Moonlight Visitor

Mike looked back at her. "Hey, don't take it the wrong way." He said, trying to cheer her up a bit. "Don't worry, I'll come back as soon as possible, okay? Trust me..." He paused for a second to think. 'I don't really have much confidence in my strength, if even Gizmo's passed me up by now.' He thought. 'I don't want Diana to think that I'm weak...I'd rather not let her see the first few stages. But I probably won't see her for a while...' The last thought sat in his mind for a while.

"Alright...Take care, then." Diana replied, sounding a little better.

"You too." He said, smiling a bit. They stared at each other for a few seconds, wondering if they'd be alright. "...It probably will be a while before we see each other again.." Mike said quietly, his smile fading. Diana looked down, somewhat sadly. "...But don't worry..." He put his hands on both of her shoulders. "When I come back, I'll be strong enough to protect you...I promise." He then pulled her close, and gave her a warm hug.

After a few moments, the two pulled away. Mike's face had a hint of pink in it, but he didn't seem to care at the moment. "..We should get going, I guess. I don't want to make Smash wait."

"Alright. Good luck, Mike." Diana said, now smiling fully. He gave her one last smile before heading out of the room, to find Smash outside the house.

As she began to head out to meet up with Lina and Gizmo, a purple fox walked up to her. "Diana, right?" She asked.

"Huh? Um, yes that's me." Diana replied, slightly startled by her appearance. "Who are you?"

"Jessie Garnet, proud leader of Team Garnet." She introduced, grinning as proudly as she boasted. Three other figures approached from behind her; Crystal, James, and a dark golden hedgehog. "Being here at the meeting, I understand the situation; Mike, your guardian, won't be around to guard you for a little bit while he's training, right?"

Diana looked down. "Yeah, that's true.."

"Those guys might come at any time. If they come if he's not around, you'll be in trouble." James added.

"But never fear! Team Garnet's gotcha back!" Jessie exclaimed, pointing her thumb at her chest. "We'll take on the job as "Substitute Guardians", so neither of you have to worry about a thing!"

"No problemo!" Jessie said, grinning widely. "Lemme introduce you to my team." She stepped aside a bit, and gestured towards each person. "This here's Crystal, my best friend. We go way back, and she's probably still the sweetest girl in town!"

Crystal bowed her head, much like Diana just did. "It's very nice to meet you, Miss Diana." She said. In her arms was a silver chao, who smiled and waved at her.

"And over here is James." Jessie continued. "He's the real fighter of the group; He won't let'cha down for sure." She winked at him, her grin replaced with a smirk.

James seemingly knew what that meant, but didn't respond to it. "Pleased to meet you." He said.

"And last but not least, we've got Zap over here in the back." She said, gesturing towards the hedgehog about the same age and height as Crystal. He glanced at her, but didn't say anything. "He's rather shy and unsocial, and I'm not too sure about his abilities, but he's not a bad guy."

Zap looked down, and scratched his ear awkwardly. "..H-hi." He said.

"It's no problem, really." James said, smiling a bit. "We're happy to help."

"Right then, Let's move out!" Jessie said, leading the group towards the door.

Gizmo and Lina stood waiting for Diana, and were somewhat surprised when they saw Jessie's team with her. "You guys are coming too?" He asked.

"Yep! We're gonna be her new body guards while Mike's off training." Jessie declared.

"I see..." He glanced over at Lina, who just shrugged with a light giggle. "Alright, I guess I could allow you guys to tag along." He said, lowering his eyelids halfway with a smirk.

"Hey, What's THAT supposed to mean?"

"C'mon, we're wasting time." Lina said, in a teasing voice. She opened the door for everyone, and walked out herself.

"Alright, Mike. This is it."
The two of them were standing in the back yard of Smash's house. Mike finally shook off the last bit of the remaining doubt and nervousness he had left. He stood facing him, with a strong, determined expression. "Are you ready?"
Mike nodded. "Yes."

"Good. Now first, let's have an opening test." Smash said.
Mike's determined look faded. "Opening test..?"
"Yeah. I want to see where you stand." He held his hand out in front of him, and gestured with his finger, "Show me what'cha got."

Mike took in a deep breath. "Alright...Here goes nothing." He charged forward, as Smash stood in a mildly defensive stance. Mike threw a punch towards his face, which appeared to be unguarded. Smash's hand suddenly whipped up and caught it, startling him.

"What're you doing? Keep going." Smash said, almost casually. Mike pulled his fist out of his grasp, and tried to punch him again. Once again, Smash caught it easily. He then used his free hand to try and punch his chest, but he found that one was caught too. "C'mon, you can do better." Smash said. He then pulled both hands away, and started punching wildly at him, soon turning into just mad swings. Smash blocked each one of his attacks, "Are you even trying to hit me anymore?" Mike tried even harder to hit him, now even adding his feet into the flurry. But Smash was far too quick for him. Suddenly, Mike stopped, his outstretched arms frozen in place. Smash managed to evade all of his attacks and punch him right in the chest. He took a few steps back, clutching his chest in pain. "Well, your strength isn't too bad. But your speed needs work." Smash said. "We'll put a little more focus into that, but we'll balance the rest out normally."

"O-okay..." Mike groaned in pain.



Sometime during the afternoon, Gizmo and everyone with him walked into his house. "We're back!" He announced. Everyone else followed in after him. Without wasting another second, he turned to face them. "Alright, let's go down into the basement." He said. "I've got to get some things set to give Mike, and we need to set up some kind of radar around the area. I'm probably gonna need as much help as I can to make this go fast enough. I want to be finished by tonight, at the latest."

"Okay!" Crystal and Lina said in unison.

"Mew!" Kitty rose his hand, ready to do his part.

"You got it!" Jessie exclaimed. "Let's go!"
Gizmo lead the group downstairs into the basement. Once they were all down, Gizmo started going around and taking out equipment. "First, I'm going to get Mike's things ready."

"What are you giving him?" Lina asked.

"First things first, I want him to have these." He held up a pair of gloves. Upon further inspection, they could see it had retractable claws on the back. "The Claw Gloves. He'll need em for sure. Secondly.." He looked around the room, and soon took a few shards of the Power Crystal out of their glass case on the wall. "I'm thinking about letting him use these as well, but now that I think about it, I'm not so sure that's a good idea." He said, frowning. "What with the bad reaction to Diana's necklace, and all..."

"Anything you can give him instead?" James asked.

"Well, I do have some spare Elemental Rings." He said. "If he uses those, he'll be able to use elemental powers. Wondering which element to give him, though..." He looked around the room again. "Let's see...I dunno, that might be it for now." He said. "I'll let him decide what element he gets."

"So, we ready to start on that radar thing?" Jessie asked.

"Yep!" Gizmo said. "Okay guys..." He began to give everyone orders, sending them off to do various errands within the basement. Everyone was quickly rushing here and there, busy getting everything together.


"C'mon! Keep running!"
Mike was running laps around Smash's house. He had already run at least 12 laps around the building, and was sweating like a dog. "One more! Keep it up!" He pushed himself onward, trying to keep going until the end. The last lap seemed the longest to him. He was starting to move slower, and his breathing was getting heavier by the second.
Finally, he made it back to Smash. As soon as he stepped past him, he collapsed to the ground, panting heavily. "Good job." He said, nodding approvingly. "Take a break, catch your breath. I'll get you some water." Smash inside, while Mike was on his hands and knees, trying to calm his pounding heart.


Later that day, they came close to finishing. They had gotten a computer monitor, one of the seven Chaos Emeralds that Gizmo stored away, along with his Chaos Energy radar, and a TV antenna. "Okay guys, we're almost done.' He announced. "Kitty and I can probably take it from here."

"Really? Phew." James let out a small sigh of relief. "That took longer than I thought."

Crystal plopped down on the floor. "I'm hungry." She said.

Gizmo smiled at her. "You guys can go and get some lunch. We'll join you later." He said. Kitty looked at him like he had been betrayed.

"Okay. If you need anymore help though, we'll be upstairs." Lina said.

"Thanks." Gizmo said.


The sun was setting, and Mike was still training. "One, Two, One, Two, One, Two..." Mike was alternating punches, going as fast as he could.
"Keep going, don't stop!" Smash encouraged. "Free your mind of all distractions!"
He wasn't really sure how to, but Mike did his best to try and clear his mind. He kept punching fiercely. "One, Two, One, Two, One, Two...!"

Soon Smash brought out a punching bag for him. He tightened it against the branch of a tree, and let him hit it. Mike gritted his teeth, and pounded on the bag as hard as he could. He punched it alternately, just like before when he had nothing to hit. "One, Two, One, Two, One, Two...!"
"C'mon, Faster Mike. Keep it up!" Smash coached. He closed his eyes and began to go all out.
'This is it...I'm getting stronger, I know it...' He thought. 'I dunno how much longer I'll last, but...I gotta do it for Diana's sake..!'