The Next King

Hi, my names Jaden Aurelius. I’m a student at the Rescue Team Academy. I’m 16 with dark blue hair and what people call ‘piercing’ green eyes. I’m pretty tall for my age as well. I’m always wearing my favorite black jacket with white fur at the collar. I had on a dark blue shirt under the jacket. All my jeans were really faded and ripped at the knees and shins. My shoes were a special kind, when you tap the tip wheels come out of the bottom. On my hands were black fingerless gloves that were spiked at the knuckles.

This week was the Masters Festival. The Masters Festival is when all the master ranked rescue teams came to show their abilities and talk to the students. They talk to us about what our job is as rescue teams and how we should never give up when on a mission. There were several master rank teams: Fire Fist, Dark Kings, The Skulls, Black Aces, Cosmic Knights, Sky Terror, and Blade Kings. Their leaders were known as the Seven Kings.

Each student at the academy is in a rescue team. I’m the leader of my rescue team which included my best friends Luke and Zane. Somehow we were all the same height. Our rescue team was called Raging Storm. Zane is my second in command. He’s always calm under any circumstances. He’s got jet black hair with dark red highlights in various places. His eyes were deep blue and always full of sadness. He always had on his black leather jacket and a black muscle shirt underneath. His black jeans were ripped the same as mine only his weren’t faded one bit. His shoes were dark red and when he tapped the tip of them on the ground, roller blades came out of the bottom. He wore black fingerless gloves like mine only his weren’t spiked.

Luke is the power house of the team. He’s got pure white hair that reached his lower back and was spiked all over. He always wears a silver jacket that had its sleeves ripped off, showing off the large muscles he’d gotten from always working out. There was always a red shirt underneath. He wore gray jeans that weren’t ripped or faded. His shoes were the same as mine and Zane’s, wheels pop out of the bottom. His eyes were a strange stormy gray that showed he was more than just a power house. He wore regular gloves that were dark gray. On his right arm was a bandanna that had our rescue team’s emblem on it; the kanji for storm with thunder arcing off of it. The guy was a serious chick magnet for some reason.

Anyway I was leaving my room and was headed to class when I ran into the school bully, Spike. The guy was a giant, he was taller than the seniors and he was my age. The guy just wore a black leather jacket and size like XXXXL jeans. On his chest was a tattoo of a mound of skulls. This guy was the leader of the most feared rescue team among the first and second year students. They were called the Skull Crushers.

“Watch where you’re going kid,” he spat as he shoved me to the ground. I jumped up and was about to lunge at him when Zane wheeled up and stopped me. “So you need your friends to fight your battles huh? Man you’re a real loser Jaden,” he laughed. All it took to shut him up was a single spine tingling glare from Zane. Without another word Spike turned and headed down the hall.

When he was out sight Zane sighed and looked at me, “Be careful Jaden. You don’t want to end up like the last guy that fought Spike,” I hate it when he makes sense. “The only people that those guys listen to are the top rescue team at school,” the top team was the Red Kings. He shook his head then smiled. “Come on lets go get Luke and head to morning practice,”

“Yeah lets go,” Luke was at least two floors below us. Zane and I were roommates and we were on the fourth floor of the male dorm. There was no elevator so we had to take the stairs. Since both of us hated walking down the stairs we grinded down them. When we got to the stairs I looked over at Zane and said, “Race ya!” Zane and I jumped up and rode down the rails, making the turns by jumping onto the rails on the other side of the stairs. Once we reached the end of the rails for the second floor we jumped forward and went straight through the double doors. As always the race would end in a tie.

When we got to Luke’s room we had to tackle the door. Even though it was unlocked Luke and his roommate weren’t exactly tidy. After getting the door open we both tumbled into a big pile of old clothes. “Man I really hope these clothes haven’t been here a long time,” Zane sighed in annoyance. He looked over at Luke’s bed, “Strange, Luke’s already up,”

“And I’m right behind you,” a deep voice said behind us. He was leaning against the doorframe and he did not look happy. “Must you guys always tackle my door to open it?”

“We wouldn’t have to if you cleaned the room!” I shouted. He just shrugged and headed off towards the practice field. “Hey wait up!” for a big guy he moves really fast. When we got down to the ground floor we headed out back behind the school to our training ground. It was a large area of asphalt that used to be a basketball court.

“Okay guys standard practice routine,” Zane said. We formed a triangle in the center and jumped back into our fighting stances.

They came at me with a kick and blocked them easily. “Hey guys don’t you think we should get a fourth member?”

Zane blocked a kick from Luke and punch from me, “Yeah maybe. It would make training a little easier,”

Luke caught our kicks and shoved us back, “Agreed. It’s kind of difficult to fight two on one,”

“But one problem,” I said. “Who are we going to get to be our fourth?”

“No idea,” Zane looked stumped.

“Same here,” Luke agreed.

I started going through a mental list of all the people that weren’t already in a rescue team. There were about ten students: six were guys and the other four girls. A good amount of those ten were wimps. “Guys I have an idea on who it could be,” they both looked at me. “It may be strange but the person is Sonia,” Sonia was the girl that got the highest score on the entrance exam.

“Sonia huh,” Zane started thinking and I could see the little gears in his head turning. “Highest score on written exam and top score on mission exam,” he was a freaky genius when it came to remembering details. “She’d be a great addition to the team."

“Yeah she would,” Luke agreed.

“Okay then let’s go find her,” the three of us got the wheels out on our shoes and wheeled our way over to the cafeteria. I spotted Sonia sitting on the front step with a book in her hands. She had on a black T-shirt and blue jeans. Her hair was red velvet with black near the end. Her hair was really long and at the end was a light blue bead that held it like that. She had sky blue eyes that really made her look cute. “Hey Sonia,” I said when we reached her. She looked up, confused at why the three of us were coming to talk to her.

“Yes?” she asked.

“We wanted to know if you wanted to join our rescue team,” Zane said. When it came to things like this I let him do the talking. He’s more convincing when it comes to talking to people.

Sonia looked at the three of us, thinking if she wanted to join. “I have one question first,” she said. We all looked at her and Zane gave her the signal to keep going. “Do I get shoes, gloves, and jackets like you guys wear?"

Zane looked over at me for confirmation first. I gave a small nod. He looked back at Sonia and said, “Sure, this gear is standard for our team,"

She closed her book and stood up. She looked at Zane, “Sure. I’ll join your team, Zane,”

He shook his head and pointed at me, “He’s the leader, not me,”

“Oh sorry, you’re Jaden right?” I nodded. “Sure I’ll join. So when do I get the gear?”

“After school, I’ll take you to the shop where we got our gear,”

“Okay can’t wait,” she headed off to her classes, as did we. The rest of the day was a blur. I went to my classes and slept through a few of them. Soon the bell rang for school to end and I went out front to wait for Sonia.

“Hey sorry if I had you waiting long,” Sonia said as she walked up next to me.

“No problem,” I said. “Come on let’s go. It’s a bit of a walk to the shop,” she nodded and followed me towards the store. We left the campus and headed into town. The store was in a part of town where some gangs hung out. When we got there none of them came close. The Raging Storm rescue team was well known. We reached the store without as much as one gang member coming close to us.

We walked in and headed straight to the counter. The owner who was a forty five year old rescue team leader named Gary was reading a book. “Hey Gary!” I shouted causing him to jump.

“Oh Jaden,” he sighed. “So what does my favorite customer need?” he noticed Sonia, “Who’s this? Your girlfriend?”

Sonia blushed but I just glared at him, “She isn’t my girlfriend Gary. Sonia here is the newest member to Raging Storm,”

“Oh a new member? So she needs the gear that you guys all have,”

“Yeah, ring us up for a jacket, gloves, and roller-shoes,” as he got that done I led Sonia towards the part of the store where the jackets were. She picked out a black sleeveless jacket with red stitching. Then the gloves, she picked out black fingerless gloves with red stitching and spiked knuckles. With the roller-shoes, she picked black ones with red laces and red wheels. “Wow, you really like the black and red color combo,”

Yeah, they are my favorite colors,” she looked up at me nervous. “I feel bad for making you pay for all this,”

I waved my hand in a dismissive manner, “Don’t worry, Gary is an old friend of mine.” I leaned in and whispered to her, “He doesn’t charge the Raging Storm members anything because we saved his shop from a few gang attacks,”

“Wow. You guys are a really tough team,” she said in awe. “So why do you guys want me on your team?”

“You had the highest scores on the entrance exam. We also needed a fourth member and we wanted the best from the incoming class,” I answered. She smiled and headed up to the counter. When she got them she instantly put on the gloves and jacket.

She walked back over to me, “Can you help me put the shoes on? Gary said it takes two people to put them on until you get used to them,” she asked.

“Sure,” once we got the roller-shoes on she put her other shoes in the bag Gary had put her items in. Once we were out of the store we tapped the nose of our shoes and the wheels came out. Sonia grabbed onto me to keep her balance.

“Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “I don’t know how to roller skate,”

“Don’t worry, I’ll teach you. It gets easier once you learn the basics,”

“Okay, thanks,” she still held onto me for awhile.

When we reached the campus gate I pulled out my phone and looked at the time. It was only 4 and we still had a few hours before curfew. I looked down at her and asked, “Do you want to go to the roller rink to get in some practice?”

"Sure, but it isn’t like you know a date or anything right?”

“No it isn’t, it’s just so you can learn to ride on the roller skates,” I answered quickly.

“Oh, ok. Let’s go,” I sent a quick text to Zane and Luke telling them to head to the roller rink so we could teach Sonia to skate. The walk to the rink took about fifteen minutes. Once we got there we headed in and right onto the floor.

We started out slow. I taught her how to keep her balance on the skates and as it turns out she was a quick learner. Next I showed her how to speed up a little by swinging her arms in time with her kicks. Then I helped her with turning which can be difficult when you first start out. When she did the turn she tripped and I caught her.

“You okay Sonia?”

“Yeah, I’m fine,” when we got her back up and doing the turn again she didn’t trip this time. “Hey I did it,”

“That’s great Sonia. Next let’s – “ I didn’t get to finish my sentence because the doors kicked open and a guy in a long blue coat with a fire red fur collar walked in. He tapped the toes of his shoes and wheels popped out. He just leaned forward and he suddenly shot down the stairs grinding on the hand rail. When he reached the bottom he jumped and landed right in front of me and Sonia.

The guy had hair a darker shade of blue than mine. His eyes were a weird piercing red color. He didn’t have a shirt on underneath his jacket which showed off his well toned chest. He had a deep scar that went from just above his right eye to just below his left one. He had a permanent scowl on his face. On his right hand was a black fingerless glove with a flame design on it. Around his neck was a necklace that had a creature with blue skin and a white underbelly with flames at the neck. The necklace was all I needed to see to figure out who this guy was.

“You’re Tyson, leader of the Fire Fist team,” I said trying to hide my nervousness. He just nodded and looked around.“I’m looking for somebody, kid,” he said. His voice was deep and rough. “He’s the leader of a rescue team at the academy here,” he pulled a piece of paper out of his coat pocket, “His names Jaden Aurelius. Do u know where he is?”

“That would be me,” I replied. Why would one of the Seven Kings be looking for me? “Why are you looking for me?”

"I’m here for the Masters Festival and your headmaster assigned me to be your team’s sponsor.” No way, my team was getting the legendary Tyson Schroder as our sponsor. “He told me to give you and your team a pair of these,” he motioned to his roller-shoes.

"We each already have a pair sir,”

“Not like these,” he replied. “These aren’t your regular roller-shoes, kid. These are Sky Runners,"
"Sky Runners?” Sonia and I asked in unison.

"Sky Runners are a special pair of roller-shoes with a small motor in them to allow you to go a much higher speed,” he explained. “With these you can go anywhere except on water,”

So we’re getting a piece of equipment that only professional teams get?” Sonia asked.

"That’s right,” he looked at me. “Get the rest of your team here and I’ll give you the Sky Runners,” at that moment Zane and Luke walked in and grinded down the hand rail and skated over to us. They froze when they saw Tyson. Zane just looked surprised but Luke’s chin was practically touching the floor. “Well, well, well. The teams all here. Follow me,” he walked up the stairs to the door and we followed.

Omg dark blue hair *u*