Troy was never the best Knight in any lineup. His patrols rarely targeted the Negaverse: Instead, he played the role of a simpler superhero. He was a nighttime vigilante that fended off against petty crimes and assaults throughout the city. He only occasionally brushed against the dangerous foes of the Negaverse and their youma. And that was the way he liked it. Or at least, that was the way that Haley certainly preferred things to be, had she even known he was powering up in the first place.

“It is too dangerous,” Haley would always insist. There were a lot of insistences. “We can’t power up.” “You need to leave the toilet seat down, or at least flush.” “I’m not your girlfriend! I refuse to give into the patriarchal system that declares you to have that kind of ownership over me!” So many insistences from someone who didn’t like to think of herself as his girlfriend.

Despite her wishes, Ricky still powered up to Troy Squire of Chronos at least once or twice a week, but kept his head low to stay safe. He also still referred to her as his girlfriend. And he still scarcely would leave the toilet seat down.

On this particular night, he had just used his superhuman strength to put an end to a mugging and assault of a young woman who took the wrong turn down a back alley. “Why do these people even go down back alleys?” he’d often wonder. They were obviously dangerous, and there were obviously smarter, safer, better decisions to make than that. Even he was intelligent enough to discern that.

But nonetheless, he felt proud as he knocked out the mugger and threw him over his back, intending to drop him off at the steps of the local precinct with a little note – a ritual he had made frequently as of late. But as he leapt from rooftop to rooftop towards the precinct, a strange and unfamiliar feeling overcame him.

Something was calling to him, something sinister and dark.

The feeling overwhelmed him as he leapt between buildings – causing him to drop the mugger’s body down into the alley below, only to then completely forget about the task at hand. There was no time to even think about the mugger’s safety after such a fall: all he could think about was this feeling. A voice? A call to the dark side?

“Darth Vader?” he questioned, Star Wars on his mind. He will not submit to the Dark Side of the Force.

Wait, no, that’s not what it was. An interstellar space wars with clearly defined sides such as light and dark sides of spiritual forces that inhabit specially-powered aliens would be ridiculous. There’s no way that could exist. This was something else…it was…gone, just like that.

Troy scratched his head. What the hell was that? He knew one thing for sure: whatever that was, it wasn’t a good sign. Something wicked was brewing and it was going to be a pain in the a** later.

Maybe Haley was right. “******** shitballs.”

Oh, also, the mugger didn’t make it.