The scandal continues: see the beginning for all disclaimers.
~ * Some Wonderful Dream (And So-called Nightmarish Reality)) * ~
(Ikki is going to die for this.)
After passing out from exhaustion (courtesy of Coach Mountain's training/torture sessions of doom), Samantha had been having the most wonderful dream. She beat the snot out of Ikki for embarrassing her, then went after Erika for ruining her reputation. After teaching both of them a lesson, she then found herself embraced from behind.
Surprised at first, she twisted around and found herself staring at a face masked almost completely in shadows. Only his eyes – somehow Samantha knew this strangely familiar person was a male – were visible, yet the surge of annoyance she felt at his unexpected grasp faded as she gazed into those deep, alluring eyes.
Something in those startlingly clear, bright twin panes of shimmering sapphire put her at ease, making the unexpected embrace feel… right, somehow.
But before she could get a better look at her somehow familiar companion's hidden face, the pressure on her chest increased abruptly, and she snapped awake. Ikki instantly replaced her mysterious visitor, and it only took a few seconds for Samantha to figure out her current position.
Flat on her back against some cool, smooth surface with Ikki practically on top of her with one of his hands resting where it most certainly had no business whatsoever resting.
(Ikki is soooo going to die for this.)
It was clear from the horrified expression on Ikki's face that he knew he was screwed. The boy had gone sheet white, save for the furious red spreading over his cheeks, his blue eyes shrinking into pinpoints.
"Sa-Sam-Samantha!! I-I can ex-explain…!!"
"Ikki," muttered the Screw leader in a dangerously calm, level voice, "Just what the hell do you think you're doing…?!"
Silence. A long, tense stretch of silence. After a few unbearably long seconds, a large vein appeared on the back of the girl's head.
"GET OFF OF ME, YOU PERVERT--!!"
"Waaaaahhh--!"
Instantly Ikki sprang backwards as if jet-propelled, covering a good distance and landing on his rear a few feet away. Samantha leapt to her feet, aquamarine eyes burning with such tangible outrage that they almost seemed to glow, not unlike Metabee's eyes when he became incensed. Ikki cowered at her wrath, holding his arms out defensively in front of his wincing face.
"Dude, that was cool! I didn't know you could jump like that, Ikki!" piped Rintaro from the sidelines, purple eyes wider than usual.
"Did you see that?" an equally impressed Spyke whispered to Sloan while pointing at Ikki.
"Mm-hmm," Sloan affirmed with a nod. "Looks like he'll fit in just fine…"
"Fit in?!" echoed Ikki, not certain he liked what he thought the stocky Screw was implying. "Fit in where?!"
"I could give you an answer to that question," Koji replied with a smug smirk, "but since more sheltered minds such as dear Karin here and Spyke are present, I believe I'll pass."
"What do you mean by that, Koji?" asked Karin blankly.
"What did he mean by that, Sloan?" whispered Spyke with an equally clueless look on his face.
"Oh, nothing…"
"Will somebody please explain what's going on here?" Samantha snarled, as she somehow managed to fix one of her death glares on everybody in the Hop Mart at once.
A collective unease settled over all of the occupants of the convenience store at once, save for one member, who instantly volunteered an explanation without any thought as to how the fuming leader of the Screws might react.
"Oh, we were just talking about how Ikki and you have become boyfriend and girlfriend," Karin explained simply, beaming. "We were beginning to worry about you, since you hadn't woken up since your arrival, and came up with the idea that Ikki should try kissing you… you know, like in the fairy tale…?"
"Really," growled Samantha, glaring at the bubbly redhead with frigid turquoise eyes.
"Yes. Oh, you should have seen how cute you looked together when Ikki leaned over you like that, ready to wake you up with a kiss…!"
Meanwhile, a completely crimson-faced Ikki was trying to take advantage of Samantha's distraction to quietly excuse himself from the Hop Mart and return home. After all, his mother was certain to be missing him right now, since he hadn't been able to call home and explain why he wouldn't be returning right after school, thanks to his previously unscheduled activity…
However, Samantha suddenly switched her glare from the happily oblivious Karin over to him before he could step outside, and silently promised much more pain if she was forced to chase him down after getting the entire story. Ikki gulped and retreated back to the tables, sinking as far down in his seat as possible and heartily wishing for the ground to open up and swallow him.
Koji watched his rival squirm and smiled nastily. He noticed Ikki's sapphire gaze drifting over to where he sat next to Karin, gave a little wave, then draped his arm on the seat directly behind the blissfully chatting redhead and grinned.
Suddenly, Ikki was wishing the ground would open up and swallow Koji instead.
Henry observed this silent exchange between the pair of rivals and shook his head, torn between wanting to laugh or sigh at their posturing. While he still wasn't entirely certain what to make of the situation between Ikki and Samantha, it was all too clear that the boy still harbored some feelings for Karin.
(That's only going to make things worse, no matter what's going on between him and Samantha… Not to mention the problem with Erika…)
Averting his eyes from the scene, Henry suddenly noticed something that caught his immediate attention. Just outside the Hop Mart, standing in front of the thick pane of glass that served as a window into the shop, was a lone person who had separated from the crowds passing by.
Normally, this wouldn't have been of much interest to an employee. After all, plenty of people paused to look at the different displays set up in the window, to see whatever the latest shipment had brought in or what was on sale. For most workers, the only way this straggler would have mattered was if they decided to come inside and look around, since then they might be able to sell something to them.
But Henry wasn't exactly your typical bored teenage clerk. His talent for observing as many details as possible in a short amount of time caused him to notice something that instantly set his danger scene silently blaring in his mind.
Although the glare of light off the glass interfered with his view of the stranger, he could tell their eyes were not focused on the display. Instead, they stared directly past the shiny new medabot bodies and meda-parts and were locked firmly on the group of children gathered inside.
"So it's your fault I woke up with Ikki on top of me?!"
Henry looked over quickly to see Samantha now glaring at a sweating Rintaro: obviously she'd just learned the hyperactive medafighter had been the one who pushed Ikki into the position where she's found him.
"D-dude, calm down! It's not like you wouldn't have ended up like that sooner or later…"
That was the wrong thing to say, it seemed, as Samantha screeched in outrage and punched Rintaro hard enough to knock him right into Koji, knocking both boys over and upending their chairs in the process.
"Rinty-poo! Koji!" cried Karin, jumping out of her seat in time to avoid getting knocked over as well and turning at once to check on the two dazed boys.
"Serves him right, the little pervert!" snarled a very pissed – and lightly blushing, oddly enough – Samantha.
As Koji struggled to shove the dazed Rintaro off of him and get up, the others engrossed in another loud conversation, Henry glanced back over to the window where he's glimpsed the stranger observing. There was no longer anybody there, but Henry knew better than to dismiss anything as unimportant. A nagging sensation in the back of his mind insisted he had plenty of right to worry – all too often, things never remained remotely peaceful for this group very long.
Of course, at this moment, there was very little that could be called peaceful about their current situation.
"All right, all right, break it up," he ordered, walking over and helping Rintaro and Koji to their feet. "This isn't a place for fighting, with or without medabots…"
"Dude! I don't get it, dude!" sputtered Rintaro as he clutched his aching nose. "Dude, what'd I say?"
"If you want to fight over this," Koji hissed dangerously, "then why not make it a robattle?"
"Um, how is me fighting against Peppercat related in any fashion to Rintaro shoving Ikki and Samantha into an admittedly compromising position?" inquired Sumilidon from Koji's meda-watch.
Koji blinked, taken off guard by this sensible question, and looked blankly down at his wrist, then over at Rintaro. Both violet-eyed boys stared at each other, then at Rintaro's yellow and black meda-watch.
"Hey, leave me out of this," Kantaroth immediately protested.
"They do have a point," Karin noted.
"You're right, Karin," Koji agreed at once, nodding and smiling at the redhead. Glancing over at Ikki, he sneered as he added, "It's not worth my time or effort, anyway. Even if her boyfriend wanted to try and defend her honor…"
For a minute, it almost looked like Ikki would rise to the bait: his blue eyes flashed with anger as he leveled a glare at his rival, trembling with the suppressed need to see some of the wind let out of the rich snob's sails. However, before he could react, Samantha stepped between the two.
"I can defend my own honor just fine, thank you very much," she informed him icily. With a crack of her knuckles, she added, "We don't even have to involve our medabots, either. I can take on a pansy like you no problem."
"Pansy?!" exploded a furious Koji.
"What, don't tell me you'd rather be a rose with all the thorns cut off?" Samantha asked, smirking.
Ikki snorted, then burst into laughter at the classic expression on his rival's face. He soon trailed off, however, when he noticed several details.
Although Koji's glowering at him didn't faze the boy much, the fact that Sloan had also immediately laughed at Samantha's quip did. Spyke had also chuckled, though his somewhat confused expression hinted he didn't quite understand the joke. Irrationally, Ikki recalled Sloan's earlier comment.
(Looks like he'll fit in just fine…)
Koji's sick attempt at a joke aside, Ikki had understood immediately what the shortest Screw meant. Samantha had ordered him to jump, and he'd all but responded with "How high?" …The same way that Spyke or Sloan would have complied to her command.
(Okay, big deal. So I reacted the way any rational human being would have in that situation. So what…?)
(And so what if I happened to laugh at a funny joke she made at the same time one of her buddies did? It doesn't mean anything – or at least it shouldn't!)
"Even if Samantha and I are supposed to be a couple, that doesn't automatically make me a part of the Screws gang!!"
"What!?" Metabee yelped from near the magazine rack, as the copy of M-Club he'd been mangling suddenly ripped in half.
"Great… I hope you're going to pay for that," sighed Henry.
"Ikki… nobody ever said anything about that," a rather startled Samantha pointed out, staring at her supposed boyfriend.
"…Oh, kuso! Did I just say that last part out loud?!"
"…Um, yeah," Spyke confirmed, now completely confused and concerned with Ikki's behavior. "…Are you… feeling okay, Ikki?"
"…Noooo," the high-ranked medafighter wailed, turning and banging his head against the closest wall.
"Are you all right, Ikki?" Karin wondered.
"Ikki, dude… Maybe you'd better go take a rest, dude," observed a sweating Rintaro.
"A rest… Rest is good," commented Ikki, snapping his head up and smiling very strangely. "Rest is very good. Maybe I'll wake up and find out this whole day was just a dream…"
For once, even Karin was sweating nervously as she watched Ikki stumble toward the door, still muttering about the wholesomeness of sleep and the possibility of everything being a dream. The group's condition only got worse as he slammed into the wrong side of the door, staggered backward, then limped outside in a daze.
"…Dude, should we tell him this isn't a dream?"
"I think we should let him figure that out for himself," decided Koji, shaking his head at his rival's delusions.
"Metabee, you'd better go after him and make certain he doesn't wander into the river or something," Brass observed.
"Aw, whatever," griped the KBT-type, heading after his medafighter. As he dashed after Ikki, they heard him call out, "Yo, Ikki, watch out for that…"
The others winced as they watched the dazed boy walk directly into one of the telephone poles lining the sidewalk. He staggered backward, giving Metabee enough time to catch up and lead him in the general direction of his house. Everyone stared after them for a long moment, as an awkward silence fell over those remaining in the Hop Mart. Finally, Henry spoke up.
"Why am I not surprised that Metabee forgot about his magazine?" he asked, holding up the ripped remains of the issue of M-Club.