Study Buddies

"Where am I?" Michael whispered, walking through the strangely brightly colored neighborhood. He suddenly saw a figure outside of a pink house that he recgonized.

"Paulo!" The Korat greeted, running over. "Am I glad to see you! Where are we?"

"Come on, Lucy, let's go party!" Paulo declared, as Lucy walked out of the house, smiling and wearing a pink dress.

"...What?" Mike whispered.

"Ah-Ah-Ah-YEAH!" Lucy giggled, walking off with the Somali, ignoring Michael.

"What?"

"Come on, Lucy, let's go party!"

"Uuooh! Uuooh!"

"I'm a barbie world! In the barbie world! Life in plastic! Its fantastic!" The Khao Manee suddenly leaned over to Paulo, smacking his butt with a seductive grin. "You can brush my hair! Undress me everywhere...Imagination! Life is your creation!"

"Alright!" Paulo laughed.

"WHAT?"

"Come on, Michael, let's go party," Carson giggled, wrapping his arms around the gray cat's neck.

"AHHHHH!"

"Michael? Michael?"

"Huh? What?" The Korat awoke to the sound of Abbey's voice. He opened his eyes and yawned as he sat up and saw the rest of the group was looking at him.

"You okay, Michael? You've been sleeping right through lunch for a whole week now," the boy commented.

"Yeah! I'm fine. I've just been out…"

"Hahaha! This is an easy score!" the man laughed as the bank vault opened up and he and his partner walked in, as the third aimed his gun at the guards and citizens.

"You're right." Suddenly the guard with the gun was thrown into the wall, then into the ceiling and then dropped to the ground, knocking him out. The man's partner then levitated into the air and began to spin around wildly and violently, disorienting him before he was thrown through the glass door. The last man pushed forward right into the wall, slamming him head first into it. The last thing he saw before blacking out was a silver figure. "That was easy."

"HELP!" the woman screamed, before she was slapped and thrown to the ground.

"Shut up!" one of the men ordered, as he began unzipping his pants. Before he could though, he was pulled into the shadows, screaming in fear.

"W-where'd he go?" the other one asked, before he was pulled up and onto a nearby rooftop. He screamed in fear, before being silenced.

"Oh no. Don't tell me. Not-"

"Boo."

"The Sentinel!" the rapist gasped, quickly reaching for his gun. He aimed it at the floating hero, as he entered the dark alleyway. "B-back off!" he ordered, shooting at him. The bullets flew before slowing down and falling to the ground. "…I surrender!"

"Thank you," the girl whispered, looking up at the Silver Sentinel.

"You're welcome."

"Come on! We got to go before the Silver Sentinel gets here!" The bank robber yelled as he and his cohorts ran out of the bank.

"Say my name and I magically appear," a familiar voice joked. The robbers stopped and slowly looked up, seeing a certain superhero. Their car began to shake, before being crushed and flatten by an invisible force.

"…We give up!" the leader screamed.

"Studying."

"Oh my god…Michael's been chasing the dragon!" David gasped, pointing at Michael.

"…What?" The others asked.

"He's been eating his spinach! He's been hanging out in the technical dreamscape! He's been riding the waves of the high! He's fallen off the wagon and danced with the sweets of the underworld!" The dog continued, pointing at Michael. "Choose life, Mike. Choose it…" he whispered, staring at him intensely.

"What?"

"I think he's saying Flea's on drugs," Yashy guessed.

"I'm not on drugs, David!" Michael sighed, rubbing his head as the bell rang. The group all stood up and began to leave. As our hero did, Lucy walked up to him and tugged on his scarf. "Huh? Lucy…?" Mike gulped at the awkward situation, not knowing how to react. The two had still refrained from talking much, save for whenever they needed to study their lines together for the play.

"I'm going to your house later so we can work on the play, okay?"

"Sure. Alright," Michael nodded.

"And by work on the play, you mean make out, right?" Yashy giggled, making kissing noises. "Ow!" she yelled as Lucy smacked her head.

The boy nodded and the two silently went their separate ways. As he walked, a monotone voice spoke. I would advise attempting to repair your relationship with Lucy, Michael. Your shattered friendship with her is a distraction to you. I need your complete focus if you are to assist me in defeating the Soulless.

Do you really think they're going to come here? An entire fleet of alien ships? Michael thought.

I am not programmed to completely understand Soulless thought process. They may send they're fleet, a single ship, or more scouts. No matter what they send though, we must be ready to repeal it. We will visit the junkyard today, after school to train, and will leave in time for you to meet Lucy at your home.

Michael simply nodded as he walked to class, thoughts of high school drama and aliens in his mind.

High above Earth a wormhole opened. Space ripped open like a fabric, allowing a single, large spaceship to escape it before it sewed itself back to normal. The large ship resembled a large, blue orb with many arcs sticking out of it spinning around the orb.

"General Zivix. We have exited the wormhole with no damage. Your orders?" a younger Soulless inquired.

"Are we near the planet?"

"Yes, sir."

Zivix fidgeted a bit in his throne before he made his order. "Tune into their frequencies. I want to learn more about this planet. Acquire any information you can."

The other Soulless nodded, and it did not take long for a large screen to pop out of the ceiling for the general to view. It began to play a female, cat news reporter with a picture of the Silver Sentinel next to her. She began to speak, but none of the aliens could understand her.

"Translate."

"Yes, sir, just wait one moment for me to access the Old Ones' databases on the Earthling's language."

After a few minutes of listening to the strange dialect, the woman was muted and text appeared at the bottom of the screen. It gave a translation to the alien crew and allowed them to understand the situation.

"So…the host calls himself the Silver Sentinel, does he? Strange title. What else do we know?" The alien leader wondered.

"He has become a sort of enforcer of the planet's laws. He has already apprehended dozens of criminals. The planet's opinion of him seems divided, but many are leaning towards him as a sort of vanguard."

"Master Vjak stated quite clearly that we are not to engage the Earthlings. But it will be difficult to retrieve the program without directly harming these 'furries.'" An idea suddenly hit the leader and he would have smiled had he have lips. "You told me that the 'Silver Sentinel' has apprehended many criminals, correct? I'm sure a few of those crooks want revenge on him. Prepare me some bioorganic drones. Do not launch them until I add something special."

"Ugh. What happened?" Rick, the black Pug, groaned as he stood up and looked around. He found the female Siamese cat twins, Michiko and Akane, Brando, the male Persian cat, and their Dalmatian gang leader, Richard also with him. "Where are we?" he asked, looking up to see a single light on the ceiling illuminating the portion of the room they were laying in. The rest of the room was pitch black.

"What's the big idea? Who put us here?" Rick declared, walking forward. He was stopped though, right at the edge of the light, by a glowing wall that shot up from the ground. A metal screen suddenly popped out the ceiling and hovered down in front of Rick, its glowing letters easily seen past the forcefield.

'Do not fear me. I am merely here to ask you a question. Do you want revenge on the Silver Sentinel?'

"The guy who locked us up. Hell yeah!" Brando grinned.

The text vanished, before it was replaced with a new set of words. 'Step through then, and you will have it.' A portion of the forcefield faded away and a series of lights shot down from the ceiling, creating a path for the five.

"I don't know about this, guys. I mean, where are we? What's going on?" Rick commented, looking around again.

'All your questions will be answered in due time. If you do not want revenge, then we will return you to your prison.'

"Well when you put it that way," Richard mumbled, before looking at Rick. The Pug simply nodded his head, before the five walked out in a single file line. They stopped at the end of the illuminated path and awaited orders as Zivix and his assistant watched the five from another room.

"Now what, sir?" the assistant inquired.

"We only have one lab so we can only pick one to experiment upon. Hmmmm….That one, the second to first will do," Zivix answered, pointing at the Persian cat on the screen.

His assistant nodded and pressed a series of buttons, causing the sign to change its text once more. The sign hovered over so each of the five could see it. 'All of you return to the forcefield. Except you,' it read, stopping in front of Brando.

"What exactly is all of this for?" Akane asked.

"We want answers now," her sister added.

The sign floated over to the two and sparked with electricity, startling them both. 'Return.' The two quickly ran back into their new prison with the boys and the sign led Brando off into the darkness.

"Where are you taking me?" The Persian cat questioned as he was led through a doorway and into a new room. The sign suddenly flew off beyond his reach and the door slammed shut behind him. "Hey! What's going on?" he shouted, before his hands and legs were suddenly caught by mechanical arms. Another one came out of the wall and at the end of it was a large needle, which Brando gasped at the sight. "Let me go! Let me go!" he pleaded, trapped by the cold, metals arms.

The needle pierced through his skin and he cried out in pain as somekind of liquid was forced into his body. The two aliens watched this and made small notes about the sight, before looking at one another.

"I knew keeping my notes after the war would help," Zivix chuckled.

"Sir, may I ask a question? We know much of an Earthling's genetic structure thanks to the Old Ones' notes, but are your nanobots safe for it?"

Zivix looked at his assistant, before looking at Brando. The arms had just released him and the cat had fallen on the ground, twitching in pain. "I knew I forgot something," the general joked as their test subject screamed in pain.

"What's…happening…to me!" he cried, as he felt a hot sweat travel down his body. He screamed in pain as he continued to burn, before his entire body burst into flames. "AHHHH!" As he shook and twisted in pain, he saw glimpses at his own body. To his horror he found his skeleton was still visible through the flames, but to his amazement, Brando found his pain fading away. He slowly picked himself up and looked at himself closer, finding his skeleton completely black and easily seen within the red fire.

'You have power now. Power that the Silver Sentinel does not. We can take you to him now, and you can destroy him. But first, command your fire to die out,' the sign ordered, returning to his side. But Brando did not listen to it, too mesmerized in his own fire.

"Such an idiotic species. I am activating the override and turning the nanobots off myself," Zivix sighed, tapping away the console.

The fire around Brando vanished, returning him to his furry state. "The fire. Where is the fire? I liked the fire! I want the fire back! Bring it back!"

"Hm. It seems the nanobots have affected his mind. Or he was already obsessed with fire and the nanobots simply helped bring it out. Either way, we can use this," the Soulless happily declared, typing in a new batch of text for the sign.

'We can bring back the fire. Just follow us to your mode of transportation,' it ordered, floating backwards, leading the Persian cat on. 'We will bring you to where the Silver Sentinel is. When you find him, make him burn.'

"Burn. I like making things burn. They sound better, look better, and are just so much better burning," the man grinned as he was led into a small saucer shaped ship. Once entering it, it closed the doors and flew out of the hangar doors.

"There. Now wasn't that simple?" Zivix smiled, turning around. "If you need me, I'm going to start working on more nanobots for the other Earthlings, just in case this one fails."

How does he act so calm about all of this work? The assistant thought, gulping a bit in fear as he wondered if the general took a little too much pleasure from his experiments.

It didn't take long for the ship to reach Roseville and it hovered above the roof of a suburban home. Brando jumped out of it and landed on the roof of the house, watching the ship fly off before he redirected his attention to the stunned crowd below. He looked at them and they looked back as he felt something inside him change.

Out of nowhere, he was set on fire again and found the people screaming in fear at the sight. "Yes…Yes. YES!" Brando cackled as he held up his hands, blasting a stream of fire out of his palms at a nearby car, blowing it up. "I love it!"

While this was going on, our hero was on his way home from his training site. Training site meaning the junkyard. He saw the large columns of smoke in the distance and quickly ran into an alleyway.

"I never noticed there were so many alleyways that led to dead ends in this city," Mike commented.

Combat mode has been initiated.

A silver slime covered his body and he was transformed from mild mannered Michal into the most spectacular and sensational superhero to ever save the city. The Silver Sentinel!

The Korat flew off to the source of the smoke, making a mental note of how close this was to his neighborhood. He saw firemen and police already there, trying to quell the fire and to push the crowd of civilians back.

He landed to the ground and he heard sounds of joy behind him as the police chief, Duncan Davis, walked over.

"We've evacuated most people out of their homes by now, but a couple said there baby is still in their home," the older cat explained, pointing at said house. The Sentinel nodded and was about to fly off, but was stopped by his voice. "There's one more thing. We've heard reports of something starting this fire. A monster made out of fire. I don't know how accurate these claims are, but considering who I'm talking to it may be possible. Just be careful!" Duncan ordered as the Silver Sentinel flew into the house by the window.

A monster made out of fire? Do you know anything like that, LEGACY?

No. I am scanning the area now though, but it is difficult to find anything. The fire is distorting the data.

Michael landed on the floor of the second story of the house and looked around. He could hear a high pitched crying nearby, despite the sound of cracking wood and blistering flames. The Sentinel stared at a door and held up his hand, using his powers to rip the door from its hinges and throw it aside. He ran into the room and found the young dog boy and picked him up from his crib.

"It's okay, little guy."

Michael, there is an intense heat signature nearby.

"LEGACY, the whole house is on fire, you do notice that, right?"

I mean, there is an intense heat signature nearby and closing in.

"Wait, what? GUH!" he screamed as the wall to the room was destroyed by a stream of fire. He fell on his back and held the baby protectively in his arms as a horrible abomination jumped into the room.

"Hey there. Remember me?" The charcoal colored skeleton roared, throwing a ball of fire at the hero. The Silver Sentinel quickly created a forcefield between the two and blocked the blast, and countered with a telekinetic blast at the burning skeleton.

"Who are you?" Michael yelled, protecting the baby in his arms.

"First you lock me up, now you don't even both with remembering my name? You really want to tick me off, don't you!" The supervillain fired a torrent of red, hot fire at our hero, sending him and the baby flying out of the house, right through the wall.

He landed with a thud, and slowly stood up, unharmed thanks to another forcefield. He handed the unharmed baby to Duncan and focused his attention on the villain, as he jumped out of the burning house.

"What the heck is that?" The police chief gasped.

"Not sure. Evacuate the neighborhood!" Michael commanded, before flying at the flaming evildoer, tackling him right into the air.

Michael, the suit's temperature cannot take this level of heat. Prolong contact will cause extensive damage to it and you.

I needed to get him away from the people! Michael argued as he blasted the burning skeleton and trapped him with a telekinetic bubble, high above the ground.

"You think this can hold me?" He screamed; placing his hands on the invisible walls of the orb shaped prison. Suddenly his flames grew stronger and bigger, bashing against the walls of the bubble, already causing bits and pieces of it to break.

"Stop! You're going to fall!" Sentinel warned as the bubble was torn apart.

"Fall? You wished!" As the bubble was finally shattered the Persian cat let out another roar, and skeletal wings ripped out of his back. The wings were quickly consumed in flames, and he easily flew through the sky, circling the Silver Sentinel. "Since you've decided to be rude to me, you can just call me: Huma the Firebird!"

"…? But you're a cat."

"SHUT UP! I'm a bird, darn it!" Huma screamed, blasting Mike with a wave of fire. The silver hero defended himself from the blast and returned fire with a telekinetic blast. The two continued to trade blasts, dodging and blocking the other's attacks between them. As they did, LEGACY spoke up.

Michael, you have a phone call.

"What? How do you know? I left my phone in my backpack," the Korat wondered, dodging a stream of fire, before being tackled by the flying cat.

I downloaded all of the information in your cell phone a few days ago. I have all the phone numbers, records, minutes, and etc. within my databanks. I have also tuned some of my other instruments to duplicate the ability to receive and give calls.

"Great!" Michael groaned as Huma screamed in front of his visor, before the two fell onto a metal car. The car now had a large dent on it, with our hero groaning in pain on it. Huma stood over floated over him and aimed his bony hands at him, setting another torrent of fire down at our hero, consuming the superhero and automobile in flames.

A powerful explosion took place and Huma exited it, comically dusting himself off as he exited the fire. "And here I was hoping for more of a challenge from a superhero. Oh well!" he sighed, before looking around at the horrified people. "Gross. None of you are on fire. Things look so much better when they're on fire," he commented, pulling back his hand and creating a ball of fire in it. He was just about to throw it when his body was caught in a very tight grip and he was suddenly sent flying into a random direction. "AHHHH!"

Michael panted as he walked out of the fire; a hot sweat was going down his skin as he flew after the supervillain, his armor undamaged.

Michael, the phone call.

I just got caught in an explosion! Can you try to be more concerned?

I am monitoring your vitals. You are fine. Now what about the call? LEGACY asked, his voice showing no real emotions, other than a slight annoyance perhaps.

"Oh, just put it through," the teenage boy sighed.

"About time. I'm on my way, Mike," Lucy's voice stated from within the helmet.

"Huh? OH! Um…Now's not a good time, Lucy. I'm out of the house!" Michael responded, dodging a wave of fire from Huma, before slamming his fist into his skull, stunning him.

"Fine, I can wait."

"No! Um…I don't want to take time out of schedule! Go home!" he ordered, slamming his foot into Huma, again aimed at his skull.

"Look, jerkface, I don't care how much you hate me right now! We're helping Sue with her play no matter how much you don't want to see me!" Lucy shouted.

"Its…not…that….I swear!" Mike groaned as Huma wrapped his skeletal fingers around his neck, choking him. He aimed both of his fists under the cat's head and fired, blasting him back and sending him spinning.

"What is all that noise? Where are you?"

"I'm…uh…jogging! That's just the cars driving by! Don't worry about it!" He demanded, before dodging a fireball and shooting a psychic wave at Huma, grabbing him by the leg and sending him flying. "Look, I'll call you back!" Michael growled, flying after Huma and punching him in the ribs.

"You're burning me up, hero!" The Firecat held his hands together and created an intense, radiant light, blinding our armored main character. "That's a dead man's move!" Michael created a protective forcefield over him, which was a smart move as he was hit with a powerful flood of fire. The torrent of flames sent him flying, shattering his shield and leaving him to burn.

By the time he regained his senses, Michael was laying on a shattered road, injured but alive. Pieces of the armor were damaged, but LEGACY was quickly fixing them by having a silver liquid travel over the broken pieces. His armor was smoking and he swore he felt a portion of his fur was burned to a crisp. He slowly got up from the crater he had made and groaned, rubbing his ribs.

"Please tell me you have an idea, LEGACY," he groaned, looking around.

I do. There is a large body of water just outside the city. If we can submerge Huma in it, his powers will most likely weaken.

Michael nodded his head, but was surprised to see a certain white cat staring at him in shock. Of all the places he could have crashed, it had to be between his house and Lucy's. The Khao Manee coughed a bit and waved away some dust that had flown up from his crash and looked at him.

"Um…Look out!" He yelled, flying forward and grabbing her, saving her from a beam of fire.

"Hey! I was trying to help her! She's not on fire!" Huma laughed, giving chase after our hero and damsel.

"Hang on!" Michael commanded, flying through the air, Lucy in his arms. The white cat wrapped her arms around her neck and placed her face against his cold, metal chest as they flew, obviously afraid.

The Korat found himself blushing a bit as he felt her rub against him, but focused on the fight. Darn it, Lucy…

Your sexual partner comes second, Michael. Focus on the fight, LEGACY commanded.

"What is that thing!" Lucy screamed, glancing at the burning skeleton.

"He calls himself Huma the Firebird," the masked hero answered.

"But he's a cat."

"I'm a BIRD, DAMN IT!" Huma roared, suddenly flying down from above them, engulfed in a ball of flames. Michael barely had time to create a shield for the two cats when it hit. They were sent flying down, crashing, conveniently enough, into the lake LEGACY had talked about.

Lucy tried to scream but found her voice was gone. The telekinetic orb kept the water out, but it seemed ready to break at any second. The water mocked her, laughing as it began to leak into the bubble, filling it.

"No…Please, save me," she pleaded, hugging the Silver Sentinel tightly before she fainted, the water already touching her knees.

Just as she blacked out, Michael regained his senses and the bubble became air tight, cutting off the water. He looked down to see the fainted girl and then looked up, seeing Huma hovering over the lake. "Now I'm mad…" He shot out of the body of water and slammed his knee into the villain's chin, sending him spiraling. He then flew over to the shore and gently laid Lucy onto the grassy earth.

"You're dead, Sentinel! You and that girl! You, that girl, and everyone else I want dead!" Huma giggled, shooting down arcs made of fire at the Korat. The Silver Sentinel blocked them though and soared at the skeleton, slamming his fist right into his cheek. He followed with an uppercut and then a kick to the side of his ribs, all of which were strengthen thanks to his telekinesis. He grabbed the skeletal abomination by his right arm, ignoring the hot, searing pain he experienced, and spun in the air, throwing Huma into the lake.

Steam shot into the sky as Michael flew back over to Lucy, making sure she was okay. "Lucy? Can you hear me?" he asked, gently shaking her.

"Don't you ignore me, hero!" Huma roared as he stuck his head out of the surface of the lake, walking out of it. The water had taken away his flames, and left a disturbing sight. His black, winged skeleton walked out of the water and hissed with steam. "I'm gonna….gonna….gonna make you burn! That's what I'll do," he panted, falling to his knees. His organs suddenly leaked out of his frame, filling him. His muscles quickly covered them, followed by his normal skin and orange fur. "The fire! W-where did it go? What did you do to it!" Brando roared, glaring at the Silver Sentinel. "Bring it back! I need it! I WANT IT BACK! I-"

Brando was suddenly pulled closer by a telekinetic hold and was met with a powerful punch to his face. He fell to the ground, teeth missing and blood pouring out of his nose; unconscious, but alive.

"H-huh?" Lucy awoke to find herself in the warm arms of the Silver Sentinel, with the unconscious Brando floating behind them. They were flying above the city, on their way back to Lucy's home.

"Good. You're awake. Don't worry, everything is going to be okay," the Sentinel promised, as he began to descend.

"My house is there…" she mumbled, pointing at the home.

"Huh? Oh! Right, right!" The Korat nodded, landing on the front lawn of the house. I can't believe I almost did that! If I had dropped her off on her house, she would have been suspicious…Wait, LEGACY, why didn't you warn me about that?

…

LEGACY?

We will talk once you have dropped off your female companion.

Michael silently sighed, before nodding his head. He gently dropped Lucy on to her feet, holding one of her hands to help support her. "Are you okay, miss?" Lucy nodded in response, looking at the ground. It was obvious nearly getting killed by a burning skeleton and facing her greatest fear had left her very shaken. "Good. That's…um…Good. You should go inside now. Get some rest, miss." Again, Lucy simply nodded in response. As the silver superhero floated into the air he heard her voice though.

"Thank you."

"...No problem, miss," he replied, before flying off with the unconscious pyromaniac.

Your hormonal levels-

Don't. Even. Start.

Very well. There is something you must know. There are nanobots within the Earthlings body. They allow him to manipulate and produce fire, as well as allowing him to fly and create his skeletal appearance.

Were they made by the Soulless?

Wise Ones made them. The Soulless are brutes, thieves, and barely sentient. All the technology they have is made by their want of destruction or by robbing more advance races of their technology with their brute strength. Keep that in mind, Michael, and never forget it.

Michael couldn't help but think he had hit a nerve on the machine, and simply nodded his head as he flew.

Good. The nanobots are mentally controlled, meaning once he awakens he will be a threat once more.

Can you remove them?

Not without days of research and proper equipment. But there is a 'silver lining' as your species says. I can force them to deactivate.

Great. Problem solved then, right?

No. The nanobots will mostly likely find a way to reactivate themselves. I just do not know when.

Michael sighed and saw a nearby police car driving down the street. "Hey!" He yelled, waving at them. He flew down as the car stopped and dropped Brando on the sidewalk. Police Chief Duncan walked out and looked at the two, before speaking.

"Not bad. I take it that's the supervillain?"

The Silver Sentinel nodded and held up a finger. "One second." Okay, LEGACY, how do we turn them off?

Place your hand on his shoulder and I will do the rest, Michael, LEGACY's robotic voice responded. Michael did as he was ordered and crouched down, before placing a hand on the Persian cat's shoulder. The Korat saw a small spark from his hand and then heard LEGACY's voice. We are done.

"Here. Make sure you put him into a fireproof cell, just in case. I've deactivated his powers, but I'm not sure how long."

Duncan nodded and as our hero flew off he exclaimed, "Sentinel! You're helping a lot of people. Don't screw it up by having me find out this is all a facade, got it?"

END

Furry: A derogatory nickname the Soulless have given the humans of Earth.

So….first supervillain! How was he, folks? Creepy? Funny? Weird? A hot head? You tell me.

I apologize to Taeshi if I'm giving this story way too many fan characters. I promise to her, and you, dear readers, that this story will ALWAYS focus on Michael. Lucy will also play an important role….as a damsel in distress.

(I get hit by a rock) Kidding!

You'll learn what Zivix did exactly, later. For now, just know this. He plans on turning the Earth's governments against the Silver Sentinel, while creating more metahumans to help capture him. Most villains will be Soulless made. But the Silver Sentinel will soon have to face more than just alien made supervillains.

See ya next time!