A/N: This was one long chapter. I hope it's not too confusing, I have been told sometimes my chapters have too many things in them. After rereading and editing/rewriting this chapter I know why people feel that way. If this wasn't already published chapter, I would have divided it into two parts. But since this is already published as one chapter, I let it be for now. I do try to keep my future chapters simpler from now on though.
The length itself was the reason editing this took more than just a day or two. There was a lot to work with, it wasn't just fixing tacky dialogue or sentences or adding descriptions, I actually had to rewrite a lot of segments, most changed was the segment where Marie meets April. I decided they would have some of that confrontation before their classes but mostly after it is taking place outside. I changed some dialogue (most by Hannes) and I also gave Marie bit of sass. I hope she doesn't seem too nasty here though. I was surprised how aggressive I made April here – this chapter takes place after Target: April O'Neil and I think she's had enough of being the target and may be suffering from PTSD here (after all that has happened to her in season 1 and with her father mutating in front of her, I wouldn't be surprised at all). I also added that mean nickname some of her fellow school mates had given to her.
I also wanted to feature Hannes more, giving him more personality and interaction with his other classmates, even if it made this long chapter even longer but I really want to feature him more. This chapter also starts the plot with Oliver and the Kraang, we get to dive into more of that during the next plot line, after I've edited chapters 3-5. I really want these to be in better shape before starting anything new.
Chapter 2 – All American Creepiness
The next day was perfectly normal, at first. It was so normal that I had to wonder was it just a dream, last night I mean. For one, Oliver wasn't sick at all – like Gargie had told me. He just seemed like he hadn't slept at all during last night. When he was tired, he seemed even tinier than usual, his straw yellow hair was all tangled up and his eyes were fighting to stay open. One thing I noticed that wasn't part of his normal attire was that small scratch on his right cheek.
"Oliver?" I asked. "Morning…?"
Apparently my greeting came as a surprise, since he practically jumped when he turned around to see me.
"Oh! It was just you Marie, I was just..."
"Is something wrong?" I asked.
"N-No!" He said with a trembling voice. "Why would you think that?"
"You just look like you just rose from the grave", I told him jokingly.
"Oh. That", he said slowly as if it had taken a while for him to understand what I was saying. "I didn't sleep well last night."
"Had bad dreams?" I asked while I opened the door for him.
"No, I just... Had a lot on my mind", that same slow tone continued as he entered the school. We went to stairs, I was silent, part of me wanted to ask if he wanted to talk about it, but then again maybe I shouldn't I mean, we didn't know anything about each other, not really. We had known each other for few months, but that's all, it's not like we were close friends or anything. He might view me as nosy if I tried to ask him something he might view as personal.
I opened my mouth to say something anything, that would make him cheer up a bit, but another voice covered mine.
"Marie Wilhelmina Blomgren, you owe me an explanation!"
Here comes my best friend.
He hurried to catch up on us on the corridor and then he grabbed me by my shoulder.
"Just tell me what the hell happened last night?" He asked while he was shaking me playfully. "What was with the screaming? Did someone attack you? You're not hurt, are you?"
Attack is a strong word, at least when I think about last night. Seriously, I can't tell him that I was chased by a freaking human sized turtle and a psycho robot that tried to kill me, even if Gargie is my best friend, I don't think he would believe me if I honestly told him about it. He would probably drag me to see his dad, who had a clinic of his own, and tell him that Marie had gone little crazy.
"I'm not hurt. Some crazy guy just decided to break both of windows in the ballet studio while I was still dancing", I told him after all it was the truth. Almost anyway. "And when you called me, Thorin tried to run away, so..."
"Oh", he replied and gave me an intense stare with his mint green eyes. Something told me, he didn't quite believe my story. I was such a lousy liar, but I couldn't just go and tell him the truth. I mean who would believe my story as it happened?
I'm not sure I believed it either.
Whatever, I told myself. I am never going to tell anyone about last night, not even to that old hag, if she knew I was attacked I could kiss my peaceful life goodbye, because she would take a quick flight here and firstly scream my ears into near deafness and then.. I don't even want to think about it. She would drag herself here even if she knew my dad had left for another hunting trip and I was living by myself – it wasn't proper, she thought, she would come here with all her rules and orders to break my easy life apart, and that I didn't want. Besides I think it was just something that happened, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. I wasn't worried for me, I was more worried about Oliver and that scratch on his cheek, his cheek was just fine yesterday at school and now after meeting with his father it wasn't.
Ok, maybe I'm over thinking this, but something is bothering him, I'll ask him about it later.
As I said everything was perfectly normal, so was school, though I hate to admit it, because in every morning Nils – the loud mouth who sat next to me did what he knew best, that was annoying me by picking on my shoulder with his finger tip while calling me "ma" - that's just the stupidest nickname ever, one would think the joke would get old fast.
"Someone sure misses his mama", Gargie said, causing me to smile.
But when it continues every ten seconds, it can get really annoying, and Nils he was bored, so there was no way he was going quit.
"Seriously, Nils!" I yelled, annoyed at him. "Stop it already!" After that I added few Finnish swearing words, which you don't need to know. And which made Nils laughing his head off because he thought they sounded funny.
Go and figure…
Our teacher was still drinking his morning coffee at the cafeteria it seemed; however, he had scribbled something to the old looking black board. It said:
Art classes 10 am. To 12 am. In Roosevelt high school.
"Really?" I asked. "Campus is this big and we don't have one art class in it?"
"I think it has something to do with this friendship program going on", Oliver said.
"The what?" Gargie asked.
"Our school and Roosevelt high school are supposed to be in some sort of friendship program. We are supposed to join in with some classes and choose some optional subjects with them."
"So it's some sort of buddy system, only with schools", Gargie guessed. "Who was stupid enough to invent that?"
Before I could reply our classroom, door was pulled open with force as my former neighbor stepped in. His right eye was all purple.
Most people would say: "I'm sorry for being late", or something but that wasn't the case with Hannes, he was this tough big guy who would always get into fights with other students, he was that kind guy you wouldn't want to mess around with, he was big - or should I say huge boy, muscular and all, he had light brown hair he never seemed to brush, and small light blue eyes but most of all he was really tall, tallest person in the class actually. And you could never tell what kind of mood he was in.
"What happened to him?" Oliver asked quietly. He was kind of afraid of the big guy, and who wouldn't be? Even I was, though we had been neighbors in Finland, we had spent a lot of time together, but I mostly hanged out with his sister Liisi.
"He probably got into a fight with somebody", Gargie said silently. He squeaked with high pitched voice as Hannes glared at him.
"Good that you decided to join us, Johannes", our homeroom teacher said peacefully as he walked into the classroom holding a cup of coffee in his right hand. Hannes mumbled something as he went to his seat at the back of the classroom.
"And do remember to come back here after the classes, mentioned here" Our homeroom teacher reminded us, pointing at blackboard. "Do not fool around in the city - did you hear me, Nils?"
Judging from his position, he was about to continue picking me again, and probably didn't hear a thing.
"What?" He asked.
"You go to your art classes in the nearest high school", Thorsten Ek explained patiently. "And please do not go fooling around into the city instead."
"Why not?" Nils asked jokingly. "Let's do it, guys!"
And by guys he meant his two sidekicks Emil and Casper. I sighed and wondered how he even got into this school since he clearly wasn't here to study seriously. I didn't know where the heck this Roosevelt High school even was and I wasn't keen on going there, I hated moving to place to place just because of few classes we had to take. It seemed like such a drag. Luckily Gargie decided to google it – so we wouldn't get lost, which was very easy to do in such a big city like this.
Me, Oliver and Gargie headed to the high school together, Hannes was some-what behind us the whole way, we didn't dare to ask him to join us, since he seemed to be angry and prefer his own company. The school itself was only few blocks away, so we made it there in time – unlike Nils and the company who I didn't see coming. This high school seemed to be like normal place, just like our old middle school back in home, but of course this was at least five times bigger.
"Who wants to go in first?" Oliver asked nervously.
"I'll pass", Gargie said, then both of them looked at me.
"Don't look at me," I told them, and then I heard a frustrated growl behind me.
"Let me suffer it all", Hannes sighed as he passed us, going straight to the front door and into the school.
"Come on", I said to them. "Let's go, we look stupid if we just stand here."
"True", Gargie grabbed me by hand.
"What are you doing?" I asked.
"Just making sure any of us isn't going to get lost", he replied with a stupidest smile on his face. "And besides this is America."
"Meaning?" Oliver asked.
"Some crazy bitch could come and attack Marie from behind the corner any time", Gargie explained.
I was sure he was only joking, but it would be fun to see how he was going to protect me against someone like that.
"So you will be my protector, huh?" I asked jokingly. "Great. I've always wanted a geek knight in shining armor for my protection."
Gargie laughed, he knew I was only kidding. Oliver looked at us, with this distant look in his eyes, like he was missing something.
"Don't tell me, you need a hand too", I jokingly suggested and held out my free hand for him. For a second it looked like he was going to take the offer, but then he said:
"Nah, I just follow you guys."
High School didn't look any different than other school I had seen, corridors were full of students getting to their next classes. Only difference was that in the lobby there were these I guess metal detectors of kind. We never had those in our school.
"That's how you know you aren't stuck in small village anymore", Hannes said when he caught me staring at them. "Don't worry Cookies, they are mainly for people that try to smuggle sharp weapons inside the school."
Which didn't make me feel any less awkward.
"Cookies?" I asked.
"Your middle name is Wilhelmina, right?" Hannes asked but he already knew the answer for that. "There are cookies called Wilhelmina."
"And Marie is also a cookie brand", Oliver pointed out. "My mom used to make those."
"Not to mention all too delicious ballerina cookies", Gargie added.
"They are dry as hell", Hannes pointed out.
"Okay I get it", I sighed. "At least it's way better nickname than being called ma."
But after the next corner Gargie found something to yearn over. And that was high school students in regular clothes in no need of a flashy school uniform.
"Oh, great, now we stand out like a handful of painful thumbs", Gargie sighed. "I knew these clown costumes wouldn't get us anything but trouble."
"This is my sis's school", Oliver said quietly. "She gets lots of teasing because she's bit older than rest of the students."
"Well you can't help it", I told him. "In Finland we start high school or whatever when we are 16 years old."
"My sis flunked first year back in home too", Oliver sighed.
I don't know how but somehow, I just managed to get myself lost. I turned away for a second and my friends were gone. Gargie had stopped holding my hand at that point and there I was, stuck in some crowd which was filled with people who spoke fast.
My head was starting to hurt. So, I went on quickly and turned at the next corner to less occupied corridor. I sighed in relief. Sometimes those crowds can get oppressive, especially if you aren't used to them, like me. I couldn't help but breathe in and out for a moment. Just when I thought I was at peace someone came at me; I was sure she would walk right past me but no. She actually stopped and glared at me; blue eyes filled with hostility. It didn't really shock me; I had faced eyes like that before, but it left me wondering why was she looking at me like that? Did I step on her toes or something?
Usually when I faced someone like this, I just let them be. I didn't want any trouble. I wouldn't have stopped if she hadn't spoken.
"You", she almost hissed. "What are you doing here?"
"Excuse me?" I asked, for some reason I didn't know if she was talking to me. By now I had gotten used to being ignored by the other girls at ballet lessons. I looked at her puzzled.
"You heard me", she said.
"I did but it didn't make much sense", I said. I saw her opening her mouth, but before she could say anything her voice was covered by that of Gargie's.
"Marie, there you are!" He said loudly as he skipped over the corridor. "I almost thought you went lost on us."
"Who, me?" I asked. "It's you who did the missing in action trick."
Now it was her turn to look puzzled. She still had her eyes narrowed gazing at me with suspense. Or rather something like "I know what you are hiding"-look. It was unsettling to say the least. Gargie however was very close to bursting into a laughter when he saw her expression.
"What's her problem?" He asked.
"Beats me", I told him.
But to be honest I didn't want to find out.
According to Gargie, Oliver had found our classroom. It was just past the corridor we were just in and with good luck we wouldn't be late. As we were walking away, I heard someone calling out to the girl, I assumed. I looked back at her just to see if she still looked like she wanted me gone and indeed she did. Some tall, skinny guy reached her, calling her Red.
"What are you doing here, Red? Aren't you usually the first one in the classroom?"
"I just thought I spotted someone I know", she said sounding surprisingly normal compared to just a moment ago. "See that girl with braids?"
"Yeah. What about her?" Her male friend asked sounding amused.
"She's bad news", I heard her saying. "Stay away from her."
"I like her already", her friend teased.
I just sighed. Yep, this was just what I needed.
"Does this remind you of middle school?" I asked Gargie.
"Maybe a little", Gargie admitted. "But you shouldn't take it so seriously, Frostbite."
"Oh I'm not going to", I said to him with a smile. "She's the one with a problem, not me."
"No one should take Look-At-My-Ass-O'Neil too seriously", I heard Hannes speaking behind my back.
"The what?" Gargie asked unable to figure out whether Hannes was making a joke. Yet he didn't smile, smirk or give any signs he was joking. If anything, his face was completely serious.
"That's what she's called behind her back", Hannes just said.
"That's kind of cruel", I told him. To that Hannes just shrugged his shoulders.
"It depends who you ask", he said. Me and Gargie glanced at each other, probably thinking the same thing.
"If things are like this, I don't think this place is all too different from LP middle school", Gargie finally said it.
Yeah. You got that right.
Soon enough we were all sitting in front of the classroom – Hannes didn't join us though. He stood somewhere farer away, alone as usual. I felt bad for him, losing Liisi like that couldn't be easy on him. It wasn't easy on any of us. The moment itself would have been depressing wouldn't it been for Oliver. We didn't really get what was going on, someone – a girl with blonde hair just waved at him and looked like she was going to stop by and chat but as soon as she did that, Oliver flinched and bolted up fast. He grabbed the girl by her arm and dragged her behind the corner.
"What was that about?" Gargie asked sounding amused.
"I have no idea", I said being as amused as him. Oliver didn't waste any time though as the class was about to get started. He mumbled something about his sister and then left the subject at that.
The class itself wasn't anything new, to be honest it was fairly like our art classes in Finland. We got handed a piece of paper and were told the subject of today's class and all that. Nothing new. It was just an ordinary class. Even though I could swear pair of eyes were watching my back. So, I turned my head to see if this was the case or was I being a paranoid. I looked around but saw nothing but bunch of students focusing on their work. Until I peeked at the next row of circular tables. Red haired girl was sitting there with few others, nothing unusual, like others I assumed she had sat down with few friends, nothing unusual indeed. Until our eyes met. She looked at me with anger in her eyes. Like she wanted me gone or something.
If looks could kill.
Luckily, they couldn't. I was bit puzzled though. Was she looking at me? Or was she just having one of those days and I just happened to stare at her direction at the wrong time. Well whatever it was, I decided to ignore it and focus on my work. That usually did the trick with these types of cases.
Only this time, it didn't. As the class ended, I found myself finding my own way out as both of my friends needed the toilet. We decided to meet at the school yard once they were done with whatever needed to be done. I chose little less occupied spot at the yard, right under the shade of a skinny tree. Call it what ever you want, but I wasn't used to crowded places even after two months and there I was, slowly breathing in and out, minding my own business. I don't think I looked like I was looking forward having any trouble but apparently, I did.
Suddenly someone grabbed me from behind. Grabbed my shoulder, causing the hair at the back of my neck spring up. I had this sudden flashback, like I was remembering something that happened in the past and now I was experiencing it again. Only this time, I did what I should've done back then. I acted quickly, I grabbed the wrist of whoever that was and threw her over my shoulder, landing her at my feet. I could've congratulated myself but… there was no reason.
I had just done that to a complete stranger. On my feet I saw the girl with red hair pulled back into a ponytail, she had this perfectly pretty round face, freckles on her cheeks and everything. And the same blue eyes filled with anger like during the art classes – and she was lying there.
Now I messed up big time.
"I'm so sorry", I said and let go of her wrist. "You really shouldn't be sneaking up like that. Are you hurt?"
"Quit the act", She said, her voice firm and full of confidence. She stood up and put both of her arms on her hips. "Why are you here?"
"Just for the art classes", I explained. "You see our schools have this buddy system and we are forced to…"
"That's not working", she interrupted me. "You are here for me, aren't you?"
"Excuse me…?" I asked awkwardly. What a weird thing to ask. "Am I supposed to know who you are?"
"I told you to quit the act", she said firmly.
I sighed. I didn't like how she spoke to me – maybe I deserved it after that stunt but something in her tone reminded me of all those bullies I had dealt with all my life.
"Look I'm sorry about that", I told her. "And I'm sorry I don't know you, your highness but why won't we keep it at that?"
Because something told me you don't want to be friends. And to be honest neither do I, if you keep this up.
"Yeah right", she said. "So, you are here just to attend school, am I really supposed to believe that?"
"To be honest, I don't think I even want to know you", I told her. "Tell me is sneaking up on people a hobby for you?"
Yep. I knew how to handle these types. It looked like no matter what I said or how I said it, she was still going to twist everything I said. So, fuck the friendly tone. If she was like that, fine.
"Not as much it is to you", she said, turning up the volume in her voice a bit. Then it happened, I didn't see it coming. Usually these people are all talk, little action, I spotted her hand moving fast towards my face and I took few steps back.
"Chill out, will you?" I told her. "Look, I'm sorry if I hurt you and your feelings but I'm not looking for a fight here."
"I told you, quit the act", she growled at me, lowering her voice. There went another one, this time she almost managed to hit me.
I knew I could do the same. But this was not the time nor place for that. I couldn't nor wouldn't get into trouble because someone decided to punch me for whatever reason she chose fit, I wasn't going to give her the satisfaction to getting me into trouble.
"Marie!" I heard Oliver calling for me, I turned back to look for him, only to find myself lying on the ground, my right cheek aching.
"What are you lying there for?" I heard Gargie asking above me. I didn't need to explain why, he reached his hand out for me, to help me up and I took it.
"I told you some crazy bitch would attack you behind the corner", Gargie said dramatically. "Looks like I was right."
"Tell me about it", I sighed. I didn't know what the purpose of that was. Was it because of the stunt I had pulled? Some sort of revenge? Did my comment piss her off that much?
"Are you hurt?" Oliver, standing on my right side asked.
"No injuries, so I'm good", I told him. "Let's just get a hell away from here before anyone else wants to attack us."
We decided that was the best thing to do, none of us wanted to spend anymore time we had to here. We decided to grab something to eat on the way back to our school and see what fun stuff it would throw at us. We only stopped walking when we heard Hannes yelling:
"Don't even think about it, you bitch!" It wasn't unusual to hear Hannes using that type of language, but usually it was targeted to boys, not girls. As I turned around to see what was going on, I saw Hannes standing behind the red headed girl, holding her hands behind her back with his left hand while holding up black, metallic looking fan with his right one.
"You were going to throw this at her, weren't you?" He growled at her. "So, tell me, what has Marie exactly done to you?"
"Marie?" I heard her speaking. "That's not her name, she's…."
"I know what her name is", Hannes said firmly. "She has been my neighbor for five years."
"Let go of April, Strom!" I heard a male voice speaking up. He was the guy I had seen walking with the red head earlier.
"It's Ström", Hannes clarified. "But I wouldn't expect a brain worm like yourself to know the difference."
"This is getting ugly", Gargie whispered.
"This bitch probably belongs to you, Jonesy", Hannes continued. "I can see why."
Then he went and showed the girl at her friends' direction as if Hannes was disgusted by having to touch her longer, he had to. Her fan, he just tossed to the ground.
"Hey, Cookies!" He yelled at me and I rolled my eyes. Of course, it was too much to be asked that he would leave me out of this. "Do you know this girl?"
"Not before today", I told him truthfully. "I bumped into her before our classes started but that's all."
"There you have it", Hannes said glaring at the red-haired girl. He turned his back at them and like us, decided to walk away instead of starting a fight like he usually did.
After the ordeal with the red head was over, our day went on as nothing had happened. We returned to the Academy and continued our lessons there, not expecting anything weird or even slightly odd to happen. I guess I just walked past it, while going to the toilet during one of our afternoon classes. When I left the classroom everything was normal, kind of sleepy but normal. It was just our teacher drinking coffee on his table while the rest of us stayed our faces glued to our computer screens, practicing coding.
It was when I was returning from my visit to the toilet, I noticed it was oddly silent everywhere. Even if this was during classes, it was odd. Even during classes, you could hear something. Like other teachers giving lectures inside their classroom, or you would pass someone else on corridors. This time, it was completely silent, as if the whole school was sleeping. Only ones I saw – and heard were two men in black suits, standing on a corridor, having a conversation.
Now I know eavesdropping isn't nice, I guess I was just too lazy to go back to class but there was also something fishy about them, the way they looked exactly the same and how they sounded. They spoke in very mechanical kind of way, like one of those "Thank you, please come again" voices in some shops or elevators. It sounded almost like their voices were coming out from some kind of filter.
"Kraang has done the request requested by Kraang, in order to find that which needs to be found", it was both odd and sort of had funny feeling to me despite the talker sounding very detached and unemotional.
"The one that needs to be found is located on the third floor", another exactly similar voice continued. "Kraang shall go to this floor and retrieve that what needs to be found."
I felt stupid here. Whatever they were talking about didn't sound too interesting. It sounded like someone needed to get a thing from the third floor and be on his way.
Boring.
I rolled my eyes as I turned around to go back to class, there was nothing to see here. I almost stumbled into a man wearing black pinstripe suit, he was standing right behind me. He was kind of tall, skinny and had a long face. He sort of reminded me of certain creature from a certain horror story.
"Hello, Slendy." I said casually as I was trying to walk past him.
"Kraang has worked on his diet", he said with the same mechanic voice as the last one I heard talking. I tried to walk past him but as I did so, he stepped in front of me – probably just by mistake. I tried to walk past him again, and he did the same thing as before, as if he didn't want to let me go any further.
"Excuse me", I said slightly annoyed. "Just trying to get to class, here."
Before I even knew what happened, that man grabbed my arm and I found myself lying on his shoulder, like a freaking sack of potatoes.
Okay, this was creepy.
"Hey, let me go you idiot!" I shouted at him. "Let go of me! Perkele!"
But he didn't, and I was quite sure throwing Finnish curse words at him didn't help any. I bet he couldn't even understand them anyway. In fact, I think he didn't even listen, he just casually walked towards two other men – who looked identical to him, as if carrying a screaming and cursing girl was something, he was accustomed to. I tried to resist being carried by kicking and some more screaming, but only thing I seemed to be hitting was the air.
"Kraang, Kraang has noticed that the sleeping gas Kraang has put in that which is known as the air-condition system has no effect on this which is known as the girl", one carrying me spoke
I felt stupid, he didn't have any hold of me, and here I was kicking into the thin air like my life depended on it. I rolled my eyes and then I rolled myself down to the floor as he didn't pay any attention of what I was doing, I quickly stood up and started running. Luckily other men were too busy wondering what had happened, so I got away from them.
I hurried up the stairs, back to the classroom; I think I've had enough excitement for one day. The door was left open and I was pretty sure I closed it when I left.
Okay, I guess our teacher went to get a cup of coffee or something.
"Gargie, you won't believe what hap..." I said when I stepped back to the classroom, until I saw my classmates, they were all sleeping – Nils was snoring very loudly which didn't surprise me at all – as this wasn't the first time, he had fallen asleep during class. But others, they were just lying on their keyboards or tables, snoozing like they hadn't slept for days.
"Uh, guys?" I asked, making sure no one was faking it. Yet no one showed any signs of being awake.
I tried wake up Gargie first. I shook him, but it didn't help any.
"Gargie, wake up already! Perkele! Valdemar, get up this instant or else...!" I even tried to imitate his mom, which usually did the trick, but he just continued his adventures in the dreamland no matter what I did. Someone did listen to music at the back of the classroom though – it was so silent I could hear it faintly. Oliver didn't seem like he was sleeping, anything but that! He was writing on the computer and seemed very concentrated of what he was doing. Definitely awake.
"Oliver?" I asked as I walked towards his seat. He didn't turn around. I guess he didn't hear me thanks to his headphones. So, I went to him and touched his shoulder.
"Hey, Oliver!"
He jumped and looked back at me; he took the headphones off and said: "Marie! I didn't see you there."
"I can see that", I replied.
"Why is everybody all burnt out?" He asked looking around the classroom.
"That's what I wanted to know", I told him. "You didn't notice a thing?"
"No, I was writing my code", Oliver said. He was about to continue speaking but something covered his voice, something that sounded very much mechanical, detached and emotionless. Almost like a machine.
"Kraang, Kraang has found the one needed by the Kraang", they stood at the door, two in front, one at the back, staring at us. Or not us. Only Oliver. He squeaked in horror, his face went pale and I could swear I saw him starting to tremble as he spoke:
"Th... They have come..." He mumbled; I was barely able to hear him.
"What?" I asked. "You know those guys?"
"N-No", he said with shivering voice. "But my dad..."
"Kraang will take the one needed by the Kraang", One of those, those slender men said as he stepped closer ready to grab my friend. "One known as the girl will need to step aside."
"Not a chance", I said and stepped between the creepy man and Oliver.
I didn't get what the hell this all was about, but something was off about these men. I didn't know what it was, but I wasn't going to let them take one of my friends. Who knew what they were planning to do to him? Judging by the look on Oliver's face, it wasn't anything pleasant.
"Kraang, Kraang must eliminate the one known as a girl that is standing between Kraang and the one needed by the Kraang", one nearest to us spoke. Other two nodded in agreement.
That doesn't sound good. But I have to figure out something. I'm sure I'll be able to…
Or not. I don't know how they managed to hide their guns, but they suddenly had these big, black kind of odd-looking guns. I had never seen ones like these, but they had to be guns. I'm pretty sure those weren't just for show.
"Oh crap", I cursed. Oliver was standing behind me, right between me and the window, which was at this point, our only way out. We couldn't possibly get out by using the door since these guys were standing between us and the door. But window could work.
"Oliver, open the window and climb out", I told him.
"But..." He mumbled.
"It's the only way out!" I yelled at him. He squeaked probably because of my tone but in the end he did what I told him to. He climbed out the window, and I had to follow. Climbing out wasn't that hard as we were able to stand on the roof easily, there was a level of sort right outside the window after all.
But if we could do it with ease, so could these guys.
"What now?" Oliver asked.
"Run!" I yelled at him. I hadn't had time to think where we should head next now that we were out. We weren't out of their grasp. But the problem was: There wasn't really anywhere to go.
"Where?" Oliver asked looking around us. "There's nowhere to go."
"We need to get down", I said, it was the only thing I could think of at the moment. "Then we need to run."
"Do we jump? We are on third floor and I don't think it's wise", Oliver pointed out. And he was right. There was little to no chance of us hitting to the ground and survive unharmed. I needed to think.
This was a school. There had to be a route for emergencies, like a fire escape or something… Yes, I remembered seeing one around here but…
"No, we climb; there should be fire escape somewhere", I told him, but then again, I wasn't quite sure where it was. We only could try our luck here, we needed to use the roof, possibly try to get as close to the ground as possible, if we couldn't find one.
"B-But what if I fall?" Oliver asked.
I sighed. "Oliver, we don't have a choice here..." Then something flew past my ear, something glowing and pink. Oliver shrunk and finally he decided to go and do what I told him to, I guess it was better than getting shot. I was quick to follow him, I just needed to watch our back. I was fairly sure pink flying things weren't used as a decoration of sorts. And indeed, I saw pair of slender men climbing to the roof and coming after us.
Great.
All we needed to do, was to try and avoid them, I figured best way to do that was to keep moving. We had climbed up from the level in front of our classroom and now we were running at the roof. Or we were, until Oliver stopped.
"Go on!" I yelled at him as I tried to dodge one of lasers they shot from their guns.
"I can't!" He yelled. "There's nowhere to go to!" And he was right about that. There was some sort of hole, or a gap between us and the next part of the roof.
"Who on earth put that there?!" I yelled in frustration. Then again, the gap wasn't that wide, we could probably make it if we jumped. But we didn't have time to think, those men were right at our tails with their freaking laser guns.
"Jump!" I yelled. But he didn't, he just waited there. Waited and trembled.
Just go already! What the hell are you waiting for?
I fell down to my knees, as I noticed one more lasers coming at my direction, and another one coming from another direction, I didn't have time to start dodging those, if I dodge another one, I would get hit by another one, so I threw myself against the roof – or more likely stumbled with my feet and fell – but at least I was still at one piece.
"Marie!" I heard Oliver calling out to me.
"Stay there!" I yelled back. My knees were aching, I guess they hadn't fully recovered from yesterday, but it wasn't going to kill me. I got back to my feet and ran to Oliver. Then it hit on me, there hadn't been a gap between rooftops, it just looked like there was, from up here. But it wasn't a gap, that was just the place for the fire escape.
He was shivering as he looked down to the fire escape, probably measuring how high we were. Probably being scared of it.
"Oliver, it's not that high" I told him as I put my hand on his shoulder as encouragement. "We can't stay here, or do you want to get shot by those creeps?"
"But I'm..." He mumbled.
I sighed. "Okay. You'll thank me later."
I mean, what I was supposed to do? Wait and let those creeps kidnap him or something just because he was scared, I was too, I just wouldn't show it. I could show it after we got ourselves down and started running, but now I had bigger problems to deal with. Like those creeps and their guns. There wasn't time, they would catch us before he made up his mind. So, I did what I had to. I pushed him.
"What are you...!" He screamed. Then I jumped after him.
"Come on, you need to get up", I told him. "Are you hurt?"
"I-I don't think so", he said.
"Here", I stretched my hand to him. He grabbed my hand and I pulled him up. Oliver was about say something, but I didn't get a chance to hear what it was, before there was another laser coming right at us.
"Look out!" I heard Oliver yelling, and before I knew it, I was rolling down the metallic stairs, landing right on top of him.
"Well, this is awkward", I told him. "But thanks anyway." I don't know if he realized, but he probably just saved my life.
"Kraang, Kraang is supposed to take the one needed by the Kraang which is not killing the one known as the one needed by the Kraang", we heard the mechanical male voice speaking in kind of preaching manner.
I felt pain coming all over my body, my knees, my feet, my shoulders even my forehead, but then again Oliver had went through same metallic stairs as I had, and not only that he had to deal with me landing on him.
"Are you okay?" I asked.
"Ow", he said as a reply.
"Sorry, I should've been more careful", I told him when I rolled myself to the ground and stood up.
"That's alright", Oliver said, but it sounded painful. "Where to now?"
"We need to hide", I told him as I watched him getting back on his feet again.
"But where?" Oliver asked as we started to run. "I don't suppose we can go to my place; my aunt is home and if those creeps follow us, she might get hurt."
"My house is too far", I told him. "But there's one place we can go and figure something out."
"Where's that?" Oliver asked.
"Follow!"
Soon enough I noticed that Oliver couldn't keep up with me. We didn't see those creeps anywhere but we both knew they were somewhere looking for us or for Oliver since they mentioned "the one" – me they just wanted dead.
"Hey... Ma-Marie, you... have a good condition", Oliver panted.
"It's the dancing. It's not as light as you would think," I smirked. "Don't worry, we're almost there."
I was leading him to the place I had been just last night to gather my strength. I hadn't shown the place to anyone before, but this was the only place I could think of at the moment. Because for one there were no people and it was a good hiding place. I liked it there, it was peaceful and sheltered, when you want to have a little bit of privacy or to run away from all the noise and the packs of rushing people, this may not sound like much, but to a girl who grew up in a small one-horse-town in the countryside this was much to deal with.
I sat down near the water edge. And Oliver did the same, being out of breath and all. I kept silent for a moment and only listened the sounds of flowing river.
"Afraid of the heights?" I asked after a while
"Kind of", Oliver mumbled. "I'm afraid of falling. You on the other hand don't seem to be afraid of anything."
"Why would you say that?" I asked surprised at his comment.
"You didn't seem to be afraid of those guys, so I thought..." He explained awkwardly. "Are you afraid of anything?"
"Yes, I am", I said quietly. "I'm not brave, at all. Oliver, only thing I'm good at is running away."
"Why do you say that, Marie?" Oliver asked. "If it weren't for you those creeps would have taken me!"
"Hey, about that, you mentioned your dad", I remembered suddenly. "Did you know those men were going to come for you?"
"No!" He almost shouted. "My dad knew something was going to come for me and he was happy!"
I noticed Oliver rubbing that scratch of his on his cheek.
"Your dad did that?" I asked.
Oliver watched me terrified as if I had found out his worst secret. "How did you...?"
"Just a lucky guess", I said and put my hand around him. "I just know where you came from, that's all."
"Uh... Thanks", he said sounding awkward. "I'll be fine."
"You still got your sister", I reminded him.
"Yeah, you should've seen my sister, she got so mad at him I thought she was going to kick the man out of the door", Oliver laughed.
"Yeah, that's a good part of having an older siblings", I sighed. "But I wouldn't know."
"You're an only child?" Oliver asked.
"Yeah", I nodded. "Dad considers Storm, Thorin and Roy to be his children too. They're my dogs."
"I see." Oliver said.
Our conversation was soon ended by a large BOOM sound coming right behind our backs.
"That doesn't sound good", I told Oliver. And I was right, behind us were the same three slender men with their guns.
"Kraang has finally managed to find the one that is needed by the Kraang", mechanic male voice said.
"They found us!" Oliver screamed in not so manly way.
"So it seems", I said as I got back on my feet.
"Marie?" Oliver asked. "What are you...?"
"I have no idea", I said to myself. But something must be done, otherwise I would end up dead and Oliver – who knows what those guys were planning to do with him.
"Kraang must take out the one that is standing between Kraang and one needed by the Kraang", mechanic voice said.
Well, give me your best shot.
Maybe I shouldn't think this way, even a blind man could see I was in deep trouble, not to mention there were three of them and only one of me as for Oliver, he wouldn't be any help for me. Nor would he stand a chance against people with guns.
I swear if I make it out of here alive, I'll always be nice to Kiriko even if she's going to be a bitch about many things I do, and I know she will be.
Okay, Marie, calm yourself. Breathe. I heard the water purling in my ears, calming me. Time to move on.
They shot at me, I managed to dodge it – I literally crawled in the dirt by doing that. I tried kicking the one that was nearest to me, but it did nothing – or it did, it hurt my leg. It was like kicking the brick wall with all you got, and it hurt like hell. Then I got grabbed by my foot and thrown out of the way, and then I hit my head – I think it was the brick wall built there for some reason, I've always liked it, but now with hitting my head on it, I was starting to dislike it. I tried to get up, but I couldn't I felt all dizzy. Everything around me was spinning and it wouldn't stop even though I wanted it to. Of course, those guys weren't interested about me anymore, it was Oliver they wanted.
I could hear him screaming in horror as the danger creeped closer.
Then the storm came, I mean the wind or something, went like crazy, it must've been like a tornado, because when I woke up I was lying in the river, I didn't know when I passed out but at least the cold water helped me a bit, to recover as it always did. All those men were lying on the ground and Oliver was shivering. Of course, they were getting back to their feet. I needed something, a weapon to defeat those guys with, because if it continued like this, they wouldn't stop coming after Oliver. And I knew, I hadn't been kicked by a normal foot, it felt like a metal or something.
Just like…
"Wait a minute", I mumbled. I started looking at river. That robot from yesterday had a sword, if someone hadn't been digging around, it should still be there.
"N-No!" Oliver yelled. "If you come any closer, I do that again! And don't touch Marie o-or else!"
"Kraang will now complete the mission which is taking the one needed by the Kraang to the place which is-"
Then his head was dropped off. There was no blood, only pinkish sparks of electricity flying about.
So, I was right. These weren't people at all!
"Wow, this IS sharp!" I said in relief as I hadn't been sure if this thing would do the job for me. I knew I needed to be fast here, I didn't know how much time I had but as long as these men weren't human, I didn't mind doing them harm. After all they were going to do harm to my friend here. I stabbed the sword as deep into that man looking machine as I could, until I could see the pinkish sparks flying.
"Marie!" Oliver yelled sounding relieved. "You're alright!"
"Yeah!" I yelled back as I was trying to pull the sword out of this creep, but the damn thing was stuck. "Help!"
Just because the remaining man was now trying to kill me, I tried kicking at the same time I tried to pull the weapon out of its companion – to keep it away or something. Then the wind came again, it wasn't as tornado-like as earlier nor did it feel like a breeze, it was more like a wave of something, something I couldn't explain. But it did the job, the last man standing kind of broke its head on the brick wall. It was over, or so I thought.
When I finally relaxed and let the thing fall to its robotic knees, something squishy and slimy and definitely pink jumped on my face.
Only thing I could say to that was:
"Eww!"
"What the heck is that?" Oliver screamed as the thing jumped off my face, and I could see it. It looked like brains, sort of big human brains with tentacles. There were three of those things, one for every man or whatever they were. Brain things looked kind of pissed but they didn't care about us, they were too busy in running away – I guess they knew we could as well step on them now that they were outside their little homes. But I was on the ground again thanks to whatever gust of wind it had been. Catching my breath after some slimy thing had just danced on my face.
"Marie I-I'm so sorry!" Oliver said as he rushed to me. "Are you alright?"
"Yeah, if we forgot the part where a couple of brains danced on my face", I sighed. "What the hell was that?"
"I don't know", Oliver said. "Are those... robots?"
"Wouldn't be first ones I've seen around here", I mumbled.
"What?" Oliver asked. "Do you know what those things were?"
"No", I said truthfully.
"And how did you know about that sword being in the river?" Oliver asked doubtfully.
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you", I sighed. "Can we please go and talk somewhere else?"
Oliver agreed. Now that we had dealt with those robots, it was safe for us to go to his place.
"Kids, food is in ten minutes!" We heard his aunt yelling for us.
"Yeah, we're coming!" Oliver replied to his aunt's call. We were silent for a moment, staring at each other.
"Marie, you have a secret, right?" He finally asked. I didn't tell him. Not about the madness of last night. Oliver was smart in his own way; he didn't try to ask what was going on with the robots or anything at all. He was restless but he was like me at this way, he wanted to think other things than creepy slender men hunting him.
"About what I did... My dad..." He tried explaining.
"It was the reason", I ended his sentence. "Don't worry, I won't tell anyone, like you said I have my secrets too, so I know how to keep them."
However those robots and whatever those things inside of them had bothered me. I didn't give much thought to that robot chasing me yesterday, I mean it probably just chased me because I did something to bother it, but these guys were ready to kill me for standing between them and Oliver. It was clear that Oliver himself wasn't any ordinary boy, if he was the one who started those waves of whatever they were, that could be the reason for why he was wanted by those creeps, and his father knew about it and if I heard correctly he was happy to give his son into their hands, but I wasn't. Whatever this is, Oliver doesn't deserve it.
"I hope this won't happen again", he said quietly.
"Me too", I replied.
But something told me this wouldn't be the last time we would see those creeps.
