-EDITED- i posted this chapter late last night and it had buckets of grammar mistakes, so i just read through it and i think i got most of 'em
Hello there faithful readers. Im sure I have atleast a couple of those with the hits this story has.. unless someone just keeps clicking it to make me feel better...
Well, i really wanted to post this story earlier this week, but there has been a slight mold problem with my house and I have been forced to move buckets of sofas and couchs and such -sorry a term i use a lot-. So, I kinda skipped dinner to right this -stomach grumbles-
So I know you guys wanna feed with with your wonderful reviews. -nudge- -nudge-
Disclaimer: If i owned MapleStory/Nexon/Wizet, I would require an IQ test.
But I don't, so sadly,MS is filled with tons of eight year olds and idiots.
Chapter 12
Jackie's panic was now visible, radiating off her in waves. Rick looked on in terror aswell, as if his felt had melted into the concrete floor. He managed to turn his body to face Jackie, silently begging her to help, to do anything she possibly could.
Rick saw Jackie's back straighten, a look of pure determination rushing through her face, hardening her usually soft, fluffy eyes. Then, they suddenly closed in fierce concentration.
A pale blue shimmer enveloped her still form, the central focus of the mysterious mist seemed to be her head. Her hair and clothes were ruffled by an invisible breeze, which Rick couldn't see, but sensed it was unnatural. Suddenly, the fog shot from Jackie's body towards the deep dark pit. Rick wasn't exactly sure what had happened, but held his breathe anyway. He heard a familiar grunt and turned to face his fallen comrade.
Power. Immense power. She felt it coursing through her veins, her soul. Power fueled by rage. Power fueled by compassion, by despair, power from want, from necessity. And power surging from something else, something sneakily suspicious yet oddly alien. A grunt echoed through the dark pit. The power was hers now. She didn't know how or why, but questions could come later. Much, much later.
Alex pushed herself up to her feet, in a slightly sluggish manor. Blood lose had made her unnervingly dizzy. She reached back for her sword, and the currently annoyed green monster lunged.
Apparently, it didn't appreciate its lunch fighting back.
The current meal target dropped, barrel-rolling, pulling her arm back down to her side. Something dark glinted from her mouth, reflecting from the dim light coming from an outside window. With a swift practiced movement she pulled the sharp metal from her gritted teeth, chopping at the verdant beast's only known weak spit.
A spurt of fresh, thick red blood coated the partially dried blood that had leaked from her body previously. Alex got to her feet, shaking from exhaustion.
The pit floor soon rose back to ground level. After a few silent moments, save for the gearings shifting, all signs of the confrontation in the abyss were gone, except for the two layers of blood decorating the seemingly once clean floor. Alex panted heavily, her normally paled skin even a whiter shade.
The chair from earlier reappeared like a long lost friend, and Alex grateful placed both hands for support on its back.
She looked up to see the numerous facial expressions her judges were presenting. Grendal showed a face full of astonishment, Dances with Balrogs had a raw respect. Athena Pierce shot Alex her wry, knowing smile. The Dark Lord had a hint of pride and accomplishment on his normally expressionless face.
"We are not allowed to officially present anyone with jobs until the meeting this Friday. But, as you will learn, Guardians usually have rules for themselves, while the rest of society has their own. Your circumstances are relatively unique." Alex let her trademark wide grin slide across her face. For once, it actually reached her blue flashing orbs.
"All of you are to report back here in five days time, at nine in the morning sharp. Parents and other family are gladly welcome. There is no formal dress code…"
Ten minutes later, Rick Jackie and Alex were trudging down the street, towards each respective hotel and apartment. Alex cursed as her weak legs gave out. It seemed she was having bad luck with hard surfaces lately, as she felt the small breeze signifying her next meeting with the ever-so-solid ground.
Alex winced unconsciously as she prepared herself for the rough encounter.
Soft hands wrapped around her waist, another rougher pair around her arms. Jackie and Rick slowly brought her back to her feet, both blushing and pulling their hands back. Alex let a slight red hue grace her cheeks, but not from embarrassment as much as joy.
Friends, she thought, aren't such a bad thing at all.
Jackie, Rick, and supposedly Brad walked back to their respective hotels, returning to their parents.
That was a luxury Alex hadn't been privy to in over a decade, and one Alex completely forgot about until moments like this. She rubbed her sides unconsciously, walking into her room and preparing from a hot, steamy, shower.
Alex had slight difficulty removing her clothes, considering the morphine the cleric had given her was still taking effect. She had protested it at the time, and it annoyed her to no end, but she felt gratitude towards the lack of pain, for once. After her way too short shower, in her opinion, she walked into the kitchen and grabbed some leftover noodles.
Today was too long to cook a meal, and she needed to heal for her meeting later this week.
The five days had passed rather quickly, with Jackie, and Rick once or twice, coming over everday. She checked on her friend's wounds, made sure she had everything she needed, and talked about whatever was on her mind. It was nice to have a friend who would just listen every once and awhile. She got Alex to open up as well, if not a lot, but just enough to see the workings of a extremely, emotionally complex person under that cool exterior. The teammates cherished their time together.
BEEEEP!BEEEP!BEEEEEEP!
Alex let out a feral growl, completing her morning ritual by slamming her hand down on the loud nuisance. The alarm clock silenced immediately. Our hero sat up catiously, finding relatively no pain coming from her arm/shoulder region.
It seemed the poison had spread as far as her shoulder before it was, painfully, removed.
Since it was just a meeting she was attending, not a training or team practice, Alex grabbed a simple, tight fitting black cotton white beater and slowly put it over her head and pulled it down.
Next, she grabbed her favorite pair of jeans, slightly baggy as they worked their way down to her knees, which happened to be ripped in several places. She had done the ripping herself. The pants were secured by a lime green belt, with black buckles and designs on it. Black socks were removed from a basket, and she put on black slides.
She ran a brush through her short, now spiky hair a couple of times. After the completion of her new job, Alex had cut her longer locks to a more short, spiked look. After she finished brushing it, Alex ran her fingers through it a couple of times.
She stepped outside for a moment to see the temperature, finding it chilly enough to pull on a hoodie. She grabbed the closest one, black in color of course, along with her lime green iPod, slipping the right earphone into its respective ear. She walked out the door a second time, smiling at the cool breeze which penetrated the holes in her jeans, and continued her walk to the upcoming meeting.
Rick woke up to his alarm clock as well, taking the time to gel his hair and pick out his outfit. He had someone to impress, after all. He pulled on a solid, brown collared shirt and a pair of black jeans.
"Mom, Da, it's about time to get going!"
"Alright son, ready?"
"Of course."
Rick met his mother, father, and grandparents at the door.
"Looking nice Rick, anyone you want to impress?"
"Da!" he ducked his head bashfully.
The family left without another word for the deciding meeting.
SHIT! I'm gonna be fucking late for this stupid crap!
Brad jumped out of bed, pulling on a light yellow shirt with extremely baggy jean shorts.
He passed up brushing his hair to go yell at his parents.
"Dad! Let's go!"
Jackie woke up, grabbing the outfit she had picked out from her closet last night.
She pulled her dark denim skirt on, inspecting it in the mirror. It had pink lace and design on it, stopping inches before it hit her knees. She yanked a pink and white thick, horizontally striped polo shirt which fit her body nicely. She pulled on short white socks and pink shoes, which were deceptively comfortable.
All of the pinks matched, of course.
She finished brushing her hair and picking out her jewelry to check on her mother and brother.
A boiling pain started in Alex's wrist, shooting up past her shoulder, sending waves of pain through out her entire body.
Alex gently sat down on the nearest bench, trying her hardest not to shake or cry out.
The cleric had warned her about the after effects of the poison, and how long it could last, but it had been beyond her comprehension on pain that could be worse then the intial waves she had felt during the bite. She was once again proven wrong.
It took another fifteen minutes for the pain to subside and Alex to regain her composure.
She stood stiffly and continued her walk.
"Hey guys!"
Jackie called out cheerfully to Rick and Brad.
Rick turned around with a ghost of a smile on his lips, and then resumed his scouring of the crowd's faces.
Jackie looked to her left, to see a smiling Brad. She chuckled in amusement as she saw the daggers his eyes were shooting at Rick. Jackie silently shook her head in contempt. If Brad wanted to be that thick headed, Jackie wouldn't persuade him otherwise. It was worth watching the cleric try and wake Brad up, seeing the bruise that blackened his eye. If he wanted to hold to his pigheaded fantasies, who was she to stop him?
With another shake of her head she turned to mimic Rick, looking for her uncharacteristically late teammate. Her and Rick's breathe caught at the same time.
Realizing the morning coolness had come and gone, Alex was currently lifting her hoodie up and over her head, revealing her tightly fitting cotton tank top. It seemed to hug her body in all the right places.
As she struggled with the aforementioned jacket, her slightly too short shirt lifted up, revealing a completely toned midsection.
Jackie felt her eyes lingering and quickly removed them. She greeted Alex with a full smile on her lips.
Alex greeted her friends with her smile, taking in each individuals appearance.
Brad, it seemed, lacked as much style as he did skill. That put a small smirk on her face.
Rick had put effort into his outfit. His styled hair looked nicely done, and his brown shirt made his body seem less lanky. A slight blush tinted his cheeks as she looked at him.
She turned to take in Jackie's outfit, who was also blushing, as if caught doing something wrong.
Something to think about later.
She had on a sinfully short skirt, one Alex would never wear, but looked nice on her teammate. She thought the pink effect complemented her friend's tanned skin.
"You look really nice Jackie. You too, Rick."
" You look wonderful." Both replied at the same time.
Alex rose an inquiring eyebrow and looked down at her hastily put together outfit. Both of her friends looked away, blushing harder.
"Your late." Brad growled.
"It's only 8:50, the meeting starts at 9," She countered cooly.
"We said to meet at 8:45." He snarled.
Alex winced.
"I ran into a bit of trouble. Let's go now?"
Her friends went to quickly go inform their parents and met back at Alex.
When all four were ready, they walked into the assembly hall. On the right were reserved tables, for parents, siblings, and family friends.
On the opposite side of the room lay four long tables with strange small boxes.
And, to the front and center were circular tables with identification cards. It seems like four teams were to share one table, yet only ten chairs were present. Alex figured this would work for partial teams, when some didn't pass the written portion of the test.
Alex found her card at a table with four seats left to it. She sat in her appointed chair, Rick to her right, Jackie facing her from the opposite side of the table. Brad was somewhere to the side, out of her peripheral vision.
To her right was a young man dressed in nearly all black, like herself. He had on a black band tee, and black shorts with a chain hanging across the back. He had light gray, clunky skater shoes, and a mop of short black, flopping hair, sufficiently covering his eyes when he wanted it to.
Across from her and to Jackie's left, was a self confident young man,
"I want to meet this Alex kid everyone's talking about. I could probably beat his ass one on one."
Alex's eyes danced in amusement, a slight movement Jackie caught as she tried to smother her own giggle.
"I've met Alex before," she said solemnly.
"Oh yeah, babe? Was he some nerdy loser? I heard he got all the test questions right."
Alex already didn't like this guy, but he let him insert his a foot a little further into his own mouth.
"Actually," Jackie was scowling, she hated guys like this one, "Alex is on my team."
"O-Oh really?" He stuttered.
"Him?" he asked incredulously, pointing at Brad.
Jackie let out a giggle.
"No."
"Him?" he pointed at Rick.
"Who said Alex was a guy?" Jackie asked with a fake, dripping, overly sweet voice.
The boy looked up in shock at Jackie's final teammate, his jaw seeming to defy anatomy, dropping to the floor.
And who said this meeting wouldn't be fun?
Not really a cliffhanger, I felt bad leaving you with that last one, but come on, did you really think I'd just go kill my uber cool main character?
So, here's a little mini contest for people who ACTUALLY read this. Can you point out the reference I used for Alex's fight this chapter? I stole it from a bad habit of one of my favorite manga/ anime... the first person who gets it right gets... a cookie? a request? a character? Whatever floats your boat. Just wondering if anyone caught it, I typed this chapter while watching the show.
Until next week,
- Dak