Hardy was fast asleep on the couch again, while Audey ate breakfast on the recliner.  After she got done eating, she checked her clock and went to go get out of her pajamas and put normal clothes on.

Hardy woke up by his alarm clock on his phone which was right next to his head.  Hardy yelled out of fear. Then realized today was the day, that he and Audey had to head to the nearest NH camp too show trainees how Nightmare Hunters work.

Audey and Hardy got to the camp around 10:30.  Audey was dressed in her black pair of jeans, boots, and shirt but all looked like they were also military gear.  Her jacket looked no different, but it was covered in pockets and reached down to the ground.

Hardy was a little more friendly looking.  He had on a blue t-shirt with yellow shorts.

“Uh, boss not to be mean to your wardrobe but, we’re meeting kids, not generals,” Hardy said, a little worry in his voice.

“I always wear this,” Audey said, looking down at herself.

“I know but, don’t you have anything more. . . . not scary?”

“For kids?  No. For you?  Yes,” Audey said as she walked into the camp.

“What does that even mean?!”  Hardy said running after her, a little bit of annoice in his voice.

The camp was full of young Nightmare Hunters who were all still trainees and at the age of fourteen.  It had been awhile since Hardy and Audey been here. They were full fladge Nightmare Hunters. When the walked into the camp, Hardy was having a talk to Audey about how much he hates driving and why he had to but was interrupted by a teacher.

“It’s you two!”  one of the teachers exclaimed.  “You two don’t need to be here. Only Rank Irons need to be here.  You’re almost Rank Sliver.”
“Nah, we want to be,”  Hardy said, with a big smile on his fact.

“Well, in that case, please take this student.  They are just. . . . falling behind.”

“What do you mean?”  Audey asked, as she put a toothpick into her mouth.

“They don’t understand the basics, a lot of teachers call her a lost cause,”  the teacher said, looking ashamed at the way he was talking about his student in shuck away.

“We’ll take her,”  both Audey and Hardy said in unison.

A girl the age of fourteen and her name tag said, Cate.  Her hair was long and was a pure black but with gold tips.  Her wore a pair of jeans and a pink t-shirt with a blue jacket over it.

“Hello!” Hardy said, as he opened his arms for a big hug which he as been known for.

Audey by instanic kicked Hardy and sent him flying to a tree.  Hardy hit it with a thud and fell to the ground. No one could tell if he broke a bone or if the tree had broken some bark.  But Hardy got up like it was nothing.

“Sorry.  Hardy means no harm, he's just very loving to everyone he meets.  Seeing how skinny you are, his hug was probably gonna hurt. So I stopped him,”  Audey said, looking at Cate.

“Oh, okay,”  Cate repiled shyly, her face going a bit red.

“I’m Audey, and Hardy over here is my partner.  We’re your volunteer Nightmare Hunters who are gonna show you the ropes,”  Audey said.

“Didn’t the teachers tell you?  I’m a lost cause.”

“Teachers said the same about me and Hardy,”  Cate looked up at Audey shocked.

Audey smiled as Hardy walked to her side.

“Hardy and I are to complete opposites.  I’m rarely show emotion, but Hardy here is nothing but emotion almost twenty-four, seven.  Hardy takes nothing seriously, and I take everything seriously. Hardy is hyper and hot-headed at times, why I’m cold and calm,”  Audey said as she patted Hardy’s head.

“Boss, please stop. This is really weird,”  Hardy said.

“Why?”

“It’s weird!  No normal person pets another person’s head!”

Audey kept petting.

“Please stop, boss.”

“No,” Audey said.  Cate started laughing.  The laughing caused Hardy to smile and Audey stopped petting, which honestly is very weird.

“Anyway, let’s get to the questions,”  Audey said as she signaled Hardy. Hardy picked up Cate and put her on his shoulders as they walked to one of the nature trails of the camps.

The trail was beautiful.  Trees bowing towards the north, so they made an arch around the trail, vines wrapping around the trees making it look they like they’re squeezing the trees.  A calming, clear water stream, running under the trail’s bridges. The stream made a beautiful sound of water, as if it was made from crystals. The brown and greens of the trees fit perfectly with the grassy hills.  Every now and then some hills have small patches of flowers on them growing between the grass and trees.

After a little bit of walking, in the silence, Audey, Hardy and Cate enjoying the beauty of nature.  Then the group came across a clearing in the path. The path lead to a circle which had other connecting paths.  In the middle of the circle clearing was a beautiful, enlighten tree. The trees bark was an amazing pearl white and the leaves were an amazing emerald green leaves and the flowers, the flowers were an absolutely stunning rainbow crystal color.

Cate couldn’t say anything, it was beautiful.  Hardy holding Cate in place why she sat on his shoulders.  Audey their with them, staring at the tree.

“Cate, there are things in this world who wish to destroy this beautiful things.  Not for a reason just for the fun to watch others in pain. That’s why Nightmare Hunters are here.  It’s our job to make sure it doesn’t happen,” Audey said, walking towards the tree.

“I know.  But I don’t even know the basics of being one,”  Cate said, sadly.

“We know that’s why we’re here!”  Hardy said with a big smile.

“All Nightmare Hunters have partners, each partner as a special ability or skill.  Mean is that I can power up anything as long as it’s an electronic device. As long as it’s touch more than a foot of my skin,”  Audey said, showing her hands.

“Mean is reaction time.  I can respond to something before it even happens.  But we didn’t become team members because our abilities complement each other.  It’s because we’ve known each other sense we were kids,” Hardy said a with a big smile.

“You have one too, but you need to unlock it,”  Audey said. “It’s gonna take work. But once you become fifthteen you should unlock it.”

“Really?”  Cate said, amazed at the fact that she could have shuck an ability.

“Now the ranks,”  Audey said.

“What?”  Cate asked, making a puzzled face.

“Ranks are the basics of Nightmare Hunters.  Five ranks. Bronze Rank, which is you. Once you get to high school, they’ll give you a sash to show it.  Bronze is for trainees. Iron Rank is when you graduate high school. You’ll be able to take low class missions.  Silver Rank is the next. After you get stronger and stronger, you start taking on more missions and if you complete three, medium class missions in a row without failing you become Silver Rank.  Then to become Gold Rank so you can take high class missions is that you go to a Nightmare Collage. Then to become the highest rank, Crimson Rank, you must complete a mission that saves, over a hundred thousand lives,”  Audey said. When Audey turned around to see, Cate with eyes glowing with excitement, and Hardy looking shocked at the fact that sooner or later he’ll have to go to college.

“That’s amazing how you remember that so easily,”  Cate awed.

“Wait, college?”  Hardy asked himself in a shaking scared voice.

“The class of missions depends on the Nightmare.  Class one between three is low class, medium class missions is between four and six, and high class missions is seven between nine, then class ten is what Crimson Ranks deal with.”

“Whoo, amazing,”  Cate started with bright big eyes.

“College?”  Hardy kept repeating in a scared voice.

“Now Nightmares.  Nightmares on monster made by human emotions, if a human as to high of a signal negative emotion it will come to life and become a monster known as a Nightmare.  There are four types of Nightmares. Type A which is when a human’s negative emotions take over and turn into a awful monster. What every emotions they had and it point at a person or object the monster will go for that.  Type B is when a person is consumed by their negative emotions, as in they are trapped in the body of the Nightmare and you must get them out. Type AB is when a person’s negative emotions are so high that they are consumed by the Nightmare and are trapped in its body.  But why their trapped their negative emotions keep making more and more small Type A Nightmares. Then Type O is when people accept their Nightmares and fuse with them. They become super humans that can make, become or have the powers of Nightmares,” Audey replaced her toothpick and looked at Cate.

“Do. . . Do Type O’s really exist?”  Cate asked sounding a little scared.

“No one knows.  Teachers teach us about Type O’s just in case.  But there is no real proof the exist. If it wasn’t for one of the three teams of Crimson Hunters fighting one, over a hundred years ago we probably wouldn’t be talking about it.  But no one saw the fight so we don’t know if they told the truth or not,” Hardy said lighting the mood.

“Crimson Hunters?”  Cate asked.

“Crimson Hunters is what you call Crimson Rank Nightmare Hunters.  There are only three teams of Crimson Hunters right now and have only been three for the past six years, there was two teams six years ago but well a new team. . . Obviously,”  Hardy said. Cate laughed some more. Audey came over and start petting Cate.

“Still weird boss,”  Hardy said, trying to shove Audey’s hand away.

“Yeah, I agree,”  Cate said, trying to protect her head.

“The way to kill a Nightmare is with pure light,”  Audey said, getting Cate’s attention.

“Pure light is the energy made from positive emotions.  Every city as a center that collects pure light then they put it into, clips, we put this clips into our weapons to power them up and have the ability to kill Nightmares,”  Audey said, replacing her toothpick with a new one.

“So, Cate what’s your weapon?”  Hardy asked.

“I don’t have on yet,”  Cate said, shyly.

An explosion came from the camp and screams were heard.

“Hardy!”  Audey yelled running towards the camp.

“Right, Boss!”  Hardy yelled back as he put Cate down from his shoulders.  “Stay here! We’ll send teachers to come and get you!” Hardy said as he ran after Audey

“Good luck,”  Cate said, timidly.

A noise came from the woods.  Just behind Cate. Vines, trees, frens and the stream being pushed to the side by something.