Mancer had done nothing but stand there in silence as he watched what was going on around him. He was starting to wonder if he was even noticed anymore, not that he was complaining at all. He just stood where he was and slipped his hands down in his pants pockets, not knowing what to say or what to do, so he just continued to stand there in silence. He didn't have to stand there for long, however, before Cinder turned her head and noticed him.

"Oh, who are you?" Cinder asked in curiosity. "Are you a friend of Kyle and Kagen's?"

"Yes, I am in a way. I suppose you can call me their friend. I at least know them. I guess I'm a bit more of an acquaintance... But I can still be called a friend, I suppose. I'm also Kyle's new Rasoul teacher. ...Rasoul is the name of his power if you didn't know," Mancer said.

"That sounds cool," Cinder said with a smile. "Is teaching new things about his powers difficult?"

"Well, I did get a bit tired the first time we tried it... Mostly because I'm not used to using my energy a lot at once," Kyle commented.

"Anyway, yes, it's been just a bit difficult to me the few times that we've tried training so far. I'm... not exactly the teacher type..." Mancer admitted. "I wouldn't call myself a REAL teacher, but I'm attempting to show him a few things. Maybe I'm more of a mentor... I don't know."

"I understand what you mean, don't worry," Cinder said with a nod of her head. "Mentor, teacher, whatever. I can understand the basic idea."

"Alright, because I didn't exactly know how I was going to explain it if you didn't understand," Mancer admitted. "I'm not saying that you couldn't understand at all, I was just saying that I didn't know how I was going to explain it. I guess I don't even really know how to explain it to myself."

"Like I said before, it's fine," Cinder said. "So, what's your name? You look like you're an adult, correct?"

Mancer simply just nodded his head. "My name is Mancer. And, yes, I'm an adult. I'm three-" Mancer suddenly froze, immediately stopping his sentence as if he had almost said somethat that he wasn't supposed to say. "Ahem, excuse me. I'm in my earlier twenties," The masked hybrid said with another nod of his head.

"That's how old Drake and I are. Er, I'm twenty-three, and Drake is twenty-four. Not that it matters too much," Cinder said.

"I don't mind listening to small details and facts. They don't bother me at all," Mancer replied. He looked at Cinder's arms, finally noticing that she was holding baby Xavier. He stood there for a moment while his eyes gave a very gentle and calm look under the visor of his helmet. "...Is this your son?" He asked, assuming that the baby was a boy based on the clothing it was wearing.

"Yes, this is mine and Drake's son. His name is Xavier," Cinder said with a smile, looking down at the baby boy in her arms. Xavier simply just stared up at his mother with happy, large blue eyes.

Mancer wore a gentle smile on his face under his mask; he had a soft spot for children. "That's nice..."

Kyle looked over at Mancer, noticing the gentle look in his eyes. "Hey, Mancer? What's the look for...?"

"Oh, nothing... I just kind of have a soft spot for this kind of thing, I suppose..." Mancer replied. "Not that it matters too much."

"Huh... I still think that's kind of nice, though," Kyle said with a small smile. He loooked over to Xavier, and noticed that the small baby boy seemed to be reaching out of the yellow hedgehog.

"I think Xavier wants to be with you for a bit, Kyle..." Cinder said while looking down at her son. "He really likes to be held by you."

"Aw, I know he does," Kyle said with a smile. "Come here, Xavier..." He walked over to Cinder and gently took the baby boy into his own arms, before holding the baby gently in his arms. Xavier just giggled excitedly and clapped his hands, obviously enjoying being held by the yellow hedgehog. Cinder just smiled and laughed along with Kyle at Xavier.

Drake smiled before turning to face Kagen. "So, Kagen... Why did you three decide to come here? Did you just want to hang out for a while?"

"Yeah, we wanted to go see all of our friends for a bit, so we started here!" Kagen replied. "Er, well... Kyle and I wanted to see all of our friends. Mancer mostly came just because we said it was fine for him to tag along and meet everyone."

"That's fine. It was nice to get to meet him," Drake said with a nod. "He seems... mysterious but interesting."

"Really? I was thinking of maybe even calling him just a bit creepy... But I do agree with what you said," Kagen said.

"I can hear you," Mancer said to Kagen in a flat tone, turning his head to look at Kagen. "Creepy? I'd use the mysterious."

"I did. I agreed with Drake..." Kagen replied. "Er... Sorry for calling you creepy."

"It doesn't matter," Mancer said, although his eyes reflected that he either looked annoyed or a bit offended. Most likely annoyed.

"Um... I... Sorry I said anything," Kagen said, noticing the look in Mancer's eyes.

"I said it doesn't matter, nothing to worry about," Mancer said in a once again flat tone. Kagen still thought that perhaps he should worry about Mancer's mood now.

Attempting to get out of the converstaion with Mancer for a bit, Kagen turned his head towards his yellow hedgehog friend. "Hey, Kyle... Is there anything else that you want to do now that we're said hello to Drake and Cinder? Is there anything else that you would like to do?"

"Well, I don't honestly know..." Kyle said to Kagen while gently giving Xavier back to his mother. "I didn't honestly think too much about what we would do when we got here... Other than just saying hi to Cinder and Drake and seeing how they were doing."

"I'd say it's fine with me if that's all you wanted to do, boys. I would even say that it's fine if you want to leave now," Cinder said.

"It would be fine with me as well. It was really nice to get to see you two again," Drake said with a nod of his head. "And, it was interesting to get to meet you, Mancer," He added, turning his head to look at the hybrid.

"It was a pleasure to meet you as well," Mancer said in his calm, normal serious voice.

"Alright... Are you wanting to leave now or something, Kagen?" Kyle asked as he turned his head to look at Kagen.

"Well, only if you wanted to... I was wanting to have enough time to go see everyone before it gets too later," Kagen replied. "If it's ok with Drake and Cinder, and Mancer if we leave..."

"It's fine with both of us if you leave," Drake and Cinder both replied at the same time.

"And it's fine with me if we leave," Mancer said.

"Alright, then I guess we're ready to leave now, then," Kyle said.


Kyle, Kagen, and Mancer all said their goodbyes to Drake and Cinder before they departed from the house and out on the sidewalks. Kagen and Kyle were now pondering who they should go see next. Mancer stayed silent for the most part while they discussed who they were going to go see due to the fact that he didn't know any of the people that they were talking about. Kyle and Kagen both continued discussing until Kyle remembered a certain event that had happened in *school (*Chapter 6*)...

"Kagen, I just remember something..." Kyle said.

"Oh, yeah? What did you remember?" Kagen asked in curiosity, pulling himself away from the previous conversation that he and Kyle were having.

"Do you remember in school the other day... Do you remember when we met that new student named Trenton? Who looked like Devin...?" Kyle asked Kagen, watching as a pondering look appeared on the fox's face. He didn't have to wait long before a look of surprise appeared on the fox's face.

"Actually, yeah, I do remember that. Come to think of it, I know we had quite a few classes with him, but somehow I think I managed to completely forget about him... Maybe all of the excitement and terror with the whole Ira/Virus thing clouded my brain a bit..." Kagen said. "Anyway, why are you asking? Were you just curious?"

"Well, yeah, I was a bit curious, but I was also wondering if we should talk to him again or not," Kyle said. "Sure, we thought he was Devin, and we said that we would try to keep our guards up... But what if he isn't Devin? He really saved us from *Red Rocket (*Chapter 6*), and with only one punch to the jaw."

"Yeah, but he was wearing some kind of metal hand-guard... It kind of makes since that one well-aimed punch would knock someone out like that," Kagen said.

"Well, yes, but I would imagine it would still take quite a bit of strength..." Kyle said. "Anyway, before we get really sidetracked off on that, I personally want to see him again. I want to speak with him a bit more..."

Mancer had remained quiet through the small Trenton conversation, attempting to process what all he had just heard. "Wait, wait. What in the world are you two talking about? A boy that looks like Devin? Some person or something named Red Rocket? What's been happening lately with you two?"

"Er... It's not much of a story at all," Kyle said, turning his head to look at Mancer. "There's a bully at our school, and we call him Red Rocket as a nickname. His real name is Joshua... Anyway, we said something that made him really angry the other day, and he was probably about to knock both of us out or something like that. You know, being one of those bullies who likes to beat people up. Anyway, this bat who called himself Trenton suddenly grabbed Joshua and literally punched his lights out using a metal hand-guard that he was wearing. We said that he looked like Devin because he kind of did. He had the same fur color as Devin, and his face seemed just a bit familiar. Of course, we have no idea if he was really Devin or not."

"...You kept your guard up while talking to him, right? You didn't tell him anything really personal, did you?" Mancer asked in a slightly flat voice.

"Yeah, we made sure to keep our guards up. And no, we didn't tell him anything personal," Kyle replied. "Anyway... I happened to remember him, and then was wondering if Kagen and I should talk to him again. I remember seeing him at school a few times, but I don't remember talking to him since we first met him."

"...Now that Kyle has talked about it for a few moments, I personally would like to talk to him again as well," Kagen said. He then turned to face his yellow hedgehog friend. "We're almost going to have to talk to him, Kyle. I can't get that thought out of my head now... Or at least not at the moment."

"I agree with you, Kagen. I think we should talk to Trenton the next time we see him... Which should be in school pretty soon. Maybe tomorrow or the next few school days..." Kyle said. His ears twitched a bit as his mind moved onto other thoughts. "...Wait, who are we going to go see now? We obviously don't know where Trenton lives, so who else are we going to go see?"

"Huh... I don't know..." Kagen replied. "Do you have any ideas?"

"Well, I suppose we could go see Cas and his two friends again if you want. I say that just because we would only have to cut across the park and then we would be about a few blocks away from Cas' house," Kyle said.

"That sounds fine to me," Kagen said.

"So, what are we doing? We're going to the park now?" Mancer asked.

"No, well, kind of. We were going to walk through the park because another one of our other friends only lives a few blocks away from the other side of the park," Kyle explained.

"Ah, alright then," Mancer said. "Are we leaving now?"

"I think so," Kagen said. "As long as Kyle and you're ready to go, I'm ready to go."

"I'm waiting to see what you two are going to do. I'm ready whenever you are."

"And I'm ready to get going..." Kyle said. He turned to the sidewalk and began walking with his two friends, heading towards the park that was further down the street. It didn't take long before all three of them made their way into the giant, sun filled park.

"This is... quite a large park," Mancer said, observing the stretching park that was in front of them. "I don't think I've seen a park this large before."

"Yeah, it's pretty huge... Sometimes I wonder how long it must have taken to build something like this," Kyle said as he began walking through the park with Mancer and Kagen, attempting to try to not get off track. He turned his head slightly as he was walking to simply just observe the park, and slowed down just slightly once he noticed someone sitting on a nearby bench. "Kagen, look. At the bench."

"What...?" Kagen turned his head towards the bench that he thought Kyle was looking at, and froze slightly once he saw who was on the bench; it was Trenton.

"It's Trenton!" Kyle said as he turned his head back to look at Kagen. "Can you believe that?! It's like perfect luck!"

"I know! Should we go ahead and talk to him now?" Kagen asked as he turned his head towards Kyle.

"I think we should. We were just talking about wanting to talk to him again, and here he is! I think this would be a perfect chance to speak with him," Kyle said. He turned to look at Mancer. "Is that ok with you, Mancer?"

"Again, as long as you're careful since we don't know if he's Devin or not..." Mancer replied, looking over at Trenton. He agreed with Kyle and Kagen; Trenton did look a lot like Devin if you looked at certain features of him. "...He certainly does look like Devin... But... If he was Devin... Why would he be out here...? Why would he be out here in a disguise and not with Vice...? None of the Dark Horses would have any idea that we were going to come through here... So why would Devin be sitting here..." Mancer thought quietly to himself.

Kyle and Kagen slowly walked over the Trenton, preparing to speak to the grey bat. "Hello, Trenton," Kyle greeted.

Trenton was wearing the same outfit that he was when Kyle and Kagen *first met him at school (*Chapter 6*), except he wasn't wearing the metal handguards that he had used to knock the school's bully out. He did, however, have the same notebook that they had seen him holding after school that day. He seemed to be writing something down inside the notebook once Kyle and Kagen approached, but then he quickly shut the notebook as soon as he noticed they were standing there. "Oh, hey. How's it going? I'm surprised you two haven't spoken to me anymore."

"Yeah, that honestly just crossed our minds before we got arrived here in the park," Kyle said. "We remembered that we hadn't talked to you since we had first met you, so we did decide to come talk to you. Actually, we were going to talk to you the next time we saw you at school, so when I saw you here just a bit ago, I thought that we should go ahead and speak to you since we had the perfect opportunity."

"Alright, then what are you wanting to speak about?" Trenton asked, leaning back against the park bench that he was sitting on. He held his notebook in his hands, holding it gently in his lap.

"Oh, well... I don't know if we really thought about it much..." Kyle said, turning his head to look at Kagen, who just shook his head back at Kyle.

"Well, alright then..." Trenton said, wearing a look on his face that could almost be called annoyed; almost as if he was saying 'then why did you talk to me if you had no idea what you wanted to say?'. He simply just leaned to the side slightly in the bench, before spotting Mancer a few steps behind Kyle and Kagen. "Hey, who's the guy in the... interesting... helmet?" He asked.

Kyle turned his head back to look at Mancer, and then he turned back to look at Trenton. "Er, well... He's..." The yellow hedgehog paused, not knowing if Mancer wanted him to be speaking or not.

"I'm similar to a small guardian for Kyle and Kagen... Or, well, I'm not exactly a guardian, but I'm looking out for them, and I'm helping them with certain matters. My name is Mancer," Mancer explained to Trenton.

"Oh, well... Alright then. Do you know who I am...? Have these two told you about me yet?" Trenton asked just simply out of curiosity.

"...They may have mentioned your name... Either way, I could hear the conversation just previously before between you and these two. ...Trenton, correct?" Mancer asked.

"Yes, that's my name," Trenton replied. "Interesting to meet you, I suppose.... Even though you haven't told me your name."

"...It's Mancer..." Mancer said quietly after a pause. "...Interesting to meet you, as well."

Trenton simply just nodded his head at Mancer to acknowledge what he said. He then turned his head to look back at Kyle and Kagen. "...You two thought of something to say to me yet?"

"Er... Um... I guess not..." Kagen replied in a small voice.

"Wait, I thought of something," Kyle said. "I really want to thank you again for saving us from the school bully. I was afraid of what was going to happen... Considering he looked like he was about to smash Kagen and I together. Anyway, thanks a lot for saving us from him the other day."

"You're welcome. I believe I said this back at the school but perhaps I didn't, I think he deserved to be taken care of. Bullies just drive me to the point that I just want to punch them in the face. They're just rude, and a good percent of the time they're not very smart either. They should know better than to mess with people," Trenton said. "Especially when there's somebody willing to stand against them around," He added, releasing a snicker.

"Yeah, I think they should know better... Bullying is bad," Kyle said.

"No kidding. They're a bunch of idiots," Trenton said. He held his notebook up slightly and opened it back up, as if he was going to write in it again. "So, do you want to talk about anything else? Or do you need to talk about anything else?"

"I don't guess I have anything else to say..." Kyle replied.

"Well, I at least have a question," Kagen said while turning his head to look at Trenton. "...What's the notebook for? We saw you writing or reading that outside the school the other day, and now you have it with you again..."

Trenton froze just slightly once his notebook was brought into the conversation. He lifted the notebook up and held it close to him, as if wanting to hide the contents of it. "...It's nothing too important. Er, well... It's not really important to anyone at all. It's mostly just important to me."

"...It's important to you...? Why?" Kagen asked out of curiosity. He was curious as to what Trenton was hiding inside the notebook.

"It's just... It's... It just is," Trenton replied quickly, still holding the notebook slightly close to him. "...It's just important to me. There's... just something wrote in here that I don't want others to see."

Mancer narrowed his eyes just slightly at what Trenton said. "...Something important...?" He thought to himself. A thought in the very back of his head couldn't help but wonder if this kid really was Devin, and if he was, if he was writing some kind of notes or information for Vice.

"...Do you have anything else to say...? Anything at all...?" Trenton asked quietly, still seeming rather cautious about his notebook. "...Or at least anything not involving my notebook."

"...Do you have anything else to say, Kyle?" Kagen asked, turning his head to look at Kyle.

"...To be honest, no, not really," Kyle said.

"Alright, then... Well, it's been fun," Trenton said as he closed his notebook once more. He then slowly stood up for the bench, before turning his head to look at Kyle, Kagen, Mancer. "Well, I believe it's getting late. I'm expected to be home soon."

"Getting late? It hasn't gotten that late, has it...?" Kyle asked in slight surprise. To answer his question, Trenton simply just held his arm up to Kyle, revealing that he was wearing a black watch. The watch said that it was indeed getting closer and closer to evening. "Oh, it really is getting late!" Kyle said in surprise as he looked at the watch.

"Exactly," Trenton said while pulling his arm away. "So, like I said before, I'm expected to be home soon. It's best if I leave so I'm not late when getting home," He said as he began walking away from Kyle and the other two. "I'll see you two at school tomorrow!" He called back to Kyle and Kagen as he raised his hand in a farewell wave. He then turned out onto a sidewalk, and was soon gone walking into the distance.

"...Well, it really is getting late," Kyle said. "...That means we're probably going to be expected to be home pretty soon as well..."

"Do you two need to get home now?" Mancer asked, turning his head to look at Kyle and Kagen.

"Yeah, we actually probably do... We're probably going to be expected to be home some time soon," Kyle said. "...Er... I don't really think we have enough time to go see any of our other friends. And, I don't really think we have enough time to go see the villains, either..."

"And, we can just see our friends tomorrow in school... Not that big of a deal," Kagen said, not knowing if anyone was really even paying attention to him or not.

"That's okay, Kyle. I understand that you two need to be home," Mancer said. "Perhaps we can go see those villains another day."

"Right... I don't think that we really need to go see them..." Kyle said. "I mean, I know that you wanted to Mancer, but I mean that I don't think we NEED to go see them, like to stop some of their plans or something. I would imagine that if they had really done anything, we would have been hearing about it on the news or whatever. So, I think it'll be ok to just go home and see them some other day..."

"I agree with that. If they were up to something, we would have seen something by now. And, about me wanting to go see them, it doesn't really matter to me. I can wait," Mancer said. He began to follow Kyle and Kagen as they both turned and started walking back in the direction of their own houses. It didn't take long before they reached Kagen's house, where they dropped off Kagen.

Kyle waved goodbye to his fox friend before turning to look at Mancer as Kagen walked off inside his house. "So, Mancer... Where are you going to stay?"

"What do you mean?" Mancer asked.

"Don't you have a house? Don't you need to sleep somewhere?" Kyle asked, tilting his head to the side slightly.

"Oh, right. Yes, I do need sleep, and yes I do have a house," Mancer replied with a small nod of his head. "However, you don't have to worry about me. I'll take you home first, and then I'm going to go home myself for the night. Unless you want to resume training."

"Well, it's... getting pretty late," Kyle said. "Do you think we should hold off on training until tomorrow or some other time?"

"That would probably be best," Mancer said as he began walking down the sidewalk with Kyle once more. "You really need your rest. And so do I."

"Well, alright then. I guess we can wait on training then," Kyle agreed. With that said, the two friends didn't say much more on their way to Kyle's house. It didn't take long to reach the house, though. Mancer simply just said his goodbyes to Kyle, and then he turned, walking off into the distance before disappearing. Kyle simply just watched Mancer leave, and then he turned around to enter his inviting home to relax after all of the events of the day.