"It's almost like Paris," Tyler told Jason. "People love walking around here."
It turned out that Jason had found a lot to talk about with Tyler, and so after twenty minutes of conversation, Tyler had volunteered to show Jason around town a bit. It would quickly be completing Jason's exploration task without the lonely.
"There seems to pretty cheap housing and good food here," he explained. "Hence, 'attraction'."
"It seems like a nice town," Jason replied. "You've got good people and a good sense of family over here."
"I think that too. People aren't as enthusiastic about it though. But I guess it helped when those monsters attacked us like two months ago."
"Yeah, I heard about that," Jason nodded sympathetically (emphatically). "I heard that five people died. What else happened here?"
"Five people died, more of them injured, and the whole city was on lock down. I don't think I've ever seen it hold still until the day no one went outside doors."
"Was it scary?"
"The monsters?" Tyler asked. He grew a comforted smile and told him, "Nah. Seeing people die because of them, now that's more scary than any monster I'd face."
A range of lightning blasts suddenly enclosed the pair, who were taken off their feet in shock and pushed onto their backs in surprise. For moments Jason only saw pillars of smoke rise above him into the great blue sky. Screams soon followed.
He saw Tyler shoot up, and seemingly try to make the bright side of the situation glow. "Hey...we were just talking about you guys."
Jason wrestled himself off the ground high enough to see a multitude of guns. An army of silver monsters had surrounded them, sending him into a crazy whirlwind (which in retrospect he should've expected because Kiera). They were like bulls, aiming for where they saw the color red.
"You should get out of here," he heard Tyler tell him.
Jason scoffed. "And you shouldn't?"
"I can handle this." Tyler said before he got into a stance as a monster charged for him. But Jason beat him to it, sending a hard punch into its chest and kicking another one to the ground. The younger boy looked to him with an incredulous smile.
"Then why don't we handle it together?" And they took off.
Sensing that they were indeed going to retaliate, the soldiers threw themselves into every corner and slice of free space they found and charged. Lucas and Jason were already doing the same, with Tyler impressing Jason with his the same fights he put up. The strangers worked seamlessly, throwing kicks and flips all over the little grass terrain they were in.
As a group of monsters left and weaved their way into the city, Tyler signaled Jason. "Go help the rest of them. I got this." So Jason ran off and created a human dam to block the new threats. Most of the people had already retreated into one of the many buildings aligned, so it was just Jason and a group of the creatures.
Well, almost.
From the corner of his eye, he saw innocent shadows looming in an ally for cover. They were all led by the only one out of the ally way, carefully looking left and right in order to protect the crowd. Jason recognized her as the waitress from Tourism just as two monsters left him and aimed for her.
"Shelby!" he called before he was swarmed.
Shelby gasped. She had never seen them up close, nor did she want to. After making sure that everyone behind her was and would be safe, she stood and prepared herself for an attack.
"Weave your way through the back and get inside," she commanded. The eldest out of the group nodded and hassled everyone inwards to safety. Unfortunately, she wasn't one to be quick, and she couldn't see a sword coming down overhead at lightning speed. She heard the sheath of a blade, and then the pressure of it being stopped all together. In surprise (and grudge, because she wanted to fight), she whipped around to see another figure holding the sword up, being her guard.
"You've got to be kidding..." she muttered. But in front of her, Chase sent her a sparkling smile.
As he threw the monsters to the ground, he told her, "You know you wouldn't want to do this without me."
Peeking past him, she smiled coyly. "Oh, really?" she replied. And Chase was suddenly yanked back by the collar of his shirt before Shelby was in front of him and kicked down a monster that he hadn't seen. She looked back to him with a smirk.
"Impressive," he complimented. She simply looked at him, scoffed, and ran deeper into daylight to fight. With a smile, Chase tailed her into the sea.
Tyler had been taken a region down from Jason, who had been joined by Shelby and Chase, and had to fight his very own exclusive platoon of monsters himself. He commended himself for succeeding so far, and because now everyone had been out of sight and there was no one to hurt. Except for the ones fighting, obviously. Although happily enjoying the thrill, he was a bit overwhelmed with all these monsters swarming him from every angle possible. It was a kaleidoscope in the exposition of the dark. He was both confused and relieved when he heard the thin draw of a sword and a playful battle cry.
"En guarde!" someone called and jumped into the ring with him. To the side, he saw Riley with a silver gleam pointing and poking a round of times. It was causing no pain, but enough things unexpected to make the monsters fall back.
Once the road fell silent and the monsters dispersed, Tyler turned to him. "You fence?"
"No, I poke people for a living," Riley said, the sarcastic tone blowing over the space between them.
Tyler chuckled, and then hit him on the shoulder. "Come on. We need to help the rest of them!"
