his desk, which had some chemicals and equipment laying on top. He grabs a spongy material and slowly dips it into a beaker of purple liquid. "So, what do you want to talk about?"

Diana bit her lip as she tried to form the right words. "Listen…I kind of want to apologize for my…behavior during the week."

"Well, that's something I didn't expect to hear out of you, sissy." He playfully said.

She groaned a bit, but lets it slide. "Look, I know it was wrong of me to judge you and all…but you are to blame as well. All you've done was mess around and made fun of me. You caused trouble all over the city, which still makes me wonder how you're not in jail. And, to top it all off, you willingly let yourself get thrown into a fight against a guy who can mostly likely clobber you!"

Diego halfheartedly says, "Yeah, uh huh, that's nice…"

She clenches her teeth. "Are you even listening to me?!"

Diego sets down what he was working with and looked at her. "Yes, I am. But what you're saying is pointless and irrelevant."

"Pointless and…are you trying to make me mad?!" She yelled angrily.

He walks past her and opens a cabinet on his wall. "What I'm saying is that I don't have a choice in this fight. I either take it like a man or hide in fear. And let me get something across, I have nothing to fear." He grabs a bottle of cleaning solution.

"How can you be so cocky? You think you can stand up to anything because you believe you have no fear?!"

"Let me rephrase myself, sissy. I have nothing to fear from this fight. And I have a goal set in mind."

"Oh what, proving that you're stronger than the toughest guy in school?!" She screamed.

"No…protecting everyone else."

Diana's anger quickly diminished. "Wh…what?"

Diego sighed and sets his stuff down. "Diana…I know Brick. He has some pretty intense anger, probably strong enough to generate the city power grid for 2 years." He chuckles to himself. "But, when that raw anger can't be quenched and there are a ton of people around to witness the fight, who becomes the fall guy?" He started to mix something together.

Diana was getting a hazy idea of what he was talking about. "But…can't you just-"

"Tell a teacher? Authority figure? His parents? What good would that do?" He places a piece of metal to the side. "Brick can still attack people after school or on his own time and no one will have any likely evidence to pin it against him. Some people even tried that excuse in the past, saying that Brick injured them." He grabs an eye dropper. "Though, they were quickly found out and punished for it.

"It's like that story, The Boy Who Cried Mightyena. He used the excuse so many times and, when the truth becomes real…" He takes the dropper and sucks up some of the liquid. He drops a tiny dot of it on the metal and it started bubbling until it becomes a pile of goo, "…game over."

Diana gulped. "Oh my…"

"I'm doing this for my friends. Adam's strong, but he has his limits too. Kerian may know martial arts, but that doesn't always help. SkyArrow, Jacob, Chase…even Rebecca could become a target. All of that could or will happen if I back out of the fight."

Diana finally lets everything sink in. "So…you're just doing this to…protect everyone?" She shakes her head in disbelief. "Wow…that…that's really noble of you." She didn't notice, but Diego smiled to himself. "Still, how do you plan on beating him?"

"Oh sissy, what fun would it be if I ruined the surprise? It's like a child opening their gift before Christmas morning. It loses that special feeling and sense of wonder."

"I see…" She rubbed the back of her head. "Well, I'll just leave you alone while you work…"

Diego looked at her worried expression and smiled. "Hey, I promise, I won't get hurt. You just need to roll with it." She nodded at him. "Good…and seriously, try and loosen up a bit. There's nothing wrong with going a little wild."

"Okay…" She was about to leave before turning back around. "You know, you could join us. We are your guests, after all."

He gives it some thought before setting his stuff down. "Perhaps I deserve a break. Besides, I'm almost finished, anyway." Diana smiled a bit. "Come on, let's join the others." They walk out and join the others in the living room.

Chase was surprised by his presence. "Diego! I thought you were going to spend the rest of the night in your room!"

"Well, I was, but…" He takes a glance at Diana before saying, "I kind of changed my mind." She smiled once more.

"Well, sit down! We're watching this funny movie!"

Diego shook his head and sat in the armchair. Throughout the movie, he couldn't help but smile to himself. Things are starting to change around here. He looked up at the ceiling. Makes me wonder what might happen tomorrow. Heh, anything could happen. He shook his head and just goes back to watching the movie, joining in on the laughs.