Story of Lion Man

Chapter 12

This is the twelfth chapter. Hope you enjoy it.

Hannah kept driving for several hours, and she did not stop until nigthfall. They stopped in the middle of a path in the middle of a large forest, which looked more unsettling at night. Hannah opened her door, and got out, stretching her arms out and her back out. Ryan and Jess also got out and they too stretched. "Where are we?" Ryan asked, as he lspinned his body around on the spot, looking around. "We're in the Forest of Dean. We should be safe here." Hannah answered. They then heard the sound of a stick snapping and they all looked forwards to see two 19 year old teenage boys who were both the same height holding torches. One was slightly fat and had thin black hair, wore a red jumper and blue jeans, the other one was skinny with long black, wore a blue coat and black trousers. "Sorry about that, folks. We were just wondering what you're doing here at this time of night." The skinny boy said apologetically. "Um,... we were just stretching. Long drive. Coming out here for a camp." Jess said back, coming up with a cover, Ryan looking at her in confusion, as he didn't know about the excuse. The fat boy took a step forward, looked at Ryan with his torch and narrowed his eyes. "Ryan?" He asked, making Ryan swiftly turn his head towards him. "Mark? Is that you?" Ryan asked. The boy smiled. "Yes, it's me, pal!" The boy answered before laughing, and then he and the skinny boy, who had also looked at Ryan, then hugged him.

Hannah and Jess looked confused. Ryan looked at them, and as he and the boys parted the hug. "You know these two?" Hannah asked. "These are my friends, Mark and Tom Conner." Ryan introduced. "My name's Thomas, and this is Markus. We're twins." The skinny boy corrected. "Twins?" Jess asked. "Yeah, twins. You got a problem with that?" Mark asked her, both him and Tom staring at her in a offended sort of way. "Oh, no, um, sorry. Uh... anyway, come on, Ryan. Let's go find a place to pitch camp." Jess said, before she turned back towards the car. "Not a good idea, setting up tents at this time of night. Our camp's not far from here. You can stay with us for the night." Tom said to them. Hannah and Jess looked at each other, before looking at Ryan. "It's okay. Their my friends. We can trust them." He whispered to them. So Hannah and Jess then looked at the Conner twins and nodded. "Lead the way." Jess said, as the twins then turned around and, using their torches, led the three (Hannah locking the car with her keys) through the dark forest, until a few minutes later, they came upon a small campsite with two tents (one yellow, one green), two foldable chairs, and a campfire in between. "You lot can sleep in here." Mark said as he emptied all the things that they wouldn't need from the green tent. The three nodded in reply, before they all sat on a log before the fire. 

They all sat in silence for a while until Tom (on Ryan's left) turned to Ryan. "So... what brings you here, Ryan? And what are doing with these two? Is she your girlfriend?" Tom asked quietly, Mark (who sat on Tom's left) snickering as he heard. "Eww!" Ryan replied as he looked at Tom in disgust. "No! We barely know each other. I'm just with them for the ride." Ryan explained. "And what kind of ride is that?" Mark asked. "Mind your own business." Jess said, a bit rudely. "It's nothing. Hey, you want to see something cool tomorrow?" Ryan asked. The twins then grinned and nodded. Ryan looked at Hannah who mouthed "No". "Hey, like I said. We can trust them. And if they told somebody, I don't think they'll believe them. Not many people take these two seriously." Ryan said to her. "Yeah, you can trust us." Tom said. "So, what are you doing here?" Mark asked them. "People are trying to kill us. We need a place to stay low." Ryan answered. He saw Hannah and Jess open their mouths in shock as he was telling them part of  the truth, as the twins chuckled. "Wow! Just like a spy movie! Of course, that's not good, but in a way it's cool." Mark said. "So, what are you guys doing here?" Ryan then asked. "Well, great aunt thought we could use a break from home schooling, so we decided to camp for the week. You know how much we like travelling." Mark answered. "You live with your great aunt?" Jess asked. "Yeah, our parents died in a car crash when they were visiting friends in Italy. Nasty one. Car fell of the cliff." Mark explained sadly. "Family is poor, so we have to be home educated. It's not much, but we know how to read." Mark joked, chuckling from the joke. Soon after that, they went to bed.

The next morning, the group had woken up, had breakfast by the fire, and Ryan, Hannah, and Jess went back to the car. "Do we have... you know what vials?" Ryan whispered as he brought out a car board box from the boot and placed it on the ground.  "Yeah, here. Why?" Hannah answered as she took out two small plastic containers, one with a red sticker on the lid, the other with an orange sticker. They both held a couple of vials. Ryan opened them, and took out an orange vial from the orange marked container. "Well, they deserve to know." Ryan grinned as he turned back to the camp. Hannah just signed and went back to unpacking. Back at the camp, Mark and Tom were sitting down in their foldable chairs, looking at the forest. "Hey, guys." Ryan said, making them both turn to look at him. "Remember I said something last night about seeing something cool?" He asked, the twins nodding in reply. "Well, watch this." Ryan said as he drank the orange vial and Lionized. The twins mouths and eyes taped open in shock. "W-w-w-w-what-what just happened?" Mark stammered. "The serum did this. But don't worry, I can transform back. It's not permanent." Ryan said.. "Where did you learn to do this?" Tom asked, confused. "Long story." Lion replied, as he sat down on the log and told them what had happened. Well everything, minus Martin's death. "So your going to figth evil?" Tom asked. "You fought an Avenger?" Mark asked. "Yeah, yeah." Ryan said, before he looked down, a look of sadness on his face.

 "So, when do you go to figth the bad guy?" Tom asked excitedly. "Uh... don't know." Ryan answered, still looking down, before he got up on his feet and walked back to the car. He still blamed himself for Martin's death, and had lost faith in himself, and could not bare the shame. How could he take down Daniel if he killed his own mentor? He looked ahead slightly and saw Jess running towards him. "Ryan. Quit messing around with your friends. We need to plan our next move against Dan." She said. "There are no more steps to the plan." Ryan replied sadly as he turned left and walked away from Jess, who had a look of confusion of her face. "What do you mean? Where are you going?" She asked. "To look around the forest. I think it's beautiful." Ryan answered, slightly happy again, as she started to run after him.

And that's the twelfth chapter. Hope you enjoyed. BTW (by the way) The Conner twins, Markus "Mark", and Thomas "Tom", are the Timon and Pumbaa figures in this story. The next chapter will be out soon.