Sorry about the delay. After my exams were done I needed a rest, but as requested, here's chapter 5! Let's move on!
Chapter 5: New Friends.
X and the gang walked out of the school building. It was Friday.
"HUZZAH!" StarZ yelled. "Finally! A Homework free weekend!"
"Yeah. That means a whole weekend to do whatever we want!" Axl added.
"So, what are we going to do?" Pallette asked.
Everybody stopped walking and looked at her.
"Honestly, I don't have a clue." Star said. "Any ideas, guys?"
"We haven't done many different things lately." Alia said. "Besides studying, sparring and the boys playing games, I don't remember doing anything else."
"Well, there's gotta be something we haven't done yet." Zero said as the group walked down the street.
"Well, good luck finding it ." DMZ crossed his arms. "I can't think of anything new."
"How about the movies?" Layer asked.
"Last time I checked, no new movie had been released and I think we already saw the ones on display." X stated.
Alpheon, who was silent for most of the time, suddenly remembered something. "Hey guys, I think I know a..." He was cut off by some chains rattling sound. "Huh?" The black ninja turned around and clenched his fists. "Not good..."
"What's wrong Alpheon?" Star asked turning around. "Oh no..."
The others turned around. Before them was a large number or punks. All of them were armed with bars, chains and anything they could use as weapons.
"What do you want with us?" Zero asked taking the lead of the group.
"We just want the girl and the white haired boy." One of the punks said pointing to Star and Alpheon. "Thanks to them, we and our boss are laughing reason and we want to repay the favor."
"Huh? What are they talking about?" StarZ asked.
"Star befriended Alpheon when he saved her for some street punks." Axl explained. "I guess they're from the same gang."
"Got that right, twerp." The punk said. "Now hand them over and we'll have no problems."
"Like hell we're gonna do that." DMZ growled.
"That's right. You mess with one of us, you mess with all of us!" Zero said.
"Fine! Get them!" The leader yelled. The punks lunged at the group.
"Here goes!" X said as he and the boys got ready to battle.
In a matter of seconds, a huge brawl started. Even though they were in a smaller number, X and his friends held their ground.
A large punk tried to punch Zero, but the young teen grabbed the punk's fist. "It's gonna take a lot more than a bunch of punks to take us down!" He yelled before twisting his opponent's arm behind his back into a rather painful armlock.
Somehow, the punk got free. However, instead of attacking Zero, he lunged at X who swiftly dodged his punches. "I'm not into violence." He said before knocking him down with a low kick. "But I'm no push-over either."
Axl and StarZ had their backs to each other. They were surrounded. "Ready?" StarZ asked with a smirk.
"You bet." Axl smirked back at him.
When the punks lunged at them, they jumped up and kicked each other's feet then shot out and kicked down a punk each one, then they shot back to themselves then kicked their feet and repeated! In no time, the punks were down.
"All right!" They yelled high fiving.
DMZ glanced at them and rolled his eyes. "Show offs."
"Hey, DMZ!" Alpheon yelled. "Heads up!"
DMZ did a backflip and dodged a blow from an iron bar. "Okay, I'm tired of these jerks." He glanced at Alpheon. "You know what to do."
The black ninja nodded. They rushed towards a punk and double punched him. The blow was so strong that sent the scum flying into another five punks, knocking them all down.
In the meantime, the girls were defending themselves.
"Meh, a bunch of defenseless girls and the boys are too busy to help." A punk sneered. "This is gonna be easy."
"Don't count on that!" Alia said before slapping the punk on the face.
"Why you little...!" He was cut off by Star grabing his arm and throwing him over her shoulder.
"Finish that sentence and you're gonna be sorry." Star said.
Another street scum tried to sneak up on Layer and Pallette, but both girls were ready.
"Take this!" Pallette yelled kicking the punk on his leg.
While the bully was busy clucthing his leg, Layer knocked him down with a roundhouse kick. "This will teach you not to take us for granted." She said.
Even though X and his friends had the upper hand, more punks kept coming. "Okay... I think we need a new strategy..." X said. "They just keep coming."
"Hey!" A voice suddenly yelled. "Need a hand, dudes?"
Everybody looked up. Four teens stood on a nearby rooftop. Three boys and a girl .
"Those guys..." Alpheon said.
The four landed and the group took a better glance at them. One was a boy around seventeen with gray eyes and short black hair. He was wearing a green cap, a camouflage green jacket, green pants and black sneakers.
The second teen was a sixteen-year-old boy with spikey purple hair and light gray eyes. He wore a dark blue and purple t-shirt, a dark blue jacket tied around his waist, jeans and blue sneakers.
The third teen, the girl, was seventeen years old with midlong black hair and ruby eyes. She was wearing a red ribbon on her hair, a yellow blouse, blue jeans and black sneakers.
The last teen was the oldest: 18 years old with light brown eyes and short black hair. He was wearing a purple sleeveless t-shirt, black jeans and black sneakers sneakers, a red ribbon around his forehead and a red belt tied around his waist.
"Who are they?" Axl asked.
"Dunno, but I can't shake the feeling that I've seen them before." Zero replied.
"Okay, I just can't stand meddlers." The head punk said before trying to punch one of the teens.
"I don't think so." The elder teen said giving the punk a somersault kick knocking him down.
Everybody was surprised by that. "His moves... they are a lot like Alpheon's!" StarZ said.
The leader recovered and he was mad. "Okay, brats, you asked for it!"
All the punks picked their weapons and got ready. "Dude... I guess you pissed him off." The teen with the green hat said.
"May I suggest a strategic retreat, my friends?" The purple haired teen asked. He had a deep british accent.
"I second that." The girl replied before running over Star and the girls. "Please come with us."
The girls looked at each other and at the boys. The angry mob of punks was quickly approaching them.
"Let's go!" Alpheon suddenly said. The four teens nodded and ran off. The black ninja followed them.
"Should we trust them?" Alia asked.
"Alpheon does." Star replied. "And I trust him."
The others nodded and the gang ran after the black ninja with the punks close behind them.
"They're catching up!" Axl yelled.
"Keep running!" The elder teen said. "We're almost there!"
The group rounded a corner only to reach an alley.
"It's dead end!" Pallette said. "What do we do now?"
"I'm sure it was around here." The purple haired teen said looking into a brick wall.
"Hurry! They're coming!" The girl said.
"Found it!" The green cap teen said as he removed a brick of the wall revealing a hidden button. He looked at X and his friends. "Fast your seatbelts, dudes. We're going down!"
Before anyone could ask what was going on, the teen punched the button, opening a huge trapdoor beneath them making the whole group fall in it.
When the street gang reached the alley the trapdoor had closed and X and the others were gone.
"Damn! They've escaped!" The leader said. "How did that happen!"
No one knew how to answer that.
&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&&
X groaned as he woke up. "My head..." He said rubbing it. "Where am I?"
He was lying on a makeshift bed. Slowly, he got into a sitting position and looked around. It looked like a juice or bar or something. Glancing to his right, he found Zero, Axl, DMZ and StarZ lying next to him. "Guys?" He called them trying to wake them up.
Soon, the boys woke up. "Hey, what happened?" Zero asked as he got up.
"Last thing I remember was falling into a trapdoor." StarZ replied. "So, where are we?"
"I don't know, but haven't you guys noticed that someone's missing?" DMZ asked.
"The girls and Alpheon!" Axl suddenly said. "Where are they?"
Some laughter were their only reply. "That's your first clue." Zero said. "Let's go check it out."
The five boys followed the sound and found a rather unexpected scene: Alpheon and the girls sat on a table next to three of the four mysterious teens. They were all chatting and laughing.
"X!" Alia suddenly yelled before she ran towards him. "Are you okay? I was worried about you!"
"I'm fine, Alia." X said as he slightly blushed. Alia had always deeply cared for him. "What about you guys?"
"We're okay, X." Star replied. "You boys scared us though. After we fell on that trapdoor, the five of you landed on top of each other and I think you hit your heads too. You've been out cold for a while."
"No wonder my back's sore." Zero said. "How did we end up here?"
"That trapdoor we fell into is connected to a secret underground passageway that was built during the Hollow War which is connected to this place." Layer explained. "This building used to be a training facility, but now this place is The Green Light House, a place where teens can hang out."
"Cool!" Axl said looking around. "This place got everything! A gym, an arcade, a cyber cafe and even a sparring area! How come we never heard of this place before?"
"That's because its grand opening is tomorrow ." The girl replied. "By the way, we didn't introduce ourselves. My name's Rigel. Nice to meet you."
"I'm Kazegama." The elder black-haired teen said.
"And I'm Faust." The purple haired teen said. "Pleased to meet all of you."
"Nice accent." StarZ smirked. "Hey, wasn't there another someone with you guys?"
"Yeah, he had to attend to something." Faust replied. "He should be back soon."
While Faust was talking, the boy with green cap snuck up behind him. "HEY FAUST!" He yelled jumping in front of Faust.
Badly starled, Faust let you a high pitched scream before falling on his back. "GAAAH! What... Vega, you simpleton!" Faust said angry while looking at the teen. "What on earth do you think you're doing!"
"Well, y'know I just decided to greet ya, man." Vega replied while snickering. "Dude, you should've seen the look on your face and ..." A smirk "Did I hear a little girl scream?"
Faust got up. He was so angry that the gang could even see an angry vein poping out of his forehead. "VEGA!" He yelled before chasing a laughing Vega around the place.
The group sweatdropped as they saw the teens running around the place. "I see they get along well." Zero said with a sarcastic tone.
Alpheon chuckled as he shock his head. "That's Vega, the gang's prankster and rock fanatic." He said smirking. "He always does that."
"Always?" DMZ asked raising an eyebrown. "Wait a minute, do you know these guys?"
"Sure." Alpheon replied. "We share a dorm. Also, Vega, Rigel and Kazegama trained with me at ninja school. And Faust and Vega went to the same music school."
Vega and Faust stopped running around. "Got that right, dude." Vega said. "Remember when we first met?"
"How could I forget? It was my first day at the ninja school." Alpheon smiled.
Flashback.
As Alpheon entered the dojo, an old man greeted him with a smile. "Welcome back, Daisuke."
Alpheon was confused. "I think you're referring to the wrong person, sir, but I am Alpheon." He said. "Though, you do look very familiar."
The old man laughed. "Of course I am familiar to you. I've taught you the art of ninjitsu. I am your Master Rigyoku." He said patting Alpheon's back.
The old master toured Alpheon around the dojo and introduced him to new students. "Daisuke, I would like to welcome Miss Rigel and Mister Vega."
Alpheon looked at them while his master left the room to take care of something else. Rigel was dressed an ordinary casual attire while Vega was busy tinkering with his MP3 player.
"So, uh, Vega..." Alpheon said to him, tapping his shoulder. "Do you know this girl?"
Vega looked at him. "Nope. Never seen her, dude."
Alpheon blinked. "He's probably fond of Heavy Metal." He thought.
"Hey, white haired dude" He called Alpheon. "What's your name?"
"It's Alpheon. Pleased to meet you Vega." Alpheon said with a smile.
"Tchyaaah!" Vega expressed "Dude, what's with the pale skin and bandages? You look almost dead."
"Yeah." Rigel said as she approached him. "It looks like you've seen a ghost."
"It's a long story, guys. I hope we three become good friends." Alpheon said putting his hands on each of their shoulders.
Below the staircase, they saw another teen in purple clothes running towards the dojo. "Am I late for class?" He asked as he tried to catch his breath after he caught up with them.
"Uhh... I don't even know if it's started yet." Alpheon replied.
The teen glared at him "Was I talking to you?" He snapped.
Alpheon and Vega just stood there, but Rigel stepped forward and looked at the newcomer with a friendly expression "Hello there."
The teen just stared at her and blushed.
Rigel giggled "What's your name?"
The teen was hesitant to answer but he did it anyway. "Th.. Th.. The... N.. Name's.. Kaz.. Kazegama" He stuttered with a red face.
Rigel smiled. "Welcome, Kazegama." She said placing a hand on his shoulder.
Kazegama suddenly fainted.
Vega and Alpheon, who were standing in the background, burst into laughter at what happened.
After Kazegama regained conciouness, the class started.
Later that day...
"All of you have done well today, my students." Master Rigyoku said. "Class dismissed."
"Yes, sensei!" The four ninjas in training said bowing before their master. Then, they left.
The four new friends chatted as they walked down the street. "Alpheon, where did you learn moves like that?" Rigel asked. "Have you taken ninjitsu lessons before?"
"Actually, I'm not sure... I can't remember my past." Alpheon replied.
"You can't? What happened?" Kazegama asked.
"You see, two weeks ago, I was found by an old man inside an alley. He said that I was out cold with several bruises on my body and a huge wound on my head..." Alpheon explained. "This man, who took me in and nursed me back to health, named me Alpheon... Before he traveled to another country to attend to some business, he instructed me to go to the dojo. He said that Master Rigyoku was a friend of his and that he'd help me get my memory back with the ninja training... Sensei looks familiar to me and he even called me Daisuke."
"Maybe he does know you, dude." Vega suggested. "Why don't you talk with him?"
"I tried." Alpheon sighed. "He said that only when the right time comes."
Silence fell over them. "Well, no use worrying about that now." Kazegama said. "Your memory will come back with time, you know."
"You know, you're probably right, Kazegama." Alpheon said.
"So, what do we do now?" Vega asked.
"I have to go home and unpack my things." Rigel replied. "Since Master Rigyoku accepted me as his student, I had to move into a dorm closer to the dojo. I also need to meet my roommates."
"Roommates?" Alpheon asked. "Say, where's your dorm, anyway?"
"I don't remember the address, but I have it written here." Rigel replied as she took a piece of paper of her pocket and gave it to Alpheon. "Here."
Alpheon read the paper and let out a huge grin. "Well, what do you know? We're roommates!"
"We are?" Rigel asked.
"Yeah, this is the same dorm I'm staying." Alpheon grinned.
Vega and Kazegama also read it. "That's the same dorm I'm staying too!" They said in unison.
Alpheon laughed. "That's great! Wait. I was told that I was getting four roommates. If you guys are my roommates, who's the fourth one?"
"I believe I have the answer for that question." Another teen said as he approached them. "My name's Faust. I believe I'm your roommate as well."
"Yeah, the dude's right!" Vega said with a grin. "I remember you saying that we'd be roommates before we left music school."
"Music school?" Kazegama asked.
"Yeah. I play a flute while Vega plays the guitar." Faust said. "We attend to the same school."
"That's so cool!" Rigel said.
"Indeed." Alpheon said grinning. "Something tells me we're going to be great friends."
End Flashback.
"And that's how we met." Alpheon said.
"Jeez..." Axl said looking at Kazegama with a smirk. "I can't believe you passed out on your first day at the ninja school."
"You don't have to rub it in." Kazegama said with scowl.
"Don't feel bad about it, Kazegama." Rigel said. "You really worried me that day."
"R-R-Really?" Kazegama sttutered as he face became more red than a tomato.
The girls giggled. "Looks like someone's got a crush on Rigel." Pallette said with a mischevious grin.
"Yeah." Star said trying to not laugh. "There's one thing I don't understand though: if you guys knew Alpheon for a while, how come he used to be a loner when I met him?"
Alpheon and the others frowned at the question. They knew someone would ask it sooner or later. "Well, it all happened when Sensei passed away." Rigel explained. "Among us, Alpheon was the closest to Master Rigyoku. He took his death the hardest..."
"He started drifting apart from us." Faust explained. "At our home, he's the first one to wake up and the last one to go to bed. We only got to see him at school and even then he'd rather be alone."
"We tried to help him, but he said that he wanted to be alone." Kazegama said. "That was a while ago. Way before you were transfered to our school. We decided to give him some time and meeting you guys seems to have helped him some way."
Alpheon sighed. "That'true... I was so sad about sensei's death and confused about my past, I ended up pushing my friends away..." He said. "After meeting Star and the others, I remembered the meaning of friendship and that there was people who accepted me for who I was..." He looked at the three ninjas and Faust. "It's been some time that... I've been wanting to tell you guys this... I'm sorry... for the way I acted."
Vega grinned and patted Alpheon's back. "No prob, dude." He said. "All's well now."
"Alpheon's friends are our friends too." X said. "Also, you guys helped us out when those punks attacked. We'd be more than happy to have you guys around."
"Well, the more the merrier. That's what I always say." StarZ smirked. The others nodded.
"Thanks X, guys." Faust said with a smile. "It'd be a pleasure to accompany you."
"Well, looks like our group is getting bigger." Zero said. "Good thing you showed this place to us, guys. It's the perfect hangout!"
"By the way, how did you find this place?" DMZ said.
"One day, we were walking home from the dojo when we found this passageway by accident." Kazegama explained. "The man who runs this place lives next to our dorm."
"Yup, he's one cool man." Vega added. "He's fought during the Hollow War!"
"Whoa... A survivor from the war? That's awesome!" Axl said. "I hope I can meet him someday."
"How about now?" A voice asked. The group turned around. A man around his 25 years approached them. He had black eyes, short dark hair and he looked pretty strong. He was wearing casual clothes.
"Guys, that's Mr. Signas." Alpheon said. "He's the one in charge of the Green Light House. He helped us carrying you guys in and checked on you while you were out cold."
"Pleased to meet you kids." Signas said as he looked at X and smiled. "I see the boys have awakened. How are you feeling?"
"We're okay, mister." X replied. "Thanks for helping us. And sorry for the trouble."
"Don't worry about it." Signas said. "You kids must be good people to Vega and his friends show you the secret passageway." A sigh. "If more teens were like you, then maybe the war wouldn't have started to begin with."
"I don't mean any disrespect, sir, but why did you change a training facility into a teens hangout?" Zero asked.
"Teens like you and your friends were the most affected by the war, Zero. When I joined the war, I was around your age... And I saw things that I never wanted to see..." Signas replied. "That's why I wanted to create a place where teens can hang out and have a good time. So that they can enjoy the things I couldn't when I had their age."
Silence fell over the group of teens, who were amazed by Signas' words. Having no parents, none of them really had a parental figure to look up to.
"Now, now, don't give me that serious look." Signas said with a chuckle before looking at Vega and Faust. "Shouldn't the two of you be practing for tomorrow's grand opening?"
"Yeah!" Vega and Faust said in unison.
"Practing?" Star asked. "For what?"
"Mr. Signas hired us to play at the Green Light House after school." Faust said pulling out a flute of his jacket.
"Yeah. Some good music never hurts anyone." Vega said as he picked his guitar. "Ready to rock, Faust?"
Faust nodded. He started playing a soothing melody.
"This music is so peaceful..." Layer said smiling.
"You've seen nothing!" Vega said. He started playing his guitar. The melody coming from it was intense, matching perfectly Faust's melody.
"Never thought flute music and guitar playing would go so well together." Alia said.
"Just for you, dudes and dudettes, our new song!" Vega said. "It's called: Freedom Spirit!"
The group got silent as Vega began singing.
Don't tell me what to do!
Don't tell me what to say!
Don't tell me who I am!
You can't control me!
I am free! I am free!
I am me! Just me!
This world has gone crazy,
But my heart is the same.
Even if my body shatters,
My soul will remain forever!
Don't tell me what to do!
Don't tell me what to say!
Don't tell me who I am!
You can't control me!
I am free! I am free!
I am me! Just me!
I've heard too many tales
Of sadness and pain.
I won't hear it anymore!
This is where I make my stand!
Don't tell me what to do!
Don't tell me what to say!
Don't tell me who I am!
You can't control me!
I am free! I am free!
I am me! Just me!
The future is now!
We make our path!
Let's move towards tomorrow
Where all our dreams await!
This is what we wanted for so long.
Our time has come.
The freedom Spirit belongs to us!
So, what are we waiting for? HERE WE GO!
Don't tell me what to do!
Don't tell me what to say!
Don't tell me who I am!
You can't control me!
I am free! I am free!
I am me! Just me!
Don't tell me what to do!
Don't tell me what to say!
Don't tell me who I am!
You can't control me!
I am free! I am free!
I am me! Just me!
I am free! I am free!
I am me! Just me!
The Freedom Spirit lies with me! FOREVER!
Once Vega and Faust finished the song, everybody started clapping.
"That was great, boys!" Rigel said. "Way to go!"
"I gotta hand it to you two." Kazegama said. "You got really good at this."
"Thank you, my friends." Faust said bowing his head while Vega flashed a grin.
"I guess it's safe to say that they rock and they rule!" Alpheon joked.
Everybody laughed at that. The gang had made new friends and learned a few things in the process. And all of that in the most unexpected way. You never know what may happen during a homework free weekend.
Hope you guys enjoyed this one. It shouldn't take too long for the next chapter. So stay tuned.