Chapter 7 - Downtown Beatdown
Farther away from where the two boys had been staying, but only a ten minute car drive away – Dawn was lying on her bed. She was looking through apps on her phone, as she had nothing better to do. She couldn't go outside, since she had been told to stay inside the house by her father.
Even though he said he wouldn't be gone for long as he was only going to get groceries, he had already been gone for an hour. Sora, the family Japanese Spitz, was half asleep in her medium dog bed that was placed at the end of Dawn's bed. Her salmon pink walls were covered with jpop posters and posters of American bands.
The girl was dressed in her usual outfit, waiting to hear her dad call for her to unpack the shopping or for someone to text her. She didn't want to wake Sora up, and she knew Amelia was too busy. The lack of anything happening to distract her made her think about the previous few days. I knew Augustus marching off like that like get him lost eventually, she thought to herself. But shouldn't he have been found by now? The day was shaping up to be yet another boring one. It wasn't like she was going to do the homework that was assigned to her.
Being fed up with the uninteresting environment around her, she hopped off her bed and started to go downstairs. She turned into the living room and went straight for the couch. After she jumped down on the newish faux leather couch, her hand reached over to the remote and her thumb pressed down on the power button. But for whatever reason, the television that stood behind a small coffee table didn't turn on. She tried pressing the same button multiple times and from different angles, but nothing actually turned it on.
As was usual for her, she quickly became bored once again. It was almost like she could only ever focus on what she actually found interest in, and trying to fix the tv and its remote was not one of them. She got up and walked over to the fireplace on the other side of the room. Looking pass the family photos, she remembered the radio that was always there. She pressed one of its buttons with one of her index fingers and unlike the newer technology, it turned on.
It was on some radio station that her dad would listen to and the station seemed to be talking about the news, and it was on its sport's section.
"Despite recent events, the Mech World Championships are still planned to be on their set date." Some underpaid worker said uninterested.
Aw yes, Dawn thought to herself. She had been worried for the last few days that the championship would end up being cancelled due to the recent monkeys incidents. Her mind followed this thought and blocked out the rest of the sport's section. That was until another speaker began to speak.
"And now, we're still waiting for the one and only Sayaka to drop her new single. Until then, let's remember her break out hit – Happy Sensation!" And with that, the one song the young girl had heard over a thousand times started to play.
She had a moment of realisation, and felt so stupid afterwards. She had forgotten that her mother was going to release a new pop album that day! It was no wonder that her dad was taking a long time at the shops, he was probably trying to buy ten copies already. But then, she breathed a sigh of relief. She was glad for once that she had gotten suspended from school, imagine if she was there when the song came out – she would've been harassed all day long.
Of course, this wouldn't be the first time that happened and she did everything she could to get the message out that she wouldn't do anything for anyone, just because they were a fan of her mother. Even then, no one seemed to listen. It didn't matter if she punched someone over it a year or so beforehand, she couldn't go a day without someone asking her about it.
Only a few seconds after the song began to play, she heard her front door fly open. She didn't even need to have anyone call her name before she started running out of the front room, swinging herself around to face the door by holding onto the doorframe. As she came to a stop, she shouted "Finally!".
But she didn't see her dad at the door, instead, Natsumi was standing there. With a surprised smile, the woman began to speak.
"Oh good, you're already dressed to go." Dawn was understandably confused.
"What do you mean?" She asked, tilting her head.
"Well, we kind of need you on standby at the lab." The orange haired woman said.
"Ah what?!" The young girl pouted.
"Yes, I know. But Daichi seems to be having a migraine and Akira is out with his dad for the day…so we really do need your help."
Despite how nice Natsumi was being, Dawn was still disappointed that she couldn't stay at home all day.
"Ugh, okay." Now that she had agreed, even if she didn't have too much of a choice, she knew that she would soon find herself bored at the Professor's house.
"Ah here, don't be like that. You'll be getting something for helping!" The young girl's ears pricked up.
"What is it?" She asked, with a child-like grin on her face.
"You'll have to wait and see." The adult said and spun on her heel to face the outside world.
Though she didn't like waiting, Dawn didn't want to be a brat and keep begging to know. She ran from the living room door towards the front door, grabbing the headphones she had left on top of the shoebox next to the stairs. She grabbed her favourite name brand shoes and sat on the stairs to put them on.
She specifically chose those ones over her other runners since she was sure that nothing would happen, and the white shoes with holographic blue and purple stripes wouldn't immediately be ruined. After she finished tying her second shoe with a double knot, she jumped up to her feet and ran up to Natsumi, who was still standing in the doorway.
"You're ready?" The woman asked with a laugh.
"Yep!" Dawn announced, and walked out of the front door.
It was a less than favourable day, at least to Dawn. It was cloudy and the temperature barely reached double digits, and a cool breeze swept through the air. It wasn't the type of day to have a picnic on, but it was good if you wanted to stand outside a record shop and wait for a new release. Wow, Daichi would love this, she thought to herself. She could only take a few steps before realising that something was different about the small garden, driveway and sidewalk in front of her.
There was another car, parked in the driveway! A white Toyota Corolla, one the young girl recognised as belonging to Akira's family. Then, the headlights of the car flashed and Dawn turned her head to see the orange haired woman holding the car's keys.
"Can I go in the front?" She excitably asked.
After she got a nod from the mother, she ran over to the front most left hand door and opened it. She sat down in the comfortable faux leather seats and cherished the feeling of good transport. It was only a few seconds before Natsumi opened the right hand door and sat in the driver's seat.
The car ride was full of questions such as "Can you tell me what it is now?" and replies such as "No, we're almost there". Needless to say, the trip wasn't all too boring. So many ideas were in Dawn's head, was it a new gadget just for her? She hoped so, even if she would have to wait a few days to actually use it.
When Natsumi parked the car on the curb outside of the professor's house, Dawn jumped out as fast as she could. She waited with an excited grin on her face for the mother to get out aswell, before dashing up the stairs to the house's front door. The door slid open immediately, and the young girl ran through it – aiming for the kitchen. As she made it to the simple kitchen, she realised it was unusually empty. She looked towards the living room, and then knew why the kitchen lacked any people.
Daichi and Charu were sitting next to each other on the couch, and Charu seemed to be acting like a carer of sorts. The young boy was sitting in a ball with a blanket wrapped around him. The curtains for the large screen doors behind them were pulled over and an animated film was playing quietly on the tv. The human-like android looked up at the young girl and smiled, which caused the girl herself to smile back. Despite the welcoming gesture, Dawn turned around and walked back into the hallway.
And as luck would have it, Natsumi was walking through the front door at the exact same time. Upon seeing the recognisable woman, the young girl remembered the actual reason she had came there.
"Can I please have it now?" She begged, running over to the mother who was trying to put her phone back into her pocket.
"Oh okay, as long as you promise not to try not to make Daichi's head worse." Natsumi sighed.
"Promise!" The preteen smiled back, standing up straight.
"Okay, well, it's right in here." The orange haired woman walked pass the very excited child and into the laboratory, closely followed by the very same child.
As expected, Natsumi strolled over to the gadget panel where all the other gadget and gear was placed when it wasn't being used. Dawn stayed close behind her, her hands shaking with excitement. She was thrown a bit off guard, however, when she only saw the monkey net, stun club and the monkey radar on hanging up. Wasn't she meant to get her own weapon? After rummaging a bit through the small shelf beneath the main panel, Natsumi turned around while hiding something in her hands. The young girl's eyes lit up.
"We worked hard to make sure that it'd be something you'd like, and I'm sure you will." As the woman announced that, she moved one of her hands to unveil the unique device.
It seemed like a mechanical wristband connected to a navy glove. Dawn stared at it for a few seconds before looking up, with a dopey smile on her face.
"Uh, what is it exactly?" She asked. Natsumi laughed a bit.
"Well, it's a transformation band! If you press the green button while jumping, you'll be able to transform into whatever persona is in it!" Dawn's smile became completely sincere.
"Wait, really? Like what?!" She was almost jumping into the ceiling with excitement.
"You'll just have to see when you have to use it." The woman smirked, and took the young girl's right hand to put the device on.
When it was securely on her wrist, Dawn flexed her arm and put her hand in a fist. Then, the room was completely silent. Dawn was the first one to speak again.
"So…what do I do now? Daichi's taking up the living room so…" Luckily for the young girl, the woman had a plan.
"I have some work I need help with in the garden." She replied with a smirk.
"I guess so." The young girl sighed, spinning around on her heel.
She had a pout on her face as she walked out the lab door and through the kitchen and living room to the back door. She slipped behind the pulled over curtains and slid the glass door open, before walking outside. She threw her hands over her head and placed them on the back of it, whilst inspecting the surrounding garden.
That's when she realised, that there were no flowers to tend to! After this realisation, Natsumi slid open the door and entered the garden herself. The young girl turned around.
"Uh, aren't there meant to be flowers?" She asked, as the adult began to walk pass her.
"No, no, I need your help to confirm something." Dawn, being as curious as ever, followed the older woman without saying a word.
As they walked around the dome like shape that stood a few metres tall, Natsumi suddenly stopped and the cherry red haired girl almost fell over. The orange haired woman squatted down and moved her hand to gesture that the young girl should do the same, who followed suit. With that, Dawn saw what the woman was fascinated with. It was some form of footprint that imprinted on the other wise level grass.
The footprint itself wasn't big at all. It was smaller than Dawn's own shoe. There seemed to be several places where there were deeper indents into the ground than others, as if there was a design on the sole of the shoes.
"So, do you think this came from something your age?" The woman asked. Dawn looked closer at her friend's mother's shoes and back at the footprint, the difference was hard to ignore.
"Yeah, its too tiny to be an adult." She laughed. Natsumi stood back up.
"That's what I was thinking, but then that only makes more questions." The young girl broke her gaze on the print and looked up towards the only adult nearby.
"Do you think that one of those evil monkeys are around our age?" She asked with a giggle, thinking it may be an absurd idea.
"Maybe, but monkeys are a lot different to humans." The young girl didn't know how to respond, and the situation went silent as she went back to looking at the footprint.
"Natsumi!"
A voice called from the back door.
"The monkey alarm is going off!"
It was Charu calling for them, and the low but clear sound of the alarm could be heard coming from the inside of the house.
"Right!" The woman shouted back in response and immediately started running back inside.
It took Dawn a minute to realise what was going on, but once she did – she almost forgot about the footprint entirely. She turned as she stood up and ran back to the house. As she went through the door that had been left opened for her, the alarm was even more intense than the times before.
Whilst going from the living room to the kitchen, she caught a glance of Daichi – who had thrown the blanket over his head and was now lying down on the couch. Ouch, she thought to herself. She turned her attention back to the situation at hand and ran from the kitchen to the lab in barely a few seconds. The two who had gone ahead of her were standing next to the main module and Natsumi was fiercely typing on the keyboard.
The young girl looked to the empty side of the room. Almost all of the small monitors where showing different things such as a radar type thing and bar graphs. One, however, seemed to be making a 3D model of…something. It was too undetailed for Dawn to make out what it would be.
"Ah no, of all places and days!" Natsumi sighed through her teeth. The comment made Dawn look towards the woman. Suddenly, the orange haired woman turned around along with the android.
"You're going to have to do this one on your own. We can't wait for Akira to get back!" The human stated.
"Why, what's so important?" The young girl asked, bringing a finger up to scratch her face.
"Those monkeys are headed towards the one shop that has the most copies of your mother's album! They could absolutely ruin the release!" Dawn's face turned to one of complete shock. That would a catastrophe, she thought to herself.
"Oh- Then why are we talking? I have to go stop them!"
The cherry red haired girl spun into position in front of the teleporter's steps and the woman turned and began to type on the keyboard once again. It wasn't long before the large machine started its usual sounds and movements and the purple vortex materialized from its frame. When the portal didn't falter in its form, the young girl started her running jump through it. Without making a word, she went through it.
Dawn appeared a few feet off the ground and fell as the portal disappeared behind her. When she stood up straight and balanced, she looked around. She was in the middle of a city street that was covered with different shops. Large buildings encased the sides of the street. One side of the pavement was completely empty and the other one was clear up until one shop – where there was a massive line of people. It was so long that it turned the corner onto the main street.
The young girl looked closer to the shop's sign. It was a record shop and a sign on the window would imply it was going to open soon. She looked towards the people…Oh no, she thought to herself. People of all ages where wearing shirts of her mother and her albums. Some younger girls even cosplayed Dawn's mother. But they weren't the ones she was scared of. It was…the older men that were lined up. Covered in her mother's merchandise, and clearly wanted to do anything they could to get an autograph.
Which must have been why they thought it was appropriate to shout "That's her daughter! It's Sayaka's daughter!" whilst pointing towards her. Like a herd of sheep, many men and teenage boys started to walk towards her with posters in their hands. She tried to speak up, but her words were hidden among the never ending questions.
"Can you give her this letter?" "Can you give me her number?" "Can you sing like her?" They seemed to be infinite.
"Leave me alone, you creeps!" The young girl screamed at the top of her lungs and started to run to the path behind her, pushing through anyone who was standing there. She didn't care if it was rude, those people were being even worse! Some of the younger fans tried to chase her, whilst continuing their questions.
"Can I have your number?"
She simply blocked out any and all the requests they tried to make. Luckily for her, she found a break in the buildings and dashed for it – entering the lane way. But she knew that wouldn't throw them off entirely. And as if someone had been reading her thoughts, there was another connected lane to the one she was in!
When she made that discovery, she sprinted for it. Turning the corner, she inspected everything in front of her. It had to be the back of the shops she had once been in front of, and there were plenty of large rubbish bins. She ran to one of the ones in the middle and sat down next to it, hidden. She waited there, holding her breath, until all the noises and pleads for material things had faded. She was all alone, and let out a huge sigh.
"Hey kid." She looked up, and was shocked out of her mind. It was…a monkey.
Its face showed that clearly, but everything else about it was strange. It towered about her and was wearing what would seem to be regular human clothes with leather boots. Unknown to almost all humans in the area, a trio of two apes and a young girl has stumbled onto the city. The one that had taken a leadership role had decided to enter the city for whatever reason, and instructed the two younger beings to stay on the outskirts. This knowledge was also unknown to Dawn herself.
"Hey!" She screamed at the top of her lungs, causing the monkey to take a step back. She jumped up to her feet. "Don't think that you can beat me just because I don't have a net!"
She had a fist held up and tried to make the angriest face she could. The ape, however, only looked bored and confused.
"…what?" It asked. "I'm not here for you. I was just hiding here when you showed up." Now, they were both confused.
"What do you mean you were hiding? I got chased in here, not like you'd understand why!" The young girl snapped, she just wasn't up to dealing with anyone else at that point.
"Why wouldn't I understand?" The ape asked with condescending frown.
"Because my mum's a pop star and it affects my life too!" Needless to say, she had been holding that in for a long time.
"You know there's more than one pop star in the world, right?" The boy replied with an emotionless face. The girl was taken a back, she didn't expect an answer like that.
"I came into this city looking for food or something to do. But then, I came across some regular pipo monkeys with posters of my mother and they started asking me tons of annoying questions – so I ran in here to get rid of them. Let me guess, the same happened to you?"
He declared without faltering once. Dawn was dumbfounded.
"How did you know that? And…how is that possible?!" She said, completely confused. The monkey smirked.
"Well, you kind of told me and I heard it happening. I've been here for half an hour, ya know?" Dawn had an even dopier look on her face than before. A few minutes passed before she came to a realisation.
"Wait, did you say that there were regular monkeys around here?!" She asked. She had completely forgotten the entire reason she was sent there in the first place! The older being in the conversation waited for a second before responding.
"Uh, yeah?"
"I need to stop them from ruining the release of my mum's album…but if I go back to the shop then those weird guys will be there!" She exclaimed. The ape seemed to be thinking for a few minutes, looking back and forth between the girl and the connecting lane.
"Look…" He began, suddenly. "I'm not meant to do this, but I suppose I could, maybe, beat the absolute crap out of those men and ignore the fact you're catching people on my side. Is that good enough for you, eh?"
The young girl was shocked. The entire day had been weird already, but this had to be the weirdest thing yet. Even then, she wasn't going to let the opportunity go to waste.
"That would be awesome! Are you…actually gonna help me?" The monkey smirked again.
"Yeah, doesn't hurt."
The girl felt adrenaline run through her body, and her first instinct was to throw her fist up and in front of her. The boy let out a chuckle and bumped his fist with the girl's.
"Aw yeah! You knew what I doing!" She said excitedly.
"Well, obviously. Monkeys aren't stupid, ya know." With that, the two started to walk towards the connected lane.
As the girl entered the crowded street once more, the voices and shouts of "There she is" restarted and she felt a surge of apprehension run through her body. But it was too late to go back now. She saw a shadow go over her vision and go in front of her before revealing its physical form.
It was the boy, and he didn't turn to look back at her – his view was on the few men and older teen boys who had already started to walk towards the girl. He didn't say a word. The humans in the line on the other hand had started to whisper, before someone screamed "It's a monkey! Why is it wearing so much clothes?". The strange men had scorn and disgusted looks on their faces, but only one of the younger ones ran back into the crowd.
After it was clear that the rest weren't going to back down on their own accord, Paru went in. Starting with a knee straight to one of the men's stomach, the one who had tried to get the closest. There was a mixed reaction from the crowd. While some screamed, some started to cheer on the tall ape. Realizing her opportunity, Dawn ran to the end of the street, pass the fight that was taking place, and turned the corner.
There in front of her were a small group of three monkeys, seemingly talking to each other. One was holding an open box, with possible CDs inside. Another was holding rolled up posters under its armpit and the last one had a bucket of super glue. The girl just stood there, taking in the situation.
That's when the monkey holding the glue looked ahead of them and saw her. It said something in the monkey language which caused the other two to stop. The one holding the poster turned to the glue one and began to talk with it, eventually pointing its free hand to the young girl. He dropped his hand and the two apes looked to the third – who shrugged. The glue holding monkey sighed and proceeded to walk up to Dawn.
"Ukki ukki ki?" It asked, but the girl was completely confused.
"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean?" She responded.
The ape was clearly disappointed, but started to walk to the nearby wall. It took one hand from under the bucket and pointed at a poster on the wall – a poster of Sayaka. Then it shook its hand near the same level of its knees. Both the other two monkeys and Dawn stood there stunned.
"Are you trying to ask if I'm her daughter? Well, I am."
The monkey's eyes lit up and walked back over to the girl, still pointing at the poster. It continued to try to speak to the girl, but she still couldn't truly understand.
"Are…you trying to ask to see her?" The monkey nodded its head. The one holding the posters squinted his eyes and the one holding the box sighed. "Well, I can bring you to her if you want!"
The monkey nodded its head even faster and ran back to his position in the ape trio. For once, this stupid question would actually do something good. She had an extremely easy way to catch them all, as they wanted to be caught! She brought her fist up near her face and looked at the shining green light on the metallic band. She remembered what Natsumi had told her that very same day, and hit the button as she jumped.
In an instant, she transformed into Starbound Ace. Now with knee-high white boots with light blue stars on its tips and higher up the shoe, a navy blue body suit, white chestplate with another light blue star on its centre and a matching light blue bottom rim, grey upper arm plates, bulky white shorts and a mainly white helmet with a light blue point design on each side. Her vision was overlayed with an aqua hue from her eye visor and her cherry red hair spiked out from beneath the helmet. She landed on the ground feeling completely energised. This only made the monkey more excited.
"I see you've figured out what your persona is!" Natsumi's voice rang out from the band, and the girl brought it back closer to her mouth.
"Yeah, it's cool! But uh, how do I catch them with this?" She laughed, trying to keep as calm as possible for the monkeys' sake. She could hear Natsumi stop and think for a few seconds.
"If you tap their helmets then lift your right hand up, it should automatically teleport them. As soon as you're done with them, get back to me immediately." Her voice wasn't excited, it seemed to have traces of worry.
"Right!" And with that, she started to run around the ape – discovering she ran even faster than usual with a kind of spark in her step.
She tapped each of the apes helmets, noticing that they had started to have another conversation between themselves. As she reached her starting point, the stopped and lifted her hand up towards the sky. The apes were drenched in a shining blue light and then, they completely disappeared – as if they weren't there in the first place.
"Oh no, we were too late!" The voice from the girl's band rang out sadly, which confused her again.
"What do you mean?" She asked, lifting her wrist back to her face.
"There was an unique monkey attacking some of the people waiting, but now it's completely disappeared! He doesn't seem to be in the area anymore!" The girl didn't respond at first, she just went straight back where she came from and turned the corner.
Natsumi was right. The tall monkey that had agreed to help her was gone, and some of the men were on the ground in pain. She looked towards the people in the queue, and saw that there were several people entering and leaving the building. Everyone else was fine and were more focused on buying the album. She had done it, and she had a cool persona to go with it.
"Really? And I missed it? Aw." She pretended to sound disappointed, but in reality she had a grin on her face. Almost instantly afterwards, she was teleported back to the Professor's lab.
Much like the previous time, she appeared a few feet away from the machine and up in the air by a bit. She landed on her feet and squatted on impact, before pushing herself up. To her dismay, the teleportation had seemed to reset her persona.
"Aw, I can't wear it all the time?" She whined, which caused the only person in the room to laugh a bit.
"Of course not! That would be ridiculous. Besides, you'd go back to normal after 5 minutes anyway." Natsumi laughed, leaning on the main computer module. Dawn pouted and threw her arms behind her head.
"So, what do I do now?" Dawn giggled, stepping towards the door. The orange haired woman pushed herself off the module and walked over to the door aswell.
"Hm, Charu said she's going to start dinner soon. She'll probably let you help, considering I'm helping too!" Natsumi walked ahead of Dawn, who purposely stayed back a bit.
"Oh, yay!" The young girl said enthusiastically, when in reality she was wincing as she walked out of the room.