Chapter 1: The Beginning

Zack Adrian was just a regular kid, albeit he had more downs than up in his life. He had one friend, who was an exchange student so he would be leaving after school let out, no girl or boyfriend, and he was having a severe case of writer's block for the last two weeks.

Now, compared to his other problems that might not seem like a big deal, but, he was supposed to have finished writing a script for the school play. It was supposed to be a musical about The Avengers, which had been coming along great, he was having a very difficult time writing the final number for the big finale where the kid who ends up playing Iron Man is supposed to have a big emotional ballad about how he was stopping a nuke from bringing down NYC, but his mind just kept wandering further, and further from his task.

Eventually, Zack just called up his friend Yayu Tao. Yayu was an exchange student from Japan. He had thin glasses and a bowl cut hairstyle with thin black hair. Yayu also had a retainer, and girlfriend waiting for him back in Japan. "Alright, 555-4226," Zack thought aloud. Yayu answered on the second ring. "Hello?" said Yayu, saying it more as a question than statement. Zack also marveled at Yayu's apparent lack of an accent. He sounded just like he had been born and raised in central New York, rather than Kyoto. "Hey, Yayu, it's Zack." "Oh, hey, what's going on?" "Are you up for going to the rollerdrome today?" "Totally. How soon can you be over here?" asked Yayu excitedly. The rollerdrome was one of the first places Zack had taken Yayu when he found out that Yayu would be staying in the same town as him, and so far it was his favorite place to go. "I'll be there as soon as I can. See you in a couple minutes," Zack informed him, already grabbing his coat and wallet.

As Zack reached for his keys he looked in the mirror, and really observed himself. He had a very Nordic face, with the coming of a beard. He was about 17 and roughly six feet eleven inches. He had blond hair, and eyes that would often change color from green, to turquoise, to blue, and around again.

Next he looked at his outfit, which was often the same only varying in colors. Today he was wearing a forest green button down shirt, with a solid cyan tie, a grey tweed vest, dark blue jeans, maroon converse sneakers, a Hard Rock fedora, and was putting on his leather jacket now.

As Zack was heading down the stairs he shouted, "Going out to roller skate, Mom! I'll be back in a couple hours." Zack walked outside to the car he dreamed of fixing up someday. It worked, but was far from its heyday. It was a red 1962 Chevrolet. Much like Agent Coulson's car, but not as pretty, and as far as Zack knew, couldn't fly. Zach got in, started the car, and began the short drive to Yayu's house. It was just a couple right turns and soon Zack was there.

Zack got out of the car and went up to the door. As soon as he knocked on the door, Yayu's host parent's dogs started barking up a storm, excited to see him. Zack typically was skittish around dogs, but he was perfectly fine around Bonnie, a tiny white Chihuahua, and Clyde, a huge lumbering brown and white Saint Bernard. Yayu's host mom came to the door and unlocked it. It was a good thing Zack did a lot of weightlifting, because Clyde tried to knock Zack down and lick him to death. Luckily though, all he did was push him a little backwards.

"Easy Clyde, down now, down boy. I'm happy to see you too," Zack said affectionately. Bonnie was pawing at Zack's legs trying to get his attention. "How could I forget about little old you?" Zack said as he picked up Bonnie. Bonnie licked his hands and Zack was melting due to the adorability of the situation. "Hey Zack, how's the script going?" asked Mrs. Schwartz. "It's coming along," Zack responded, "I was just getting a case of writer's block, so I thought a little bit of roller skating might help clear my head." "Glad you came by, Yayu's been on the Play Station three all day," said Mrs. Schwartz. "Yayu? On the gaming console?" asked Zack. "He simply cannot beat Guitar Hero. He's been playing it since seven o'clock." Zack looked at his Mickey Mouse watch he got when he was a kid. The time watch said that it was roughly noon. "Holy crap. He must really wanna beat that game," Zack said. "Oh believe me he does," said Mrs. Schwartz. They heard somebody walking down the hall to the door. "That must be him," Zack and Mrs. Schwartz said in unison.

Yayu popped into the door way with a smile on his face. "Hey, Zack. Are you ready to be going?" he asked. Zack just smiled and shook his head while looking down. "Yayu, it's 'Are you ready to go?'." "I know, I know," Yayu said. Yayu was learning and pronouncing English very well, but he was still having trouble with the more complicated grammar. Zack was assigned to help Yayu with everything. "And yes, I am. Let's get out of here. We'll be back in about three hours, Mrs. Schwartz," Zack informed her.

"Alright, be careful. Bye Zack, Yayu," she said as she closed the door. "Come on, Zack!" Yayu said excitedly. As stated before, Yayu loved roller skating. "Okay, okay, I'm coming," Zack said. Yayu and Zack got into the car, and started to drive to the rollerdrome.