Chapter 50: Stories from the Orchard Family
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Only an hour had passed since the storm had begun but the family and two guests were still stuck inside the house until the weather lightened up, Trixie taken the couch as her bed but couldn't sleep due to the loud claps of thunder that seemed to explode every few minutes. The loud raining pelting the window didn't help either, it was a wonder how Apple and Bloom's father was able to sleep during the storm at all, Bloom had eventually come down stairs with her banjo to try and take her mind away from the storm. Not long after the younger sister had walked down the stairs her older sister had decided to come down to visit with her friends since the storm was going to keep her up all night anyway, she walked into the kitchen to grab her half full Apple Cider bottle while Bloom played a few notes on her banjo. "Thanks for all yar help Trixie; we needed all the help we could get when we were fixin' the house."
"I knew you guys would need help, especially when it comes to storms." Laughing slightly the teen watched as Apple sat next to Bloom who was making sure her banjo didn't wake up her father, even though the loud raging storm hadn't even woken him up once yet. Zero walked out of the guest room a few moments later yawning slightly as he sat down on one of the empty chairs, the black haired teen looked out the window while listening to Apple and Trixie's conversation. "Have those business men come asking for your Orchard again?"
"Yeah they did a few days ago before Zero got here. I haven' heard if they bought anymore properties but I'm sure they're still looking for someone to sell." As their conversation went on Zero thought about the World Race and the prize that his team had won, he wondered if he could help with what little of the prize he had left but decided to keep quiet about it until he was needed. Trixie became quiet for a moment while she tried to remember what places the business men had already tried to buy; she wasn't threatened much since all she had was a small trailer home behind the stage in Armadillo. The orchard that Apple's family owned was a different story however, since the orchard covered a lot of land it made them a target for the business men since they could make use of the land whether they used it to make Apple Cider or not.
"They bought that old house that's just outside of town, it didn't cost too much since it's been abandoned for a while. I'm sure that they'll try to buy out the entire town once they've bought enough of the surrounding properties." With each passing sentence Bloom began to play her banjo even more quietly so she could hear what her sister and Trixie were talking about, even if she could hear their conversation it didn't do much good for her since she wasn't old enough to really understand why people were buying out different properties. "If you guys keep working hard I'm sure they won't be able to buy the orchard."
"You say that but from what I know about these kinds of people, they'll find a way to make us sell one way or another."
"Not if your family has anything to say about it." The dusty haired teen nodded when Trixie said this since she knew that her great, great grandfather had bought the land that one day became the orchard her family was living on today, they wouldn't move from the land even if they were offered truckloads of money. Zero eventually decided to speak up after being tired of being silent; Bloom continued to play her banjo quietly so she could hear the conversation.
"If everyone around the town decides not to sell their properties then the business men should eventually give up on trying to buy the town. There's no use in bothering a town that's not going to be sold." Trixie nodded thinking it made sense; she also thought that if what Zero said didn't work they might be able to pay the businessmen a lot of money to leave the town alone. Another loud clap of thunder could be heard as Apple finished drinking her Apple Cider, Bloom jumped slightly not expecting the thunder to be very loud, as lightning flashed in the sky the younger sister decided to put her banjo away so she could listen to everyone talk.
"Everyone that lives around here has been here since the town was first made. People that grow up here may leave at some point to explore the world but usually end up coming back to live in the town since it's a really nice place to be. I can't imagine why people would want to sell their properties when this is a great place to live. I should know I live in a small trailer home… that's been modified slightly so it could be bigger." The young performer thought back to when she had first came to the town in order to make a small profit, she had eventually gotten used to all of the nice people in town and had bought a small trailer home that she could live in since she couldn't afford a house or apartment room in one of the saloons. After getting to know Apple and her family she had been lucky to have the whole family help her make new additions for her small trailer home so it could feel more like an actual house, even if the house didn't look very nice on the outside it was the inside that was impressive. "Let's talk about something more positive though, like the Orchard family reunion!" Bloom's face lit up at the mention of the family reunion they held once a year around Autumn, it was always held just as the weather began to cool down enough to where it wasn't too hot and wasn't too cold.
"I can't wait for our next reunion sis; I haven't seen my cousin since, since?" The younger red haired sister thought for a moment trying to remember the last time she had seen her favorite cousin, Apple began to giggle slightly remembering the last time their family met up for the reunion a wild pig had tried to storm the table that had all of their apple based foods on it. "Since the last reunion!"
"Maybe we should ask Pa if we can invite her over for a visit, we could sure use the extra help aroun' here." The teens watched as Bloom's eyes widened at the thought of being able to invite her cousin over to the orchard, Apple jumped slightly as another loud clap of thunder echoed over the land, Trixie looked out the window once again to see the storm was getting worse. "Seein' as how this storm is a great setting for storytelling, why don't we all share some scary stories?" Trixie smiled and shrugged at the idea while she turned out the lights, she rolled a flashlight over to Apple only to see it snatched away by Bloom who quickly turned it on. Holding the flash light under her chin the younger sister thought about her story before she began speaking, a few moments later the girl opened her mouth and began speaking.
"It all happened on a night just like this one."
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After the storm had hit a few towns other than Armadillo, Jazmine and Aermos took shelter inside of a bar that happened to have a spare room they could use to look over some more files they had been given from one of the few Silencerz that roamed the country. The Chinese teen sat down at a table used for poker games and opened up one of the new files she had gotten from the Silenzer, she flipped through several papers before finally stopping, her eyes locked onto a paper that talked about a series of heists from five years ago. "A group of bladers that somehow stole millions of dollars and were never found, sounds like they could be useful to us." Aermos shook his head and pointed to another paper that had more information on the successful heist missions that the team had pulled off, it listed how many members were on it but only one of them was recorded by name, Jazmine read out loud as another clap of thunder went by. "Leader of Heist Crew found dead, she bled to death after being shot near her lungs."
"If we knew the locations of this team we would have tracked them down and had used them to help us beat the Ex Tracks but they disappeared five years ago after their leader had been shot. The other members of the team are reported to be alive but we don't know their names or where they went after that mission." Jazmine looked at the picture of the girl that had been shot and narrowed her eyes slightly; she could see the wound and slightly red stained jacket but turned her attention away from the wound thinking she was only seeing things. She looked over a few photos of the leader's home and noticed that everything that was in the teens garage had been taken; glancing up at Aermos he shrugged not knowing who had done it.
"Whoever it was that cleared out her garage knew that we could find out who the rest of the members were so she or her made sure to get rid of all of the evidence." The Chinese teen shook her head and slid the papers back into the file, glancing out the window once again she slid the file to Aermos who put it with a few of the newer files they had gotten. Lightning flashed in the distance as Aermos placed his feet on the table trying to decide their next move, they had heard of some crazy things going on in New York City but thought it better not to go their yet with Alden's work still unstable.
"You don't think Zero would happen to be with those bladers that did the Heist mission do you?" The possibility crossed Aermos's mind for a moment but he immediately shook the idea from his mind when he knew Zero wouldn't get himself involved with criminal activity.
"Zero's a lot of things, but becoming involved with criminals isn't something he would do. Besides this team wasn't even named, the only person that was named was one girl and she was shot. She's buried in North Yankton and her name was never released so no one would even begin to know where to find the rest of her team." The two teens nearly jumped when they heard another loud clap of thunder echo throughout the large town they were in, Jazmine looked at the closed file once again still not sure about the person she had seen. Aermos looked at the file and then back at Jazmine who seemed to be lost in deep thought; he snapped his finger a few times before finally getting her attention.
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"And when they woke up in the morning the apple cider was gone ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Bloom flailed one of her arms around as she screamed quietly hoping the three teens would be scared, when she saw they weren't scared at all the younger sister tried to think of something else to add to the story. "Then the boy said he would go get more apples from the barn to help make more apple cider, but the girl said no he couldn't because they were all out of apples. Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!" Just as she finished speaking a loud clap of thunder shook the house causing the younger sister to jump up and hug her older sister. Apple laughed a bit while patting Bloom on the head, she took the flashlight from her while assuring her that everything was okay.
"There, there youngin'. You can rest easy knowing that we still have plenty of Apple Cider in the fridge." Bloom gave a nervous laugh as her eyes slowly shifted to the fridge; her attention was soon drawn back over to Apple as she held the flashlight under her chin.
"Here's a story of Landon Marston." The young entertainer that was sitting across from them smiled slightly as she got comfortable on the couch, she had always enjoyed listening to these kinds of stories because they were labeled as either myths or legends which meant no one was really sure if they were true or not. "It was a dark and cloudy day with a few familiar faces sitting around a lantern playing poker."
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(Apple's Story)
The low creaking sound of a door could be heard above on the roof as one of the six poker players slapped down a hand of cards and began to take all of the chips that had been placed in the center of the wooden table. Lightning could be seen striking an object off in the distance as one of the players stood up to lock the door, just as the female was about to place her hand on the door it was swung open with a drenched teen walking inside the jail house. "Something strange is going on out there, damn dogs are going crazy, birds are flying around like crazy, wolves are howling like something's trying to attack them." The teen pulled up a chair while looking outside to see if anything had followed him on his way back to the farm like town, as he sat down the grey haired blader placed a few poker chips on the table so he could begin playing the game as well. His friend sat next to him and laughed slightly as a clap of thunder echoed over the land once again, she looked at her cards while the store keeper through a few more cards on the table.
"Were uh, in the middle of a hand right now, give us a few moments and we'll uh, deal you in as well sir." The teen shook his head to show that he understood while standing up once again, he walked over to the wooden door that lead to a stair way that could take him up to the top of the small jail house.
"I think that storm might just be messin' with your head Landon." His female friend got a head shake which made her roll her eyes; she glanced down at her cards once again while Landon walked up the stairs.
"I've got a bad feeling about this." Speaking to himself as he walked up the creaking stair way, as he reached the final stair he placed a hand on the door knob and pushed the door open so he could walk on the roof. He glanced up and smiled slightly when he saw that the jail house owner had built a metal roof over the flat roofing so people could walk around on it without worrying about the rain, he jumped little when he heard the sound of screaming off in the distance. Looking down at his black bey launcher the teen pulled his jacket over it so no one would see it while he looked down at his other leg to see his revolver in its holder; he pulled his jacket over the gun as well so no one would see it either. "I hope I've got enough ammo for whatever it is that's out there." Pulling his gun out once again the teen slid the revolving part of the gun out so he could see how many shots he had left, he counted only a few but knew he could get more back at his small house; he slid the gun back into its holder when he heard the poker players call his name. His footsteps caused the stairs to creak a little as he closed the door and began to run down the stair way, once he had joined the others he made sure to shut the other door behind him. As he sat down with the group of six poker players the teen grabbed his cards and immediately went into his poker face so no one would know if he had good cards or not, he thought about the screaming he had hear earlier while glancing at his cards. "All in." Thinking it wasn't a good idea to leave the scream unchecked the teen quickly bet all of his chips while glancing outside at the pouring rain, the store owner shook his head and laughed at the teen who just pulled his hat down to cover his eyes.
"Uh you are aware that this will kick you from the game if you, uh lose?" The teen shook his head to show that he knew what he was doing even if it did seem like something he wouldn't do, shrugging his shoulders that store keeper reveled his cards along with everyone else. His mouth fell open when he saw that Landon had won the game, the teen didn't smile though and quickly took his winnings while running out the door with his revolver in his hand.
"The scream came from over that hill." Buttoning up his jacket the teen held his gun close to him as he walked over the hill to investigate where the scream had come from. As the teen slowly walked over to where he thought it had come from the teen could see a puddle of blood around the area, he bent down and narrowed his eyes slightly. He stood back up a few moments later when he figured out it was only an animal that had been killed a few days before, looking around a bit more the teen could see what looked like a knocked over tree in the distance.
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As Apple continued telling her story Zero could see their Granny slowly walking up behind the couch that she and her sister were sitting on, he kept quiet while he watched the granny sneak over two her two granddaughters. Just as the older sister had started getting to the scary part of the story, Granny tapped both of their shoulders while saying boo. The two girls jumped out of their seats when they felt the old women's hand touch their shoulders, Bloom looked as if she was about ready to fall over in shock, Apple just smiled and laughed at her Granny who did a good job of scaring them. "You whiper snappers and yer scay stories, that's how we scared people back in mah day." Zero and Trixie couldn't help but laugh at this while another loud clap of thunder went by followed by a flash of lightning. "You four need to go to bed, it's late and your father will be very mad if he finds you two up this late." Apple quickly left the room with Bloom following closely behind her, Zero shrugged as he stood up with Trixie. The young performer grabbed a few extra pillows and blankets before lying back down onto the couch; she managed to set up a comfortable looking couch with the extra pillows she had taken. Zero yawned as he walked past the open door that led to the guest room; he lay down on top of the bed while leaving the door open in case someone needed him.
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Jazmine leaned back in her chair while looking over one last file before heading to bed, this one interested her the most out of all of them. This file was about a girl named Maxine whose intelligence seemed to know no bounds; she looked like an ordinary person and didn't seem like the type of person who would be a genius. "Aermos do you know anything about this person?" Glancing down at the file half asleep the silver haired teen thought for a moment and finally spoke up after he managed to wake up enough to talk.
"All I know about her is that she was able to hack into the military a few times at a young age, she only did it because she was bored and had nothing better to do." The teen drifted off to sleep a few moments later leaving Jazmine alone to do more reading; she finally closed the file while looking out the window to see another bolt of lightning fly through the sky. She eventually started to feel her eyes wanting to close, yawning a bit she finally stood up and climbed into the bed while she watched Aermos sleep soundly in a chair, she figured she shouldn't wake him up since he would most likely want to talk if he was woken up. As she turned off the lamp that was next to her bed the young Chinese blader eventually began to fall asleep as the rain continued to hit the window, the only sounds she could hear after a while were Aermos's occasional loud snoring or the sound of a loud clap of thunder.
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A few hours had gone by and everyone in the Orchard family household had found their way to a peaceful night of sleeping, Bloom was the only one to wake up every once in a while due to loud claps of thunder that felt like they could shake the house apart if they wanted. It was still very late at night when Bloom finally rolled out of bed once again; she walked down the stairs and eventually found her way to the kitchen to see her brother was drinking a bottle of Apple Cider. "Couldn't sleep either Mac?"
"Nnope." The older brother opened the fridge and pulled out another bottle of Apple Cider, he slid it over to Bloom who quickly opened it up so she could drink it. Bloom looked out the window only to jump slightly when she saw another bolt of lightning strike something in the distance.
"If this rain keeps up we won't be able to work will we?"
"Nnope. If this keeps up, we might as well either stay here or head into town to get something to eat." Bloom thought it would be a good idea to head into town to get a bit to eat, she glanced at the clock to see they still had enough time to sleep for another few hours, the younger sister smiled thinking of something else she wanted to try from the restaurant she had been to with Apple. "I heard you and the others up a few hours ago, did Apple tell you another story?"
"This time she told us the story about Landon looking to solve a mystery during a storm just like this one!" The older brother smiled as Bloom went into a description of the story she had been told, he loved seeing his younger sister get excited over a simple myth or legend that most people already knew about. As his younger sister went on and on about the story he continued to drink his Apple Cider which was almost finished, his sister eventually finished her story while he finished the last of his drink. "And that's when Granny placed her hands on our shoulders and scared us!" This got Mac to laugh a little while he tossed his Apple Cider bottle in the recycling bin, the younger sister had finally began drinking more of her drink while Mac turned out one of the lights in the kitchen.
"We should get back to bed soon; if we don't get back to sleep we'll pay for it in the morning." Nodding her head Bloom quickly finished her Apple Cider and turned out the rest of the lights while she began to run back to her room. Mac smiled as he followed her and eventually walked into his room which was located near the stairs, Bloom's and Apples were located near the end of the hallway.
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Gingka sighed as he finally stopped rummaging through all of the extra, broken, and unused Ex Gear parts; most of the parts he found weren't able to fit together inside of an Ex Gear frame. He glanced over at Kyoya to see he still had a depressed look on his face, while he might have been saved from the drones he knew that his arm was never going to be changed back to what it used to be. The teen could see it now, all of the awkward stares he would receive walking through town, all of the tournament he would get kicked out of due to having a mechanical arm that could most likely give him an unfair advantage in bey battles. Sure tournaments could put up with Ryuga and his reverse rotating bey but having a mechanical arm would make people think he could have some sort of advantage, the advantage being he could launch a bey with even more skill than a regular human arm could. The red haired blader couldn't stand seeing Kyoya like this, he had seen Madoka try to cheer him up but nothing seemed to be able to cheer the teen up, even some of the other bladers were looking a bit down. Yukihana and Kasenhana were upset they couldn't see Zero due to the Silencerz chasing him, Ryuga had decided to leave the group to go train in the rugged terrain for a few days, and Charlotte was complaining about not having enough people to battle anymore. Over the course of the past few days they had managed to scrape together enough parts to make a few Ex Gears but they would have to sort through all of the parts in order to find out which parts worked well together, Charlotte would have flown in some parts but her tab at Arrow's shop was long past due and she needed to pay the bill before she could continue buying things from there. Gingka would have asked for some parts from him but figure the teen wouldn't allow it right now since his business was still a bit shaky due to some people breaking in and stealing some of the best top of the line gears. He eventually looked up and had a huge smile on his face, "Masamune!" Kenta looked over at the red haired blader who seemed to have a great idea on where to get more Ex Gear parts.
"What about Masamune?" The green haired blader thought for a moment but was still unsure of what Gingka meant about talking to Masamune. Gingka quickly grabbed Kenta's arm and began dragging him over to Tez's computer which he had allowed Gingka to use in order to see what Masamune could do to help. A few moments later the rivals face could be seen on the computer screen, Gingka wasted no time getting to the point.
"Masamune! I have a big favor to ask you!"
"Sure, what can team Dungeon do for you?" The team Dungeon blader leaned back in his chair to reveal he had Toby and Zeo along with him, they both looked happy to see their rival on the screen but knew it would be a while before they got to battle one another.
"You see we battled these racing drones and Kyoya got captured by them, we got him back buuuut it came at the cost of losing our Ex Gears. You said you knew a guy that was great with underground bey blading right? Could you and him possibly get us a lot of Ex Gear parts really quickly?" Glancing up at Toby, the friend quickly ran down a set of stairs that went down to the lower level of the loft they were staying at, Gingka noticed it wasn't the Dungeon Gym that they usually contacted him from.
"We might be able to do something for you but right now he's sort of got us into a bit of a jam. Apparently he supposedly stole some parts from these guys and now owes them a lot of money on top of the debut he received losing just one battle that was rigged if you ask me! There's going to be a race not long from now and if we win we set everything strait with each other so we should be able to help you then." Gingka looked over at Kenta who was wondering who the blader was that had been chosen to race against these people, on Gingka's mind however was the fact that Masamune wasn't really known to use Ex Gears very often. "This blader we found has actually been teaching me how to use Ex Gears, I've learned how to drift pretty well I might add, so watch out Gingka because the next time we met I'm challenging you to a race not as the number one blader but as the Drift King of New York City!" Zeo tapped Masamunes shoulder to get him to get back to the point, the blader laughed slightly but continued to keep talking about how he was going to be the number one Ex Gear blader on top of being the world's number one blader. Eventually Zeo took some duct tape and placed it around Masamunes mouth so he could stop going on about something that didn't matter at the moment.
"Sorry guys, he really needs to learn how to keep his mind on what's happening. The blader we met has been street racing as well; he's been earning a lot of money while we work at a few bey shops around the city to help keep these suits off of us. I think he said something about knowing someone that your friends with Gingka, besides us, he didn't mention the name but I'm sure you'll know who it is. I'll make sure Masamune and this other blader can send you guys some extra Ex Gear parts you can use. They'll be top of the line to since most of these parts are brand new and were just released on the market not that long ago." Giving them a nod Gingka watched as Zeo ended their conversation over the computer, Kenta finally understood why Gingka had wanted to talk Masamune now. The red haired blader had heard from Toby and Zeo that Masamune had been out learning how to use Ex Gear's so he could challenge his rival to an Ex Bey Battle, he must have figured that Masamune would be in touch with someone around the city that could get him some Ex Gear parts. Even if these parts were to be considered low quality parts they would be a lot better than the broken one's they had found inside the old World Race cube, Gingka quickly stood up and shouted loudly knowing that this mysterious blader wouldn't let them down. Glancing over at Kyoya once again, Gingka knew that the next thing they needed to do was make sure that he found a way to live his life with that mechanical arm. His attention was soon drawn over to Sing and Charlotte who had been battling outside just before the rain had started near the World Race cube.
"Why did it have to rain on us!?"
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And when you finished reading this chapter you noticed that all the Apple Cider was gone AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH…. That all the Apple Cider was gone AHHHHHHHHH! It's scary in a funny way, anyways did you guys enjoy Apple's story? I enjoyed writing it, as for whether or not that myth is real or not is up to your imagination. The scary stories that they were telling were partially for Halloween, I won't be updating on Halloween so I figured make the story a little creepy and what better way to do that than with a storm and creepy sounds coming from the hills. Funny part was that it was actually raining for a while when I wrote that part, so many new character have been mention and each one of them is awesome.
And when you guys finished reading this you noticed the chapter was over AHHHHHHHHH!
Happy Halloween everyone! Make sure to scare people and eat candy, or just make sure to be awesome.
Next Chapter: Rain Rain Go Away
