------------------------------------------------------------------------
: Zero Radiance by Adriel Touchstone :
Episode VI – Back to School
------------------------------------------------------------------------
As Andrew walked the few blocks to school, he found himself unable to think of the homework he had hastily done, unable to recall any of the things he would need to know for his math exam. All he could think about was the past few days – it was only Friday night that he had first met Vincent. The next day, there was another attack and they met Masuyo, later running into Alexander. On Sunday, they tried to train but were again interrupted by Alexander. And now, Andrew had to go back to something as mundane as school... making sure not to let anyone on to the fact that he was one of the people involved in the strange events that had decimated the park.
Before he knew it, he was at the doors of his school. "Here goes," he said, walking into the air-conditioned lobby and navigating the corridors to his first class of the day.
"Good morning, students!" the professor said cheerily. "I hope you all got a good night's sleep in preparation for today's exam!" In his arms was a rather large stack of tests.
"Hah. I wish." Andrew said, mentally checking if he still remembered how to add.
"This is boring." Masuyo said, reading a book. He and Vincent were at Masuyo's house, since Andrew was out.
"Why aren't you at school?" Vincent asked.
"Mom said there's a power outage at my school cause whatever happened to the park knocked some of the lines loose. Why aren't you at school?" Masuyo replied, turning a page.
"I graduated already." Vincent answered.
"...oh." Masuyo said.
Andrew's head fell onto his desk, the dull thud reverberating through Andrew's skull. "Ow.." Andrew muttered.
"Hey, it wasn't that bad," a voice called, its owner sauntering up to Andrew. "As long as you remembered the binomial expansion theorem, you're guaranteed to at least have gotten a B."
"This coming from the dumb jock..." Andrew replied, looking up. Though the remark could sometimes sting, it was a running joke between Andrew and the other boy, Aaron Lerien. Aaron was much stronger and several inches taller than Andrew, though the two were close friends – Aaron was a bit closeted about his dueling skills and Andrew had agreed not to tell everyone about it. In the school, there were primarily two classes of people – duelists and non-duelists. All the duelists talked about nothing except the game, while the non-duelists talked about nothing except the duelist population. Andrew had previously belonged to the duelist group, but his affiliation with Aaron gave him a unique go-between status.
"Well if I'm the dumb jock, what does that make you if you don't even remember the binomial expansion theorem?" Aaron asked. Andrew merely grunted.
"Anyway, you better hurry up. Your next class is history, right? That witch hates it when people are late." Aaron said, walking out the door. Exhaling, Andrew stood up and collected his belongings, walking the annoyingly long route from the sciences department to the humanities department.
"You know this is a bad idea." Vincent said in his trademark calm tone.
"No it's not..." Masuyo said. He was in the kitchen with various liquids, semiliquids, powders, and chemicals.
"You're attempting to create something you read about in a science fiction book. It's a bad idea."
"It's a sound theory. Everyone knows that vinegar and baking soda react because of their opposing pH values. So, by creating compounds that are very acidic or very basic and also gaseous at room temperature, you can get an explosive that weighs almost nothing. He dumped half a cup of orange juice into a pot that already had vinegar and nail polish remover in it. "The citric acid in orange juice added to the acetic acid in vinegar and nail polish remover will be good acidic substances."
"...and the base?" Vincent asked, half-wishing he hadn't, even before Masuyo replied.
"Well, I started with chalk dust...and I don't really remember what else I put in..." Masuyo said, turning up the heat under both pots.
"This is a bad idea." Vincent said once more.
"No it's not!" Masuyo said, exasperated. "I'm only going to let this stuff boil a little bit, to test how the fumes react."
"..."
"Today, class," the history professor started, opening her teacher's copy of the student textbook, "We will be reviewing the effect of tariffs on diplomatic relations." She started writing on the board, speaking as she wrote.
"This is such a waste of time..." Andrew thought, letting his mind wander. He was trying to think of new ways to fight the DC, better methods of attack. Suddenly, something hit him rather hard in the head. Andrew opened up the note. "How was your weekend?" the note said. Andrew looked around, his eyes meeting those of his classmate Doris. He gave her a look before scrawling something on the paper; "Did you have to fold that so sharp?" He threw it back.
Doris giggled hesitantly, her pale face lighting up a bit. She was closer to Andrew's height and weighed less than he did, though people often accused her of being fat because of the clothes she wore, which were too tight. The popular girls always laughed, calling Doris a wannabe whose clothes matched her status. Doris' mother was the image of beauty, though these genes didn't completely pass down to the next generation. Doris' clothes, on the other hand, weren't designer, so the fact that they were too tight seemed to the popular girls as Doris' attempt to look attractive. To get away from all of this, Doris was active in many academic organizations, holding leadership roles in most of them. Andrew, however, was her primary obsession. This was why she risked losing face with the teacher just to ask Andrew how his weekend was, instead of waiting until after class.
Ignoring whatever tariffs seemed to have caused a war that spanned across an ocean, the two continued to pass notes. The professor was too absorbed in her work to notice.
As class ended and the students left, a voice over the PA made an announcement; "Students, this is your principal speaking. Classes are cancelled for the rest of the day due to an explosion in the nearby area. Please report to either the auditorium or the gymnasium – students are by no means to leave school grounds until the police declare otherwise."
Shrugging off his notion of what the explosion could have been, Andrew walked to the auditorium with the rest of his schoolmates. "If it's the DC, Vincent and Masuyo can handle it... I can't afford to destroy my normal life in order to fight them."
"Egh, my book..." Masuyo said.
"I told you it was a bad idea." Vincent replied scathingly. He and Masuyo were hiding in a tree. Firemen were spraying the side of the latter's house and policemen were blocking off the area.
"Any ideas?" Masuyo asked helplessly.
Vincent sighed. "There's only one way out of this..." Two flashes of light erupted from the tree; one red and one blue. The two of them, now Ruby and Sapphire Radiant, jumped out of the tree and landed at the feet of the police.
"FREEZE! Down on the ground now, hands behind your backs!" shouted one of the cops. His partners joined him, all four of them aiming their guns at Vincent and Masuyo, who had transformed.
"Wait, we're not-" Masuyo said, walking towards the cops. One of them fired and Masuyo shot out two of his eyebeams, vaporizing the bullet. "Listen, we're-" the cops began to open fire. Vincent was relatively safe, as the bullets couldn't even dent his armor, but Masuyo had to run around, dodging bullets left and right.
"We're not the perpetrators." Vincent said, ignoring the gunfire. "However, we do know who did this."
"Why should we believe you!" one of the cops shouted.
Sighing, Vincent materialized his sword. "Does this look like an explosive?" he asked.
"...no...but you could be an accomplice! We have no guarantee that your blue friend over there is..." the man trailed off as Masuyo materialized his bow and shot the ground, the arrow simply disappearing.
"Alright. We're listening."
"Hey, have you heard the stories about the weird things that've been going on?" Aaron asked. He, Andrew, and Doris were sitting in the auditorium, whiling off time until they could go home.
"Uhh...no..." Andrew said, growing a bit uncomfortable.
"Come on, you have to have heard something, Andrew!" Doris said, scooting a bit closer to him.
"Not at all..." Andrew said, trying to be smooth.
"The park?" Aaron asked. "Come on, you can't be that dumb, right? It's totally demolished!"
"Oh, well I knew that," Andrew said, "But I thought you meant something that wasn't so obvious!" he was starting to sweat a bit.
"Yeah, like the kinds of damages incurred at the park." Doris said. "I haven't actually seen it, but I read that forensics can't identify the cause of the damage. It seems to be unique. Personally, I think the military was testing some sort of new weapon and set it off by accident before they could set proper coordinates."
"I hope it isn't terrorists." Aaron said in a hushed voice. "That kind of thing always gets everyone riled up..."
"Well, that's one way you can put it..." Andrew said, thinking about the DC and their strange black energy rays.
"What?" Doris asked.
"Oh. Uh, I was just talking to myself." Andrew said quickly.
"No, you said 'that's one way you can put it.'" she replied. "What do you know? Your family works for the feds, right? Come on, you can tell us..." she said, now almost in Andrew's lap.
"No, really, it was nothing! I'm just as clueless as you two!" Andrew said.
"You don't sound like it..." Aaron muttered, eyeing Andrew oddly.
Another announcement came over the PA. "Students, this is your principal again. The police have informed me that they found two witnesses to the event. The explosion was the result of an underground new-age terrorist organization, though the authorities still can't understand why the target of the attack was the residence of a suburban family. However, we will still attempt to finish the day. Lunch will be from 12:15 to 12:35 and break will be 10 minutes long"
Andrew smacked his forehead. "Those idiots!" he mentally said, getting up.
"Now I'm sure that you know something!" Doris said.
"No, I was just...uh... annoyed that the cops can't figure it out." Andrew covered.
"Well, whatever," Doris said, giving up for the moment. "But make sure you tell me everything later." she said, winking.
"This is ridiculous..." Andrew thought to himself.
"This is ridiculous..." Vincent said, looking at the TV. The two had broken into Andrew's room and were watching his rather small television with the volume nearly inaudible. The police had branded the DC as a terrorist organization, which was kind of true, but at the same time were suggesting tactics akin to those that would be used when the threat of nuclear war was imminent. Such plans wouldn't work when the organization was not openly radical in its beliefs and didn't even need to pose a physical threat to do what it wanted.
"Well at least we might get some backup now." Masuyo mused. "If the military and stuff is on this now, it makes our job easier." They absentmindedly flipped through channels for a few more minutes before an incredibly loud noise penetrated the walls, coming from downstairs.
"Do you think...?" Masuyo asked, giving Vincent a significant look. Vincent nodded and both boys transformed, leaning against the walls on either side of the door. More loud noises erupted from the house every two seconds or so, growing closer every time.
Vincent materialized his sword while Masuyo loaded an arrow into his bow. The noises were almost at the door...
Masuyo held up three fingers and mouthed, "Three, two, one..." As the two shifted position to attack whatever was coming through the door, it burst open, and the loudest voice ever shouted "WHAT DID YOU TWO DO!" Vincent and Masuyo were knocked off of their feet and into the wall, many of the objects in the room flying along with them.
"Heheheh...hi, Andrew..." Masuyo said, dizzy from the 'attack'.
"Masuyo thought it would be a good idea to make an explosive." Vincent explained.
"I'm not sure if I should be impressed that he managed to actually make one that powerful, or dumbfounded that he blew up his own house." Andrew replied flatly.
"Well it worked, didn't it? Now if I could just collect the fumes individually..." Masuyo said, thinking.
"Fumes!" Andrew exclaimed.
"Well, yes, you see, I was attempting to create a gaseous acid-base reaction powerful enough to be used as a weapon against the DC... I read about it in my book... it worked, obviously." Masuyo said, defending himself.
"...well, whatever." Andrew said, collapsing on his bed. "I'm so tired..."
"Well you didn't have to deal with the press," Masuyo said, detransforming.
"That was your own fault." Andrew countered.
"...meh." Masuyo said, no trace of regret in his voice.
"We need to get back to training." Vincent said matter-of-factly.
"No, I need to sleep. You can train if you want." Andrew replied, his face now in his pillow.
"No way!" Masuyo shouted, shoving Andrew around. "Get up now!"
"Let him rest." Vincent said, such sympathy a bit out-of-character for him. "He's no use to us half-asleep." He walked out of the room, Masuyo following. Andrew would have thanked him, but he was already asleep.
End
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
I'm going to be off at a conference until next thursday. Think of it as a sabbatical - being absent from writing and stuff might clear my head and let me think better.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -