I searched everywhere for him, I even looked under my bed.

I was starting to get nervous. What if somebody caught him and took him to the government or a zoo or something?

I admit, I almost cried.

He was one of my only true friends, and now he was gone.

'No! Snap out of it Kevin! You will find him. Maybe he just went for a stroll or something... That's It! He went back to his ship!' My wobbly knees got slightly more sturdy.

I ran to my room to grab my big knife. I always kept it under my pillow in case of emergencies. I think being beaten and robbed in the middle of the night in the park for not having it counts.

I flung my pillow off my bed and grabbed my knife. I noticed the rock I had strung together on my bed. It must have fallen out of my pocket while I was sleeping. I grabbed it too.

I almost ran to the park through the flickering street lights like a mad man, but I restrained myself. Getting attention drawn to myself was the last thing I wanted in the middle of the night. There were all kinds of 'dangers', like robbers and highwaymen, who would beat you down and kill you for a dime.

I felt like the Energizer Bunny. I was so jumpy and seemed so staticy that I felt like if they hooked me up to some generator or something that I could power the block for a week.

I finally made it to the park, and as soon as I broke out of sight of the city, I broke into a dead sprint. I was so worried and nervous that I didn't even feel tired. In fact, before long, I realized I had sprinted the whole freaking half mile to the middle of the park and I wasn't even breathing that hard.

I reached the building in the middle of the park, guided by the light of the waxing moon. There was a flickering light inside, like a fire, but I knew Fox wouldn't have done that.

Somebody had found the ship.

I crept closer, proud at how silent I was as I creeped up. I peered into a window hole. I was just far enough away that the light didn't reach me. I was watching inside, and was filled with dread at what I saw.

Fox was lying on the floor, his eye swollen, and his muzzle dripping blood. His hands were bound behind his back. The gang that had captured him didn't look any better than he did, all beat up and battered. Fox must have given one helluva fight, but he was outnumbered by like, 20 to one, and they had all kinds of bats and ropes and chains and crap. It didn't help that his gun was in pieces on the ground either.

I realized I recognized the one who was interrogating Fox. He was the guy who had honked the horn back in the school parking lot to keep BitchAss off me. I felt a pit in my stomach, but not of fear. This was rage and hate.

"What are you and where did you come from. Answer me!" The-Guy-Who-Honked barked at Fox, kicking him viciously in the stomach. Fox coughed up another globule of blood.

"Tell us who has been helping you get around! We might not kill you then." The-Guy-Who-Honked said viciously, stepping on one of Fox's hands, cracking a bone.

Fox whimpered, but didn't answer.

"Alright then, well just learn how to work this ship without you. Somebody get me a bat. I wanna smash this buggers head right in" The-Guy-Who-Honked, who I'll now call BitchAssJr grinned evilly as one of his gang members pulled out a bat. He stood in front of Fox with a wide stance, and brought the bat up, all the way behind his head, his back facing me.

I snapped.

I was in the room before I even had time to think. I grabbed the thick part of the bat, holding it firmly. When BitchAssJr swung down, his hands slipped right off the end of the bat and, with no resistance, flew right down, smashing his own *ahem* baby-makers. He doubled over in pain.

The rest of the group was just processing I was there. I stepped in front of Fox. All my fear was gone. All my nervousness was gone. All my rage was gone.

I was a pool of calm. I had no fear. The only sound was BichAssJr on the floorwhimpering and cursing an octive higher than normal. I prepared myself.

The first of the gang broke out of their trance. He charged me blindly, his bat swinging at my head.

I'm not sure how I did any of what I was about to do. The bat was swinging to my head, but it seemed slow. Everything seemed sharper and more vibrant than before. I stepped forward, and caught the bat near the hand that was swinging it. I pulled it free as I elbowed the kid to the head.

My last coherent thought was not of anything very relevant. I was sad that most of these kids were close to my age, and I felt sad that they had to suffer like this.

The boy I elbowed in the face dropped like a rock, breaking the rest of the kids from their trance. They charged at me.

Elbow to face, duck and jump up with an uppercut.

Punch to face, bob left, trap the arm, break the elbow. Elbow to the face of the guy to my left.

Swinging club at my head, matrix duck, whip back with a hammer-fist to the head. Back fist and hook punch to the face of the guy coming up on my right.

Nobody escaped. Nobody died. Nobody got seriously hurt. Nobody spent much more than a few seconds in front of me.

I was in a damned Beast Mode.

I was breathing hard as the last of the kids came at me. This last one was cautious. He had a weighted chain in his hand, and was swinging it in small circles at his waist. I started at him, but he ducked it, retreating to a corner. I waited for him, and waited for it, and waited. He wasn't coming at me was he? I lunged at him again, but he was ready. He sidestepped and brought the end of the chain down on my back, me running head on into the wall.

I slumped to the ground, stunned. I got back up, and let out a growl as I turned...

WHAM! Someone had punched me right to the side of the face. I went down again, blood spattering the floor under me from my mouth.

Some of the kinds had gotten off the floor and were back, angrier than before. BitchAssJr was back and picked me up, holding me in the air by my throat. I panicked slightly when I couldn't breath, then I calmed down.

Nobody could beat me. Not if I didn't let them. I reached my left hand down and grabbed his ear, and slammed my fist into his face. Then again. And again.

The rest of the kids, who had been cheering for their leader, suddenly got quiet. BAJ dropped to his knees, blood spraying from his nose onto my jacket, but I kept punching. He fell to his back, but I kept punching him. I finally got up off him, and took my corner back. BAJ was out cold. He had a broken nose, his eye was swelling, he had bruises all over his face, and I'm sure a few teeth are at least loose.

The rest of the kids were scared. I could see it in their faces. They were all taller, buffer and more badass looking than me, but somehow I had beaten them all singlehandedly, and was barely hurt. Some of them grabbed BAJ, and dragged him away from me.

One of the less wounded ones picked him up and slung him over his shoulder. The gang backed out of the building, keeping a close eye on me, but I didn't care. I dropped to my knees by Fox. He was breathing, and his muzzle stopped bleeding.

He was OK.

The gang had taken off now, going back to whatever base they had. I suddenly felt exhausted. I dropped to my knees, then to my stomach.

I winced as I landed on something hard, right in the middle of my chest. I pulled out the necklace and stared, slack-jawed. It was was hot to the touch and was shining dully, but was dimming quickly. I watched the light fade. As soon as it was gone, I passed out.

Have you ever swam the 500 yard free, then had to get out and turn around and swim in two relays – the 100 and 400 a— just after each other? That's how I felt when I woke up that morning. It probably didn't help that I had been sleeping on concrete and was one of the most awkward sleeping positions I could possibly have twisted into.

I untwisted my arm from under my leg and tried to sit up, wincing as my muscles screamed bloody murder.

I turned my head as far as I could, which was pretty far considering I was stiffer than a board and had a crick in my neck, and looked at Fox. My motions had awakened him, and he was sitting up. He looked a lot better than he had the night before, but that's probably because you can't see bruises very well through fur. His muzzle was matted with dried blood, and there were a few cuts around in his shredded shirt.

"Ugh... Oh dear gods. What happened to you?" He asked, looking at how battered I looked, "I take back what I said before. NOW you look like you've been through a war on Venom."

"Ha. Yeah, yesterday was no freaking walk in the park was it?"

Fox's eyes widened "Oh Hell no! Dude, you fought better than Falco claims he can fight, and that's sayin' something!" Fox grinned painfully "And you said you can't fight. Yeah right"

The realization of what happened last night hit me like another fight. I just beat like 20 of the best fighters in the town singlehandedly. Without any training. What the Hell had happened?

Then I remembered the rock. I remembered how every time I was near it I felt energized. I remembered how everything seemed sharper when I had it.

I pulled my necklace out, and showed it to Fox.

"Do you know what this is?"

He took it in his hand and his eyes widened. He gasped loudly and look like he had been slapped across the face...

His face went blank "Nope. I've no Idea what it is. But you should have seen your face when I did that. Priceless" He was grinning maniacally and started to crack up.

I looked at him a moment, then joined him. We laughed like maniacs, half out of the actual hilarium* of the moment, and half of relief of not dying. We laughed till it hurt, which didn't take very long, considering it already felt like we had broken a couple ribs.

[* Hilarium - n. The essence of hilariousness or the atmosphere of a good nature, also could be a place where they put retired comedians. A made up word by yours truly.]

I wiped a tear of mirth/pain off the edge of my eye, "Yeah I guess I would have. Dude, we should probably get back to my apartment. It's pretty early in the morning, and I still need to go to school."

All anger on my part earlier was forgotten. I stuck my necklace back on and started leading the way back to my house.

Fox and I got back in my apartment and I took a cold, then hot shower. As I was brushing my teeth, I finally got a good look at myself in the mirror. Damn. My fading black eye coupled with the gash along the bridge of my nose and the scrapes on my cheek made me look like I had been in a fucking war zone.

Which wasn't that far from the truth, but still.

I sighed. I would just have to live with it till I could heal. I started out the door to my bus stop.

A long story short, life was Hell for the first three periods of the day, what with everyone asking what had happened to me and the teachers asking who the bully was. I finally signed a contract I wrote in class saying that anyone who talked to me about it wouldn't be acknowledged by me for five minutes after I showed it to them. That finally stopped the questions,but there were still the rumors.

The stories ranged from that I had been in a drug bust and barely gotten away, or was attacked by a ninja and barely escaped with my life. The craziest one I had heard was that I had gotten into a fight with Chuck Norris and Bruce Lee at the same time and won. Yeah right.

After lunch though, school got interesting. I started noticing little things, like the newly chewed gum stuck conveniently on the seat of my chair, or the lockers that suddenly flung open when I walked by. A was suspicious when I saw a kid with a face full of bruises following me through the hallways.

Great. They know I'm here. BitchAssJr was going to be here soon, I bet.

I made it into last period with only one incident of being tripped in the hallways, and one piece of gum I sat in. Mr Fagginston was the last of my concerns. I just wanted to get my work done and get out of school as quickly as possible. I didn't want another fight. I was still exhausted from yesterdays.

Mr Fagginston was watching me. I could feel it.

For once I didn't care. I just kept doing my work.

I finally looked up and saw an approving look on his face, he flashed me a smile and nodded, looking back down at the paper he was grading.

The rest of Fifth Block was uneventful.

The bell rang for class to let out. I walked up to Mr Fags desk to ask for my work from yesterday that I missed.

"Oh no. You have done excellently the past hour, you don't need any more work to dampen your day." He said.

I was surprised. Mr Fag wasn't being a fag.

"Thanks!" I rushed out of the room before he could change his mind.

I didn't get far.

"Ah, looky here. A Freshi bein' fresh. How typical." BitchAss was just outside the doors of the school.

"Lay off, numb nuts." I said, not even looking at him.

"Looky here Fresh-stuffs. You been messin wit my gang las night, an I don't preciate that. You goin na Hell, right now." He pushed himself off the wall and lunged at me. My soreness seemed to disappear.

I sidestepped him, reached out and grabbed his hair. His legs flipped it from under him as his upper body tried to stop the pain from his scalp.

I looked down at him in disgust.

"Does it bother you at all that I took out your whole fucking group of shitheads BY MYSELF?"

He gurgled an answer from the ground, "No, cuz I can do it too. Thas why I'm the fucking leader."

He jumped up, leaping back so I couldn't take advantage of the moment.

I looked at him, standing in a stance, stiff.

"An it doesn't bother you that I gave you that black eye some few days ago?" BitchAss hissed between his teeth.

"Ah, lemme think... No. And it would be 'a' few not 'some' few, dumbass." I was feeling really good. I pulled off my backpack and put it on the ground beside me, standing loose.

BA shuffled in, keeping his stance and guard up, like a boxer.

"Wow. Your cool," I said, drawing a light giggle from the audience.

He threw two punches in quick succession to my face. I leaned back, so he would just miss my face.

"Ooh, not far enough. Maybe you should try again."

I knew it was tempting fate, but I kept messing with him, making him madder and madder. Soon he would explode. This was what I was hoping for.

You see, I could tell by his stance and the way he beat the crap out of me earlier that he had had lessons in this crap, so I knew that if I could get him to attack, I could counter while he was off balance. I didn't have to wait long.

BA's face was so red with rage and embarrassment that he looked like a fucking Christmas elf with his green shirt.

"Ha! So Christmas is in early? Oh wait. That's just you."

The crowd was laughing freely at him, making him flush even more. He let out a scream of rage, hurling himself at me, fists flying.

I was ready. I knew he was a football player, so as soon as he lunged for my legs, I jumped. He did a face flaunt in the dirt, me landing softly on his butt. I stepped off his Ass and onto the ground.

"Well, I guess he just can't fight worth a damn, no show! Clear out!" I started waving the people off, grinning.

There was another cry of rage. This time he didn't charge me. This time he just threw a punch to my face. I bobbed out of the way, grabbing his wrist with my left hand, and pushing the back of his elbow with my right. His face was to the ground now.

"You like revenge, right? How's this." I clicked him in the face. "Now leave me alone!"

One of the teachers finally noticed us.

"Oh god! He's hurt! Somebody call the nurse!" I rolled my eyes.

I picked up my backpack and walked into the crowd. The teachers had saw me, but hadn't recognized me. In the commotion, she lost me. There were a few kids, obviously victims of this guy, who came up to me and whispered a good job as I walked to my bus. I grinned and allowed myself to relax. Nobody would snitch me out. That much I knew.

I got on the bus, feeling extremely good about myself. As I sat down, my fatigue came back in full, times 2. I slumped against the seat, suddenly sweating. I opened the window just in time to hear the teacher who broke up the fight telling Mr Fag what had happened.

"... It was a medium sized kid with long black hair..." I watched Mr Fags face darken.

I read his lips. He said my name. I slumped down in my seat and closed my eyes. There goes my grades. Suspension for me.

to both who reviewed. You encouraged me to keep writing, and I thank you. If you want to see how I envisioned most of the first fight, look up Kid Coudi's 'Mr Rager' official video. It's pretty epic, even though Kevin isn't black.