The fourth period bell sang, indicating the start of lunch time. Students flooded the halls, chattering vibrating all through the school. Today has been an average day at Liberty High. Not much goes on at school, well for now at least. Griffin is heading to their usual eating area, a teacher's classroom. Mr.Boom's science class. I know what you may be thinking, our little trio of freshmen students are losers. No that is not the case, let's just say Lily does not get along nicely will other girls in her grade. She failed at trying to establish her social place on the hierarchy, by doing so the other girls like to gang up on her. Lily is a tough girl, that was an understatement. She is a tank. She would get into fights all the time, winning all of them. She was terrifying, she earned herself a new nickname. One that Griffin nor Cole gave her, but the girls in her class, Mad Dog. Lily was an attacker, she would simple rush at her opponents with speed. Her signature move was a bite. She would claim her victory by biting her opponents arm as they lie on the ground defenseless. To finally put an end to all of the unnecessary fights, Cole asked his soccer coach if we can hang out in his room for lunch. For the past month, we have been eating in his room. Griffin doesn't mind because he hates the outside heat nor does he want one of his best friends getting picked on.
Griffin is entering the room to find Lily and Cole already sitting down at each of their own desks, laughing about some dirty joke or about Lily telling Griffin to go to hell, who knows. The room was covered in light, blinding his eyes. Being in that room felt like a small fire beating the cold out of his bones. Griffin sits down next to Lily, pulls out his lunch box from his backpack. Empty, he forgot to make himself lunch.
"Damn I did not have time to make myself lunch today." Griffin says as he slouches back into his desk, staring up at the fluorescent lights on the ceiling.
"How are you always so busy to not make lunch and not do homework?" Lily questions Griffin, he ignores her.
"Here Griffin, you can have half of my sandwich. My mom makes me extra because she knows you have a tendency to always forget. She thinks you do it on purpose because you can't resist her sandwiches." Cole taking an already cut sandwich and giving Griffin a half. Griffin doesn't take it.
"Don't you need it for soccer practice? I don't want to take your food like that, it's ok for me to not eat. Plus you are too skinny, you need to gain some weight more specifically muscle for soccer," said Griffin
"I guess you are right but I will be fine for today, it's going to be a light practice. Just have the sandwich," replied Cole. Griffin takes it and begins to eat it.
"Griffin is right. You do need to gain some muscle, like seriously look at your arms. I can beat you in an arm wrestle," Lily comments.
"No chance in the world you can beat Cole in an arm wrestle, I'd put money on the match," Griffin responded back. Him energetically sitting up, spitting pieces of the sandwich on his desk. A chunk almost hitting Lily. Him enjoying the thought of an arm wrestle.
"Gross, and you have no money. You're broke," Lily laughed at Griffin.
"That doesn't mean I wouldn't beat you, Lily?" said Cole
"Ok skinny bones, let's do this then. Put your arm out," Lily demanded.
The two of them begin to arm wrestle, it was a close match for a while. Sweat began to form on Cole's forehead, Lily seemed cool like laying on the beach with a drink in hand. Feeling the chill breeze and the calming sounds of the waves rocking back and forth. Cole begins to take the advantage, him being halfway to victory. Griffin's arms in the air cheering him on, Cole's victory started to look more promising. With a violent flick of the elbow. SLAM. The room fell silent, Griffin's arms down, mouth wide. Cole lost. Lily won the arm wrestle. She completely overpowering Cole. Cole looked utterly disappointed in himself. (As he should, that was embarrassing. He lost to a girl, well I shouldn't talk I have lost to many girls before in my past. One of my many rivals is a woman.)
"Take that loser, told you I would win. Suck on that Griffin," exclaimed Lily.
"Never beating on you again Cole, unless it's soccer of course," said Griffin.
"I'm a failure, I lost to a girl," said Cole. Cole puts his head down in his own incompetence.
"Yea, don't worry about it too much. I beat my brothers all the time," said Lily. Her confidence is radiating throughout the classroom. She got up from her desk and did a little dance to celebrate. Griffin is still in disbelief.
"What's wrong Griffin? You're actually silent for once," said Lily.
"I'm mentally deleting all footage from my memory space. Well this is Lily we are talking about so I'm not that surprised, but congrats on the victory. Cole don't talk to me, for the rest of the day, you have been warned," replied Griffin.
"Oh shut up, she could probably beat you to Griffin. You don't have a muscular body either," said Cole.
"I could definitely beat Griffin too," said Lily.
Cole and Lily begin to laugh and make jokes of the past. Memories that are embarrassing for Griffin, but he laughs along side them.
Ring Ring Ring. It was Griffin's watch, they all looked down at it.
"Oh it's just a text message, don't worry about it, I'm going to use the restroom before lunch ends," said Griffin. He gets up and exits the room before they can say anything more.
Griffin gets in one of the stalls in the bathroom and unlocks his watch. It transforms into a mini gauntlet, with a touch screen covering the surface. The screen displayed a message in red. *Warning a gate has been opened, classification is a red dungeon, threat level is high, please clear the dungeon immediately.*
"Well duty calls, what's going on? More and more gates have been opening up recently. I'm gonna have to leave a clone here. Oh yea, I haven't mentioned that before or how I can turn my body back into a fourteen year old. Simply, I revert the time and space of my body back in time. I can only do this ability to myself, also It just changes my appearance. Nothing else really changes, now for the clone technique. I can create clones of myself, combining both time and space. A necessary ability to watch over the whole planet. It requires a little amount of energy, depending on what I need the clone to do. Luckily the gate isn't too far from me." Griffin puts both hands together and concentrates, shortly after another Griffin appears. Successfully creating a clone, the clone knowing its sole purpose as a fill in to continue going to school while the main body handles the gate. Clones are self thinking so nobody will notice that the Griffin they are talking to is a clone. Griffin teleports out of the bathroom.
Now back in his full sized body, standing in front of the Dungeon entrance. Gates can come in different shapes and sizes, this one is on a bigger scale. A red swirling mass of energy, about the size of a trailer home. By walking into it, you will be transported into the dungeon with only one rule, clear the dungeon or stay there till you die. That's for most GateKeepers at least, Griffin is a special case. He can enter and exit as he pleases. Leaving a dungeon alone however is a terrible decision, also it's forbidden by the council. When a dungeon is left alone, the gate and everything holding it in place will collapse causing whatever is inside the dungeon to escape into their world. After that the boss of the dungeon will take over and rule the planet it's on. They usually like to kill anything thats close. Happens all the time, that's the important job of being a GateKeeper.
Griffin walks into the gate. Surrounded by walls of flames and magma. It was like being at the bottom of a volcano. Sweat immediately crystallizes then evaporating off Griffin's skin. His mouth feels like he has been sucking on cinnamon, completely dry. His feet began to scream, his shoes melted, turning into a liquid. Griffin quickly puts up a space barrier around himself, condensing the space around him. Lifting himself off the ground, now levitating five inches off the floor. Thankfully there was no creature to greet him at the front door. He was now ready to take on this scorching hot dungeon.
"I'm in hell," said Griffin barely able to get the words out his sandpaper mouth.