==Lap 6=

A night of humiliation, sorrow, and romance had passed. As expected, Chiya's live accident was the center of attention in the media. People shared the video, news sites replayed the video, and even online memes were starting. It had only been about half a day since this had occurred, and already her mishap was going viral. Ironically, the only famous network that wasn't further humiliating Chiya, was F-Zero TV. They mentioned the incident many times, but were much more centered on her actual interview. There was merely one place in the universe that was censoring this clip and punishing anyone who shared it; this was Mysteria.

Chiya had a soft look on her face as she slept, it was now early in the afternoon, but something immediately felt wrong. She could tell that her room was lit up, along with this, she was cold. Chiya was shivering constantly and rubbing her shoulders as she was only just slightly waking up. Blimey, why am I so cold..? Chiya crossed her arms, but immediately rubbed against two fairly sharp parts of her body…

She widened her eyes and gasped, quickly covering her palms over her breasts. She rolled onto her back with a surprised look as she found that she still had her nightgown pulled down to her waist. She rolled onto her back while still covering her breasts and momentarily lifted her palms slightly in shock. She got a cute smirk and blushed as she looked down at her own bare chest.

"If I didn't know any better, I woulda' thought that I had two icicles on my breasts…"

She moved her hands down to her waist and glanced over to her left after exhaling playfully, but what she found next greatly disturbed her. She nearly screamed and covered up her breasts again; it was Earl.

Her eyes were quivering greatly as she stared down at him; fortunately, he appeared to be in a deep slumber and likely hadn't seen Chiya bare-chested. She grasped her forehead and exhaled very loudly in relief. Without further hesitation, she pulled up her nightgown and put the straps back over her shoulders. The next thing that confused Chiya was that Earl had no shirt on. She continued to stare at him for several moments in utter confusion, as if she had no memory of the previous night.

Chiya gasped and covered her mouth, "Oh, God! D- did we play last night..!?" she muttered in fright.

After staring at Earl for a few more moments, memories came flushing back into her head. She exhaled in relief, now relieved that the two hadn't had sex. She looked down at her hands in disbelief, somewhat disgusted at how perverted she was being the previous night before falling asleep. She knew that if she hadn't fallen asleep, she would have pushed him into having sex with her, if not simply pleasuring her. This was certainly not the kind of person she would like to be looked at as.

"Bloody Hell, I think Dark Rose rubbed off on me a bit, eh?"

Chiya sat up and crossed her feet together, she gazed at her unpainted toenails and quirked her mouth, still shocked that she had come so close to having relations with Earl. She did desire to do this with him, but she wanted her first time to be more romantic than that. Having sex just because she was sad about being humiliated on television wouldn't be very romantic to her.

Chiya puckered her lips and brought her hands together as she stared at Earl, "Hm-m…"

She came to the sudden realization that she had awoken before him, something she could only do ¼ of the time. She smiled and softly chuckled to herself. She quietly got off of the bed and walked towards her clothing. She grabbed her pink panties off of the ground and looked over at Earl, who was still sleeping soundly. She smiled at him and pulled the undergarments up her gown; afterwards, she threw off the gown and hooked her bra back on. Lastly, Chiya put on her socks and shirt and then proceeded to leave her room.

Chiya was minutes later in the kitchen sitting on the counter, she was making coffee for the two; a surprise that she would present Earl with. She kicked her feet back and forth as she peacefully waited for the coffee to finish. In this day and age, coffee could be prepared much faster and more efficiently.

She widened her eyes and jolted up at the loud sound of something. She grasped her forehead and lowered her eyebrows in utter confusion.

"Thunder?"

Indeed, it was thundering outside, and a very heavy rainfall was flooding the streets. This was strange primarily because it was December; the temperature was unusually content considering Christmas was days away.

Chiya rubbed her chin and hummed with a raised eyebrow as she listened to the rain slam against the roof very roughly. Ultimately, Chiya just regarded this as a very rare occurrence and looked back down at the coffee. She was staring into the dark brown liquid intensely, just slightly seeing her reflection in the ripples of the coffee.

She sighed and got off of the counter, momentarily leaving the kitchen. She left the door open and raised her eyebrows as the rain sounded much louder, part of her wanted to watch the weather channel, but she didn't want to wake Earl. She walked down the hallway towards the lobby as the loud sound of thunder continued to surround her. She opened the door and gazed into the dark lobby with an almost hypnotized look, as if she were being told by someone to enter the room. She turned on the light and scanned the room slowly.

Chiya lowered her eyebrows, "I feel like…"

She slowly turned her head towards the display cases, which contained two bronze Grand Prix trophies, Federation medals, a damaged Blood Falcon helmet, and Seppuku's fedora. She quirked her mouth and approached the display cases slowly; she took no steps; rather she was sliding towards the cases.

"I feel like someone's telling me to come here…"

She put her hands on the glass and looked down at Seppuku's fedora with an intense gaze. Her eyes were quivering at the black and red banded hat; this was the Christmas present she had gotten Seppuku, but in the end, he dropped it while being dragged away by the Federation.

She lifted the glass up and quickly lifted the fedora up with a quirked mouth. She stared at the hat with the utmost concentration, but her eyes were slowly dilating as she did this. She grunted and gritted her teeth as it seemed that all of existence was suddenly leaving her, for a few moments, all she could see was her hands and the hat; nothing else. As she continued to stare at this, a figure was being forced into her mind.

Chiya silently gasped, against her will, the faint image of a naked Dark Rose was flailing her hands with a very panicked look. Chiya gritted her teeth, wondering if she were insane, but couldn't get a grasp on reality again. The last thing she saw was Rose swished her hands away from her, as if this imaginative figure was trying to warn her of something.

Dark Rose disappeared, Chiya blinked once and grunted as she continued to stare at the hat. Her concentration was broken as thunder had become lightning. Chiya slowly set the hat back in its case while trembling in shock.

"Something bad is going to happen today, isn't it Rose..?"

Regardless of the already strange morning she was having, she came walking back into her room with two cups of coffee now in her hands. She smiled at the sight of Earl lying in the exact same position; what she wanted to know was if he had fallen asleep or actually wanted to sleep with her. She wasn't bothered that Earl slept with her topless, as long as he hadn't gotten to see his chest. Chiya's general rule was simple; if he gets to see one of her private areas, she gets to see his. However, she didn't find it fair that she would show him her breasts merely because he took off his shirt. If Earl ever took off his bottoms, Chiya would show him both her chest and bottom area.

Earl lowered his eyebrows and began to twitch as Chiya got back in bed with the coffee. She very carefully crawled towards him and slowly moved the cup under his nose. She smiled and began to rub Earl's shoulder with her other hand as she waved the coffee around his nose. Earl slightly shrugged, and his eyelids began to quiver slightly as he seemed to be waking up.

"Good afternoon, Earlie'…"

Earl smirked with his eyes still shut and nodded, "…what am I smelling right now..?"

"Open your eyes and find out!"

He quirked his mouth and tried to, but was having difficulty doing so. He groaned and grasped his face; Chiya momentarily took her hand off of his shoulders and forced his eyelids open. Earl groaned again and looked down slightly; he smiled at the sight of coffee.

"Wow, Chiya, this is new…"

"However, I was still thinking that we could go to Bart's Café in a little bit, see if he ever figured something out for us."

Earl flipped onto his back and began to flex and stretch, Chiya's smile remained the same, but her eyes widened in amazement as he stared at his chest pull. She bit on her finger and began to instantly fall victim for his muscles. Earl prepared to drink his coffee as he stretched, but grunted as Chiya had forced herself down onto his chest. He widened his eyes and grunted as she instantly began to rub on his chest.

Earl chuckled loudly and pushed her off of him, "Okay, alright, enough of that…"

Chiya frowned and dipped her head down, "Okay…"

He combed his hair down with his fingers and looked around the room; he had only just realized where he was.

"Did I really fall asleep right in your bed?"

Chiya nodded with a grin, "Yep, you missed out too, because my chest was completely exposed all night and all morning; you coulda' easily got away with snapping some photos."

Earl grunted and shook negatively, "I'd never do that!"

"Really?"

Earl lowered his eyebrows and dipped his head down, "Not without your consent…"

Chiya slightly blushed and dipped her head down, "Well, if you-"

"Boy! Where is that damn shirt?" he said quickly to change the subject.

Chiya handed him his white shirt and crossed her legs together. Earl put his shirt on and quickly grabbed his leather jacket, but then something even more awkward happened. The vibrator Earl had hid in his jacket fell out. Chiya and Earl both gasped at this, but Chiya quickly looked up and beamed.

"Aha! So you were just keeping the back massager for yourself!"

Earl had indeed washed this, but he had merely forgotten to hide this in his room. The only reason he kept this toy was in case he screwed up during relations with Chiya, in which case, this would provide him with an emergency last resort to pleasuring her. Unfortunately for Earl, he was quite cornered right now.

"U-uh, yeah, I washed it…"

Chiya turned it on with a smile and began to stroke her back with it, she exhaled in comfort as she did this. Earl had a disturbed look on his face, but quickly came to the realization that this was okay. Chiya didn't know what this actually was, and she didn't have to, as long as she kept it out of sight from the public.

"Alright, you can keep it in your room then," Chiya beamed at him, "But don't use that out in public, it just looks weird."

Chiya nodded, "Okay then!"

Earl quirked his mouth and looked up at the ceiling, "I- is it raining?"

The two were suddenly startled at the sound of loud lightning; Chiya closed her eyes and nodded, "It's a little more than just rain…"

Earl finished his coffee and set is beside her lamp, he sat on the edge of her bed and quickly pecked her cheek.

"Thanks for letting me sleep in your bed; the reason I didn't wake up before you is that this thing is just so comfy."

Chiya smirked at him, "Just hang in there, not long from now you'll get to sleep on this bed every day!"

Earl let out a whistle, "Yeah, I won't miss my bed at the slightest…"

The two remained silently sitting together on the bed, Earl lowered his eyebrows and quirked his mouth. He grabbed the remote and turned on the television—but alas, there was no reception. The two got very confused looks on their faces, especially Earl.

"Odd…"

Chiya shrugged, "We could go check in at the café, maybe Bart can give us the details."

Earl sighed and nodded, "I'm going to be completely soaked by the time we get there," he glanced at her and raised his eyebrows after sighing, "Can you drive fast?"

Chiya smirked at him and punched his arm, "Hey, you're talking to the woman who practically won the Grand Prix!"

Jody stood in her office with a serious look on her face. She was staring out the large glass window behind her as rain hit flew right towards the building. She initially thought that they may be having a hurricane, but this was immediately ruled out as she read the weather report. Mute City was simply having strangely timed rainfall.

She continued to stare at the water that ran down the window, amazed by the bright lightning she was seeing around her. Very black clouds were approaching the city from Korea, so she knew that the worst had yet to come. What was especially frightening for most of the Federation was that a Mute City lightning rod was above the tower.

She turned around and let out a tired yawn as she returned to her paperwork. She was having yet another very uneventful day, her job had become much easier without the gang war that raged on in the Lower City two years ago. During the gang war, she would receive many calls within the hour. With weather like this, she could assume that no criminal was going to cause mayhem on the streets.

"I bet this rain would even piss Black Shadow off…" she muttered aloud to herself.

At that moment, Stewart forced himself through the door with a panicked look. Jody responded by grunting, as seeing Stewart panicked was never a good thing.

"Stewart?"

"It's offline!"

"What's offline?"

Stewart slammed his fists down and pointed at the door, "The camera, it's offline!"

She widened her eyes and gasped, "No way, the camera we just set up in floor negative zero?"

"Yes, we had live feed all day, but now it's offline."

Jody rubbed her chin, "Might it have been because of the weather?"

"Don't be ridiculous, Jody, something happened to it…"

"Okay, okay, let's not get worked up, it was probably just a simple technical error…" she closed her eyes and shrugged, "Or maybe it just fell, I don't think we secured it to the ceiling very well…"

Stewart grabbed her hand; Jody grunted and looked up at him, "Jody, we should get down there quickly…"

Jody continued to stare at him, "Doctor, I can't just leave my post-"

"No one is going to call us, Jody."

She quirked her mouth as she contemplated, but ultimately she nodded and stood up.

The two ventured down the fleet of stairs once again, and as always, Jody was expecting to see some bad result. After buying three twenty-packs of beer, Jody would be beyond surprised if everything was already missing. Stewart had a frustrated look on his face, clearly finding something more serious about this than Jody.

The two could no longer hear the rain and lightning, as they were far below the ground. Jody raised an eyebrow as she walked alongside Stewart.

"So this is just a natural storm?"

Stewart nodded, "Very odd though, there was no predictions that it would storm, let alone rain."

"God's just playing with us I guess…"

The two took their final steps towards floor negative zero, Jody had a fairly frightened look on her face as she stared at the cold door. Stewart approached it and turned towards Jody, she pulled her card up and gritted her teeth nervously. She swiped the card down the door and exhaled as she slowly opened it. Upon turning on the light, she gasped.

"O- oh my God!"

Two twenty-packs were now missing, there was only one left on the ground, but it appeared to have been ripped open. Jody pushed Tanaka aside and growled in rage as she ran up to the lone beer pack. She grabbed it and gasped as she shook it around, there were only four cans left inside.

She dropped the beer on the ground and shouted in rage, "Who the Hell do I need to fire!?"

Stewart had an overly disturbed look as he knelt near the corner of the room, Jody momentarily turned towards him with a burning look of rage.

"What are you looking at?"

She gasped after initially finding what the problem was—the camera was no longer on the ceiling, it was on the floor. Jody knelt down beside Stewart and gasped with widened eyes.

"N- no-o…" she muttered in disbelief.

The camera was destroyed. Fragments of the lens remained on the ground, the base of the camera appeared torn open, and the wiring was completely ripped. What really surprised her, however, was that the integrated circuits were lying on the ground in very small ripped pieces. Someone clearly understood how to properly destroy a security camera.

Stewart shook in disbelief, "You realize that we're going to be charged for this, right?"

Jody glared at the camera after hearing this, "N- no! I've already paid for literally one-hundred and twenty cans of beer, plus all of the snacks that were in that fridge," she clenched her fists and tightly grinded her teeth, "Whoever is doing this will pay for the beer, camera, food, a fine, and finally, I'll slam that sucker in prison!"

Stewart quirked his mouth and observed the tears done to the base, "These tears…" he very closely observed the sharply cut tears, "Whoever did this used something sharp…"

Jody stomped her foot down and crossed her arms, "This ends here!" she spun around towards the door and crossed her arms, "Stewart, prepare everybody for an emergency meeting in the assembly."

Stewart nodded, "Even the custodians and clerks?"

Jody stomped her foot down so powerfully, that a double echo followed.

"Everybody!"

Chiya and Earl both rushed inside of the café completely soaked, they were both panting heavily. Earl had been sitting on the outside of the Purring Kitten the entire time and even Chiya appeared just as wet. Bart raised an eyebrow at the two and slowly smirked.

"Want an umbrella?"

Earl and Chiya both stopped to glare at him; Bart shrugged with a sneaky grin. The two momentarily sat down in their usual spots as water continued to drip from their hair. Bart raised an eyebrow as the water dripping from Chiya's face was very dark looking.

"Ms. Flower, your mascara appears to be running…"

Chiya returned a hostile glance and quirked her mouth, "Yeah."

Bart held his waist and rubbed his head, "Alright, I'll stop offending now…"

"Bart, what the Hell is up with this weather?" asked Earl.

"Surprise winter rainfall, no one saw this coming."

Chiya wiped her running makeup aside, "What do you mean? What did the meteorologist say?"

Bart spun around and turned on the television while humming, but unfortunately, he tuned into the wrong channel at the wrong time…

"Coming up at seven! We take a look into Chiya Flower's interview and discuss whether we need to slap a diaper onto-"

Bart changed the channel quickly and turned his head away from Chiya. Chiya's eyes were instantly watering, but she remained strong none-the-less. Earl was also looking away from Chiya, but he momentarily turned towards her and fake smiled.

Bart leaned against the counter and turned up the volume.

"-utmost confidence that this weather will have cleared up by tomorrow morning. No weather stations had detected such weather showing up, leading many experts to believe that there may be something supernatural behind this occurrence…"

Chiya gasped, "…Black Shadow…"

Earl and Bart both glanced at her, Bart rubbed his chin and shrugged, "Black Shadow hasn't shown his face anywhere in months."

"Yeah, so it would be a better time than ever to attack us!"

Earl nodded in agreement, "Could be, his ship did disappear after that battle with only major damage…"

"Was a weather controller a part of his master plan?" asked Bart.

"Not that I heard of, but I'm sure that he could use this to his advantage in some way…"

Bart swished his hand at the two, "This isn't Black Shadow. If it were a weather device, there wouldn't be a prediction of when it will go away so fast."

Chiya nodded, "True…"

Earl sighed, "Black Shadow returning would be a calamity. It would all be up to Captain Falcon now that Seppuku's gone…"

Bart grinned at Chiya, "Captain Falcon announced on F-Zero TV that he is all set for the Grand Prix."

Chiya sighed and dipped her head down, "I don't wanna' talk about F-Zero TV…"

Earl and Bart both frowned at her, Bart put his hand on her and shook negatively with a grin.

"It's okay, Chiya, this will fly over soon…" he crossed his arms and smirked, "Because let me tell you something, one day you'll see that embarrassing clip again, and you-"

"Earl already told me that."

Bart widened his eyes, "Huh?"

"Earl says that in a few years I'll look back at this as a funny moment of my life."

Earl nodded, "That I did."

Bart quirked his mouth and shrugged, "Oh, uh, well, good job…"

Chiya puckered her lips, "Then Earl gave me a back massage!"

"Oh, well how nice of him."

Chiya nodded, "I think he shoulda' used the magic pickle on me."

Earl widened his eyes; Bart raised an eyebrow, "Magic pickle?"

Earl spun around and gasped, preparing to grab her mouth, "Yeah! It's a green plastic toy pickle that vibrates-"

She widened her eyes as Earl covered her mouth; Bart was twitching intensely at this. Earl swished his head towards Bart with a red face.

"I- it's not what you- not what you think, see, it's a back massager…"

Bart rubbed the back of his head and slowly nodded, "…what would my life be without you two..?"

Later on, Jody slammed her fists down on a podium in fury.

"Officers of the Federation! I have called you all here today to bring forth an escalating situation," she narrowed her eyes, "Someone has been consistently stealing from floor negative zero and this is going to stop today…"

The assembly room was full of Federation officers that reside in the HQ, every single employee was present. Jody's team stood near the front of the assembly.

"I was being fairly lenient at first when I discovered that some of the beer we were buying kept going missing, but the severity of this situation is escalating fast and must be addressed immediately," she pointed at the crowd, "Not only is stealing a felony, but this person has destroyed a high-tech camera, broke into a restricted floor, and has resisted arrest."

Jody turned around and pointed at a white screen behind her, which momentarily displayed a graphic image of a new security system.

"I didn't want to do this, but clearly it has gotten to that point. Tomorrow, we will be installing a siren to the door, that way, I can stop whoever is trying to be funny…" she crossed her arms and quirked her mouth, "Obviously, there's no point turning yourself in at this point. The best thing you could do is knock it off and leave this be, at least then you might get away with this. If you continue to steal, you'll be caught eventually. You're already in deep, no need to get yourself in deeper trouble…"

Tanaka raised his hand, "Why are we spending all of this money on a new security door, when we could hire guards?"

"Because, I'm not hiring guards to protect beer. That would be ridiculous…"

Jack quirked his mouth, "Yeah, but why not just put the beer somewhere else? Like your office?"

Jody sighed, "You're missing the point. This isn't about beer, this is about privacy and security; how long do we have before this same person starts sneaking into our rooms to take expensive possessions?"

Rick hummed, "I don't want my privacy invaded…"

"Exactly! This person could be some pervert looking to score some undergarments, does that sound very good?"

The crowd instantly began to converse over this matter, Jody looked around the room with a quirked mouth. Everyone was talking to one another at this point. Jody nodded and stepped off of the stage, and went walking towards the door. Despite how serious she felt this situation was, Jody had paperwork to do.

It was now evening, Chiya and Earl returned to the base and were once again enjoying dinner together. Earl was greatly enjoying the meal Chiya had prepared for the two, but he couldn't help but feel a bit awkward as Chiya sat silently with a sad look. He wasn't sure what she could possibly be upset about, as she seemed fairly happy before they left for the café. He was assuming that her sudden decline in happiness was relevant to their visit to the café.

"Something wrong?"

Chiya looked up at him and forced a smile, "No, I'm happy…" Earl continued to stare at her with a smirk, which was telling her that he didn't believe this. She sighed and dipped her head down, "It's what happened at the café…"

Earl clapped his hands together and grinned, "You don't need mascara, Chiya, I could kiss you-"

"No, not my makeup…"

"Then what's wrong?"

Her eyes began to water as she dipped her head down, "That one channel, it was making fun of me…"

Earl had a puzzled look, but he momentarily understood, "Oh, well, yeah; networks are run by real bastards."

"They said I should wear a diaper…"

"No, no, no, that was just a joke. Anyone who actually believes that you wet yourself commonly is an idiot."

"But people are going to start believing that I wear diapers!"

Earl chuckled and shook negatively, "Maybe they'll make a new baby diaper brand named after you," he joked.

"Earl!"

"I- I'm kidding, nobody believes that you wear a diaper." Chiya sighed and closed her eyes, Earl chewed on his food and shrugged at her, "We already went through this last night, one day, you'll laugh at this. For now, let's just focus on your career as a racer."

Chiya rubbed her chin and quirked her mouth, "On Big Blue, can we pee into the ocean?"

Earl widened his eyes and glanced away from her, "Come on, let's talk about something less disgusting…"

"Pee isn't disgusting; it's ninety-five percent water."

"A hundred percent of which comes out of the private area."

"Why does that gross you out?"

Earl glared at her, "Why wouldn't it?"

"I thought guys liked to get inside of-"

Earl slammed his hands down and closed his eyes with a perverse grin, "Anyways…"

Chiya lowered her eyebrows and twirled her foot around in small circles, "So-o, you were doing something nice for me last night, how about I do something for you tonight!"

"You brought me coffee and let me sleep in your bed, I'm good."

Chiya got an offended look, "That wasn't a gift, that was me being a girlfriend."

Earl shook negatively, "I'm fine, I just want to eat, take a shower, and go to bed."

Chiya nodded at him, she momentarily widened her eyes and beamed, "We should bathe together!"

Earl nearly choked on his food upon hearing this, "W- what?"

"Yeah, we could wear our swimming suits."

Earl lowered his eyebrows at her, "You and me, get in the tub together?"

"Well, yeah, why not?"

Earl rubbed his forehead, "I just- I mean, how would that work? We're both adults, we'd have to cross legs or something…"

"Yeah, why not?"

Earl blinked at her a few times, "…huh…"

"We could just relax in bubbly hot water and talk about stuff, it'd be fun!"

Earl gritted his teeth and rubbed his chin. Chiya was seriously proposing simply sitting around in the tub talking to him in relaxing hot water, but of course, half of her was also simply wanting to see if this would persuade Earl to have sex. Regardless, Chiya loved hot water and greatly admired Earl, two things that would have good chemistry.

Earl smiled at her and shook negatively, "How about we just go swimming tomorrow."

Chiya gasped and instantly kicked the bath idea aside, "Really!?"

"Yeah, then we can go in a hot tub instead."

Chiya slammed her hands down on the table and beamed heavily, "Oh my Gosh, thank you, Earl! I've been wanting to go swimming for so long now, but Seppuku would never-"

"T- that's fine, Chiya, we'll go swimming tomorrow."

Chiya was bouncing in her chair excitedly, "Finish up eating so we can sleep, God dammit!"

Earl did just that, he concluded his meal and threw his napkin over the plate. He stood up and bowed to her playfully.

"My compliments to the-"

"Yeah, yeah, shut up and get in that shower so you can get to bed!"

Earl smirked at her and nodded, "Alright, good-night, Chiya…"

Chiya wiggled her fingers at him with a very heartwarmed smile. Earl shut the door behind him and proceeded towards the bathroom. Chiya lowered her eyelids with the same dreamy smile as she began to fantasize about how swimming alone with Earl would go.

Hours later, it was far past midnight and Jody was brushing her teeth after a stressful day of work. She was looking into the eyes of her reflection as she brushed, she spat into the sink and wiped her mouth. She washed the brush and set it down.

"Thank God today's over…"

Jody turned off the light and began walking towards her door. She was unzipping her outfit as she moved, as she wore pajamas to sleep. Right before she removed the jacket portion of her outfit, something greatly alarmed her. Followed by the loud cracking of lightning outside, her phone began to ring…

She widened her eyes and turned around with a pestered look, "Oh, honestly, who the Hell is calling me at this time of the night…"

Jody got off work officially at 10 PM, but she wouldn't officially retire into bed until 12 AM. This call was strange, because all calls after 10 PM would normally be sent over to one of the nightshift officers, not Jody.

The lightning and rain was much more violent now, she walked into her office and turned on the light. She stopped and stared at her phone as it continued to ring, something seemed very wrong.

"But, the only person who could call me at this time of the night…" she raised her eyebrows in shock, "-is someone from inside the building…"

Without further hesitation, she walked around her desk and grasped the phone; she had an intense stare as she looked at the caller ID; it read: Floor Negative Nine Phone.

She slowly brought the phone up to her face with a very confused and somewhat startled expression, "Hello..?"

No initial response was given, but she could tell that someone was indeed on the phone with her. She waited a few more seconds before narrowing her eyes angrily.

"Is this a prank call?"

"Hello, Jody…" Jody widened her eyes at the unfamiliar voice.

The voice was unrecognizable to her, but she knew that it was a fake voice; a fairly dark sounding fake voice.

"Who is this? Who am I talking to?"

The man chuckled softly, Jody lowered her eyebrows as she listened to the chuckling. She waited patiently for the dramatic laughter to stop. A very loud lightning bolt cracked through the sky as the man stopped chuckling.

"Oh, who I am shouldn't concern you. I'm just calling to inform you that I will be checking out of this lovely resort now…"

Jody grunted and shook negatively, "Lovely resort?"

"The free beer was nice, the snacks were very luxurious, but I wasn't very comfortable with my room; and might I add, the room service was very nosey, setting up security cameras…"

Jody clenched her fists and narrowed her eyes, "Is this some kind of joke?" she grunted and slammed her fist down, "Wait, you've been stealing all of our things and destroying our things!?"

"To be fair, Ms. Summer, I only destroyed a thing," Jody grinded her teeth while growling in fury, "It's okay, I understand that you can be stupid at times…"

She slammed her fists down, "Who are you!?"

The man chuckled again somewhat maniacally, Jody looked back down at the caller ID and lowered her eyebrows.

"Wait, floor negative nine? How did you get in there?" she rubbed her chin and lowered her eyebrows, "Only members of my team can get in there…"

"Hm-m, sure sounds like you could use a Lieutenant Detective right about now. You're clearly struggling to solve this simple mystery…"

Jody gasped loudly, she knew that the man was referring to Seppuku. Once again, Jody slammed her fists down; her fists struck the desk along with the lightning strike.

"I ask again, who are you!?"

"I would love to stay and chat, but I'm actually in quite the hurry and must be checking out now. Good-bye-"

Jody narrowed her eyes, "Not so fast! You realize that I know of your location? In a matter of seconds I'll have everybody charging down there to comprehend you in floor negative nine. There's nowhere to hide…"

The man chuckled loudly at her threat, "But, Jody, you seem to forget where I am right now…"

"Floor negative nine…"

"Which is..?"

Jody thought about this for a few moments, she suddenly gasped and widened her eyes, "T- the control room?"

"As I said, I'll be checking out now. Don't bother trying to comprehend me, I'll be gone in a matter of seconds…"

Jody grabbed a folder off of her desk and threw it down loudly, "Listen you! You don't know who you're messing with..!"

"Nor do you, my lovely…"

"S- surrender yourself, or suffer the consequences! I will order my men to kill if needed!"

The man maniacally laughed, she could hear footsteps in the background, and finally, she could hear the sounds of a computer. The man was accessing the Federation HQ's master computer.

"Then, let the hunt begin!"

The man hung up and all of the lights in her office suddenly turned off. Jody gasped and set the phone down.

"No-o…" she muttered in disbelief.

She looked around the pitch black room and found that not a single light was on; the only thing in her office that still had power was her computer and phone, which were now running on battery power. Jody clenched her fists, despite the very frightening dark environment she was faced with, her priority remained the same: Capture this man before escapes.

Jody grabbed the phone and pressed the intercom button, "All Federation personnel- !" she lowered her eyebrows and grunted, the intercom powered off like everything else, "Damn it all!"

She rushed out of her seat and ran towards the elevator door that was in her office, she was the only one who could comprehend this criminal, as she was the only one who knew about him. She stopped in front of the elevator and pressed the down button, but to her misfortune, nothing happened…

"Oh my God!" she screamed in fury.

No matter where she turned, there was not a spark of power in the building. As a final resort, she ran to the stairway that was right next to the elevator, obviously this didn't require power. Despite this, there was still one major issue; there was absolutely no lighting, and she had to run down nearly a hundred floors. It would be difficult to see the steps, and she had no way of knowing what floor she was on unless she counted.

"You have got to be kidding me!" she exhaled loudly and began speed walking down the steps, despite not being able to see, she skipped a few steps to quicken her speed, "Floor eighty-nine…"

She very slowly walked around the next fleet of stairs with a very panicked look. She knew catching this man would be difficult considering he only needed to climb back up nine floors, while she had to go down eighty-nine. She took a step onto another floor and grinded her teeth in frustration.

"Eighty-eight…"

She was getting much faster, but was still making slow progress. To her luck, she could hear several Federation far below; but they were all panicking.

"Eighty-seven…" she sighed and then growled, "God help us all…"

After about fifty floors, Jody had now gained the confidence to jog down the stairs. She had no doubt in her mind anymore that the criminal either had or was at least close to escaping. Best case scenario would be that he had gotten lost trying to make his way back to the lobby in pitch darkness.

Jody came to a complete stop and gasped upon seeing something coming up from the center of the stairway-a light. She stopped on her current floor and looked down.

"Who's got the flashlight!?" she shouted down.

The light was directed towards her, she waved, and the person with the flashlight momentarily was revealed to be Dr. Stewart after shining it on himself.

"Stewart! Hold on!"

Jody began running down the stairs again, Stewart was shining a path for her as she ran to guide her. She was panting as she ran down at a dangerously fast speed, yet she was somehow landing on each step perfectly. After about a minute of running, she got down alongside Stewart and Tanaka.

Stewart gritted his teeth, "Jody, what's-"

"We need to get to ground level!"

"Why?"

"The person stealing from us, he's trying to escape, he called me just before he cut the power off!"

Stewart and Tanaka exchanged glances and nodded, Stewart shined the flashlight down towards the stairs.

"Then let's go!"

The three had continued for several more minutes down the stairs, and at last, they had made it to ground level. Jody forced open the door to the lobby while panting, she ran inside the lobby and immediately scanned the area for her enemy. The lobby was pitch black and seemingly untouched. Stewart and Tanaka got beside her and helped scan the room. Jody grunted and pointed at the doors.

"What the Hell! The doors are locked!?"

The entire entrance was closed off. Not only did the man power off the building, but he put it on lockdown before doing so. Jody grasped her forehead and shook negatively.

"But, then he couldn't have escaped through the entrance-"

The three jolted up in shock at the sound of an explosion, it was coming from the garage. Jody grabbed her companions arms and rushed away from the lobby towards the garage. The three were running very fast, determined to capture the criminal while they still could.

Jody slid around the corner and kicked open a door, revealing all of her team's F-Zero machines.

"Stop in the name of the Federation!" she shouted loudly.

Just at that moment, the only door leading to the outside closed. Jody turned her head and clenched her fists as she ran towards it. Just before she got to it, the control panel had burst into sparks-the man destroyed it from the outside.

"No!"

She forced herself at the door and started to kick on it, but it was perfectly jammed. She looked down at the control panel, but found that it was now displaying an error. The battery power to the panel was low, and it was frozen on lockdown. As to how the man bypassed a door that was on lockdown was unknown to her.

"Dammit, dammit, dammit!"

She quickly spun around and looked at her companions, they were both staring at the White Cat with frightened looks.

"What are you two doing!? Help me get outside!"

She ran up to the two and raised a frantic eyebrow upon looking at their faces; both Stewart and Tanaka had petrified looks as they were shining the light on her machine.

"Are you two crazy!? I said, get that God damn door open!"

Stewart momentarily grasped her head with both hands and forced her to look at her machine. She growled at him and looked at the White Cat, but she didn't understand what they were so startled by. Moments of studying the machine revealed the truly horrifying discovery…

Jody gasped, and her eyes dilated as she was instantly stunned.

"I- impossible…"

The White Cat had a simple custom decal put on by Jody, it was the two words White Cat; this was painted on in red with sharp lettering. There was now an edit made to the two words, a very simple change, and it was enough to nearly make Jody faint…

The C in Cat had been turned into a B… The White Bat

Stewart and Tanaka both looked at the petrified Jody, Stewart grabbed her shoulder, "Jody…"

Jody was trembling greatly, she was staring at the term, Bat, very carefully. She shook negatively and pointed at Stewart with a straight finger.

"We need to get back to my computer, now!"

"But that's eighty-nine floors up!"

"I don't care! I have a number on my phone that I need to call, right, now!"

Stewart grabbed her shoulders, "Jody, we can use my phone to call someone to help us out of this building. My room is-"

"No…" Jody turned towards the door with a very scared look, "I need to make a special call, ASAP…"

About thirty minutes later, Chiya was lying in her bed sleeping. The lightning and rainfall was making this very hard for her to sleep. For once, she was in her regular attire as she slept. She was too anxious to wake up after Earl promised her that they would go swimming when she woke up. Mauser was sleeping soundly in her arms, Earl was now sleeping in his room as well, only he was having a much easier time doing so than Chiya. She squirmed in her sleep and was constantly waking up whenever a lightning strike got very loud.

Chiya widened her eyes and gasped as a lightning strike made a very loud boom that shook her room slightly. She was trembling greatly and brought her blanket up to her face; even Mauser was greatly startled by this. She closed her eyes tightly, despite how old she was, some people were simply afraid of storms. It's okay, Chiya, soon it'll be day, and me and Earl will be swimming… she got a nervous smile and dipped her head down slightly. She rubbed her nose against Mauser's fur slightly for comfort.

But then possibly one of the most frightening things she ever heard echoed throughout the base, and it wasn't the storm…

Chiya gasped loudly and began to hyperventilate at the sound of a phone ringing. Chiya's eyes began to water, as she realized that she was truly living in a nightmare.

"Oh my God, oh my God…" she panicked aloud.

The thing was, the phone never rang. No one knew where Chiya and Earl lived, therefore, no one had called the base in months. This was the first time it had begun to ring without Seppuku present, and it was beyond frightening. Chiya leapt into her boots while holding Mauser, her eyes were quivering in absolute fear. There was only one thing that could calm her down at this point, and that was to find Earl.

She pressed the button on her lamp, but to her shock, nothing happened.

"W- what!?"

The phone continued to ring, it echoed throughout the entire base; haunting them. Chiya couldn't stand it anymore, she needed to feel safe in Earl's arms in such a horrific moment. She just wanted the ringing to stop, whether it did or not, she was going to ask if she could sleep with Earl for the remainder of the night.

She held Mauser under her arm and rushed towards her door, quickly opening it while hyperventilating.

"Earl! Earl, please! Earl!" she gasped and nearly jumped as her shoulders were grabbed, "Earl! Earl!"

"It's me, you're okay…"

Chiya continued to hyperventilate as she looked into Earl's eyes, he now had a glow stick in his hands. Chiya hugged him while hyperventilating, he quirked his mouth and began walking with her towards Seppuku's office, where the phone was ringing…

"We're going to be okay. The power's out and the city is probably just calling us to alert us…"

Chiya wouldn't let go of Earl and Mauser, she was only feeling slightly more calm in Earl's arms, but she was still beyond frightened to enter Seppuku's dark office to answer a phone that never rang.

They entered the dark office, the only visible light was the bright bloom from the computer monitor. The phone had now been ringing non-stop for nearly two minutes, meaning the caller was persistent.

Earl walked around the desk and hesitantly pressed the speaker button with quivering eyes, Chiya bit her finger nervously.

"H- hello?" answered Earl.

The sound of a woman panting could be heard on the other line, Chiya instantly began to panic at the sound of this.

"Earl, this is Jody Summer!"

Chiya widened her eyes and looked at Earl, then back at the phone. This was the first time Jody had contacted them since her news that Seppuku had been executed, and by the tone of her voice, both Chiya and Earl knew that something terrible was happening.

"Yes, Ms. Summer?"

Jody continued to pant with a panicked tone, "Look, is Chiya with you!?"

"Y- yes, I'm here-"

"Look, look, you two need to get out, right, now!"

Chiya gasped and held Earl more tightly, Earl quirked his mouth fearfully, "What are you talking about, Jody?"

"Get out of there! While you still can!" Earl and Chiya were left speechless, the power was out, it was storming, and Jody was scared, "You two need to get out of there, run away, get off this planet!"

"Why!? What's happening!?" Chiya panicked.

"I don't know the science behind it, believe me, b- but, he's coming for you!"

Chiya gasped, Earl was now trembling immensely, "Who's coming for us!?"

"Seppuku! He's back from the dead, I- I don't know how, but he is!"

Chiya's pupils became small, "Seppuku's alive!?"

"He just cut all power to the Federation HQ and locked us all in here, we can't send help!"

Chiya grasped her forehead, "Call for help!"

"We are the help!"

Earl grunted in shock and grabbed Chiya's arm tightly, "O- oh my God! But Jody, the power here has already been lost!"

Jody gasped, the sound of her phone dropping onto the floor could be heard. Chiya covered her mouth and looked at Earl, Jody momentarily picked the phone back up.

"I'll have emergency units sent over there in twenty minutes! Just get out of there, somehow, anywhere! You know that he's coming for revenge!"

Jody hung up on them, leaving Chiya and Earl with petrified looks.

"E- Earl, I'm scared!"

Earl wrapped his arms around her while trembling, "We need to get out of here-"

Both gasped in complete shock as the sound of a door slamming could be heard. The lobby entrance had been opened and closed.

"Oh my God! He's here! He's here to kill us!" Chiya panicked.

Earl grabbed Chiya's mouth with widened eyes, "To Hell with it, we just gotta' make a run for the garage!"

"But Earl-"

"Shut up and run!"

Without further hesitation, the two sprinted towards the dark lobby. Earl only had a bright blue glow stick in his hand as they ran, Chiya was instantly bursting into tears, realizing that they were up against Seppuku. No matter what situation they could possibly be in, Seppuku would be able to slaughter them in the darkest way possible. Worst of all, Seppuku was mainly angry at Chiya; so she would be first to die…

Earl kicked open the lobby door with widened eyes, but both gasped as they scanned the dark room. No one was present…

"Earl!"

"Hold on, Chiya…"

The two ran up to the dining table and looked around the room, there was no one in plain sight standing around. Chiya squealed as she caught one specific thing, however. She pointed at the display cases as scared tears went down her face. Earl grunted and turned his head towards the cases, at first he didn't see what was out of place; but then he did. Seppuku's fedora was no longer in the case…

"H- he really is back…" Earl muttered in disbelief.

The two very silently walked towards the garage door, planning on escaping with their F-Zero machine. Of course, the one issue they faced was that Seppuku could currently be in the garage. Just as they came to the end of the dining room table and came close to the garage door; a noise could be heard from behind them. Chiya gasped and turned her head, Earl did the same and grunted loudly. The sound of a wine glass could be heard being set down on the table. Earl tightly grasped Chiya's hand and hesitantly moved the glow stick up, Mauser observed the glow stick in intrigue, clearly not understanding the situation they were in.

Chiya was softly hyperventilating as Earl raised the glow stick, and then the greatest shock went through their body. Straight out of a horror movie, sat the Man of Darkness on the other end of the dining table. Seppuku was sitting motionlessly at the end of the table with his head down.

Chiya tugged on Earl's sleeve constantly, urging him to run while they still could, but Earl found himself stunned in horror. Seppuku was holding onto a small glass of blood-red wine; he slowly brought it up to his lips and took a sip.

"Earl, let's go, let's go, let's go..!" she muttered in absolute shock.

Finally, Seppuku set the glass down and very slowly began to reveal his face, the first thing that was visible to them was a very displeased quirked mouth. He then looked straight at them with a most disturbing gaze, his typical white eyes were completely void, his visor was simply pitch black as he stared at them.

The horrifying gaze had finally convinced Chiya to take charge, realizing that Earl was paralyzed by horror and could no longer get them out alive. She grabbed his hand and ran through the garage door, Earl quickly followed him. Seppuku revealed a very faint smirk as he watched the garage door slam shut. He held the glass of wine in the air and momentarily dropped it onto the floor, shattering it with ease…

Chiya climbed aboard the Purring Kitten and turned it on immediately while trembling, she put on her headset and was constantly looking back towards the garage door, but it was pitch black. Earl turned on an emergency back up generator that was in the garage, thus restoring power to the base. The lights remained off none-the-less. Earl put his headset on and gritted his teeth, Chiya pressed the garage door opener and was tightly holding her wheel. She gasped as the door leading to the lobby was suddenly kicked open. Seppuku was here…

"Earl! Come on, come on, come-"

Earl leapt onto the side of the machine and pounded on her cockpit window, "Go! Go! Go!"

Without further hesitation, Chiya left the garage. She was so frightened however, that she had literally used boost power to get out of the garage. Seppuku slowly walked into the middle of the garage and leaned against the Red Dove as Chiya, Earl, and Mauser had just narrowly escaped.

Seppuku smirked and softly chuckled; the hunt was on…

Chiya and Earl now raced down the pouring streets of the Lower City, both were completely traumatized by what had just happened. Somehow, they had survived their first encounter with Seppuku. One thing was clear to them, however, he clearly wasn't trying very hard to kill them.

Chiya continued to cry as she raced, Earl was looking back constantly, wondering if Seppuku would pursue them. Earl sighed and looked back at Chiya.

"Well, we're alive, Chiya…"

Chiya bit on her finger and stroked Mauser's fur for comfort, "But for how long!?"

Earl nodded as lightning flashed in the sky, he hummed and bit his lip.

"We need to run, far away, somewhere Seppuku won't get us…" he turned his head and quirked his mouth, "But where..?"

Chiya lowered her eyebrows and raised her head up, "I know where, there really is only one place we can go for asylum…"

Earl raised an eyebrow, "Where?"

Chiya glanced over at the three petal flower she had hanging in her machine, each petal representing a member of Seppuku's organization. She sighed and looked back at Earl.

"Let's get to the ship, as soon as possible…" Earl nodded at her and looked down at Mauser, who appeared very excited by the change in environment.

"We're heading to Mysteria, where we'll be protected…"

To be continued…