Chapter Two: The Heist of the Phone...
Lloyd stared out of the window, his face nearly blank. "You see I was found as a baby by one of the Councilmembers, never was told which one, clear in the middle of the Endless Sea of Sand, with only an old canteen as a memento. I was then taken and raised by them on Darkley's Isle. You would think I was scared being so close to so many criminals, but actually I felt rather safe there. We were a family of sorts. As the only child there I got away with a lot of stuff that others wouldn't have gotten away with. Mainly pranking Cryptor. Somehow, I always believed that Pythor was the one that had found me. He always was protecting me from the others and we were close, very close." Lloyd closed his eyes, a small smile on his face. "One day when I pranked Cryptor, I was able to steal his phone. As you very well know, that was against school rules. Not that it mattered to me. I placed it inside of the canteen that I was found with, my only real treasure chest of stolen goods."
"That's why you never liked it when someone would touch it. You had stolen items in there that you stole yourself." Brad started, surprised to get an answer to something as mundane as whether or not he allowed people to touch a beat up canteen.
"Yes. Now years passed, and I just kept it there, never told anyone that I had it. Then one day, something amazing happened. It rang. I answered it, and began to have a conversation with the guy on the other end, a fellow that called himself Z."
~Flashback~
A much younger Lloyd hesitantly picked up the cellphone. Pushing the talk button on it, he moved it to his ear. "Hello?"
"I am impressed. The firewalls on your phone is quite extensive. What exactly are you hiding?" An unfamiliar voice that soon would be very familiar politely asked over the line.
"I'm not hiding anything." Lloyd felt offended that he would even suggest that. This guy didn't know anything about him! "We're not allowed to have phones were I'm at."
"And where exactly are you?"
"School." Lloyd didn't feel the need to elaborate, it was sort of true.
"What kind of school doesn't allow phones?" Lloyd struggled to come up with a believable answer, even as the stranger decided to change topics. "I would love to know who it is I have the privilege to be speaking to?"
"Name's Slip Star." Lloyd gave him the only name he ever knew.
"Slip Star? Ah yes. Secret Identities. I can play along with that. You may call me Z."
Lloyd rolled his eyes, even though he was now more determined than ever to join the school...
…..
Lloyd presented his case to the councilmembers. They all voted to let him become the youngest student ever...except for Scales. Scales had never been particularly close to Lloyd so his doing that was no surprise. Finally came the time to meet the other new recruits...
~End of Flashback~
"You can skip ahead if you like. I already know how this went." Brad dismissed the next part of Lloyd's story.
"Not from my viewpoint you haven't." Lloyd snapped back, startling Brad.
~Flashback~
A younger Brad with Lloyd and a few others were attending classes now, though Lloyd was constantly slipping away to talk to Z on the phone. One time Brad nearly caught him, in which Z, who was still talking like a proper gentleman and not a world class hacker, questioned him on who it was. "Just my best friend. Brad. I better get going. Don't want to be late for Infiltration One oh One."
…...
Lloyd lead the others into a premature prank against Cryptor, which lead them to being presented in front of the council. Brad spoke up, making all of them sound responsible as it became increasingly obvious that Scales wanted to use this as a chance to get Lloyd expelled. Pythor blinked, before looking over at the others. "We can't just expel the whole lot of them now can we?"
A few minutes later, a teen with auburn hair and extremely annoyed almost black eyes behind wireframe glasses glared at Lloyd. "Detention? What are we? Kindergartners?"
"Knock it off Gene." Brad stopped him from getting up and punching Lloyd, annoyance flashing in his eyes. "How about we talk about something more useful. Like I don't know... codenames?"
"I already have mine." Lloyd smirked, earning him a quick slap on the arm from Brad.
"Yeah...we know. Lucky you Slip Star. We don't though. So there."
…...
Finally the day they were all anxiously for arrived. Finals. Everything went well... until Scales class. After watching Gene succeed successfully in removing a single dollar bill from Scales coat, it was Lloyd's turn...
When class was over with, he turned to complain to Brad. "I swear I hit every single one of those pockets."
"Hey...just cause you failed one exam doesn't mean that you won't graduate." Brad tried and failed to cheer up Lloyd.
…..
A few days later, the results of the tests were posted on a wall for everyone to see. Brad and Lloyd approached it together from behind the others, Lloyd feeling ridiculously nervous.
Brad gave off a small oh oh when he read the sign, his face falling. Alarmed, Lloyd touched him on the shoulder. "What's wrong? Did you not pass?"
Brad sighed as he gestured to the wall. "Oh...no. I did pass. You on the other hand..."
Lloyd stared at horror at the sign, sure enough a large red x was right next to his name and picture, signaling that he had failed and would be repeating the next year. "No way..."
~End of Flashback~
"After that happened, well. I snuck off to join you on your first caper. After learning that Darkley's wasn't below killing innocents though... I had to do something. My phone, my only link to the outside world, was taken away from me. But this time... I had a plan in mind. And I was never going back. When Cryptor came back on time to deliver the hard-drive, I was ready for him. I stole my phone back and called Z, told him the truth this time around. And used all of my training to pull a switch and bait with the hard-drive and a box of tools. I fled that night and escaped out into the world."
Brad glanced out the window, noting that they were quickly approaching the station. "Where you then took on a new name for yourself. Look...Slip Star. I am under orders to bring you back to the isle to reinstate you as a member of Darkley's. They're giving you a second chance."
"Funny. I always wanted to reunite with you...but I also always wanted it to be for my side of things." Lloyd stood up, even as green energy suddenly crackled to life in his hands. "That and its Lloyd now... Slip Star is dead."
"Wait...you're controlling..." Brad backed away nervously, eyeing the energy covering Lloyd's hands.
"I've changed Brad...changed for the better. And yeah...I can control my powers now." Lloyd then flung an energy ball at him faster than he could blink.
….
Lloyd leaned back casually on the speedboat, slipping his backpack off to open it. "So what did you steal that was more valuable that an ancient scroll that everyone's been talking about for the last three hundred years." Kai questioned Lloyd over the phone as the boat rocked violently.
"Depends on the beholder if it is valuable or not..." Lloyd pulled out his old beat up canteen. Glancing over his shoulder, he noticed another speedboat following him. "Hey! Cole! Think you can lose some tails?"
"What kind of tails are we talking about?" A short, stocky man with black hair swept back and piercing dark brown eyes hollered back from the boat's driver's seat.
"Try the kind that most likely will arrest us." Lloyd informed him as he slipped out of his seat and approached his friend.
Cole wrinkled his nose as he slammed the thing into full gear. "You know that Nya would be better at this than me...right?"
"Yeah...I know. But I needed her to help Z. Jay, are you in position?" Lloyd pressed his hand against his earpiece, waiting for confirmation.
"Get past the big carrier ship and we're good to go she said...didn't mention anything about us being chased!" Cole muttered under his breath as he shot the little boat past the much larger carrier ship, even as it was turning to block the passageway.
Once that was done, Cole pulled up next to the ship and honked his horn. "Jay! Get down here!"
A minute later, a much smaller guy with auburn hair and electric blue eyes leapt of the ship and onto their small boat. "Sweet! Let's go go go!" Jay, who had a Australian accent, bounced slightly as he sat down next to Lloyd.
Lloyd smiled tightly, even as he decided that it was probably a good thing that he hadn't mentioned a certain thing about his new team. He wasn't the only freak out there in the world... and they make for some great teamwork...
A/N: Hi there! This is Skyla Talon...yeah. Last week we had some issues with our A/N and hopefully this week we won't. Before you ask, this is a cowrite. Ella is a pretty good author if I say so...that doesn't have as many stories as me so you can see why we are posting it on her account. So yeah. Hope you enjoyed this little snippet...and please turn in again next week!
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SkyTalon