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Joel woke up after his night’s rest. He looked around, remembering about the day before. Sarralyn sat on a chair beside his bed and waved hello to him. He sat up and yawned loudly, then greeted Sarralyn.

"You sleep funny, y’know that?" she told him.

"What’s the supposed to mean?" Joel asked her.

"Well, you’re s’posed to sleep on the lengthy way of the bed, with your head on the pillow and you under the blanket." She explained, "That’s what helps ya getta refreshing night’s rest."

"Oh, well that could explain the creak in my neck." Joel said, "And what about this undying feeling in the center of my hips?"

"Undying feeling?" Sarralyn asked. She looked down, then looked up and away quickly, "Oh, that feeling!" She pulled Joel out into the hall and pushed him into the bathroom, pointing out the toilet, saying, "This is a toilet. Use it!"

Twenty minutes passed when Joel stepped out from the bathroom. He went back to his room and changed clothes, then met Sarralyn in her kitchen at the table.

"It took you long enough! Hurry, have some breakfast before we’re late for school!" she told him.

Joel looked around the table for a moment, shrugged, then followed the commands given to him and began grabbing bits and pieces from every breakfast plate and eating them. Sarralyn caught a glimpse of him, then slowly pushed her plate away from the table and stepped away.

"Wow, that’s what I call a meal!" Joel said, stretching and walking towards Sarralyn, "What’s next, Sarralyn? Do we go to school yet?"

Sarralyn sighed and walked out the door and on her way to school, and Joel ran after her to catch up.

"Hey wait Sarra!" Joel called out, "So, what’s school like? Are there many people there?"

"Hmm? Oh sure! More than you’ll ever know, though, Joel." She told him.

"There’s that many, huh?" Joel said.

"Yeah. Hey, please don’t show off any of your abilities today when we’re out like this, ok?" Sarralyn told Joel, "I really don’t want you to be the big talk of the town on your first day. They might even begin to fear you for what you might be. Can you try that?"

"Of course." Joel said, nodding, "I’ll throw no punches or kicks today."

"And remember, the people there might laugh at you if you pose defensively like yesterday." She continued.

"Laugh? You mean I look funny?" Joel asked, "What’s funny about getting punched in the face, though?"

"Just… don’t, Joel. Trust me." She explained, "There’ve been TV shows about weird looking people in jump suits dancing around pretending to fight."

"Oh, really? You’ll have to show me those, maybe I could learn something about my own fighting style." Joel said.

"Those are just actors, you’ll learn nothing from them." Sarralyn said, "Now hush and stop asking questions so we can get to school faster."

She began to picture Joel as a clueless two-year-old, then began a sprint towards school. Again, Joel followed her actions and began to sprint with her. He had no problem keeping up with her pace, and he was still going as Sarralyn started slowing back down to a walk to catch her breath.

"Hey, we can’t stop running now!" Joel said.

"I have… to catch… my breath…" Sarralyn told him.

"No rest for the weary!" Joel said, lifting her up onto his back, "Hold on tight, I’m gonna go double time!"

"What! Joel, hey! Put me, aaah!" Sarralyn cried as Joel ran off carrying her, "Oh my lord, you’re running fast! I think this is a new human speed record, Joel!"

As she held onto Joel tightly, she pointed out which ways to go to get to her school. They leaped over crowds, and cut through narrow alleys, making it there sooner than Sarralyn had thought with all the time she seemed to have lost at home waiting on Joel. Joel began to slow down to a walk and let her down as they approached the school gates. The teenage boys and girls watched the two of them as they walked through the halls, whispering between each other things like "Woah, check out that guy’s hair. Look at his clothes, you think he’s a necromantic freak or something? You never know who spell casters are these days."

"Spell casters? But I don’t know any, mmff…" Joel said, getting interrupted as Sarralyn covered his mouth with a smile.

Sarralyn pulled Joel into her classroom and sat him down in an open desk near her. He looked around and noticed that everyone was again making occasional glances at him.

"Don’t mind them, alright Joel?" Sarralyn told him before she left, "And let me do the talking, ok?"

He nodded and looked foreward. The class teacher stepped into the room and looked around, then put his items down on his desk and began class as the bell rang. As the bell sounded Joel looked around in alarm, wondering where it came from, but he remembered what Sarralyn had told him and stopped and continued looking foreword.

"Welcome back to another glorious week of school, my graceful rich and upper class children of Traquo. And hello there Sarralyn." The teacher began. He looked around again for a moment and noticed Joel sitting there and said, "Well now, this isn’t a common occurrence is it. A new student and I don’t seem to have your name written anywhere."

Before Joel could react and respond to the teacher’s question, Sarralyn jumped up and said, "Oh, I can answer that Mr. Forsworth. He’s Joel, my friend from Quilkal. We met last fall, and he’s come here to live with me for a while. I’m showing him around school today!"

"Oh." The teacher said, "So that explains why he doesn’t have a uniform."

"Uniform?" Joel thought, "Is this a military school? I don’t want to join any military! And where’s Quilkal anyway?"

"Yes, that’s right." Sarralyn said, "I hope you all accept him into this school. He’s been a great friend to me."

A student chewing gum raised his hand and asked to go to the restroom. When he was permitted to leave, he walked by Joel and spit his gum out onto his hair. The class began to giggle violently, but before the boy got away Joel grabbed him by the arm, managed to get the gum off of his head before it caused too much of a problem, and stuck it back into the boy’s mouth.

"That belongs to you, right?" Joel asked.

"H,hey! I don’t know where you’ve been, man! Ewww…" the boy began to cry, "Hey, it’s not my fault you haven’t had a hair cut in decades!"

"My hair has nothing to do with your sense of immaturity." Joel told him.

He patted him in the back and let him go. The class gasped at Joel, wondering how he managed to pull that trick off. Joel looked around the room again and remembered what he was told not to do.

"Uhh, oops, sorry." He said, shrinking down into his desk, "I didn’t mean to…"

Mr. Forsworth looked Joel over, then wrote something on a slip of paper and handed it to him.

"Sarra, would you show your friend, Joel, to the nurse’s office?" he said, "He should probably have a physical check up before he does anything around here."

Sarralyn stood up and walked pulled Joel onto his feet.

"Yes Mr. Forsworth." She said, nodding, "I’ll be back with him in twenty minutes or less!"

As the two of them walked out from the class a student shouted out to them, "Hey love birds, don’t get caught in a cage singing while you’re out there!" and the class laughed. Sarralyn hurried out from the room and Joel looked at the group of students still sitting and laughing wondering what was going on with them. She finally pulled him out of the room with her and began showing him down the hall to the nurse’s office.

"Geez, what was that all about?" Joel asked, scratching his head.

"Oh, they probably think we’re dating or something." Sarralyn told him, "But that’s what to expect from sick minded teenagers, right?"

Joel looked at Sarralyn for a moment, then shrugged unknowingly.

"Well, it’s something about loving another, and…" she trailed off for a moment, then continued, "I’d feel strange explaining it to you. You understand, right? I mean, you’ll probably learn about it in a class or something."

"Oh right, I gotcha." Joel said, nodding, "You know you look real weird when you blush?"

"W,what? Blush?" Sarralyn said, embarrassed. Her face stopped glowing red as the two approached the nurse’s office and she told Joel, "Okay, this is it! Good luck. I’ll be waiting out here for you when you’re done!"

She opened the door for him and waved him good bye. Joel walked in and saw the nurse sitting at her desk, typing away at her computer. She looked up for a moment and saw Joel standing there looking around the room, then turned back and continued typing on her keyboard.

"Hello sir, what can I do for you today?" She asked him.

"Well, I’m kind of new here, and my teacher told Sarralyn to bring me down here for a physical, what ever that is." Joel told the nurse.

"Oh, ok." The nurse told him, "Just sit over there by the table and we’ll get started."

He sat down next to a table piled with papers, medicines, and tubes.

"Ok, I’m here!" Joel told the nurse.

"What’s your name and age?" She asked him.

"My name? It’s Joel." He said.

"Just Joel? What about your last name? Middle name?" The nurse asked Joel, but Joel shrugged and said he didn’t know of any. Then she said, "How about your age? How old are you?"

"Uh… My age?" Joel said, thinking for a moment, "I never really thought of that."

"Who’s class did you come from then?" was the next question thrown at him.

"Oh, I know that one!" he said. It looked as though a light bulb lit up over his head, "I came from Mr. Furswurth’s class."

"Oh, Mr Forsworth…" The nurse said, "I see then, well let’s begin with the physical. Put your left arm on the table and pull up the sleeve. I’m going to draw blood to check your blood type."

"Hmm, ok. Draw blood." Joel said, thinking of a paper and a pencil drawing red spots all over it as he lifted his arm up onto the table with the sleeve up, "That sounds weird, but if that’s what you have to do…"

The nurse suddenly reached out for his arm and shoved a medical needle into it, then lifted up on the back. The needle began extracting the red essence of his blood from him. He gasped and wanted to react to it, but thinking back to what Sarralyn had told him he held back the urge to attack the nurse. When the nurse pulled the needle out, she put the needle onto a piece of her computer hardware and a picture of the needle bottle appeared on the screen of the monitor.

"What was that all about, sheesh…" Joel groaned.

"I told you I was drawing your blood for examination." The nurse told him, "And now I’m looking at it." She made the computer zoom in on the sample and she looked deep into every part of the bottle, then sighed and looked at him, saying, "Kid, you’re full of mysteries, aren’t you. I can’t seem to match this sample with any form of blood type A, B, or O. And the temperature of your blood seems to be far above normal human body temperature!"

"It’s good to be different, right?" Joel asked.

The nurse sighed, then said, "Ok, I’m going to check your heart beat now… like I even want to know…"

The nurse put her stethoscope to her ears and to Joel’s chest. The cold tickle was almost unbearable and Joel tried to hold back. His hands gripped his pants tightly as the nurse checked his heart.

"Hmm, ok, well that’s a normal heart." The nurse said.

As the nurse slipped the stethoscope from Joel’s chest he lost it. He began laughing and his right arm went up and smashed into the wall next to him. His arm went through the wall, causing it to collapse with a loud boom. Sarralyn rushed inside to check what was going on when she heard the sound.

"Oops, ah, did I do that?" Joel said, looking at the crushed wall as he calmed down.

"What’s going on in here, is everything okay?" Sarralyn asked, "Joel?"

"Y,yes?" Joel said, looking up at her, "I can explain, it’s not my fault! That thing she used on my chest, and… uh… dang." He dropped his head and shoulders in shame.

"I had no idea you were this strong, Joel!" She said, "Nurse, is the physical over? We’ve got to get going back to class!"

The nurse stood motionless and shocked, looking at the wall and then Joel.

"Yes, get him out of here!" she said, "That boy is weird, I’ve seen all I need to know!"

"Thinking? Well you’d try hitting something if you were being tickled, too, right?" Joel said, "It was an accident, that thing she had on me was unbearable."

"I can understand why you did it, but please try not to let it happen again, okay?" Sarralyn told him, and he nodded back to her once more.

Sarralyn took Joel back to her class, and the day passed without any further disruption. It came to the end of school for the day, and Joel was able to hold back from any people who tried to pester him. He was introduced to the mathematics system and the history of the world. Sarralyn helped him write down notes to take with him to look back to when he needed to be informed.

The two walked out from the school halls onto the hard concrete where all the students gathered for after school activities and sports. They had no time for after school things that day, because Sarralyn had to get Joel back to her home to keep safe. But three other students stopped them on the way out. They stood in an arrow headed formation where one was in front and the two others were in the back. The first student was a boy of average height, with brown eyes and red buzzed cut hair. The second student, in the back and left, was a much taller boy, who had blue eyes and long blonde hair split down the middle of his head. The third, in the back and right, was a girl of average lady height, who had black hair, brown eyes, and wore black lipstick.

"Look out Joel," Sarralyn whispered, "That’s the Axle Gang, three of the strongest students in this school. Katy in the back is supposed to be one tough clawing cat. Marco next to her is supposed to know some recipes for spicy explosives. And the guy in front is Tim, of course he’s the leader. I heard he’s skilled in both fighting and casting some spells, too!"

"What? All of that and in this city?" Joel whispered back, "I thought it was illegal."

"That’s just the thing, though." Sarralyn whispered, "They find ways around using their strengths against others to promote fear. Oh no, they’re coming this way…"

Tim walked up to the two of them and pointed at Joel and snarled, "You. You’re the new guy who’s trying to check out Sarralyn."

"Check out?" Joel thought, then he said, "You mean like a book from the library?"

At this time the whole crowds of teenagers around them were stopped watched the five, giggling away and whispering to each other about what would happen next. Tim laughed.

"Oh you’re funny little man." Tim said, looking up at Joel win a grin, "You know, I heard you caused a lot of noise in the nurse’s office today. They said you smashed a hole in the wall."

At this time Joel was thinking to himself, "What did he mean by ‘check out’ anyway, if he didn’t mean a book from the library… Boy this guy’s strange."

"I was wondering if I could see this for myself," Tim said, "and I figured I’d find out if I asked you to show me."

"Err, well…" Joel began. He looked at Sarralyn for a moment and then looked back at Tim and said, "No thanks, I’m not interested."

Tim sighed and shrugged his shoulders. He looked back and commanded, "Set up the Battle Dome. I’m going to see if what we heard was true or not no matter what I have to do." He looked at Sarralyn for a moment, then looked back and said, "I won’t have any monster hanging around taking Sarra away from my life."

The crowd spread out and away from the five characters as Marco and Katy threw round pads on the ground in four corners. These pads converted into small electrical spires that generated a spherical electric barrier that gleamed like lightning. The barrier separated Joel from Sarralyn, and he was left inside with Tim alone.

"I wish you’d stop thinking I liked you, Tim. You and your group disgust me, you know." Sarralyn told Tim.

"Oh how dramatic, but in the end the hero and the fair maiden unite and get married, and after all I am the hero of this adventure!" Tim said, "I, the strongest one of all, and you, the mayor’s daughter."

"Please, stop…" Sarralyn said, "If I’m the fair maiden of this story, then Joel’s my defending knight. When he shows you his strength you’ll be dragged home to your mother kicking and screaming!"

Joel looked back at Sarralyn for a moment, the barrier zapped his hand when he tried reaching out for her and he snapped back. Sarralyn looked him in the eyes, gleaming bright, and told him, "Win one for me, Joel!", and he nodded. He looked back at Tim, he was standing in front of him ready to fight and he remembered how he was told not to fight so many times earlier in the day.

"I’ll see that power of yours even if I have to knock you unconscious first." Tim said, "Now then, put up your dukes!"

"Dukes?" Joel asked.

Before he knew it, Tim was in his face flashing various attacks at him. He was not able to defend himself against them and staggered across the dome as he was being hit. Joel was hit with an elbow to the face and he fell down. He felt his face and looked at the ground, seeing as he was beginning to bleed, and looked at Sarralyn hopelessly. His friend was standing at the edge of the ring where he had left her, cheering "Go, get up Joel, you can do this! Be careful! Come on!"

Joel looked up and started to catch his lost breath from the beating he took. Tim grabbed Joel’s left arm and got him into a wrestler’s lock. He struggled to break free, but Joel felt something pushing down on his spine. Blood rushed up his throat and his coughed, spitting it on the ground.

"Feel the strength of the Axle Gang, kid." Tim told him, "And this is just the beginning if you don’t start fighting back!"

After hearing that, Joel began to forget about what he was told not to do. He lifted Tim up on his back and jumped up into the air. He threw his opponent off and down to the ground away from him. When Joel landed he removed his jacket and threw it back, then raised his arms to a fighting position.

"Yes, go Joel, now you’re doing it!" Sarralyn shouted over the roaring crowd.

Tim stood up and spit at the ground, then laughed at him.

"You call that a fighting pose?" Tim asked Joel, grinning.

Tim made a dash towards Joel and threw a punch, but Joel stepped to the side, dodging the punch, and grabbed Tim by his collar. He pulled Tim back and looked him in the eyes as he grabbed Tim’s neck and lifted him up. Tim began gasping for breath, as Joel’s hold was choking him, and kicked Joel in the gut. He was released and staggered back to catch his breath, but that did not stop Joel’s assault. Joel stepped back and put his right hand down to the floor, then preformed a frontward flip and landed in front of Tim again. Still low to the ground, Joel spun around and kicked Tim off of his balance and sprang back to his feet and began sending punch after punch at the boy. With a charge of the arm, he smashed Tim into one of the corner generators of the ring, damaging it.

He did not stop there and threw Tim out from the corner and kicked him in the air, sending him sliding and rolling into the center of the ring. By this time, Tim’s body looked like it was about to explode from injury, but he was not about ready to give in, not after his supreme reign over all people who knew his name. He looked up and saw the once again approaching Joel, lifted his hand up, and shut his eyes briefly. Three shards of ice formed and shot at Joel, cutting his shirt and his left cheek and ear. He stopped his assault and felt his face where he was cut.

"Hey, are you done yet?" Joel asked Tim, "Tables turned on you long ago, you know."

"Oh well that’s strange, because I thought you looked a bit worried when I started using my magic." Tim told him, "No pain no gain, you know."

"That’s for me to know and for you to find out." Joel said.

From the corner of the ring Sarralyn began shouting and pointing out to the back of the crowd.

"Joel, watch out! The police are here to check in on the situation!" she shouted, "Be careful in there!"

Joel looked back and beyond the crowd and saw two cars with glowing lights on top of both of them, and three men rushing and barging through the crowd to get to the front. Tim looked back and began to snicker, then looked at his friends.

"Take out the ring, we’re going!" he shouted.

Marco and Katy nodded and turned off the ring generators and put them away, then ran off. Joel looked at the three of them without a clue to it all.

"Guess what, Joel." Tim slithered, "I did some reading on people like you, and I found out that when you’re not fighting all your wounds disappear and recover."

Joel turned startled and looked at his bruises and wounds. They were indeed starting to regenerate back to a healthy look.

"Well now, better keep throwing attacks at me or you’re going to look suspicious, kid." Tim told him.

"Grrr, aah…" Joel growled as he looked at himself, then he looked up to Sarralyn and yelled, "Oh no, Sarra, what am I going to do!? Your father’s going to kill me looking like this!"

They ran to each other, leaving Tim laughing out at Joel. The men grew closer to Joel and Sarralyn, and they ran through the other side of the crowd, through the school, over the fence, and behind a wall away from all the attention. In the meantime the men had reached Tim.

"Boy, what happened here?" asked the head police man.

"Ugh, t,that new spikey blonde hair guy… he beat me down for no reason!" Tim acted out, thinking, "Hehah, go run you freak, run before it’s too late. You showed your powers to the wrong guy, and now it’s time to pay the piper!" and then continued saying, "G, go look at him, he’s scratchless, you’ll see! He was about to kill me, I tell you!"

"Understood, we’ll get that other guy for you then." The police man said, "Someone get this guy a doctor while we search for the guy who did this!"

Joel sat down where he and Sarralyn ran to, catching his breath. He looked to his right and saw an orange and white cat wander by, then from his left he heard a girl say, "Meow." The two looked to the left and saw Katy standing near the corner of the wall they were hiding in, holding a can in her hand.

"Hi there hotey." She said with an evil smile, "This is so Romeo and Juliet, and I’m gonna take you in like the brat you are." She shook the can up and threw it at Joel and Sarralyn and said, "I hope you two like poisonous knock out gas, courtesy of Marco’s laboratory!"

"Oh no!!" Sarralyn cried, "Joel, don’t breath it in!"

"Ah, right!" Joel said, nodding and covering his face.

Sarralyn began getting weak in the knees, so Joel picked her up and ran off carrying her. He jumped up onto a truck, then up higher to a tall building’s roof and set her down.

"So much for keeping my strengths hidden." Joel said, looking at her, "Man, you’re looking pretty bad there Sarra."

"P, please… g, give me s, some… w, water…" she quietly said, coughing.

Joel removed Sarralyn’s backpack and retrieved a bottle of water she had from it and fed it to her slowly.

"Is this the effects on that gas?" Joel asked her. She nodded, and he said, "I, I’m sorry Sarra. For getting you into this screwed situation. If I really knew I was like this…"

Sarralyn slowly shook her head at him and said, "You wouldn’t have… b, been able to do any t, thing… about it, Joel…"

Joel sighed and stood up. He looked over the city from the roof, then down at the streets and noticed police cars all around the building.

"I should get us to another building soon, they’re almost here for us." Joel told her.

"N, no Joel…" Sarralyn answered, "We’d best stay here… T, there’s no use… in running forever. Let’s stay here, and… h, hope they listen to truth and reasoning… So please, just sit with me…"

Joel sat down again, and Sarralyn grabbed his hand and put it on her chest over her heart.

"My heart… it races not only from the poison, but from the bonds I’ve gained from being around you." She told him, "It may have only been… two days, but after seeing you dance around and fight to protect… me, I had the feeling… that you r, really were my knight…" She breathed in deep from her loss of energy, "You might have been the… the one for me, I, I just know it…" She began to smile then, "Funny… Princess fairy tales d, don’t end like… like this most of… the time."

"This poison is acting too fast on you, there’s got to be something I can do." Joel said.

He began wiping her face with some of the water from the bottle to cool her down. The door to the room they were on slammed open and Katy walked up from the stairs with a group of police behind her.

"Romeo, oh Romeo. Where art thou Romeo… he’s over there, guys!" she shouted, "And he’s trying something sexually disgusting with Juliet, err, the mayor’s daughter, Sarralyn! Ewww!"

As the group of policemen dashed out onto the room and surrounded Sarralyn and Joel, Joel stood up in front of his friend and stood cautioned and ready for the party. They stood around him and pointed their guns at him, aiming to fire.

"Put your hands on your head, kid." One of the policemen said, "Don’t move."

"So much for a peaceful, weaponless city." Joel said, looking at Sarralyn, then he looked at the group of men again and said, "Listen, I have a very sick girl here who needs to get treated before it’s too late. If it weren’t for you guys this wouldn’t have happened."

"Shaddap, we’ve got the report here, we know what’s going on!" the head policeman said, taking out a paper, "We’ve got reports of you beating down on a guy called Tim at your school and running off with his girlfriend. Lord knows what you were doing up here. Besides, if she really was sick you’d have taken her to a hospital!"

"Hospi-wha?" Joel growled, looking confused, "How am I supposed to know what those are?"

"Enough jokes, kid." The head policeman said, "We’re taking you in if you like it or not. Cuff’em boys!"

"Careful, he’s a freak." Katy told them as one man stepped up to put handcuffs on Joel’s wrists, "He might break out into a fury and attack again."

"Don’t worry, ma’am, we’ve got things under control. Besides, who’d be crazy enough to go against a bunch of guys pointing guns at him?" the head policeman told Katy.

After being cuffed, Joel was pushed to the stairs and taken to the ground level. He exchanged glares with Katy as he passed her and stepped into a police car to be taken off to jail. Soon after Joel was taken away an ambulance arrived to pick Sarralyn up to be treated at a hospital. The poison had taken away her ability to speak and could not do anything to persuade them to release her friend. The day ended for both of them; a hopeless night lay ahead. Joel sat in his seat thinking over what his friend told him on the roof, and what she had told him walking through the halls in school.

"…I was the one for her…?" he thought, "Love?"

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