2 The Guardian

It is said that there are two types of people in the world. The ones who keep saying something, but do nothing. And, the ones who keep doing something, and say nothing.

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Every major city has its share of nightlife, and Vale is no exception. The people who take part in such late night escapades do so for a variety of reasons—not all of which are moral... or legal.

Suddenly, the silence of the night was shattered by the sounds of a motorcycle speeding along the darkened streets of Downtown Vale. The motorcycle was a jet black crotch-rocket with a sleek, sci-fi design.

On this motorcycle rides a young man, around seventeen years old, with dirty-blonde hair and green eyes. He is dressed in a pair of dark-brown slacks, metallic grey combat boots, and a white, button-up shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. On top the shirt, he is wearing a dark blue coat with gold inlays. And on his back, the young man carries a two-headed great axe.

All seems peaceful along the streets of Vale as the young man continues speeding along.

This abruptly changed once he heard the sound of screaming coming from one of the buildings along the road.

Without the slightest hesitation, or second thought, the teen brought his motorcycle to a screeching halt. He then drifted his bike around with extreme skill and shot off in the direction he first heard the scream.

It took only a second to reach the area. He then proceeded to quickly park his bike along the side of the road and hop off. The blonde teen removed the axe from his back and readied himself for a fight.

He then began moving his way between the buildings as stealthily as possible. For the next few minutes, the blonde-haired teen diligently searched the area for the source of the disturbance.

His search was brought to an sudden conclusion when the sound of a gunshot and another scream pierced the air. The teen turned on a dime to face himself towards the source of the earsplitting shriek. In front of him stood a small dust store.

Now that he had found the location of the scream, he made his decision. He would save the people inside this store...whatever the cost.

Sneaking his way to the front window of the shop, the young man was able to get a clear view of the scene within. And what he saw made his blood boil!

There were at least fifteen robbers inside the shop, each one armed with a sub machine gun and knife. And each one was wearing a mask. While ten of the robbers looted the store, the remaining five held the other eight occupants of the store hostage.

All except for one...

On the ground—at the foot of one robber—lay the dead body of what appeared to be the store clerk.

The sight of the dead body and fear stricken hostages made teen sick to his stomach. Gritting his teeth in rage, the blonde-haired boy quickly switched his axe into its second form. Once complete, the axe was now a Tommy gun with a fifty-round drum magazine.

The boy peaked through the window one last time. Seeing that robbers were facing in the opposite direction, he knew it was time to strike.

He put his arms up to protect his face as he proceeded to jump straight through the front window of the store. Doing a somersault as he landed, he made his presence known to the armed assailants.

The leader of the thugs was the first to take notice. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON!!!HERE, AND WHO THE FUCK ARE YOU!?!?!?" The tall man's face was a mixture of shock and rage.

"Oh, you mean me?" The blonde boy replied with a sarcastic remark. His smart retort only served to further antagonize the thug leader.

"OF COURSE I MEAN YOU!!!" The burly man was thoroughly enraged by now.

Even still, the blonde continued to antagonize his foe. "Well then, allow me to introduce myself. The name's Anthony Slater, and I'm the guy who's gonna kick your asses!" Anthony spoke with confidence that rivaled a fully trained huntsman. His calm and humorous tone had quickly changed to one of determination.

The criminal leader finally snapped. "Oh? Is that right? Well, here's what I say to that... EVERYBODY SHOOT HIM!!!!" At their leader's command, every thug in the store immediately trained their guns on Anthony and emptied entire mags at him.

By the time they had used up all of the ammo in their magazines, a small dust cloud had formed around where Anthony was once standing. The head thug smirked, believing he and his men had made quick work of the young, wanna-be hero. But, his smirk quickly dissipated, and it was replaced by a face of confusion and fear.

Anthony spoke from within the dust cloud, shocking his adversaries. "Ya know... COUGH! COUGH! ...you really should be more careful with those things. Someone could have gotten really hurt." As he spoke, Anthony began to walk out of the dust cloud, wafting the dirt away from his face as he went. This just increased the fear among the robbers.

"N-no w-way..." one goon spoke with worry. He was not alone in his concern as a second thug joined in, "H-h-how's he s-still s-s-standing!?" The group of criminals were thoroughly shaking now. Even their leader was worried. He thought to himself, "What the hell is this kid made of!?!?"

Once Anthony was fully out of the dust cloud, the thugs were able to get a clear look at him. What they saw only caused their fear to grow exponentially.

Where the thugs had expected to see at least a few bullet wounds, there were none. "How the hell did you survive all that!?!?" the head thug shouted in confusion as he backed away.

With sly smirk, Anthony replied, "Sorry, but I'm afraid I can't tell you that. It's a trade secret." The mocking tone he used further rubbed salt on the proverbial wound.

Anthony could see the looks of terror and confusion plastered across the robbers' faces. He had been cocky at first, but it seemed his bluff payed off. With the seed of fear sewn among the enemy, Anthony Slater knew that he'd already won. "Now, it's my turn." The teen's voice was unnaturally calm as he got into a fighting stance. With a ferocity that rivaled an Ursa, Anthony began to attack the thugs in the store. His attack caught the robbers completely off guard.

In a flash, he appeared in front of two thugs. He performed a leg sweep on the first robber before punching him into the ground. He then bashed the other's face with the butt of his gun.

Shaking themselves from their stupor, the other criminals attacked Anthony. Three thugs rushed him with knives drawn. But the young man proved to be more than a match for them. He quickly switched his Tommy Gun into its two-handed axe form and parried the knife attacks. Anthony swung his great-ax in a horizontal arc that knocked all three assailants back. The unfortunate trio had bloody gashes across their torsos they lay unconscious on the floor. "Whose next?" Anthony asked with a a taunting smirk.

A few minutes of brutal close-quarters-combat and gunfire later, Anthony had managed to dispatch every last thug—including the leader. All fifteen of them lay face down on the floor, completely unconscious. The boss undoubtedly got the worst of it. He had several bruises on his face and torso after facing Anthony in hand-to-hand combat.

Dusting his hands off, the aforementioned teen was satisfied with his work. He then went to about freeing the hostages from their restraints and calling the Vale Police Department to come collect the thugs. The police were on the scene within minutes, and Anthony proceeded to explain what had transpired. Along with the police came two individuals whom Anthony was well acquainted with.

The first figure was a teenage boy, around sixteen years old, with black hair and red eyes. The second was a boy with dark brown—almost black—hair and brown eyes. He was taller than the first boy, but not quite as tall as Anthony, and he appeared to be the same age as Anthony.

The red-eyed boy spoke first, "Geez big bro, I think you might have gone a bit overboard on those thugs. What do you think, Christopher?" The younger teen expected his older brother to agree with him. However, the boy known as Christopher thought differently, "I disagree Heath. I think those thugs got what was coming to 'em."

Anthony quickly choked in, "You bet they did, bro! I made certain of that." He was satisfied with helping free the hostages, but he felt no pride. In his mind, Anthony simply wanted to do the right thing.

"Either way, we should all be more careful. We don't wanna do something that'll get us kicked out of Beacon before we even make it through initiation, now do we?" Heath said jokingly.

However, Christopher Knew there was truth in his younger brother's joke. He knew better than anyone how much trouble he and his brothers could cause. "I suppose you're right, Heath. Now, let's go home you two." Christopher sighed as he turned and walked off. His siblings quickly followed, and the three Slater brothers vanished into the night.