CHAPTER EIGHT

~ Pride of Darkness ~


The sun shone fairly bright and the clouds floated by casually. Two voices quarreling loudly could be heard, overpowering the sweet song of nearby birds. A boy sat near them typing away quickly on a laptop. Next to him was a girl with brown hair who appeared to be quite angry. After a minute or two, she finally bursted loudly when she could no longer stand the bickering behind her.

"Hey guys!" greets a blond haired boy with blue eyes.

"What's up?" A black haired boy with golden eyes adds.

"Hey Max, hey Ray, I'm glad you guys are here." Says the brown haired boy, looking up from his laptop. "I sent the data about the bitbeast fragment to Judy yesterday and this morning, I got this,"

He flipped his laptop around so they can see the file displayed on the screen.

"Whoa…" reacts several voices to what they saw.

"We had a hunch that this fragment was the cause of those bursts of light the day before, but what Judy managed to find only supports the theory." Hilary says.

"But what about the way my Dragoon almost stopped spinning when she launched, Chief?"

"Yeah!" adds in Daichi.

"Well that would probably be related to that reading Dizzi picked up before." replies Kenny.

"Oh."

"The fragment will take longer than the data did getting to Judy since it had to go by mail but it should arrive at her lab sometime soon so we should get more information in a few days to a week." Kenny goes on.

"And when that time comes we might get some light shed on Lux as well." Dizzi chimes in.

"Good." Says a voice some ways from them.

"Kai!"

Kai stood some ways from the group. With him, was a familiar girl with golden hair who held a small puppy in her arms.

"Hello, everyone" she greets them with a cheerful smile.

"Hey Lux, what's up?" Max greets back.

"We're glad to see you're alright." adds in Ray.

"Yeah, what happened the other day kinda had us worried." Tyson says.

"I'm ok." Lux says with a smile. She then cheerfully asks "Just now...what were you guys talking about? I heard my name..."

"Uh…" The six of them look to each other, feeling uneasy.

Lux tilts her head a little, curious what was going on.

"Well…you see…" Ray tries to explain.

"I asked them to look into that launcher of yours." Kai answers for him.

Lux turns to Kai. "My…launcher?"

Lux takes out her gun-shaped launcher. It had disappeared from her after the last use and reappeared on her bedside table this morning when she woke up. She recalls that she had been quite determined to use it but she could not recall the reason.

"We're sorry we dug in like that…" Max apologizes.

"It's ok…" she looks at them, ignorant of what was wrong with what they did. The puppy in her arms copies her expression.

"Well…we found a fragment of a bitbeast inside it." Ray goes on. "And…we thought it has something to do with those bursts of light…"

"Bursts of…light?" she turns to him.

"Well Kai told us you didn't remember it when you woke up again so it's ok." Max says.

"Wait, she doesn't remember her battle with me?" exclaims Tyson.

"Yeah, Tyson," Daichi answers him. "but you wouldn't know 'cause you were sleeping."

"Like always." adds Hilary.

"My launcher…made bursts…of light?" she mutters as she stares at her unusual launcher.

"We…only think it might have…" corrects Kenny.

"But why my launcher?" she asks, still puzzled.

"Well…" Ray tries to explain. "you pretty much beat Tyson in one hit and you're a beginner while he's three times world champion…"

"…so its obvious something's up," Max continues for him. "Kai was the one who suggested to look into your launcher though…"

Lux turns to Kai who was leaning against the lamp near the bench with his eyes closed.

"Well where did you get this launcher from?" asks Ray.

"I…don't know."

...

In a colder realm, gray filled as much as it could and nurtured a monstrous metal building. A graying man gazes down at it from its highest window at the white snowflakes that fell and partially covered the metal monstrosity. A door slides open in a white chamber to reveal two lads clad in black cloaks. The graying man at the window turns to them, a look of slight impatience fills his face.

"Where is he?" he asks the two.

"Sir, we're sorry." One of them immediately answers.

"He outsmarted us, sir," the other one explains. Then, an expression of sorrow filled his countenance. "He killed Remphy and Xen as well when we confronted him."

"Is that so?" asks the man who now look coldly on the two.

"We're sorry, sir."

"Well then, perhaps you can make that up by assisting Ventus." He turns back to the window. "He seems to have some difficulties bringing back No. 7."

"Yes, sir." The two answers and leaves the room.

As the door closes, a light breaks through the dark clouds above.