Rise of the Gemini

The teenage young man’s eyes, a grey-blue with streaks of ochre, analyzed his opponent, looking for an opening, and his medium-length hair rustled in the wind as he leaned back slightly to avoid his opponent’s flurry of punches. His opponent, also a young man in his early-teens, narrowed his dark brown eyes in concentration as he faked a left hook before delivering a left body shot, which he followed up with a low hook, jab, cross, left hook, cross, left hook, and right body shot in quick succession. Narrowly blocking and/or dodging each punch, the the first fighter sensed an opportunity as his opponent threw a particularly wild hook. He weaved under the hook and whirled around, his white gi fluttering behind him as he executing a spinning hook kick to his opponent’s head. His opponent, however, had other plans, one of which included throwing his hands between his head and the first fighter’s foot, easily blocking the kick. Taller and more muscular than the first fighter, he also easily blocked jump roundhouse kick that followed the spinning hook. The second fighter also had shorter hair than the first guy. I don’t know why this detail is important, but I thought you should know. The fight continued this way for some time, with the first fighter’s precision matched by the second fighter’s strength. After a lengthy bought of heated battle during which some particularly nasty blows were exchanged by both characters, the first fighter parried a kick from the second fighter, stepped back in preparation for a side kick, and then...he saw her. The teenage girl appeared around a bend in the dirt path a short ways away from the field in which the two fighters fought, with both hands clasped on the handle of a bucket of water, undoubtedly drawn from the nearby well. As she rounded the corner of the road, the wind swept her black hair to the side, the clouds parted, and a ray of light shined down to illuminate the angelic beauty her face. The first young fighter stood entranced, and his heart skipped a beat when she glanced over in his direction. She smiled at him. He smiled back. Then excruciating pain erupted across his face and he blacked out.

...

As the young man opened his eyes, he wondered why the sky had rotated 90 degrees to a vertical position. “That’s strange,” he thought to himself as he stared at the vertical sky in front of him. “The sky’s never done that before.” As mental acuity returned to him, he realized that the sky had not flipped 90 degrees; he had, and he was lying face-up on the ground. Along with brain functionality, however, came throbbing pain permeating his head. The face of his opponent appeared between him and the sky and looked at him with a concerned expression.

“Are you okay Shard?!? What happened? I thought you were going to block my punch, but for some reason you didn’t react!”

The first fighter, who was indeed named Shard, sat up with a groan.

“Absolutely brilliant idea, Blaze! Just punch the guy who is standing there and not reacting! Why not go around punching babies while you’re at it! Your genius truly is being wasted in these fields; why don’t you head over to Ninjago City so as to enlighten its people with your brilliance.” Shard snapped in a sarcastic fury, obviously in a bad mood due to the fact that, well, he had just been punched, and it hurt. Plus, the fact that the beautiful girl was gone probably didn’t help his mood too much.

The second fighter, whose was indeed named Blaze, replied defensively “We were in the middle of sparring! The whole point of sparring is to punch the other person! Also, did you just compare yourself to a baby?”

“What, no, I--whatever, that’s not important!” Shard stuttered in reply. “What is important is the wasted potential of your infinite wisdom! If, hypothetically, there existed a minifigure named Einstein, and if, completely hypothetically of course because obviously no one named Einstein has ever actually existed, he was the smartest man ever to live, your utter genius would surpass even his.”

“Well someone woke up grumpy,” Blaze muttered, nonetheless extending a hand to help Shard to his feet.

“Only because someone knocked me out,” Shard muttered in return while taking his brother’s outstretched hand.”

Despite their constant, I mean constant arguing, the two brothers knew they could always depend on each other. They had to, after all, without any parents to depend on.