The Keeper: Guardians of Chicago Chp 14

The Keeper
Guardians of Chicago
Chapter 14
Don't steal people's phones


I gripped onto my knees so hard that I almost pierced my own skin with my claws. The house got silent and every Muneris' heads turned to JagX. He smiled and walked up to me, easily making me stand with just a grab of his hand, "Glad ya'll could make it Keeper." He said, giving me a hard pat on the back.

After that, whispers spread around the house. They stared at me and eyed me suspiciously; and I'm pretty sure my face was growing redder by the minute.

"Jag!" I hissed, "Not helping!"

"What are ya'll talkin about?" He asked, knitting his eyebrows.

A girl stepped forward, "Are you sure?"

"Hell yeah I'm sure." JagX scowled.

"Wait, so you're saying that – she's The Keeper?" One of the football players asked. I almost narrowed my eyes and growled at him. The way he said it, it's like he didn't want to believe that I was The Keeper. It was like my Mastering Ceremony all over again.

"Yeah, she is," JagX confirmed, "Don't ya'll know who the Keeper is?"

"I heard it was some freshman." One person said.

"I heard it was a Fire Muneris." Another chimed in.

"I thought she was supposed to be Asian." A dude murmured.

Comments like this sprung out around the house. Most of them were only supposed to be heard to a select amount of people, but I heard every single one. Most of them were like the first three, but some of them I just wanted to punch whoever said that in the face. Although, one comment I heard just made me snap.

"She can't be The Keeper," One dude spoke up, "I heard that Neelaja was The Keeper."

I sucked in a breath and snapped my head towards the guy who said it. He looked like a Junior, maybe a Senior. He had that cocky expression like he knew everything. Before JagX could counter his comment I held out my hand to silence him, "What did you say?" I said slowly and as intimidating as I could.

The guy tilted his head up, as if he was interested that I spoke, "You can't be The Keeper. I was there when The FireClaws revealed the real Keeper to Calvatrace."

I dipped my head low, so he's a FireClaw follower?

"So you probably didn't see what happened to them, did you?" I said.

He knit his eyebrows together, "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Where were you at the end of the school year?" Shadow asked, taking over my thought.

The Junior frowned, "I had to leave early. Family emergency. Why? What happened?"

"I'll tell you what happened," I said, taking a small step forward and raising my head to look him in the eye, "The FireClaws turned out to be the Creperum spy, Neelaja was called out for being a fraud, and I was revealed as the true Keeper."

That little comment got some commotion. I forgot that not everyone here goes to Calvatrace every single summer. JagX, that Junior dude, and possibly a third of the teens in the house gasped in shock. Panicked and confused talking quickly spread around, and many Muneris who were there had to tell those panicked people that what I said was true.
The FireClaw follower gritted his teeth, "You're lying! The FireClaws can't be the Creperum spies!"

"You want proof?" I asked, then I swept my arms around the room, "Ask any one of these Muneris who were at Calvatrace for the whole year. They can tell you the facts, and the fact is that Audrey and Page were Creperum and they posed Neelaja as The Keeper to draw the real one out. And guess what, it didn't work out."

The guy got so angry at me that he lashed out his arms, shooting deadly sharp knives at me. I didn't dodge them as Shadow caught the knives with his powers. At that moment, JagX stepped between us and raised his hands, "Guys! Seriously, not in the house! My pops would kill me if I trashed this place."

"Then bring it outside!" The Junior called, "I want to rip apart this faker."

My head was low but I still kept eye contact with him. He had no idea what he was getting himself into, but I won't back down. These people need to know. I've already decided after I left Calvatrace that I would tell any Muneris that didn't know the truth. This little challenge won't stop me from doing that.

Most, if not all of the Muneris in the party flooded into the backyard to see the fight to be. I still had my head low as the Knife Muneris shook his wrists and stared me down.

He started with the first attack, extending his left arm and shooting five thin knives in my direction. I kept eye contact with him as I leaned over to the side, letting the projectiles pass by. The Muneris gritted his teeth and tried a different approach. He ran forward and flicked out both of his wrists, creating thick curved blades and flinging them at me. I dodged all of them with incredible speed. Getting irritated with my consent dodging, the Junior pulled out a foot long knife out of thin air and charged at me.

I narrowed my eyes and placed my hands in my pockets. Any time he attacked I would step out of the way or spin around him to dodge the attack. All while keeping my hands in my pockets, and sometimes I didn't even look at him and I still dodged his attacks. I made him look like a fool.

All around me, Muneris were adding their own comments and every so often I'd hear a little cheer for me or for him. But the biggest comment I heard was that I should just go up and fight him. I should attack, but I wasn't gonna do that.

I mean sure, it'd be extremely easy to whip this guy's butt. I've seen at least ten open attack points in these past couple of minutes. It would be so easy to just rip out my wings and show him how wrong he was, but I wasn't going to do that. I needed to be reasonable here, I think it's some Keeper thing popping into my head. Think about it this way; what did that guy do to deserve getting beat up? Nothing. Even though he was the one attacking me, I wasn't going to fight back. He's just fighting cause he doesn't want to believe the truth, and that's not a good enough reason to fight him.

The Muneris kept pushing forward, attacking me with everything he had, and I kept dodging all of his attacks. He panted and stared at me in disbelief, "How can you dodge all of my attacks?"

"Well I did learn from the best." I said. I thought it was kind of funny when he immediately turned to Shadow.

"Guilty as charged," He shrugged, "But you should have known that I'd find The Keeper before The FireClaws would."

I could see it in the guy's face that he was starting to realize the facts, but he really didn't want to believe anything. The Junior then attacked with everything he had, launching a huge array of daggers, knives, and projectiles in the air to come flying at me. I narrowed my eyes and stared at them dead on.

"That's enough." I muttered.

Right before the first knife could even touch me, my eyes glowed purple and every weapon stopped and hung in the air. The Muneris around me gasped and stared at the thousands of blades floating in the air. The Junior had his mouth hanging open before he managed a smirk, "So you're a Psychic Muneris?"

"No, I'm not," I stated. The daggers dropped to the ground, dissolving into dust on impact. I stepped forward, "Look man, I don't want to fight you. So can we please do this the easy way instead of fighting it out?"

He looked down at me suspiciously, as if he wanted to keep fighting, "Easy way?"

"Yeah, the easy way. The thing that I should have done in the first place." I took a step forward and held my hand palms up, "You've just gotta believe me when I say that I'm The Keeper. Seriously, you're in denial because you're a FireClaw follower. But it's time to move on. They're gone."

"They can't be!" He cried, now trembling with anger, "You're just a stupid Validus who doesn't know when to give up!"

I tried to hold my anger in towards that comment, but I let out a small outburst, "A stupid Validus?! How can I be a stupid Validus if I was the one who personally killed Audrey? Huh?!"

Right as the words escaped my mouth and wish I hadn't of said that. I grit my teeth and shut my eyes tight. Idiot! Why would I say that?! Stupid anger made me say the wrong thing. This is just great. I just fueled my attacker with even more hatred towards me.
The Knife Muneris roared in anger and lunged his arms out at me once more. This time gigantic ninja stars spiraled my way, and I didn't just dodge them this time.

I ran towards them, surprising the Muneris and everyone in the crowd. In not even a second; I sidestepped to dodge the first star, then I launched myself in the air and jumped over the second one. Then I slammed my body onto the flat of the third star, looping my arm through the hole in the center. As I landed on the ground I used the ninja star's rotation to spin myself around and launch the ninja star at the rest of the ones flying at me. They all collided with a metallic clang before they disappeared in a smoke.

But I wasn't done yet. After all the weapons were gone I sprinted towards the Junior, and he was so shocked that he nervously looked to his peers, as if asking them, "What do I do now?!"

He tried to come at me with another foot long knife, but I knocked it out of his hands with once swipe. I then kicked him in the stomach while bending down to pick up the dropped knife. The Muneris staggered back, and once he placed his other foot back I threw the knife and it lodged his pants to the grass. He was now trapped.

The Knife Muneris summoned some more weapons, but that only helped my cause. Any time he attacked me with a new knife I would steal it and chuck it to the ground to trap him even more. By the time he had five knives around each foot pinning him down to the ground the Junior still haven't given up. He tried another time, this time creating two Japanese Sais and slashing at me.

In one fluid movement; I slapped his hand, grabbed the Sais, jammed my elbow hard into his shoulder to make him go down to his knees, pointed the Sais dangerously close to his neck, and let my wings burst out of an inferno from my back. I watched as the dude's eye's went wide as I stretched out my wings.

"Believe me now?" I growled.

I stood there for a few seconds, letting the situation sink in as the Knife Muneris stared at me in horror. After a moment of dead silence I sighed and backed up, chucking the Sais down to the ground.

"I didn't want to cause any trouble," I murmured, "Sorry man."

I didn't wait for a response, from anybody, I just turned around and walked away; disappearing in a flame before I took my third step.



I reappeared at the park close to the house. No one was there (thank God cause that would have been terrible if some little kid saw me appear out of nowhere), but I still didn't want to take any risks. I still stayed in my True Form, but I sat at the edge of a tube with my wings stuffed inside.

That was stupid of me. Now the guy probably thinks I'm a jerk, or worse, but I hope it's not that. I mean I could have walked away from the fight, not edge him on. Someone could have told him the truth and he would have believed it, I didn't have to humiliate him in front of all of those Muneris. Ugh, I'm an idiot.

"No you're not…"

I didn't jump. I'm so used to it that I've got past that point.

Shadow stood there on the spiral ladder on the outside of the platform, sticking his head through the hole in the bars, "In fact, it was better off if you did fight him. If the guy thinks bad of you then so what. At least it gets the word out, right?"

I frowned, "Well if you put it that way."

I looked behind him, and he wasn't alone. Warrior, Katherine, Hannah, and the rest of my lunch table was with them. Including JagX, who apparently left his own party. Grav jumped and climbed on the outside of the playground, lifting his head over the bars to he could see me, "Yeah Kee, don't worry about that guy. He's the jerk."

"Thanks guys." I said with a half-hearted smile, "You didn't have to follow me out here."

"Course we did," JagX encouraged, "We bringin ya back to the party."

I frowned and shrugged, "Eh, it's not my crowd. You guys go ahead. Have fun n' stuff. I'm fine."

Of course they didn't like the idea, but Shadow sent him off. JagX returned to his party, along with Peace and Yin. The rest stayed with me. They didn't feel like staying at the party either.

Turns out that being at the park was way better than being at that party. We played dodge ball, threw around a Frisbee, had a terrible game of basketball, it was a whole lotta fun. I even got together an awesome game of ninja.

Holy crap, I have never played a more intense game of ninja in my life! When you get to have six high ranking Validus fight each other in a non-power filled game, things get pretty crazy. I was even lucky to win a couple rounds. I wasn't surprised Shadow won a lot of them, but it just only made me laugh even more. He can play this awesome at ninja, and tomorrow I get to proof read his English paper. I've seen the work he can do, and man it is bad.

So sorry man! I'd say otherwise but it's true!

Anyway, I sat on top of one of the bars on the playground and watched as the guys tossed around a football. Hannah and I sat out on this one, but Katherine at least attempted to play. That was the funny part.

I smiled and laughed as Katherine tried to catch the ball but Warrior intercepted it, "Nice job man." I said.

"Uh yeah, nice job." Hannah said with uncertainty.

"Hey dude, you okay?" I asked. Ever since they decided to ditch the party Hannah couldn't keep her mind straight. She was constantly spacing out and looking away as if she were embarrassed.

"Um yeah, of course." She sat there for a brief moment before letting out a huge sigh. "No, not really."

I tilted my head, "Why? What's wrong?"

She shook her head and pulled her knees to her chest, "I- no, I can't tell you."

I raised an eyebrow. She was acting really weird. Really, I don't think I've seen her like this. But I knew better than to push it. I've had that happen to me and I never like the outcome. I shrugged and looked back to the game, "Alright, it's cool. I won't ask."

Looking a bit relieved, she turned back to the field where the guys and Katherine were playing. After like two seconds she face palms herself and quickly turns to me, "Alright, I tell you. You swear you'll never say a word about this to anyone?" She asked, looking dead serious about this.

I raised my eyebrows in surprise, I didn't think she'd actually tell me. But at this point I wasn't going to back down. I gave her a reassuring smile, "Don't worry man, I can keep a secret."

She looked around just to make sure no one else was listening, then leaned in holding one hand to her mouth, "I... I think I like Warrior." And with that her whole face blushes into various shades of red.

I blinked and looked to the ground.

What? T-That's what she wanted to tell me? Wh-Whoa. I couldn't help but look up and stare at Warrior. At the moment he was throwing the football over to Grav, where Katherine was there still waiting to catch at least one throw. I blinked and looked to the ground again, "You…you do?"

She nodded her head meekly, "It wasn't like love at first or anything of that stuff. I guess over time at Calvatrace I got to know him better and that's when I started to. Ugh," She moaned and buried her face in her knees, "I sound like such a priss, don't I?"

I didn't want to say yes, but that's what I felt. Don't be hatin on me cause I've only been in a few of these awkward situations before. To me it's a little more awkward when the dude we're talkin about is a really good friend of mine. I shook my head and grinned, "No, not really. It's…it's surprising I'll tell ya that. I didn't think that, uh…you know."

Oh great. Now I'm just making it worse!

"Yeah," She said, looking down at the grass, "It's just that– it's so weird. I don't want to like him like that, but for some reason I can't stop thinking that way. He's a great guy really; he's funny, a gamer, great dancer, smart, and kinda..." Hannah pauses at the last word and her face blushes again. "…Cute." She mumbled that last word. Again, I found myself looking at the red head himself. This time he was running away from Shadow. Apparently, Warrior stole Shadow's phone and now he wants it back.  

"Well…now that I think about it, I'm not surprised." I said, still watching Warrior run for his life.  

"I couldn't tell Katherine mainly just afraid that she would tell him or force me to. Also, I don't know many Muneris at school that I'm good friends with yet cause the mortals have no idea who Warrior is." She explained. She made a slight chuckle while watching Warrior running away from Shadow.

"So you decided to tell me?" I asked. To be honest, I was surprised she didn't tell Katherine. Technically Katherine knew her better. I got to be good friends with Hannah only cause we're both Fire Muneris and we know each other from Marching Band. Other than that, I haven't really gotten to know her as much. I must be really trustworthy to keep this secret.

Then again I don't blame her, I kept The Keeper secret for a long time. That and…no. I'm not even gonna mention that one.

Hannah shrugged, "You seemed like to be the best choice at the moment. It's not like I was going to talk to Mist or Shadow or someone else about this. That would be even more awkward than now."

I smirked, "You telling me is better than you telling Mist? Dude, Mist would have had the same reaction, you know that right?"

"Still, you're a bit more mature than her." She said.

"Yeah, just a bit." I smiled.

If the conversation was going to go somewhere after that, it didn't. Apparently Warrior decided to run into the playground to get away from Shadow. Honestly I was surprised Shadow didn't catch up to him already, or that Warrior didn't slow down. Warrior burst through one of the stairs and bolted towards us.

"Out of the way!" He called, hastily moving past us and literally leaped towards the slide. Shadow followed, but he just jumped over the slide rather than go down it. The two kept at it, chasing each other until Grav decided to intervene. Taking Shadow's phone and making them settle down. Thank goodness.

After watching that scene up close and hearing Hannah's little story, I couldn't help but smile. I'm at least happy that there was someone out there who actually likes Warrior. I hate to admit it, but I'm girly enough to be happy about that.