A/N — Yo, so I'm back with another update, and tbh it didn't come out as well as what I had in mind, but oh wellz. Anyways, I don't really have much to say, but reply to the reviews!

TO MY BEAUTIFUL REVIEWERS!:

King Kagura — LOL that's actually the funny part! I've been really focused on specialshipping so much to make it super complicated XD And aw thank you :) This is somewhat a spoiler, but not really, but Silver is actually a key character as to the plot, but everyone else is so I can't really say much. And yeah, when I first wrote Soul, I had that idea in my head as a clone, but in the end, I'll make her happy so it's fine. As to answer your guesses about their characters, good guesses! I tend to mix and jumble everything up in this story since there are two type of characters involved (past & present) so I apologize for that! Thank you for the compliments though :) Your review made my day & it was interesting to see your guesses.
Shidake — Sorry dude, but tbh I'm dying inside as well. Specialshipping is my forever #1 OTP.
J. 530 — Thank you!
Twinfeather — Sorry! XD
DNN. TDN. US — THANK YOU SO MUCH :))))
Just Another Kid — LOL, I always tend to mellow things down, so this was less of a chapter (in my opinion)! And yeah, I tend to write soulsilvershipping in the worst ways possible LOL at the tensions in both stories XD I'm still dying at ur nickname for Green LOL. Though tbh, Gold was slightly lying since Crystal just wanted to buy a phone. I also made it supeeeeer awkward than usual for Yellow DX And yeah, Red is rejecting Yellow bc he keeps thinking of Summer, who is actually Yellow's past self. Complicated, but simple if you look at it XD SPECIALSHIPPING WILL COME BACK SO ITS OKAY! Just one way or another... anyways, Blue's been everywhere so I feel bad for adding guilty emotions on her. As for the flashback comment, thank you so much! XD I hope Red finds out soon and finds his true love (or so when the author finally writes it lol)! Also, for the sinnoh trio + marley, I feel like I should write more of it, but for now, they're off to the side TT^TT poor guys. Also, thank you so much again for the compliments and always reviewing! I'll try to not give up my stories! I really want to see this one through even though I took FOREVER for everyone to gather together.

Thanks for the review guys XD Sorry about making you crying! Here's a new chapter :)


Chapter Eighteen — The Anonymous Warning


For the first time in her life, Blue thought she was a horrible friend.

Okay, that totally sounded conceited, but it was true. At first, she wanted to help her friend work it out with her crush so she did all of that meddling, but in the end, it turned against her. And when she brought the blonde out to a sports game (though they weren't that interested), they run into the crush that rejected her the other day. It was a horrible set up, and fate was not on her side right now. Thinking about the things that she put Yellow through, she couldn't help but feel guilty about it.

She nudged Green, hard in his side, capturing his attention in seconds. With his usual irritated look, he grunted, "What now?"

Blue leaned in towards him and tried to whisper in his ear throughout all of the shouting. "Switch places with Red, so I can talk to him."

"What?" Green gave her a look, showing that he didn't hear her. Blue repeated the same thing, but instead of whispering, she yelled in his ear. Green pushed her face away with his hand and rubbed his ear, annoyed by her actions. "Pesky woman..." he grumbled. "There's no way I'll do that!" He said it out loud normally since Red couldn't hear him through all of the shouting surrounding them.

"Why not?" she asked, frowning. "Let me mend my mistake! I feel guilty!"

"You should!" he snapped at her. "Meddling is what got them there in the first place. Meddling isn't going to make them get out of it. Understand? Just leave things alone."

Blue gave him an unbelievable look. "I'm not meddling! I'm just gonna talk about it! Aren't you upset at the outcome?"

"Not really," Green said, indifferent. Whether his best friend and the girl he tutored hooks up, or not, it didn't really affect him. Maybe it'll cut the time he has with Red, but honestly, Green didn't really care about it since he likes doing stuff alone most of the time.

Blue nudged him again, even harder this time.

He twitched his eye again unconsciously. "What now?!"

"I need to go to the restroom. Come with me now," she demanded, acting sickly sweet.

"If you haven't noticed yet, I'm a guy," Green stated flatly, getting irritated that she would even demand that, or 'ask' it, in her case. "Go ask Yellow!"

"I can't! Just come with me!" Blue said, grabbing onto his arm and pulling it towards her.

Red turned his attention from the game to Green, finally noticing the situation. "Huh? Green, you're going somewhere?"

"No!"/"Yes!" the two brunettes answered at the same time.

Red raised an eyebrow, confused about what was going on. Yellow looked at them as well, confused as to what they were doing, but she couldn't properly hear them with all the shouting.

"Oh, just c'mon!" Blue muttered, tugging on his arm and dragging him out of the seat.

"But I'll miss the game!" Green snapped. "Can't this wait till after?!"

"No! Love waits for no one! And so do I!" Blue responded.

"Do I look like I care—"

"—Ladies and gentlemen, it's time for half time with the cheerleaders!" the announcer announced, speaking loudly through the speakers of the stadium.

"Nice timing!" Blue remarked. "Now, c'mon! You won't miss the game!"

Green groaned and let out a sigh, finally giving up. "If this will shut you up for the rest of the game..." he grumbled, standing up on his own and walking out with Blue, passing Yellow on the way.

Yellow realized she was alone with Red (even though they were two seats away), and used the chance to go wander for popcorn or something.


"What is it? Hurry up before the game starts again," Green told her impatiently.

Green didn't really look forward to a lot of things, but he was really looking forward to this football game, considering he was the one who was badgering Red about getting the tickets in the first place. One of the national teams was playing, and he didn't want to miss it. He didn't want to miss it for this dumb reason either.

Blue gave him a serious face. "I need to talk to Red."

Green's eye twitched. "My name is Green, wrong person. I'm going back." When he turned around to go back to the stadium, Blue jumped in his way, blocking him.

"Wait! You're not listening to everything I'm saying! I need a favor."

A sigh escaped his lips. "Again?"

"Oh, don't act like I always ask you for them! I just need your help on what to do, okay? The guilt is eating me up! I can steal like there's no tomorrow with no trace of conscience, but when it comes to friends, it's a different story! How can I help Yellow out as a good friend? I tried to bring her here to forget about Red, but in the end, we run into him!" Blue explained.

"And you're asking me for friendship advice, why?"

Green might've been popular for his relationship with Red, and they were known best friends, but obviously, he wasn't close to anyone else.

"Because! I know your only emotion is anger and you're mean, but you have a brain in there," Blue answered, knocking her fist against her forehead to gesture his brain. "Just... Please tell me what I should do. I'm literally throwing my pride out here."

"As if you were. You dragged me out by demanding me," Green said, narrowing his eyes. "And if you really want to help them, then stop meddling! It's what started the whole Yellow and Red mess in the first place."

"You are such a rotten person! I hope you rot in a sewer or something in your last moments," Blue insulted, feeling offended. She literally told him a few seconds ago that she felt super guilty with everything, and he just rubbed salt on the wound by reminding her.

"See? Throwing your pride, not," Green mocked. He let out another sigh. "Anyways, you're leaving them alone right now by themselves. Is that what a good friend is?"

"I know, but they're two seats away..." Blue mumbled before going into a frenzy, thrashing her arms around. "Argh! Why is life so complicated? My OTP ship was literally sunk by its own cannon balls, and they're sinking! It's so hard for me, the captain, to patch everything up! And even though the ship is split in half by two, I'm trying to make it right! You totally don't understand my problems!"

"Of course I don't! Why are you acting like they're a real ferry or something?!" Green hissed, thinking of her insane metaphors. "If you have something to worry about, it should be about the meeting that's going to happen later!"

Blue stopped her rage attack and froze at his words, completely calm. She shrugged her shoulders coolly. "Oh that? It's no biggie."

Once again, his famous eye twitch happened again. "'No biggie'? It's a huge deal. What happens if something dangerous attacks us? Also, what about the other members? Are they on the same side as that insane game? You should be worried about these things instead of your crazy ship obsession with Yellow and Red!"

"Of course I'm worried about Yellow, but the meeting is whatever! One way or another, I need to track down both allies and enemies, so it was bound to happen sometime," Blue told him. She was going to hide anyway, so she didn't really worry. "I know more than half of the members already, and I highly doubt they're going to kill me. Well... not fully doubt, but mostly. If the people attack, you're going to still keep that favor I asked you to, right?"

Blue's serene blue eyes turned serious when Green looked at them.

Green clicked his tongue and ran his hand through his ginger spiky hair. "Yeah, yeah, I know," he told her. "I'm going back to the game."

Without waiting for her, he already began walking away.


Though Platinum had complete confidence earlier when she and Diamond got attacked, she had little now.

There she was, holding a wooden bow and arrow in her hands, staring at them with an unsure look. It was her first time touching something like this, or so that's how it felt to her, and she didn't really feel Dawn's spirit coursing through her. She didn't know how she shot the arrow the first time, and she couldn't remember. Could she really do this?

"Are you okay?" Marley's words snapped her out her thoughts.

She looked up with a questioning look. "Am I holding this right?" She held it up, pulling the bow beside her in the shooting position.

Marley raised an eyebrow, wondering what the heck she was doing. "You're holding it upside down."

She upright the bow for her and positioned her body in the stance she thought was best. "There. I think that's the position Dawn always uses. Try it."

Platinum walked up to a line twenty feet away from the target and took her aim, hesitantly. She stopped her breathing as she let go of her arrow and it flew through the air. The arrow quickly sliced through the wind and actually landed on the board with the target. Unfortunately, it wasn't even close to the point, but outside of the largest circle, barely hitting the board by the corner.

"..." Platinum stared at her shot, failure washing over her for the first time.

"Guess you don't have all of Dawn's qualities," Marley commented. Platinum turned to her and shot her a look. "Oops, sorry. Did I say that out loud? ... I'll go get more. Use the three on the table beside you while I'm gone."

Platinum nodded and followed her instruction, getting ready to shoot another arrow.


She sure is into this, Marley thought on the way.

She went to get more arrows from the clerk in the front with Platinum's money. After the clerk gave her the change, she used the rest of it to actually buy some for her to keep. For now, they were renting. If anything, Platinum should get her own since she might need it later.

When she got all the things she needed, she went back to Platinum who already ran out of arrows in the five minutes she was gone. From a distance, Marley could see that the arrows she shot had all missed the target completely, not even close to hitting the center.

Is she really going to be okay?

As she passed through the tiny crowd, she accidentally bumped into a man in black.

"My bad," she said, picking up the stuff she dropped in the accident.

He ignored her and continued talking on his phone. "For now, Sabrina ordered us not to apprehend her since Boss Giovanni doesn't want to kill them and wait patiently. The next attack should be in a week per Lt. Surge's orders and due to preparations..."

Marley froze on the ground and dropped the arrow in her hand when she heard what the person said. Quickly, she gathered the stuff after sorting out her inner thoughts and rushed over to Platinum, tossing the basket of arrows on the table beside her.

"Finally, you're here. I need more," Platinum said, reaching out to grab an arrow.

"Hey," Marley called.

Platinum let go of her shooting stance and turned to the girl, relaxing. "What is the matter?"

"I'm not going to the comedy show anymore. Go with err... Diamond and Pearl. I remembered I have things to do."

Platinum arched an eyebrow, completely confused as to why she was acting like this.


"Why are we here?"

"Well, it's the morning, and I haven't eaten yet."

They both stood in front of the cafe Yellow worked at, and Crystal was confused as to why he dragged her here. Though she had good intentions in buying him something to make up for what happened last time as a peace treaty, she didn't expect them to come here. She was just thinking she could to-go the food and buy for him at the end.

"Yeah, I know, but why aren't we at the phone store? I know what model my old phone was, so it wouldn't take too long," Crystal informed.

Gold held the door open for her. "Aw, but where's the fun in that? Let's get some grub, I'm starving."

Crystal didn't follow his gesture and crossed her arms instead, staying in her spot. "What are you planning?"

"Look, I just want to go in, eat, and get to know you more! We never talk," Gold responded, trying to look innocent. Crystal can see the mischievousness tugging on his lips though.

"Yo, so are you coming?"

"Yeah," she replied, entering in with him.

When they entered, the maid working there brought them to their tables, and waited there to take their orders. They both came here regularly, so they didn't need time and the menus to order. Crystal just ordered water since she wasn't in the mood for anything in the morning, and Gold wanted the usual dish he gets at the cafe when it's breakfast time. After taking their orders, the maid left them.

"So," Gold began, resting his chin on his hands that were supported by his elbows on the table. "What do you like to do when you're at home?"

Crystal raised an eyebrow suspiciously. "Why?"

"Just asking. I thought we should get to know each other more. We're basically good friends already," Gold replied.

"Uh huh..." Crystal mumbled absentmindedly, still skeptical of whether he was going to try anything. "I do my homework and work. I also do chores since Soul isn't really good at doing them."

"... What about hobbies?"

"Hobbies? I spend time at the orphanage volunteering and practicing karate," Crystal answered.

Now saying these things out loud, Crystal never really had anything that interested her except for just basic living and school. She did, however, play games online, but that was the extent, and there was no way she was going to tell Gold that. She remembered how hyped he was when he saw Black's card last time, but she couldn't bring herself to tell him.

Gold paused and looked at her. He knew he wouldn't crack her so easily. He started to doubt whether Crystal was guilty or a part of the game when Blue told him to check her out. Though he wanted to be doubtful about it, he somehow felt Blue wasn't wrong. There was also the fact where Silver told him what happened with Soul, so it wouldn't be surprising if she played.

"At an orphanage? I work at one."

Crystal raised an eyebrow, surprised he would do this kind of work. "Really? Which one?"

"Uh... Elm's something...?" Gold replied, unsure. "I just started working a week ago, so I don't know much."

"If you mean Elm's Orphanage, then I work there too. Well, work isn't the correct term, but I volunteer there," Crystal informed.

"The one with the dancing teacher, right?" Gold asked.

Crystal nodded her head. "I go there when I have time. Emerald actually used to be there, but he started school and moved into dorms."

"Oh, so that's why you know him," Gold said, thinking about the past experiences he saw with him and Crystal together at times. "Anyways, are you sure you don't do anything else in your free time? Like anything personal?"

Crystal glared at him, getting the wrong idea. "Stop asking stalker questions."

"That's not what I meant—"

"—Here's your order!" the waitress interjected, putting the things that Crystal and Gold ordered on the table quickly before going off to another table.

Crystal raised an eyebrow when she saw what Gold had ordered. It was the perfect breakfast if you really like sweet things. He had three whole plates of food sitting in front of him. One plate contained chocolate chip pancakes topped with blueberries and strawberries, another had the usual eggs, hash brown, bacon, and sausage links, and the last plate had a perfect strawberry shortcake saved for later. Including the luxurious breakfast was fresh orange juice poured in a cup.

Before he dug in, Crystal spoke up, "Are you rich or something?"

Gold looked up from his breakfast, his knife and fork in his hands ready to devour the food. "Wait, what?" He let out a laugh, wondering how she got the idea. "This cafe isn't that expensive, and since Yellow works here, I get a discount, so it's not really a big deal. You want something besides water? I'll pay since I'm the one who invited you out and dragged you here. It's the least the amazing Gold can do for you."

"I'm good. I don't like to eat in the mornings much," Crystal waved off. "I already had some eggs at home."

"You sure you don't want some of my pancakes?" Gold cut a piece and waved it in her face with his fork. "It's chocolate chip~!"

"I'm good," she repeated, not looking tempted at all. After all, she was used to keeping up a good, healthy diet for her club activities. She was used to being tempted by wonderful, tasty things, so this was no big deal for her.

"Try some!"

Gold ignored her statement and shoved the fork into her mouth without warning. Because of its suddenness, Crystal nearly choked on the pancake piece. She quickly went to go chug her water to wash it down. After she finished wiping her mouth, Gold asked whether she liked the taste.

"I couldn't taste it. I was kind of choking on it with my life on the line," Crystal answered, giving him a look.

"Want to try some more?" Gold put his fork out to her once again.

"I said I'm fine," Crystal reminded, covering her mouth in case another attack would happen.

Gold laughed at her attempts to protect herself and ate the slice he prepared for her himself. "It's so yummy! It literally melts in your mouth! Hey, if you want, you can have my cake while I finish this." Gold slid the slice of cake to her with his wrist.

Crystal pushed it back to him. "I don't really want to eat anything. You can have it."

Gold swallowed another piece. "Aw, but I have so much to eat and everything! You should have it! It'll be nice once in a while, y'know? Just don't eat it everyday, or you'll turn out fat," Gold advised, sliding it back.

Her eye twitched at his rudeness. Is this how he talked to all the girls? What do they see in him? She let out a sigh and took the cake since she knew he wouldn't give up on her not eating. Once she took a bite of the delicious cake, she started to wonder again whether Gold was rich since he was eating like a king. The fluffiness swallowed her whole, and since she hasn't had cake in awhile, it tasted really good.

"How is it?" Gold asked, extremely curious.

Crystal quickly swallowed before she answered him. "It's delicious." She cut another piece and shoved it in her mouth, trying to not show a heavenly expression. Gold watched her eat with a chuckle, obviously spotting the clumsy smile she was trying to suppress. The girl averted her eyes from the cake to him and noticed right away. "Why are you staring at me?"

"You're adorable when you eat."

Her frowning expression returned to her face when she realized he was flirting.

Gold saw this and quirked an eyebrow at her reaction. "You know I'm complimenting you, right?"

"Yeah, yeah," Crystal mumbled, shoving another piece in her mouth.


"Hey Missy!" Diamond called cheerfully as he ran over to her with his hand up in a wave. Platinum turned to the voice who called her and smiled when she caught the sight of Diamond and Pearl running towards her.

"Yo!" Pearl greeted, giving a small wave once he reached her. He looked around then cocked an eyebrow. "Marley isn't here?"

"She was going to attend, but she changed her mind and told me to go by myself all of a sudden," Platinum explained.

"Aw, the ticket is gonna go to waste," Diamond said, frowning.

Pearl shrugged his shoulders. "Well, it was gonna go to waste before anyways. We should head over to the audience quickly. It should take at least half an hour going downtown."

"... Pardon, if I may ask, are we walking?" Platinum asked.

Pearl looked at her strangely, thinking she was crazy. "That'll take forever. Of course not!"

Platinum looked around and blinked. "But I do not see any vehicles around."

When Diamond and Pearl first came, they came running from the side, which is definitely not the direction of the parking lot. She assumed they walked here since it was only ten minutes away from their dorms.

"We're taking the bus," Diamond informed.

Platinum cocked her head to the side, wondering why they had to go take it. "Do you want me to call my butler to drop us off?" she offered, getting her pink cell phone out of her purse.

"No, it's fine," Pearl denied. "There'll be a lot of traffic downtown and it'll be hard to get through. We shouldn't bother your people with it. We'll just take the bus. The station is five minutes down that street."

"If you insist. I shall go on the bus then," Platinum gave in. Thinking about it more, this could be fun. She never rode in one personally since it's for commoners, so to experience it was an opportunity to learn more.

She pulled her wallet out of her purse and began taking out money from it, earning surprising looks from both Diamond and Pearl. She held the bills out in her hand in front of them. "Will this be enough money for the bus?"

"That's enough money to buy the bus," Pearl informed, shocked that she actually kept that much in her tiny purse.

"Wow Missy," Diamond remarked, impressed that she had that much money. "Even with the part time jobs I've ever worked in, I'd never have that much."

"That's because you only work for two hours for your mom and Missy is rich," Pearl told him.

While watching Platinum put her money away, he stole a glance at his watch. "Guys! Let's hurry up! We're going to miss the bus and we'll be late! There's only eight minutes till it departs and we still have to buy a bus pass at the station."

"I am ready," Platinum announced.

Diamond grinned and grabbed both of their hands, swinging it for fun. "Let's go!"

Platinum looked down at her hand that Diamond held and smiled, accepting the friendship.


"Hey," Yellow greeted as she slipped into her seat next to Blue. After hiding in the restrooms from Red, she finally came out.

She turned to the brunette, wondering why she responded with a quiet tone, only to find Blue in one of her pouts, upset moments.

Usually when she's upset, she would make this scrunched up, pissed off face and keeps her arms crossed like a baby. Other times, she would make a concentrated look. This time it was the first one. Wondering what could've caused it, Yellow asked why.

Blue only responded with a "he's a jerk", and that one sentence didn't help Yellow at all. Luckily, she came out of her moment and changed her mood. "Yellow, do you really care about this game?"

"... I'm actually not into sports because of the violence involved, but it's just a game so I wouldn't say I dislike it," Yellow said, feeling neutral. She didn't even know what was going on because she would daydream and space out, and was in the restroom hiding for a good part of it.

"Then is it okay if we leave?" Blue asked.

Yellow furrowed her eyebrows, wondering why she suddenly wanted to leave. In the end, she just agreed because it seemed like Blue didn't want to be here, and even though they were two seats away, the tension was very high and awkward between her and Red. Well, for her personally. She didn't know how Red felt since he looked the same.

"Let's go to our picnic."


"There are way too many puzzles," Ruby stated, groaning. He shoved himself away from the desk and laid back in his recliner, resting his head. He spun it around and looked at Emerald who was on the computer typing. "I give up. I don't want to do this anymore!"

"Stop whinin'!" Emerald snapped, his eyes still on the screen. "We need to find more information based off of the game."

"I know, but it's not working! There's nothing special except for how to play the game and cheats!" Ruby retorted, rolling his eyes. "I mean, I have some info about the creators of the game, the Rocket Company, but there isn't really anything relevant! Just random stuff about how they made the game and how old it is!"

Emerald stopped typing on the computer and spun his chair around to Ruby. He crossed his legs and placed a hand on his chin as he started to think and put the puzzle pieces together. "I mean if the game is really behind this, what are their motives? It's weird. They're suddenly going after us with no reason at all. Or, any reason I can't think of."

"It would be best to go to the source, but we don't even know the source and last time we somewhat interacted with the 'source', some guys tried to kill us," Ruby reflected.

He sighed and laid back on his chair again. "Hey Rald, are you sure we should be meeting up with them?"

"Huh?" Emerald said, snapping out his thoughts and looking up at Ruby.

Ruby leaned forward. "I'm just saying. Wouldn't it be a bad move if we just go meet the others? I mean, I know we need to know who's involved and everything, but aren't showing ourselves too much?"

"You can't say it's that dangerous though," Emerald responded. "Not only us, but they're the other people who got attacked, including Crystal and Soul. It's unlikely, but if you're in the same predicament, you might team up with complete strangers to get past it. At least that's what I think. If the other people are willing to help stop this mess, then I'm willing to put my share in work as well."

Ruby laid back on his chair again, deep in thought. "Yeah, I guess you're right."


After many hours of waiting, the moment finally came. Sapphire prepared for this ever since she got the text message. She wore the most flexible clothes she could find, which were her P.E. shorts and a t-shirt. Wearing a helmet on her head and being armed with a hockey stick, she ran out of her apartment, ready to fight to go to war.


"Oh! I lost track of time..." Crystal mumbled to herself, finally noticing the time when she got her phone. The meeting time was five minutes away, and she hasn't noticed all day since she didn't think hanging with Gold would take so long. She looked around, only to also remember that Gold was in the restroom.

This was hard. Despite his gross interior that she mostly disliked, she didn't want to just leave him by himself. She didn't want to say it, but today has actually been pretty decent than she thought it'd be. Gold has actually been a gentlemen to her (besides the pancake choking moment) and they hung around Central Square and got her a new phone. She couldn't just ditch him like that, even if she was in a hurry. It didn't really matter anyways since the fountain was right outside of the store. The only thing that concerned her was Soul being alone with the others, but she knew she could trust Emerald.

BING!

{One new message!}

A text message snapped her out of her thoughts. She turned her head to see Gold's phone light up, the screen showing the text message already. Crystal wasn't the type to snoop, nor was she the person to pry into people's private things, but she happened to spot her name when she turned to look at the phone, and couldn't help it. It involved her anyways, so it's not like it's a crime.

To: Gold
From: Big Sis Blue

hey! where are you? it's almost time 2 meet up! did u managed to find anything about crystal that involves the game?

At that moment, she froze. The game? The reason why he asked me out in the first place was to spy on me? Thoughts ran through her head as she tried to remember the weird questions he kept asking her that made her feel uncomfortable. "What are your hobbies?" "What do you do on your free time? Like something personal?" The moment she realized what he was actually doing, she turned red, in either embarrassment or anger. At first, she didn't like those questions, but after hanging with him throughout the day, she assumed it was just him getting to know her as a friend, but no, it was spying instead.

Crystal clutched his device in her hands unconsciously, cracking the screen a bit.

Behind her, Gold appeared, coming out of the restroom. "Hey, sorry I took so lo—" He stopped when she turned around, her angry emotions plastered on her face.

Crystal threw his cracked phone at his face. "And to think, I thought you were a decent person! Now, I find out you're trying to figure me out! Well, Gold, your little spy game is over."

Without giving him a further explanation, Crystal marched out of the store in rage.

Gold looked confused. They were having such a good time before, and now all of sudden, she's angry at him? His question was soon answered when he saw the text Blue sent him opened.

"Wait!" he called out, running after her.


"B-Blue... Yellow?!" Sapphire exclaimed, her mouth agape. She couldn't believe her eyes.

It didn't help that Red and Green were there too. The only people gathered at this time were Ruby, Emerald, Blue, Yellow, Red, Green, Soul, and Silver. Though she was mostly surprised by the seniors, she was still surprised with Soul too. But the thing that shocked her the most was probably Emerald's appearance. She knew he was into stuff, but she didn't expect him of all people to play. Well, to be honest, the whole set up was unexpected.

Blue swung the metal pole around her back in a casual manner. "Sorry Sapphire, but I played it before."

Originally, Blue and Yellow was going to hide and watch them from the side, but as more people came and they recognized the members, they came out from hiding.

"I don't think these are necessary," Yellow told her, gesturing towards the baseball bat.

Blue told her to have some weapon for self-defense, but seeing that no one else brought one, she felt embarrassed. Sapphire's hockey stick made her feel a little better though.

"I'm actually surprised too," Red said, speaking up and joining the conversation. "I didn't know you were in the same group, Sapph! When did you play?"

"I started in middle school," she informed. "But hold up, I just realized ya lied ta me, Prissy Boy!" She immediately went to turn on Ruby, who seemed confused as to what she was talking about. "Ya said that ya didn't know anymore members when I tried to mention it, but you knew Rald! You were lying!"

Ruby pushed the accusing finger out of his face. "I met Rald awhile ago."

"No, he didn't," Emerald denied, earning a look from Ruby. "Sorry man, I don't lie, and you totally deserve this."

Honestly, he didn't care, but he thought it was fun to throw Ruby under the bus. Plus, Ruby kept insulting his outfit on the way here, and he was annoyed.

Sapphire tossed her hockey stick aside and yanked his collar closer to her, giving him a look that demanded a good answer. Ruby struggled to release her grip.

"Well... this is weird," Diamond muttered, entering the area with Pearl. All eyes turned on them, capturing their attention. Diamond leaned over to Pearl and whispered, "Why is the detention crew here?" Though it was a whisper, it was a loud whisper and everyone could hear.

"How should I know?!" Pearl replied, flickering his eyes back and forth from Diamond to the others. He deflated, sinking his shoulders. "And I was in such a good mood from the comedy show too!" He looked at Green, and his thoughts literally ran all over his face, wondering why a serious person like him would play in the first place. Green noticed it and gave him a glare to make him look away.

"I don't know whether I should be shocked or not anymore," Silver said, acting cool about the situation.

"Why the detention crew though..." Soul quietly muttered to herself, catching Silver's attention. They made a quick second eye contact before she turned away swiftly to avoid more awkwardness and tension.

"I was right!" Emerald announced as he nudged Ruby. Unfortunately, the other boy couldn't see because he was focused on living with Sapphire, almost choking him to death.

"If it's the detention group then Crystal, Gold, and Missy would be left. But there's no way—"

"—What is it?"

Pearl jumped at the sound of a calm voice ringing through his ears from behind. He whirled around to see Platinum there, her arms folded. Looking at her appearance, he noticed there was a bow and a cup full of arrows hanging around her shoulder.

"You gave me a heart attack!" he told her. Platinum blinked, ignoring most of the shocked stares she was getting from the others. Pearl went over to Diamond and muttered, "Hey, did you know that Missy played?"

Diamond finished the churro he got from the stand nearby. "I sort of guessed it and found out when she got attacked last time."

He thought she was just involved because of Candice, but seeing her reactions that night kind of made Diamond guess she was a member. He didn't say anything though because he wasn't sure, and he felt she might've not been comfortable to share.

"Now it's just Crystal and Gold left," Blue muttered to Yellow. "I wonder where they are. He hasn't texted me back yet."

On cue, the two came out of some electronic store across the square. It was obvious that Crystal was walking away upset by the look on her face, and Gold was desperately trying to chase her. The two could be heard from the meetup spot, and they came closer.

"Wait! W-What?! You got it all wrong, Super Serious Gal!" Gold tried to explain.

Before he could, Crystal cut him off. "Save it! I thought you were a good person for taking the bullet for me when they attacked, but your big plan to lure me over here! That's why you actually took me out, isn't it?!" Now, she went out of control, her emotions visibly showing. "And to think I thought you were a decent person for once!"

"You're not listening to me!" Gold said, grabbing her arms and shaking her body.

Crystal quickly shook him off, shoving him away and grabbing onto herself defensively. She went in front of Soul protectively, and with a more determined look before, she stared at them, showing no signs of fear.

"Soul and I don't want to be a part of this killing crew, so leave us out of this!" she declared. She would've added Emerald with her and Soul, but being blind with rage, she didn't even notice anyone but Soul and Gold at the moment. "For all I know, you could be in a league with the game!"

"Woah, hold up! Why do you think we're the one who started all of this?!" Blue protested, jumping into the conversation. Crystal and Gold didn't even notice anyone else's appearance until Blue jumped into their conversation.

She narrowed her eyes on the girl. "I'm not the best of friends with Gold, nor do I respect his somewhat perverted side, but that doesn't mean you can just accuse him like that! Not just him, but all of us! You might've not been there when I was attacked, but I was! I might've gotten uninjured, but that doesn't make me the culprit! Okay, we're all victims in this case, so before you can just point fingers at us like that, you should actually start listening and we should work together! Some jacked up maniac is out to kill us, and when I say 'us', I mean all of us! Don't act like you're the only pity case over here, because you're not!"

"Blue..." Yellow mumbled, latching onto her arm to stop her rage attack.

Crystal scoffed, looking skeptical of their words. "Okay, tell me how I'm supposed to believe you. I barely know you in person for a couple weeks! It's kind of hard to trust someone you don't know well!"

Blue continued to narrow her eyes at her and give her a glare. "You know, you didn't even get hurt at all! I don't get why you're whining about trust right now!"

"Blue!" Yellow said loudly, trying to stop her again.

"No, Yellow, she has to hear it!" Blue replied to the blonde, shoving her arm back to release Yellow's grip. Accidentally, she shoved it too hard, and Yellow fell back by the force. The blonde was knocked onto the floor, landing on her bottom.

"Yellow!" Red said, rushing over to her side. Though things were awkward between them, he still saw her as a good friend and wanted to help her.

Blue didn't notice the slip up she gave Yellow and continued to argue with Crystal. "Okay, if anyone has vengeance right now, it should be Silver and I! I know I didn't get injured at all, but my baby brother did! And to still say that you think we're the ones who are trying to harm you is going past the line! Gold even took a damn bullet for you! How dare you accuse us like that?! I've been working my butt off of this just to understand this, and right now, you're breaking it apart before I could!"

"Blue, stop!" Red told her after helping Yellow up. Like Yellow, he grabbed her arm to get her attention.

"Red, what did I say?! Don't stop me!" Blue ripped his grip off of her arm and pushed him away from her, making him hit the fountain's stones. Since he didn't have the full balance, he was knocked back and he tripped, falling into the fountain itself.

SPLASH!

Silence went throughout the area, everyone freezing at what happened. Blue still kept the scowl on her face, keeping her attention on Crystal, who was intent on protecting her sister. Though, she did notice Red and glanced an apologetic look at him for a quick second.

Sapphire went over to go help her senior out of the fountain, and Yellow rushed over worriedly.

"Hey! Why don't you just stop this already?!" Green scolded her, finally blowing up after seeing his friend get dumped into the fountain like that.

"Oh, you want to say something too, huh, Leaf?! What, you don't trust me at all?!" Blue blew up in his face, her voice expressing her anger.

"Why don't you just stop this?!" Green repeated, raising his voice at her. "I could care less about trust! But to actually do that to your 'friends' is something I'll go against! Crystal might've said something stupid because she doesn't trust any of us, but you said and did something dumber! Can you blame the girl? Her sister was shot in the leg the other day! I don't know what happened to Gold, but her sister was in the same case as him! I get why you're defensive, but to take it out on others is not what you should do!"

"Don't scold her!" Silver shouted, breaking in between them, doing a protective stance in front of Blue.

"Oh, really? You're going to take her side even though she's wrong?!" Green said, giving him a disappointed look.

"Guys, stop!" Pearl yelled, trying to get in between them like Silver. "We're not supposed to be fighting like this! Weren't we allies online?!"

"We are!" Blue screamed, replying to her. "That's why I want us to go through this together and figure out what that game organization has for us, but noooo! Little Ms. Accuser has to keep her trust to herself!" She darted her eyes to Crystal who was still in front of her sister, arms folded.

"She was hurt too because of Soul! You can't blame her for not trusting any of us!" Green defended. Though he wasn't completely on Crystal's side, he totally wasn't on Blue's side. Right now, the girl was making an enemy of everyone today and criticizing Crystal's feelings.

"She's not hurt! She can walk perfectly! Her wound isn't there like Gold's and mines!" Silver retorted, giving the brunette hiding behind Crystal a death stare. He wasn't going to say it, but he couldn't control himself in the heat of the moment. Soul went back behind her, feeling nervous and hesitant about speaking up.

"Yeah right! Rald's latias came in and healed Gold's wound!" Crystal informed, thinking about the previous events.

"So that's why it didn't seem as deep as I thought it'd be..." Yellow mumbled, remembering the contents of his wound when she was treating it.

"GUYS!" Diamond brought everyone's attention to himself after he had raised his voice louder than everyone else's. They turned to him in surprise, not expecting the kind boy who always offered food and smiled all the time to actually have that tone. It sounded like he was angry or upset, but when they looked, his face was calm. Pearl himself was also surprised to hear that tone.

He lowered his voice down when he finally grasped their attention. "Look, I know it's hard to trust people when you barely know them and after you've been almost killed, but this isn't what we should be doing! We should be actually working together to solve this. Blue might've said harsh things, and Crystal too, but in the end, we all want the same thing, and that's figuring out what to do about this game. I don't know the specifics of what happened to any of you that day at the festival, but I know that all of us are shaken up about it. That's why we should do something about it. Going on about it and focusing on who got hurt isn't going to change anything. The past is the past! Why can't you guys just stop fighting and move on? There's a psycho out there, trying to kill us. If we keep fighting with each other, then we're all going to get hurt."

BING!

All their electronic devices went off, alerting them and interrupting their conversation.

Seriously? Emerald thought. While everyone was backstabbing each other in their faces, someone had the guts to text out of nowhere. Just when Diamond was finally stopping all of the fights, too.

Platinum pulled up her chat and clicked the 'new message' icon. When she tapped on it, it was from their group chat. She looked up at everyone else suspiciously, wondering when someone actually sent this. When she opened the message, her suspicions of them dropped drastically and another one rose for different reasons.

Anonymous12: Your detention teacher, Lt. Surge, is in charge of your attacks. The game is ran by his boss. The game is trying to get you on their side, so that they could use you. Don't trust them, even if they tell you about the attacks. Their words might be true, but they're obviously sending the people.

Platinum looked up again to see who sent this, only to find everyone with the same shocked expression as her. Judging by everyone's faces, Platinum could tell no one was responsible for adding this person. But it didn't make any sense. There was no way someone could've joined their group chat without another person adding them.

Was someone hijacking their group chat?

"Is it the game people again?" Crystal muttered, skeptical of the text.

Just when they thought the whole anonymous text was weird, another one came in.

BING!

Anonymous12: You will get attacked in one week. The wedding is a trap. Prepare, or you'll end up dead. I will be informing you if there's anything more in a different method. Delete this chat now. There should be no evidence of your planning.

{Anonymous12 left the chat.}


WOO some progress! Going way deeper into the plot! I've been WAITING to write this chapter! Sorry if it was OOC, but I was reading this story, and everyone turned into a mob against each other so that's why I thought it'd be interesting to start it out like that. There was that, and I was watching SHIELD: agents of marvel (omg, great first season guys) and they were fighting & there was a lot of backstabbing, so that's another reason why this chapter ended up like that. As for the anonymous texter, I'm pretty sure I put a huge hint in there as to who it was, but if you guys didn't really catch it, then it'll show later.

Their surprised reactions failed horribly since they somewhat knew each other and were blinded by anger (most of them) oops.