Blank Knight and the Wheeler Curse

Blank Knight and the Wheeler Curse

By SF_THRAWN

 

Won’t you be my neighbor
By Cayde Cates

Um, because I made a paper doll I was told to write one of these, so here we go. My name is Cayde and I am a new student who has moved from Britain. My pops encouraged me to explore the town while he put boxes in their respective rooms. So I got on my bike and went to the grocery store (What else am I supposed to do?). 

As I was looking for biscuits I overheard some kids talking about trees, an argument and a comic store. With that last part they were super specific so I followed the directions and eventually found the place that they were talking about. When I ventured in I knew that my life had changed.

 

Origins- 

By Cayde Cates

 Once I got out I had no clue what happened to me, all I knew was that I had a paper bag in my hands that was full of thin picture books. 

I looked at my watch and saw that it was 12:30 and I had to be home for lunch. After I ate I looked around at my room, It was still full of boxes, I set down the paper bag and began to unpack. After I had set up my bed and put all of my clothes in the wash I moved on to the stuff that my old mates gave to me as a going away gift. Liam gave me a sticker of an American flag that has a McDonalds logo where the stars should be, Steve gave me a Liverpool jersey even though he knows I love Arsenal, and Gerardo, poor Gerardo, gave me what he called a ‘comic book’. 

On the front was a post-it note. It read, ‘I know that you could care less about comics but something tells me that you NEED this.’

 

Reading List

By Cayde Cates

As I put down the postcard I finished unpacking my boxes. I opened up the paper bag and sifted through what I had purchased, there were a bunch of one dollar ‘comics’ under the name ‘True Believer’ then there were more expensive ones all about a hero called ‘Black Knight’. I looked over to Gerardo’s gift. It was part of the same series and it appeared to be the end of the line. I unstuck the tape from the back of a story about a hero called ‘Thor,’ and began to read…

[Some Time Later]

After I put down the final comic I heard my name get called out.

“Oy! Cayde! Come help out your mum!” It was my Pops.

“No, no! It’s fine,” my mum said “Just as long as he is not reading comics!”

I could feel my heart rate pick up as I scrambled to put the comics away.

 

First Day Jitters

By Cayde Cates

I was rushed out the door by my pops. After my mom got her new job at the college in Cortland, he got more invested in my school work. He has done a crack-down on all things fun. I now have a curfew, I have to call him every thirty minutes or else he will call me and other equally not fun stuff. I got out of the car and walked up the steps of Wheeler High. My dad honked his horn and held out my back-pack.

“Oy! You will need this!” he said.

That would get me a few looks elsewhere but apparently that was just normal. I saw a few other kids go through the same thing. I saw some strange things though; most kids had origami finger puppets with them. I recognised some of them, one kid had Nova, apparently he was talking to Doctor Strange and Spider-Man about something serious. I walked up to the doors and tried to open up to them to no avail. I dropped my bag and sat down on the steps and waited for school to start. A few minutes later and the bell rang for an assembly. 

 

The Challenge

By Nico Alvares

I just saw the funniest thing happen to this sophomore. He tried to open the doors to school on the first day even though he could see that everyone was outside. I had the perfect plan to get this kid even more humiliated, but as soon as I started to sneak up on him the bell rang for the assembly. Principal Villanueva kept on blabbering about how good it was to have all the old Kirby kids at school but I just could not take it any more.

“Hey moron!” I yelled “Can we just go to class already?”

Some of the teachers just looked shocked while other students just began to laugh their heads off. I was basking in the glory until I felt someone pull on the back of my shirt. It was that kid who I was going to prank.

I held up my origami Swordsman. “You do that again and I’ll bury you!” he said.

He stood, looked at it and laughed. “I don’t need a paper doll to tell you how wrong you are.”

At this time some teachers were coming over to stop what was about to happen but it was too late. I swung my fist and made first contact with his jaw. He looked up at me and snickered, he then tried to hit me, but to no avail. After the fight was settled I challenged him to a duel two days from today.

 

College Life

By Cayde Cates

My Pops decided that it would be ‘educational’ if we took a drive up to see where my mum worked so that we could discuss the fight I got into at school. The drive was silent so I knew that things were going to go down.

“Why did you get into a fight?” he asked.

“Some kid told the principal to shut up so that we could go to class,” I explained.

“What you’re telling me is that you hit a kid that was trying to do the right thing?” he said.

“Well if you put it that way, yes.” I said. “But it’s like you say, ‘A knight follows orders-’”

“‘Because it’s the honorable thing to do,’” he finished. “Go into town but not a block away from your mum’s office. Me and your mum need to talk about some things.”

I got out of the car and headed off into town. I got some strange looks but that was a given. I could see the window to my mum’s office so I was in the clear. I walked down the sidewalk and turned into a comic store. And before I knew it I was getting dragged out by my collar.

 

Backstory 

By Cayde Cates

I barely even heard what my mum and pops were going on about but I knew I was in deep. I began to break down in tears as they continued on.

“Awww, honey what’s wrong?” she asked.

“Ever since we moved here I have been drawn to these characters and comics. It’s like something has been calling to me-” I said.

My mum was about to say something but my pops stopped her.

“It’s like something has been pulling me to these, these things!” I was now unstable as my hands started to shake.

“You know your uncle, Donny?” he said.

“Y-yes,” I said, starting to pull myself together.

“Well he felt that same ‘pull,’” he said. “Now he works for Marvel. You see there’s this thing about Madison, Marvel and our family,” he continued, “Your gran went to Wheeler and when she graduated she fell in love with an American. They had a kid and then the American left. The kid then fell in love with comics and cartoons about these characters. He became ‘the Amazing Spider-Page’. He went on all these missions with the OrigAvengers and once his time at the school came to a close he moved to Britain where he met your mother.”

It hit me that he was talking about himself. My mum just sat there in shock, they had an argument but it ended in resolution. Once we got home I started to fold something.

 

It’s Time to Duel!!!

By Nico Alvares

I was sick of Cayde’s pompous british style as soon as I saw him. He walked up to me with his head held high and his arms extended. I tossed him a plastic sword from the dollar store and held mine at my waist, ready to strike. He picked it up and the duel began. 

His sword clashed with mine. I swiped at his leg and to avoid it he began to roll down a hill. I jumped down to attack him and the swords clashed again. By this time, a crowd had gathered. I knew that I could not win so I decided to use an old tactic, revealing secrets, but first I had to remove the swords from the equation. I lodged my blade under his hilt and flipped up tossing them into some black paint. Now this is where the fun begins.

 

Everyone Has Secrets…

By Cayde Cates

“It has come to my attention that Cayde has not been telling the whole truth about his family name!” he said.

“So what? Everyone has secrets,” I proclaimed. “Even Parker!”

“And like Parker, Your reputation will be crushed after this!” He yelled to the crowd. “It was 25 years ago and your father was a kid here. Like you, he LOVED comics. So when he had to move he hid his collection and left behind his old files. Inside is a map to a secret treasure that your father found when he first moved here and it is my destiny to destroy it and lift the Wheeler curse!”

“I’m sorry, the Wheeler what?!” I asked.

“Once a year a student is chosen by the MCP to receive unlimited knowledge at the price of a secret.” He explained “One year a group of students decided to go against the MCP and so he cursed the school! Your father found the source of the curse but as he was going to remove it he moved to Britain!”

“Then we can destroy it together!” I yelled.

“NO! It must be me, not you!” he screamed. “The MCP has chosen me, not you! I am the king here! I am the chosen one who is supposed to-”

I was sick of the lies that were spewing out of their mouth so I grabbed the sword and hit him in the chest with it. He hunched over and whimpered. The crowd around me cheered. I held up Blank Knight and yelled triumphantly.

 

Short Box, Long Story

By Sean Cates

Year: 2020

Daily quip: “My wife is going to kill me…”

I can’t believe I am still doing this. The last time I did this I was 16 and I was packing up boxes because I was moving. Well, now I am back in New York looking for my old comic book collection so that my son can lift a 75-year-old curse. We decided to go to the start of all of this, ‘Saru’s Super Stories.’ I walked in the store and saw one of my old teammates manning the cash register. 

“Hey Cyndi! It’s been some time,” I said.

Her head sprung up to meet my eyes. Cayde just looked very confused.

“Oh. My. GOSH! Is that you Sean?” she asked.

“Yeah, it’s me. I think this store has something of mine?” I asked.

“Oh! Yeah, it would be on the shelf in the back.” She said.

We followed her back and then Cyndi grabbed some printer paper and cut it into four little sheets. She handed me a bit, but I was already ahead of her. I pulled out a remake of my old Spider-Page that I had made last night and held it up.

“Hey! Mattias, get over here!” Cyndi yelled as she was re-making her Wasp puppet.

Then a man in his early forties came running over. The last time I saw Mattias he was not doing so good, what with his parents splitting up, but he looked healthy. He cracked a big grin as soon as he saw me.

“Why you slimy-no good-double crossing swindler!” he said

“Still quoting movies, are we now?” I said.

“Cyndi, what do you need me to do?” Mattias asked.

“Fold Ant-gami.” She said, handing him a piece of paper.

After they were done folding Mattias looked at Cayde. “Does he have a puppet?” he asked.

 

Finding the Old Casefile 

By Cayde Cates

After my duel with Nico I was super invested in finding out what was in this box. I pulled out my Blank Knight and pointed it at Mattias’s Ant-gami

“The crusade begins!” Blank Knight said

“Agreed, wait, crusade?” Ant-gami asked.

We all ventured over to a shelf that was draped in a cloth. Cyndi pulled it back and pulled out a box that was covered in drawn-on webs and doodled-on comic characters. She rested it on a nearby poker table. As I was going to open it, she stopped me and looked at my dad.

“That would be thirty bucks,” she said.

After the price was paid I slowly opened the box and instantly began to search for the source of the curse. As I scanned through my dad’s collection I did not find a single file! So I walked back to the wall and found another smaller box on the top shelf that had the words ‘property of F.O.L.D.’ on it but F.O.L.D. was crossed out and in a red sharpie my dad wrote ‘Spider-Page!’ I walked back to the table and opened the box to find all of these old folders with labels on them, ‘Spider-Page and the Comic-Con Upset’ and a big file that said ‘The Clone Saga’ but I finally found what I was looking for. ‘THE MCP: True identity?’ I heard bits and pieces of what the adults were talking about. They were going on about the clone saga and how there were ‘so many Spiders’. I rested the file on the table and opened it.

 

The Nerd is Strong With Me… – 

By Cayde Cates

I had the files in my hands and my dad was holding his old long box. When we got home we watched the Andrew Garfield version of Spider-Man. I was still trying to wrap my head around the information but I knew I would need to dig deeper. So until I am needed again, this is Cayde Cates signing out!

 

Blank Knight will return!

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