Disclaimer: So here's the first REAL chapter of the story… and I'm still not Stephenie Meyer

Disclaimer Deuce: Maynard Ferguson was an amazing trumpet player… just thought I'd drop that knowledge on you.

Mike's POV

"Welcome to Volterra." Felix greeted us.

"Embry your Volturi robes are in your room." He said addressing Embry.

"And mine?" I asked

"Embry proved his combat skills in open combat against me. While you took us by surprise by your powers. You haven't earned the Volturi robes." I felt a flicker of annoyance but batted it away.

"Whatever… I didn't pack clothing because I thought I was supposed to only bring a small bag."

"While you are spending time with us you will be provided with everything you shall need." I nodded, still a little insulted.

"Whatever, if I'm not worthy of being a member of the guard why did Aro seem so eager for me to get here?" Embry snickered next to me.

"You seem to have an awfully high opinion of yourself." Felix noted showing his obvious annoyance.

"Shouldn't I?" I said more than slightly frustrated.

"Alec." A small boy I could only assume was Alec appeared.

"Yes Felix?"

"Michael here needs to be humbled."

"I've got a deal for you Iverson. If you beat Alec you'll be a member of the Volturi… but if you lose you have to beat every challenger I put in front of you until I think you've earned it."

"Mike..." Embry said warning me. I shook my head at Embry. Think about it… be rational. He's insulted me! Alec's insulting me!

"Deal!" I growled. Why the hell did you do that? You're much more logical then that. Another growl escaped my mouth. I was much more aggressive than I was as a human.

"It was obviously a trap Mike." I snorted at him.

"Come on, this kid only comes up to my chest." I laughed back to Embry.

"You only come up to my chest but I'm not stupid enough to fight you." He reminded. I shrugged.

"Rules are simple… no powers, and first one forced to submit or put in a death lock loses."

"Death lock? I asked.

"A hold that would be fatal to a vampire." I nodded and stepped back dropping my bags. I rolled my shoulders back.

"You sure you don't need to practice?" I shook my head slipping out of my jacket.

"Excuse me a moment." I said before disappearing to changing in to some shorts for fighting.

"Yeah I'm ready." Alec taunted me by motioning me forward with his index and middle finger.

"Do I need to give you a written invitation?" Alec taunted. He's trying to anger me. I forced myself to calm down again before sliding up on my back foot throwing a front kick, round kick, hook kick then a jump spinning hook kick all of which he blocked or jumped under. I saw Felix out of the corner of my eye. He swung at me taking quick shots at my midsection I tried to block the best I could but he was lower and closer to my middle than I was. I threw my leg out in a desperate front kick. He put his weight under it and threw my leg up. I corrected myself in midair landing on feet. I was still trying to get my bearings and realize what I just did when I saw him take three steps towards me then back flip I didn't catch what he was doing until I felt his foot under my chin throwing me back to the ground as he landed on his feet after a back flip. A back flip kick? He's insulting me now. He let me up once again beckoning me forward. I sprinted at him with a sliding up round house kick. Alec tucked his arms in and barrel rolled smoothly over my legs. I chased him as he ran at a pillar. He ran up it as I tried to punch him missing and hitting the Pillar. He sailed clear over me but I managed to grab and pull his ankle down and Threw a round kick as hard as I could to his upside down frame. He skidded across the room and rolled up to a hand stand then pushed with his hands up and flipped up to his feet. He dusted himself off.

"Okay now you've annoyed me…" he said slowly taking off his heavy red robe letting to drop to the floor.

"Alec remember the rules." Felix chided.

"I know… I won't kill him." I snorted at the idea. He charged in a blur I stepped back and threw a kick at him he easily pushed to the side then bypassed it. I tried to block but he was too low and close to me. I felt a rain of punches at my stomach while I tried to punch him back each one he blocked. I felt a sting against my knee. I went down to one knee painfully. I tried to block but he knocked my arm away and struck me with a strike to the throat with my hand. My head came down slightly then I felt the strength of his upper cut throwing my head back then I felt his legs holding my arms back. Is he sitting on my shoulders? What the hell is going on? I thought before feeling his arms around my head.

"Dead, you lost BOY." I started shaking angrily. Alec jumped down and I turned to face him as he taunted me more.

"Yeah what are you going to do boy?" Alec taunted. I started growling and coiled.

"You want to go again? Fine by me." I felt energy in both my hands. Alec saw it and stepped back afraid.

"Woah… wait a second… don't lose your temper…" he said nearly stammering. I felt movement behind me and felt Felix racing towards me. I turned and put my hand out shooting he expertly dodged. I felt his elbow pop up my chin and then in a flurry of movement I was thrown to the ground. I felt his hand squeezing my throat with a loud growl.

"Don't ever forget this moment Iverson… it's when you realize you're not all that powerful. You caught us off guard, but you'll never catch me Iverson, never." I growled and energy reappeared in my hand. He slammed my head against the ground again.

"Temper, Temper…" He finally released me.

"You're going to start with Yuki of the Volturi Army… you need to beat him before your next challenge."

"So are you going to start training me in fighting?" Felix snorted.

"Seven hours a day you're going to train with the Vampire you're fighting. On Friday's you'll fight that vampire, if you beat them some time over the expanse of the day you'll move on to the next vampire. Seven hours weapon training with Abhash, and seven hours with me working on your powers."

"And the other three hours?"

"Your own."

"When does that start?"

"Tomorrow." Felix answered.

"And what about me?" Embry asked feeling slightly left out.

"Oh you've got plenty to do."

Embry's POV

I sighed with my head in my hands. My fingers separated my hair. How the hell am I going to avoid phasing? I heard a couple loud pounds on my door. Without looking up I responded.

"It's open." I finally looked up and saw a mountain of man. I stood up and he was nearly as tall as me, but much bigger. His arms were like logs and legs like trees. He had to weigh at least three hundred fifty lbs. he had dark skin and no hair. He was pretty damn intimidating, he looked like he could make a pretzel out of me.

"You must be the Wolf." I raised an eyebrow.

"What do you mean 'the wolf?' what's that make you the buffalo?" a deep laugh shuddered through his body.

"No, I'm the rhino. But you look the part of "the wolf." He corrected. I looked at him. He sure as hell looks the part.

"They really didn't tell you?"

"No they didn't… and what do you mean I look the part of the wolf?"

"Simple… I've met the other two guys here, they're both 6'4, we're much bigger than them."

"What do you mean the 'other to guys.' What other guys?"

"The panther and the tiger." He said nonchalantly.

"And you are all… shifters?" Rhino nodded.

"What's your name anyway?"

"You can just call me Rhino, I don't want to spend a day trying to teach you how to pronounce my name." I laughed.

"Wow… I knew it was possible that there we a lot of shifters… but I never thought there would be."

"What's your name?" I shrugged.

"I guess you can call me Wolf." I answered. I saw two more figures walk in to the room uninvited. The first had dark hair and eyes and tan skin, the other light skin, silver hair and silver eyes, both of them muscled like shifters. The one with silver hair didn't say anything but a heard a growl in his throat.

"Now now Sher… be calm… I know the dog puts you off but, play nice…" He said with a heavy accent.

"I suppose I should introduce myself… I'm Pantera."

"Isn't that a metal band?" I asked. Rhino laughed next to me.

"No you dimwit it's Panther in Spanish." He said angrily.

"I'm pretty sure it's a metal band… you should just have stuck with that."

"I can't wait to kick your ass." Kick my ass?

"What are you waiting for? I just got off a flight across the world and I've got massive jetlag but I can still take a punk like you." Rhino put a hand out and quickly realized he could easily restrain me. Sher did the same thing to Pantera.

"What? You don't want to go Tera?" I mocked. He tried to get past Sher but failed as he was pushed out of the room. Sher left behind him

"What the hell is going on?" I asked Rhino.

"You don't know? But you're the reason we're all together." He responded.

"Don't know what?" I asked frustrated.

"They gathered Alpha's from all around the world to test us."

"You're all Alpha males as well?" Rhino nodded.

"Though the rest of us never went toe to toe with Felix… what was it like?" I didn't want to brag. I didn't want to make a scene.

"Felix… is a monster of a fighter, unlike any I've fought. He learned how I fought as we fought."

"But you don't even know the best part." Rhino said.

"What's that?" I asked barely paying attention.

"The lionesses" I just raised my eyebrow at him.

"What?"

"There are two Lionesses here… They're looking for mates?" I snickered.

"Mates? Really?"

"Well one is the princess of the lions and the other is her friend…" I shrugged finishing off my unpacking.

"What you're not interested?" Rhino asked. I finally faced him after having unpacked everything.

"No, I'm not. Women aren't worth the headache they bring." I said honestly.

"Wow… sounds like someone just left a relationship on the wrong end."

"Two, actually." I answered.

"How do you even pull that off?"

"Carefully… very carefully."

Mike's POV

This first fight with any of the Volturi… my first opponent was Yuki. I didn't know much about him but that he wasn't a great fighter and he hadn't been a vampire as long as I have. He didn't block every attack I gave, he didn't even avoid every attack, but he recovered well. The simple truth of it is I need to trick him in to seeing an opening. Yuki was by no means a very dangerous vampire, but it was no reason for me to get sloppy. I threw a round kick he blocked then I came over with a hook he ducked under and my side kick landed on his hip. He staggered back recovering completely and waiting for me.

So you're patient too… waiting for the right opening. I thought about it as he blocked and ducked my punches every so often taking one, but every time he dodged away and recovered before I could possibly take advantage. I need to give him an opening he can't ignore.

I came spinning around with an obvious log kick, a kick that could knock his head off his shoulders if it connected right. He ducked under it and I came up off balance. My hands were down and out of position. There's your opening, Take it!

He took it in the form of a hooking punch. I tried to go with it but took the brunt of the blow to the face and spun catching his punching arm and pulling it up. I hooked my arm around his neck while I spun him. Then my other arm locked on to his chin in a converted half nelson. It wasn't pretty, and my chin felt the effects of his punch… but it got the job done.

Arthur's POV

"Arthur what do we do?" Gavin asked. He flexed his muscled obviously still getting used to his body.

"We will create our own army… no… we shall be knights."

"Knights?" Lance asked. I nodded.

"Yes… you are no longer Lance… you are now Lancelot. And Gavin… you are now Gawain." Gawain nodded with a smile.

"We're hardly knights with just three of us though." Gawain noted.

"No… We will expand our ranks and clear the Vampire menace from the United States, then North America… Then the world."

"That's a pretty lofty goal Arthur." Lancelot said. I chuckled back at him.

"We've got our own research division, we'll have the best weapons in the world and best yet… we'll never die." I lifted a chalice filled with deer blood and Gawain and Lancelot did the same.

"To us, the Vampire Knights… let the games begin." I said with a laugh. They joined me and we drank. Our futures have just begun.

Embry's POV

I closed off my mind and kept bench pressing. I just kept pushing up. I heard the door open and wind blow in the room. My nostrils were filled with a female scent. She smells good, and definitely not a vampire.

"I'm not interested." I said truthfully.

"Really? You haven't even seen me yet, maybe you would be." She asked not in the least offended. I put my five hundred lb bar with weights back on the holder and reached for my shirt immediately. I don't need to give her a show. I threw it on and walked away from her and grabbed my back pack with two hundred lbs of weights.

"No I'm really not looking right now." I said jumping up and catching the bar in air. I started doing pull ups.

"Why are you taken?" She teased. I could hear her getting closer but I ignored her.

"Not taken, just not looking." I said continuing doing pull ups.

"That's interesting… because from what I've heard you're taken by two women." She continued.

"Then I guess I am." I said forcing myself to keep doing the pull ups even though I only do ten.

"You aren't?" she asked.

"Nope… I said goodbye to that life." My arms were fading after twenty five.

"Really… because I heard you're here because you made a deal with the Volturi for a one year contract as long as they stay away from your child and her mother." I finally released my grip and landed on my feet. I'd have to turn around and look at her I couldn't possibly keep avoiding her because I was nearly up against the wall at this point.

"Yeah I made that deal, but it was for my son, and I don't want any…" I said turning around she was only two feet away staring at me. Her piercing eyes bore in to me I swear they looked in to my soul. They were deep and golden brown. I forced myself to look in to them for as long as I could but failed. Her skin was a golden brown color rare for the parts of Africa she must have came from. Her hair was smooth and gentle black that framed her face. Her skin was nearly perfect. She was absolutely gorgeous. I stopped short realizing I hadn't finished my sentence.

"Don't want any blood on my hands which is why I made the deal."

"Cat got your tongue?" she asked as I made myself busy walking away from her.

"Clever… I assume you're one of the Lionesses." I said trying to make conversation as I started curling a bar.

"That I am… I am Themba, princess of the lions" I kept curling it.

"Them ba?" I asked

"Pronounced Tem-ba"

"That's nice."

"Wow, are you this impolite to everyone or am I just lucky?"

"Blame it on your sex."

"Really?"

"Yes… I don't need women." I said trying to get her to leave.

"You've got a son so I guess you needed women at one time." I snorted and snickered a little bit.

"What's that? You've got a sense of humor?"

"Listen Themba it's nice talking to you but you've got three other suitors who want to bone you, and I'm obviously not interested in impressing you." She smiled at my response. So she's not so proper that crude language off puts her.

"They were all so willing and ready to jump for me… I hadn't met you yet… who knows maybe you'll jump for me soon too." She said walking out of the room. I tried not to but I caught myself checking out her ass. Damn… Yeah… I'm in trouble.

What do you think of Rhino, Sher, Pantera, and Themba? I hope you liked them, please give me your opinions and ideas about their characters. I hope to develop them further but more ideas are always welcome. Thanks for reading. Remember to give knucks, high fives, rolls of twenties, and take care, Spike your hair.