Oh man! I finally got to writing something awesome!
It's about time that I wrote the next chapter of this series that I'm not giving up on!
I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, and I hope it's not to bad to read (I feel that I'm out of practice a bit). Plus new character now (sort of)!
I sincerely hope to continue on with the next one soon.
The Magical Bond Between Two Hearts
Chapter 15: Tobi
A few weeks had passed by ever since the adventure in Sugar Rush. Within these few weeks, Lucy still could not believe the friends she had acquired. In fact she felt rather happier than before, as she continued to draw. Sophie was calmly perched on her shoulder, watching her with its small beady eyes. Wrapped around one of her hands was the cloth from Ralph's shirt that was used to tend her bruise the night she met him. At this time Game Central Station was empty, with the arcade still open and the characters all in their games. Lucy did not mind the emptiness at all, for she was used to it since she came here.
"This is coming out great." she said aloud putting in the last few strokes of her pencil.
Sophie cooed in reply looking away from the drawing altogether. Lucy found this odd and stopped drawing, "What's wrong Soph?"
The bird turned and looked at her with a very odd look in her eyes.
"What? Is something wrong?" Lucy asked with a look of growing concern.
Sophie shook her feathers a few times, then turned her head in the same direction. Lucy turned her head to her friend's to see the entrance to Hero's Duty, which was Sgt. Calhoun's game.
Sophie then fluttered her wings and took off towards the entrance.
"Wait, Sophie hold on!" Lucy called, putting her drawing down and following closely behind. As they reached the entrance Sophie lightly landed on her shoulder again.
"We can't go in there Soph, the arcade's still open." Lucy told her little companion.
The bird shook her wings in protest, making Lucy flinch a little. She looked at the entrance into Hero's Duty, wondering why Sophie would react to a game like this.
"I'm going to get into so much trouble." she murmured as she entered into the game, clutching the cloth in her hand tightly.
Sophie carefully stayed on Lucy's shoulder as she cautiously got onto the train that led into the Hero's Duty. As soon as she was inside, the train rocketed with great speed towards the game ahead.
"What is in this game that you want me to see?" Lucy asked on the way.
The bird said nothing but looked straight ahead. Lucy said nothing more as they both reached their destination. Cautiously she got out of the train and onto the platform, seeing a bunch of soldiers dressed in techy suits run by her. She carefully made her way through without causing any attention. She walked through a system of hallways and corridors until they reached a rather odd-looking door. Lucy put her hands on the door, and tried to push it open, but nothing seemed to happen. Sophie looked intently at the door and fluttered her wings madly.
"There's something behind this door?" Lucy asked curiously, "But I can't get it open…"
All of a sudden the door opened mysteriously on its own, revealing a rather dark and horribly scarred landscape. There was no sun or moon, just very thick, dark clouds with ash and embers floating down from the air. Sophie took off like lightning into the mysterious land, with Lucy running after her to keep up.
As soon as they were through, the door slowly closed back up.
0 - 0 - 0 - 0
A big crowd of people were in Game Central Station when Ralph and Felix arrived. Being a Saturday with the arcade closed on Sunday, characters were now going about and having fun or meeting up with friends.
"I've never seen so many characters in one place." Ralph said gazing among the crowds of characters passing.
"Apparently you haven't gone out on Saturdays." Felix said with a smile.
"Usually it's to Tapper's though. But this is a really big crowd." Ralph replied in awe.
As Ralph looked around in the crowd, he could not see Lucy anywhere even though he was really tall and could see who everyone was. He thought this very odd, knowing that she was always here whenever he came to visit her.
"Where is she? Did something happen to her?" Ralph worried as he kept looking.
He suddenly felt someone bump into him. He looked down to see a person wearing a blue hoodie.
"Eris?" he said curiously.
"Oh, hello Ralph. Sorry about that." Eris replied taking a few steps back.
"You know, you should watch where you're going Eris."
Arren smiled as he joined the group.
"It's not my fault, I couldn't see through this crowd!" Eris replied crossing her arms.
"Well…that's true." Arren admitted still smiling.
Eris rolled her eyes in reply. Ralph could not help but chuckle softly.
"Have you guys seen Lucy at all?" he asked the two of them.
Eris shook her head, "We haven't…actually we were looking for her too."
"Isn't she sometimes with you two?" Felix asked.
"Not always, she could be anywhere for all I know." Arren sighed.
"Where could she be then?" Ralph thought aloud.
Just then a sudden commotion made the group turn and look. Ralph saw that the commotion was coming from the entrance to Calhoun's game. Curious he carefully made his way through the crowd towards what he made out to be Calhoun and the other soldiers from the game. Felix, Eris, and Arren were right behind him with as much curiousness as well. When they had made their way through, the group caught the sight of Sgt. Calhoun and her soldiers standing in front of their game.
"Tammy!" Felix exclaimed making his way to his wife.
Calhoun looked in the group's direction with a look of concern in her eyes.
"I have no time to relax on this Saturday." She stated, "Something has happened in our game."
"What happened?" Eris asked worriedly.
"No one went Turbo did they?" Ralph asked with the same concern.
"Nothing like that. Someone did sneak into the game and is in the danger zone full of waiting Cybugs."
"We could help get whoever it is out." Eris suggested.
"Negatory! Only the best and the strongest can go through the course of our game." said the man to the right of Calhoun, who was named Kohut.
"Easy soldier, these are my friends." Calhoun told him sternly, "But he is right, you would have to be tough to make it through."
"I'm tough enough!" Arren smirked throwing a few air punches.
Eris sighed and rolled her eyes again. "What he means to say is we are strong magic wise."
"I'll be able to help." Ralph pitched in, "These wrecking hands are pretty good for something when it comes to smashing Cybugs around."
Calhoun looked at the group worriedly, but gave them a firm nod. "If that's what you want, then I won't stop you. Just don't go and get yourself killed or you won't regenerate."
With that Calhoun, her soldiers, and Ralph and the crew headed into Hero's Duty to get to the matter at hand.
0 - 0 - 0 - 0
Lucy clutched the cloth so tightly that her hand turned white. She was scared and felt a very dark gloom that spread throughout the barren land. She barely kept up with Sophie who kept flying forward in determination. The bird finally stopped after a long while of flying and walking, landing on something round and oval. Hexagon shapes were present all around the oval object and glowed a dull and bright green. Lucy had to catch her breath, kneeling down with her hands pressed down on her knees.
"What is this?" Lucy said after she caught her breath.
Sophie shook her feathers and flew up onto Lucy's shoulder. Lucy in turn picked up the oval object and turned it in her hands once. Almost immediately the oval object started to crack in her hands. The hexagons spread all over the object and grew bigger until they suddenly disappeared completely. Lucy gasped as she saw in her hands a tiny bug-like creature with big green eyes staring up at her.
For a long moment Lucy just stared at the creature unmoving and scared. The creature still looked up at her, until its face changed from blank and lifeless to a sudden anger and tenseness. It shook and growled as if it was about to pounce at Lucy's head. It was then that Lucy noticed that the creature was a Cybug, the main enemy of Hero's Duty. The little cybug still shook and tensed up, but Lucy realized that it was not in anger.
"It looks…so scared. Like me."
Lucy smiled and held out a gentle hand to it, "It's alright, there is nothing to fear. I'm not going to hurt you." She said softly.
The Cybug stared at the hand for a short moment before biting her pinkie. Lucy winced at the pain, but did not stir from where she sat. The bug kept its teeth sunk into her pinkie, but Lucy just kept smiling.
"See, I will not hurt you." She warmly cooed.
The little Cybug looked up into her golden eyes, and suddenly changed. In its eyes it became less scared and felt more sorrowful. Its teeth slowly let go of her pinkie as it tried to suck the blood that streamed from it.
"You were just scared, huh?" Lucy asked with a smile.
It nodded slowly, giving a small soft screech in apology as it still tried to make her pinkie better.
Lucy laughed softly as she petted the little Cybug with the remaining free fingers she had. Sophie cooed softly as she watched from Lucy's shoulder. When the Cybug finally let go of her pinkie it slowly crawled up her arm and onto her other shoulder, very close to her head.
Lucy gasped when she suddenly heard very loud screeches coming from all directions. The little cybug moved closer to Lucy, almost hiding behind her hair. Lucy slowly stood up on her feet, looking around in all directions.
"Is that the sound of other Cybugs?" Lucy wondered aloud.
As she asked this from out of nowhere a bigger Cybug came up close to her, and bit into her side.
"AH!" Lucy screamed and on instinct smacked the Cybug with her fists a few times before it backed off. She grabbed her side as she felt pain and a small amount blood come from it. As she backed up all around her more Cybugs came into view surrounding her and preventing her from getting away quickly.
Lucy knew the only choice now was to fight them back. And knew there was no escape plan out of this.
0 - 0 - 0 - 0
Ralph knew something was terribly wrong, as if the atmosphere of the game was a lot more tense than usual. The group slowly made their way through the long hallways with Calhoun leading the way.
"Something seems…off about this place." Eris commented quietly.
"You're telling me, I'm getting really cold shivers here!" Arren agreed, shaking a bit.
"It's always been off in this game, with all the Cybugs around." Calhoun said as she continued to lead the way.
As they kept walking along, Ralph felt the familiar hallways in which he went through when he had game jumped just a year ago. "I can't believe it has been long ago that I walked through here."
The group then came to the door leading out to where the gameplay was held. It was then that Calhoun seemed the most troubled.
"What's going on? Someone knew how to open this door, but I'm the only one who knows how." She finally said worriedly.
Ralph and the others looked at each other in both confusion and worry.
"You mean…someone went past this door, into whatever's beyond this door?" Arren asked.
"Not just someone can accidentally happen upon this door and open it." Calhoun replied tensed.
As they were discussing what could have caused this, Ralph thought he had heard something on the other side of the door. He listened carefully and could hear the familiar sound of Cybugs, but he could also hear something else that sounded familiar. "Who is that? Why do I….?"
He suddenly understood what was behind that door.
0 - 0 - 0 - 0
Lucy knew she had summoned a weapon using her magic before. The problem was that she could not figure out how she did it.
Clutching her side tightly she scanned each Cybug that surrounded her, estimating that there was a big handful of them, twenty at least. On her shoulder she could feel the baby Cybug move closer to her out of fear, and Sophie staying close to her on Lucy's shoulder.
"Think Lucy! How did you do it last time?"
She tried to concentrate and imagine the weapon she last used to save her friends in Sugar Rush, only this time it was to be saving her and her companions.
Then it happened. When she opened her eyes, there was the staff that she had the last time. Now suddenly filled with sudden courage and determination she swung her staff once at a few of the Cybugs. Almost immediately they flew up in the air and hung for a few seconds before pummeling into the ground as they dissipated. She swung at a few more Cybugs with the same effect, with each dissipating at the one blow.
"Yes! I—"Lucy suddenly winced as the pain in her side came rushing back to her. She semi-collapsed on her knees, with her staff gone yet again. The Cybugs now took this as an opportunity and charged all around her at once.
But what Lucy saw next she could not believe her eyes.
When the Cybugs were just inches away from her, a painfully loud screech came from right beside her. Wincing she stared at another Cybug that was smaller than the others, but it was looming over Lucy as if in a protective stance.
"It can't be…is that the baby Cybug?!"
Lucy was too surprised to move as she witnessed Cybugs clashing into the one protecting her. Each one that faced it dissipated by its bite and clawing.
"Wow…." Lucy whispered as the Cybug turned to her and chirped. In the blink of an eye she saw it transform back into the baby Cybug it once was.
"How…is that possible?" Lucy gasped as she took it in her hands.
Before she could wrap her mind around it, more painful screeches came from all directions. She tried to get up or move, but the pain in her side made it difficult to do anything. All she could do was close her eyes and wait for them to come.
Out of the blue she was suddenly moved only a little out of the way. She found herself lying on the ground and still could not move. Lucy felt herself begin to lose consciousness, but opened her eyes to see many figures moving around her, shielding her against the Cybug attacks. The pain was now unbearable as she shivered violently from the sharp-needles poking in her side. The last thing she saw and heard was the sound of the baby Cybug in her ear, and the shape of someone familiar smashing the Cybugs left and right.
"Hold on Lucy!" a voice whispered in her ear before the world finally went black.
0 - 0 - 0 - 0
Ralph kept beating the bugs back, his fists clenched and ready to wreck anything and everything in his way. It was this way until the beacon lit up at the tower ahead of them, causing the Cybugs to fly towards it. Only when the last one was destroyed did Ralph finally relax and unclench his huge wrecker hands.
It was no surprise to him that the sound he had heard was Lucy's, as he had recognized it instantly. As soon as he told Calhoun and the others about what he heard, they immediately went out to find her. Strangely there were a few hordes of Cybugs that were roaming around, and when he saw her there almost collapsed to the ground he suddenly somehow lost control. He had clenched his wrecking hands and started to go on a rampage to get to her and move her out of harm's way. Now that she was though he could finally relax and calm himself before he had another reason to lose his temper.
Looking behind him now he saw the figures of Eris and Arren scanning an unconscious Lucy. She seemed to be alright, but he noticed that she was in pain.
He slowly walked back to them, looking back once to check and see if there were no other possible dangers around.
"She's okay, but has a wound in her side." He heard Eris say.
"Well, should we get her to someplace safe then?" Arren asked unsurely.
"Felix will be able to fix her up easily." Ralph replied kneeling down to their level.
For a moment Ralph thought he saw something move next to Lucy, but it was gone within a second.
"Well…we should get back. I don't like this place." Eris shuddered looking around.
Ralph nodded in agreement, and carefully picked up the unconscious Lucy in his arms being careful not to hurt her. The three then hurried back as fast as they could to the ship, where Felix and Calhoun were waiting for them.
"Oh my land! Is she okay?" Felix asked as they came up.
Calhoun only gave them a stern look and said nothing. Ralph knew that she was not happy with what had happened.
"She's only wounded a little, we were wondering if you could help her Felix." Eris explained.
"Can do!" he replied taking out his hammer.
Ralph knelt down to Felix's level and carefully supported Lucy in one of his huge hands. With a clink of Felix's hammer the wound was completely gone. Now as he looked down on her, the pain in her face was gone and was replaced with a peaceful sleep.
"She's still unconscious, but fine." Felix said looking her over.
Ralph sighed in relief, but looked at Calhoun to see there was concern but also a look that told him that Lucy was in trouble. He just hoped it wasn't too big of trouble.
0 - 0 - 0 - 0
Lucy was woken up to muffled, loud voices and to a soft pillow on her head. Opening her eyes she stirred and blinked, trying to make clear of where she was. Suddenly she felt movement down by the back of her head.
"Wha…" Lucy muffled sleepily turning her head.
To her relief it was only the baby Cybug staring at her with a look of joy on its face. She reached her hand out to it and smiled.
"Thank goodness you're safe." She whispered softly.
The cybug chirped happily and crawled closer to Lucy's head. She smiled but then frowned wondering how she had got here in the first place. Cautiously she lifted her head slowly, then her whole body which she surprisingly found easy to move.
"The wound!" she shouted reaching for her side, only to find the wound completely gone. "That's strange…I know I had a wound here from the Cybug…."
Beside her she heard the cooing of Sophie and the chirping of the baby Cybug. She smiled down at them, but was still confused.
"You know I don't think you have a name huh?" she said to the little cybug.
It chirped in reply and crawled up onto her lap. Lucy thought long and hard to find a name for it.
"How about….Tobi." she said finally looking down to it for approval.
It chirped with such joy in response that she had to pet it a few times to calm it down.
"Alright then, Tobi is your name then." Lucy laughed happily.
Her laughing was interrupted when she heard the muffled, loud noises again. Looking around she realized that she was in a bed in a small room, with a metal door that sat in front of her. Lucy decided to see if she could get up and find out what was going on. Throwing the sheets off carefully she stepped down onto the cold floor, making her shiver a little being barefoot. Walking a few cautious steps she concluded that she was able to walk, and headed toward the closed door. Tobi and Sophie followed close behind, landing on both Lucy's shoulders.
"You know she needs to apologize for putting herself and us in danger!"
"She did not know this would happen, you don't know if she was just there accidentally!"
"I don't care if she was innocent of what might happen! It's still her responsibility for all of this chaos!"
Lucy recognized the voices of her friends. "Why are they arguing? Did I do something wrong?"
Lucy felt at a loss for words, for she knew that if she had gone into this game she would be endangering herself and her friends' lives. She suddenly felt responsible for everything that happened, all because of her curiousness of what was there.
Tobi's chirping interrupted Lucy's thoughts, but also made the loud voices go silent. Lucy backed away from the door nervously, putting a finger on her lips to tell Tobi to be quiet. For a while the silence stayed there, hanging in the air like a fog. Finally there was a shuffling of people outside walking away from the room, with the voices going quieter the further away they were. Lucy sighed in relief by the time they were gone. Slowly she crept up to the door again and cautiously opened it.
She encountered a brightly lit hallway as she stepped out of the room. It was surprisingly quiet and eerie almost as Lucy looked left and right.
"Well…I guess we better face the truth head on." She said with a growing concern.
Having both Tobi and Sophie by her side, she walked to the right to find and confront the friends that supposedly saved her life.