A/N: Waitaminute… Spice of Life, did you write R/P, and not be able to submit? Did you write one? I read your review and I was like "OMG R/P!!!!!!!!!!!11111one *explode*" But I'd like to clarify that I interpreted it correctly. Can you not upload, or what? (Also, what I meant was, MOST 11-year olds don't operate like that. I imagine some of them do, heh)

…Oh yeah, and thanks to my… four (whoo…) reviewers for their… um… reviews. Yesh. They is very appreciated indeedy. I'm trying to finish all my stuff, which I will do eventually (but probably not in the near future).

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Initiation

Part Three

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Everyone feared Blasphemy. He was the lord of all things dark and evil, walked erect on two legs and had the ability to turn even the best of friends against each other. It was no wonder the entire town was bent on his capture.

Presently, a screaming civilian fled for their lives from Blasphemy's icy-black grip as another one tried to hold him off with a pitchfork. It was to no avail; Blasphemy consumed them, feeding off their energy, absorbing his victims' thoughts and feelings and converting them into his own.

But what happened after that was a mystery, because Kiki still had to draw the next panel. She poised her pencil over the paper and thought about how to continue the plot…

A soft series of taps happened from the front door. Kiki thought about answering it, but ultimately decided she was far too lazy.

Tap-tap-tap-tap. "Kiki? You home?"

Groaning, the girl rose from her seat on the couch and made her way to the door. The person behind it clearly wasn't an adult; it was somebody her age, she could tell from the blurry shadow they cast on the front door's glass center-window.

She opened the door - and sighed. It was Penny Sanchez, the only person to be even halfway considerate to her all day. A simple "please go away, I'm very busy" wouldn't be the right thing to say to her.

"Hello, Kiki," Penny greeted, panting. You'd think she'd have just ran the Tour-de-France, and the bulging backpack over her shoulders looked to weigh fifty pounds. "I saw what happened back at the school. I came over to thank you on Rudy's behalf, in case he hasn't gotten the chance to himself."

Oh, wonderful. Kiki opened the door for her. "All right, come in. Looks like you ran all the way here."

"Oh, well, I'm just… not sure I like this neighborhood. No offense or anything."

"I won't lie - my family's not exactly swimming in dough." Kiki rolled her eyes. "This was the best spot our savings could afford. But hey, so what if we're living next door to a family of cannibalistic Goths?"

Penny forced a nervous smile as she made her way through the door, gingerly setting her backpack down on the scrawny carpeted floor. I sure hope she's still being sarcastic…

The two girls made their way to the kitchen, on the other side of the house - it was about a five-second walk. Penny got an opportunity to observe the inside of the dwelling a little better; the wallpaper was dog-eared and she could've sworn she saw a cockroach scurrying under the raggedy couch in the living room.

"Sorry about the mess." Kiki explained, trying to be a good host (which was still a relatively new experience for her). "I… We haven't gotten around to tidying this place up."

"Where are your parents?"

"Ooooh…" Kiki bit her lip, thinking for a moment. "Um… away. At… work. Your parents work, right?"

"Just my mom. I… live with just my mom. She runs an animal rejuvenation clinic. It's built into our house. It's kind of like living on a farm."

Kiki nodded. "That sounds cool. Of course, this place is like a farm, too. We get all kinds of rats and roaches and… Well, I don't mean to gross you out, or anything."

How can she stand it!?! Penny stared around the house and its scraggly walls, in disbelief, as her host dug through the contents of the pantry. "You seem… very nonchalant about it."

Kiki turned around, unsure why Penny seemed so disgusted. "Hey, if your mom's a vet, she probably keeps rats and roaches around anyway, to feed the larger animals, right? You should be used to them."

"She keeps them in a special fridge… I never see them."

"Oh, well, that's different." Kiki, after rummaging through the pantry, finally emerged with a half-eaten tray of… something. "Fruit pie?"

Penny grimaced. "Uh, no thanks."

"You can dig through the pantry yourself, if you want. I think we have some leftover sushi from a Chinese restaurant back in Texas… Must be months old by now, but the stuff keeps real well…"

"I'm not hungry. Already ate."

"Suit 'cherself." Still holding the fruit pie (if that's what it was), Kiki made her way to the table, which was also run-down and dirty… Two of the legs had been replaced, one with a semi-thick log and the other, the handle of a broom. Even the chair looked antique. "So, Pen…"

"Yes?"

"You wanna grab a chair?" Kiki gestured towards an identical chair in the corner. It was nice having company around for a change… It'd been a long time since she'd had to bring out the extra seat.

Grabbing the chair and hauling it to the table, Penny sat down and began to casually observe the house again. It looked like one of those old replicas of 18th-century dwellings, and though it'd be fascinating to take a few more looks around, she couldn't imagine having to live there… "So… what were you doing before I came?"

Kiki lowered a spoonful of 'fruit pie' from her lips. "Um… just… drawing."

"That's what Rudy says whenever I ask him. Do you draw comic books? That's what he does."

"Oh… Well, yes. I like comics." Kiki set down the spoon, resting her elbow on the table and tapping her forefinger to her chin. She'd forgotten about Rudy already. Stay on topic, Kiki.  "Speaking of which, Penny, why don't you tell me more about him? He sounds…" She searched for a word. "Very… interesting."

Penny's eyes widened a little. She glanced towards her company, a little nervously. "R-Rudy?"

"Yeah…?"

"Oh, well, uh… He's… an artist, like you are." Penny twiddled her thumbs together as she thought a little harder. "He's very nice…"

"What kind of stuff does he draw?" Kiki interrupted, a little impatient.

"He's more of a cartoonist. Doesn't like realism very much."

"I figured so." Kiki smiled a little. "The three of us need to get together sometime. You can introduce me to him. I really need some more friends… And it sounds like me and him have a lot in common."

Penny bit her lip, wondering why she felt so uneasy all of a sudden… "Yeah, you do."

--

"Alright, alright: That could've gone better. But we got front row seats, and you walked out that nightclub a hero! Way to go, buddy!"

Rudy stared down at the ground ahead of him. It took all of his self-control to keep from imploding upon himself right there. There were three bloodied scratches on his arm and four matching ones on his left cheek from where the deranged chicken had left its mark. He raised one hand to gingerly finger the red spots on his cheek; but only caused himself to wince in even more pain.

"Hey, out of all the things to go wrong, I'd say an insane chicken is relatively minor. Think of what could've happened! Someone could've erased a giant dragon into ChalkZone, and it could've stepped on the Clam Bar, crushing us all! There could've been a swirling vortex of flame! Or-"

Rudy hung his head, sighing. "Snap, I just want to go home. Take me home right now."

"All right, all right. Sheesh. Just trying to lighten the mood. Anyway, back at the restaurant, it's a good thing you came through with that chicken-restraint, and the muzzle. That's what Biclops did to tame the giant fire-breathing chicken from the incident with the red chalk. D'you get the idea from him?"

Rudy groaned, groggily. "Snaaaaap… Can we please just…?"

"K'ay, bucko. Just cool it, okay? Your home chalkboard should be that way. I trust you know the spot by now."

"Yeah, I do."

"Well, seeya, bucko!"

Snap turned around and headed off again, leaving Rudy to continue his path home. It would only take a few minutes, and then he could get back to reality, and for once, enjoy it. At least there wasn't much left to go wrong.

On the way to his home chalkboard, Rudy passed by many other chalk surfaces (you could tell by the words and symbols dangling in midair). Sometimes he paused to read them. Occasionally, they would say interesting things. Presently, out of boredom, Rudy stopped by a couple of them to read what they said. Most of them also had little drawings to accompany the words. It was fascinating seeing what other people were doing.

A couple in particular caught his eye.

"Here's one: The Funky McWunky fan club." Rudy mused to himself. "Wow. I think I've actually heard of them."

He passed by a couple more. Most of them read uninteresting things, or had primitive stick-people doodled on them.

"Boring… boring… Hey, that one's pretty good!"

The only detailed one he saw was out of his way, and if he ran over to see it, it would only take him longer to get home and clean his battle wound. Then again, he still needed to think of an excuse for why he was sporting the scratches in the first place, and he could use a little more time to think of something. Besides, he was curious to see just how good the drawing was.

He jogged a little closer to the doodling in the distance, and squinted a little to make out the details….

It was a pixie, identical to the one that had been chasing Snap!

"Aha. Let's see who our culprit is."

Rudy ran over to the stand in front of the chalk surface, withdrew White Lightning, and drew a very small circle beside the pixie. The portal glowed white for a moment, and then changed to reveal a very dusty room in the real world. He used one eye to squint through the hole, making sure no one was in the room. After a few seconds, and the coast was still clear, he drew a bigger circle around the little one, just large enough for him to squeeze into. He crawled through the hole and into the real world.

"This place is a wreck." He observed. "Whoever drew those pixies really needs to clean up in here…"

He took a closer look around the room, searching for some kind of clue that would help him to determine who exactly lived there. There were many pictures hanging on the wall that sported snakes, dragons, griffins and even a few of those accursed pixies. There were no personal photos though, so he still couldn't really tell.

Wait a minute… He stood dead-still. If he listened carefully, he could hear a voice coming from below him. There was somebody downstairs.

He couldn't really recognize the voice, though. He continued to listen.

…Then, there was a second voice. A girl's voice, like the first, but it spoke with a bit of a lisp and Rudy found it to be very familiar…

Rudy shook his head in disbelief. "Penny? No way! This can't be her house…"

Slowly, cautiously, Rudy made his way to the door and poked his head out into the hall. Placing his footsteps with care, he made his way to the stairs and glanced downwards. He saw the living room, the den, and the front door, all very small and run-down, like the room he had ended up in. Whoever lived there was either dirt-poor or they fancied the "old and musty" look.

He heard the voices again. There was no doubt about it; one of them was definitely Penny's. But who was the second? He recognized it from somewhere, but…

Curiosity was eating away at him. He delicately tiptoed down the stairs, trying not to make a sound. One of the stairs creaked, but the house was making ten creaks a second as it was, no matter if anyone was roaming about or not.

Finally, he reached a bend in the stairs, and was able to see the kitchen. Yup, it was Penny. And… Kiki, the new girl. Ah, he still had to thank her, but he imagined it would be best to save it for another time. He didn't want to try and explain why he was sneaking around her house.

…Was Kiki the one drawing the pixies? He'd ask Penny about it, once they were alone. For the present, he just had to worry about getting back up the stairs and through the portal without anyone noticing.

…Or he could stay a little, and listen to what the girls were talking about. Why not? Besides that it was, well, eavesdropping, but… he wasn't in danger of being caught as long as they stayed in the kitchen.

--

"…And that is the secret to harnessing unstable elements. I'm submitting my theory to the Aspiring Youths' Science Academy next week. I could win a scholarship."

Penny had just finished a long, winding, and very educational lecture, and Kiki was listening just as intently as she had been from the start, not nodding off like Rudy would have been.

"Wow. That's all I can say. Just… wow." Kiki finished the last bite of fruit pie, a shocked expression on her face. "That's incredible. I didn't know you were such a genius."

"I'm impressed that you actually understood what biochemical components were, without me having to explain it," Penny mused, smiling. "Some people don't appreciate science. Rudy never lets me finish explaining something like that to him; all he wants to do is talk about his comics, or…" She paused to catch her breath. Just how much did she feel comfortable venting about?  "…Or something really stupid, like… how he thinks mayonnaise on a biscuit is hilarious."

Kiki rolled her eyes. "Oh, it's a guy thing. They're just like that."

Penny giggled. "So, it's not just me?"

"No, no… it's them. The inner workings of a guy's mind are not for us to question." Kiki took the empty pie tray and carried it to the sink (the cleanest place in the whole house, but that wasn't saying a lot). "In the meantime, we can go upstairs, and you can show me how well you can draw."

"Well, I'm… not very good…"

"Oh, feh. Come on."

The girls made their way to the stairs as Rudy furiously scrambled up to the top story, raced through the hallway, and dove through the portal again, erasing it behind him, leaving only a giant gray smear in its wake.

Big enough to be noticeable.

Kiki and Penny arrived at that room about ten seconds later, talking and laughing like old friends. Penny didn't understand why Kiki suddenly stopped laughing, staring at her chalkboard in disbelief. There was a decent-sized smudge through the middle of her pixie drawing, and no one had been in her room all day.

"That wasn't there before." She murmured. Subconsciously, she felt herself tense, her blood pressure rising.

Penny shook her head. "You can just redraw it, right? Is it really that big of a problem?"

"Hmm? Oh, no, of course not."

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A/N: Why do I make Rudy such an impolite person? o0;; Maybe it comes from his name… You know, rude, Rudy. It's a subconscious thing.