The scandal continues: see the beginning for all disclaimers.
~ * Rumors Spread Like Wildfire (When You're Feeding the Flames) * ~
By the time the last school bell rang, freeing everybody for the rest of the afternoon, the rumor had long spread through the entire building.
The entire hallway seemed to shake as Samantha stomped toward her locker. For once, even the most opinionated of her peers who felt inclined to intervene and offer advice to the better half of Riverview's most popular new couple needed only a glimpse of her expression to realize now wasn't exactly the time. Instead, they parted to form a relatively large path for the fuming gang leader, enabling her easy access to her locker.
The door banged on its hinges as she wrenched it open. The onlookers backed up further.
Her books crashed against the back wall of the enclosure as she dumped them inside. The smarter kids decided it was time to spread their wisdom of what the new couple should do next elsewhere.
Her locker resonated with a loud CLANGGG as she slammed the door shut. Several more gawkers realized the value of a hasty retreat.
The latch, having not quite caught thanks to her rapid attempt at shutting her locker, remained unhooked as the door drifted open. Samantha just glared at it for one deathly silent minute, and more stragglers thought of other places they should be.
SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM SLAM!!
Samantha banged her fist into her locker's door, forcing it shut, and stood panting for breath, glaring off into space with blazing turquoise eyes. Her shoulders heaved as she gulped in air in a futile attempt to calm herself, her entire body trembling from stress and frustration.
The hallway was completely evacuated by the time she finally raised her head back up.
That was hardly a problem. The absolute last thing Samantha needed at that moment was for another idiot to approach her.
So far, that entire day, any moment she wasn't in class (and even the majority of time when she was), the Screws leader had been peppered with an endless barrage of unwanted questions, comments, observations and opinions from practically every other inhabitant of the school. Crude boys leering, jealous girls sneering, skeptics questioning, believers prodding, complaints, outcries, queries…
She'd lost count of how many pictures she'd torn off the walls and papers she'd trashed. But there seemed to be a never-ending supply of the libelous materials. For every piece she destroyed, three more ended up popping into view elsewhere, and while she attempted to deal with those, the things she'd just finished disposing of were quickly replaced.
Through some small miracle, she's managed to avoid meeting directly with her followers Spyke and Sloan since the news broke out. Oh, she'd seen them several times, but so far she'd been able to evade direct contact, and having to come up with the explanation she knew the boys were dying to hear.
(Explain…? Sure: I pulled a prank on Ikki and Erika to pay them back for everything they've put me through, and look what happened! That'll go over real nice…)
Samantha gritted her teeth and absently punched her locker again. Thankfully, the latch had caught securely, so it didn't end up swinging open on her again: had that occurred, it was likely the school would have had to replace it after she finished venting her pent-up anger on it.
Still, all her frustration needed an outlet, and very soon. At this point, only two options seemed workable. Either Peppercat was going to get some serious workouts as they tracked down the nearest robattle victims they could find, or…
Ikki's streak of incredible luck – incredibly bad luck – held true as he rounded the corner, worn out, annoyed, and not paying the least bit of attention to where he was going… or who was also in the immediate vicinity.
Samantha's head instantly snapped up, turquoise eyes narrowing as they locked onto the third-ranked medafighter's slumped form.
(Target sighted. Tracking…)
As if hypersensitive to her gaze, Ikki froze in mid-step, and slowly pivoted to face her, blue eyes wide as dinner plates and darting from side to side.
(The deer, suddenly sighting the lion preparing to pounce, acts on its primary instinct…)
Backing up a few steps, Ikki then whirled around and took off down the hall, Samantha directly behind him.
(And-ddd they're off--!!)
This situation was oddly familiar to both participants: it was hardly the first time the Screws leader had chased Ikki around in an attempt to take revenge for her ruined reputation. Only back then, she had wanted a robattle. Now, she was just out for blood.
Familiarity certainly didn't make the chase any less comfortable for Ikki.
It probably looked rather odd to anybody still straggling in the halls, that the high-ranked medafighter would flee a lower-ranked girl. Even if they knew she wasn't looking for a medabot fight, it wouldn't have made much sense, seeing as how Samantha was smaller and slighter than Ikki.
But it made perfect sense when one considered a few simple facts.
Firstly, Ikki was far from a great fighter. Sure, he could give commands to Metabee – though whether or not the KBT-type actually listened was another thing entirely – but trading punches himself? Not quite…
Also, Samantha was far from a fair fighter. Others might just punch and kick; she'd prefer clawing, tugging hair, and focusing the majority of her blows to a male's most sensitive region.
She made this tendency quite clear from the outset, as she suddenly lunged forward, seized Ikki's ponytail, and stopped short, bringing the boy to an abrupt halt. Even as Ikki let out a sound somewhere between a scream and a squeak, she yanked him around to face her and kicked him soundly, then grabbed the folding-over kid's collar and shoved him to the wall.
"I hope you're happy, Ikki," she snarled, leaning in close so that their noses were only inches apart. "Thanks to your little stunt, we're the laughingstock of the entire school…!"
Ikki groaned, and his survival instincts kicked in at that moment, causing him to do something neither expected: wrenching his arms free, he grabbed Samantha's shoulders and shoved her roughly to one side, trying solely to get her away.
Only the action forced her into the wall instead. The Screws leader gasped at the unexpected pain, aquamarine eyes involuntarily watering a little at the harsh impact. For a moment, the two just stared at each other, Ikki more than a bit stunned at the flash of vulnerability in the girl.
But that swiftly passed, the shock evaporating into rage and Samantha letting out an incoherent scream as she lunged for his neck.
The few remaining students in the general area gaped at the display, not knowing any other way to react other than stare. None of the stragglers thought to intervene, and when they noticed something the struggling pair failed to spot right away, decided their best course of action would be to quietly flee.
"Well, well, well. Trouble in paradise, Tenryou?"
Samantha and Ikki froze in mid-tussle, instantly recognizing that familiar voice and heartily wishing they hadn't. Slowly, inexorably, sapphire and turquoise eyes traced up thick tree trunk legs, to a barrel chest, to a stern face set in an almost permanent frown.
"I suppose this was another burst of youthful passion that couldn't wait until you were off school grounds?" questioned Coach Mountain, fixing the two with a penetrating stare.
Ikki felt his cheeks burn as it abruptly dawned on him how they had to appear right then: clothes rumpled, hair ruffled, holding each other in death grips, sweating and panting…
"Th-this isn't what it looks like!" protested Samantha lamely: obviously the realization had hit her hard as well.
Coach Mountain just continued to glare down at the two unlucky students, displeasure radiating off of his toned body in palpable waves. Oddly enough, however, there was a certain glint of satisfaction in his narrowed, beady eyes.
And Ikki had a pretty good idea why. The Principal was nowhere in sight.
~ * ~
"Gk-gk-gk-gk-gk-gk-gk!"
Henry sighed and looked over at the sputtering KBT-type sitting near the Hop Mart's doors. Although the Hercules Beetle medabot had been flipping through the latest issue of M-Club for the last several minutes, anybody could tell the magazine's articles were the last things on his mind.
"Calm down, Metabee," he soothed while shaking his head in dismay. "I'm certain Ikki will be here soon enough…"
"Gk-gk-gk--! Calm?! I am perfectly calm!" insisted Metabee, slamming the magazine down and glaring at everybody in the store with glowing green eyes. "Calm as any medabot can be when his medafighter's GONE MISSING!"
"Try not to jump to conclusions so quickly," Henry suggested, then added under his breath, "At the very least, try not to ruin the whole store when you blow up…"
"That's right, there must be a very good reason that Ikki is later than usual," piped Karin from where she sat at a nearby table, flanked by Koji and Rintaro. "Perhaps something came up at school, and he was detained…"
"Or maybe that commoner got lost on the way," Koji muttered, accenting his words with a roll of his violet eyes. A smug smirk played over his lips as he added, a bit too hopefully, "Or got into a terrible accident…"
"Oh, no!" gasped Karin. "Shouldn't we go look for him, then…?"
"No, no, never mind, I'm sure he's okay!" Koji hastily insisted, waving both arms wildly to soothe the worried girl. "It just takes a while sometimes for commoners to walk all the way from school to here…"
"…Oh… Okay. I just hope he gets here soon, then, so we don't have to worry anymore," Karin replied with a thankful smile.
"Dude, it is kinda weird, though," observed Rintaro. The hyper medafighter paused to lick his vanilla cone once, then continued thoughtfully, "Ikki usually doesn't take this long to get here… I mean, even Spyke and Sloan made it here before him!"
"…Boss isn't here, either," commented Spyke from where he slumped in his own seat next to his fellow Screw. His head rested between his folded arms on the table, and his eyes were fixed solidly on the door as he whimpered, "I'm worried… Shouldn't we go look for her, Sloan?"
"…She's probably with Ikki, wherever he is," murmured the shorter Screw, "and doesn't want to be bothered."
Spyke sank even further down in his seat, looking even more depressed at that comment.
"You're probably right," he sighed.
"What are you talking about?" Koji demanded, eyeing them suspiciously. "Why would Ikki want to be anywhere with Samantha, when he could be spending time basking in my company instead?"
Metabee rolled his eyes and muttered, "Egomaniac…"
Henry rolled his eyes and murmured, "Look who's talking…"
Sloan rolled his eyes and whispered, "How many reasons from the list do you want?"
Karin blinked and wondered, "What?"
"Dude, why do you think Ikki's with Samantha?" asked Rintaro.
"What, haven't you heard?" wondered Spyke, sitting up and looking around in surprise.
Several blank faces stared back at the two Screw members. Spyke and Sloan sweated, not knowing how to react to this situation. It wasn't very often either boy was placed in a situation where they knew something most of their friends weren't yet aware of.
Thankfully, they were saved the stress of having to explain by the chime of a little bell, as the doors swung open and everybody turned to see who had just walked into the Hop Mart.
"Want to know the latest buzz at Riverview?" announced Erika, brandishing several folded school newspapers with one hand, keeping the side with the picture turned away from everyone else in the store.
"Erika, what's wrong?" Henry asked immediately.
The clerk instantly knew that something had terribly shaken the young journalist recently. It was as clear as the dullness in her normally bright, expressive chocolate brown eyes, the lack of any bounce in her step, the almost monotone drone of her voice.
Behind the girl, Brass looked on in concern, rose eyes dim with worry. Considering that Henry had been expecting to see the Sailor-Multi sporting her brand-new meda-part and asking how she liked it earlier, the pain in her expression was all the more unbearable.
"What's wrong?" he repeated, ignoring as best he could the hint of desperation that had entered his voice.
Erika just gazed lifelessly back at him and the other stunned patrons of the Hop Mart, and indicated her newspapers again with a short wave.
"I've got the latest scoops, right here," she muttered. "Come on, take a look. I guarantee you won't believe what my newest big story is…"
"Fine, give me one," snapped an irritated Koji, snatching one of the newspapers. "If it'll shut you up…"
He unrolled it with one sharp flick of the wrist and glanced disinterestedly at the front page, expecting another exaggerated tale about some robattle Ikki and Metabee had recently won. Considering that was the topic of the majority of Erika's articles (or at least it appeared that way to Koji), it seemed an educated guess…
It took several seconds for the small glimpse he'd taken of the photograph on the front to fully register. Then the normally cultured boy promptly pulled a spit-take, nearly choking on the soda he'd been nonchalantly sipping as his bulging eyes focused back on the headline story.
Sloan and Spyke, knowing what caused this reaction, glanced knowingly at each other and winced. Erika failed to show any emotion, though one corner of her mouth quirked briefly in what might have almost been the start of a smirk.
The others just stared at Koji, then Erika, then each other. Rintaro and Metabee quickly broke the silence, naturally.
"Dude, let me see that!"
"Gimme one of those…!"
They each snatched a paper away from Erika's unresisting grasp, with Karin and Henry following their lead and taking their own copies far more politely. Absolute silence fell over the Hop Mart as each took several moments to absorb the headline story. Then…
"Oh my…"
"Dude--!"
"What?!"
"…Ah…"
~ * ~
Ikki limped down the street, Samantha leaning heavily against him. The two were completely worn out, thanks to their latest enrollment in Coach Mountain's heavy-duty exercise program/torture session. In fact, Ikki was gaining just as much support from the Screw leader as she was from him: removing either one would be certain to send the other toppling helplessly to the sidewalk.
In its own, odd way, the scene was almost… cute. In their utter exhaustion, the pair seemed completely oblivious to their current position. Samantha's head was resting against his shoulder, her arm draped behind his neck, while his arms were around her waist, helping support the weary girl.
At least, that was how it appeared from a distance. If one got a closer look, however, they'd realize that Samantha's arm wasn't just draped behind Ikki's neck – it was wrapped almost completely around it in a chokehold.
"I… am… so going… to… kill you… for… this…" she rasped lowly, glaring weakly up at the boy. "Once the… sidewalk… stops spinning…"
Ikki opened his mouth to reply, but all that came out were incoherent gasps for breath. Although Samantha was too weak to apply much pressure to any sort of grip she had on the boy, his own weariness was hardly helping matters. Instead, he put all his effort into lurching forward, hoping to find some sanctuary soon so both could rest.
Unfortunately, this was far from the case. As they drew closer to the Hop Mart, Ikki's blurring vision adjusted enough for him to make out several figures coming outside and moving toward them.
In front of the pack was a fuming, furious Hercules Beetle medabot.
"Gk-gk-gk-gk-gk! Ikki! So it's true, then!" roared Metabee, green eyes glowing.
"…Whuh?" was the boy's brilliant reply.
"Dude! I don't believe it!" shrilled Rintaro, running circles around the others in full-blown 'sugar rush mode'. "Dude, you two are really, like, an item?! Dude!!"
"I can't believe it," Henry murmured, running a hand through his raven hair and studying the pair with an amused and concerned expression. "I don't know what to think…"
"Oh, I'm so happy for both of you!" Karin declared, hands clasped in front of her and beaming with delight.
"Same here," added Koji with a smug smirk, reaching over and trying to drape an arm possessively over Karin's shoulders. However, she moved before he could finish, and the rich boy ended up toppling over and kissing pavement briefly.
"I'm so happy for you, Boss!" simpered Spyke, tears waterfalling down his face.
Sloan didn't say a word, but simply stared at them, not knowing what to say. Similarly, Brass was also struck silent by her own surprise, rose eyes wide as they shifted between the pair and over to where Erika was standing off to one side.
"Miss Erika…"
Erika's dark brown eyes were fixed solidly on Samantha and Ikki standing together, a dim spark of emotion sputtering in their otherwise empty depths. Reflexively, the young journalist raised her camera and snapped a few more shots of the pair, an automatic movement.
Brass seemed to be the only one paying any attention to her medafighter. Nobody else noticed her, or the sharp glance Henry shot in the junior reporter's direction. Even as his sharp eyes glinted with recognition and realization, however, his attention was drawn back to the others by Metabee's angry shouting.
"Gk-gk-gk! So that's where you were for so long yesterday?! That's why you didn't get home until so late?! 'Cause you were on a date with her…?!"
Ikki just stared at his medabot with tired blue eyes, swaying on his feet. Beside him, Samantha aimed a cold glare at Metabee – a glare that lost most of its edge thanks to her exhaustion.
"S… shut up…" she hissed, aiming a wobbly punch at the KBT-type. "Just shut… up…"
Suddenly, her aquamarine eyes closed, and the Screw leader reeled backward, on the verge of collapse. Only Ikki's arms around her waist kept the girl from falling over, and instead both sank to their knees, slumping against each other as their fatigue finally caught up with them.
"Boss!"
"Oh, geez, we'd better get them inside, quick!" Henry declared, finally realizing just how worn out the two were.
As the others scrambled to help their weakened friends inside, their worried chattering blurred together for the barely conscious pair. Only one comment made by Rintaro cut though the confusing noise before they passed out completely…
"Dude, what were they doing to make them so tired…?"