Chapter One: The Parasite Killer
Satellite City 7:32 pm, the sky was a pretty blue this summer night, a color that was rarely the color of the sky. Pollution wreaked havoc on the color of the earthly sky. Nowadays Satellite City seemed to be red, green, or yellow. For the citizens of Satellite city blue seemed to represent hope. Hope that the world's condition would change for the better. Today Satellite City was filled with all types of discounts; everything from cars to office supplies was half to seventy-percent off. Mona Vasquez had taken this time to go shopping for the group. These days the supernaturalists really didn't have their work cut out for them. It had been over 2 months since Stephen's death and no one had heard anything from Ellen Faustino. These days she just seemed not to exist, literally. She was never on the news after the Myishi satellite incident, her name was no longer on any security system including the nation's populational database (which Ditto had so expertly hacked.) The supernaturalists took her for dead and she didn't seem that much of a threat now anyway. With her out of the picture the team had used this opportunity to get themselves jobs. All except for Cosmo who had taken the opportunity to actually attend school and catch up on all the missed years of education at Clarissa Frayne. It had been awkward but slowly they were adjusting to civilian life, Ditto was a certified doctor and Mona had become a technician and now fixed cars (with the occasional mods here and there) so far everything had been going quite good. Mona had managed to drag Cosmo along on this little shopping spree of hers. Well not necessarily dragging, nowadays it seemed Cosmo was more reluctant to come with Mona and he had developed a liking to her. This shopping spree wasn't their first outing together, nor was it unusual for them to be out like this, they usually stayed out late together at night, to which Ditto would poke fun at them or say comments such as "Woo I guess these eyes spot more than parasites huh? I see love." The comments were a bit embarrassing, but they were two and he was one so in the end they always won. Mona had used the discounts to her advantage today. She planned in getting some new parts for the Pig Mobile so that she could mod it to her liking. Since the Auto-repair and parts shop was having a seventy-five percent off sale and she had a fifteen percent employees discount she knew what she wanted would be only a fraction of the price. Cosmo had thought the Amusement park would be a much better idea but Mona argued that if the time came again the pig mobile wouldn't be too good as a get away vehicle, Cosmo agreed but didn't care. Then Mona told him her feelings would be hurt so he reluctantly said yes. Now here they were at the Auto-repair parts shop.
"Thank you so much for coming with me Cosmo" Mona said giving Cosmo giving a somewhat sarcastic look, knowing the he didn't want to come anyway. "Sorry if I troubled you"
"Oh no it's ok Mona" Cosmo replied both of them knowing he was lying, "it's no trouble at all, and besides…" he paused "I like spending time with you." He hoped it sounded as lovely as he wanted it to sound. "Thanks, Cosmo" Mona said "I enjoy your company as well." They looked at each other for a second and Cosmo wanted to just observe her for a while but Mona was busy and decided to continue shopping. "Come Cosmo" she said "I'll show you how to pick out a good engine" It wasn't quite what Cosmo had in mind but it was better than not spending anytime at all with Mona. They waltzed over to a section with engines on display behind plexiglass. "What's important to look for is the engine's electrical output power…" Mona started but Cosmo really wasn't that interested, he looked around for something more interesting but this was Mona's domain, if it wasn't car related then it wouldn't be here.
Cosmo glanced outside to see a rose dealer selling roses to young couples. Cosmo slowly slipped away from Mona. She was so wrapped up in the engines she barely noticed him go. Cosmo didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. Cosmo fished in his pocket to find 5 Dinars of the 50 Dinar allowance Mona and Ditto paid him each week. A single rose was 2 Dinars so Cosmo bought just a single rose and looked back in the store to see Mona was just about to look up for him, quickly he ran inside and pretended like he'd paid attention; she'd already bought a few parts and Cosmo had to hold them. The parts were locked in a safety, shock resistant box to prevent damage. Then they were off.
Cosmo was busy trying to think of some way to present the rose to her, but even still at this point Cosmo was a bit shy about his feelings towards Mona, he didn't understand why he couldn't just give her the damned flower. What made it so hard?
Just at that instant something amazingly fast came and tripped Mona. Cosmo caught her quickly in her arms, and all she could do was stare blankly with her flushed face into his eyes, Cosmo used this opportunity to give her the rose. "¡Oh mi hermoso!" "oh my handsome" Mona yelled excitedly as the parts landed unharmed on the ground and Mona rewarded Cosmo with a kiss. Cosmo, felt the familiar feeling of her lips on his, but nowadays it seemed like they kissed just to pay each other back. Cosmo didn't know quite what had knocked her over. Speeding wildlife, the wind, a stray plasma shot? He didn't know but whatever it was he thanked it, however later on he was going to learn to hate it.
Ditto stood silently in front of Stefan's grave, a single white rose as in his hand. "Amazing" he said "you were always there talking to your mom now here I am for you." Ditto was thinking of the good times and bad times he had, had with the tall Russian boy and his overall bravery. "You were a good leader" he concluded. Leader, Ditto thought, who was going to be the leader now? Ditto had never really thought about it before but now that he noticed there was no one with the position of leader anymore. Between all of the doctoring and of course the pazzas it hadn't really been the first thing on Dittos mind. It also hadn't really been necessary either. The supernaturalists were no longer a crime fighting group, now they were just…regular humans. Ditto wasn't quite sure he wanted to be just a normal human although slowly he could feel himself becoming more like a normal civilian, but Ditto liked living life on the edge, the feeling that his life could end tomorrow, but now he found himself saving people from the very thing he enjoyed. He hadn't completely ignored the fact that someone would have to become leader soon he just wasn't sure he completely wanted it to happen. One Stefan had died only last month, and it felt mean and outlandish to just replace him now. Two he couldn't get over the fact that Cosmo was probably the most likely candidate for leader. He was a quick and inquisitive leader, on nights where he finished his homework early he often learned a little about the medical field from Ditto, more often than not he was with Mona, usually flirting but still slowly learning the marvels of automotive technology. He also attended school so his studies continued to expand; he was perhaps the smartest one of them all. If no person was more fit for leader it was Cosmo. Ditto was just wondering, was Cosmo mentally ready for that type of responsibility? And what was to become of him and Mona? Could he let them just develop a relationship and have Cosmo still be leader, her life would be at risk for sure. Whatever Ditto thought it's not that important now, let the kids enjoy their innocence. He then placed the white rose on Stefan's grave, "you wanted him to take your place didn't you?" he said. Then Ditto left to go heat up a pazza then for some reason he felt like he needed to ease someone's pain, but the feeling passed and he went inside.
After the flower incident Mona decided to make the rest of the day an official date, besides in Satellite City blue was the color of love. It wasn't really a date Mona had never quite said it was, they were just spending time together but to Cosmo it felt like it. They went to the Amusement park for an hour Cosmo brought Mona cotton candy or to some degree what it was in satellite city. The "cotton candy" was actually small dots that "inflated" to cotton candy once exposed to the air; it saved a lot more space and of course had a longer expiration date. It was about 8:45 now and they decided to walk back home to Abracadabra Street, Mona suggested that they take the more scenic path through the park it was shorter anyway.
"Cosmo, it was so much fun today" Mona said, pretty eyes looking at Cosmo. "You're a pretty cool guy." It made Cosmo feel great. "You're a fast learner too! Your teacher told Ditto you're being skipped up a grade or two so you'll be in 9th grade, the grade you actually belong in." Cosmo felt a familiar feeling again. It was the same feeling he got every time Mona complimented him or kissed him, or when Ditto said the word love to describe them. Did he love her? Could he honestly say he did? They only knew each other for a few months but with the events passed it seemed like so long.
Mona could see Cosmo was thinking hard. "What's wrong?" she asked casually. Cosmo himself didn't quite know, but still he wanted to know…how she felt. He quickly drew a simple conclusion, that he did if not loved like her. Shyly and stagnantly he grabbed Mona by the waist. "Mona" Cosmo said "there's something I need to tell you."
All Mona could give was a head nod. "I think that I lo…" he moved his lips closer to hers and the robotix plate on his head began to itch. "I lo…" suddenly an earsplitting scream was heard and all the couples turned their heads. By a tree there was a young girl of age about twelve or thirteen and she was waving her hands frantically at the air, for a moment everyone paid attention but then just assumed she was crazy and continued what they were doing. Cosmo however thought he saw something, yes, it was faint but it was definitely there a blue blur, that was not in motion was attacking the girl. "Mona, do you see what I see?" Cosmo asked. "I think I do she replied." Cosmo quickly drew his lightning rod which he kept with him at all times. "Careful Cosmo" Mona warned, but Cosmo didn't seem to hear her, safety was not an issue here. Cosmo ran towards the girl, the blue blur slowly moved towards her body, and touched her. The girl started having some sort of a seizure, or convulsion, whatever it was it was out of the ordinary, she could not scream but it was obvious that she was in massive pain. Suddenly an Un-spec 4 appeared. The tem had once called them Parasites because they had believed that they sucked the life from people but they were merely pain relievers, the Advil of the future. The Parasite touched the girl's head and the golden juice of pain started to fill it's body, her face looked more rested but she was still in trouble. Suddenly the blue blur touched the parasite; it turned a dying Gray and disappeared. Cosmo was stunned, the blue blur had fed the Parasite Dirty Energy and killed it! Now Cosmo had no regrets he shot six wild shots straight into the blue blur, it was stunned and ran away. Cosmo, was still in shock. That thing had just killed a parasite? What was it? And where did it come from, but most importantly why was it so hard to see? "Oh" the girl moaned. All these questions would have to be answered late before this girl died, it was apparent she needed immediate medical attention.
Ditto was surprised at what he found after eating his pazza. It was what had happened to Stefan's grave. The picture of him, which was hand carved by Cosmo and the words on his Tombstone had disappeared. It was completely blank nothing was there. Suddenly, words started to appear on the tomb stone. Here lied Stefan Bashkir Ditto was scared out of his mind but that didn't stop him from getting a shovel and trying to dig up Stefan's body. He never found his body, it was gone and below a hole that seemed to go on, forever.
