A/N: Hello readers and welcome to chapter 2. In this chapter Manny experience school life and El Tigre takes on gang members.

Two months have gone by since Manny officially took up the mantle of El Tigre. While there was a bit of a learning curve at first, Manny quickly adapted. The young boy has taken down several crooks and thieves in just a short amount of time. However, there were other complications. First off, Manny had a tendency to be rough with criminals. Intentionally breaking a few of their bones, which his father greatly disapproved of.

His second problem was the police. Due to his rough nature, and seemingly mysterious appearance (from the cops' point of view) he was viewed as a dangerous vigilante. While Manny didn't seem to care, Rodolfo advised the boy not to be too careless.

Speaking of Manny, he was currently perched atop a rooftop in his El Tigre suit. "Ah, what a lovely night." El Tigre notes to himself. "Focus niño, you're supposed to be looking for any sign of criminal activity." Rodolfo reminds him over a headset. "Yeah, yeah, yeah." Tigre says dismissively. "What's point if I can't have fun with it?" He remarks. El Tigre then stands up. "Here I come Miracle City." He mutters. He then leaps of the rooftop he was on; he then shoots chains from his claws and uses them to swing around the city.

This continued for ten minutes until El Tigre spotted something going on in an alleyway. "I think I see something." He tells his father. "Proceed with caution." Rodolfo advised. "Where's the fun in that?" Tigre joked as then heard an audible sigh from the headset. Manny swings over to alley, sticking his claws onto the wall. Upon looking in the alley he sees multiple men with red bandanas covering their faces.

"Hey old man, you know any guys with red bandanas?" El Tigre asks his father. "Red bandanas?... The Red Dragon gang!" Rodolfo exclaimed. "I take it that they're very dangerous." El Tigre guesses based off his father's tone. "Extremely dangerous. The Red Dragon gang have been gaining power in the criminal underworld for the last five years." Rodolfo explains. "Well, right now I'm staring at four of their members, looks like they're waiting for something." El Tigre relays to his father. However, before his father could reply El Tigre saw someone enter the alley, and they were carrying a crate with them

"Wait, someone's just entered the alley and they are carrying a crate." Tigre says. He watches the scene play out between the man and the red dragon gang till the man opens the crate, revealing machine guns. "Guns. Why does it always have to be guns." El Tigre said flatly. "Niño, now would be the right time to do something." His father urged. "On it pops." El Tigre replies. He leaps from his perched position and into the alley, drop kicking/landing on the man with crate filled with guns, confusing the red dragon gang members.

"Huh/What?" The confused gang members say. "Sorry chicos, but tonight's delivery has been postponed." Tigre quipped. He then quickly pounced at the gang member to his right, hitting him with a rolling throw. He then quickly hit the next red dragon with a flying kick. He then struck the third gang member with a hammer fist. Lastly, he slashes at the last red dragon, knocking him out. "Hmp, that was easy." El Tigre notes with a cocky tone. "Good job Manny. Now come on home." Rodolfo instructed. "Do I have to? The night's still young." Tigre says, hoping he'd change his mind. "Yes. We have something we need to discuss." Rodolfo says insistently. "Fine, I'm on my way." Tigre replies with a groan.

After twenty minutes of swinging across town El Tigre made it back to his home. After checking to make sure no one could see him, Manny takes of his cowl and enters the house through the window. "Couldn't you enter the house like a normal person." Rodolfo expresses as he enters the room. "Normal is overrated." Manny says as he shrugs his arms. "Anyway, what did you need to talk to me about?" Manny asks.

"Right. To make a long story short after finalizing some paperwork, I officially have custody of you." He tells Manny. "Is that it?" Manny says with a blank expression. "Yes, there is. After filing for custody, my lawyer asks about your school and public records. Of course, I had to lie about it and say you've been homeschooled all your life, anyway, my point is that you know have to go to school." Rodolfo explains. "I'm sorry, what? Did you just say school?" Manny asks, getting a bit worried. "Yes, is that a problem?" Rodolfo asks, not catching onto why Manny seemed worried.

"Of course, it is! Being a hero is one thing, but suffering through school is another!" Manny complained. "You have to go to school. There's things they can teach you that I sure can't." Rodolfo responds with. "Oh please, I learned everything I needed while living on the streets." Manny says, still feeling resistant to the situation. "Like what? How to pickpocket someone?" Rodolfo points out, which causes Manny to roll his eyes in response. "My point is that why would I want to hang around a bunch of punks with attitude?" Manny sarcastically asks. "Well, at least you'll have something in common." Rodolfo jests. "Very funny." Manny replies with a glare.

"Either way, you still have to go." Rodolfo exclaims. "Fine." Manny huffed before heading off to his room.

The Next Day

After getting up early and having a quick breakfast Manny (thanks to his father driving him there) made his way to Miracle City High School. The building was fairly large, and it had a looming feel to Manny. "Make sure to have fun and not punch anyone." His father reminded Manny. "No promises." Manny smugly replied. Rodolfo only gave Manny a stern stare before walking back to his car and driving off.

Manny then turned back towards the school. "So, this is school. Hmp, this will be easy." Manny states confidently. After taking a deep breath Manny marches himself into the school. But once inside the school, Manny realized that he didn't know where he was going. "Uh..." Manny murmured voice as he looked around the hallway. Seeing multiple kids whisking through the halls made Manny feel anxious. "You lost?" Someone asked Manny. He looks to his right to see a girl with slight tan skin and blue hair.

The girl wore a white shirt with a black stripe along with a red skirt, strangely she also had red goggles on her head. "Uh, me?" Manny questioned as he pointed at himself. "No, the other lost boy beside you." She remarked. "What other b-" Manny began to say until he realized what she meant. "Hey! Look, if you came to judge then you can just leave." Manny bluntly states. However, the blue haired girl simply laughed at Manny's comment, much to his confusion. "It was just a joke dude. Anyway, are you new here? Cause you sure act like it." She asks Manny.

"Uh, yeah. I just enrolled; I was previously homeschooled." Manny awkwardly says as looked away from the girl. "Haha." She laughed before continuing. "I could tell, you had that whole 'deer in headlights' look on your face." She tells him. "Anyway, let me see your schedule." She requested. Instead of questioning why he should Manny just went with it and gave the girl his schedule. She looked it over before looking back at Manny. "We have the same classes. Just follow me, we have history for 1st period." She tells him. "Wait! What's your name?" Manny asks her. She smirks before replying, "Frida Surez, and you?" She asks. Manny gives a genuine smile and replies, "Manny Rivera."

Thanks to Frida's help Manny managed to get through his first few classes. He surprisingly managed to follow along during history class. Most found history boring, but Manny had enough interest to pay attention for the entire class. As for math class however, it was more of a struggle. Despite his thieving background, Manny wasn't the greatest when it came to numbers (especially complex equations). Luckily, Frida managed to walk him through it to the point where he had a general understanding.

After that it was time for lunch. "So Manny, what you are getting for lunch?" Frida asks as she gets her lunch tray. However, when she turned to Manny, she saw that he was spaced out. "Manny?" Frida says as she taps him on the shoulder. "Huh? What?" Manny says snapping back into reality. "You, okay? You look like you have something on your mind?" Frida asks. "Yeah, yeah. I'm fine." He says dismissively. Manny then quickly grabs a lunch tray and gets his lunch. He then finds an empty table in the corner of the cafeteria and sits down.

But, to his surprise Frida decides to sit with him. It surprised him so much in fact that he gave Frida a skeptical look, which she noticed. "What? Do I have ketchup on my face?" Frida questions. "No. It just... Don't you have any friends you want to sit with?" Manny asks Frida. For a split-second Frida face made a slight frown, before returning to a neutral state. "And leave you sitting all alone?" Frida says with sly smile. Thanks to growing up on the streets Manny became a good observer, and he could tell there was something more to Frida's comment.

"Whatever you say." Manny says shrugging his shoulders. He figured whatever Frida was hiding wasn't his business to know. "Anyway, tell me more about yourself Manny. You said your last name is Rivera, right?" She asks for confirmation "Yeah." Manny says as he raised his eyebrows. "What does that matter?" He questions. "Well, my neighbor, Mr Rodolfo Rivera has the same last name as you and I was wondering if you two are related." She responds. Manny paused. She lived in his neighborhood, and he never noticed. "Uh, well..." Manny stammered before finding his words. "Yes. We are related." He answered vaguely.

"He your uncle or something?" Frida asks pressing the subject. Even after living with him for a year, Manny still felt uncomfortable calling Rodolfo his father, but he knew Frida wasn't going to drop the subject until she got a straight answer. "H-He's, my dad." Manny mutters, but it was loud enough for Frida to hear him. And she could tell from his facial expression that this was a sensitive matter. "Oh, Sorry! I didn't mean to bring up any issues!" She quickly apologizes. "Naw, it's okay. It just... It can get awkward at times." Manny tells her. Frida nods as the two continued to eat their lunch together.

The rest of the school day went by pretty normally. Science and English weren't anything too special, but they were serviceable, although gym was fun. But after seemingly an eternity the school day ended, and Manny was one of the few who rushed out of the building. "Not a bad first day." Manny comments to himself. He sat down by a nearby bench and waited for his father to pick him up. But as he was sitting there, he noticed something strange.

Some guy was standing over Frida, attempting to talk to her. However, Frida looked very uncomfortable. Normally, Manny would have minded his business, but something compelled him to see what was happening. So, Manny got up from the bench and walked over to Frida, who spots him and immediately ran behind him, much to the other guy's annoyance. "Is there something wrong?" Manny asks, hoping to get a clear picture of what was happening. "This creep can't take the hint!" Frida shouts from behind Manny. "It's nothing like that, all I did was asks the babe if she wanted a ride in my car." The guy responds.

"Look man, if she said no then it means no." Manny says to guy, trying to mediate. "Oh, I'm sorry, are you her boyfriend?" The guy asks snarky. Manny felt his cheeks start to blush, but he shook it off quickly. "No, I'm not." Manny replied. "Then it isn't really your business." The guy sneered. "Now, let's go little girl." He says to Frida as he grabs her wrist. But before he could drag Frida away Manny grabbed the guy by his wrist. "LET HER GO!" Manny demands with a dark tone as his eyes begin to flash green.

"And what are you going to do if I don't?" The guy mocked.

*BAM*

In one quick motion Manny hit the guy with a right hook, knocking him down and gaining the attention of the people around them. As the guy gets back up, he wipes his mouth and see that he's bleeding. "You just made a huge mistake pal." The guy says. He then charges at Manny and takes a swing at him but Manny ducks underneath his punch and counter with a punch to the stomach, causing the guy to recoil. Manny then gave the guy a quick 1 2 punch to the face before upper cutting him and knocking him out.

Manny took a moment to catch his breath and as he did, he noticed a red bandana sticking out from the guy's hoodie. It was then Manny realized that this guy was a Red Dragon gang member. However, he was going to have to worry about that later, for now he had a bigger concern. He turned around to see Frida's shocked facial expression. "You, okay?" He asks her. "Uh... Yeah, yeah I'm okay." She answers shaking her head 'yes'. "W-What was that?" She asks in regard to his fighting skills. "Oh, that." Manny cloddishly says. "Let's just say, I've been in a few fights in my life." Manny vaguely answers.

Manny then spots his father's car pulling up to the school. 'Talk about convenient timing.' Manny thought to himself. "Anyway Frida, I got to go, my dad is here. See ya." He frantically says as he waves goodbye. He then quickly rushes over to his dad's car, gets in and the vehicle proceeds to drive off.

Later

We now cut to inside the Rivera's house as Manny and Rodolfo was sitting at the kitchen table. Manny was staring blankly at his homework while his father was reading the newspaper. "Hmm..." Manny hummed as he continued to stare blankly. This however gains his father's attention as he looks up from his newspaper. "Alright, what's wrong?" Rodolfo inquires. "What?" Manny asks as he looks up from his homework confused.

"You've been blankly staring at your homework for the last fifteen minutes, which obviously means you're distracted. So, what's wrong?" Rodolfo questions. Manny contemplated for a moment if whether or not he should tell his father what happened at school. He almost decided against it, but he'd figure it out sooner or later so might as well tell him now Manny thought. "Something... Happened at school." Manny began vaguely. He then began explaining how his day went. Starting with him being lost in the hallway, then meeting Frida, classes and then what happened right after school ended. After he was done explaining what happened he saw that his father was wearing a cheesy grin.

"What's with the look?" Manny questioned, not liking it at all. "Oh, nothing. It's just, I didn't think you'd be fighting over girls this quickly." Rodolfo joked. Manny face immediately shot red. "It wasn't like that at all!" Manny screamed. "She was being harassed and I helped her, that's it!" Manny shouts. "Okay hijo, I get it." Rodolfo replies with a chuckle at his son's outburst. "Then what's got you so distracted if it isn't a girl?" Rodolfo asks. "The guy I fought, turns out he's part of the Red Dragons." Manny tells his father.

Rodolfo expression quickly changed from amused to serious. 'A Red Dragons member, at school?' He questioned in his mind. "This isn't good niño. If that's the case, then the entire school may be in danger." He tells Manny. "What do you mean?" Manny asks. "When someone messes with one of their members then nearly the entire gang retaliates." Rodolfo explains. "You mean to tell me I just got the entire school entangled in gang violence?" Manny questioned hardly believing this. "Pretty much." Rodolfo bluntly says with a deadpan expression.

"Great! Just great!" Manny says in a hysterical manner. "One day at school and already it's a disaster!" Manny exclaimed feeling a bit distraught. "Maybe not." Rodolfo says. "What do you mean?" Manny asks turning to his father. "That's the thing about our lives, you can use your other persona to get yourself out of the situation." Rodolfo explains. It took Manny a moment before understanding what his father meant. "Oh. That actually can work. I just need a plan so no one would suspect anything." Manny expresses as he begins to think of a plan.

The Next Day

The next day at school had gone normally so far for Manny. Although, his head was constantly on the swivel, looking for any looming threats. But so far, nothing out of the ordinary had happened. That was until lunch.

As we enter the cafeteria, we see Manny and Frida (more so Frida) enjoying their lunch. Manny is continually looking around for any possible threats, which Frida catches on to. "You okay there?" She asks. "Huh, what?" Manny says turning his head to her. "You been doing that all day, like you think someone's about to attack you, what's wrong?" Frida asks. "Well, you know, never hurts to stay vigilant." Manny says coming up with an excuse. "Sounds more like your paranoid." Frida replies with.

*BAM*

Suddenly the cafeteria door flings open and in came twenty men branding red bandanas and carrying shotgun rifles. Thinking quickly, Manny grabbed his backpack as well as Frida and ran out of the cafeteria before anyone could spot/stop them. "Am I still paranoid?" Quipped Manny. "Now is not the time for jokes!" Frida shrieked. "It's the red dragon gang, they've got the entire cafeteria surrounded." Manny says as he peeped through the window. "Great! The school is surrounded by gangbangers, what are we going to do!?" Frida asks, visibly distraught.

"Simple, you notify the teachers what's happening, and I'll call for help." Manny tells her. "B-But what if-" Frida began to say until Manny cut her off. "Frida, trust me. Everything will work out just fine." Manny assures. Seemingly that calmed Frida down. "Okay, just... Be careful." She says to Manny. Manny nods before running off. Once he was out of Frida's line of sight he darted into the restroom. Entering a stall, he reached into his backpack and pulled out his El Tigre belt. He puts it one and spin the belt buckle, summoning his costume.

"All right, time to take out the trash." Tigre states as he slams his fist together. As he goes to exit the restroom, he spots two red dragon members patrolling the hallway. "Hmm." Tigre hummed. He quickly sneaks up behind them and smash their heads together, knocking them out. After that El Tigre continued to move through the school, making sure to sneakily take down any straggling red dragon members till he gets right outside the cafeteria.

He peaks through the window to see the situation hasn't changed much. Manny then began to devise a plan to save the hostages. He happens to look up and see a vent above him. 'A situation like this requires some finesse.' He thinks. He then fires his chain claw at the vent, opening it. Tigre then jumps into the vent and begins to crawl until he right above the cafeteria. Tigre looks down to survey the situation, he sees that he's right above one gang member, with three more nearby.

"Looks like subtlety is out the window." El Tigre muttered to himself. He takes a deep breath before dropping out of the vents and onto the gang member below him. He then quickly jump kicked the next thug and then slashed the third. This however gains the attention of the rest of the thugs in the cafeteria. Knowing he would have to move fast El Tigre began charging at some thugs to his right, deflecting bullets shot at him with his claws.

He then takes out another thug with a hurricanrana, then sweeping the legs of another and then using an arm drag takedown on a third. Tigre however didn't slow down as he took down two more thugs. But after that he got surrounded by the last eight remaining thugs, all of them had a gun pointed at him. "You're surrounded freak!" The gang leader says. El Tigre continued to try and think of a way out of this situation as the thugs' guns clicked. But that's when the entrance to the cafeteria open and in came the police, distracting everyone including the thugs.

Using this to his advantage, El Tigre swung his chain claws to disarm the remaining thugs. After that, El Tigre made his way over to the exit knowing the police had the situation under control, but as he did, he happened to bump into someone. Frida.

"Who- What are you?" She asks him. Tigre panicked internally for a moment before showing off a sly grin to Frida. "Just your average wild cat, looking for trouble." He tells her, his accent thickening. He then leaps into the vent above him, shocking Frida in the process.

After a quick costume change Manny reentered the cafeteria. As he does Frida spots him and runs up to him. "There you are!" Frida exclaims. "Where have you been!?" She asks frantically. "After I called the police, I hid out in the bathroom." Manny convincingly lied. "Oh. Well, I'm just glad you're okay." Frida says. "Did anything happen while I was gone?" Manny asks, trying to maintain his cover. "Actually, yeah. Some guy in a tiger costume was here. Apparently, he took down most of the Red Dragons that were here." Frida tells him.

"Woah, I bet he looked so cool." Manny says, pretending to be excited. "Meh, he looked kind of goofy to me." Frida says bluntly, which made Manny just rolled his eyes. "By the way Frida..." Manny says as the two look each other in the eyes. "... I'm glad you're okay too." He tells her earnestly. Frida eyes widen in awe before her face shift into a warm smile.

After that tender moment between the two (and after school was released early), they spent the rest of the day hanging out.

A/N: And that's it for chapter 2. I'm so glad I'm finished with this chapter cause there are other projects I need to do. Anyway, if you have any questions or suggestions feel free to leave a review.