“Man, I can’t wait for the races, can you?” asked Dylan excitedly.
“Dylan,” said Monk calmly, “you have asked both Fred and I that question a number of times, and so far our answers haven’t changed.”
“Sorry, I’m just really excited. Did you know that The Flame’s car is one-“
“One of the fastest around thanks to his brother, who acts as his one-man pit crew,” Fred finished for him.
“Uh…yeah,” said Dylan flatly. He decided to stop talking about the race, and to continue reading the information he had printed out on the races instead.
Fred, meanwhile, went back to thinking about the last week’s events.
****
After disappearing from the outcrop and reappearing near the edge of the cliff – his hands, feet and eyes ceasing glowing as he did – Fred had waited with Monk until Dylan had regained consciousness, then travelled with them to a place Monk called ‘The Training Ground’. Monk had showed them round, led them to their own rooms and told them that they could come here at any time, but needed to mainly sleep at home.
Once they had settled in and Dylan had gone to his room to rest – for he was still quite weak, Fred had asked Monk what on earth had happened to him when he had glowed white. “Well, you see, emotions play a very important part in controlling powers, for both Guardians and Demons. For instance, when Dylan tried to defend you and I, the shot of water he splashed into Troy’s face was very weak because he lacked confidence thanks to his brother’s words. And that shot of water angered Troy, making his attack more powerful, which he used to knock Dylan unconscious.
“That reminds me,” interjected Fred, “you never told me what I’m the Guardian of; Troy interrupted us before you could.”
“You, Fred, are the Guardian of Friendship.”
“Friendship? That doesn’t even sound like a power.”
“Oh, it is. And it’s a special one; there isn’t a Demon of Friendship. Yours is one of the special powers that can not be evil.”
“But how is it a power?”
“Don’t you remember Fred? You told me that right before you started to glow, Troy had been saying all those nasty things about Dylan, which made you really angry, correct?”
“Yeah…”
“Well, that’s my point. Your anger at this horrible person in front of you, that was being so cruel to your new friend made your power temporarily immense.”
“Does that mean that I can only use my power when someone does something bad to a friend of mine?”
“No, no, you can still use your powers normally too” Monk assured Fred.
“So, anger makes Guardians and Demons more powerful” said Fred, trying to confirm what he thought he had been told.
“What? No, not anger. I mean, anger will make Demons more powerful, but not Guardians.”
“But you said…”
“The anger you felt was anger for something someone had done to an innocent living being. As a Guardian, your job is to stop that. But be warned, your powers won’t be enhanced like that very often, so you will need to learn to fight normally. Now, you should go home, I’ll make sure Dylan is alright.
“Should I tell his parents that he’s staying over at my house or something?” asked Fred, getting to his feet.
“No…his parents are dead. He’ll probably live here from now on, especially since Troy lives at the house too.”
“Oh, okay…bye.”
“Goodbye Fred. Oh, and come back here tomorrow if you can.”
Fred had come back the next day, and every day since then.
****
“Fred, come on, you need to go home, or your parents will worry.”
“Sorry Monk” said Fred, coming out of his recollection.
As he walked home, he thought about the training he and Dylan had been given from Monk over the past few days, and whether or not he would be able to control his powers well enough next day. Tomorrow was the races, and Fred thought that there was a good chance that Troy would be showing up there, considering the huge number of people there, on top of the fact that people would be racing around tracks in high-speed cars. This was a big opportunity for Troy to cause chaos, and Fred doubted he would miss it.