A/N: Bit of a Coffee Jolt for this story. I noticed its kind dragging so time for some action! WHOOP!
Planning: Noun
The process of making plans for control of urban development by a local government authority, from which a license must be obtained to build a new property or...
Synonyms
design - designing - projection
Planning could also fall under the definition of things that the two anti-matters did not do before they blindly ran into a strange new world on their own. It could also fall under the category of things that Zak Monday looks up in Urban Dictionary that Friday afternoon in the local Paris library.
"Huh, probably should've done a little bit of this planning." The teen muttered as he clicked out of the tab he was on and reclined a bit more in his seat.
Why was he looking this up again? Oh yeah, with his and Komodo's 'break' (which ended up being a while) being over, the lizard had finally decided now would be as good a time as ever to finally make a move towards their opponents. The only problem being that A) Their current location was unknown to the two, B) If they did find them then how on Earth would they defeat them if they outnumbered them, an entire family to two, and last but not least, C) Macy.
'Well, I guess a simple side-plan of murder could do the trick. Poisoned coffee, radio in the tub (Meh, been reading to many comics), even a simple stabbing.'
Thoughts of murder normally left behind a sly smirk on the dark skinned male's lips, but the thoughts of murdering that damned girl, just left behind a bitter taste in his mouth.
'Ugh! But if we do go through with this plan then I'd loose her forever either way! Wait. Why do I care if I loose her or not?' With a heavy sigh, the teen took one last glance at the computer's monitor to the screen he had recently pulled up.
Secret Scientists
He sighed heavily and rested his chin on his palm and lazily scrolled through the lists of names. They may have been called Secret Scientists, but they didn't live up to their names as the owner of this site, as well as Macy, seemed to be well aware of them and their line of work. With a soft chuckle, he stopped at the first name that caught his attention. Saturday.
'No way. This is far to easy.' His smirked widened as he clicked on the name and images of individuals, that closely matched his 'family', aside from a few minor traits, appeared on screen.
Along with the images, there were profiles of each of them, including a marking list of where the family had been and where they were more than likely going to head to next. With yet another smirk, he copy and pasted these pages to a file and saved it on his jump-drive, the secret one that he kept from Macy, due to the girl being the one who taught him how to use his first one and could easily hack it.
Noticing his time on the computer was about to clock out, he got up to leave when something flashed across his screen.
Was this information helpful young Monday?
Beneath this, a Yes, No. Box began to blink.
Sitting back down, and with his smirk suddenly gone, he found himself tapping the YES Icon. In an instant, this box disappeared and another reappeared.
Glad to be of service. Any other questions?
Below this, another option box appeared, and just like before, the boy hit YES.
I suppose you are wondering who I am and why I am asking this?
Another box, another yes.
At the moment, who I am is of no importance, but in time it will be, And I am just as curious as you.
Just then, rather than an option box appearing, the printer next to him sprang to life and a slip of paper shot out at him. A phone number and an Email address had been scribbled down on it in clean cursive handwriting.
We will keep in touch. Now better not keep Young Macy waiting.
As if on que, the laptop's time clocked out, logging the male out and shutting itself down. As if on another que, the bronze skinned girl dubbed Macy, could be heard slowly making her way over to her friend.
"Got what you came here for?" Zak asked as he slowly turned towards his friend, in her hands were several books.
"Yes I did. And you?" She asked in a hushed voice as she adjusted the books on her chest.
"Sure did." He replied, dangling the jump-drive in front of his now deep red friend's nose.
"Please tell me you didn't upload... Those." She groaned, believing the secret drive had been the one she had given him, the one with his 'secret photos' on it.
"Maybe, maybe not. More like downloaded." He said with a soft chuckle, causing the girl to grimace.
"Might I ask why you had to do this at a Public Library!" She groaned, hiding her face behind her books.
"Hey, you wouldn't let me do it at home, and you didn't give me any after that first night so-" Zak paused as his face turned as white as his mother's, suddenly remembering that Macy didn't know of that incident. Until now that is.
"What do you mean by that?" Rage laced the edge of her voice as the male was suddenly to his feet and slowly and carefully making his way around the girl in front of him.
"Eh, nothing that'll kill you." He said with a shrug as the girl turned so her eyes followed him towards the exit. "I'll tell you about it later."
"Zak!" Macy half whispered, half screamed as she took off after her now sprinting friend.
It had been almost an hour since the two left the library, and almost an hour since Macy probably stopped searching for her friend and decided to return home for the afternoon. Not that the anti-matter minded. After all, it did give him time to himself without fear of her barging in on him. Now he had time to think and begin 'planning' their next move. With a heavy sigh, he turned into a nearby alley way and walked towards a quiet and quite dark part of the narrow passage. For some reason, this made him feel more at home.
'I guess its like the Smoke World. Only cleaner I guess.' He thought as he pressed his back against the cool brick of one of the buildings.
So far, this was the only thought he had concerning the Smoke World (and the Matter World for that matter) so far, making the original plan of coming here to plan for their plan to take over the Matter World nearly impossible. In an act of frustration, he hit his pockets, searching them for something it could throw that wasn't of any importance to him.
Jump-drive (nope), Gum packet (Throws it quickly but it doesn't do enough damage to please him), condom (hell no! Might need that), Cell phone (Eh, considering it), Fang (Shattered at least two windows and a trash can but he still wasn't happy), Paper (Wait? Paper?).
Taking out his cellphone and the paper, he clicked the device on as it cast an eerily green glow on the egg shell colored paper. A phone number was illuminated on the paper.
1187151920
"Weird. Is that even a valid phone number?" He muttered to himself as he turned the phone's screen to face him.
After his eyes adjusted to the sudden brightness, he quickly tapped in the phone number, curious to see if he was correct. The phone rang once. A loud and low buzz echoed throughout the darkened alley way. Followed by another, and then a third before the words Connected appeared on his screen and a sharp click had been heard, followed by a shallow breath.
"Greetings young Monday." A strangely accented voice flowed through the phone. "Your call took less time than I had expected."
For a minute, there was silence. The shock of having someone actually pick up caused the boy's voice to die right there in his throat and the shock of recognizing the man's voice kept the words from coming back and just as he was about to regain his voice, another shock forced them back in.
'It isn't a number. Its a name... Argost.'
"So I understand you have overstayed your welcome with miss Macy. Correct?" Argost's voice sounded in the phone again, sounding as if he had planned out this entire conversation.
"Y-yeah. I mean. I guess." Zak stuttered out in reply rather quickly.
"Well, perhaps not, its only been about three months." The older man chuckled dryly before his tone became serious. "But you've come to this world with alternative motives and to those motives, three months is a very long wait."
"Has it really..." Zak muttered, more to himself than to Argost. "Geez... Time kinda got away from me didn't it."
"As well as your focus on what you originally came here to do." The man snapped, sounding almost angry. "But lucky for you, I came in contact with you, and had similar motives of my own in mind."
A soft click was the tan boy's tongue was a indication that he was still on the phone, but had stopped to take in what had just been said to him. After this moments pause, Argost spoke again.
"What if I told you that I have a direct link to the Saturday boy." It wasn't a question, but more of a statement.
"I would told you that I'm now interested." The boy shot back, his usual smirk returning. "But first I would want to know how you got this link."
"It was quite simple actually. You see, sometime ago, the boy's family and I had discovered the truth behind Kur's identity. And as you know, unlike your powers, this kur's powers are evil." He paused, letting his words sink in before continuing. "Now, with my knowledge of said creature, including the knowledge of how to control said powers, the boy came to me for assistance, knowing very well however, that I had my own plots against him."
"But the price was worth the protection of his loved ones?" The anti-matter finished up.
"You are a clever one." Argost complimented, seemingly happily with the way the boy responded.
"So what makes you think I'd let you help me when you're A) already working with my double and B) already planning on destroying him?" Zak retorted, folding one arm over the arm that held the phone, oddly trying to cross his arms.
"Because you and I are to much alike for me to want to destroy you." Argost put it simply. "In the end, we would both get what we wanted."
"And then have to fight for dominance over it." Zak said quickly, only to cover his mouth in sheer embarrassment, realizing how naughty his words sounded.
"Oh dear. Well, I do not swing in that direction. But if you meant that we would eventually betray each other. Then I would say. Perhaps, depending if you can keep your value to me up long enough." Argost replied with yet another dry chuckle.
"What about Macy?" The boy heard himself say suddenly though he had no memory of even thinking of saying that.
"What about her?" The man restated, sounding a tad confused.
"She'll want an explanation as to why I leave her so suddenly and when this world does get taken over, what will we do with her?" Zak felt his face grow hot as these random sentences flew freely from his lips.
"Ah yes, your attachment to the young female is quite obvious." Argost began slowly. "So I understand your concern for her."
"W-what are you talking about? S-shes just a friend! Not even! Shes a pone!" The teen shot back, almost furiously. "We've only hung out like twice and in that rest of that time shes been whoring herself out with others or whatever!"
He made a strange groaning sound in the back of his throat when he realized that Argost was right when he said that not only his time but also his attention had slipped away from him. Heck, half the time he was at Macy's it was spent sitting on her couch doing nothing and that pissed him off as he thought of all the opportunities he could have spent planning his attacks out but didn't. If it wasn't for Macy and that stupid comfortable couch he probably would have this world taken over by now and not need V.V Argost to help him do this!
"Oh, but that is a lie." That voice broke through the boy's thoughts and somehow tapped into another part of his mind. "I've been watching you, Monday. You have spent nearly your entire summer with the girl, acting as a normal child of this world. Though for some reason or another, you choose to forget this."
Muddy images of the pairs trips to the local pool (an the occasional beach trip) suddenly appeared in the back of his eyes. Another memory of running down the street with the girl while she pitched an ice-cream cone followed. And then a more recent image of a Fourth of July party became apparent, this one being the clearest of them all.
Celebrations were new to the anti-matters, as they were not exactly popular in their world. However, they did seem to be rather popular in this one and so far the two remaining Mondays had celebrated 3. The first celebration in this world had been Macy's birthday, which wasn't to boring as the party took place at a bowling alley. Their second had been when Macy's brother announced that he had finally gotten his first job (They only celebrated with the family because they had nothing better to do.) The third one came in the form of a block party, though Zak was the only one who attended, as his dragon found that the noise, crowd, and fireworks were all too overwhelming and decided to stay home. With that, the anti-matter boy now found himself with his matter friend, Macy.
Red, white, and blue sparks lit up the otherwise orange and pink sky as the two struggled to light their sparklers with a very dull lighter. Her pale eyes lit up brighter than any fireworks he had seen that night, though this may have been due to their color, making it easier for the lights to bounce off of them. It was hot outside, and the loudly played music only seemed to add to the heat, which apparently was hot enough to make the remains of their grape salad bubble lightly from their paper plate homes on the side walk.
"OK. Got it!" Macy announced as a ball of blue sparks popped and crackled off of the stick she had been holding, Zak's stick copying her's actions moments later only his sent off red sparks that matched the main color of the top Macy was wearing.
"Hey Mace, what do we do when they get to low to your fingers?" The male asked idly, swirling the quickly burning wood around in the air and creating shapes that would only last a few seconds.
"Just drop it, though I think it should burn out by then." Macy said as she focused her eyes on the remains of her stick and then dropping it just as it burnt out and then turned sharply on the heels of her flip flips and ran off.
"Where are you going?" Her friend called after her as he watched her.
"I'm off to get some brownies! Want any?" She called over her shoulder, only to see her friend ditching the firework and running after her, answering the question of 'want any?'
The two teens ended up at one of the many tables at their neighbor's house which had been set out for the party. Each teen then took a plate and began to pick out whatever they thought looked good to them. After that, the two found two lawn chairs by the pool and took this time to enjoy the treats they had collected. Once Macy had finished everything off of her paper plate, she stood up to go throw out her plate at the nearest trashcan which was just a few feet in front of them. Unfortunately that would mean she would have to walked a tad closer to the pool than Zak was. After she did this, she was just about to turn back around and walk back. Zak watched her, and luckily Macy did not see the evil look on the boy's face as a plot came to his mind.
"Hey Mace, got your phone on you?" He asked, slowly getting up from his own chair and trying to keep quiet, taking note as Macy paused in her tracks and turned back around to point to their house just across the street from the one they were at.
"No. I left it at the house reme-AHH!" A suddenly splash drowned out the girl's words and yelps, but not only her's, as she had grabbed her friend and he followed her into the pool.
When they both resurfaced, Macy took a few moments to gather herself before she turned and tackled the boy around the neck, though it wasn't enough to send him back into the water. Giggles and growls (Happy ones of course) escaped both of their lips as they splashed about the pool anyhow. Soon, both became tired of this and slowly stopped to just tread water and giggle softly.
"You idiot! I'm not wearing a swim suit under this!" Macy giggled as she swiveled herself around in the water to face the male's front.
"Neither am I. And I'm not complaining." He said, taking a deep breath and clinging to the girl as he quickly dragged them both back under.
Not wanting to ware herself out any, Macy didn't make any attempt to punch herself free, instead, she opened her eyes, not minding the sting of chlorine so she could stare at her friend. Apparently having the same idea as her, he also had opened his eyes and was now staring at her. Their hair was floating weightlessly around them as a few bumbles from when the surface broke still swam around them, creating the look of an underwater fantasy scene. A sudden rubble however, from the surface caught both of their attention far to quickly as they broke away and broke surface for air. By now the sky was a deep blue, filled with a sudden display of light. Fireworks. Again, Macy's eyes were brighter than any of them as she watched.
"Aren't they beautiful?" She asked as she tredded water gently and turned to face her friend, whose attention was plastered more on her than on the sky.
They were mere inches apart by now when Macy smirked a tad deviously and suddenly splashed her friend once more in the face while he was distracted. The anti-matter boy glared at her and quickly wiped his eyes before tackling her back into the water and held her down in it. A quick thought of 'I could kill her right now if I wanted to' flashed through his mind before he slowly let her back up. Usually, one would expect the other to be furious at this, but Macy came out of the water laughing hard.
"Okay, I deserved that." She giggled as she brushed her hair out of her face and swam towards the ladder to get out of the pool. "You coming?"
Zak rolled his eyes but then nodded and copied her actions of swimming and followed her out of the pool, where they then located a towel large enough to cover both of them and a lawn chair that would do the same. A comfortable silence followed the two as they looked up at the sky and watched the exploding fireworks decorate the now darkening sky.
"Isn't it beautiful?" Macy finally spoke up in an awestruck voice, just as a blue one lit up the night.
Zak Monday turned to her and looked her over. Her multi-colored hair was a mess on her face and neck, reminding him a lot of how a woman in his world might wear her hair on a daily basis. Another thing to note about Macy was how wide her white eyes were, and how they sparkled with the light bouncing off of them, just as the droplets of water on her skin did the same. The white stars on her red top were now pale tan as the top stuck to her wet skin and her blue skirt wasn't in much better shape. Despite all of this, she looking so happy and was smiling her usual wide smile, giving her her cute and innocent look.
"Yeah, I guess it is pretty beautiful."
"Young Monday? Are you listening?" Argost's voice pulled the boy back into reality.
"W-what? Oh yeah. You were saying?" He asked, frowning when he heard the man sigh heavily.
"As I was saying, I have seen every encounter you ever had with the girl since your first meeting with her and I know as fact that you are very close to her." Argost began. "Spending time with her in this world as if you were just another love-sick child which is why you can't go back now."
"Wait, what?" Zak interrupted but Argost kept talking.
"Though, a part of you tries to forget these encounters, hoping to have a reverse affect, which I strongly advise you go against this part." His voice was dead-pan and mono-toned. "For your powers are effect purely by emotions, and being good, these emotions include the ones you feel for her. Which would explain why your first encounter with the Saturdays did not end in your favor."
"OK, OK, I follow but now I'm confused." The dark skinned teen cut off. "If Macy is such a distraction and I'm 'overstaying' my welcome with her, then why are you suggesting that I remember her?"
"I never said that that was a bad thing no did I? No. I did not, I did however, point out that such emotions you feel towards her are connected to your powers. And the girl is a clever one." He pointed out. "But we are straying off topic. We were originally talking about what will become of her when we finally get around to our plans and hopefully victory. And it seems that the logical choice would be to have her put into slavery with the other mortals-"
"Heck no! She doesn't deserve that!" A hand was clamped over his mouth to keep the words in.
"But if you take over, you will loose her either way." Argost said, as if somehow knowing what the boy had been thinking earlier on. "Unless."
"Theres an unless to this all?" The boy asked, sounding somewhat hopeful.
"Do you know what a bond is?" Argost began, somehow sensing the boy's head shake. "To humans, it is called sexual intercourse, and normally does not create a bond. But to criptids, including Kur, it is called mating."
The blood on the boy's hand either came from biting his lip to hard, or from his impending nose bleed. He couldn't really tell by now.
"W-what are you suggesting?" He asked numbly, unable to feel much and yet his grip on the phone tightened.
"With her as a mate, even if she wanted to, she wouldn't be able to leave you." Argost said slowly.
"Isn't that the same thing as being my slave then?" Zak muttered, finally wiping the last drops of blood away.
"Perhaps. If she thinks of it as that." Zak could almost hear the man's shrug, if that was even possible. "Though, knowing her. She will not."
"But in order to find out, we would have to go through our plan." He continued, his tone suddenly changing to what that Zak couldn't put a name to.
"Don't have one. Thats why I called you." Zak muttered dryly as he pushed off of the wall, sensing the conversation coming to a close.
"Well I do. And lucky for you, I have already factored you into it. Even Macy plays a role in all of this. Everything has already been planned already. Even this phone call. This whole thing has been scripted. And how would you feel if I told you at this moment, you are listening to a pre-recording of my voice?" Argost chuckled lowly in his throat. "But besides all that. We will keep in touch from here on out. Our first place of meeting in person will be atop Paris's arch. Have fun figuring out which one. With the date set at August 5th. As for the girl.. Well, you have time to think of what to do with her."
A soft click signaled the call being dropped, though it wasn't noticed by the boy as he stuffed his cellphone back into his pocket and began to quickly walk out of the alley way, trying to remember his way back to Macy's house.
Three children sat around a milk-crate with a cracked radio propped up on it. The oldest of the three, Zak Monday, was mindlessly flipping through the static stations and then eventually clicked it off. This roused the attention of the oldest girl, a red-head with emerald-green eyes that had a hazy grey film over them. The few bits of colour this damn world had to offer them. It was hideous. It made Zak almost regret stirring them from their hiding place behind pale lids.
"Why did you turn it off?" She snapped, sounding somewhat upset.
"Casedy, it was just static." Zak said with a roll of his black eyes.
He then flopped onto his back and began to study the girl. If it wasn't for her running eye-liner and her ruby-red lipstick, it would've been impossible to distinguish Casedy Gray from a male, with her baggy brown clothing on and this fact seemed to amuse the boy more than the broken radio.
"Well to me it was the most beautiful thing in this whole world!" She joked sarcastically, slapping the radio off of the crate and promptly turning it back on.
Much to Zak's discomfort, she started to 'hum' along and began to slowly rock back and forth to the 'tune'.
"Are you sure we're related?" Zak muttered, as he watched the girl 'dance' about the small space that was his bedroom.
"We're not, prat. If I remember it correctly, my aunt Abby, married your uncle and produced that." With this she pointed to a black and red-haired girl who sat in the corner of the room. The little thing jumped and instantly began to whimper and hide her face in her shirt. "So technically we are both related to her, but not to one another."
"And this fact alone makes my life somewhat more bearable." The male muttered as he folded his arms behind his head and closed his eyes. "Somewhat."
"If you're thinking of offing yourself Monday, you better do it soon before I do it for you." Casedy threatened. "Now that you've put the idea in my head."
"Y-you're not r-really g-g-gonna kill him... A-are you?" The little girl, Evangeline Whitepond, stuttered out slowly.
"Nah, Caz is just cranky because her dad left." Zak said coolly. "And she's jealous that we both still have ours."
"Y-you had a d-daddy... C-Casedy?" She shook a little when she spoke, and began to shake even more when Casedy nodded.
"The Keyword being, HAD!" The two others jumped at Casedy's yelp, but when Zak recovered from his shock he burst into a fit of laughter. Yet Casedy continued her tale regardless. "My dad was Arthur Beeman, and my mom is Miranda Gray... And for some reason those two dumb-asses thought they could make it work and produced me-"
She paused mid rant and suddenly went silent as her hard face soon softened and saddened as her filmy eyes suddenly glossed over.
"I don't really know what happened... When I was two, dad just up and left us without a trace..." She sat down on the dirty floor of the bedroom and looked lost in thought now.
"Now, since she's cooled down." Zak began. "Are we talking sob stories now because if you don't mind. I would like to tell mine."
Evangeline suddenly got up from her spot in the corner, with tears streaking her tiny face, she ran over to her oldest cousin and wrapped her thin arms around him and began to cry.
"I-I'm listening!" She cried out suddenly, still in a cloud of sadness from her first cousin's story.
"My sob story is- I don't have one really. My family is dead weight and I can just off them when I want to- Well mom would be a problem though- but the others. Just remove the warning labels from certain bottles and let the job do itself." He said with a shrug as he picked up the little girl and held her on his lap.
"Such a lovely tale, Monday. Your biggest problem in life is that your family has the survival rate of a band of cockroaches." Casedy said sarcastically. "You completely over look that A: We live here in this tragic place and B: We're trapped in your room for the next five hours until your parents get back from doing God knows what!"
"If you're so bored Casedy then turn back on the damn radio! It's a 'nice' day out. We might be able to get the Forbidden Channel." Both girls tensed up when their kin suggested this.
Komodo, who had suddenly phased out of nowhere, snatched the radio away from Casedy and brought it back over to the crate.
"W-whats the F-Forbidden Channel?" Evangeline cried into Zak's stomach and yelped when she heard the channels of the radio begin to flip.
"The Forbidden Channel, as your cousins call it, Is a channel linked to those of another dimensions." Komodo explained.
"We sometimes pick up on other's conversations." Zak added as he set the girl back on the floor and began to scoot closer to the crate.
"Quiet, Zak! I'm trying to listen!" Both Casedy and Komodo snapped at the boy as they continued to click through the radio.
"So we're going to an Aztec temple to look for a mirror?" A young male's, that sounded a lot like Zak's voice came through the radio suddenly, making the four of them jump.
"It's not just any mirror Zak. It's a Smoke mirror." An older woman's voice said.
"You know what this means guys?" Zak Monday asked as he got up from his spot on the floor and went over to another crate quickly.
An object had gone unnoticed by the other two females, but it was a cloth covered object, which Zak grabbed and then rushed to the bedroom door where his 'fang' was propped up against the wall.
Casedy jumped up and punched the radio this time and ran after the male, quickly holding the door closed before he could open it.
"Are you insane!?" She growled lowly at him.
"Casedy, Casedy, Casedy." He said smoothly, slowly shoving the girl away from the door. "I am not insane. I am just a little messed up in the head."
He was about to leave but was suddenly pulled back by Komodo's tale.
"I'd have to agree with the girl. If you attempt this alone you will more than likely be killed." He said simply and almost sounded hopeful.
"So what would you rather I do? Just wait for them to come back to the Aztecs again?" Zak asked in a somewhat annoyed tone.
"Wait for your parents to come back. Then we can all go." Komodo said good-naturedly, though an evil was hidden in his bitter tone.
"Eh, it'll take less time than warning labels." Zak said with a shrug as he tossed the objects on the floor and went back over to where the radio had been punched, picked it up and clicked it off.
"I wonder what became of them." Zak muttered aloud on the long walk back to Macy's house.
It had been a long while since he last thought back to the side of his family that he didn't mind. Uncle B was supportive enough and his maternal aunt Abbey wasn't all bad, even if she did have her off days. Their kids were the sweetest also. It was a rare occasion that the anti-matter teen ever regretted leaving that world, or at least leaving them behind there. Then again, if he didn't come here, and if in the distant future he didn't take over this world, then they probably wouldn't be able to leave and come here. Wait, he was basically saying he was doing all of this for family! Ugh! This world's influences really were getting to him and he hated it.
"Since when did I have values?" He asked aloud but didn't expect to get answered.
During his time of thought, he failed to notice that A.) He was back at Macy's, and B.) She was standing on the porch waiting for him.
"Since when did you decide to take your merry time in coming home?" She asked in a disproving tone.
"Since I got hungry again." He answered teasingly, knowing that this was well the time the family normally sat down for dinner.
"Well hurry up and get in here. Pizzas ready." Macy said as she tapped her foot.
The anti-matter rolled his eyes and entered the door, leaving any of his previous thoughts behind at the door.
