Disclaimer: This story will involve homosexual relationships between males. If you are not into that kind of stuff or if it is illegal where you live please go someplace else. Enjoy the story.

Hero

"BEEP BEEP BEEP..." The alarm clock was blaring away on Sky's night-stand. He slammed the snooze button and stared groggily up at the ceiling. He had that weird dream again, or nightmare, but he didn't know what to make of it.

In the dream he was in his school. He was walking through the hallway passing by his friends and teachers. Suddenly, this creeping darkness began to move across the the floor engulfing everything it touched. The darkness surrounded him and he was all alone. A feeling of uncertainty and dread struck Sky.

"YOU ARE THE LIGHT," a disembodied voice called out. All of a sudden, Sky felt a warmth building up in his hands. He held his hands up and a blinding flash broke forth from his hands. The darkness dispersed and everything was put back into its place.

He thought nothing more of it and got up to get ready for school. He was glad that he had his own room in the basement, which meant that he had his own bathroom and privacy. He finished his morning ablutions and headed upstairs to grab some breakfast. His two brothers, Aiden and Zack were already finished with their breakfast and were waiting for their mom to drop them off to school. Selena, their sister, was coming down the stairs.

"Hurry up Sely, we'll be late for school," Sky told his sister.

"Don't worry, bro. I'll just grab something to eat for the drive there," Selene replied as she foraged for food in the fridge. "All right I'm set. Here, have an apple." She threw the apple at her brother and both of them headed for Sky's car.

"All right squirts, we'll see you this afternoon, make sure you guys are at the flag pole so I don't have to go looking for you guys after school," he told his brothers as Sky and Selene headed out to the garage. The twins nodded their heads and grabbed their backpacks.

Sky and Selene made it to the school without incident and after saying goodbye to each other they went on their way towards their respective lockers. Sky made his way to his locker and found his best friend Kyle waiting. They exchanged hellos and made their way to their first class.

Everything was going smoothly until lunch. There he was sitting in his seat eating the slop that the school called food. Suddenly, everything around him stopped as if time stood still.

"What the hell is going on!?" he asked out loud. He stood up and walked around. Everything was at a complete stand still. The same disembodied voice from his dream called out to him.

"BE THE LIGHT."

With a flash of light, emanating from his hands, everything was back to normal. He was shocked to say the least. He ran out of the cafeteria to find some sort of solace away from everyone. He found himself in the music room. He always went there when something was bothering him. He got out his saxophone and found an empty practice room. After about fifteen minutes of playing, his lips were getting sore and the bell rang to signal the next class. The rest of the school day was uneventful. He picked up his brothers after school and went home.

He was still confused at what was going on so he decided to take a drive to clear his mind. He made his way to his secret spot in the park. It was another place he went to when he needed some time to think. When he got there it was completely silent save for a slight breeze in the trees.

He found a bench in a secluded area of the park and stared up at the sky. The clouds were floating by lazily. It was very calming. He slowly nodded off into a calm sleep. When he woke up it was dark. He looked at his cell phone and saw that it was around 8 o'clock at night. He shot up and made his way back to his car.

"What do we have here?" a shady looking guy came up from behind him as he was was almost to his car. "Are you lost kid?"

"Please, leave me alone." The man reeked of alcohol. Sky was scared; he didn't know what to do. The man grabbed him and Sky tried to get away.

"Let me go!" Sky screamed. He elbowed the guy in the stomach and fell to the ground. The man let him go and Sky tried to get away. He wasn't fast enough. The guy grabbed his legs and he fell to the ground. The man pinned him to the ground. He was about to punch Sky. Sky felt a warm sensation in his hands. He tried to protect his face from the incoming blow when suddenly a bright flash emanated from his hands. The man covered his eyes to try to shield the light, releasing Sky from his grasp. Sky got up and ran to his car. He started it up and got away as soon as he could.

"What the hell was that!?" he ask no one in particular. He didn't what shocked him more, the fact that he was almost mugged or the fact the that he created that flash of light.

"What the hell is happening to me?" Sky asked himself inside the car. He was shocked at what had occured in the park. He couldn't believe that the light emanated from his hands. He was freaking out. He didn't know what to do. His cell phone rang.

"Hello?" he said into the reciever.

"Yo, Sky Blue!" It was Kyle, "Man where the hell have you been? Your parents have been looking for you. You didn't pick up your brothers or sister this afternoon. They called me and of course the knight in shining armor had to save his damsel in distress. I told them you were with me all this time. Are you OK, bro?"

"Yea, I'm fine, just have a lot of things on my mind right now. Thanks for covering for me."

"No problem. What are knights for?"

"Ass!"

"Damn right! Say, why don't you come over to my place, we'll talk."

"Yea I'd like that. Let me call my parents and tell them I'm spending the night."

"Gotcha covered. I told them that you were gonna spend the night. But call them anyway to tell them you're all right."

"Oh my knight has come through for me again," He feigned a girlish accent, "Don't worry, I'll call them. I'll see you in a couple minutes, OK."

"Cya in a few, bro."

With that he hung up on Kyle. He pressed the speed dial for his house and told his parents that he was spending the night at Kyle's house. They were pissed that he didn't call earlier . He told them that he was sorry and that he had a lot on his mind. He just forgot to tell them where he was going.

He finished the conversation just as he was pulling up to his best friend's drive way. He figured that Kyle's dad wasn't home since his car wasn't in the driveway. He walked up to the patio and rang the doorbell. Kyle bounded down the stairs and opened the door for Sky.

"Hey Sky Blue. Come in! I ordered sushi cuz I know that you'd be hungry." Kyle ushered his downtrodden friend into the kitchen. He fixed Sky a plate and filled it with his favorite pieces of sushi: Roasted Eel, Salmon and yellow fin tuna. Sky devoured the food in less than five minutes.

"Damn Sky! Did you not eat today?" Kyle teased.

"Whatever," Sky threw a piece of sushi at Kyle when he wasn't looking but Kyle ducked just as it was about to hit him.

"You missed." He laughed at his friend. "Come on let's get upstairs so we can watch some movies."

"Good enough for me."

The boys headed upstairs to Kyle's room. As soon as both of them entered the room, Sky plopped down on Kyle's bed commandeering it for himself.

"Why is this happening to me?" he said out loud. "I'm a freak."

"What? Not the gay thing again. I told you just because you're gay doesn't make you a freak."

"Not that ass wipe."

"What's wrong then?"

"You wanna know?"

Sky then proceeded to tell Kyle what happened today, from his dreams, what happened in the cafeteria, and the incident at the park. Kyle just sat there trying to grasp what his friend was telling him.

"So that's what sensei meant," Kyle said softly.

"What did you say?" Sky asked.

"Nothing." Kyle got up and walked toward his friend. He gave him a reassuring hug and then smacked him in the back of the head.

"What the hell was that for?" Sky demanded.

"You know well enough not to go to the park after dark." Kyle went to his backpack and took out a book. "Here read this, this might answer some questions that you might have."

Sky picked up the book.

"The New Species, By Dr. Harold Sulivan," Sky said reading the book title. "What is it?"

"In a nut shell, this guy Sulivan is saying that the next step of human evolution is occurring now with strange effects, human flight, elemental manipulation, teleportation, human regeneration, just to name a few."

"Like X-Men. Are you telling me that I'm one of those people?"

"Maybe, I don't know. I mean it's not everyday you can create flashes of light in your hands."

"Yea, that's true but why do you have it."

"Sensei gave it to me one day."

"You're telling me how you got it, you didn't answer why?"

"OK, I'll show you but don't freak."

"Why would I?"

Kyle laughed at his friend. He closed his eyes and began to concentrate. Suddenly, His ears started to elongate. His hands were enlarging and his nails grew sharper. He had to pull down the back of his sweatpants to make room for his tail.

A tail! Sky thought. He has a tail!

The transformation was done in less than thirty seconds. Kyle opened his eyes and Sky saw that the pupils turned almond shape much like a cat's eyes and the iris were now green instead of blue.

"WHAT THE HELL!?" Sky screamed. "What are you?"

"I'm still me," Kyle said, his voice a bit more gruff, "I've just had some upgrades. What do you think?"

Sky paced back and forth in the room not knowing what to think.

"Can you change back? Its weird seeing you like that."

Kyle nodded his head and as quickly as he changed into the cat boy he changed back to his human self.

"Are you OK, Sky?"

"No I'm not Ok, My best friend is a cat a freakin' cat! Why didn't you tell me?"

"Cuz for some strange reason I knew you would react this way."

Sky couldn't think. I was too much to take in. He kept pacing back and forth trying to come up with some sort of answer, but he couldn't. He felt the same warm sensation in his hands but it was now flowing throughout his body.

"Whoa! Sky! Dude! You're Glowing!?"

"What?"

Sure enough when he looked at the mirror, he was in fact glowing. He tried hard to make the glowing stop and sure enough with a bit of concentration, he managed to stop glowing.

"Dude!" Kyle called out. "Where are you?"

"What are you talking about? I'm still here." Sky's voice came from the direction of the mirror.

"Holy crap! I think you're invisible. Well sort of, You're like transparent, I can still almost see you."

Sky looked at the mirror again and when he saw that there wasn't much to see, something snapped inside of Sky's body and Sky finally fainted. He became visible once again after landing on the floor. Kyle rushed to his friend and dragged him up to his bed.

Sky woke up the next morning not knowing where he was or why he was only in his boxers or why there was an arm wrapped around his waist. slowly but surely the events of last night came back. He remembered the book, Kyle transforming, his invisibility, and him fainting right after.

"Kyle must have put me to bed when I fainted," he said to himself, "He's such a good friend."

He looked at the alarm clock on the dresser. It was around 10 in the morning. He was so happy that it was a Saturday. He navigated around his sleeping friend so as not to wake him. He headed to the bathroom to take a long hot shower. He turned on the shower and stepped into the water. He let the warm water cascade down his body relaxing every muscle. He finished 15 minutes later.

He went back to Kyle's room and borrowed a pair of boxers, a t-shirt and a pair of shorts. He did it all the time. Kyle would do the same thing if they were at his house. They didn't mind that the clothes didn't fit. They kept spare clothes in each other's house just in case too.

Kyle however was not in the room. He figured he was in the kitchen making some coffee so he made his way there. Sure enough, when Sky got to the kitchen, Kyle was sitting at the table sipping his coffee.

"Sensei wants to meet you today," Kyle told him.

"Why does he want to see me?" Sky asked.

"Well he was the one that gave me the book. He may have some more answers for us. To tell you the truth, I've been training with him for a while now, to learn how to control this, well ability? Gift? Whatever is happening to me?"

"How long have you had this?"

"Since last summer. I didn't want to tell you cuz I didn't want to freak you out. You were dealing with your own problems."

"No, it's ok, I understand. I'm sorry I flipped out last night. At least I know I'm not alone."

"All right bro, enough mushy stuff. Sensei told us to be there at noon. You know how he is with punctuality. Cuz I sure as hell don't want to practice kata for the entire afternoon."

"If you haven't noticed, I'm already cleaned. I just need to get some practice clothes and they're in your room."

"Alrighty, I'll just take a quick shower and we'll be off." 30 minutes later Sky and Kyle headed to Sky's car.

"Quick my ass. You spent thirty minutes in that shower," Sky scolded his friend.

"I have to look good man you know that," Kyle fired back.

"Well, whatever. We have fifteen minutes to get to the dojo or its our asses on the line." They hurried on making their way toward the sensei's dojo. They made it there with less than a minute to spare.

"Glad to see that you guys are on time. I kinda wanted to put you through some katas for the entire afternoon." Sensei Renji told the two teens.

"Maybe next time sensei," Kyle said to him.

"You wanted to see me?" Sky asked him.

"Yes, I did," the sensei responded, "It's about your abilities."

"My abilities, How do you know about them. I just found about them myself."

"Well that's an easy question to answer." The sensei stopped talking but Sky still heard him in his head. "Because I do."

"What the hell was that?"

"Language please, Sky," he spoke, "I can communicate with you telepathically. I saw you powers building up inside you. How are you sleeping at night? Have any good dreams lately?"

"Wait those dreams were your doing."

"Yes, and I do apologize for putting you through that. I knew you were going to manifest them soon. I just helped speed up the process. I sense a great dread in the world. I'm here to prepare you for whatever that may be. I'm here to help you like I helped Kyle here."

"How exactly will you help me?"

"I can help you control your powers. So it doesn't happen when you least want them to. It seems your powers are in tune with your emotions. Do you remember what happened the first time it happened, when your powers first showed up?"

"Yea, I was on the ground about to get my ass kicked." Sky started recalling what had happened the previous night, the fear that he felt. The sensei sensed that his powers were going to release themselves again. He told Sky to calm down and just hold that thought.

"Concentrate on what happened. Focus it to your hands. Then release it."

Sky concentrated and listened to what his sensei was telling him. He seemed more calm. He focused all his energy to his hands. He felt the warm sensation in his hands. He opened his eyes and slowly released the energy. It worked. He looked at his hands and a ball of light in each hand. He was happy that he could do it in one go.

"You also seem to have some sort of invisibility," the sensei said.

"More like I become transparent."

"I think that it has more to do with affecting the light around you to bend that light and make yourself semi invisible, that's why there's some distortion. It's like a clear glass with water. I want you to concentrate again. This time focus on the light around you. You can sense light energy around you. Concentrate and bend that light."

Sky concentrated again. He tried to sense the light particles around him. Once he felt it, he concentrated on redirecting the light. Slowly but surely he started to disappear. When he opened his eyes, he looked down at his hands. He saw that he got better at it. He would no longer see his hands as if they were transparent but as if they were crystal glass. He knew it wasn't a perfect invisibility. Everything past his hands were distorted.

"Dude that's just freaky," Kyle said.

"How can you see me? I thought I was invisible?" Sky asked.

"Well, your body is invisible but your head isn't."

"What?" He looked at the mirror his disembodied head floating in air. He fainted once again. And once again, Kyle rushed to his side.

"Let the training begin," Sensei said to the boys, "Its going o be a while. I think i want some tea."

"ARGH! No fair...you know my eyes are sensitive when I'm in my feral mode!"

"Tough shit!"

"That's enough sparring for today, Sky," Sensei interrupted.

"I don't know what I'm doing here, Sensei. I'm suppose to be training for some sort of threat but you don't even know what it is; and what have I learned so far? How to make floating balls? They don't even burn."

"I know its frustrating. you had two weeks with your powers. Don't expect to master them in a day. Your powers will grow. Plus you have your Shinai."

"I can't exactly walk walk around carrying a sword even though it is made of bamboo."

"True. OK, let's try something new." The old master motioned Sky over to the mats and sat him down.

"Conjure up one of your lights," the sensei ordered the boy and Sky did as he was told, "There is a lot of energy inside the light but look at the size. Condense the energy even more make it more compact."

Sky followed the instructions as the sensei gave them out. He felt the light growing denser in his hands. It shrank to the size of a softball. He could actually feel the outline of the energy ball rather than being intangible like his previous lights. He watched as he let the ball float in from of his face. He looked at his new accomplishment.

"OK, what now?" Sky asked the old man.

"Well, I don't really know. In reality I was just winging it," the sensei said.

"What!? You're saying that you didn't know what you were doing."

"Hey you made some progress at least." Sky lost his concentration and dropped the light ball. The ball released an intense amount of energy and the boy and master were thrown back from their position.

"Whoa!" Kyle said as he watched the scene unfold.

"Happy now?" the sensei asked getting up from where he landed.

"At least nothing was damaged, well except for your mats."

****

"I've got to tell them," Sky told Kyle after a few more days of training. "I can't stand it. I don't like keeping anything from them."

"I know you do but think of what might happen," Kyle told his distraught friend, "Worst case scenario, they think you're a freak and they throw you in some mental institution. What then? And by the way you don't look good in a straight jacket."

"I don't care what happens. They're still my parents. I don't like lying to them."

"You're not lying to them. You're just not telling them the entire story."

"Yea, but I still feel like they should know."

"Whatever your decision, I'm here for you."

"Thanks."

****

Later that night after dinner, Sky called his mom and dad into his room.

"Mom, dad there's something I have to tell you. It's really important and I hope you don't think I'm a freak or anything after I tell you."

"Oh, my god, you finally asked out Kyle and he said yes," his mom blurted, I was wondering when he was going to come out. I always had a feeling he-"

"What!? MOM! No, god eww. He's like my brother."

"Oh, well when are you going to get a boyfriend anyway?"

"Mom that's not the point right now."

Her husband took her into his arms and sat down on the bed with Sky.

"Well whatever it is, son, you know you can tell us, we're here for you," his dad reassured.

"Well, there is something going on with me. I don't really know how to explain it so I guess I'll just have to show you."

Sky went turn off his lamp and closed the door. Sky brought up his hands and conjured up two of his lights and sent them around the room. The room was illuminated in the light's brilliance. His mom and dad sat dumbfounded on the bed. There was an awkward silence as Sky dispelled the lights and turned the lamp on.

"Well say something..." Sky looked at his parents expectantly.

His dad stood up and went up to Sky. He gave him a big hug and said, "I knew you'd trust us soon enough."

"What do you mean, dad?"

His dad looked at his wife and nodded. He took a step back and told Sky to step aside. He told Sky to watch the dart board on the door and flung his arms as if throwing a frisbee. Sky heard three thwacks on the door and and when he saw the board his eyes grew. There on the board were three white sharp looking things. He pulled one out and looked at his dad. His dad held up his arms and three very large looking spikes protruded from his arms.

"Before you say anything, let me show you what I can do," his mom said.

She then proceeded to dump out the laundry from his laundry basket. She then disappeared right in front of Sky and in a matter of seconds, the laundry that was all over the floor were now neatly folded on top of his bed.

"Oh, by the way," his mom said, "make sure you throw your clothes into the washing machine later because they're starting to smell." Sky looked at his mom and then his dad.

"You mean to tell me," Sky began.

"Yes, we have powers too," his dad said, "We've had them for years. We knew the four of kids would one day come into your powers but we didn't press. We wanted you to find out on your own and if you choose to tell us that was your business. Now your sister and brothers haven't come into their powers yet so please don't tell them."

"But how did you know about your powers."

"Why do you think we insisted you and everyone else in this family on doing kendo? Master Renji found us when after we got married and had you. We trained under him and we knew when the time came he would come to you and train you as well."

"Oh, ok."

"Just so you know," his mom said, "the both of us love you and you sister and brother very much. We want you to live as normal lives as possible at least until your powers surfaced. After that we help you guys cope and learn to deal with that."

Sky hugged both his parents and ushered them out of the room.

"Goodnight, mom and dad." With that he closed the door and called Kyle and told him what had transpired in his room.

Sky felt that something was off a few days after he had told his parents. He really didn't know what to make of it. Kyle told him he was just being paranoid. But Sensei knew better. He felt the same dread that Sky was feeling and told the boys to stay on their toes. One day after practice, as Kyle and Sky were packing their things into Sky's car, they noticed something in the corner of their vision. They saw a boy around their age running away being chased by a man.

"HELP ME, PLEASE!" a voice Sky's head screamed out. He looked at Kyle and realized that the voice that cried for help was sent telepathically to them and that the one who sent the cry was the boy being chased.

Kyle immediately went into cat form and chased after the boy. Sky followed suit and ran right behind Kyle. They didn't know where to go until they heard a scream coming from an alley not far from where they were. They raced to the alley hoping that they weren't too late. They found the man and the boy halfway down the alley. They were shocked, to say the least, at what they were witnessing in the alley. The boy being chased was being held high up in the air. But the guy chasing him wasn't holding him with his arms. The man was holding his left hand up as if to choke the boy only the boy was five feet from his hands and about four feet off the ground.

Kyle sprang into action. He ran towards the guy as Sky conjured a ball of concentrated light energy and threw it the the boys attacker. The man was knocked off his feet and the boy feel to the ground. Kyle, in his cat form leaped into the air, landed right on top of the man. He clawed at the man's face but the man dodged every attack. The man finally got a good grip on Kyle and sent him flying clear across the alley. The man was extremely strong and it seemed that Kyle was knocked unconscious.

Sky sent several concentrated attacks from his lights at the attacker but he knocked each one away. With each attack the man got closer and closer to Sky until he was several feet away from him. He got a good look at the man and realized it was the same man that tried to attack him that night his powers surfaced. He started to panic. Then all of a sudden, the man was engulfed in flames. It surprised the hell out of Sky as well as the man. Sky took the opportunity to get out of reach of the attacker and sent a few more energy balls toward him. All of his attacks hit their marks. Although the attacker was getting pummeled by the attacks, it seemed that he wasn't getting hurt. The attacker was then encased in some sort of force field that enveloped his body and flew off into the sky. Sky looked around to see where the flames had come from and he saw the boy that was being chased on one knee with his hands raised up. The flames shooting out of his hands were slowly fading until nothing was there

Sky ran to Kyle and picked him up. He was slowly regaining consciousness.

"Did someone catch the license plate of that truck that hit me?" he asked.

"No asswipe," Sky responded, "I'm glad you're OK. Let's get you to Sensei's; he can help you out." He helped Kyle up who by this time had reverted back to his human form.

"Hey you!" Sky said to the boy, "What's you're name."

"Me," he replied, "My name's Max."

"Well Max, come with me. Sensei can help you out too, and maybe you can answer some questions for us."

They made their way to Sensei's apartment. Sensei was not surprised to see the three boys standing at his doorstep.

"Come on in boys," he told them, "I made some tea. It looks like you boys need some." Sky introduced Max to Sensei but he already knew who he was. They recounted the attack to Sensei to see what answers they could get from him.

"Do you know why he attacked you?" Kyle asked after they finished.

"He killed my parents," Max said, "They had powers just like me. He took their powers and killed them. Now he's after me."

"Don't worry, Max," Sensei said, "You're safe here. You will stay with me for the time being seeing as you probably have no home to return to."

Sky got up and went over to Max. His blue eyes stared right into Max's green ones.

"I'll keep you safe," he told him, "he was the same guy that tried to attack me a couple of weeks ago. I won't let him harm you or anyone else."

"Thank you so much." Max hugged Sky and started to cry. He cried for his parents, for his life he could never get back, for being saved by two complete strangers.

Life went on as usual, well as usual as it got for Sky and Kyle. Now knowing what they were capable of they knew they had to hide their secrets from the rest of the world. Max stayed with Sensei and started training at his dojo. Sensei filed the appropriate papers so max could live with him and enter Sky and Max's school. The three boys became really good friends and soon they were sparring against each other.

There hadn't been any more sightings of the attacker for months and for now they were safe. This part of their lives is over. Although it seems that they have it easy now, something terrifying is waiting just around the corner. But that is a story for another day.

Author's Note:

Thanks to those who have already read the story. I hope you enjoyed this new revised edition so its easier to see. I hope you guys stick around to see what happens to the boys!