Okay, so this was supposed to go up last night, but, as I imagine a fair amount of us know, the site had some server issues last night and this morning, so I apologize for the elongated wait. So, without further ado, here is the chapter.

Twenty Feet is a Long Way to Fall

"Damn it!" Kyle yelled, sitting his controller on his bed, "How the hell are you so good at this shit when it's your first time?"

I just shrugged and said, "I don't know, luck I guess."

"Whatever man," Adam said, sitting his own controller down, "you were playing like you're a fucking veteran or something."

We were currently still home alone, even though Maxwell should have been home yesterday, but he ended up needing to extend his trip another four or five days, as he wasn't finished with all of the work that he needed to get done in time, so Kyle, Adam, and I were currently sitting in Kyle's room, with the rest of the house damn near silent. Kyle had dug a small TV out of his closet and had me bring the Xbox from my room over so that we could do some two versus one on Modern Warfare 3 and still be in the same room. And of course, since they love playing fair, it was Adam and Kyle against me, yet I had managed to beat them in all three matches we played, which caused some minor disbelief from Adam and a slight bit of rage from Kyle.

"I'm telling you, I've never played before." I said.

Kyle sighed and shut off their game, saying, "Whatever man, but next time, I'm on your team."

"If you remember," I said, shutting off my own game, "you two are the ones who wanted to double team me, I would happily been on a team with one of you."

I stood up off of the floor as Kyle flopped back onto his bed. Adam got up and went to the window and pulled back the black curtains, letting in the blinding sunlight.

"How about we go do something outside?" He suggested. "I mean, it's like, eighty degrees and there's not a cloud in the sky."

Kyle sat up and said, "Sure. How about we go skate?"

"I'm up for it," Adam said, "but we'll need to stop by my house so I can grab my board."

"You can just borrow one of mine." Kyle said, getting up and walking to his closet. He opened it and pulled out two skateboards and handed one to Adam, before turning to me and asking, "You ever skate before?"

"No." I replied.

"You wanna try?" Kyle asked. "Or would you just find some way to kick our asses in it, as well?"

"No, it's never really appealed to me," I said, "but I'll still come with you."

"Alright then," Kyle said, closing the door and walking over to his bedroom door, "then let's go."

I left the room, followed by Adam and Kyle, who closed the door behind him. We went downstairs, and I could hear Jessica and Levi talking in the living room.

"Hey, do you think we should ask Jessica if she wants to come?" Adam said.

"Sure, I guess," Kyle said, shrugging, "but I doubt she'll want to."

"I'll go ask." I said, going over to the doorway. I stuck my head in and, seeing Jessica and Levi sitting on the couch while watching TV, I said, "Hey, we're gonna head out and go skate. You wanna come?"

"Sure." Jessica said, standing up. She turned to Levi and said, "You wanna come?"

"Sure." He said, standing up as well.

"Alright," Jessica said, "just let me head upstairs and grab my board."

"Alright," I said, "I'll go wait with the others."

We left the room and Jessica and Levi went upstairs.

"So, is she actually coming?" Kyle asked.

"Yeah, she's just gotta go grab her board." I said.

"So," Adam said, "where's the jacket?"

"What?" I asked, confused.

"Y'know," he said, "your jacket. You said that you just really like wearing it around, so why aren't you?"

I laughed and said, "Oh yeah, that. I don't really like wearing my jacket a lot, I just knew that it was going to rain that day, and I didn't tell you guys because I was hoping that you would be rained on."

"Wow, I had just met you and you were already fucking with me." Kyle said, in mock shock. "But what about Jessica? She still got poured on."

"That was just unplanned." I said. "And besides, she didn't get rained on. She wore my jacket home."

Adam whistled and said, "Wow, already getting serious. Does Levi know?"

"Shut the hell up." I said, as he and Kyle started laughing.

We stood there in silence after that, waiting, for a few minutes, before Jessica and Levi came down the stairs, with Jessica holding her skateboard.

"So, everyone ready?" Kyle asked. We all nodded and he said, "Alright then, let's go."

We left the house and started walking.

"So, where are we going?" I asked.

"The skate park in town." Kyle said.

"If you could even call it that." Adam said. "Pretty much all that is there is a bowl and a few quarters."

"Yeah, but J keeps it well maintained, and it's the best we've got anyway." Jessica said.

"Who's J?" I asked.

"Jax." Adam replied. "He runs a small coffee shop in town and runs the skate park. He normally has his nephew run the place while he works the shop, but sometimes they'll swap roles for a day or so."

I nodded and we continued walking in silence. When we got to the skate park I saw that they were pretty much spot on with their description of the park. It was a fenced in area with a large bowl and two quarter pipes, along with a benches nailed to the concrete ground. On the far side of the park, next to the bowl, I could see a drop immediately past the fence.

"What's with the drop over there?" I asked.

"You mean the city's largest fucking health hazard?" Adam said. "On the other side of that fence is about five more inches of concrete, and then a straight twenty foot drop into a concrete ground."

"Why is the drop even there?" I asked.

"They had originally planned to build a hotel or some shit there," Kyle said, "but the funding was cut short before they had even started building, so they just never really put anything there."

"So why don't they do something to make it safer?" I asked.

"Because the city government is full of useless and lazy fuckers, who have never accomplished anything." A voice said behind us.

We turned around and saw a Feraligatr-morph behind us.

"Oh, hey J." Jessica said.

"Hey kids," J said, "so who's the new guy?"

"This is Riku," Jessica said, "we met him recently and dad adopted him."

"Well then, it's nice to meet you Riku." J said, holding out his hand.

I shook it and said, "You too."

"So, now that all of you are back in town, you finally decided to come see old Jax?" J asked.

"Yeah, "Kyle said, "we decided to come and skate since today's one of the final good days of the year."

"Yeah, that's about right." J said. "It's supposed to pour the rest of the week."

"That sucks." Adam said, as all six of us entered the park.

"Meh, what can you do?" J said.

Levi and I sat on a bench, with J standing next to us, while Adam, Kyle, and Jessica started skating. After a few minutes Adam stopped skating and sat next to me.

After a few more minutes of us just talking I heard a voice say, "Well, well, well, if it isn't the towns little orphanage."

At this Kyle and Jessica stopped skating and leapt out of the bowl and landed on their feet and we all turned and looked at the entrance to the park. Archer, Andrew, and Trinity were standing there, all of them holding a skateboard.

"What the hell do you assholes want?" Kyle said.

"What's the matter," Trinity said, smirking, "are we not allowed to come here and skate as well?"

I could tell that Kyle was about to snap and try to kick their asses, as I knew that he was still pissed about me stopping him the other day, which I knew because he brought it up almost daily. I shot a quick glance at Jessica, who stared back at me, and then I shot a look at Kyle.

Understanding what I meant, she quickly said, "No, don't worry, you can be here. I mean, it is a free country, so go ahead."

"Why thanks, Princess," Trinity said, still smirking, "I was being a smart-ass, but it's always nice to know that I have your permission to do something I had planned on doing anyway."

After she said this, the three of them leapt into the bowl and started skating. Jessica restarted as well, but when Kyle went to follow I stood up and stopped him by grabbing his shoulder.

"What?" He hissed at me.

"Keep calm," I said, "I know you're still pissed, and imagine that you do still have a good reason, but don't do anything stupid."

"Whatever." He replied, before pulling himself out of my grip and joining Jessica in the bowl.

I sighed and sat back down next to Adam.

"He's really going to get himself hurt if he tries what he did at the school." I said.

"Yeah," Adam said, "but, I mean, you didn't hear what they said."

"Yep," I said, sighing, "and I don't entirely care, to be quite honest."

Adam just shrugged and dropped the topic. After a few minutes everyone except for Kyle and Jessica was standing on the sidelines, with Archer, Trinity, and Andrew on the opposite side of the bowl.

"Arceus, you guys suck!" Trinity yelled. "I could skate better in my sleep."

Thankfully, the two in the bowl seemed to ignore her, but she continued nevertheless.

"C'mon, you guys don't deserve to own boards!" She yelled. "Especially you, Princess."

They continued to ignore them, but I could see that Kyle was having to restrain himself from leaping off of his board and attacking her.

"I would have thought that with how strong your knees are that would have somehow made you good at skating." Trinity said. "Who knows, maybe your quick hands can give you some help in sports."

At this, Kyle went up their side of the bowl and leapt off of his board, landing on his feet on the ground.

"She shouldn't have said that." Adam said, under his breath.

"Take that back, you little fucking whore!" Kyle yelled, carrying far past the parks perimeter.

"Why should I?" Trinity said, the same smirk plastered on her face.

"Because if you don't," Kyle said, getting in her face, "I'll kick your scrawny little ass."

As I watched the two argue, I couldn't help but notice that Andrew was continuously tossing a small rock up in the air and catching it, but his stare was disturbing me. He seemed to be watching Jessica with an almost predatory glare. As Kyle and Trinity continued arguing, Jessica was still skating, either not realizing what was happening or not caring, in the case of the latter I couldn't really blame her. As she went up the side of the bowl and neared its rim, he reeled his hand back and sent the small rock flying at the front wheels on her board. He hit his mark precisely, getting the rock caught between the front of the wheel and the ground, causing the board to stop moving, but Jessica's momentum kept her moving, causing her to fly up in the air. The four of us paying attention let out a gasp as this happened, but as soon as I saw where she was headed my heart seemed to stop. Fuck. She was aimed at the fence on the far side of the park, the only thing protecting her from plummeting twenty feet, and she would easily clear it.

"Fuck!" She screamed out, drawing Kyle's attention.

"No!" Kyle yelled out.

As soon as Kyle turned his head, Archer, Trinity, and Andrew took off running for the exit to the park, but stopped at the exit and just watched Jessica fly through the air, smirks plastered to their faces. As Jessica cleared the fence, I started running, not even thinking. I leapt up onto a bench near the fence and launched myself off of the back of it, aimed at Jessica. I flew through the air, over the fence, and caught her, but we were both now beginning to fall. Metal skeleton, don't fail me now. We plummeted the twenty feet, and I landed on the hard concrete on my feet, sending jolts of pain up my body, but I had Jessica held tight, in a position similar to bridal style, in my arms, keeping her from hitting the ground. I grunted in pain and dropped to one knee, sitting Jessica on the ground. Looking down, I saw that her eyes were sealed shut and a look of fear was plastered on her face.

"Hey," I said, leaning down to her, "you can open your eyes."

She opened her eyes and quickly looked around, the look of fear still evident in her eyes. The fear was replace by a look of surprise and relief.

"Riku? You saved me?" She asked.

"Of course," I said, "I would never let anything happen to you."

"Th-thanks." She replied, before standing up.

I went to stand up, but I collapsed onto the ground, feeling extremely light headed.

"Here, you should sit down, that was a long drop." Jessica said.

"You're probably right."I said, standing up enough to where she didn't have to completely support me. "That was a really fucking long drop, and I probably shouldn't have survived it to begin with."

I looked up and saw the heads of Kyle, Adam, Levi, and J pop over the fence one by one, the fear showing on their face.

"Holy shit, how in the hell are they not dead?" Adam said.

"Stay right there," J yelled down at us, "we'll be right down!"

"Don't worry," I yelled back, as they left, "I can't really move to begin with."

It took a few minutes for the others to get down to us, and when they did, they all ran over to us, and Adam and J knelt down next to me.

"Jessica, you alright?" Kyle asked Jessica, as Levi wrapped her in a hug.

"Yeah, I'm good," she said, "thanks to Riku."

Kyle nodded before kneeling down to me and saying, "Hey, you alright?"

"Yeah, sorta," I said, "but I don't think I can walk."

"What's up, did you break something?" Adam asked.

"No, I don't think so," I said, "just really light headed, and I don't think that my legs can support me."

"Shit man, that's still not good." Kyle said. "And we've still got to get you home."

"You guys want me to take you?" J asked. "I've got my truck parked nearby."

"If you don't mind, that'd be pretty helpful," Kyle said, "thanks."

J nodded before dashing off. We just waited in silence, the only sound being Jessica's quiet gasps, which I assume are because she still hadn't completely calmed down. After a few minutes, a burgundy truck turned the corner and drove up to us. It parked in front of us and J got out and walked over to us.

"Alright," he said, leaning down to me and helping me stand, "let's go."

He helped support me as we went to the truck. He sat me in the back seat and Adam got in behind me. He closed the door and got in the driver's seat, with Kyle getting into the passengers and Jessica and Levi getting in the bed.

J rolled down the window and yelled out it, "Hey, you guys ready back there?"

"Yeah!" Jessica yelled back.

We pulled out of the lot and started driving down the road.

"So," I said, "what happened to those jackasses?"

"They ditched." Adam said. "As soon as you cleared the fence they bolted."

"Fucking bastards." Kyle said.

"Don't worry," I said, "we'll get those fuckers."

Kyle turned around to face me and said, "Wait, so you won't stop me next time?"

"Dude, they tried to kill Jessica." I said. "Trust me on this one man; I'll start swinging before you even get the chance to think about it."

"Good," Kyle replied, turning to face the front again, "'cause I'm about tired of their bullshit."

I nodded and we sat in silence. After a few more minutes I began to feel extremely light headed, before suddenly slumping over onto Adam and passing out.

I woke up in darkness, my head killing me, still completely dressed, and on a soft surface. I went to sit up, but immediately regretted it, as I felt light headed, so I just dropped back down. Looking around as best as I could, I could tell that I was in my room, on my bed. I tried to sit up again, but the light headed feeling was even worse, so I put my head back down with a groan.

"Hey dude," I heard Adam's voice say, "don't overdo yourself. You've been out all day, so if you can't sit up it's perfectly fine."

The light was turned on; causing my head to feel like it was exploding. I let out another groan and shut my eyes, covering them with my arms as well.

"Shit, sorry." Adam said, before turning the lights back off.

I then felt an addition of weight on the bed near the foot, signaling that he had sat down on it.

"How long did you say I was out?" I asked.

"All day," Adam replied, "it's currently about one or two in the morning."

"Damn." I said, sighing.

"Yep." Adam said. "Hey man, what happened back there?"

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I mean in the truck." He clarified. "I mean, one minute you're just sitting there, talking, and then the next you're passed out on my shoulder."

"I don't know." I said. "I just passed out, I guess."

"Fuck man, I guess." Adam said. "But, hell, you had all of us worried that you had died or some shit. I mean, Jessica was in tears, talking about how if you had died or if there were any long term issues, it would all be her fault."

"Damn." I said, feeling guilty for causing all of them this much worry.

"Yeah." Adam said. "We tried to get a doctor out here, but they don't do house calls anymore, so the only one we could call is friends with Maxwell, but he was in the middle of doing some surgery, so he was out, but we were able to get him to agree to come and check you out tomorrow."

"What about Maxwell?" I asked. "Does he know?"

"Yep." Adam said, sighing. "When we told him what happened he was pissed off. We tried to talk him out of it, but he cut his trip short, and he should be back home sometime tomorrow."

"Damn." I said, sighing. "I really caused you guys to worry this much?"

"Well, duh, man. I mean, your part of the fucking family, why wouldn't you?" Adam replied. He stood up and said, "Hey, I'm gonna go get some sleep, we just wanted someone to wait in here in case you woke up. I don't advise trying to get up or anything either, by the way, seeing as just trying to sit made you almost pass out."

"Alright." I said. "Goodnight man."

"Yeah, you too." Adam replied, before leaving the room.

Arceus, I can't believe that they were that worried about me.

I woke up to see sunlight filtering in through the crack in between my curtains, and Jessica sitting on the bed next to me. I went to sit up and found that I could do so without feeling like I was going to pass out.

"Hey." I said, getting Jessica's attention.

She jumped slightly, before turning to me and saying, sounding slightly distracted, "Oh, hey, you're awake. That's good"

"Yeah, I suppose." I said. "Did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, it was alright." She said, looking at the ground.

"Hey, look at me." I said.

She didn't move, so I put my hand under her chin and turned her to me, and I could see a few tears starting to form in her eyes.

"What's wrong?" I asked, already predicting what the answer would be.

"It's just," she said, more tears starting to form and run down her face, "I feel so guilty about yesterday. I mean, it was all my fault."

"Hey, c'mon," I said, "it isn't your fault. If anyone's to blame, it's Andrew; he's the one who threw the stone."

"No, it's not just his fault." Jessica said. "I could have easily balanced myself out in mid-air and landed before I went over the fence, but I wasn't thinking. And you could have died and now you're hurt, and for all we know it could be serious or permanent, and it's all my fault."

"Hey," I said, wrapping my arms around her, causing her to hide her face in my shoulder, "it's alright, I don't blame you. And even if it is serious, it doesn't matter; what matters is that you're still alive and well."

She brought her head up and said, "Really, you don't blame me?"

"Of course not." I said, wiping the tears off of her face, "Now please stop crying. It ruins your beautiful face."

She looked at me and our eyes locked for a few moments, before she seemed to shake herself back to reality and left my arms, but I could make out what looked to be a blush spreading across her face under her orange fur.

"R-right, okay." she said, turning her head away from me. She got up and said, "Well, Kyle made breakfast. Do you want me to bring you some up?"

"That'd be nice," I said, "thanks."

She nodded, before leaving. She came back a few minutes later, a plate of eggs and bacon in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, and sat them down on my bedside table, not saying anything and not making eye contact. Shrugging it off, I began eating. When I finished eating, I just sat the dishes on my bedside table. I wonder if I can walk yet. I tried to stand up, and actually accomplished it, not even feeling remotely light headed. Deciding to actually do something productive, I took a shower, but when I got out I began feeling slightly lightheaded. I quickly got dressed before leaving my bathroom and sitting on my bed. After a few minutes there was a knock on the door.

"You can come in." I responded.

The door opened to reveal Maxwell standing there. He entered, closing the door behind him, and leaned up against it.

"So I see you're awake. That's good." He said.

"Yeah." I said. "And I can walk fairly well."

"While that is good," he said, "I don't really advise it, at least not until getting cleared by the doctor."

"Yeah, probably." I said. "Y'know, you didn't need to come home early just because I got hurt."

"Yes, I did." He said, sitting on the bed next to me. "You got injured and both you and Jessica could have died, that is a fairly viable reason to come home early. That, and I feel that I should have a talk with Andrew's parents."

"Please don't." I said. Maxwell looked at me oddly, so I said, "They already pick on us enough, and we all know that that will only make it worse. And besides, I think I already know how we're going to get back at them."

"Are you sure?" Maxwell asked. "All it would take is a phone call."

"Yes, just please leave it to me." I said.

"Well, alright." Maxwell said, standing up. "I'll just let you do what you seem to know how to do."

"Thank you." I said, as he left the room.

When he was out of the room I flopped back on the bed, letting out a large sigh.

"Trust me," I said, talking to myself, "if there is one thing I've learned how to do recently, its revenge."

So, this was fun. Remember children, don't leap off of large drops, unless you really want to. I'd make the best counselor in the world, wouldn't I. And for the record, to anyone who doesn't get the whole metal skeleton thing, Lucarios have a metal skeleton. Anyway, I hope that this was enjoyed by many, and if not, then I apologize, but you can just get over it. Anyways, I shall see you all in the next chapter, where Riku tackles his worst enemy yet: the first day of school. Goodbye.