D-Did I-?
YEEESSSS! I have managed it! After so much trial and tribulation, File 5.2 is done at last! Unfortunately, this does not mean we are done with 'File 5' as it were. We still have one more part (5.3) to deal with my friends before we move onto what is documented in File 6.
Are you all ready? I know I am!
WARNING: The following chapter will contain some darker content than usual. The original French version and Evolution had plenty of swearing and raunchy scenarios thanks to France having its...own set of standards.
EDIT: Oh, forgot to put this down earlier, but try to find all of the various Easter Eggs and shout-outs in this chapter! It's a semi-fun game!
EDIT2: A certain part of this chapter was edited significantly due to not completely gelling with the overall tone of the setting. The same edit applies to the next File. Any and all reviews of this chapter before this date (1/16/2021) refer to that version. Note that this does not change the plot in anyway, it's more to ensure that said part actually feels like a part of the world.
I also do not own Code Lyoko, which is the property of Mediatoon and various other companies. I believe the wiki documents how scattered the rights are...
Enjoy!
Garage Kids
File 5.2: Stumbling into Trouble
"GAHHH!" Odd screamed in terror as he sprung up from his bed in a cold sweat, throwing Kiwi to the floor.
That was…new.
Odd gulped, wiping off the sweat that had built-up on his face, trying to stop himself from hyperventilating, oblivious to Kiwi's angry barking. That…that was a new kind of dream-vision. Everything was still fresh in his mind, a stark contrast to the previous dreams. He recalled being back home in Palermo, but…at the same time he somehow knew that it wasn't really Palermo. And there was a girl he was trying to comfort because he had to go…somewhere. But where did he have to go, and why did he have to go to this unknown place? Odd's mouth went dry and he stumbled towards his desk, sifting through some leftover sketches before he found the picture of the dark being once again, revealed to him through the light of the full moon.
Because in the last part of the dream…there was another girl, an angelic figure who had descended to comfort the girl Odd had had to leave behind, and lambasting Odd for his decision, as if he had crossed the line between good and evil. For a moment, Odd tried not to remember it, but he couldn't forget that one moment of clarity…
When he'd seen the second girl's eyes.
There was no color in the dream, Odd was sure of it. He could only make out black-and-white…but the eyes of that…person, for lack of a better word…they weren't normal. Thankfully for Odd's sanity, he couldn't remember why exactly they weren't normal. Unfortunately, that small fact didn't stop how his hand was still shaking, and by instinct, Odd reached for a pencil and began to sketch…or…well…doodle was closer to it. When he looked down, he saw that he had drawn on a piece of scrap paper a strange...emblem of sorts.
Odd swallowed nervously as he stared at the emblem, as if he wanted it to be burned into his vision, like a brand, and rubbed his eyes. No…no…he wouldn't get caught up in this…but…
"OW!"
Odd winced as he looked down and saw that Kiwi had bitten his foot, growling at Odd. The boy sighed as he bent down to pick the little dog up and took him back to the bed. "Sorry about that Kiwi…it's just…well…" Odd's voice trailed off.
Kiwi barked and licked Odd, who forced a cheeky grin on his face before yawning. "Right, right…they're just dreams. Let's get back to bed Kiwi."
And so, the spiked-hair boy went to bed…all while the moonlight shone on the emblem he had drawn…And while he didn't know it at the time; though perhaps he knew by instinct; that emblem would soon be haunting the Warriors in the days to come…
"What?" Ulrich asked, eyebrow raised in disbelief.
It was now Saturday morning, and everyone was preparing to start the half-day. Ulrich had woken up as usual, unable to block the stench of Odd's feet, but he'd at least managed to enjoy a quiet night, completely unaware of what had happened in the early hours. When he had woken up, Odd had quickly followed, but had paused to look at the sketches on the desk once again. Ulrich had inquired about it as Odd sent the photo of a new drawing to Jeremie, and now the two were walking down the hallway to the shower room.
"I'm not kidding you!" Odd panicked. "This dream was a lot weirder than the rest! First, I'm apparently rejecting this one girl like out of a cowboy movie, and then some creepy angel chick comes down and calls me an asshole for it!"
But in his excitement, Odd had not noticed where they were going…and had walked right into the path of Amare and Sebastian, who had fallen into earshot just as Odd had begun to explain.
"Cowboy movie?" Sebastian questioned, eyes still bleary from waking up.
"Creepy angel chick?" Amare asked, looking interested.
Odd's mouth snapped shut while Ulrich's body went subtly rigid. The entire scenario was now reeking of Odd saying too much this time around. The words: 'Security Breach' and 'Big Mouth' were swimming through Odd's head as he went over a possible deflection. And of course, Future Flash didn't go off to warn him about this! Because why should life become easier for him?
"Uh, well, you know…it was a weird dream, that's all!" Odd defended.
Sebastian's face remained flat, but curiosity was evidently seeping in. "I see…so why were you having a dream about a Western dame and an angel?"
Thankfully, Odd was able to truthfully answer the question. "I have no idea. Dreams are weird"
"…It's something to talk about for a Saturday morning at least." Sebastian grumbled, curiosity leaving his face as soon as it had appeared as he thought over his tasks for the day. "Belpois sent me your contact info last night, so I'll be texting you the information on those skate parks you wanted to go to when breakfast is over."
And with that, Sebastian entered the bathroom, but Amare remained in thought, looking at Odd and Ulrich with a dangerously knowing, but calm look. Then he entered the shower room as well, whistling a jaunty tune.
"Don't be so loud next time!" Ulrich whisper-hissed. "You're lucky they didn't get the context!"
"Not my fault Future Flash didn't go off!" Odd shot back quietly.
Thankfully, no one else in the shower rooms seemed to care, with the only amusing scene being Hugo having to catch Charlie as he ran around in the shower butt-naked. Odd couldn't help it and laughed, while everyone else had at most amused smirks on their faces, as they had seen this before and were used to it. It made the transition from awkward secret delving to morning bathroom hijinks much easier. It also helped that Jim made a sudden appearance corralling Jeremie into the shower rooms like a farmer leading a stubborn mule.
"Consider yourself lucky that you were awake when I found you Belpois!" Jim shouted as he stormed out of the bathroom. "Otherwise it would've been 4 hours of detention!"
Odd couldn't help but smirk seeing Jeremie be the one causing jeopardy to the mission. Hazardous perhaps, but at least Ulrich wouldn't be able to-
Jeremie lay on the floor, blood leaking from his nose, screaming in pain from the force of the blow, with red, red, and more red surrounding him as…
Odd's eyes bugged out of his head…And there went the levity. Because of course enjoying early morning humor resulted in ominous visions of doom…and…whatever that was. Odd's eyes swam as he clutched onto a sink and breathed…a vision with no context, just…a single image. Why was that a thing? What had just happened? Why was Jeremie grievously injured?
"Are you doing okay?" Jeremie asked, tapping Odd on the shoulder.
Odd spluttered as he backed away, suppressing a sudden surge of…anger? He wet his lips, the sudden emotion leaving, but Jeremie was notably bewildered.
"Are you okay?" he asked again, "you looked kind of…mad a few seconds ago."
Odd pinched the bridge of his nose. "No, no…I'm…fine."
The worry then seemed to leave Jeremie's face and he shrugged to get ready for the day. Odd left the shower room and slowly walked down the hall back to his and Ulrich's dorm room.
There were too many and too few things going on right now. First the nightmare of the two girls, then an imagining of Jeremie lying on the ground, injured from what was probably a punch to the face. Why he had had a vision of an injured Jeremie, Odd didn't know, and for right now, was not interested in knowing, as the day was getting troublesome enough. Finally, there was the stuff to do today: Deal with having classes on the weekend, and then enjoy himself by exploring the town on his skateboard, perhaps meeting the Samantha Knight character that Sebastian had talked about.
"I mean, what could happen today?" Odd chuckled grimly to himself.
As it would turn out: Plenty of things would happen on that Saturday. Some good, and some bad…
It all started with breakfast as Odd chowed down on another large helping of food, which Ulrich and Yumi tuned out as Jeremie looked over his phone, a pensive expression on his face. Odd drank his hot chocolate to wash it all down, and was about to eat another banana, when Jeremie tapped him on the shoulder and showed Odd what he was looking at.
"Very interesting, I have to say." Jeremie said.
Odd shoved Jeremie's arm away. "Personal space, Einstein! Look it up!"
Jeremie ignored Odd's response and placed his phone on the table, revealing a photograph of the sketch Odd had made the night before. Now that Odd was fully awake, he was able to actually study the details of the emblem. It was a simple drawing with several lines arranged around a large dot that to Odd, looked like a guy putting a crown on his head.
"Looks like a ball-in-a-cup toy." Yumi commented.
"More like a sword to me." Ulrich said.
Jeremie nodded in acknowledgment of these interpretations, then put the phone back in his pocket, looking around the cafeteria to make sure no one else was paying attention. He then turned his focus back to the group and whispered, "honestly, it looks more like a stylized silhouette of Xanadu to me."
Then it clicked for the three virtual fighters. All of them had seen the silhouette of Xanadu that formed on computer screens when the specters were on the move…and now that they thought about it…the sketch Odd had made did look like the image. Granted, it was as Jeremie had noted, rather stylized, but the resemblance was definitely there, and it was uncanny. Yumi and Ulrich then slowly turned to Odd, whose mouth was hanging open as the spiky-haired boy attempted to process this.
"…what?" he finally squeaked, finding his appetite vanishing.
"It's just as I said." Jeremie answered. "Very interesting as to how your dreams are progressing…"
"He just dreamed about leaving some girl and then getting attacked by that girl's guardian angel friend." Ulrich deadpanned. "How is that progress from fighting the Grim Reaper at the end of the world?"
Jeremie frowned, putting a hand to his chin. "Hmm…well, considering prior details and some finer ones from this development- "
"Can we please save this for tomorrow?" Odd interrupted with a groan. "I'd rather NOT have to be the Prophet of Impending Doom for at least ONE day this week!"
"This is a potential avenue for me to investigate tomorrow." Jeremie argued. "I need to know what I have to focus on, especially with what we're up against."
"What more do you need for tomorrow?!" Odd hissed, trying not to let Sebastian hear from the other table.
Jeremie sighed, "Like I said, there's…some urban rumors I'm going to be checking out…and maybe a little bit of additional equipment I can get for myself. Your power might be helping out in this regard, so I need as much information as possible, even if it is from something abstract."
"Well, I can't tell you much." Odd groused. "Unless you want to give me some psychology lesson on dreams…"
"Something which I don't think we'll have time for." Yumi put in, looking at her phone.
"I won't need much for now." Jeremie reassured. "I don't have many questions."
Odd groaned, lying his head down onto the table and slowly chewed the banana he'd been about to eat. "Fine…shoot."
Jeremie nodded, then pushed his glasses into place. "When did you see this emblem?"
"I don't know!" Odd groaned. "I just…knew what it looked like, okay?"
Jeremie continued, "was there anything about the dream that stood out?"
"Besides everything?" Odd asked.
"Well, if that is the case, then-" Jeremie began, but Odd interrupted.
"No! No!" He said, straightening his body up hastily. "Look, the only thing that really stood out was…the angel girl's eyes. There, happy?"
Jeremie nodded, seemingly considering this. "Did you see the symbol in her eyes, or was there something else that stood out?"
Odd rubbed his head. He really did not want to remember the other girl…but to be honest, now that he thought about it…he couldn't get why he thought the girl's eyes had been unnatural. He was able to make out the symbol…but he didn't know where or if he'd actually seen it in that particular vision. He knew for a fact that he didn't see it in her eyes though, so…
"It was something else." He answered firmly. "The symbol…I just…knew what it looked like. I didn't actually see it, or at least, I don't think I saw it." Odd ate the rest of the banana before capping off. "And that's all I know Jeremie. I don't know anything else, and I really don't WANT to remember anything else about it that I don't know off the top of my head."
Ulrich and Yumi looked at each other. They'd only known Odd for a week, but in that time, he'd shown himself to be a rather…loud individual, for lack of a better term. Whether he was complaining, or enjoying himself, he'd always seemed to be very bombastic. Not even when his powers had gone out of control had he been quiet unless it was a situation he couldn't avoid without lasting consequences. The fact that he had deflated remembering that dream was…actually quite worrying. Especially since he'd called Jeremie by his actual name and not the nickname he'd crafted. That…that was notable.
Yumi cleared her throat. "Jeremie, if Odd can't remember anything else, let's not push him anymore, okay?"
"Well, I do have some theories that…" Jeremie began but…
"Jeremie." Yumi said simply, glaring at the bespectacled boy. "Is it really important for us to know right now, or can it wait until you've completed our plans for tomorrow?"
"Well, it isn't really critical, but it's still good to cover all of our angles." Jeremie defended.
"Can it wait?" Yumi asked.
"Well, again, it isn't critical, so-"
"So, it can wait."
Jeremie huffed. He'd be wanting to get a bit more info than that…but considering how everyone was now reacting to his inquiries, it didn't look like he'd be making any more progress. So, sighing in defeat, the bespectacled boy shifted gears to another topic.
"Okay…at the very least though, I do want to give some details as to our game plan for today."
"I thought we didn't have to do anything today!" Odd protested, before remembering that he had classes in the morning and proceeding to drink the contents of his dipping bowl to ignore that point.
Jeremie shrugged. "Technically no, but I do want to give you guys a heads-up. I'll be sending you all a document draft of our strategy for tomorrow later this afternoon. Study the plans, and at least be able to engage in minor coordination with each other. It's nothing complex but should still be reviewed. I also want to share some of my findings with you guys, so expect that to be bundled in as well."
"Got it." Ulrich replied, while Yumi nodded and Odd gave a thumbs-up.
"And with that," Jeremie finished, looking at his phone, "it's time for classes."
As he got up, Odd looked and saw that Jeremie's tray was still full. "Okay if I can have your portion? It's a pity to waste a good meal…not to mention I'll consider it payment for that little interview I gave you."
"Huh? Oh, breakfast. Help yourself."
A mischievous grin came upon Odd's face as he transferred the contents of Jeremie's tray to his own and began wolfing the meal down. Ulrich and Yumi watched as Odd cleared the contents rather quickly and let out a loud, long burp.
"Ahhh…That was good." Odd smiled with satisfaction.
"Can I extend that deal we made with groaning to burping?" Ulrich asked, rubbing the bridge of his nose.
"Please do not do that again!" Sebastian called from his table. "The only reason Abel the Younger gets away with it is because he's younger!"
And right on cue, Hugo's younger brother let out his own burp, though it was significantly shorter and quieter.
"It's cuter when he does it." Tamiya commented from her shared table with Milly.
"Only slightly." Milly added. "Like, really slightly."
Hugo glared at Odd. "Don't do that again! He's picked up enough bad habits as it is!"
"First time I've heard you of all people complain about bad influences." Amare chuckled.
"Amare!" the capped-boy hissed.
Sebastian rolled his eyes and got up from his chair, walking past the Xanadu Warriors' table and throwing away the remains of his breakfast. He drew his phone from his pocket, looked over something on the screen, and hit 'send'. Odd's phone then buzzed with a notification. Sebastian began to leave the cafeteria, nodding to Della Robbia in confirmation.
Odd nodded back, and then looked at the text, nodding as he looked at the addresses and read off the names. "Porcelain Skating, Rodin Park, Billancourt Park, some public places with community nicknames…" He then checked where they were on his phone's map, and his eyes widened. "Um, guys?"
"What?" Yumi asked.
"Some of these places are pretty close to the factory…like this one…" Odd began, but Yumi cut him off.
"Billancourt Park, we know. Why do you think we used that as an excuse when Hugo asked about it?"
"So…if we're heading out, that place is the fall back cover story?"
"Yes."
Odd ran his tongue along his teeth as he looked at the other addresses, looking for one address in particular until he saw it. "Yes! There it is!"
"Blue Screen Skate Park?" Yumi asked.
Odd nodded with intrigue. "Forget Billlancourt Park, this place is where I wanted to go!"
"Because you want to meet Samantha Knight?" Yumi asked dully.
"Well yeah!" Odd replied without a hint of guilt, shame or embarrassment.
Yumi rolled her eyes. "Well, that's certainly a pure, noble reason to learn more about your local neighborhood. Odd, tell me exactly what is in that skate-park?"
"Um, let me see here…" Odd muttered, fiddling with a link Sebastian had sent. "Hmm…says here it used to be called the Killer Skate Park of the Dead, then apparently someone decided to rename it a year after the Billancourt Panic because he thought that the name was dumb."
"That name? Dumb?" Ulrich deadpanned.
"Sarcasm?" Odd asked rhetorically. "Well…yeah…I'll admit that name does sound over-the-top. Still don't know why whoever renamed it chose 'Blue Screen' though…I mean, I'm seeing a lot more yellow than blue here."
Yumi sipped the rest of her hot chocolate. "Anything else?"
"A few photos here and there…and…wow this place looks dark…the only blue I'm seeing is on the entrance sign and some of the graffiti."
Odd then set his phone down on the table to let Ulrich and Yumi check the preview photos for themselves.
What they saw made Xanadu look pleasant (Though whether or not it was safer than Xanadu was probably something they'd have to ask Odd about if he came back in one piece). At least whoever designed the virtual world was trying to make something that at least looked like a scenic taiga with other forest biomes smoothly integrated into it, even with the towers dotting the landscape. Blue Screen Skate Park looked more like an enormous polluted junkyard masquerading as a skate park, with quarter-pipes, half-pipes, and bowl channels covered with grime and graffiti. There was also the tiny factoid that the sky seemed to be a consistent, dark, sick shade of yellow in every picture Odd showed them.
"It's big." Ulrich said flatly.
"I know!" Odd cheered. "Seriously, why would no one want to go there? It's the biggest skate-park I've ever seen!"
Yumi facepalmed. "Odd, it looks like every crime scene in the world distilled into one skate park. Only crazy people would want to go there."
"I joined up with you guys and haven't quit on this yet!" Odd responded. "So therefore, I'm eligible to go!"
"He's not wrong." Ulrich admitted as he got up.
Yumi rubbed her forehead. "Just don't end up getting splattered on the ground or stuck in a ditch, okay?"
"I had to survive you and Ulrich," Odd countered, "I think I can handle one little, well, big, skate-park."
Yumi and Ulrich rolled their eyes, and the three split off for their Saturday classes.
As Saturday lessons took place on half-days, the school's policy was to alternate periods for each week of classes, with odd-numbered periods for one week, and even-numbered periods for the next before switching back to the odd-numbered and so on and so forth. For Odd, that meant that he got to deal with gym in the morning, along with Jeremie and Ulrich of course…but more problematically, with Amare and Hugo, the latter of whom was constantly glaring at Odd all throughout the period.
Finally, when exercise was over, Jim sat the children onto the bleachers, explaining activities. Odd had no real interest in any of them and tuned them out, only listening to half of what Jim was saying until:
"Next on the agenda, those of you on the Kadic Baseball team, raise your hands!"
Odd noticed that Amare and Hugo were among these people…and then the reason for Jim's call became clear as he continued. "Alright, alright…good!" the burly teacher muttered before raising his voice again. "Now, I want to inform you that whatever you were planning for the weekend is gone! Kaput! Never to return! The instant today's classes are over, you will be attending an emergency baseball drill practice for this afternoon, tomorrow, Tuesday, and Thursday, to lather, rinse, and repeat your skills so we can show those fops at Asimov what we at Kadic are made of!"
"WHAT?!" Hugo spluttered loudly, causing everyone to look at him.
"Is that a problem, Abel?" Jim growled.
"Well, I mean…" Hugo tried to excuse himself, but Jim was having none of it.
"Do you want us to lose to Asimov like last year?!" Jim ranted angrily. "May I remind you of the humiliating defeats we suffered? If it wasn't for Stern over there eking out a win in martial arts, we would've have a zero percent win rate in every sporting event there was! We lost to Hellison, Abel, Hellison of all schools!"
Amare raised his hand, trying to calm Jim down by changing the subject. "It's not going to be like last year's…boot camp, is it?"
"Well…considering all of the trouble we had with it, unfortunately, no." Jim answered, "and anyways Principal Delmas has forbidden me to take anyone out on off-campus activities without doubled permission slips anyways until further notice. We'll be on-campus during these three-and-a-half days, this time without rampant wild boars making me wish I'd brought a reserve supply of Caribou- "
"Sir, yes sir!" Amare hastily interrupted to make sure that Jim wouldn't talk about that particular topic, standing up in salute.
Jim nodded in approval. "You see, Abel?" he directed at Hugo, "that's the kind of enthusiasm I'm looking for! You should learn more from your friend! Now then, onto the next order of business… "
And Jim began to drone on once again. Odd, for his part, was curious. A piece of background gossip that he'd not heard of? Common sense told him to stay away from Amare due to how easy it seemed to leak the secret of Xanadu…but he seemed more easy-going than Hugo was and Odd wasn't having any ominous death-visions…so what was the harm?
"Psst...um, Amare, right?" Odd whispered.
"That's my name, don't wear it out." Amare said casually, pushing away Hugo, who had opened his mouth to retort. "What is it?" the dark-skinned boy asked, scooting over closer to the three Xanadu Warriors, leaving his companion to stew by himself.
"…What happened last year? I'm curious, and I don't think Ulrich over there is going to tell me." Odd replied.
"Wasn't planning on it." Ulrich put in.
"It never really came up until now." Jeremie said with a shrug.
"Okay…" Amare said, putting a hand to his chin. "How familiar are you with the other schools in the region?"
"Sebastian told me about Asimov and Hellison existing…but other than that, nothing. I've only been here a week." Odd answered.
"Okay, well, you know about school spirit, and how that leads over to school rivalries? Well, Asimov Institution and Hellison Boarding School are the rivals of Kadic Academy." Amare explained. "Asimov and Kadic take it really personally with each other, while Hellison just tends to sit back and watch the unfolding chaos before taking on the winner, or the loser, depending on how well they do."
"Well, I figured it was something close to that," Odd admitted, "but why did Kadic lose in all of the sporting events except for Ulrich's specialty last year?"
At this, Amare quietly groaned as he remembered, while Ulrich folded his arms, clutching at his shoulders tightly. "Jim had the 'brilliant' idea of arranging a boot camp for all of us, using his 'military experience'." The dark-skinned boy revealed. "It was horrible. He sent us over to a distant forest a few miles off-campus and had us do exercises that felt more like torture."
Odd shivered. The idea of physically straining his body like that sounded…unpleasant, especially considering that he was in a situation where he had no choice but to do that kind of training.
"Not to mention how risky it is." Jeremie put in, as if he was reading out of an encyclopedia. "A training session like that can tear apart muscle fibers if the body isn't used to it."
"Yeah…we were sore for days." Amare flinched. "The only one of us who wasn't completely crippled was Ulrich, and that's because he's a freak of nature who recovered before the rest of us did. The worst part is that we were only half-done with it all when the…incident happened."
"Incident?" Odd asked.
"Jim managed to piss off a wild boar and got his leg broken, so we got to call it off." Amare answered. "A few weeks after the whole mess was over, he went into a tangent about rubbing Caribou…droppings on everyone the next time he arranged a trip like that."
Odd suppressed the urge to vomit, the idea was utterly revolting, and he prayed that Xanadu did not ever influence any raw sewage. The thought almost made him lose his breakfast.
"I tried convincing Jim to use mint leaves instead," Jeremie mused, "but he said that Caribou waste lasts longer, and while I did research that-"
"Jeremie, shut up." Ulrich ordered.
Odd was grateful for Ulrich speaking up before he did… because he was still on the verge of vomiting and knowing that Jeremie nearly contributed to something like that was…while honestly not that shocking, still gross as hell. Speaking of Ulrich…that accomplishment of his piqued Odd's interest as well, but for better reasons this time around, and he really wanted to switch away from the topic of Caribou poop.
"So…Ulrich took home the gold then? Good for you, man!"
"He was actually smiling then." Amare remembered. "That was the big shocker."
"It wasn't that much of a big deal." Ulrich mumbled, suddenly looking bashful.
"Why are you so embarrassed by that?" Odd asked, "that's awesome! You took home the gold when everyone else was down for the count, man! Lighten up!"
Ulrich remained silent on the matter. Jeremie and Amare, having a good idea of why, followed suit. The sudden silence was rather jarring for Odd, and the conversation thread just…fell away as class ended.
"Let's save that topic for another day." Jeremie finally said as they left the bleachers.
A topic Jeremie was quiet about? That was something. So Odd said nothing as he got up from the bleachers to finish off the remaining classes, but as he got up, his foot was caught in the overhanging metal of the bleachers and he tripped. Odd grasped to recover, and managed to grab onto Ulrich's shoulder to steady himself, but when he did so…
Ulrich wiped the sweat from his brow, after practicing his current form. Next came endurance exercising, so he turned his attention to the punching bag, before hearing a sarcastic clapping. Ulrich whipped his head around, fighting instincts activating, and saw Sebastian standing in the entrance, leaning against the wall.
Ulrich's face remained unchanged, even as Sebastian walked into the room.
"Hey Stern…mind if we have a little…chat?"
"Odd, get off my shoulder." Ulrich grumbled, propping Odd upright and walked down to the ground.
Odd's eyes blinked dully, before he rubbed them and immediately recognized the potential hazard. Quickly, he jumped down the bleachers, skipping the footing steps until he reached the ground and caught up to Ulrich. The brown-haired boy rose an eyebrow as Odd's eyes darted back and forth, keeping an eye out for eavesdroppers.
"Now what is it?" Ulrich asked. "I'm not in the mood to talk right now."
"A vision." Odd replied curtly. "You in some kind of subway gym, and then Sebastian shows up interrogating you."
"…It's my space in our hideout." Ulrich deadpanned, but Odd's information had put him on guard regardless.
"Potato, potahto, you got a way to avoid him?" Odd asked.
"I'll just go train in the park." Ulrich answered. "Might as well make yesterday's excuse make sense."
"I guess that would work…" Odd said quietly, receiving no visions of anything happening at the park.
But then again, considering how Future Flash didn't seem to cover every avenue, he couldn't help but be a tad worried for a few moments…And he was right to be worried, though he received no reinforcements for it for the rest of the school day. Classes passed by without further incident or complexities, and as such, when Odd left his last one, he felt light-hearted and walked out of class with a spring in his step, heading straight for his room to grab Kiwi, excited laughter and the occasional murmur of seeing the so-called 'Black Knight' leaving his mouth like a broken dam.
The same, however, could not be said for Yumi.
She had just gotten out of the classroom, and began to walk across the quadrangles, seeing Odd run off giddily and Jeremie immediately head to his room, where he would likely hole himself up in for the entire day unless he ran off to the factory or his hideout laboratory. Yumi, for her part was just going to grab herself a drink…only to remember what she'd agreed to help the Kadic News reporters with. It was good that she did remember when she did, as it was then that she saw Milly running up to her like a crazed rabbit, Tamiya trying and failing to catch up to her.
"Milly…wait…" Tamiya groaned as she staggered over.
"S-sorry Tamiya!" Milly exclaimed, helping her friend over. "But it's time! It's finally time! Here we come world, we're going to get ourselves a scoop!"
Yumi just looked at the scene with a mix of bewilderment, amusement, and silently dreading just what she'd signed up for. She coughed to get the younger girl's attention. "So, do you have a plan for what we're going to do?"
Milly opened her mouth to speak…and then realized that she…really didn't have much of a plan.
"Um…well…" she deflated, "Sebastian said that they hung out in town…so, I figured we'd…just…ask…around?"
Tamiya face-palmed while Yumi gave a heavy sigh.
"Milly, you're going to need a better game-plan than that." She gently admonished. "You can't just go into town and think that they'll just give you the answers. Trust me when I say that it really doesn't matter how old or what size you are, but people don't give up their secrets that easily if it doesn't benefit them."
"Well…Sebastian was the one who told us that the lemonade dealers existed. Maybe we could go ask him for more help?" Tamiya suggested.
Milly spun around. "Yes! That's a great idea! Let's call him!"
And so, the maroon-headed girl dialed Sebastian's number.
"What?" an irritable voice asked on the other end.
"Sebastian, could you maybe, point us out to a place where we could find the lemonade dealers? We…kind of don't know where to start out…" Milly said.
A loud groan was heard on Sebastian's end. "All right, but I'm doing something right now. Meet me at Billancourt Park in about 40 minutes, and I'll give you a rough estimate of where to start."
"Thank you, Sebastian!" Milly replied, only to hear the buzzing caused by Sebastian hanging up. Unfazed, she turned around dramatically. "To the park!"
She began to march when Yumi coughed.
"It might be better for us to bring some supplies." She pointed out.
"…I knew I was forgetting something…" Tamiya groaned as she quickly grabbed Milly and the two set off.
Yumi sighed as she followed them. This was going to be a LONG day.
"You see anything yet Kiwi?" Odd asked as he climbed up the sewer ladder, having retrieved his skateboard. The spiky-haired boy had decided to take Kiwi along with him for his little adventure, a practice that the little dog had long grown accustomed to from back home.
Kiwi barked in the negative, and after taking a quick last minute spot-check himself, Odd quickly threw his board onto the ground and climbed out of the sewers. He immediately picked up his skateboard and ran from the sewer entrance as fast as he could. No point in getting caught by accident. Kiwi was not too far behind his owner as he made himself scarce, and once Odd was sure they were out of the danger zone, he sat down on the ground to put his helmet and pads on, while also putting Kiwi on his leash so the little dog would be able to follow him.
Just as Odd finished putting Kiwi's leash on, a vision quickly flashed before his eyes. There wasn't much to notice in the orange-tinted scene, aside from the front gates of Kadic being crowded with kids, eager to escape school and head outside to do whatever they pleased. However, Odd did see Ulrich in the crowd, and not too far behind was Sebastian, who was slipping in whatever spaces became available in the crowding in an attempt to catch up to Ulrich.
The vision ended, causing Odd to rub his eyes. He wondered if he would ever get used to what was still a somewhat disorienting experience. He really wasn't in the mood for the vision parade from earlier in the week to return for an encore performance after all. He also wondered if Ulrich would be able shake Sebastian off, but considering that Ulrich had super-speed, there probably wasn't much to worry about on that end. So Odd had a few minutes to wait before the schoolyard cleared up. That left him wondering how to plan the day out.
He checked his phone again, looking at the location Sebastian had marked that indicated where Blue Screen Skate Park was. The Park was about a 15-minute drive from Kadic, and on skateboard, it would probably take Odd about 45 minutes or so. On the topic of driving however, Blue Screen Skate Park, as it turned out, was isolated and off-road, with only a few stray sidewalks leading to it. Meaning that it would still take additional effort to get there, even with the nearest parking lot.
So, Odd gave himself about 50-65 minutes to get there…and hopefully see if this 'Black Knight of Asimov' was the real deal. If she wasn't…well…he had nothing better to do today, so he might as well see what Blue Screen had to offer. He planned to be outside until dinner, so he might as well make the most of it. Kiwi growled as he stretched his body, which reminded Odd to look for food establishments that were nearby, since Yumi had revealed to him on Thursday that Lunch was not served in the cafeteria on weekends, a fact proven when no one had entered or crowded around the cafeteria when classes had ended.
Odd blamed budget cuts for that one.
Odd quickly noticed a fast-food joint was nearby and breathed a sigh of relief. He checked his pockets. Just enough for a burger and fries, and an additional order he could use for Kiwi. Everything checked out. He looked at the time on his phone. It had been around five minutes, so Odd expected the crowd to have cleared up.
He whistled to Kiwi to get the little dog's attention and soon, dog and owner were on the path out of Kadic. As expected, the crowd had thinned out significantly, with students either laying down on the grass or heading out into town. Odd stood at the entrance, and checked his phone again, looking at the route to Blue Screen Skate Park. He noticed that were going to be a lot of turns he would have to take before he reached his destination and groaned.
"How many times am I going to have to check my phone before I get there?"
Then, more flashes of orange appeared before Odd. He was tempted to panic for a moment as the visions came about…but he was reminded of how they had manifested when he was fighting the larger Specter in Xanadu on Tuesday…and like magic, the visions started clearing up. Odd at first had had no idea what they were…but then realized that they were him taking turns and dodging potential hazards along the way. He realized just what that meant when the visions ended, and he snickered to himself.
"Well, what do you know, Future Flash CAN be useful!"
Kiwi barked impatiently, wondering if his owner was going to start or not. Odd looked down and smiled.
"It's a magical world out there, Kiwi old buddy, let's go exploring!" Odd declared, and he immediately started riding down the dull-grey streets, Kiwi running close behind, tethered by his leash. The little dog was used to this sort of routine, and with a speed most would not expect, was neck-and-neck besides his owner as he began his trek to Blue Screen Skate Park.
Odd was thankful that the route he needed avoided all pathways to the underpass. He really didn't want to cross Sebastian's path right now, and besides, Ulrich had to deal with him already. But thoughts of Ulrich versus Sebastian soon left Odd's mind as he began making the proper turns to reach his destination, the occasional vision manifesting to help guide him through the sprawling city. Now that he was properly in his element, where he didn't have to deal with school, and he wasn't being attacked by cybernetic demon programs, Odd felt himself more easily able to sort through whatever visions were occurring at the moment whenever his path changed. He made the turns easily and checked his speed to make sure Kiwi was near him at all times. For once, it seemed everything was going Odd's way!
And then of course, he just HAD to deal with another pratfall.
Odd had reached another corner. The streets had not been busy at first but were starting to roar to life as people either got off work early or headed out for lunch. A large rig was just up ahead on the street, coming down in the direction Odd was going, but since the signal wasn't on as it neared the corner, Odd had no reason to fear it.
Then a small metallic thingamabob rushed down the sidewalk, and hit Odd's skateboard just as he began to turn the next corner. Odd screamed as he ran into the street to steady himself…but ran straight into the big rig's path and…
Odd blinked, and he immediately skid to a halt, grabbing Kiwi so that he wouldn't become a casualty as well. Kiwi barked as Odd quickly tugged him back, annoyed by the sudden restriction of air. Odd let out a cry of 'Gangway!' as he immediately used a heel brake technique, stopping just before the corner, just as a small metallic thingamabob on four wheels rolled into his path...at the exact moment Odd was putting his skateboard back to level.
"NOOOOO!" A nasally voice cried out in horror as Odd's skateboard slammed on top of the…thing, hitting it on the edge of its platform-like base. The rolling metal contraption still had some momentum when it tipped over, and as a result it slid into the street…immediately getting crushed by the big rig as it drove down the road. The driver, a brown-haired male wearing a red jacket, didn't seem to notice and kept on driving.
Odd breathed a sigh of relief, thankful that he wasn't the one being crushed. Then he turned and saw the source of the voice.
Two boys were running down the sidewalk. One of them was a boy just a few inches shorter than Ulrich, with pale orange hair, wearing a periwinkle jersey with the number '8' on it, and a pair of red shorts, which exposed how one of his socks was rolled up, while the other barely made it past his shoes, which were colored a light grey. The other boy, who was the one who had let out the cry of horror, was a pimply-faced boy with black-and-grey hair, wearing a green sweater and long, brown pants with loafers. He also wore glasses that, somehow, were larger than Jeremie's.
The pimple-faced boy stopped at the corner, looking at the mangled mess of parts that littered the streets. "My Iron Herb! You bastard, you've destroyed my robot!"
Odd took a closer look at the mess on the streets. Indeed, it did look like a robot…and with its green-and-black paint-job along its 'arms' and 'head'…Odd figured out who the boy had used as a reference model when designing it. Not that he was able to dwell on that point any longer, as the green-sweater boy tried to grab Odd by the collar. Tried being the operative word because Kiwi immediately bit the stranger's hand the instant he got too close for comfort.
"ARGH!" the pimply-faced boy yelled, before backing into the Stop sign with a loud CLANG and slumping onto the ground, groaning in pain.
Odd had always prided himself in figuring out what people were like at first glance to at least gain some idea as to what they were like: Jeremie was an enigmatic kook, Ulrich was a quiet fighter, Yumi some kind of sensible figure, Milly and Tamiya were nosy journalists, Amare was calm and laidback, Sebastian was a bucket of snark, and Hugo was an overprotective big brother.
The boy whose robot Odd had wrecked, in lieu of it indirectly wrecking Odd, seemed to be an even more stereotypical nerd than Jeremie was, and looked mountains more pathetic. Odd found Jeremie to be rather…disturbing at times and given what he had been told about what the computer whiz was like overall, probably would've found him a bit creepy even if Xanadu wasn't a factor in their lives. This kid, on the other hand, seemed about as threatening as gum left on the sidewalk.
The other boy knelt down to check on his friend. "Are you okay, Herb?" he asked.
"No, I'm not Nicholas!" Herb whined as he got up. "That…guy or…girl, or…whatever just smashed the Iron Herb!"
Odd was defiant. "Okay, first off, I'm a guy! Second, that thing would've crashed into me either way! I didn't know that someone was sending robots barreling down the street like bulls on a run! At least this way I don't get squashed under a truck! Better 'Iron Herb' than me!"
Herb was furious, an angry tick in his eye. "Well, maybe next time you should take some other way, if you're so sure about what the future's like!"
Odd declined to comment on the irony of that, and was just about to retort, when Nicholas put himself between Odd and Herb.
"Herb, maybe we shouldn't get into another fight this week?" he asked. "I mean, I'm still feeling that stomach bruise that Hellison girl gave me yesterday, and we almost got into a fight with you-know-who this morning, so, uh…" Nicholas turned to Odd. "Sorry about that."
Odd breathed. Well, at least he wasn't dead. "Apology accepted."
Herb, for his part, continued to grumble, and after checking both sides of the street, went to collect his flattened and mangled robot. While he did so, Nicholas continued to explain the situation to Odd. "You see, there's this inter-school competition going on, so Herb's trying to test out his robot anyway he can…but the problem is that we can't find a good practice course, so he's trying to use the town streets to get ready."
"Share my life story, why don't you." Herb huffed as he returned to the sidewalk, the Iron Herb's remains gathered up in his arms.
"What school do you go to by the way?" Nicholas asked. "I've never seen you around before."
"Kadic Academy." Odd replied. "You two?"
"Asimov Institution." Nicholas answered.
"Hmm, Competition, competition, where did I hear about that again…" Odd mumbled before snapping his fingers in remembrance of what Amare had explained to him, "oh, that competition! I've only just heard about it, new to town and all. I think…Jeremie won last year's robotics part? Might want to ask him about that again…"
Herb's eyes widened as Odd's last answer registered in his head, and he nearly dropped his robot. "D-did you say…Jeremie? As in…Jeremie Belpois?"
"Um, yeah?" Odd replied. "He's in the same grade as me, and we share a few classes. Not the worst kind of guy around, but-"
"Not the worst, NOT THE WORST?!" Herb roared, throwing the Iron Herb's remains onto the ground. "He's the absolute worst person in the entire universe! Always managing to beat me, always getting ahead, and it's always with the same damn condescending smile as if he thinks that he IS better than me! And you know him?!"
Odd backed away, now a bit disturbed by how quickly Herb's mood had changed from neurotic to psychotic.
"Where is he today?" Herb growled, looking like he was about to start foaming at the mouth. "I've had half a mind to finally settle the score with that bastard once and for all!"
"Hell if I know!" Odd replied, backing away from the boy in the green sweater. "Last time I saw him he was just heading back to his room! I'm just going out for skateboarding with my dog!" Kiwi barked accordingly. "And even if I did know, why would I tell you if it looks like you'd give Einstein rabies or something?"
Herb's eyes twitched, and he turned away, face turning dark. "Einstein…he's gotten to the point where he's obtained the name of one of the famous scientists in the world as a title? Nicholas, we're going back to the dorms for now! After that, I know where I can get the parts to fix the Iron Herb. While we're doing that, we'll be doing some…hunting."
Nicholas whispered over to Odd. "He's just going to challenge him to a robot fight. He likes to think he and Jeremie are rivals."
"…And he's clearly doing well thinking about it like that." Odd said, seeing Herb walk up the streets, hands twitching in madness.
"Yeah, well…he's still my friend." Nicholas said with a wistful sigh. "So, I'll be keeping an eye on him. Nice meeting you by the way!"
And with that Nicholas took off after his companion.
Odd and Kiwi looked at each other. A new parade of visions danced before Odd, showing off an alternate route that could avoid Herb and his craziness. Once Odd was sure he had figured out the twists and turns, he turned around, and started off on his skateboard once more, Kiwi close behind.
"Ugh, can't I go one day in this town without running into crazy people?" Odd grumbled.
There were many things Ulrich Stern was not a fan of. He wasn't planning to list them, since there were quite a few things that ticked him off, but one of them was definitely having to deal with annoying tailgaters. For a literal example, his father had a terrible temper, so whenever a tailgater showed up, he would immediately start ranting. Alternatively, it was the old woman his father tended to hire as a tutor over the winter breaks, whom Ulrich found horrendously boring and droll, but slightly more pleasant to deal with than his old man. 'Slightly' being the key word of course.
Unfortunately for Ulrich, Sebastian was not an old and somewhat senile woman.
That being said, Ulrich had already come up with a plan to avoid Sebastian, who he knew was probably behind him. He had no plans to look behind himself however, as that would just validate Sebastian's suspicions, confirming that Ulrich was hiding something, so instead, Ulrich stopped for just a moment, and pulled out his phone's stopwatch app. He made a show of pressing the button, starting from zero, and then took off at his regular speed. The path to the underpass was relatively straight, so he wouldn't be able to activate Super-Sprint right away without being seen, but Ulrich was easily the faster runner of the group even without Xanadu.
Sebastian's eye ticked as he saw Ulrich take off, and he immediately picked up speed. He was not going to lose track of Stern, risky as his idea of confronting the martial artist was. He already had suspicions about the task Jeremie had asked of him, and like he had told Abel the Elder, he knew fully well that whatever the situation was like, it was deteriorating and/or developing at a fast pace. Whatever secrets Jeremie, Ulrich, Yumi, and the new kid were keeping were on the verge of being discovered, and Sebastian was determined to find out…but hopefully not at the cost of his life. After all, whether or not Ulrich spilled the beans, Sebastian did not want tomorrow to end with him lying on the ground, bleeding thanks to a metal robot claw tearing out his insides.
Wait, no, that was the nightmare of Teddy he was thinking about. Focus Toup, focus, Sebastian told himself.
Sebastian still trailed behind Ulrich, who held a steady lead. The boy picked up speed, careful not to activate Super-Sprint, until he reached the turn to the underpass. He used the opportunity to look back, and saw Sebastian running after him, several meters away. It was now or never. Using the corner to obscure Sebastian's view, Ulrich activated Super-Sprint, running at lightspeed (Or something close to it, ignoring Jeremie's long-winded explanation that Ulrich wasn't exactly traveling at the speed of light) through the underpass. He took the first possible corner, and sped through passageway after passageway, taking detours to reach the exit closest to his true destination…
"Stern!" Sebastian called.
No reply except for some echoes that soon faded away…
"Stern!"
Still nothing.
"Damn it." Sebastian muttered to himself. He took a quick check of their rooms…but there was no-one else there. Sebastian had to face facts: Ulrich had gotten away…which meant that…
"Ugh…" Sebastian groaned as he returned to the entrance of the underpass and pulled out his cell phone.
"Hello?" Milly replied.
"You at the park yet, Solovieff?" Sebastian asked.
"We're just getting some stuff ready, we'll be there as soon as we can!"
"Same. My 'errand' for the day got cut short. I'll see you soon." Sebastian answered as he hung up, snapping his fingers in frustration…
As for Ulrich, he kept on running until he reached his destination. When he got there, he looked behind his back. It seemed that he had lost Sebastian, and thus he turned his attention to what was now in front of him: Billancourt Park. The park was designed to be similar to a floodable inlet, matching the Seine River a mere 500 or so feet away. The landscape of water, gravel beds, islands and marshes were designed to be a living, adaptable configuration to increase the aesthetic appearance of the park. Ulrich preferred practicing in his spot in the underpass, but even he had to admit that the park had a certain charm to it that made it a decent backup option to practice martial arts. But on a darker note, if it wasn't for the abandoned industrial complex that surrounded it, Ulrich would've been able to see the factory. Those old buildings were separated from the rest of the town by means of chain-link fences and concrete barriers, which, while not enough to keep out wanderers and trespassers, still felt suspicious, as if whoever had designed the district after the Panic knew where to stop after a certain point…
Ulrich then pushed those thoughts out of his head. He was spending too much time listening to Jeremie's constant conspiracy theory analyses if his train of thought was wandering there.
Instead, Ulrich looked down at the end of the park, seeing a fairly isolated area near the back marsh. There were only three people near that area, the first being two dark-skinned boys, one of whom was tall, stocky, and had hair that was black on one side and orange on the other, wearing a camouflage-colored shirt with orange shoulder-pads and grey-green pants, while the second boy was about Ulrich's height and had short, red hair tied in a short knot at the back. He also wore a white t-shirt over brown sleeves, with tan trousers to match. The third person was a girl, who seemed about as old as the second boy and had hair that was crimson at the top and black at the bottom, wearing a gray jacket over a red shirt and grey pants, along with a pair of red goggles.
The group of three seemed wrapped up in whatever they were doing, so Ulrich was certain that none of the present parties would trouble the other.
For the next thirty minutes, that seemed to be the case. Ulrich began his workout, first with warm-up stretches, and eventually began working on his forms. His movements focused on the Betawi style, beginning with the acrobatic and evasive Cingkrik (Because of the inclusion of Odd's…unorthodox fighting style, Ulrich felt the compulsion to practice the style best suited to counter it), and planning to move onto the more offensive Kwitang second before finishing up with the defensive Beksi when taking into account how the Specters seemed to have begun attacking in more strategic formations. He wasn't planning on telling Yumi this yet, but the Specters he had fought in the last attack had done so by attacking from various angles simultaneously, and while the low number had made them easy to deal with, Ulrich wasn't stupid enough to think that their strategy wouldn't have worked if they'd had double the number to guard the tower.
Ulrich had planned for an hour of practicing this style, twenty minutes per form after a ten-minute warm-up. All seemed well, with everyone focused on their personal activities. The group of three near Ulrich bickered at times, something about a robot or whatever, but nothing seemed out of hand and he was able to tune out whatever conversation they were having concerning whatever the girl seemed to be working on.
He had just finished the first form and was catching his breath to prepare for the second, but much to Ulrich's (unpleasant) surprise, he saw a group of people he'd thought he wouldn't be seeing much of today (Though, granted, one of those people was someone he really didn't mind seeing). For who would have entered Billancourt Park but Milly and Tamiya, with Yumi watching over the two young reporters like a hawk.
Yumi noticed Ulrich first, but quickly re-focused her attention. They were too far away for much of anything to happen, and Ulrich had sent Yumi a text about Odd's vision concerning Sebastian shortly after gym had ended…a thought that was alarming to the black-haired girl as she suddenly remembered just who she and the reporters had been asked to meet.
Yumi quickly turned Milly and Tamiya towards the opposite end of the park for where they would wait for Sebastian. She didn't doubt for a second that the lanky student was going to make his move concerning Xanadu. Sunday really couldn't come fast enough.
Thankfully, Milly seemed too focused and excited for the 'scoop' to notice Yumi's misdirection and Tamiya was too busy keeping track of the snacks they'd brought along to keep themselves energized.
"Ohhhhh!" Milly squealed. "I'm so excited for this! This'll be the best scoop we've ever done Tamiya!"
"Let's just hope Sebastian gives us the information we need." Tamiya replied. "Otherwise this whole mission will have been for nothing."
"He should be here soon…" Yumi muttered, scanning the park for any signs of the 'Street Kid'.
Ulrich was oblivious to this development. He took a deep breath, amidst the growling of the girl not too far away from what was apparently 'another failure!' and prepared to enter Kwitang when he saw the person whom he'd hoped to avoid.
Sebastian Toup.
Ulrich's brain broke. Why was Sebastian here? Did he somehow catch where Ulrich was? Did he plant a tracking device onto Ulrich somehow? Or did he ask around to find him?
Sebastian, in truth, had done none of these things, for his only thought was looking for the three girls. He had even brought along his pack, figuring that he would need it. Had he turned to his left, Sebastian would've found the girls first and Ulrich would've been able to slip away. But Sebastian's head first turned to his right, and his eyes immediately locked onto Ulrich.
"…So, this is where Stern got to…" Sebastian mumbled to himself. He looked around and saw the paparazzi and their bodyguard, but they didn't seem to have spotted him yet. Good. Perhaps now he could get some answers, and then…
"Yo, Sebastian, we're over here!" Yumi called, waving her arm and bringing the lanky boy to the attention of the cub reporters.
Sebastian couldn't help but feel his left eye twitch in annoyance. Another interrogation attempt down the drain. Well, at least for now. Sebastian didn't plan to let Ulrich out of his sight this time. As he walked over to the three girls, he kept the brown-haired boy in the corner of his eye, and when he reached them, he immediately put himself in a position that would let him keep a close eye on Stern, with his view only blocked by Ishiyama, who seemed to have caught onto what he was planning.
Well, nothing for it. She was a part of this as well but being near two blabbermouths made interrogating Yumi a difficult task.
So, Sebastian prepared to give the advice Solovieff wanted. "Alright, do we have everything in order?"
Tamiya checked the supplies once more. "Yup, we have everything!"
"Good, good…" Sebastian nodded in approval. "Alright, so…you want to go find the lemonade dealers…but you've got no idea where to go."
Milly looked bashful. "Tamiya and I, uh, well, we…never really went past our territory." She admitted.
Sebastian rubbed his forehead as he took off his pack and pulled out a map. Yumi saw that the map had marked the routes and had a few notes scribbled here and there. She immediately snapped to attention as she looked at the guide route.
"Before I continue, did any of you bring a map?" he asked.
"Oh!" Tamiya remembered, pulling out another map of the suburbs. "We got it so we could help guide Yumi around!"
"Even though we never found the time to really use it." Milly huffed, to which Yumi simply pat the younger girl on her head.
"That makes my job easier." Sebastian said. "I could just use my phone's Earth app…but it never hurts to have a physical map lying around. Plus, it's bigger." He then set the map on the ground. "You three paying attention?"
The three girls nodded, with Tamiya pulling out a pen. Sebastian nodded back in approval and gestured for Tamiya to hand him her map. The dark-skinned girl did so, and Sebastian set it against his own. He pulled out a marker and immediately drew three circles around a set of three locations he marked. Next, he looked back to his map, and drew one large circle to surround the first three, before drawing a double-layer circle around that. Finally, Sebastian pulled out his phone, and muttered to himself as he marked a few more areas within the double-circle layer in red ink, while marking an area just before that layer in blue ink. He then gestured for the girls to sit down. Milly and Tamiya did so cross-legged, but Yumi remained standing.
"Alright," Sebastian began, "you see what I've drawn here?"
"Yes." Yumi nodded. "What's with this area?"
"This is the rough area of what I call the 'safe zone'." Sebastian replied, pointing to the three inner circles. "This is generally 'our' territory, where Kadic, Asimov, and Hellison students tend to hang around along with some of the public schools. You'll notice that I've marked where all three schools are to give you three a general idea of how the border plays out."
Milly and Tamiya looked over their map, both now focusing. Of course, it wasn't long before the obvious question popped up. "What's with the other circles?"
"Something of a more…questionable jurisdiction." Sebastian answered. "Obviously, people aren't going to strictly obey an unwritten border, so I need a margin of error of sorts. The double-circles are there to mark it, since not everyone from inside or outside that territory is going to obey it. That being said, this area is something of a grey area, so stay away from the places I've marked in red." Sebastian looked at Milly and Tamiya, eyes dead serious. "It's where you'll find the kind of people that don't show mercy to kids…especially since some of us can fight back."
Yumi took notice of the warning tone in Sebastian's face, and her defensive instincts immediately kicked in. She zeroed in on the map, paying close attention to the marked areas, which were completely shaded in.
"Outside of this last layer is where things get harry and you have to be careful. As long as you girls don't go prying, you'll be safe, so don't do any asking whatsoever unless you know someone from there."
"…And since none of us know anyone from there…" Yumi growled.
"You shouldn't do any asking." Sebastian finished. "Keep far away, don't go near it, and we'll all be better off for it."
A thought then struck Yumi's head, as she input the name of Blue Screen Skate Park into Maps…and recoiled as she saw that its address was nowhere near the area Sebastian had highlighted.
"Then why did you send Odd off to Blue Screen Skate Park?" Yumi asked indignantly. "You didn't send Odd to get killed by that, 'Black Knight' person or whatever, did you?"
"Well, if Della Robbia ends up being a shameless flirt and gets on Knight's bad side, then he fully deserves his inevitable death." Sebastian shrugged. "But Della Robbia asked for something completely different compared to right now. It's an unspoken rule in all territories to keep whatever happens there a relative secret. He just wanted to know where to find a skate park." He then looked at Milly and Tamiya, who gulped as he did so. "He didn't ask for anyone to do any snitching."
"It's not snitching!" Milly defended. "We're reporting!"
"Let's agree to disagree, okay?" The Street Kid said, folding his arms. "This is exactly why you're going to stay in the territory I marked. Food-stuff, game dealing and the like aren't exactly high up on the totem pole of contraband, so you should be relatively safe 'reporting' on it…so long as you make the proper deal. Because I know for a fact that Delmas would not be happy learning about any of our activities, major or minor. Of all the private Billancourt principals, he's the most likely to lead an attempt to shut us down for good. From what I've heard from my contacts at Asimov and Hellison, Principal Graven and Principal Archarya don't seem to care that much…hell, apparently Archarya considers it 'life experience' or something like that if what Wei told me is true, but if Delmas gets word, then he's going to put a lot of egg on their faces and they'll have to support him on whatever crusade he gets on."
He then locked eyes with Milly and Tamiya. "You two are going to have to be very careful about what you're doing today. Delmas is one of the main reasons we've had to keep our secrecy and a lot of people know this. Be very careful about who you approach and how you're going to write your little article without drawing too much of his attention. Paperwork will only keep him at bay for so long, after all."
The park was quiet, aside from the angry yelling of the red-topped girl, which gave Sebastian an opportunity to check the park's end for himself. Ulrich was still there, practicing his forms, probably trying to stay natural or something…even though it was more likely because Sebastian saw Molly Wei herself testing one of her robots, which was comically malfunctioning, and as it did so, Molly and her group were blocking off Ulrich's escape routes as they ran about trying to catch the machine.
"And trust me, Wei over there would not be happy getting a curfew over lemonade." Sebastian explained further, pointing his thumb at the girl. "But even with that in mind, I can assure you two that whatever kind of revenge she would plan would be nothing compared to whatever the entire district would concoct."
Milly and Tamiya's eyes widened as they looked at Molly, who kept on stomping her feet as her robot seemed to refuse her commands. For a moment, they both swore that they could see fangs in her mouth as the two boys around her tried to calm her down. Tamiya gulped seeing Molly's very visible irritation and anger.
"…Yeah, that would be…bad." Yumi muttered darkly as she looked at the scene, though she found no real malice in Molly's temper tantrum (though she was irritated that the girl and her group were blocking off Ulrich's escape route). She was no stranger to twisted plots being done to people for simple and petty reasons and already she was getting 'bad idea' vibes from Milly's intended scoop. "Maybe we should scrap this."
"What?" Milly gasped, standing up. "B-but our scoop!"
"It wouldn't be worth getting yourself killed over something like lemonade Milly." Yumi warned. "I've seen people do terrible things to each other just because they wanted to, or because they had some demented idea that the person deserved it for some weird, stupid reason. If reporting on something as simple as lemonade is going to risk getting you and Tamiya killed, I don't think you should do it."
"But we were planning for this all day yesterday!" Milly whined. "C'mon Sebastian, you've got to have something we could use!"
"…Do you at least have any advice for deals?" Tamiya asked nervously, in no hurry to be subjected to terrible street punishment, but not willing to lose an actual story.
Sebastian remained calm as he stood up and picked up Tamiya's map. "That's why I specifically marked this area." He answered, finger pointed at the perimeter he'd drawn. "It's your best bet of making a proper deal for your article without you getting killed or anyone getting pissed over their operations being shut down. You should be able to find a dealer you can reason with. I'd recommend Burrel. He goes to Kadic like we do, and he generally has a good idea of what every group needs and uses."
"Okay, so…a compromise then." Tamiya said. "We find a kid who goes to our school, work out a deal with him, get our scoop without getting Delmas mad at us, and don't get killed or-"
"GAH!" the voice of the muscled boy screamed in pain, causing the four to look at the boy, who was holding his hand, which seemed to be dripping blood from the palm. "Why did you make the arms of that robot so damn sharp, Molly?"
"I did for grip!" Molly protested. "Not my fault you grabbed the Arrow by the arms, Jordan!"
"…Maimed by robots." Tamiya finished in light of seeing a small sample of Molly's chaos.
"…I do not look forward to the district competition…" Sebastian muttered. "Either Belpois will kill us all in science-driven glee or Wei will kill us all with that temper of hers."
Milly and Tamiya nodded to themselves, while Yumi couldn't help but roll her eyes.
"So…are we a go?" Milly asked.
"We're a go." Tamiya nodded resolutely.
"Yumi?" Milly asked, eyes gleaming like a sad puppy.
Yumi sighed and looked at Sebastian. "You're sure this Burrel person will help us out?"
"Good time to point out that his first name is Matthias, but yeah, he's a reasonable person." Sebastian reassured. "I can even mark down a route to where he usually hangs out that should give you three as little trouble as possible."
"All right." Yumi nodded, before she looked down at Milly and Tamiya. "But we stay on that route, okay? I don't want to have to go looking for you two and I don't want us to find something or someone we can't handle."
"Yes ma'am!" the two girls said simultaneously.
Sebastian nodded, and pulled out his marker. "Now then, for the route…"
And then the park, which had been in tranquil quiet, erupted into a loud cacophony as the sound of synthesized music, played from phones and boom-boxes in perfect synchronization, began to ring in the air.
"ARGH!" Yumi grimaced from the loud, piercing noise, immediately thinking that it was a Xanadu attack.
"What's that awful noise?" Tamiya asked, covering her ears.
Sebastian's eyes had widened in fear and dread. He looked and saw that Ulrich was still in the park, grimacing in a manner very similar to Yumi (then again, all of the park patrons were). Sebastian then looked at the black-haired girl, a feral look of panic in his eyes. "Oh no…No, no, nooo…" He muttered in horror as he turned to the park entrance.
"You know what's going on?" Yumi asked as the park entrance was crowded and a large number of girls began to march into the park, revealing themselves as the source of the noise.
The girls were all fairly close in age, give or take one or two years. Yumi suspected that the oldest was perhaps a year older than her. All of them were dressed in a manner that seemed as they were attending some kind of back-alley street party, race, or some kind of rave, wearing clothing that somewhat reminded Yumi of her own black clothes, albeit still having a bit more color to compliment the black, though she noticed an exception through a solitary boy whom was part of the crowd wearing clothes that were colored neon. There were smaller details here and there in this group, such as a tattoo here, or a piercing there, that made them all seem that much more provocative and gang-like.
"Him…HE'S here!" Sebastian groaned. "Why? Why today of all days? And with that...gaggle to boot? He's disgusting and obnoxious enough on his own, we don't need his entire damn harem!"
"Sebastian, who's 'he'?" Yumi growled, not in the mood for riddles after the presentation Sebastian had given.
The crowd fanned out in two lines, as if they were clearing the way for someone. Some of the girls began cooing or swooning, along with the solitary boy. Others kept up the music, and began moving further into the park, causing the patrons to start backing away as they focused on the din and racket that had formed. Two boys in particular who had been playing a card game of some kind immediately vacated the premises, as if knowing what kind of unholy legion of darkness had descended upon them.
"Sebastian…" Yumi warned, cracking her knuckles to accentuate the point.
"…William Dunbar…" Sebastian finally answered, mouth agape in dread.
Yumi looked at the park entrance and saw a boy who was slightly taller than her walk into the park with an assured swing in his step. His hair was black and scruffy, and he wore a black t-shirt over a longer-sleeved red shirt. He wore a pair of simple light-blue jeans and a pair of brown boots. His face was self-congratulating, and he seemed to bask in whatever honors he was being given by the group of girls. Yumi admitted that while he seemed quite handsome…his demeanor was another matter, being a poor mix of smug and euphoric, and she immediately felt a great deal of revulsion at the scene unfolding before her.
"We love you William!" several girls wearing short pink tops that exposed their navels, and short red skirts that nearly exposed cried in unison, jumping in joy.
"I want today to be perfect!" another cheered as she brought her hands to her face in an orgasmic expression.
"My hand is doing this, care to be a part of it?" the boy offered, making a lewd pumping gesture towards his mouth.
William did not verbally reply to any of these, but he merely shot a look of knowing, as if everyone present already knew the answer. Yumi had a very bad feeling that the replies would all be some kind of affirmative.
Ulrich, from where he was, looked at the scene with utter disgust. This guy was the shameless flirt Sebastian had dreaded him to meet? Well, he was right to dread a meeting. Ulrich immediately wanted to punch William in the face for the disgusting scene he had created. He didn't doubt for a second what this guy would do the instant he met up with Yumi, and he began to walk slowly towards William's group in order to get in a better position to intercept him. Thankfully, the group of kids who had been having trouble with their robot had stopped running around like they were in a war-zone and had a look of disgust on their faces as well, granting Ulrich the opportunity he needed to start moving again.
"Crass and of poor taste." The red-haired boy muttered in revulsion as he finished bandaging Jordan's right palm, having brought a first-aid kit in advance. "I still can't fathom what those people see in that boy…"
"They're just an annoying clique." Jordan grimaced as he tried to flex his hand. "Let's just try to ignore them."
"…This is why I'm glad Dad enrolled me in Hellison…" Molly grumbled as she knelt down to focus on her robot. "I wouldn't be caught dead in a gang like that if all we're going to do is just fawn over some dork."
"...And if said, uh, 'dork', was not a factor?" The red-haired boy could not help but ask, a hint of fear in his voice.
Molly did not answer, her face remaining perfectly neutral, leaving both of her male companions to stare nervously at each other, before they shook out the nightmarish image of Molly leading an army of female delinquents and conquering all of the territory surrounding the three boarding schools of Boulogne Billancourt.
Ulrich remained silent throughout the commentary, preferring to focus on what kind of madness was about to ensue. He kept to the side, making sure that he'd be able to intervene in case things turned ugly…or rather, when things turned ugly. While he snuck over to Yumi's location, several girls broke out of the procession and began to run ahead into the park, harassing patrons in a clear attempt to get them to leave, acting very much like the gangsters they seemed to dress as. One of these girls, a long-haired blonde with heavy make-up, short black-blue shirt and mid-length green skirt, sauntered up to Yumi's group.
"Alright, you lot," she declared, clapping her hands to get their attention, "time to stop whatever you're doing and clear the park! We have a party scheduled here and we don't need you interrupting us!"
"As much as I'd like to do that Heringsdötir," Sebastian grumbled, "we were kind of finishing something up first, so just give us a few minutes to plan this out."
"Yeah!" Milly said, standing up as straight as she could to look at the taller girl in the face. "We were here first!"
The girl laughed haughtily. "Whatever is that you're doing is irrelevant! What we're doing is much more important!"
"You mean worshiping that moron driven by hormones and low standards?" Yumi asked dryly, pointing at William, who was still waving to his…mates, for lack of a better word. The blonde girl's laughter stopped right then and there, while Sebastian couldn't help but let out a loud snort of amusement. Ulrich, who was eavesdropping, couldn't suppress a smirk.
The blonde's eyes widened. "You did NOT just call William Dunbar a moron!" Heringsdötir shrieked...which caused everyone's heads to turn towards the noise.
"Wait, someone finally said it to the guy out loud?" Molly whistled loudly in approval, causing some eyes to turn to her and her cheeky grin, but the majority were focused on Yumi and her cold, emotionless glare.
William was snapped out of his stupor to look over at where the noise had come from, and his eyes lit up with interest, ears disregarding the statement that had been yelled out. After all, the tall girl with the short, but bewitching black hair, exposed midriff, and completely black clothing was what held his attention. Quickly, he strode over to where the girl was, eyebrows arched with intrigue.
"Brynja, Brynja…" William admonished. "Let's keep things quiet, okay?"
"But, the nerve of this-!" Brynja began, but William put a finger up to her mouth before she could blurt out the swear word.
"Let's keep things civil, alright?" William asked, and he slicked his hair back to take a better look at Yumi, who could not help but back away as William came near, using the few inches in height advantage to look her over. "I don't think we've been introduced, ah…"
"Yumi." The black-hair girl said curtly.
"Yumi…" William repeated, savoring the name. "It's nice to meet you."
"Can't exactly say the same for myself." Yumi grumbled.
Ulrich was enraged, trying to step forward to give William what was coming to him, but Sebastian had already noticed the boy drawing near, and broke off from the group to hold the martial artist back. "Not now, Stern!" he hissed. "We're outnumbered!"
"You may not think that right now, but trust me, knowing me is an…experience." William said flirtatiously. "I'd be honored if you could stay here with us. You look like you'd fit in fine with everyone."
"Forget about it." Yumi spat in disgust. "I'd rather have a guest arrive than stay here."
"Oh, come on," William continued, moving forward and backing Yumi into a tree, "You could be our guest. After all, I can have my mates here…teach you a few things…"
"Ew!" Milly spat before Yumi could snap another retort, while Tamiya looked at William with an expression of utter disgust on her face.
The moment William turned his attention to the reporters, his smile turned into a judgmental frown. He looked down on them with disdain. "What? Do you two twerps think you can stay here?"
"They most certainly cannot!" Brynja huffed. "I can accept a girl with her style and body-type becoming one of us, but these two are small, insignificant whelps that deserve no such honor!"
"At least they're trying to do something with their lives instead of spending their time oogling some playboy!" Yumi snapped.
"Yeah!" Milly and Tamiya nodded.
"What? These two?" Brynja snorted. "They're just tiny, stupid little girls more concerned with transient garbage rather than…people of substance," saying the word 'people' in an overly silky and sultry tone. "You'd rather support them on some stupid childish quest or whatever it is that they're doing rather than engage with those who have taste?"
Sebastian snorted at the irony of the statement whereas Ulrich seemed to be debating on whether to beat up William or Brynja first. Yumi however, kept her hands at her side, and silently floated her prayer beads to her right hand, gripped them, and took a deep breath to calm herself. With that done, she simply sighed, ducked under William's arms to get away from him, and grabbed Milly and Tamiya by the arms, turning to leave the park.
However, she did have one more piece to say. "Milly and Tamiya at least aspire to become journalists, a job where they get to reveal all kinds of stories to the world, and help others understand the struggles everyone around them faces. You, on the other hand, just want to be a cum dumpster, which any low-ranking bitch can do."
"I beg your pardon?!" Brynja shrieked at the crude description of herself, while Sebastian and Molly burst out laughing, with Jordan and Ulrich tempted to do the same as they held back laughter, Ulrich barely choking his while Jordan put a hand to his mouth. Milly put her hands up to her cheeks, surprised at Yumi saying something so coarse, while Tamiya's eyes just widened in shock.
Yumi wasn't quite done either, leveling her eyes at the rest of William's harem. "And honestly, if everyone in this 'group' wants to become something that pathetic, then you're not even worth our time, so get the fuck out of our way so we can go back to doing something productive."
Brynja was outraged at this proclamation. Likewise, so was everyone else who had gathered. Yumi gestured with her eyes for her friends to follow her and started to depart. Milly and Tamiya quickly followed, looking at Yumi in awe. Sebastian, who also impressed, concluded the group as they vacated the premises. Several members of William's harem flipped off Yumi as she walked away, but the Japanese girl ignored them. Soon, the four were out of the park, and gathered at the other end of the street to conclude their business.
"So, Sebastian, what's the route?" Yumi asked after a few seconds of silence.
"Ah, yes." Sebastian nodded, immediately pulling out the map and drawing the route out. "Go this way. It should take you around 20 minutes to find Burrel. I'll call him and tell him you're coming. Oh, and Ishiyama, that was awesome."
Yumi gave a small smirk of satisfaction. "I know."
"Scoop, here we come!" Milly declared, pumping her fist into the air, new determination evident in her voice.
Yumi and Tamiya nodded, and the three set off with purpose.
Sebastian watched as they rounded a corner and snuck back over to the park entrance to check to see if Ulrich had already left. Surprisingly, Ulrich hadn't fully escaped, since he was having to deal with some of the more tenacious members of William's harem harassing him. The Hellison trio were ahead of him by a few paces. Molly was flanked by Aikka and Jordan, and all three were covered in dirt and scratches, though the Street Kid could tell that those injuries had not come from fighting William's worshipers.
"Ugh, I can't tell if I'm grateful or pissed that William's harem showed up." Jordan complained as he continued to flex his bandaged hand.
"I'm pissed." Molly grumbled. "The robotics competition is in a week, and then one of the best testing spots available gets taken up by those airheaded morons! Don't they have anything better to do?"
The three exited the park. Aikka noticed that Sebastian was still at the entrance. "Good afternoon Sebastian. I thought you had left with your classmates."
"As formal as ever, Burak." Sebastian commented. "I've been meaning to ask the guy walking behind you a few things, so I waited for him."
"Oh?" Aikka turned around to see Ulrich was right behind him, and he extended a hand to him. "Ah, I see. Greetings, ah…"
"Ulrich." The boy responded, not accepting the handshake.
"Ulrich, yes, well, Sebastian here apparently desires to speak with you?" Aikka questioned, a bit annoyed at Ulrich's rudeness as Sebastian revealed himself, with a small smirk of triumph.
"Thank you, Burak." Sebastian concluded with a pat on Aikka's back, before he immediately put his left hand around Ulrich's shoulder and started to lead him out of the park. Ulrich felt Sebastian's grip tighten as he searched for a way out. He'd have ordinarily escaped by this time, but complications soon emerged.
The first factor came when the red-black haired girl spoke up. "Yo, Sebastian, I'm going to need help with my robot, I need a new place to test it!"
Jordan and Aikka's faces fell at the thought. Naturally, they did not want to continue subjecting themselves to trials runs for Molly's robot. Although the robot was now close enough for Ulrich to study, he could only provide a vague description of it. It looked like a lowercase 'n' from the top, with a set of wheels at the bottom. The two upper prongs were covered in sharp edges. Ulrich didn't know what they were for, although he suspected they were legally questionable. He also couldn't figure out why one of the prongs had an angry pink rabbit head painted on it.
"I'm going to be busy Sunday, Wei." Sebastian shrugged. "Belpois needs robot help too. The guy wants to get some new parts from the Alleyways and it's his first time there. You've been there before, but he hasn't. You can make it without me anyways."
Molly pouted, which Jordan took as the opportunity to lead her away before she could ask any more questions. "And with that, we'll be on our way, nice talking to you Sebastian." He said quickly, picking up Molly's robot and speed-walking away, Molly following with a frown on her face.
Aikka rolled his eyes, took another glance at Sebastian and Ulrich, and then left without saying another word.
Sebastian waited for them to be out of sight before he turned to Ulrich. "All right Stern, no more running away. I've got questions to ask you, and I want answers."
"There's nothing I have to tell you." Ulrich said.
"You know Stern, for a guy that doesn't talk a lot, you are a really shitty liar." Sebastian growled, grabbing Ulrich by the hem of his shirt and pressing him against the concrete wall. "I know that you, Belpois, and Ishiyama are hiding something along with Della Robbia. You know what it is, don't you? You know what it is that made that teddy bear monster! And probably all the other weird things that have happened in town since! Don't lie to me, you wouldn't be playing Houdini if nothing else was going on!"
It took all of Ulrich's self-restraint to not immediately flatten Sebastian onto the ground due to defensive instinct. He figured it wouldn't take long to do it anyways, but it seemed that the cat was already out of the bag…ignoring the cat that they had brought into their bag of course when they'd had to recruit Odd.
"If you honestly think I'm stupid enough to not notice it, then you've got another thing coming Stern." Sebastian continued, voice slowly descending into panic. "Tell me what kind of voodoo bullshit you came across, why is it here? What's it going to do?"
"…Voodoo?" Ulrich asked, raising an eyebrow. Xanadu was a lot of things, but Jeremie was insistent that it was science and not magic. A week after the first attack from Xanadu, Yumi had likened their powers to magic while Jeremie was in ear-shot, and the young genius had gone on a long rant about the physics and the like that was involved.
"What else would you call it?" Sebastian hissed. "What the hell is causing all of the weird stuff around town? What the hell are you doing with it? And most importantly…why in the hell haven't you told US about this? We nearly got killed by, again, a fucking teddy bear for crying out! We deserve to know what it is that's trying to kill us!"
Ulrich was quiet for what seemed like hours, though it was only thirty seconds. Sebastian's face was a mixture of anger, fear, and a hint of betrayal. Anger from how something beyond his or anyone's control had begun to cause trouble in his and everyone else's life. Fear from not knowing what this phenomenon was, and betrayal from how the only people who did seem to know what was going on were trying to keep it a secret from everyone else for some reason, with all three feeding the other. Ulrich remembered the warnings of the Professor to keep Xanadu a secret…but Ulrich had never been good at listening to authority figures, particularly enigmatic ones he knew next to nothing about who had indiscernible motives. Of course, Jeremie had wanted to maintain secrecy until tomorrow, but it seemed very unlikely that Sebastian was going to be that patient.
Better to get it over with now, or at least give him a heads-up.
Ulrich breathed. "Let go of my shirt and I'll talk. If Jeremie doesn't like moving up the timetable, tough break. Plans change."
"Moving up the timetable?" Sebastian asked, confused. "Wait…what was Belpois planning?"
"He was going to tell you about the 'voodoo' tomorr-" Ulrich began, but he was quickly cut off by an angry screech.
"AAAAAARGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Sebastian let go of Ulrich, both boys wincing in pain. "Ugh… Heringsdötir…" Sebastian groaned.
Despite everything telling them not to, the two boys investigated the park, seeing the blonde girl pacing around in anger, and everyone else aside from William having dark, angry looks on their faces. Several of them had broken off into groups and were muttering to each other, with some being louder than others. It was a rather worrying sight, to say the least, to see what seemed to be the prelude to a gang war.
"That fish-and-rice bitch is going to pay for that!" Brynja growled.
"She insulted William!"
"She called us all cum dumpsters!"
"Let's teach her a lesson!"
"Ladies, ladies, and also single guy." William called, trying to calm his harem down. "We don't need to do anything like that…I like a girl with spirit. Nice and feisty. After all, several of you were like that once, but now we're all together like we should be in Shangri-La."
"What she did was unforgivable!" Brynja protested. "I say we hunt her down and give her over to some pervert who enjoys her type! I have a pretty good "
"Okay, we don't need to go that far." The lone boy among the girls said. "But I agree that we need to get back at her!"
"Okay, okay!" William clapped, then began waving his hands to calm everyone down. "Look, how about we find her, and bring her back here…for an…actual chat? And anyways, it's all of us versus her, and I have an idea to take full advantage of that."
"What kind of idea?" a voice from the crowd asked.
William motioned over to Brynja to come up and he began to whisper in her ear. Her face first showed bewilderment, then disgust, then intrigue, before she showed grim satisfaction. "I like it." She said. "It's the perfect way to get even with her."
"Well, what's the plan?" the boy asked, now impatient. "We force her to wear Brynja's makeup?" This made Brynja shoot a nasty look at him.
"Spread the word to the others. Brynja." William ordered, just loud for everyone to hear. The blonde girl obeyed, whispering to each person's ear, and they in turn, whispered to their fellows. Ulrich and Sebastian looked on in bewilderment and more than a bit of trepidation as the members of the harem began to fall in place like an army platoon, all of them hearing of William's plan and approving of it…whatever it was.
"You all like it? It's Plan Aphro!" William asked, a sly and sultry grin on his face.
"Ooooh yes." Brynja sneered, rubbing her hands in glee.
"I can't wait for it!" one girl cheered. "I remember when that happened to me!"
"Not my preferred plan," the sole-boy shrugged before smirking, "but I can get behind it in a nice and comfortable position I've had practice for."
William clapped his hands again, snapping the harem to attention. "Are you all ready then?" he asked.
"OH YES!" Everyone cheered. "PLAN APHRO, PLAN APHRO, PLAN APHRO!"
"Then let's get a move on!" William ordered, causing the harem to run out of the park like a pack of wolves, continuing to chant 'Plan Aphro'.
"…Stern, get back." Sebastian whispered, before looking behind him to see that Ulrich had already vanished, kneeling behind a parked car. "Okay, showing initiative here" Sebastian grumbled, running to join Ulrich, who showed no signs of resistance as Sebastian knelt down next to him. The two watched as William's army of lovers spread out into the streets and disappeared into the city.
All was quiet for a few moments as the two tried to comprehend the…interesting (To put it kindly) scene that had just happened. Well, Ulrich was trying to comprehend it. Sebastian had met these people before, which had not been a pleasant meeting, and knew very well of their infamy around town. He then slowly realized just what kind of scheme had been set into motion but decided to get his priorities in order. It seemed that he might have information Ulrich would want, while Ulrich had information that Sebastian would want. An information trade. Quid-pro-quo.
"…What was that?" Ulrich asked.
Sebastian got up and dusted his knees off. "That, Stern, was William Dunbar and his harem in action. I've seen plenty of weird things here in town…but those people are a…special kind of strange, to put it nicely." He then angled his next few words carefully. "I mean, they're only slightly more presentable than an evil occult teddy bear robot. Only slightly though."
"…You're not going to drop that?" Ulrich sighed as he stood up. "Fine. I don't know how much Jeremie's planning to tell you, but the bottom line is, we're in the dark just as much as you and everyone else. Only thing we know what to do is how to fight these things."
"And what are these things?" Sebastian asked.
"Would you believe me if I told you everything?" Ulrich asked. "It's a bit of a wild story."
Sebastian considered it but decided to go for a different angle. "Before we get to that, you said that Belpois was planning to tell me about this. What's he planning to do after that? Sacrifice me in some kind of ancient Aztec ritual?"
Ulrich stared as if Sebastian had declared that the world was flat. "No."
"Just checking, just checking." Sebastian shrugged. "As for what you would tell me…you claim that you're fighting these 'things', or whatever they actually are…is there some kind of risk to doing it?"
"You either kill them or they kill you." Ulrich replied bluntly. "You willing to put your life on the line? Keep the secret?"
Sebastian couldn't help but blink rapidly as he took in this new revelation. Mainly because of how casually Ulrich had revealed the risks of whatever method was used to counter the mysterious force that had created Teddy. All of his instincts were screaming to delve into why Ulrich seemed so non-plussed, but Sebastian instead asked about the second topic Ulrich had brought up.
"Why keep it a secret to begin with?" he countered. "Tell me that, and I'll tell you just what might happen to Ishiyama in the next few hours if we don't get a move-on."
Ulrich's face briefly froze in shock, but the boy quickly regained his composure. On the surface, at least. His reply was rather swift and direct. "One of Jeremie's theories. Some kind of government project that went haywire and he doesn't want us getting experimented on…now what did you say was going to happen to Yumi?"
"…Crazy government project, eh?" Sebastian asked, before putting a hand to his chin in thought. Well, that certainly put in a few new factors to mull over what had already been revealed to him. The boy wondered if he should press Ulrich on for more details…but two things put a stop to it: 1) The fact that he finally had something to work with, and 2) not wanting to delve into an even messier topic…which caused Sebastian to notice that Ulrich was looking rather squirrely, eyes darting to the streets trying to find Yumi. "…I suppose I'll take that for now. If Belpois wants to explain it in more detail…I suppose I might as well wait."
That just sent more alarm bells ringing through Ulrich's head, and he was starting to regret giving Sebastian the information at all. The other boy's face was scheming, thinking of a plan to deal with Jeremie. Ulrich remembered how he had chastised Odd that morning about nearly revealing the secret while discussing another one of his weird dreams…and yet instead of the loudmouth snitching about it, Ulrich had basically been the one to spill the beans. He silently cursed, looking at Sebastian, who remained quiet, face completely unfathomable as he took the information in.
"Alright, you got what you wanted, now tell me what's going to happen to Yumi?" Ulrich snapped.
Sebastian's face changed from scheming to grim, and he motioned for Ulrich to follow him. "I'll tell you on the way. We don't have any time to waste. Let's just say that Dunbar's harem is planning revenge on Ishiyama…and well…"
"Move!" Ulrich roared the moment 'planning revenge on Ishiyama' registered in his head, stepping forward to the sidewalk, Sebastian trailing behind.
"…Huh, I thought I would have to explain this to you more." The lanky boy observed.
"You said that they're planning revenge on Yumi." Ulrich growled. "That's all the information I need." He pulled out his phone and dialed Yumi's number.
"Hello? Ulrich?" Yumi responded. "What's going on?"
"…First off, I had to give a certain someone a little bit of info to get ready for tomorrow." Ulrich admitted. "He caught me when I was trying to leave because of that stupid harem."
"…I see…how much did you get?" Yumi asked.
For a moment, Ulrich was puzzled by Yumi's cryptic response, but then he remembered that Milly and Tamiya were present on the other end of the line. They really could not afford another information slip, especially with those two. So, Ulrich played along. "Enough that I'm ready for tomorrow, still need more for it though."
"…Hmm…" Yumi hummed. "Well…that'll make tomorrow…interesting, I suppose. I'll talk to you later about it."
"Stern, the phone." Sebastian ordered, extending his hand.
"You're not going to say anything else, are you?" Ulrich whispered, hesitant.
"Relax." Sebastian assured. "I ain't telling Solovieff and Diop about this. That's got 'Bad Idea' written all over it."
"Ulrich?" Yumi asked again.
Ulrich sighed, then brought his phone up. "I'm going to give the phone to Sebastian, he's got a warning for you about that group of… people at the park."
Ulrich handed Sebastian the phone, and the lanky boy was quick on the draw. "Ishiyama, be careful. You got Dunbar's harem-gang on the hunt. They're coming after you. Stern and I will try to hold them off. You follow the route to Burrel and warn him about them the second you get there. He's dealt with them in the past and he knows a way to hide from them until it blows over."
"Wait, we're being hunted?" Milly's voice emerged. "Why?"
"Solovieff, Diop, calm down." Sebastian comforted. "Just keep on the route…But to answer the 'why', I think Ishiyama managed to press most of Dunbar's fetish buttons, and he's managed to rope his harem into doing his infamous 'Plan Aphro'."
"…Do I dare ask what that is?" Yumi questioned.
"…How familiar are Diop and Solovieff with the birds and the bees?" Sebastian asked.
"What?" Ulrich asked, more speechless than usual.
"…Wait…what are they going to do?" Tamiya questioned in a quivering voice, as Yumi at this point had put the call on Speaker.
"I saw a recording of it once. Don't ask how or why, not a story I want to share right now. If they're going to do what I think they'll do, they'll capture Ishiyama and take her to some chosen location. They'll do things to her mind and body involving a lot of...well..."
"You don't need to explain, I've got a good idea." Yumi replied, voice low and angry.
"Ahem...yeah... Well, nobody comes out of it the same. The cops won't do jack-squat because this town is full of even worse shit by comparison. If you think you can survive it Ishiyama, you won't. This is where roughly half of that harem's population comes from."
"…Somehow I doubt that. If they even try to do that to me, I'll paste them all onto the ground. I've done it to tougher guys than them before." Yumi gritted, the sound of her knuckles cracking.
"Those chicks play dirty, Ishiyama." Sebastian warned. "They'll use every trick in the book to take you out…" he then snapped his fingers, remembering certain details. "And on that note, there's a few people you'll have to watch out for specifically in that hormone-driven hive mind. First off, if you see their token male, Watson, just try to keep him at bay. He's one of the smart ones, so he's more dangerous than most of them, but that also means he's the most reasonable one. If you can get him alone, you may be able to cut a deal with him. But don't try that except as a last resort. He's smart, but also insane. Just keep running to Burrel. If you see the blonde girl, Heringsdötir, take her out as soon as possible. That woman is extremely violent and the one who whips those people into shape. Take her out, and it'll be like cutting off the serpent's head. Fail, and I can't guarantee that this will end without bloodshed."
"Fantastic." Yumi grumbled. "These people are just full of unpleasant surprises."
"…Wh-what happens to us then?" Milly asked.
"Again, with how violent she is, Heringsdötir's the most likely person to suggest actual physical harm to you two." Sebastian admitted. "But if Dunbar's attention is focused on Ishiyama, you'll probably get off with a few bruises at worst. Stay vigilant though. If they're focused on Ishiyama, don't stick around, just get out of there."
"B-but we can't leave Yumi behind to get…oh god, I don't even want to say it." Tamiya groaned.
"You two shouldn't get dragged down with me if that happens." Yumi said. "Ulrich, make sure you get Milly and Tamiya somewhere safe if things do get that bad."
"R-roger." Ulrich nodded.
"Keep on the route that you're on." Sebastian said. "You've got a few minutes head-start. Just go as fast as you can! Forget about what I said earlier, don't think about the deal with Burrel. I'm going to warn him as soon as I'm done here. You need to reach him as soon as possible!"
"How long do we have until they attack us?" Yumi asked. "We weren't gone that long."
"I'd say five to six minutes, depending on how long it takes for them to get into position."
"Anything else?"
"That's all I've got." Sebastian admitted. "If you end up on the dark side Ishiyama…well…you have my condolences."
"That isn't going to happen." Ulrich said. "I won't let it happen."
"Then it won't." Yumi reassured. "Good luck."
"You too." Ulrich said as Sebastian handed the phone back.
During this time, the two boys had made significant progress up the street Yumi had gone up. Now they reached an alleyway, upon which Sebastian tugged at Ulrich's shoulder.
"Through there." He said. "I know a way to monitor that route through this way. We can keep an eye out for Dunbar's crazy idiots that way."
Ulrich looked at Sebastian. There were many thoughts going through his mind right now, and not many of them were positive. Several of these thoughts were aimed at the 'Street Kid' in front of him, while others were aimed towards William Dunbar and his group of insane, hormonal followers. Yet more of them were jumbled up, some morphing into the majority thoughts, and others just being random angry ideas that came to mind. But either way, one thing was sure, a thought that was blazing in his mind, priming his focus and instincts.
Protect Yumi. At all costs.
So, Ulrich remained silent, and followed the Street Kid, who had pulled out his own phone to call Matthias, into the darkness.
The rest of Odd's journey passed by without any mishaps, accidents, or meetings with crazy people in green sweaters. On the way however, he noticed how, just as the pictures had shown, the sky had changed from a serene pale blue, to a sickly dark yellow, with even thicker clouds in the sky. Odd did finally start to wonder why this was the case…but shrugged it off. If he'd wanted to learn about the sky and its pollution levels, he'd have stuck around with Jeremie.
Kiwi whimpered, clearly not liking how the relatively clean buildings had become as dirty as the factory. Odd stopped at a rather dilapidated bench and pet his dog to calm him down.
"Hey, it's going to be alright Kiwi. Nothing bad is going to happen." Odd said as he looked at where he was.
He had made it to Blue Screen Skate Park. The park itself was situated on an island, very much like how the factory was. In fact, according to the maps, the island, the Ile de Puteaux, was further up the Seine compared to the Ile Seguin. The Ile de Puteaux was also much larger than the Ile Seguin, with Blue Screen Skate Park only making up a small portion of the rather…dark island. Odd wondered why the sky had to be so dark, but he chalked up to pollution. Why it stayed in the vicinity of the island, Odd didn't know, nor did he care to know. His concern was to finally have some time to himself, with no worries about saving the world or being 'trained' in a virtual world filled with evil black death ghosts.
Kiwi stopped whining and looked at his owner with a glare that said, 'If we die because you couldn't keep it in your pants, I will make your afterlife a living hell.'
Grinning, Odd rode over the bridge, and officially crossed into the dark island. As the map had warned, Blue Screen Skate Park had no roads directly leading to it, so Odd had to find the street nearest to a sidewalk and take that route. His route was plagued with all kinds of morbid sights. Graffiti, bums, and…the occasional splatter of blood. Kiwi for his part ran as fast as he could, wanting to get this trip over with as soon as possible. Odd for his part, tried to concentrate on his Future Flash to find the closest route available in the labyrinth of old buildings and overgrown park areas. Finally, he found himself standing before a sidewalk directly leading to his destination.
"Yeesh, they could've built it in a cheerier place." Odd grumbled, trying to overcome a shiver of nervousness.
Kiwi growled at a stray black cat that hissed back at him, causing Odd to jump. The sudden movement startled the two animals, and the cat ran into the parking lot and out of Odd's sight.
"Well, here goes nothing." Odd said, rolling onto the sidewalk.
The sidewalk itself was clear except for yet more graffiti marking it, but the sides of the trail were peppered in rubble and dead plants. Rotting trees atop discarded slabs of concrete and metal, discarded rebar stuck into patches of dirt like grave markers, long stretches of sand and gravel piled high with wood sticking out of them at random points, just to name a few of the…unique sights Odd witnessed on the last leg of his journey.
But finally, without a shade of a doubt Odd reached Blue Screen Skate Park. He was still able to read the sign denoting it as such, even though the words, written in large gunship font, were covered in graffiti that read 'Anyone Will Skate' (With the 'Will' being represented by a picture of an actual will between the orange, green, and pink of the other two words). The park itself was rather impressive, even with the creepy dark yellow sky and all of the graffiti decorating the course. The main feature seemed to be the snake-run bowls that looped all around the area, leading to funboxes, half-pipes, quarter-pipes, and even vert-pipes. There were several towering flights of stairs of varying levels that led to yet more sections of the sprawling park.
Odd whistled. The fact that something this impressive had fewer visitors seemed a crying shame to him. Kiwi on the other hand starting growling, though not because of the skatepark. Odd looked down at the little dog and saw that Kiwi's attention was turned to Odd's back, and the purple-shirted boy looked behind him to see three girls were coming up from behind him.
"Oi, who are you?" one of them asked.
The three were all rather tall and fairly stocky, though only the girl in the center of the incoming group had a board. The girl on the right had orange hair that went down just below her neck, wore a dark blue shirt with a large vertical orange stripe on its left side, along with a blue plaid skirt, black boots, and some kind of fishnet brace on her left arm. The girl on the left looked completely out-of-place in the dreary park. She was blonde, with even longer hair than the first girl, which went down to below her waist, and wore a purple beanie that was adorned with a sunflower. Her outfit consisted of a bright green undershirt with a long orange skirt that completely covered her legs and was adorned with flower-and-cloud patterns, ending with a pair of bright green sandals and a chain of flowers that adorned her neck and several yellow bracelets on both of her arms. Finally, the girl in the center, who had been the one who had spoken, was dark-skinned, and had dark brown hair arranged into cornrows that went down to her neck and were held together by yellow, orange, and green beads. She wore a dark pink tube top, with bright yellow sweatpants, and orange sneakers. None of them looked particularly pleased at Odd's presence.
Of course, Odd was not intimidated. "Name's Odd Della Robbia!" he called, "and I'm here to see what this place has to offer!"
"Really?" the girl with the orange hair asked, raising an eyebrow. "Someone as scrawny as you?"
"I AM NOT SCRAWNY, I AM SVELTE!" Odd roared in protest.
The girl rolled her eyes. "You keep telling yourself and the dog that."
"Rare to see someone have the guts to come here though." The dark-skinned girl smirked. "Haven't you heard of the Black Knight of Asimov?"
"As a matter of fact, I have!" Odd revealed. "Heard all about from Sebastian!"
"Instead of experiencing it?" the blonde asked. "You poor, sad, scrawny little man."
"SVELTE!"
"If that's what you want to believe." The blonde replied calmly.
"I don't need to believe it because it's true!" Odd growled. "Anyways I'm here to challenge Samantha Knight!"
And with that all three girls were rolling on the floor with laughter.
"Challenge Sam?" the orange hair girl laughed.
"Maybe you'll get through the first turn before wiping out!" the blonde laughed.
"I can't-I can't even…" the dark-skinned girl chuckled.
Now Odd was getting annoyed. "I'll have you know that I'm an awesome skater! I can take this place no problem! And I can take on Sam easy-peasy!"
The three girls picked themselves up from the ground, still giggling at the idea. When they stopped, once again, it was the dark-haired girl who spoke up first. "Look, dude, there's a pretty good reason not a lot of people come here, and that's because this is our territory that Sam won by wiping the floor with every rival skateboarder here! You wouldn't last five seconds against her!"
"Well, I'm willing to try!" Odd protested. "Let her come down here, and I'll take her on!"
"Well…" the dark-skinned girl pondered, looking at her two companions, all three deflating as a mundane fact came to mind to destroy their bravado. "She's running late, so…"
"Really?" Odd asked, trying to gain a foothold in the argument.
"Yeah." The blonde girl said, pulling out her phone to reveal a set of text messages.
"Hey Fleur, don't know if Taluma and Maddy brought their phones, but I've got to stay behind, had to deal with that weirdo Herb and his friend and now I'm being lectured for causing a scene. Hopefully I'll get there, you three have fun!"
"Okay, just got off with a warning. I'll be there as soon as I can!"
"And they did forget their phones." Fleur revealed, causing the other two girls to look sheepish. "Sam should be here soon. Give her about five, ten minutes tops."
"…Huh, I actually met that Herb guy on my way here…" Odd murmured. "He's nuts."
"No arguing here." Orange hair admitted. "Herb's…a special snowflake…but that's being nice. Like, really nice. Really, really, REALLY nice."
"But he's not our priority right now, is he?" the dark-skinned girl asked. "If you wanna take on Sam, how about you test your skills against me?"
Now Odd felt like they were getting somewhere. "Gladly! I'll show you who's scrawny! I'll take you on, uh…"
"Taluma." The girl answered, getting her board ready. "Follow me, I'll show you where we'll start."
"First things first though," Odd reminded her, "got to find a place for Kiwi somewhere."
"I'll take him." Fleur offered. Odd looked hesitant, but ultimately handed the leash to the blonde, who immediately began cooing and petting Kiwi. The dog growled, remembering how rough Charlie had been…but Fleur was gentle with him. Before long, Kiwi was obedient, lying on his back for belly rubs. Fleur gave the ok sign to Odd, who was silently impressed.
Odd followed Taluma through the labyrinth, until they reached a flight of stairs located in the center of the park, which brought them to a bank that led into one of the snake-runs that sloped downward into the lower levels.
"We'll start from here," Taluma explained, pointing at the park, "and then we'll hit the first half-pipe, then onto that handrail, back into the snake-run and onto the first loop, then hit the first fun-box, and turn around at the hip back into the snake-run until we reach the entrance. Fleur and Maddy will be there to keep watch...along with your dog, I guess"
"Good luck Taluma!" Fleur called.
"You got this, girl!" Maddy cheered, holding out Fleur's phone to start recording the event.
Kiwi merely stayed at Fleur's side, barking. Whether or not it was to cheer on his owner was unknown to the two girls however.
Odd took a few minutes to take in the course, before being assaulted with a set of visions…many of which involved him crashing and wiping out, with injuries of varying levels. Closing his eyes in an attempt to focus (and wanting a future where he actually won), Odd saw several points on the track and then…nothing. Opening his eyes and blinking, Odd took another look at the course Taluma had designated and recognized several turns or areas of the track that would've been troublesome otherwise…and probably were still troublesome since he'd obtained no way of navigating through them.
"You got it down yet?" Taluma asked, already on her board. "I'd like to get this party started."
Odd couldn't help but smirk. "Of course, I'm ready! But you know, ladies first!"
Taluma sneered. "As you wish…YAHOO!" And the girl was immediately headed down the track.
Odd blinked, then immediately got back into position and ran for the course. "Raahhh!"
The two were soon blurs moving through the park. Taluma had obtained an early lead, and much to Odd's irritation, was maintaining that lead. The first part of the course was simple, both skateboarders showing no trouble with it. Nor did they show any difficulty when they reached the first half-pipe. Taluma was quicker with her kick-turns than Odd and managed to draw further ahead. By the time they had reached the rail, Odd was trailing further and further behind.
'Damn it!' Odd thought to himself. And Future Flash was now refusing to activate, much to his irritation. The boy pushed forward, right foot slamming into the ground as he picked up speed for the loop.
Momentum picked up, Odd and Taluma rushed through the loop, with Taluma maintaining her current lead…but just as they began the descent, Odd began pushing forward and leaning with his body. He shot down the slope…and began to catch up to Taluma. The two began to head for the fun-box, and it was here that Odd picked up more speed, slowly gaining on Taluma, until he shot forward. But too fast.
"Odd! Be careful!" Taluma cried as Odd shot past her and up the ramp to the funbox into the air, losing his balance without anything to steady himself on.
"AAHHHH!" He cried, falling off his board and slamming into the ground, landing on his neck.
Then he realized what was happening. Gritting his teeth, Odd braked, ending his chance of gaining the lead. However, he had managed to at least gain on Taluma, though the girl still had the lead. The two rode onto the table-top of the box, jumped down the slope, and reached the hip safely. Taluma smirked as she turned around, once again increasing the gap as the two rode over the fun-box once again to enter the final stretch.
It was now or never. Odd grunted as he tried to figure out a way to defeat his opponent, but it seemed hopeless now. He would've had a better chance of beating a Xanadu phantom than defeat Taluma at skateboarding…which was not a paradox Odd Della Robbia was willing to live as! His previous strategy to gain speed by pushing along the ramps was his only chance of gaining the lead on Taluma, but as Future Flash showed, it would've been a bad idea on the sharp turns and steep ramps of Blue Screen Skate Park. He needed a new strategy, or at least a way to manage it…
The world turned orange again.
There was a way to pass her, he could try gaining more momentum from the upper part of the bowl…which would cause him to slam into the edge and wipeout if he screwed it up, and indeed, Odd saw himself fail that crucial moment six times in a row before one success…that was quickly overwhelmed by evidence to the contrary with yet six more failures.
'Focus Odd…focus…' the boy thought to himself. His training in Xanadu had to account for something! Sadly, the only time he had engaged in any motions even remotely similar to this was when Yumi had been throwing boulders at him for training…
"Owww…." Odd groaned, tail flat on the ground as he lay on his back, exhausted.
"Man up." Yumi scolded. "You did better this time anyways. You managed to dodge them without freaking out for one."
"I'm still not used to moving like this!" Odd protested. "Excuse me for being tired!"
"You'll adjust, don't worry." Jeremie said. "Honestly, you seem to be adapting quicker than you think..."
"After all, you managed to avoid the second boulder I was aiming at you that time." Yumi explained, pointing to a set of trees that had been smashed by the projectiles.
After Odd's vision of the strange light, Yumi decided that the training session should be moved to a set of trees a fair distance away from the High Tower, so as to prevent further troublesome visions. Unfortunately for Odd, there were many more rocks for Yumi to use, and it didn't help that she'd had Ulrich bring several of them over from the previous training spot. The training had resumed in earnest, with Odd desperately dodging the boulders. He had been forced to retreat into the woods ever so slowly, giving inch by inch until he was backed up near a set of trees. He had just jumped onto one of them to dodge in a manner similar to before…and just like before Odd had had a vision, though instead of an ominous vision of a descending light of what was probably death, Odd instead saw Yumi launch another boulder at him, forcing the cat-boy to lower himself just enough to jump and narrowly avoid the blow as the tree was smashed…
And it was then that the visions continued. An orange image of Odd, wiping out once again, going too far out…before moving down bit by bit…until he hit a point that was low to pull the move off and get ahead of Taluma. So, he moved up again until another vision of him crashing appeared, and so he moved down, and up, and down…until a set of visions of Odd pulling the move off perfectly appeared before him.
'There!' he thought to himself.
Odd focused his attention, and sped up further, keeping his eyes on the track. The margin of error was narrow, one mistake would end it all. But as Odd pushed forward and turned, he maintained control of his body, balancing himself in the sweet spot. Before Taluma knew it, Odd managed to pull ahead, and with one final push of speed, the two skateboarders shot out of the bowl and to the finish line, neck-and-neck, until…
Kiwi barked as Odd shot by him, with Taluma following one second later.
Fleur and Maddy were stunned, with Fleur dropping Kiwi's leash. Thankfully, the little dog seemed content to remain by her side as Odd and Taluma caught their breath. Taluma looked shocked, staring at Odd in bewilderment. "H-how did you?" she asked.
Odd winked. "Trade secret. Now what do you think of me, girls? I can take on the 'Black Knight' any day of the week!"
"Is that so?" a new voice asked.
Another dark-skinned girl walked up to the park entrance, face brimming with confidence and intrigue. Her hair was slightly longer and fanned out more than Yumi's, but that was what it resembled the most. Two streaks of red draped down her bangs. Her outfit was a simple grey shirt with streaks of dark green in the center to form some kind of outline of a logo, with a red plaid skirt, long black pants, and black shoes. Tucked in her arms was a red-and-orange skateboard.
Odd had many impressions on his mind when he finally saw her. The first and most shallow one was that she was hot. The second was that he had finally found the opponent who had been so hyped up, with a street title and everything (Though he'd only had Sebastian's knowledge on that part, but he figured it was there). The third was that she seemed familiar, even though he couldn't quite put his finger on it as Sam's face suddenly became twisted in despair, the complete opposite of what her face had shown just a few moments before as a pair of unfamiliar arms and wings suddenly draped over her, and an unknown face with an expression of pity rubbed itself against the dark-skinned girl in comfort…
"You left her alone like this…how cruel."
Odd backed away, screaming in terror and rubbing his eyes in a desperate attempt to excise the terrible vision from his sight. Sam and Taluma looked at Odd in confusion, while Fleur and Maddy ran up to the three, Kiwi not far behind.
"Um…are you okay?" Sam asked, eyebrow raised.
Odd of course, was most certainly not okay as he tried to push the horrifying images out of his head. His dream from last night, returning in full-force, apparently telling of some kind of strange enigmatic future…which was somehow becoming more ominous with clearer details. Odd tried desperately to shove the dream's events out of his head, forcing them to fade away in a mental fog once again. He would not dwell on it, he would not, and he took a deep breath and looked at Sam square in the face, refusing to let his fear from before show.
"Yeah…yeah…I'm okay." Odd breathed. "Just got reminded of…something I don't want to talk about." He cleared his throat. "So…I'm Odd Della Robbia, and you're?"
"Samantha Knight." The girl replied, folding her arms. "So…you wanted to take me on…are you up for it?"
Odd nodded. "Yeah…I am."
Lord this was long! Second longest chapter by far! You all understand why I needed to split this up?
But lord is this complicated! Will Sebastian and Ulrich stop William? Will Yumi be able to keep Milly and Tamiya safe? Will Odd stop having nightmarish visions of doom? What is Jeremie doing? I'll let you all speculate!
-Epsilon Tarantula-
