I woke up to hear my annoying alarm blare. I was lying face down in my bed and reached out to turn the loud machine off. I kept hitting the side of my desk missing the alarm clock by mere inches, "I know your nearby you stupid thing." I said. I finally grabbed the clock and turned it off. I got up out of my small one person bed and walked over to my dresser. I opened the top drawer grabbing a pair of boxers and socks then opened the second drawer grabbing a red marble design shirt, then grabbing a pair of blue jeans from the bottom drawer. I walked out of the room and right into the living room and opened the blinds to see the bright sun shine into the room. "Ugh it's bright. My eyes aren't ready for that much sun first thing in the morning."

I turned around and walked over to the right corner of the living room where there was a doorway leading into the kitchen. On the left side of the kitchen is a doorway to my parent's bedroom which has not been entered in for the past three years. To the right of my parent's room is a fridge and then a hallway leading to the bathroom with one closet on the left side of the hall and another one on the right. The one on the right is where we kept food and toiletries. I walked into the bathroom and closed the door behind me. My phone began going off and I pulled it out to see my boss was calling me from the local newspaper called The Blade. "Hi this is Travis." I said into the phone.

My boss DJ was on the other end, "Well good morning sir, how are you doing today?" DJ was always cheerful whenever we talked.

"I'm just now waking up. Had a rough night trying to sleep yesterday." I said as I yawned.

"Well that's not good. If you'd like we can talk about later but I need to ask you something first. We had a worker call in sick and I was wondering if you would want to cover for her? You would have to just cover the number streets that are second to ninth. Would you be willing to do this?"

I thought about it and agreed to take the shift. I told my boss I would be over when I was done taking a shower to pick up the papers and do my rounds. We hung up the phone and I took a quick five minute shower. I dried up after the shower and made some toast and put butter on it as I threw on my black tennis shoes and my biking gloves. I grabbed the key off the wall next to the front porch door and unlocked my bike that was chained up next to the house. The paper company was about a mile out from where I was but I would get there in about ten to fifteen minutes since I was a fast biker.

I had a job as a newspaper boy at The Blade for two years now. They won't have me work winter but summer and fall were always my work seasons and with the money my parent's left me I've been very good and successful at living on my own. I just get a job so I have something to do other than sit in my home playing videos games and watching cartoons.

It took about ten minutes this time to get out there and when I did there was a basket at the front desk with my name on it along with a list of what places needed newspapers. I placed the basket on the front of my bike and began my rounds. There was an envelope in the papers addressed to me. I opened it to see a ten dollar gift card to Grounds for Thought which was the coffee and bookstore in town. Oh my town is called Bowling Green and it's in the state of Ohio. DJ always looked out for me ever since I started working for him. He would care about my health and wellbeing after knowing about my parents death. He even offered me to live with him but I declined. The note with the gift card was a thank you for all the hard work I gave to the company.

I put one foot on the bike pedals, "Alright it's show time." I said as I pushed off the ground with my other foot and began biking to the number streets. Getting to the streets took about five minutes for me and I started throwing the paper to the different houses and apartments and checking off the list of where I had been. This process always took long because I had to bike a couple feet and stop. On a normal day it takes me three hours to finish my errands but that's because I usually have more than seven blocks of streets on days that I work. Today I got done at one and a half hours. I wrote down what time I started and when I finished and biked back to The Blade to drop off my check list. It was payday so I got paid as well and stopped over at a bank called Huntington to cash my check.

Now this part was weird, when you go into my bank you will see in the corner a display case with all of these nice knick knacks that were found in the vault when the bank was being opened. One thing in this case is a ring with what looked like two dragons. One was grey and the other was a red orangish color that was smaller than the grey one. This ring had a lot of dirt and stuff on it and was encased in stone. This ring is also the main attraction to all of the relics in this case. I walked up to my bank teller and cashed my check and deposited some of the money into the savings which I was now at five hundred dollars. I began to walk out of the bank when I heard a growl coming from somewhere and when I looked around at the sound to see where it was coming from; it came from the glass case with all of the relics. Feeling a bit creeped out I walked out in a hurry of the building and got on my mountain bike and went home.

I finally got home as I checked the mailbox for anything I might've received while I was out, "Empty again." I said as I closed the lid. I walked in to see a slip of paper hanging in my door. I looked at it and it was a pamphlet saying something about an exciting underground cavern on the outskirts of the city. I just had to call the number to let them know when I would be able to go. "This is kind of interesting. If there's really an underground cave on the outskirts of the city I might be able to find something worth valuable and could sell it." I unlocked the front door of my house and walked over to the phone, picked it up, and dialed the number. "Hi this is Travis Edge, I got a pamphlet at my door about a cave exploration. I was wondering if I could still book a reservation?"

The man on the other phone began speaking in a deep tone, "Yes Mr. Edge we have a room for one more person. We could only have about ten people on the exploration. We will be going out tonight and are leaving at six. Meet us at the mall on the other end of town, there is a bus that will be waiting for people and will be leaving at exactly six. Also the only rule is to show common courtesy to your peers and to stick with the members of your group. We don't want anyone to get lost on this trip. Bring your own equipment and food. Also stay close with your guide as much as you can." I accepted all of these rules and said I would head out in a bit. I hung up the phone and went to get ready for my awesome night I was going to have.

My showers don't take long as usual and when I hopped out of the bathroom all dressed I started searching for my book bag. I started filling the bag up with some chips, a couple bottles of water, and a red flashlight I had. After putting this stuff in my bag I began making a small dinner to hold me over. I made a turkey breast sandwich with ketchup and Gouda cheese slice, and placed it in between two wheat bread slices. After this I looked up at the clock to see that I had thirty minutes to get out to the mall. Knowing I would get there early I decided to head out immediately probably because I was excited to go do something different in the city.

It was ten minutes before I got there and I was looking around at all the different people who had a copy of the pamphlets. Different ethnic backgrounds were all gathered around talking and socializing with each other and then I saw a small bus pull into the parking lot. I was walking to get in line when a woman bumped into me. She was shorter than me and had dark skin. She wasn't that much appealing to look at and her hair was kind of all over the place. She had blonde hair and looked like she just dyed it the night before. She was really thin and looked like she was a bit high on something. "I'm sorry I didn't meant to bump into you." She said. I told her not to worry about it and looked back at the group of people handing out there pamphlets to the driver. There was another girl in front of me who dropped her pamphlet and was looking around for it in a hurry fashion. She was also shorter than me, white skin, red black hair, and like the girl behind me, really thin. I saw the pamphlet next to my foot and bent over to pick it up. I tapped her on her shoulder and the girl turned around and looked at me. She was a bit cute and had black eye shadow around her eyes. She also had freckles on her face, "You dropped this." I said.

She was really excited and gave me a hug as she took the paper out of my hand. I looked at her surprised that she just hugged me a random stranger. She then turned around and walked up to the driver as she handed her pamphlet.

I got a look at her book bag and it said Amber Wild. Well I guess I know her name now. I walked up and gave my pamphlet to the driver and headed onto the bus. I sat up front and saw the black girl walk past me as she stared at me in some seductive manner. Then the final passenger hopped onto the bus and went to the back of the bus. The bus driver got on and gave an announcement on the rules for the bus. Once the driver was done with the announcement he sat down in his seat and began to start the bus. I sat up against the window minding my own business as I listened to everyone around me talk about how excited they were to go out on this excavation and I just did not care.

I heard someone plop down next to me and this guy was a tall white male with brown hair and had a figure like he works out a lot, "Hey brownie!" The man said to me.

I looked at him, "Hey." I didn't like his choice of words and wished to not engage with him. He didn't say anything to me but kept talking to this girl behind me about how rough and tough he was. Kept bragging and going on about how he can fight hand-to-hand with anyone in the military.

I got his name because the girl he was talking to knew him, "Tyler Cox the man who likes to run his mouth." She said while laughing. I got the chicks name who threw the corner of my eye was the black girl who walked past me.

"Let's not forget your introduction miss Elizabeth Woodruff the whore who has slept with over a hundred people." Tyler's response was more rude than the joke this girl Elizabeth was giving. I took out my mp3 player and just played music so I could drown out the noise around me. I listened to a lot of pop, rock, bit of country, and a small bit of J-Rock. I mostly listened whenever I pull out my mp3 music that has a lot of beat to it. I hate rap, I hate the lyrics people used and a lot of times the singer sounds like they need to think about what they are singing. Rap just disgusted me. Rarely will I find a rap song that is actually good.

I stared out the window as we had already passed the downtown of Bowling Green and it didn't take long until we got out to the country side of the city. Once we did there was a small forest area. The bus went out and parked to the side and I took my headphones out. The driver started having everyone get off the bus and then he told us we were to walk in an orderly fashion into the forest. "I hear the cave is located underground. In order to get there you have to find the hole in the ground. I'm hoping they have a way in and out of the cave.

I brought my bag to collect anything that looks cool." The red hair chick Amber said as she walked in front of me.

"I've got no idea why I'm here anymore. I kind of just want to go home." I said under my breath. Everyone had already been about five feet ahead of me and I just kept walking, "I've come this far I might as well just stay with everyone." I said to myself. I looked up ahead as we got to the entrance of the forest and looked around to see that other than myself, there were only 8 people in front of me, "Where's the other member? There should be ten of us altogether?" I looked around for the other person and felt someone bump at my back and when I turned around I saw a mexican girl who was almost my height, black hair, looked cute, brown eyes, and had a sketch pad out.

"Oh I'm sorry I was amazed at the area so I was drawing it in my book." She said with her head down.

She had her book closed and stuck her hand out, "My name is Karina Medrano. I'm new to Bowling Green it's nice to meet you."

I raised my hand out and shook hers, "I'm Travis Edge. I've been living here in Bowling Green for a while." The guide cut our introduction short and told us to find a partner and to stick close to them. I looked around to see everyone having found a partner. Elizabeth was not only holding Tyler's hand but squeezing his butt, "That's not really socially appropriate." I thought to myself. The chick named Amber was with some other dude and the only people who weren't with a partner was me and this girl Karina. "I guess you and I are partners for this excavation." I said to her.

She was kind of quiet and we walked into the forest. When I walked my first step into the forest I felt something go through my body causing some pain throughout my body, "Agh! What the hell was that?" It felt like I walked through something and I wasn't the only person who felt it. Everyone here did too, including Karina. "What was that?" She asked. I didn't know but the guide wasn't affected at all. "Come on and hurry up guys we are close to the entrance to the cave. It's right up ahead!" I was wondering why the guide didn't notice what had just happened and when I looked around the forest I noticed that the liveliness of the animals was gone. "Something feels off about this place. Why are the animals not lively right now? They were just all chipper some time ago." We had walked about five minutes after entering the forest and the guide was far ahead of us picking something up off the ground. It looked like a tarp covered with grass and sticks. He unraveled something next to where the tarp was once placed and it was a rope ladder. He tied the ropes around some stones and threw the ladder down a hole, "Down here guys is the cave. Please watch your step as you go down and everyone go down one at a time." The guide went down first and everyone formed a line as they went down one by one. I had Karina go down first and then I saw something that caught my eye. What I saw was a giant monster who stood almost six foot tall with white and blue armor that looked like its body. It held a spear weapon with an axe head on the other end and had two giant horns on its head.

The white looked more like armor than anything else. He had crimson red eyes that glowed but then I was distracted by the guide, "Hey son you coming down?" He asked. I looked back at the monster and he was gone.

"Yea I'm coming down." I said to the guide. I didn't like this forest but I thought it would be best if I stuck with the group, "Something about this whole thing is raising red flags. But I think it would be best if I stuck with my group." I got down in the cave and was amazed at all of the torches lit exposing minerals and some gems that were stuck in the wall. It was beautiful and everyone was amazed at the sight. Karina and I stayed behind the group looking at the rare minerals and shiny stones. Our group was going deeper into the cave and Karina saw a hole in the wall as she grabbed me stopping me from advancing with our group.

"Hey there's something over here Travis." She said pointing at something in the wall.

I grabbed one of the torches on the wall and looked to see where our group was who was deeper in the cave. I moved the torch over to the small hole in the wall that Karina was pointing at and I started kicking the wall. Every kick was causing cracks and making it fall apart. Karina helped by removing the cracks on the wall and having them fall onto the ground. When they did I saw a corridor leading deeper into the cave. We walked down the corridor and at the end of it I saw something that looked like a giant red stone that was lighting up and then dimming. The stone had words written on it and it said something, "Here lies the mighty dragon and a fraction of his mighty power." I said aloud. I looked at Karina who was confused and excited at what we had found. Our time was cut short as I heard an explosion in the cave followed by people screaming in pain. The voices got louder as they began echoing throughout the cave and a purple light began showing at the entrance of the corridor. I had put my hands over my ears and when the screaming stopped I walked back to the entrance of the corridor, "Stay behind me Karina."

I could tell she was scared for she hid behind me and we slowly walked over to the entrance towards the purple light. I raised my torch a bit higher and when we got to the entrance the purple light hit me and I pushed Karina back as she fell onto the ground. The purple light began to absorb into my body and I looked at my hands as purple cracks began to form all over my body.

I was on the ground agonizing in pain as my childhood began flashing around my mind. A voice that sounded like mine was talking to me. "Die Travis, you failure. Give into your despair, fall into the deepest darkest part of your heart. Your all alone Travis, nobody will miss you. Why are you resisting? You know it's true, you can't protect anyone, you can't love anyone, and you can't trust anyone. How much longer will you keep this staying alive up? Just die already. Remember Mark? How he sold you out to that gang? Remember how great it was to bang him up on the pavement? All that power you had from your anger? I can give you that power to hurt those who have hurt you. All you need to do is stop struggling and give into your despair. No one will ever love you, no one will ever want to be your friend, and no one will protect you when you actually need someone. There is no need to keep yourself tied down in this wretched world. Just give into your despair already!" The voice replayed this over and over again.

I knew the voice was right, but for some reason I just wasn't ready to give up on this world, "Help! Help me! Someone help me!" I said in my head screaming wishing that someone will make it all stop.

I looked up to see a dark black version of me standing in front of me as it placed its hands on my throat and I could feel my life being sucked out of me as the figure kept smiling and laughing at me all the while. Then through all that was going on in front of me I heard Karina scream, "What are you?! Help! Someone help! Travis!"

I heard my name and right before I passed out of being choked out I grabbed the hands of my attacker, "Get the hell off of me!" I said as I raised my legs back and kicked it off of me. The thing went soaring into the ceiling and then vanished upon impact. Once this happened I found myself back on the ground and the purple cracks were quickly vanishing. I got back up off the ground and saw a grey monster holding a spear backing Karina into the corner behind the giant red glowing stone. I didn't have time to think or act as my legs began moving on their own and I ran at the monster grabbing it from behind. The monster hit my head with the back of his and it caused me to let go. Then the monster turned around and I saw these bright yellow scars all over its body.

The monster took the blunt part of its spear and hit me in the chest causing me to stumble backwards and then it raised its foot and kicked me in the gut as I fell up against the red stone. Some blood went down my mouth and right when the monster raised its spear with the blade pointed at my head I raised one hand over my face while the other was on the red stone which then grew extremely bright. When I lowered my hand I saw nothing but darkness and then I heard something breathing behind me. I turned around to see a giant mechanical dragon with glowing red eyes looking at me. Surprised, I fell to the ground putting my hands up. The dragon began laughing, "Don't worry I'm not going to harm you. You have overcome your despair and have placed your hands on my stone seal. My name is Dragon." I was surprised to see this giant thing talking to me let alone not going to harm me.

The dragon began flying around me, "You don't have a lot of time before you die so I'm going to cut to the chase this will sting a bit." The dragon flew around me some more and then began to glow as it flew directly at me and then vanished upon impact. I was back on the ground in pain but then I felt something was in my hand. I looked at my hand to see two grey rings. One had a black hand with a gold outline and the other was a red stone and some kind of eye mask above at the top of it. I awoke to see the monster in front of me blind and I took this opportunity to grab Karina and run. I looked back when we got to the entrance and noticed the giant stone was gone.

"I don't think that was a dream." I said to myself.

We got back to the ladder and I had Karina go up first. I heard snarling behind me and I saw two of that same scarred monster coming up from behind with their spears raised. Karina was almost halfway there and I was still holding the rings in my hands. I put them in my pocket and once again acted without thinking. The monster in front thrust his spear at me and I roundhouse kicked it out of his hand and then grabbed the spear and stabbed the monster in its shoulder. Sparks flew off its armor from the attack and then I watched as a small explosion went off. I put my hands up to my face and quickly jumped onto the ladder.

I hurried up with climbing the ladder as the other monster began climbing. I grabbed Karina's hand and began running down the forest way looking for the path we were on. But the entire forest had changed; it looked a lot different than when we arrived. I was starting to panic and when I looked back I saw eight of those grey monsters with spears pointed and marching towards us. "I'm scared Travis. What's going to happen to us?" Karina was staying behind me frightened.

I put my hands up with my fist clenched ready to fight, and then I heard his voice, "Ha you're going to fight those ghouls with just your bare hands? You're an interesting mage aren't you? I give you my power and you're not even going to use it?"

In my mind I saw Dragon standing before me looking at me, "I don't know how or what your power is. If you have powers then tell me how to use them!" I said at the beast.

He raised one of his claws and had it pointed at my waist, "Scan your black hand ring after placing it on your right middle finger on that to start the process, then take the red ring and push the face guard down, say "Transform." Then place it over the hand on your belt with the back of the hand aimed at your left side. The left hand side of your belt is for transforming, and the right side of the belt is for your spells. Once you've transformed you will then know everything you have to do. Good luck Masked Rider Wizard." With that Dragon went back inside my body and I took out my rings. The black hand ring went on my right hand's finger and I placed it aligned with a black hand belt that was now around my waist.

"Driver On, Please."

My belt said as the black hand extended out and a silver belt buckle with the black hand was now able to be seen. There were levers on the side of the black hand and I pushed the one on the right to turn the black hand from the right position to the left position.

"Sha Ba Doobi Touch to Transform! Sha Ba Doobi Touch to Transform!"

The belt was saying with music playing. I took out the red ring and put it on my left hand's middle finger and raised it in front of my face, "Transform." I said. I placed my hand over the singing belt and a deep voice sounded in the belt.

"Flame, Please."

I then took my hand and moved it to the left side of me as a giant red circle with a bunch of weird drawings all over it began floating through me and what was once my body was now a suit with a black coat, black with some red stones shoes, my chest area was replaced with a red stone chest plate and my face was now the face of the ring that was still on my left finger. I had a silver chain with holes on my left side that had four rings in them. My wrists had red stone arm bracelets and once I was done with my transformation the monsters known as Ghouls stopped in their tracks. They were shocked to see me.

"Now, it's show time." I raised my hand out and a blade appeared with another hand above the hilt. I looked at Karina, "I'll be right back Karina, wait for me here." Karina didn't know what to say as she looked at me in awe.

"Yea, sure thing." She said.

I ran back towards the cave entrance as the ghouls began running towards me. The first ghoul went for a high cut and I put my blade up to stop it. I then came in close to him and punched him in the chest and then brought my blade down to slice him across the chest. He started glowing and thinking he was going to explode I kicked him back to his group. He exploded once getting knocked back onto the ground and two of his buddies came at me, I pressed a button on the side of my blade folding the tip backwards and pressed another button above the hilt to turn my sword into a gun. I pressed the trigger and fired bullets that went towards the two ghouls knocking them back on their feet. I fired bullets at the other ghouls knocking them back and I grabbed the thumb of the black hand on my gun and pushed it forward.

This caused the clenched hand to open revealing a circle in the palm of it to glow.

"C'mon and shoot and shake hands! C'mon and shoot and shake hands!"

The gun was saying in an exciting tone. I placed my transformation ring over the hand.

"Flame, Shooting Strike! Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!"

I pulled the trigger and flame began forming around the end of the gun and kept turning into a bigger ball of fire. I let go of the trigger and the giant ball of fire made its way to the group of ghouls and a big explosion happened immediately. I brought my gun back to sword mode rested it on my shoulder, "Whew." I said as I turned around facing Karina.

She rushed over to me, "I think we're safe for now. I don't know how I know but I can't sense any living thing other than us for miles." I wanted to take her word for it but I looked around us and noticed that even the hole in the ground was gone. When I looked more around I saw what looked like police cars near the road where the bus was parked. I pulled back the face guard on my transformation ring and reverted back to my original form. I looked down to see the silver belt buckle go back to its black hand only form wrapped around my waist. "We need to head back to town." I said to Karina as I took her hand and we ran towards the cops. "I don't know what that was all about but I have a feeling this is far from over." I said in my head.

We got closer to the cops who immediately ran up to us. Apparently they were sent out because the bus driver who took us out was wanted for suspicions over twenty missing people. The bus licensed plate was on every cops watch list and then I began to worry about the other eight people who were with us. The cops had us get into the squad car and when I looked back at the forest I noticed the horned monster was watching us from afar behind a tree. As we drove away three more monsters that were hard to see appeared out from the tree and I had a feeling this wasn't the last time I was going to have to transform.

The cops took us into town for questioning where we mentioned everything about a cave exploration that ten people were handpicked to attend but we kept out the whole monsters and ghouls, and what I just did to save our lives. I didn't even tell them about the monsters I had seen upon entering and leaving the forest. We were at the police station for two hours until they let us go. When we got outside the police station Karina didn't want to leave my side, "Can I crash at your place tonight? I don't feel safe being alone right now." I told her she could and we walked to the other side of the city since my bike was left back at the mall. Night time was getting ready to settle in and when we got back to my place I had her sleep on the couch and I went to lay in my bed as I looked at my rings that I had placed on my desk in front of me. I had three new rings I had found in my pocket after my battle. I just stared at them while lying down until I fell asleep.