Interesting news: I have made some links in my profile so you can see how J.R's cloak looks like and an extra something.

The Guardians

It was dark on the more secluded streets of New York. There were a few streetlights, but they didn't give too much illumination. It was late at night with no people or cars on one particular street. The only sound you could hear was a small breeze.

A very familiar hooded figure could be seen walking up the sidewalk. What stood out the most of this individual was the glowing red crystal that could be seen hanging around his chest. It wasn't in its usual place under his shirt. The few people that drove by eyed the young man, mostly because of the clothes he was wearing and the glowing crystal.

J.R just ignored them.

A person could be seen walking down the sidewalk, towards J.R's direction. J.R became tense, but stayed calm. The person couldn't be seen well because the lack of light. The man didn't seem to be walking straight and he almost hit a streetlight. J.R relaxed a little, but didn't take his guard down.

As the person got closer, J.R could tell he was just some drunken guy who has apparently been partying. J.R was planning on just ignore him, but the other guy seem to do otherwise. It also didn't help that the guy tripped and fell in front of J.R. The guy turned so his was facing up and began to laugh. J.R stared at the man. The man stopped laughing and looked up at J.R.

"A little help?" The guy asked. J.R didn't move. "Can you help me up?" He asked again. J.R stood still. The man seeing as J.R wasn't going to help him, slowly stood up by grabbing to J.R's coat. He used J.R's coat to climb up to his feet. After a few short moments he was back to his feet holing to J.R's shoulders for support.

The man took a few steps backwards and after straighten himself he took a good look at J.R. His eyes fell to the red crystal.

"Dude, Your rock is shining!" The man said with excitement. He got closer to examine it and closed his eyes a little as if to see it more clearly. "Why is it shining?" He whispered.

The man back of to look at what J.R was wearing. "Man, you look dark. Where you get does?" He was referring to what J.R was wearing.

This cloak was a reminder of his mission. No matter how beat up, how burned or how destroyed it get, it would always come back…just like him.

Flashback

J.R was standing on the terrace staring at the moon while holding the glowing crystal. His eyes went towards the streets. There was something out there that was reacting to the crystal and he needed to see what it was.

He put his hand down and closed his eyes. Darkness began to appear from out of nowhere and started to surround J.R's body. It slowly took form into his old trashed cloak, except it didn't have holes or burn marks, it looked new.

Flashback

"Dude, where are you going is pretty late you know." The drunken man said following J.R. He has been on J.R's tail for some time now asking a lot of idiotic questions. J.R, over the years, has taken some pride for being a patient person, but this guy was really pushing him over the edge.

The man suddenly stood in front of J.R making him stop. "Dude, where are you going? Don't you know of the weirdoes that come out at night." The man said getting close to J.R's face.

J.R raised his eyebrow.

"I mean look what time it is. It's…" The man looked down close at his wrist. He touched his wrist with his other hand like he was looking for something. "Where's my watch?"

J.R just stared at him. "Wait…" He said looking up at J.R. "do I own a watch?"

J.R had enough of this. He was about to just leave when his crystal pulsed.

Something was near.

"Dude, are you alright?" The man asked as he watched J.R become very alert.

J.R was looking at every direction trying to find…whatever the crystal was reacting to. They were on a corner of a street with an empty lot next to them. The small breeze that they heard a few moments ago was gone.

"Is it just me or did everything just went quiet." The man said. J.R stayed still trying to hear or sense anything. He, however, got his guard up when every streetlight and stoplight for blocks began to dim until there was not light except for the moon.

Boom

The crystal pulsed telling him to walk towards the lot and of course the man followed.

"I'm starting to get a really bad fe-" The man said quietly, but wasn't able to finish because of what he saw appear in front of them.

Some kind of creature began to appear from the shadows. You couldn't quite see its body because it was being covered, from what it looked like to be a combination of water and mist, sort of darkness. The only thing you could really see was its two red glowing eyes. It was about four feet tall and it didn't look like it was standing on the ground. It was more like floating a couple of inches from it.

Boom

J.R stopped paying attention to the crystal pulsing, thinking this was why it was pulsing, and narrowed his eyes as he watched more of them appear around the lot.

"What are those things?" The man said in a low voice.

That's when J.R remembered something he read in the Macuros back in his apartment.

The guardians are the keepers of time and whoever threatens the time line, they will stop. They will never cease until the threat is erased from this world.

J.R smirked a little.

So these are the guardians. J.R thought.

For a moment they seem to just stand/float there. Suddenly, pair of arms shot out from their bodies. Their arms looked like that of a snowman; except they were black and they certainly weren't made of wood. He didn't know if they were metal, but they looked very strong. The last thing he noticed was the three fingers were longer than a snowman's and they looked more like claws.

"Hide." J.R spoke to the man, his eyes never leaving the creatures. It took some time for the man to register what J.R said because of what he was seeing. The man snapped out of it and ran. He hid behind a dumpster near the wall.

Boom

As soon as the man ran, all the creatures shot from the ground into the air. They were all diving towards J.R at the same time. J.R watched them as they got closer from the sky. Just as they were a few inches from him, he spun around making a full circle with incredible speed. A wind barrier appeared around J.R deflecting the creatures' attacks, making them fly backwards. J.R, as soon as the barrier vanished, ran forward to one of the creatures that was still recovering. He tried to punch it, but the creature moved out of the way to the right. It quickly fought back with a slash from one of its claws heading for J.R's right side. J.R barely evaded it by jumping to the left. He lifted his right arm and looked at the cut it made to his cloak. He looked back at the creature and saw it stare at him back. It just floated there about four feet from the ground.

This thing was quicker than he originally thought. J.R was trying to figure out their weakness as he fought it. Since it wasn't making a move, J.R rushed towards it. J.R started throwing punches trying to get at least one hit, but it kept dodging him with ease. He got an opening when the creature was backed against the wall. The creature looked back and J.R took this as a chance to hit it. He made a full contact with it, sending it to the wall, but as soon as his fist touched it, a sensation of pain went straight to his mind making him hold his head.

Justin!

A familiar voice rang through his head along with the pain.

Boom

"Ahhhhhhhhhhh!" Justin screamed in pain as he held his head. They were in the middle of Alex's flying carpet lesson, which Alex was learning quickly, and suddenly Justin began to scream out of nowhere.

"Come on Justin, that baseball couldn't have hurt that much." Alex said. When he didn't response and still held his head she began to get worried. She put out her hand on his back and tilted her head closer. "Justin, what's wrong?" Alex said with concern.

After the pain was gone he looked at her. "I don't know." Justin said. He looked down at the carpet and stayed quiet for a few seconds. "I-I just…I suddenly felt a lot of pain in my head." He looked back at Alex. "It was like someone was drilling into my mind."

Justin shook his head and smiled at her. "I fine now. Let's keep going."

"Are you sure?" Alex asked still worried.

"Yeah." He said staring back at where they were going. Alex reluctantly nodded.

They were quiet for some time until Justin decided to break the silence.

"Hey, are you ready for something really hard?" Alex was deep in thought about what happen earlier, but snapped out of it. "Like what?"

"The loopty loop." He said. Alex, being one that never backs down from a challenge, smiled. "Bring it." She said with enthusiasm.

J.R opened his eyes once the pain subsided and looked in front of him. The creature was no longer there, just the brick wall. He turned around and saw it just a couple of feet away from him. It just floated there not even giving a sign that it was hurt.

J.R looked behind it and saw the rest of the other creatures watching them fight. He wondered why they hadn't attacked while he was fighting. They had the advantage in numbers, but they weren't using it. He looked back at the one he has been fighting and then realized what they were doing.

While he had been studying them, they had been studying him.

It seems they weren't stupid which just made things harder for him. Now that he knew he couldn't touch them without receiving agonizing pain, he had to fight in a different way. He moved his right hand across his chest, passed his shoulder. It was like he was about to back hand slap someone. He aligned his fingers making them straight and a blue light began to surround his hand. He swung his arm and the blue light took the form of what looked like a sound wave, except it was visible. The horizontal wave was six feet big and from his hand, shot straight to the creatures with a lot of speed.

Most of them got out of the way, but made impact with a few of them. A lot of smoke appeared form the impact. Once the smoke cleared J.R saw they were still there, but they were missing some parts. One was missing a head another was missing a part of its torso and arm.

Suddenly, something happened that even frighten J.R a little. They began to regenerate. Their missing parts started to grow back.

Now he was in trouble.

Boom!

He seen strange creatures before and fought a couple of them in the past, but these guys were something else. He couldn't physically attack them without receiving a large amount of pain to himself. He couldn't blow them with magic because they would just heal themselves.

Boom!

J.R was running out of options and fast.

Boom!

All the creatures stared at J.R for a few moments and then they attacked.

BOOM!

The man that was hiding behind the dumpster didn't know if what he was seeing was real or not. Through out the fight the man has been trying to clear his head from the booze. Even now he didn't know if it was just a hallucination.

I really need to stop drinking. He thought.

He didn't know why the guy was fighting those things. Whoever he was sure had some guts. It looked like he wasn't afraid and it seem he could handle himself.

One on one that is.

These guys were pretty fast and he could tell the guy could barely keep up with one them. His mind was in such a fog he didn't know if that light he saw the guy shoot was real or not. It was like a small explosion went of when the light hit the creatures.

He did fear for the guy when the creatures that got hit began to grow back their missing limbs. He became even more afraid when the creatures regrouped and attacked. One after the other attacked with out mercy. He thought the worst when the creatures completely covered J.R, you couldn't see him anymore.

However, his fear was out done by his surprise when a blinding red light shot out to the sky from where J.R and the creatures were dog piling him.

Justin and Alex were about to call it a night, when suddenly they saw red light from some distance away.

"What is that?" Alex asked amazed by it and a little scared. "I don't know." Justin said, also amazed, but a little more worried than Alex.

After the light subsided, they stared with their mouths slightly open at the direction it came from. Alex was the first to snap out of it.

"Let's go see what it was." Alex said grabbing the front of the carpet.

"What! Are you crazy?" Justin said alarmed. He held her wrist, preventing her from flying.

"Come on Justin, don't you want to know what that light was?" Alex asked.

Justin didn't response.

"You and I both know that light had to be magic and where there is magic, there is a wizard." Alex was starting to get excited. Justin seemed to be thinking about it.

"Don't you want to know who it is?" Justin looked at her eyes and smiled a little. He could never deny her anything when she was passionate about it.

"Alright, let's go."

The moment the creatures starting coming towards him, he didn't know what to do. Magic didn't work, fighting didn't work either. He was feeling something he hasn't felt for 2 years, helplessness. Right before they got to him a red light engulfed him and the creatures that were beginning to pile on him. The light that was surrounding him and the creatures made the creatures stop just a few inches from J.R. It was like they were stuck and couldn't move.

Mental Realm

It was complete darkness everywhere. J.R didn't know where he was, one minute he was getting covered by a red light and the next he was here, floating in darkness.

The darkness was so calm and soothing; it made him feel so relaxed.

"Justin" A voice said breaking his serene state.

He knew that voice.

"Alex?" He said.

"Justin, what are you doing?" 'Alex' asked sounding annoyed.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm about to lose."

"What do you mean you are about to lose?"

"I've tried everything, magic doesn't work, and fighting doesn't seem any better. I'm done" Justin said sounding defeated.

"So, that's it, you're finished?" 'Alex' said with stubbornness.

"After all you-… we've been through." 'Alex' said disappointed.

J.R went silent along with 'Alex'. After a few minutes passed she broke the silence. "Do you remember the gift I gave you?" She asked in a devious way like she was setting him up for something.

J.R closed his eyes remembering. He didn't pick up on her tone because the darkness was so peaceful and relaxing. "Yeah"

"Where is it?" Now he was fully awake.

He didn't respond.

"You lost it didn't you?"

Again, he didn't answer. The voice sighed.

From the darkness a lustrous metal necklace with a small shaped silvered lightning bolt attached to it appeared. J.R watched as it floated towards him until it was right in front of him.

"I gave this to you because it reminded me of you." 'Alex' said.

They went silent again.

"Are you going to give up now? After everything you have done?" 'Alex' said.

J.R looked at the necklace.

"Are you going to give up in our family?"

J.R's fists tighten.

…in us?" 'Alex' said sadly.

"No!"

"I don't give up… ever!" He said with conviction.

The Timous Lectar appeared next to the other necklace, it was still glowing red.

"That's the Justin I know!"

The two necklaces began to merge glowing intensely.

"Now, get back out there and kick their ass!" 'Alex' said with encouragement.

When the red light faded, J.R saw that the creatures were scattered around him with some distance. He noticed that the creatures weren't looking at him, but something above him. A few feet above him there was a completely black sword with a red lightning bolt marking across the blade. The sword slowly floated down into J.R's hands. He stared at the sword and then at the creatures. They were looking at it with an intense stare and…was it his imagination or were they hesitating. It looked like they wanted to attack, but something was stopping them.

One of the creatures behind him grew a back bone and attacked. J.R grabbed the sword tightly with his right hand and swung it, slashing the creature in half. He thought it would start to regenerate itself once it hit the ground, but before that happen, it started to dematerialize until there was nothing left.

J.R looked at the sword he was holding with amazement. He looked back at the creatures and smirked a little.

It has been a while since the last time I used one of this. J.R thought.

"Let's try this again." J.R said as he charged at the creatures.

He did a side way slash at the creature he reached first, making the two pieces of the creature dissolve. He turned around slashing the creature that was trying to attack from behind. To his right, five creatures shot out into the air going for an aerial attack. J.R jumped going towards them. He diagonally slashed upwards with his left hand to the first one that reached him. He twisted around swinging his sword to the next one. The last three surrounded him as they fell down. As they attacked he swung around in entire circle cutting them all just as he landed.

J.R looked at the creatures and saw them hesitate. They couldn't attack from behind, front, or even the sky. Now they were the ones running out of options. He ran towards the creatures. This time the creatures got ready for him, but just as he got to them he jumped over them doing a front flip. When he landed he ran towards a building wall that was right next to the lot. The creatures went after him.

J.R looked behind him making sure they were following close behind. Just as they were about to reach him, J.R ran up the wall, going at least ten feet high, and jumped of doing a back flip. When he landed behind them he quickly slashed them as their backs were turn to him. Everything happened so fast the creatures didn't know what hit them as they dissolved.

He turned around and jumped to his left trying to cut one of them he saw in the corner of his eye, but the creature was able to evade it. He watched as the creature regrouped with what was left of them. There were like fifteen left.

One of them charged at him with a lot of speed which didn't gave him enough time to avoid it. He held the sword with both hands and blocked the incoming claw. These guys had more power than he originally thought because the creature's attack made him fly backwards, making him break through a door. The remaining creatures went after him inside the building.

The man that was hiding behind the dumpster came out, seeing as they were gone. He decided to take this opportunity to get the heck out of there. He felt a little guilty leaving the guy with those things, but by the looks of it he could take care of himself. One thing was for sure, he wasn't going to drink for a long time.

Alex and Justin were flying around the area were they saw the red light come from. "Alex, I don't see anyone." Justin as he looked down.

"I'm sure it came from somewhere around here." Alex said looking down. "Well, there's no one here." Justin said.

"Why is it so dark here anyway? This would be a lot easier if there something else besides the moon's light." Alex complained.

After a while they still didn't find anything or anyone. Justin was about to tell her for them to go home when she pointed down. "Look, down there."

They saw a man coming out of an empty lot, running on the sidewalk. From the looks of it he was very spooked.

"Do you think that's him?" Justin asked following the man with his eyes.

"No, I don't think so." Alex said looking at the lot. "I think he saw whoever it was." She said flying them towards the top of the lot.

"If that's true than what kind of irresponsible wizard would let a human see their magic." Justin said in his responsible voice.

"Definitely not you, that's for sure." Alex said.

"Well, whoever it was they're are not here now. They're probably gone by now." Justin said scanning the lot.

Alex sighed. "As much as I hate to admit it, you're probably right." She said.

"Let's go home." Justin said flying them back to their loft.

"Man, I really wanted to see another wizard." Alex complained.

"Why do you always get excited when you meet other wizards?" Justin asked.

"I don't know…I guess because I just want to know how their life has been with magic. Do they get into weird situations like we do or how does it affect their social life?" Alex said completely serious.

"You've really been thinking about this haven't you?" Justin said looking at her.

"Yeah"

"Hey…" Alex looked at him. "I'm sure they get into weird situations just like us. I mean how can you not when magic is involved." Justin said with a smile which made her smile.

They were so caught up in there conversation they didn't notice the person that came out to the roof of the building next to the lot that they were just hovering a minute ago.

J.R was in a predicament at the moment. Not only was he trapped in a small stair way with barely any room to fight, but he had to find an open area which the nearest was the roof. At the moment he was running up the stairs. From the brief moment he saw the outside if the building he was in, he could tell it was around eight to ten floors.

It didn't help that he had to go around the square structure as he ran up the stairs while the creatures could just fly up through the middle. He couldn't fight them in such a cramped place without getting touched. If he gave them one small opening they would certainly finish him of now that they knew he could hurt them. The only thing he could do at the moment was to make sure he got the roof before they got to him.

Things weren't looking so good for him because, again, flying was a very bad disadvantage for him. They were about catch up to him and if he didn't think of something fast, he was done for.

J.R looked down over the wooden handrail and saw them coming and fast. He looked up and saw he was still six floors away from the roof. There was no way he could make in time; he had to do something, now!

That's when he got an idea.

He closed his eyes and concentrated. For a few moments his feet were covered with a blue light. He opened his eyes and jumped of the rail upwards. He landed across to the other side of the building in the next floor's handrail and jumped up back to the other side onto the next rail. He did this until he reached to top floor and just in time to. He slammed the door open that lead to the roof as the creatures got to the top floor.

J.R waited for all the creatures to come out, but as he waited he saw something at the corner of his eye. He looked to his left up at the sky and couldn't believe what he saw.

That's what happened this day. It was the day he taught Alex how to fly the magic carpet. How could he have forgotten? It looked like they wee going home, which just complicated things for him. They probably left when he was still asleep, but what were they going to say when they find him missing.

He looked back at the creatures as they finish coming out. His problems just kept coming one after another.

J.R watched his surroundings of the building he was in, the one next to it then next one after it and so on towards Alex and Justin's direction. Some were more apart than others, but he didn't have much of a choice really.

He looked at the creatures that were waiting for him to do the first move and then looked at the flying carpet that was becoming smaller in the horizon. If the text he read was telling the truth than these guys were going to follow him to the ends of the earth.

He could use this to his advantage.

J.R ran to the edge of the building and jumped to a lower roof that was thirteen feet away. The spell was still working. As soon as he landed he kept running to the edge of the roof and jumped to the other one that was about the same distance, but same height level. He looked back to make sure they were following him. Just as he expected they weren't just going to let him run.

He jumped to the next roof and quickly turned around blocking one of their attacks in mid air. He broke its attack and vertically slashed it. He landed backwards with his feet sliding back on the ground and his left hand to help him stay steady. He turned around and kept running.

After jumping a lot of buildings and a few attacks, J.R looked up to the sky and saw he was catching up to Alex and Justin, but he was really getting tired. If he stopped and took care of the rest of the creatures they will have definitely made it back to the loft.

J.R was jumping in the air when one of them tried to attack him from under. He dodged it just in time by raising his left side of his body. He used this chance to keep twisting his body with incredible speed and cutting it before it had a chance to escape.

Every time he landed, he looked and sees how far the flying carpet was. J.R turned his gaze back in front of him and saw one of creatures coming. He planned on just slashing through it, but just as he was about to jump of the edge of the building towards the creatures he sensed something. He jumped, but instead of going and doing a head on attack, he did a back flip just as one of the creatures charged from behind. He watched, in an upside down perspective, as the two creatures crashed into each other destroying themselves and landed on the next roof with no problem.

J.R saw that he was getting closer to Alex and Justin, but also saw how close they were getting to the loft. He could see it four blocks up ahead.

He looked back behind him and saw three of the creatures coming for in attack. He barely had anytime to react. J.R ducked as two of them attacked at the same time and quickly jumped of the edge of the roof with the third one barely missing his feet right under him. He went up very high trying to dodge the third one.

J.R quickly threw his sword making it spin rapidly, hitting all three of them. The sword landed by embedding itself to the roof with him soon following. He grabbed the sword while he kept running.

He looked up and saw Alex and Justin almost there. If he didn't do something now, they were going to make it before him.

Alex and Justin were in a comfortable silence when Alex suddenly heard something.

"Justin, do you hear that?" Alex asked as she try to hear were the sound was coming from.

"Hear what?" Just as he said that a ball of wind passed right by them making a huge gust.

"That!"

The wind made them lose control of the carpet making them go a different direction.

J.R hoped that they were okay. He didn't want to go that far, but he was desperate. He jumped to the building next to the loft. As he ran he couldn't help, but think. He was pretty good at math, so shouldn't there be one mo- as he jumped towards the terrace the last creature came from above. He turned his body facing the creature and slashed it.

He had no time to turn around to land on his feet; instead he landed on his back, but the lounge chairs on the terrace broke his fall making them slide in the process.

"I wonder what that was." Alex said as they landed on the terrace. "It didn't seem like a normal wind." She said.

"Who knows" Justin said. He looked a little pale.

"You should've seen your face." Alex said laughing.

"Well excuse me, but almost falling to my death kind of scared me!" Justin said. "I can tell you one thing. You'll never see me so high up in the sky without some sort of flying object." Justin stated.

They both took of there safety gear and Justin began to roll up the carpet.

"That was so much fun. Thanks for the lessons J-man." Alex said with a smile.

"Who?" Justin asked as he stood up with rolled up carpet. Alex stared at him. "You mean me!" He said smiling. "You welcome."

"Now when dad takes you on your lesson, you'll already know what you're doing."

"Okay, but if he starts yelling up is up and down is down, I'm going to say something." Alex warned him.

He gave her a look and she sighed. "Fine, but I'll still think it."

"Good"

"So, how's your man room." Alex asked. "I love it, is so great. I sleep like a baby in there." He said trying not to make it sound like a lie.

"Come on, let's go to bed." Justin said walking inside.

Alex soon followed, but stopped right before she went in. She turned around and did a double take on the terrace.

She tilted her head a little to the side and had a confused expression on her face.

"Weren't the chairs at the other side of the terrace?"