Yay, more X x Azalea time. Just happy fun times, shopping for weapons.
Well, Mom's somewhat on board with me going out with Azalea tonight (though she sounds like she's worried about the amount of money I'm spending), so I gotta get all my world history homework done in about an hour. I should be able to do that any day, but I always end up reading Undertale fanfictions for hours. Not this time, though, because fanfictions have got nothing on Azalea.
...And done! Okay, five minutes to five, I should just barely be able to meet her by her street, that was close. I grab my phone, wallet, bike lock, and keys, let my brother know to close the garage door behind me, and I'm off on my bike. Oh crud, she's already there waiting.
"Hey, Azalea," I say riding up to her. "Sorry I took so long, I had to finish my homework-"
"It's fine," she says. "I sort of just got here, I had some difficult homework too.
"Oh, well, we're both here then, I guess. Let's get going," I say with a smile.
The nearest supermarket is only slightly closer than Zeze's, so when we take that shortcut through the church parking lot and cross the road from there, we're already there...as soon as we get through this huge parking lot. Once we do, we lock our bikes to a lamppost and head inside holding hands.
"So what sort of weapon were you thinking of getting, X?" Azalea asks me.
"Oh, yeah...I forgot to think about that," I reply. "I kinda do want some duct tape, though. There's no problem that can't be solved with duct tape."
"Heh, that's a good idea. Hope we can find it..."
We start walking in the direction of the tools and hardware section of the store, though we're not sure where to find the duct tape, so we start wandering around.
"Did you happen to come up with any ideas, Azalea?"
"Uh...maybe I could put a knife on the end of something long, like a PVC pipe? That could be like a spear, I guess."
"That sounds cool. I think I might stick with a baseball bat, it should work well enough. Might wanna get my own, though. Not sure what would happen to me if I broke my brother's."
"True."
We look down a few more aisles and find the duct tape we're looking for, as well as varying lengths of PVC pipe. We grab two rolls of tape and two five-foot pipes.
"Do we need anything else?" Azalea asks.
"Uh, do we need to buy you some knives?" I ask back.
"I don't think so, I think I can just use some from home..."
"Crud, then we're pretty much done shopping for weapons then, huh? Wait, should we work on armor or something?"
"I'm not sure about any good armor..."
"...Yeah, you're right. Even if we made something somewhat protective, it'd probably end up looking stupid. Let's go get candy!"
Azalea and I start walking all the way to the other end of the store.
"Should we have gotten a cart or something?" Azalea asks.
"Eh, we're not getting that much stuff, we should be fine," I answer. "I can carry two rolls of duct tape and a few bags of candy."
"Well, that's exercise then, right?"
"Yep, we're getting buff."
"Ha ha, yeah, we're gonna be football players now."
We laugh at that again for a second, but then Azalea turns and glances behind us for a second.
"Doing all right, Azalea?"
"Yeah, I'm fine."
She doesn't exactly look like she's good to go. I'll give her some time. Plus, now we're here at the candy aisle.
Candy at a supermarket doesn't cost as much as I used to think it did. Apparently you can get a big bag of M&Ms for about four dollars, and a box of candy that would cost a dollar at a concession stand for about 75 cents. Of course, supermarkets charge sales tax, so we still need to be careful that we don't get too much.
"Are you thinking of getting anything in particular, X?" Azalea asks.
"Well, I'm probably going to get a box of Nerds," I answer. "If I eat them one at a time, they'll last a few days. How about you?"
"Hmm...there's way too many choices, I think I'll need a minute to decide."
"That'll do."
Azalea and I stand around and check out all the different candies we could pick out. Seriously, picking one or two things is hard. But then Azalea quickly looks to both sides and then grabs a bag of Swedish Fish and a box of Mike & Ikes.
"...Is something wrong?" I ask.
"X...I think someone's following us again." she says quietly.
"Not a monster this time?"
"No. Look to the left."
I do so, and I see a bald guy wearing gloves in the aisle across from us. Hey, was this guy was in the tools area when we were? I think he was.
"Oh, crap, that sounds like a fair guess," I whisper. "Let's go somewhere else and see what happens."
I take my Nerds and a bag of fun size Butterfingers and we both head in the opposite direction of that guy, until we end up in the clothes section.
"Well, we might as well see if they have any cool shirts," Azalea says. "But keep looking for that man."
"Alright," I reply. "Dang, I wish they made Undertale shirts, I would totally buy one of those."
We start looking at shirts, even though we don't actually plan on buying any. After a minute or two, I notice the guy standing about thirty feet away from us.
"The toy section," I tell Azalea. "If he follows us there, he's definitely doing it on purpose."
We quickly walk across the store to the toy section and look at Nerf guns, which are more expensive than they used to be, so I'm not going to be buying any anytime soon. After another few minutes, the dude wearing gloves walks right past us.
"Okay, time to get the heck outta Dodge," I say, and we both run towards the checkout counters. We throw our stuff down on the one without a line.
"Okay, let me make sure that that I've got enough to pay for this stuff," I say. "Crap, I'm less than a dollar short. I'm going to have to put the Nerds back."
I look up at Azalea and her...soul is glowing!
"It's okay, I'll pay for them," she says, her voice sounding possibly even more soothing than usual. "You have been helping me out a lot lately."
"That...does sound fair," I tell her. "Thanks so much."
I feel myself being filled with Justice from Azalea paying me back for helping her with her immobility. I toss my Nerds into her side of the conveyor belt and give her a huge hug.
Suddenly I feel like I want to be nicer to people. This feeling is sort of like Justice, but warmer and less intense. Is Azalea's Kindness traveling into me?
"That'll be $14.73," the lady behind the checkout counter says. Dang it, we picked the wrong time to have one of our little love moments.
I hand her my fifteen dollars, take my change, put it in my pocket, and grab my bag of stuff. Azalea starts getting ready to pay for her load (it's not easy to keep the PVC pipes on the conveyor belt) while are souls finish deactivating, which is probably for the best, considering this place is full of people. Wait...crap. That stalker of ours is back there, and he's staring at us and smiling. When Azalea finishes paying, she tosses me my Nerds, while I hand her a roll of duct tape, and then I grab her arm and get us running.
"That guy's coming for us," I say. "We gotta go now."
We run for the exit and to our bikes, and I start unlocking our bikes as quickly as I can.
"X, hurry!" Azalea says. "I think I see him coming!"
"See if you can get your soul on again," I say. "Remember how it felt a minute ago and try to bring that back."
I sling my bag and the lock cable over my shoulder and start locking the actual lock back to the bike when I hear a voice.
"Hey, you two."
"Kindness, Azalea," I whisper, as I turn around and end up face to face with the bald man with gloves.
"Uh...do you need something?" I ask.
"I want to congratulate you two," he says in an important sounding voice. "I witnessed the demonstration that you performed in the checkout line. You see, the secret society I belong to has been looking for individuals who are gifted in magic, such as you. If you will come with me here and now, you could be inducted into our society and...receive a large cash reward."
This guy obviously has no idea what he's talking about. If I tell him that though, he's probably going to attack us or something, so let's be more careful.
I take Azalea's hand, that should help her. "Uh, thanks, it's an honor, but...it's no big deal, really. Have you ever heard of Undertale?"
"Well, no, why?"
"It's the best video game of all time in my opinion for several reasons: awesome story, great humor, engaging gameplay, and it's historically accurate. If you want to really understand magic, all you have to do is play it. Well, actually, nobody really understands magic, but you get what I'm saying."
"I'm afraid there's no time for discussion now, sir. Now will you come with me, or miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity to live more fulfilling lives of magic and wonder?"
"I'm sorry, sir, but we're already in a secret society of our own, and the last few days have been some of the best in our lives because of it. We will unfortunately have to decline your generous offer."
At this point, I start to try and find some Justice to save me. If anyone deserves to survive this situation, it's me and Azalea. This guy stalked us and is obviously trying to kidnap us.
"Wrong answer," the man says, pulling out a metal shovel from behind his back. "You're coming with me."
Right then, Azalea steps between me and this criminal, with her shield going.
"No, we're not," I retort.
"Yes, you are!"
The man swings his shovel at us, hitting the Azalea's blue shield square on. I feel the impact slightly, as I'm holding onto Azalea...wait a minute, I thought the stuff she blocked didn't affect her physically. He swings again, this time planting the shovel right on the shield and trying to push it forwards. This shouldn't be a problem, but...it looks like the shovel is slowly starting to pass through the shield! This guy can't hurt Azalea, she never did anything bad!
I step out from behind Azalea and, my soul burning bright, throw a bullet straight at the man's head. He jerks his head back and quits trying to shove through Azalea's shield, but then looks angry and aims a blow at me. I quickly shoot him three times in the chest, causing him to fall to the ground. He doesn't get up, but instead holds his shovel up in front of himself in defense. I make my fingers into gun shapes and point them at him.
"Alright buddy, now that we're done lying to each other, we can talk about why we're here right now. My amazing girlfriend and I were here buying supplies to arm ourselves for situations like these. May I ask why you were stalking us and trying to kidnap us?"
"Someone made me do it! I was out really early this morning, and someone pointed a gun at me and said that he would kill me if I didn't find people with glowing hearts on their chests and bring them to him. He said that one had a black and red jacket, another had red hair and a skirt, and a third was black and wore a black leather jacket. Don't zap me with your magic again, please!"
"What did the person who threatened you look like?"
"He had a red ninja mask and a dark jacket. Oh, and he wore black leather gloves."
"You're wearing gloves too."
"I just didn't want my fingerprints to show up on the weapon!"
I lower my hand-guns a little. "Dude, chill. I know some people who can help track this guy down. Where did you see him?"
"In front of my house. I live over by the northern city limits, next to that Mormon church. He just drove straight up to me and pointed his gun at me from his car. He seemed like he was in a rush."
My soul fades away, and I grab the guy's hand to help him up. "Alright, thanks, and sorry to freak you out here. Like I said, if you want to know more about this stuff, just play Undertale. It's for the PC, should only cost about ten dollars."
"I will, as soon as I call the police about that guy. No hard feelings about this little incident?"
"Nah, I think we're good here. Just don't tell anyone that crazy magic teenagers are running loose or anything like that, alright? People might get the wrong idea. Actually, if you end up liking Undertale, which you will, tell your friends to play it."
"Okay, I'll do that. I should get going now."
"Yeah, us too. Bye."
The man heads into the parking lot, while Azalea and I pick up our stuff and start riding back home.
"Nice job work activating your soul, Azalea," I say as we ride through the parking lot.
"Thanks," she says. "It was hard at first, but then you held my hand and I thought of all the things I would do for you to help with...well, pretty much anything. You were great too, with your soul and stuff."
"Thanks, but it doesn't seem to be that hard to activate it when someone with nothing against you is trying to beat you to unconsciousness. How did you manage to get in front of me so fast once you got your soul going, though?"
"Didn't you say our powers are stronger when we use them without magic?"
"Oh yeah, you're right. We're going to have to be more careful against people who use melee weapons, though. Probably one of the best things about your Kindness shield is that it can deflect bullets, but when a weapon is held close to a person's body, it apparently can gain the ability to travel through with the person."
"Wow, you're so smart with this stuff, X."
"Well, when you really like something, you think about it a lot."
We don't really end up saying much for the rest of the ride home, pretty much just enjoying each other's company. When we get to Azalea's street, we hug each other goodbye, and then part ways for the evening. That was a great date...but I should probably tell the Shadow Guard about the guy who attacked us.
Next chapter, X calls up the Shadow Guard, who may have news of their own...