Michael sits outside the entrance for a while as Jade walks up. It is now roughly 2 am.

Michael “Hey Jade!”

Jade “Hey Michael!”

They smile and walk into the hideout.

Jade “Sooo what did you wanna talk about?”

Michael “Well… has anything been… strange lately? Anything at all?”

Jade looks confused as she smiles.

Jade “No, not really. Why? Has something been strange to you?”

Michael “Hehe… I guess you could say that. Let me ask you this, is this the real world?”

Jade “Um… I think so? Now you’re making me doubt it haha!”

She sweats nervously, trying to understand what he’s talking about. 

Michael “Sorry that’s not what I meant. Just, don’t think I’m crazy when I tell you this okay?”

She nods.

Michael “I feel we’ve been living in this alternate reality or realities for the past 6 months or so. Like some kind of dream. And they always ended in horrible ways. I just want to make sure that we’re awake now. That this place is real.”

Jade looks concerned as Michael looks down, obviously upset by saying this, but then she comforts Michael.

Jade “Look, I’m not entirely sure what you’re talking about but I promise you this is real. I’m real. Everything is okay. We just started the first year of our highschool life so let’s forget everything from before and start new, okay?”

She holds his face in her hand and he smiles. Michael blushes as he leans into her hand a bit. Suddenly Kevin busts in through the curtain covering the entrance to the room.

Kevin “Yo!”

Jazmine “How did we know you’d be here at this hour?”

Jazmine follows behind him.

Jade “What’re you guys doing here?”

Michael dashes past Jade while she says this.

Jazmine “Well, Michael was acting distant all day. We knew he’d call you and you’d both be here. C’mon, it’s not like we met yesterday.”

Michael hugs Kevin behind Jazmine as she says this. They all laugh. 

Kevin “As much as I love talking to you guys, it’s really late and cold! We should really get a door for this place…”

He shivers and holds himself.

Jazmine “Yeah, and I don’t want my parents to bust my ass about school tomorrow.”

She sighs. Kevin laughs as he walks out the entrance but is stopped when he bumps into something. It’s almost like the curtain has become hard so he pats it a bit. He looks confused for a moment as he pats him down. He pulls the curtain to the side and looks up.

Kevin “WOAH! Guys we got a bit of a problem.”

He says as he turns away and is lifted by his collar from behind. A giant woman built like a tank covered in scars walks into the room with 2 more smaller punks following.

Man 1 “Well well well. What do we got here?”

Kevin  “Guys, that was 3 wells. 2 more than I am comfortable with.”

Man 2 “It looks like some little babies are barging in on our turf.”

Michael “What’re you talking about?! This has been our place for years!”

Man 2 “Aw well now it’s our place. Tell ‘em bruiser.”

The big woman holding Kevin points at the entrance to leave.

Jade “Guess it’s never that easy huh?”

They stance up.

Kevin “I just wanna warn you, I didn’t stretch.”

Kevin grabs the woman’s wrist and swings himself over and lands a kick on the top of her head hard enough to make her let go. Kevin lands and slides back calling for Jade and Michael to strike her with a duel punch to the chest making her go crashing out the doorway shoving the other 2 men with her. Michael blows on his fist.

Michael “You 3 should really get out of here. Cause this place is ours!”

The 4 of them all stand together in front of the entrance. Jazmine stands behind them with a look of unamusement that is out of place seeing this.

Jazmine ‘As strong as ever I see…’

Michael “Leave and never come back, got it?!”

Man 1 “Look, I know you brats are too young to understand, but we can’t just leave. Our master wants control of this whole neighborhood. If we don’t start going around making it clear who rules we’re dead meat!”

Man 2 “Master is far worse than anything you can imagine!”

The big woman sniffles crying and nods.

Michael “We can help you guys. We’re really strong for some 13 year olds. Tell us where your master is and we’ll go beat him up good.”

He puts his fist in his hand.

Jade “We can do things no one else can!”

Man 1 “I don’t think you know who you’re messing with… He’s not human. You kids can’t beat him...”

He gets a vision of his boss as a shadow over him.

Jazmine “Maybe not us but someone else could. We know plenty of strong adults. Just tell us and we’ll make sure he gets wiped off the face of the planet.”

She puts her hand on Michael’s shoulder trying to bring him in, reminding them that they are just kids.

Man 2 “Really? You’d help us out even though we just came in and threatened you guys?”

He yells this in Jade’s face. She looks annoyed by this.

Michael “Of course!”

Man 2 “Oh thank you thank you thank you!”

He starts shaking his hand aggressively. The big woman starts rubbing Kevin’s head in the background.

Man 1 “Well we better go pack our bags. We’ll be out of here in no time. Bye guys!”

They wave as they walk away.

Kevin “Are we seriously gonna help those guys? I mean they didn’t even give us a name or anything.”

Michael, who was waving, stops abruptly and looks shocked. He yells.

Michael “Hey wait! We need his name!”

He runs after them. The rest of them laugh at him.