Chapter 9 - Other Friends
Alone. The one word that no matter how hard anyone tried, wouldn't leave Daichi's mind as he sat by himself in the laboratory. The reality of the entire situation had taken a few days to really set in and fester in his mind, but once it did – it seemed intent on staying.
It didn't matter if he slept in the same room as someone else, or watched television shows with his cousin, or was given dinner of varying quality – nothing seemed to break the wall built in his mind. He had to deal with the guilt of starting what could've been seen as a war, and being a bad older brother at that.
He swung back on forth on the office chair, using only one foot to push off of the chair's bottom bars. Even his favourite weather, cloudy and a bit windy, couldn't pull him out of the strange slump. Though he tried to ignore it, his mind keep going back and focusing on one thing in the room – the one stray monitor.
It had been hooked up to a capsule that held a stray white-ish hair. It was clear that the adults had been trying to analyze it, and didn't bother to tell any of the children. The screen had the rough outline of a pre-teen and had identifying text next to it – such as its apparent species and human age bracket. It was still a work in progress at that point.
The boy didn't even need to be told to know who the hair belonged to. It had to be that first monkey, the one he had only recently realized was related to the leaders of the monkeys. That was what was really bugging him. He had taken someone, who was probably around his own age, away from their family. It was no wonder that he began to internalize some of the things the supposed enemy had been saying.
Were humans the real villains?
But just like the previous days, before his mind had time to take him to a place he was terrified of – someone came in and snapped him out of it. The 'someone' being Dawn. As she poked her head inside of the door, Daichi's head peered off to the side to avoid direct eyesight.
"What are doing in here again?" She said, with a friendly giggle in her voice.
"Oh…nothing." The boy replied, switching his gaze to his feet.
"Nothing, huh?" The girl began to walk closer to her relative. "If you really aren't doing anything, then you should be open to go to the playground – right?"
"Oh…uh…" He replied, nervously.
He didn't really want to do anything that day that he didn't have to, but he also didn't want to admit his thoughts.
"Unless, you're already doing something?" Dawn probed more, knowing he was hiding something.
"No I'm not! Uh, that's a good idea. It does get stuffy in here sometimes." He almost threw himself up from his seat and patted down his sweatpants.
"Well okay then." The girl smiled and gestured towards the tool panel. "Take the net just in case, we'll put it in my bag for now." Daichi did his usual awkward smile and nodded.
He walked over to the panel and picked up the net hesitantly. He bumped the button on the bottom with the palm of his hand, turning it into nothing more than a blue rod. He walked out of the lab's door and saw Dawn already standing by the front door. She had a silver holographic backpack in her hands. As he stepped into the hallway, the girl turned around.
"Natsumi!" She yelled. "Me and Daichi are going to the park for a few minutes!"
She stretched out her arm to move the bag closer to the boy, revealing that it was partially unzipped. He dropped the rod in and almost instantly, the girl pulled it back and zipped it up – before quickly putting it on her back.
"That's okay, keep your phone on!"
A woman shouted back from beyond the hallway. And with the response, Dawn pulled the door opened and turned back to face the boy. He once again smiled and walked pass her. The door clicked as she closed it behind her, though it was almost kept open by the breeze.
The conversation didn't begin straight away. There was a minute or so of straight walking, with the only noise being the whistle of the wind and the cars that passed by them. The clouds had spread out a bit more, but it was still overcast. They had turned the corner instead of crossing the road, and were on a direct course to the playground.
"Are you sure you're okay?" Dawn began to ask once again, tilting her head so that she could somewhat see the boy.
"I am," Daichi murmured. "Do I look like I'm sad?"
"It's not that." She continued. "It's just- You've been spending a lot of time by yourself lately, and you haven't been eating as much. It's not like you."
"I don't know. Everything's just been strange." He never tilted his head away or nearer to his second cousin, he just kept looking forward. With a standard, neutral frown on his face.
He hadn't even realized that he wasn't helping his case. But luckily for him, the town had been planned out very well.
"Oh, there's the park there!" Dawn exclaimed, her voice happy than it had been moments ago. "Come on, let's go!"
While giggling with a big grin on her face, she began to sprint up the pathway.
"H-hey!" The boy shouted back, as he started to run after her.
He hadn't even realized that he had been tricked into thinking about something else than the last few days.
The girl stopped right outside of the gates of the park, and waited for the out of shape boy to catch up with her. She admired the metal framework that welcomed families in and the flower bushes that stood on both sides of it. When Daichi had finally made it to her, he was hunched over and taking in huge breaths. Dawn looked into the park itself, wanting to see what was open and not taken over by younger children.
"Oh awesome, the swings are free! Those are the best things here!" She announced but she didn't start to go towards them. She waited for a response.
"Really?" Daichi's head pricked up. "They were always my favourite." For the first time that day, he had a slight genuine smile on his face.
"I knew you'd say that! Let's get to them quick-"
Before she even had a chance to finish her sentence properly, Dawn's ringtone played loudly from her hoodie pocket. She got a disgruntled look on her face before answering it.
"Daichi? Dawn? Are you there?"
It was Natsumi. The woman who had been watching television in the living room barely ten minutes earlier.
"Yeah, we're here. Why?" Dawn asked, her expression unwavering. Daichi's smile had already started to fall back down into its previous position, though.
"There seems to be something happening nearby, and it's causing interference in the radar." The woman continued to speak over the phone, though the echoing behind her seemed to imply she had it on speaker mode.
"But we just got to the park!" The girl cried, and someone on the other side of the phone seemed to giggle faintly in response.
"I know, I know," Natsumi sighed.
"But it's not that far, it's the old monkey park."
"Uh, what old monkey park?" The young girl questioned, her face loosening and becoming simply confused.
"You don't know the old park?" Daichi butted in.
"No?" She responded. "I live on the other side of town."
"It's only down the road, and no one goes that far since the neighborhood ends up there." He lifted his hand and pointed in the general direction of the housing estates.
"Can you two go and check there? It would mean the world!" Natsumi asked, but it was clear that it was more of an order.
"Okay." Dawn sighed. "Talk to you when we get there."
She hung of her phone and placed it back into her hoodie pocket, and looked back at Daichi.
"I'm sorry, I thought we might actually have a day off."
"It's….it's okay. I'd want to make sure anyway." He smiled, fiddling with his hands a bit. Dawn could only sigh before beginning to walk down the long road with the boy beside her.
The trees and bushes seemed to fade from bright green and deciduous to dark and evergreen. The fence beside them was rusted and darkened from the shade. The pathway became uneven and cracked, with sudden small drops that were indistinguishable from the rest of the sidewalk. Understandably, Dawn was pretty apprehensive about this unknown area.
It was sketchy in all forms of the word. The weeds and grass that stuck through the edges of the walkway's tiles were crushed and almost dead. Even the small field on the other side of the road seemed dried up, like it would be in Winter. It was as if they had crossed into a different town altogether.
"There's the entrance." Daichi said, lifting his hand up.
A meter or so in front of them was a rusty, iron archway with a broken wooden sign that seemed ready to fall off. Dawn sighed again.
"I wonder why this place was left to rot." She said, sarcastically. She pulled up her sleeve over her elbow and placed her hand on the pulled over gate.
"There was some argument about whether or not the monkeys wanted to be there, and they decided to move them to a zoo or some sanctuaries. There's no playground equipment, so they just left it here." Daichi explained, a neutral tone in his voice.
"I was trying to be sarcastic…" The girl giggled, causing the boy to have a dumbfounded look on his face.
"Oh…" He said, ending in a faint chuckle. The girl giggled a bit more, and opened the gate closest to them. It creaked loudly.
The inside of the park seemed as colourless as the outside. Any building that remained was a faded version of their original colours and the few posters there had their colours washed off by the rain or were half ripped by rebel teens. The once-welcoming fountain was dry and almost all the statues that seemed to have once been there, were gone – only their marble bases stayed.
The only thing that was still standing in a form it was imagined to be in was the giant banana statue in the middle. Though it was only a pale yellow colour now and its once white marble base was almost dark grey. The strangest part of the park, however, was the newest addition. A mainly dark figure sitting in front of the banana, throwing something akin to a stone up and down in its hands.
As the two relatives walked further into the park, the person became more clear. They seemed to be wearing a dark grey gakuran style school uniform and a black cape with a large collar. It had familiar leather boots with a steel ring towards its opening. A strange machine, similar to the transformation band but extremely different in theme and build, seem tethered to its right wrist and arm from beneath his skin. The most exciting, yet terrifying part was the figure's short electric blue hair.
"Augustus?!" Dawn shouted.
Neither of them could believe their eyes, and Daichi was left speechless. When the rock fell back into his hand, he didn't throw it immediately like he had before. He looked up and opened his eyes. Red.
They weren't the only ones who were shocked. The shout had been transfer back to the lab from Dawn's band, and had caused a huge fuss there. Natsumi typing as quickly as she could to try to get any view of the situation, Akira and Amelia being pushed to the other side of the room – though Akira would try to get closer to the main monitor to see what was going on.
"Oh? Look what the cat dragged in," Augustus sternly spoke. "If it isn't the one I was hoping would come…and Dawn."
"Where have you been? We've been looking everywhere for you!" Dawn yelled, but her hopeful smile had started to fall to a worried frown.
"Somewhere so much better." A sickly grin grew larger on his pale face. "Somewhere I get the attention I've always deserved."
"What are you talking about? We're family, we love having you around." Dawn said, attempting to smile – but even she knew something wasn't right. This was only furthered by the noise coming from her band.
"You two be careful! He's not himself, he seems to be mind controlled!"
Natsumi's voice announced, before abruptly cutting out. The girl brought the band closer to her face.
"It seems that he's what?!" She shrieked back.
"I wouldn't put it like that. I would say it's more like a change of perspective, where I finally get a solution to my biggest issue." He stood up, retaining his grin, and raised up his right arm. Several cords were clearly going into his noticeable veins.
"What…why- what are you doing?" Daichi suddenly interrupted, causing the other boy to stare right at him.
"Well, I was partially waiting for my teammate to be ready so she can deal with Dawn. And then go on and show you who's better."
At that moment, a figure seemed to float down using a parasol and landed next to the blue haired boy. With a pink ballroom gown that was a few shades darker than her fur and her blonde hair done up, she looked up at the two children. An annoyed frown plastered on her face.
"No! That's not fair, like at all!" Dawn shouted back.
She threw her bag off and over to her second cousin, before jumping up in the air and hitting her transformation band. Within a second, she was in her Starbound Ace form and clenched both her fists. She started sprinting over to the very center of the park.
"Great. This'll be fun." Pink Monkey scoffed and was surrounded by a dark circle, before disappearing and reappearing right in front of Dawn's path. The ominous force field reflected the young girl backwards onto her back, and she promptly got back up.
"Now that that's set up, it's time for you." Augustus continued, staring straight at Daichi. "And for once, I get to show off all the tricks I have."
"What-" The mainly brown haired boy didn't get to finish what he was saying.
Augustus seemed to have disappeared, leaving only dark particles in his place. Within a millisecond, he teleported behind Daichi and kicked him in the back – sending the boy and the open monkey net flying forward. He tried his best to push his upper body up from the ground, and saw the net only a few feet from him.
He got up as quickly as possible and ran over to the gadget, having to bend over to get it. As he started to move back up, the electric blue haired boy teleported again from beyond his eyesight and reappeared in front of him. Daichi didn't have time to react, as Augustus went ahead and threw his knee into the older boy's stomach – sending him flying once again.
Daichi fell onto his back, and he coughed from the dust and dirt that had been floating around from the ground around him. He looked to his side and saw the monkey net was only a little bit away. Before he even had the chance to try to reach for it, the blue hair boy teleported once again and this time – he was standing on top of the boy. He lifted his foot and slammed it into the brown haired boy's stomach and grinned in the boy's grimace.
"Not very fun to be weak, is it?" Augustus put more pressure on his foot.
"Please…stop." Daichi wheezed. He tried his hardest to stretch his hand far enough to grab the net, but it was just out of his reach.
"You think this is bad?" The blue haired boy laughed, before teleporting once again.
He reappeared with his hands wrapped around Daichi's neck and staring straight into the boy's blue eyes. As Daichi shakily brought up one of this hands to try to push the relative away, Augustus' grip only got tighter. His grin didn't falter once.
"What's wrong? Can't show off how you can breathe anymore?" His laugh was unnerving. The other boy couldn't even speak at that point, his face was going paler than usual and a few tears went down his face. This only seemed to entertain Augustus more.
"I just can't wai-" Before he got to finish, he was suddenly thrown from his position across the park and into one of the empty marble bases.
Daichi gasped loudly for air, and raised his upper body up. He knew someone was right next to him, but all he could see were blurs. Dawn turned her head from her own fight when she heard the noise, and was almost left speechless.
The figure was slightly taller than her, with a gold tiara on her shoulder length electric blue hair. Her white bow covered the white collar it had been tied beneath. The light green upper part of her dress seemed to have white suspenders over them, as if they were holding up the double layered skirt part of the dress.
In one of her white gloves, she seemed to be holding a light green and white fairy wand – with an alarm light to allow for capture within it's circular frame and a dark turquoise bow. Her light green boots with their own white bows near the entrance were partially obscured by the dust.
"Amelia?!" Dawn shouted, only to not get a response.
This also came as a surprise to those in the lab, who turned around immediately only to see that the chair she had been sitting in was empty. They hadn't even noticed that she took a prototype transformation band and left the room while Dawn and Daichi started their detour.
Augustus coughed and shook his head, before staggering back up onto his feet. He stretched his back and looked straight towards the almost unrecognizable girl. His grin still hadn't fallen.
"Why did you stop me? Get out of my way." He snarled. The electric blue haired girl stepped around the curled up boy and stood in front of him.
"This isn't you. And I'm not going to let some insane monkey kill you." She sternly spoke.
"This is me, and show you!" He yelled, teleporting once again.
The girl didn't move, she stood still. Even the dark aura appeared in front of her and it was clear that the boy was attempting to kick her in the face. She threw the wand up and it collided with the boy's shin – and though both of them tried to overthrow each other's forces, it was Augustus' leg that was thrown back.
The boy took a few steps back, wheezing. His gaze had fallen towards the ground, and lifted as his head went up. His grin was replaced with a frustrated frown.
"Why can't you let me win for once?!" He shouted. His eyes were still as red as ever, and a single tear of frustration fell down his face.
Before anyone had time to do or say anything, he had teleported once again. But this time, not by his own volition. He was dropped onto a small metal platform, that seemed to be controlled by an elderly monkey wearing a tattered lab coat at a control panel.
The monkey that had been fighting with Dawn suddenly stopped and glared at the girl, before being engulfed in a dark circle and teleporting up to the miniature ship. She pouted and pulled out a pink flip phone from behind her back.
"What are you doing? You almost broke my finest invention!" The older monkey rambled towards the blue haired boy.
"Yeah yeah." The boy waved him off.
He turned back towards the group of children below him. Daichi had stood back up on his feet and held the monkey net in only one of his hands. Dawn had run over to be next to him, and Amelia was in front of them both. There were all fixated on the blue haired boy.
"Don't think this is it." Augustus started. "I'll be back, and next time I'll be even stronger than I am now!"
He started laughing uncontrollably, and the laughs continued to echo through the park even after the trio teleported via another dark aura. They were gone, and all that remained was the whistle of the breeze and the lifted dust from the ground.
The three children stood there, speechless at what had just happened. Dawn's transformation had worn off and was back into her usual outfit. Without saying anything, she walked closer to the entrance and picked her bag that had been left there. They didn't even speak when they were covered in the familiar blue shining light and were sent back to the lab. They landed on their feet, just like they had before.
"Dude! Are you okay?" Akira asked, running up to Daichi.
"If you're not one hundred percent okay, tell us." Natsumi pleaded, squatting down next to the boy and placing her hands on his shoulders.
"I feel okay…really." The boy responded.
Dawn had gone in front of Daichi as well, to make sure that he was okay, while Amelia had walked out of the room altogether – without speaking a word.