(During Issue 8: Will and rebels fought Cedric in Meridian)
"Do you think we're late?" Eric asks as he sees the coliseum right before him by the bus window. After a quarter hour that feels like an hour, they finally arrive at the coliseum bus stop lane.
"I sure hope not." Galgheita replies to him. "I do want to come with you, but I really have be with Arminta to take care the patients back at my mansion, so I need to go home, sorry once again."
"Don't worry, Miss Rudolph. I'll be fine. Thank you once again." Eric grins as he walks out of the bus and lands before Futurdome. He runs and climbs the slippery and snowy stairs and places his hands in a binocular formation on his face as he sees through the curtain glass. 'Looks like nothing's happening!" He says to himself as he sees the usual merry and crowded people around the large lobby.
"You kid!" says someone sternly from behind him and Eric turns around to see a guard with a black jacket and sunglasses. "What are you doing here?"
"Oh nothing! I guess I'll take my leave now." Eric grins and takes his leave. 'Or maybe the successfully stopped the Meridianite entry…And I hope they didn't do anything crazy—'
"Hey you!" the guard calls him once more as Eric again flips his head to face him. The guard then approaches him. "Have you seen two boys same age as yours who wears a brown and a green-blue jackets?"
'I knew it!' Eric sighs to himself and with a fake confusion in his face he crosses brow. "Two boys sir? What have they done?"
"Trespassing and playing dirty magic on us to escape. Anyway nothing you could believe." the guard embarrassingly chuckles.
"Y-Yes right, truly unbelievable" Eric replies as he pulls off a fake chuckle. 'Looks like them it's alright.'
"But please if you find anything peculiar just call one of us, alright kid?" says the guard as he points the guards around them and leaves him.
"S-Sure!" Eric replies smilingly as he surveys around and concentrates as a puff of steam surrounds him.
"Oh one thing kid—huh?" the guard again turns around to Eric but he was gone in an instant! "Where did he go? That's strange."
Underneath the ground above, Eric teleports to the basement in a hypotenuse direction and appears within the shadows of the lightly and murky lit hallways. 'Guess I'm in the basement now. Still nothing usual has happened!' he says to himself as he examines the hallways and wears his black face mask.
He then proceeds to check along the hallways as he hears the vibrating yells and rock music above. He places his hand along the bricked and cracked walls as he finds his colleagues. He also hides beneath the shadows as the guards pass by and listen to their conversations on the radios. Yet a few minutes passed, he never saw anything peculiar and neither the portal.
"This One Alpha Bravo, no sign for the two delinquents." Eric listens and hides behind the boxes and listens to the static voice of the radio as another guard passes by him.
'Boy, they're searching for them as wanted fugitives!' Eric says to himself.
"This is Two Charlie Bravo and we have situation here on stage! It seems like kind of special effects but it somehow isn't according to the stage designers." says the radio. "We have some kind of large bubble in the air and in it is somehow large green lizard beast and a costumed woman!"
"Roger that! This is Three Charlie Bravo heading backstage!" affirms the guard on the radio and proceeds to run along the hallway.
'That can't be right!' Eric says to himself as he too dashes quietly to the backstage.
As he got to the crowded and busy stage, he blends himself in it as the hectic and active staffers never seem to notice his presence as they were too occupied on themselves and never seem to care the people around them. He then proceeds to where the series of monitors are where every angle of the camera is taken used to show the live screenings on the large screen on the backstage.
"You see that transparent disco—thing?!" yells one of the stout and furious art directors who point out to the peculiar rays of colored light that shoots up to the strange and large bubble overhead. "What is that? And who did that? That was never part of the designs that were agreed upon!" he shouts angrily at the designers around him.
"But s-sir, that large prop was never our doing." explains one of the staffers. "It just appeared out of nowhere just like that!"
Once again, Eric blends in with the staffers and watches the monitor and in shock he finally realizes that it was no ordinary prop failure. 'It's a Merdianite and a—Guardian inside a supposed force field!' he says to himself as he then rushes to the crowded audience to see with his two eyes for himself as he wears on his hoodie from his dark blue jacket. 'That's not right! Is the portal somewhere in here? I can't even find Ray and Nigel! Dang, I should've charged my phone!' he complains to himself.
The music and yells even get louder as Eric climbs up the stairs to the stage and audience proper. He gazes at the stage beside him, he sees Karmilla herself singing with her band and the audience who sing and cry in unison to the song.
Above the huge and spacious stage above her, it's the flying lizard as he tries to get rid the Guardian off on its back. She then releases him and falls as another Guardian flies to save her from the fall. Then a burst of beams from the cardinal directions executes the crying lizard. He follows the end of beam of aura and founds out it was the other Guardians themselves, within the crowd, who were attacking it.
'So the Guardians exposed themselves literally and the audience thinks they too are props as well!' Eric says to himself. 'Yet I can't find Nigel nor Ray! Where are they?'
Then suddenly the large lizard fizzles with the light and then with flash of light blinding light, it disappears into thin air. 'He's gone! Looks like the Guardians disintegrated him!'
Then he sees the guardians as they point to the other side of the stage. 'Nope, looks like the lizard is trying to escape!' He then goes through the less dimmed, empty and narrow passage way filled with wires and cables behind the screen, a shortcut to get to the other side of the stage than to descend down the basement to climb up to the other side.
Then at the other end of the narrow way Eric sees the large lizard creature again as he transforms to a human being. He then suddenly recognizes the tall masculine long hair blondie far from him. 'Isn't that Cedric?' He recognizes the last time he saw him was the first fight he had with him back at the Sheffield Institute. Cedric then quickly runs away from the passageway, as he probably tries to escape from the Guardians.
As he reaches the end of the way, Cedric is nowhere to be found as supposed he blends himself in the wild and dense crowd. 'Was he captured? Or did he escape?' he analyzes the situation as he also sees no sign of the Guardians' presence.
He then rushes toward the exit to check on the situation as he arrives to a wall corner and suddenly "Ooff!" His hoodie then comes off and jerks as he bumps into a person, a girl to be exact, as she appears from the hidden corner.
"Oooff!" the petite girl, black long hair with twin long ponytails on her back with the noticeable goggles, also reacts as she bumps into him and takes a few steps backs.
"Sorry!" he turns concernedly and apologizes to her as he quickly wears his hoodie back. Though in the dark with a only spotlights the only source of light, he takes a slow but a fast glimpse on the beauty on front of him.
"Sorry too." She says as she rubs her shoulder.
"Hey!" says another girl brown and short hair girl, assuming her friend, calls him and points his finger on him. "Watch where you're going pal!"
"On the run! So sorry again!" Eric then yells as he continues to run to the exit and makes way and ascends through the populated and wild crowd of young fans, until he makes it to the exit.
'Dang!' he rushes out of the exit and searches for Cedric among the large and a sea of crowd before him in open and vast lobby. 'Well unless the Guardians captured him, there's no need to find him.' He pants and leans on a large circular post and takes his time to catch his breath.
"Eric?" a recognizable voice comes up to him.
Eric heaves a big sigh as he removes his face mask and hoodie off. "Nigel, Ray, how I'm glad to see you both at the wrong time. How's the portal going because I have lot of things to tell you both."
Nigel and Ray look at each other with concern and worry in their faces as they wait for the other to speak.
"Something wrong?" Eric asks as he notices. "Don't tell me you failed to find the portal or the mission was unsuccessful."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about the portal and the Meridianites, the mission was a success." Ray commends, yet in a sarcastic tone.
"Then what's with your anxious faces then." Eric asks confusingly.
"Eric—umm…" Nigel says as he rubs his head as he approaches to a short and skinny blondie boy with the simple shirt and shorts attire and with the noticeable large round glasses behind him and introduces him on front of Eric.
"And who is he?" Eric asks.
"M-My name is Martin. Martin T-Tubbs." He introduces shyly but with sense of braveness in him. "A-And I demand an answer!"
"What answer? What is he saying Nigel?" Eric asks.
"He knows our secret, Eric." Nigel explains.
