The Black Knight

My Secret Identity

It had been 3 months since I bought Winchester and arrived in town. My daily activities now included spying on the Night Crawlers, school, and zipping through the woods on Winchester. It was so much fun riding again. I wasn't sure what I could do about the Nigh Crawlers until my friend Rhydian told me some interesting fact.

"Nick check this out!" he and I were now best friends since I saved him from the Night Crawler. "Check this out!" He showed me a picture of an ancient looking cloak. "I really think we should see this thing. I think it might be the only way you can take down the Night Crawlers."

"A cloak?"

"Not just any cloak!" he said. "It's a radioactive cloak! It was the only survivor of an atomic bomb explosion. It says the town is to hold an expedition on it. I say we steal it, before the Night Crawlers do."

"You're saying the Night Crawlers want this cloak?"

Rhydian nodded. "They probably don't understand how powerful this thing is."

"Uh huh..."

"No seriously! The radioactivity of the cloak isn't hazardous, but this thing is ancient and it is rumored to give the wearer the ability to be bulletproof."

"And I would want this cloak because...?"

"Secret Identity mean anything to you?"

I sighed. "You read too many comic books Rhydian."

"Still," he pushed. "If the Night Crawlers get to the cloak, it would send a really bad reputation on the town... and we can't let that happen. Right?"

"Fine." I said. "When is this cloak coming?"

"Today!" he said, excitedly. Cassy raised her eyebrows at me as she walked by. She still didn't understand why I hung out with Rhydian. The truth was I saved his butt, I can't just ditch the guy. Also, he wasn't quite the loser everyone thought he was.

That night Rhydian and I gathered flash lights and back packs, and donned black masks to break into the museum.

"You look ridiculous," I told him.

"So do you!" He laughed.

Rhydian picked the lock and opened the back door to the Museum. No one had seen the cloak yet. As far as everyone knew, it was still packaged up in a box. We went down to storage and looked up the item. It was a smaller one. We pried it open, but don't worry we were wearing gloves.

We shoved the cloak in my backpack. "Shh!" I said. I could hear footsteps coming toward us. "Quick hide!" I shoved him in the box where the cloak was and put the lid back on. He didn't look to pleased with the idea. I hid behind a larger box in the shadows. A security guard came in wielding a flashlight. "Coast clear," he sighed, and walked on.

I waited a few seconds and then let Rhydian out. "Time to go!" We bolted to the front doors and scrambled into the car.

We high-fived each other and took off on the 4-wheeler, to Rhydians home. It was probably the saddest house you will ever set your eyes on. It was in such bad shape, it looked like one finger could tear the whole place down.  After we entered Rhydian's room, he said, "Let's see it!"

I took off my backpack and pulled the cloak out. It looked pretty mid-evil to me and nothing along the lines of out of the ordinary.

"Ok," he said. "Put it on!" After much quick consideration, I pulled the cloak over my head.

"Dude!" said Rydian. "You look awesome! Check yourself out!"

I walked over to the nearest and only mirror. It was floor length thank God. The cloak was more of an outfit. It was one of those weird outfits you see assassins in movies wear. It looked like I was wearing a floor length tunic, without a belt, with a cape with a hood over my shoulders.

I started to get excited. "Dude, you have a belt?"

He dug in an old chest and pulled out an old simple black leather belt. It probably belonged to his grandfather or something. I strapped it on and buckled it. I pulled up the hood. I looked pretty bad ass in an older mid-evil way.

I turned to Rydian. "You look freaking awesome! And a little creepy dude!" he said.

I laughed and pulled down the hood. "Well," I said. "Better than tights and easier to change into." Great, now I was starting to sound like Rydian.

"And you can ride Winchester wearing it! Think about how cool that would be. You could be like this knight in black, like a phantom!"

He had been reading too many comic books for sure. I took it off. "Fine. But we are so doing this another night. I tired. Gotta go!"

"Get going Nick! I can't wait for Levi to get news of this!"

I laughed. Levi was going to have a field day with a mid-evil, phantom rider stalking through the night.

I took the 4-wheeler back to the house, where I fell asleep excited for the next night.

The next night, I saddled up Winchester, and climbed on him. I had cut the tunic down the sides so I could ride. I wanted to test the experiment first.

I rode through the woods on Winchester, feeling like I was caught in some sort of dream. I turned left and galloped through an open field.

In an open parking lot, five Night Crawlers were robbing a young girl of her scooter. I rode Winchester as close as I could get. Mounted off him, and walked closer to the disturbance. The girl with the scooter was the only one who seemed to see me so far. Her eyes widened in pure terror. The Night Crawlers seemed to think she was afraid of them. I snapped my fingers and Winchester took off running in a different direction than where I was going. I trained him to take off on command and pick me up. One snap of my fingers means leave, two snaps mean come and let me up please!

I stalked closer to the Night Crawlers. By this time the girl was basically pinned to the wall of the store. I was right behind them.

"Well..." I said, smoothy. "This can't be right. Five against one. Those aren't fair odds at all."

The five spun around spooked that there was a stranger that snuck up on them.

"Yeah." said one of the five, Smelly 1. "For you for sure."

Smelly 2, 3, 4 and 5 all nodded in agreement.

I laughed. "I was talking about unfair for you!" Three lunged at me, while they other two guarded the girl. Apparently, I had offended them.

I punched the first one in the nose stunning him, and making his nose run with blood. Next the second made a fatal error and tried to go for the hood! I grabbed his arm and pulled it behind his back dislocating his shoulder. He screamed. The third was all alone, so one of the two with the girl decided it would be safer to help his friend with the dislocated shoulder, who I was still hanging on to, using him as a kind of shield and also as leverage if the time came. But apparently these Night Crawlers couldn't care less about their brother in gang arms or whatever. I ducked as one of the gang members who was protecting their quarry, tried to come at me on the right with a knife. I spun through the air, kicking the man's knife out of his hand. He looked stunned as I kneed him in the stomach. He fell down moaning.

The last one standing decided it might be a safer idea to just run. The scooter wasn't worth it anyway.

"Told you it wasn't a fair fight!" I yelled after him. The one who I kneed tried to get up, but I kicked him unconscious.

I walked up the the girl. "You ok?"

She managed to nod. I snapped two fingers and Winchester appeared. I grabbed on to his mane and hoisted myself up as he was cantering toward me. We sped off back toward the woods, the thrill of the fight still in my veins.