Chapter 2: Life isn't a Video Game

Seishero is holding onto Chibi-Miloe and looking down at the ground while Seth and Cory walk on either side of her. Seth sighs, "This is mad. I must be dreaming or something. This just doesn't make sense. Why did they just fly into the air? Why isn't there a wound where you got shot, Cory? What the hell are we supposed to do now?"

Cory sits down beside Seth and looks at him with faltering respect. "Snap out of it, Seth. You're the one who's always wishing life was like a video game, how much more exciting it would be if stuff like this happened. Well Earth to you, it's happened."

Seishero lets out a whimper, "You're going to take care of me, right Dubby Dub?"

Seth stands up and looks around. "You know what? You're right. This is exactly what I've been hoping for all my life, although I never actually expected it to happen. I have a plan. You know how the exchange student program just started, right? Well, my mom never reads anything I get her to sign as she's too busy. Seishero, I'm going to need you to pretend to be an exchange student from Japan when we get back to my house. Is that alright with you?"

Seishero stands up and smiles. "I get to go to your house? Yay, did you hear that, Chibi-Miloe? We get to stay at Dubby Dub's house." Seishero runs at Seth and wraps him in a hug, causing them both to fall to the ground.

Seth lays there stunned for a few seconds and then rolls to his feet. "Yeah, another thing. You can't be jumping on me or calling me Dubby Dub around other people. My name is Seth, alright?"

Seishero smiles. "Okay Dubby Dub, I'll be a good little girl."

Seth sighs, "That's good enough. Cory I'm going to need you to back me on this. Now let's get out of here; we've been dawdling too long and we don't want those thugs to come back."

Seth opens the door and peeks inside. His mother looks over from the table. "Seth. You're home awfully late. What were you up to?"

Seth opens the door slowly. "Oh, didn't you hear? That exchange student we signed up to house got here today and I was just showing her around town."

His mother is reading a newspaper and takes a few seconds to register the full extent of what was just said. "That's nice; you should be going out more often. All you do is sit around the house and... play... video...games. OFFERED TO HOUSE! WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT?"

Seth cringes as he opens the door and Seishero and Cory walk in. Seishero bows to Seth's mother. "I am very pleased to meat you Mrs. Davis."

Seth's mother looks at the girl and stops her fit of rage and gets a more homely look on her face. "It's Ms. Davis and what would your name be?"

Seishero looks at her and smiles a very wide smile, her green hair flopping around freely, "I'm Seishero Nanami, and this is Chibi-Miloe."

Seishero holds up Chibi-Miloe and Seth's mom starts to stifle a sneeze. "Tha tha that's achoo cat. I'm a a allergic to achoo cats"

Seth laughs and looks at his mom like she's losing it. "Come on mom those sneezes are just in your head. It's only a plushie."

Seth's mom continues to sneeze uncontrollably. "Then one of you's been around cats today, cause I've got no control over these sneezes. But Seth, we can't take this girl into our house."

Seishero's eyes suddenly tear up and she whimpers while looking at Seth mom, "You mean you don't want me here?"

Seth's mom looks down at Seishero and sighs, "Okay okay, she can stay, but Seth, I'm going to have a long talk with you about this later. Oh and hello Cory, would you like some biscuits?"

Cory smiles and almost reaches for some brown, candy-covered biscuits lying on a tray beside Seth's mother, but stops himself. "I'm sorry; I'm busy. Seth and I have some history homework to work on."

Seth, Cory and Seishero walk towards the staircase and Seth's mother calls over, "Seishero can sleep on the third room on the left, and doesn't she have any luggage?"

Seth turns around and looks at his mom with a DOH look on his face, but straightens it out before it can draw suspicion. "Seishero wanted to explore the American fashions, so we're going shopping later to pick up some new stuff. Isn't that right, Seishero?"

Seishero nods her head and makes Chibi-Miloe nod its head as well. "Shopping is fun."

They continue up the stairs, glance down the narrow hallway, and Seth opens the door to his room. He walks in and plops down on his bed while Cory sits in a bean bag chair in the corner. Seishero goes over to Seth and sits down beside him. Seth lays there silent for a few seconds then speaks, "That went rather smoothly. So, what do we do next?"

Cory looks around Seth's small bedroom. A basic wooden desk with a computer in the corner, a pencil case with scissors, whiteout, and several other things sticking out of it, a TV with a huge assortment of game systems lying on the floor then looks at his arm for a minute. "We see if I've really developed super powers." Cory grabs the scissors from Seth's pencil case and slices across his arm. A thin stroke of red blood comes down and Cory looks at it. "I guess it doesn't work quite that easily." Cory looks away from the wound and back at Seth, who's shaking his head and coughing in disbelief that Cory would just slice his arm open.

Seth frowns and looks over at Seishero. "Maybe our little mindblower here healed you."

Suddenly Seishero points at Cory's arm and shouts, "Look." A glowing green liquid covers the scratch seeming to secrete from Cory's skin and disappears, leaving the arm good as new.

Cory looks down at the arm and turns it around, looking at it. "Well, what do you know. As soon as I stopped thinking about it it healed. But what was that green stuff."

Seishero jumps up and down on the bed. "Oh, that was Daddy's secret potion. How'd you get it? I thought he only gave it to me and my friends at the school."

Cory looks up at her. "Secret potion? How… wait, glowing green. I just remembered. I saw a glowing green light in the sewer earlier today and when I checked it out I got blasted in the face by some awful tasting, glowing green water. You don't think some of this secret potion was in the sewer, do you?"

Seishero looks worried. "I wonder how the Gregin X got in the sewers."

Seth looks over at Nanami and asks, "Gregin X, what is Gregin X?"

Seishero smiles. "I told you. Daddies Secret potion. He's got tons of research files at our place. He's always working on it."

Seth frowns. "I'd really like to take a look at those files."

Suddenly Seth's mother voice comes up the stairs, "Seth, dinner's ready."

Seth looks from Seishero to Cory. "I guess we'd better go eat."

Seth, Cory and Seishero go down the stairs and the strong smells of breaded chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and corn waft by them causing Seth and Cory to close their eyes and inhale. Seishero goes down the stairs and looks at the breaded chicken funnily. "I've never seen chicken prepared like that before."

Seth and Cory practically throw each other down the stairs, racing to the table and Seishero sits down and looks at her plate. She slowly tastes everything, enjoying every taste, while Seth and Cory start scarfing down their food with the speed of a hungry shark.

Seth sees the remote next to his mother and glances over at the TV. The news is on and Seth diverts some of his attention to watching it while he eats. "Five police officers died while investigating a possible lead on the Pyronian Syndicate earlier today, and in more pressing news, Famous scientist Umigara Nanami's daughter went missing today-" Seth looks at the picture in the top right of the screen, sees Seishero's face, suddenly grabs the remote, and switches the channel.

Seth's mother looks over at Seth and grabs the remote back, "I was watching that. Beth from down the street's sister is the anchor," and changes the channel back to the news.

Seishero's picture has changed to the Dimensia Tek logo, a portal with Dimensia Tek written around it. " Demensia Tek Corporation is offering one million dollars for her safe return."

Seth's mother frowns. "A poor thing. I hope she's alright."

Seth and Cory both look at their lean plates to the mountain of food still on the table then over to Seishero and sigh then say in unison, "I'm stuffed, is it alright if we take Seishero shopping now?"

Seishero looks up from her half-finished plate and nods. "Please, can we? Chibi-Miloe wants to go too."

Seth's mom looks at the plushie, sneezes all over her plate and then sighs, "Fine, fine, just take that plushie with you."

Seishero laughs, "I don't go anywhere without Chibi-Miloe," and Seth, Cory and Seishero get up and go out the door.

Seth and Cory frown as they think about all the food they left behind and Seishero skips along happily as she looks around outside. The day is getting late and the sun is low in the west. Seth smiles and sighs as he looks at Nanami. "I wish I were that carefree sometimes. Well, let's get going; we want to get the shopping done fast and investigate Seishero's house before things get too late. Hmm, Seishero might draw too much attention the way she is. SEISHERO wait up."

Seishero stops and looks back at Seth. "What is it Dubby Dub?"

Seth pants as he catches up to Seishero and he looks up to her and speaks between breaths. "You shouldn't run so far ahead of us and you're too easy to recognize like that." Seth reaches to the knots tying Seishero's hair into two streams and pulls them apart causing her long hair to spread out all along her shoulders and back.

Seishero looks at her new hairstyle and twirls around, her pink dress and green hair twirling in the air, "It looks nice. Thanks, Dubby Dub."

Seth smiles and pats his hand onto the back of his head. "Wow, if hair styling is this easy I should do it for a career. Heh, that would be fun."

Seishero looks around the huge mall swarming with people and glances from one store to the other. "OH they've got so many toy stores. Can we go check out the toy stores? I won't make you buy any. I justwanna look. Please?"

Seth shakes his head. "We're in a hurry, remember? Now let's go get you some clothes and be done here. Seishero?" Seth looks around, as he can't find Seishero.

Seishero swipes a blue credit card through a machine and runs back to Seth, carrying a small key chain and necklace which he hooks Chibi-Miloe onto and hangs around her neck. "There you go Chibi-Miloe now you don't have to complain about me squeezing too tight anymore."

Seth jumps into the air and turns around. "What did I say about staying together. From now on you stick with me."

Seishero dangles the new necklace around her fingers and nods. "Alright. Let's go to the clothes store over there. Daddy buys me things there all the time."

Seth looks at her. "So you really do like shopping, don't you?"

Seishero giggles, "Yeah silly. It's one of my ten favorite things."

Seth takes Seishero through the ranks of clothing and after having eight foot mounds piled into both him and Cory's arms walks towards the cash register and sets it all down. The lady in charge looks at the clothes and then from Seth to Cory with an odd look on her face until Seishero comes over carrying one last shirt and sets it on the pile. "How much for it all?"

The cashier looks at Seishero, gets an embarrassed look from the thoughts that had been going through her head and runs it all through, "That'll be 567 dollars."

Seishero holds up the blue credit card and Seth quickly sticks out his hand and pulls his dad's card out. "Let me cover it Sei." Seth runs the card through the machine, flinches at the thought of what his dad will say when he finds out, takes the 16 glitter covered bags the clothes are in, and hands them to Cory. Cory piles them all up, looks between the tiny hole his face can look through, and follows Seth and Seishero outside.

Seth wipes his hand through his hair. "That was close. If you'd paid for those clothes they could've traced your credit card. Cory, there's no sense in us all getting caught if this plan goes wrong. You take Seishero home and I'll check out her place."

Seishero looks at him. "But you said I was going to stay with you, Dubby Dub. And how will you find my place and my Sad's secret lab without me?"

Seth looks at her and sighs, "I really don't think it's a good idea to take you anywhere near your house, but you do have a point. Well Cory, you take all Seishero's stuff back to my place and we'll check out her house."

Cory tries to argue, but the bags slide down and cover his face. He gives out a sigh and starts walking to Seth's house. Seth and Seishero both walk towards the north bridge.

The shaded, grey-haired man and the large black man both walk into an office with a shaded figure behind a desk and a badly beaten Dr. Nanami. The black man hands a picture to the shaded figure. "Sir, Seishero's credit card popped up in a local mall a few minutes ago and that's a clip from the security cameras. The boys with Seishero are the two from the bridge."

The shaded figure looks at the picture and smiles. "Well Dr. Nanami, it appears you were wrong. Your daughter hasn't gotten as far away from here as humanly possible and now she's just made her first mistake. We'll have her soon enough. Thomson, Daravon get out on the streets and find Seishero."

Seth sticks his head over a fence and peers into the gloomy yard. The sun has set and the quarter moon sends a dull glow over the yard. Seth squints, trying to make out the house, the broken streetlamp providing little help. Seth ducks back behind the fence. "There's a van parked out in front of your house seeming to be keeping an eye on it. Do you have a back door we can sneak in?"

Seishero is sitting on the cold grass holding Chibi-Miloe tightly and shivering. She simply nods her head and stands up and follows around the fence with Seth. Seth peeks over the fence again and sees the backyard of the house perfectly calm and out of the view of the van. Seth boosts Seishero over and then climbs up himself. They walk up to the door and... find it's locked. "Now what do we do?"

Seishero looks over at Seth and shakes her head. "Unlock it silly." Seishero pulls a key out of her pocket and opens the door. Seth goes in and looks around the very dark house. Seishero walks into a room and Seth wanders into the living room before noticing she's gone and following after her.

A fat man eating a hot dog is lookng at a panel of cameras from the inside of a van. Suddenly he sees Seth pop up on one of the cameras and coughs on his hot dog as he freezes the frame. He quickly pulls out a copy of the picture from the mall and picks up a phone, "Sir, the boy from the mall is inside the Nanami Residence. Should I go in?"

The voice from the shadowy figure comes over the other end of the phone, "Excellent, wait for Thomas and Daravon to arrive. This boy should not be taken lightly. He could be a Solar."

Seishero walks up to a panel and punches several numbers into it and a piece of floor lowers into the ground and slides away, revealing a staircase down. Seishero leads the way and types another combination of numbers into another keypad and several fields disappear. "This is Daddy's workplace. He took me down here a few times when I was younger."

Seth looks at the keypad. "When you were younger, you mean you've remembered those pass codes all this time and never forgot?"

Seishero just continues to walk down the hall and gets to a desk and starts looking through the files until she finds a yellow folder and looks inside. "I never forget anything. My daddy says it's one of the side effects of my accident. This is Daddy's research file; we should leave now."

Seth glances at a glass display case full of very old things and brings his face up to the glass to try and read some strange writing on one of the items. "That's odd. I almost feel like I can read this."

Seishero smiles. "That's Daddy's collection, we're not allowed to touch."

Suddenly footsteps are heard coming down the stairs and Seth spins around to see Hiro Moto walking down wearing a black mantle and cape and a circlet with a gem identical to his necklace in it. He looks at Seth. "Thanks for opening the door. Now if you want to live, give me the Key of Cortex."

Seth looks at him cross-eyed for a second then shakes his head. "Hiro Moto?"

Hiro Moto looks at Seth with a twinge to his face. "Identifying me was not a good action Seth Davis." Hiro Moto lifts his hand and points it at Seth and the stones around his neck and on his forehead start to glow. Seth and Seishero brace for an attack, but suddenly Hiro Moto spins around and three bullets fall dead in midair. "Why must so many people get in my way?"

Seth looks over Hiro's shoulder and three men in suits come down the stairs: the shaded, grey-haired man and the chubby, food-munching one who's eating something with his left hand even now and behind them, unable to fully enter the passage, the giant black man. The shaded figure looks at Hiro Moto analytically and then speaks, "You are a Dazer. I wonder what business a low level Dazer has here. Heh, interesting, I thought we'd scared the local Dazer population into the South District."

Hiro Moto starts to sweat at the mention of Dazers. "Who are you?"

Seishero looks at the three of them and whimpers to Seth, "The gross man's Samson. The black man is supposed to watch my daddy, he's Daravon. And the one from the bridge is Thomson. Keep them away from me, Seth."

Thomson cranes his neck. "Seth, eh? It's nice to know you can speak my name, Seishero, instead of that childish gibberish you usually refer to me by, but-"

Hiro Moto's stones glow really bright and Samson and Daravon start flailing about madly screaming in pain for no conceivable reason. Thomson looks at them then back to Hiro and holds his gun ready. Hiro gets a concerned look on his face at Thomson's failure to react and when his stones glow again points his hand at Thomson. Thomson doesn't even flinch and fires his pistol hitting Hiro in the leg, then raises it to shoot him somewhere more vital but Seishero holds her hands forward. "PLAY NICE." Thomson fires the pistol as he and Samson fly backwards slamming into Daravon and the three roll back out of the passage. The bullet misses Hiro and smashes into the display case shattering it open, sending the contents and shards of glass flying around the room. Seth covers Seishero from the glass, as she's in a daze after pushing them out, and Hiro ducks low to the floor grasping his leg. Thomson quickly gets back to his feet and glances around, unable to find a gun. Hiro points one hand at Thomson and one at the various items laying about the ground and fires an orange orb into Thomson that sends him flying backwards and through a window while the other draws an artifact into his palm which he pockets.

Hiro tries to stand on his injured leg but screams and falls to his knees. Seth and Seishero run up to Hiro and help him to his feet. Hiro looks at them confused. "Why are you helping me?"

Seth grunts. "Because you helped us and we need all the friends we can get."

Hiro laughs an evil laugh and points his hand at Daravon, who's getting back on his feet and sends him flying out the window, knocking Thomson, who's just managed to crawl back in, out with him. "I'm only helping myself. I owe you nothing."

Seth and Seishero pick him up, run past a moaning Samson and head out the door. Thomson spots them and starts running at them, bearing no wounds and showing no signs of exhaustion for someone who's just been blasted three times. Seth spots the van that's been watching the house and notices it's turned on and leads Seishero over to it. The sudden turn causes Hiro to miss with one of his force orbs and Thomson gets really close. Seth whips the van door open and it slams into Thomson, knocking him to the ground, but he quickly back flips to his feet and then Hiro lets out another force orb sending him 30 meters farther away. Seishero and Hiro get in and Seth takes the drivers seat, closing the door. Hiro looks at Seth as he shifts the gears. "Do you know how to drive this thing?"

Seth smiles and laughs. "I've only got my G1 so I guess we'll have to find out." Seth kicks the van into reverse just as Thomson makes a swing for the window, then spins it around and starts going full acceleration forward. Hiro looks out the back window and gasps as he sees Thomson running after the van on foot and gaining on them. He holds his hands out and the rear mirror comes off and floats in the air smashing into Thomson as he continues to run, not slowing him down at all.

Hiro gets very agitated by this. "What the hell is he?"

Seishero whimpers when she looks back and sees Thomson gaining on them, "Hit him with another orb, Hiro."

Hiro holds his hand forward and shakes off a wave of exhaustion and fires one very big orb at him which sends him flying 200 meters into the air and lands in a truck going the opposite direction. Hiro sighs and then passes out. Seishero looks at him and screams, "Oh no, Hiro's dead."

Seth looks over at Hiro then quickly glances back onto the road and almost loses control of the van. "No, he's just exhausted. Take care of him. I'm taking us to the hospital.

Seth adjusts the rear mirror so he can make sure Thomson's not following them anymore and after a short while gets to the hospital and lets out a sigh of relief. "Alright Seishero, we're going to take Hiro in now, but we can't stay. We have to get out of the open as soon as we can." Seth and Seishero drag Hiro out of the van, and then Seth grabs two soda bottles from the van, holds them together, and uses them to prop the gas pedal down causing the van to take off down the road. "We don't want them tracing the van to this hospital." Seth and Seishero drop Hiro off at the doors of the hospital and then run away because someone spots them and runs over.

Seth and Seishero run for a long time, not saying a word and just watching everything go by in a daze before finally stopping outside the store where they'd first met. They lean against the walls gasping for breath. "All the heroes in the video games make this stuff look easy. Oh shit, we never got a chance to read up on Gregin X."

Seishero giggles and holds up the folder from before. "I took my Daddy's folder with me. We can read it anytime."

Seth looks from the folder to Seishero and then grabs her and kisses her and then jumps back and shakes his head. "Um… yeah. That was just… yeah."

Seishero giggles and Seth leads her around the block to his place where his mother's sitting outside on the porch with a Coke reading a book. She glances at Seth as he walks up and sees the two of them blushing. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Seth jumps and looks at his mother and shakes his head. "Wow Momma, um tell you what?"

Seth's mother frowns, "Don't play stupid with me, Seth. Sending Cory back here with all Seishero's things without you? You really think I'd let him go without telling me where you went?"

Seth gets a very nervous look on his face. "Mom, I can explain-"

Seth's mother sighs, "I mean, if you'd just told me you were going to a party I would of been perfectly fine with it, but you lied to me. Now since this is the first time you've acted up in a long time, I'll go easy on you. For the next two weeks you cannot leave after 7:00, and if you're not home by 7:00 you'll be grounded. I'm very disappointed in you Seth. Now it's late; you two should go to bed.

Seth headed up the stairs to his room saying his prayers that Cory had come up with a great excuse and that he hadn't blurted the whole thing out.