Narrated by : John Will

"A cool gust of air rustled through the woods, and pick up a few dry leaves along with it. The leaves ran along with the wind, flowing peacefully, until they landed back on the ground, and were crushed by a boot, ending the peaceful flow."

That's a typical intro. But here, it's not. So let's do a different intro.

Something crunched under my boot, and I looked under it, to find a few dead leaves.

"Oi!" A voice called,"Are we even gonna start?"

"Of course we will!" I replied,"I hope you're ready!"

"Why not?" the voice replied,"I hope you are!"

I turned to the owner of the voice, a seventeen-year old, with pale skin,  spiky black hair, a slightly pointed jaw, and black, energetic eyes. The man wore a tank top, black denims, and sneakers. With a confident and muscular look and posture, Alex Bridges was readying himself for the quick spar, before we started Bender school.

What's a Bender? Where am I? Don't worry, I'm here to answer.

Benders are those people, who are specialized in energy control. No, not the energy associated with glucose and sugars, but the energy surging through everything. You may call it ki, or chi, but I prefer energy. Why? I have no idea.

As for where I am, welcome to Stronghold city! You probably haven't heard about this city, and I'd prefer to keep it that way, but since you've heard now, I guess I should tell you before you give yourself a headache trying to find this city through Googling it. You won't find it there.

Stronghold city is one of the eight hidden Bender institutions spread across the world. Why hidden? Because Bending can be as deadly as it is beneficial for the world. And if the world gets to know about Bending, then I can easily predict that its end will be within a century. That's how humans are. One minute, you find yourself peacefully relaxing in a park, and then the next minute, you find yourself bonking someone in the head. But here, we're peaceful with each other.

I and Alex chose to become a bender, because we both had developed a feeling of attachment to this city, and never wanted to experience the feeling we would experience when seeing this city in ruins.

We also chose it for the thrills and popularity.

Now, here we were, deep in the woods, testing each other once more, before our first day in Bender school

His eyes met mine,"Alright, let's not hold back, and fight each other at our highest limits possible!"

His voice was neither too shrill, nor deep, but he went to the deeper side. It had started cracking, but still sounded cheerful.

"Okay. I'll give my best. But let's not push each other too much. We have school too."

"Yeah, I know. Let's begin!"

I jumped back, transitioning into my fighting stance. Alex followed.

We looked into each other's eyes, and when Alex smirked, I knew he was ready.

Alex lunged at me, fist clenched, punch ready, but I saw it coming, and flicked the punch away with my forearm, as his other hand joined the offence, and soon I was on full defensive mode. For the next few minutes, I just kept counterattacking Alex's offence, but he still had an advantage over me.

If you compare me and Alex, I would take the speed factor to myself, but Alex had a body made for hand to hand and melee combat. He knew all the openings, the best times to strike, and his offence was top class. I, on the other hand, was better with ranged combat, and energy control(my dad taught me the basic things). I had better focus, energy control, and speed, but Alex had more raw strength and durability, giving him the edge here.

Alex kept bashing me, I kept blocking and counterattacking. Soon enough, his accuracy fell, and I found the opening.

He gasped as my fist connected to his ribs, and a kick to his face sent him down into the ground. However, he quickly recovered, and kipped back up.

"Didn't see that coming," Alex smiled, and was caught off guard again, as I started to get some offense in. He was taken by surprise, and didn't react fast enough to block any of my hits.

I got too excited, and went for a careless punch. Unfortunately, Alex blocked it, and threw me into a tree, snapping it into two.

"How'd ya like that!" Alex said, wiping a smear of mud off his nose.

"I didn't," I groaned, and walked out.

He lunged again, but this time, I was careful to dodge, and I did dodge.

As Alex went past me, my elbow connected to the back of his head, knocking him to the ground.

"Alright," I said,"let's finish this with a move I created"

"Created?"

"Yeah. My dad taught me some energy control, and I created a move out of it"

"That's so cool!"

"Wait till you see it!"

"Show it!"

"Very well!"

I leaped high into the air, and closed my eyes. I could feel some energy rushing through my veins, and willed it out. As I opened my eyes, my body had a faint red aura surrounding it.

As I got ready to do the move, my eyes caught the time on my watch.

It was time for school!

I quickly landed, and cleaned myself up.

"That was your move? Surrounding yourself in red light?"

"No. That was just the starting of the move. I was yet to do it."

"Why didn't you?"

"It's time for school!"

"Wait what?"

"Yeah! We need to go!"

"Coming!"

And we both ran towards the city, as our first day in Bender school was going to start......