Hello, everyone and anyone. Jett here (again) with Chapter Four of CotW. Now, for some bizarre reason or whim, I divided Chapter Four into two parts. Perhaps it was because I was lazy back then... Anyways, this is part one of Chapter Four. Please enjoy and if possible, review.
Chapter Four – Reality
Part One:The Flame-Haired Girl
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzttt… 0913, do you have a visual?"
"Negative. Hostiles still not present."
"Zzzzzzzzzzzzttt… Very well. Stay hidden, 0913."
"Affirmative. Isotope 0913, out."
Closing the device I was speaking to, I relaxed my muscles and glanced around, the field before me as empty as the moon's surface. Letting myself slump back onto the tree behind me, I replaced my device, which was called a Comtran, back into my jeans pocket before sighing loudly, a sudden fatigue passing over me.
This was my last training mission before I would be considered a full 0ccult Division Member. Once I finished the task given to me, I would be made introduced to the public, and be given a codename. Damien had completed the course only last year. Alice had already graduated from training a month before I first woke up, and had acted as our supervisor during the exercises.
Remembering Alice, I fought down a wave of sadness as I became lost in thought. After Damien became a full 0D member, he and Alice were soon sent on a mission together, leaving me alone at base. Once they left, my training increased in brutality, and there was even a period of time where I had almost died due to injures sustained from a certain exercise involving a battle with a capture Halogen. However, that was three years ago. Back then, I was only a boy with the appearance of a nine year-old. Now, I was one with the appearance of a twelve-year old. I had already mastered traveling through the world I had discovered while at my stay in the Forest, and I could now summon spikes from any shadow in a five-foot radius from myself.
Oddly enough, I did not receive word from neither Alice nor Damien in the three years following their reassignment.
As I reminded myself of the crush I had on Alice, I couldn't help but smile, realizing how childlike I was back then. Reaching behind my neck, I grabbed the hood of the black sweater I was wearing and pulled it over my head, my small smile still present on my face. It was cold that night, being earlier October and all. Relaxing against the slowly warming bark behind me, I closed my eyes and prepared to take a short nap, grateful for the leaves that surrounded me in the tree.
Then, I heard a twig snap on the ground nearby.
Quickly and silently, I rose up to the proper sitting position to investigate what had made the sound, but the same leaves that kept out the wind blocked my view of the ground under me. Aside from the shadow spikes, I also had perfect night vision, a trait I knew of a day after I had awaken. However, my sight could not see through objects. Taking back my gratitude, I began to carefully climb down the tree, mindful of the possibility of being seen by the being that made the noise. Reaching the ground, I allowed myself to squat down and began to walk to where I heard the snap, remembering where every dark shadow was in case I needed to conjure up a counterattack. Not even a minute after I was on the ground, I heard another twig break, the noise causing me to halt all movement.
Now, I would have been perfectly calm about it… had the twig not snapped right behind me.
Spinning around instantly, I quickly commanded two spikes to shoot out of from my own shadow to pierce whatever was trying to sneak up to me.
The two spikes only penetrated the cold fall air.
Initial panic subsiding, I let my shoulders slump; all tension leaving my body only to be replaced by relief. Concluding that the twig was broken by my foot and not by a Halogen, I relaxed once again, and turned back to once again begin my search for the source of the original noise.
Only to come face-to-face with two piercing emerald eyes.
Now, when one is still in training in the 0ccult Division, one is taught never to scream, for it may compromise one's position. However, at that very moment, I came very close to ignoring that part of my conditioning. The only thing stopping me was the sudden rush of air followed by the hard impact of dirt as I stumped back in shock and fell over. Rolling thanks to the momentum, I ended up on my face, my back aching due to it breaking my fall. As I laid there dazed, laughter began to fill the night air.
"Ahahaha! You should've seen your face! Ahahahaha! Priceless!" a female voice said to me, making me look up. Since my mind was still scrambled, my vision had become blurred, making it hard to accurately see the person in front of me even with my night vision. The woman who was laughing had red hair, making me mutter out a name in disbelief.
"Alice?"
The laughter suddenly stopped, and at the same time my sight cleared up, revealing the person in front of me perfectly, who had become furious in an instant.
"Calling a girl the wrong name is rude, you know!" the girl shouted at me with a scowl, her long, almost fire-like curly hair falling behind her shoulders, allowing her attractive face to be fully seen.
"Sorry abou-" I automatically began to say as I lifted myself off the ground onto all fours, stopping myself as I regarded the situation more thoroughly. Why was I apologizing to this girl? She was the one who appeared in front of me and started me. What was she even doing there in the middle of the night? Staring at the girl, I did not continue my apology, which seemed to irritate the flame-haired girl even further.
"Well? Don't you have more to say? Hello? Hey I'm talking to you!" She yelled at me as she leaned forward to get my attention once again, since in the time she was ranting I had looked away to the side to check out our surroundings. When her face stopped only inches from mine, I turned back on a reflex, looking at her enchanting emerald eyes that seemed to only compliment her scowling expression. However, my peripheral vision soon caught sight of something under her chin, and looking down, I was soon staring at the opening the girl's shirt made due to gravity's effect on it, revealing a sight (amplified by my night vision) that somehow made my face flush red.
Unfortunately, the girl noticed what I was staring at.
"Creep!" She screamed at me as she moved her left hand to her chest to push the shirt closer to her skin, hiding the opening it had made, all the while raising her right hand in the air. Looking up, I only managed to don a confused expression before the flame-haired girl's hand came in contact with my left cheek at high speeds. Now, I had been hit before, and as part of 0ccult training, I was taught to withstand pain. However, that slap caught me off guard, and as a result I fell onto my side, holding my damaged cheek in shock. After that shock dissolved, I forgot everything my training forced into my brain.
"What the hell is wrong with you? Why did you hit me?" I yelled at her in fury, still covering my left cheek, which had started to bruise. That girl had some strength.
"You were looking down my shirt, you pervert!" She screamed back, having taken a step away from me after slapping my face. Her hands were now over her chest, as if to block it from my sight.
"I wasn't!" I responded suddenly without thinking, an urge to deny her claim arising in my mind without explanation. "Besides, it's not like there's anything interesting to look at…." I muttered under my breath a little too loudly as I turned away, rubbing my bruised cheek at the same time. What was I saying? Why was I telling lies? The words emerging from my mouth came from some abyss inside me that was unknown to me. However, at the same time, it reminded me of someone I knew. Oh no. I was becoming like Damien.
"What was that, you stupid brat? I want you to repeat what you just said to me right now!" the flame-haired girl screamed, furious about my little comment. Looking back at the girl, I opened my mouth to declare another lie about her appearance, only to stop, remembering where I was. Quickly, I dashed towards the girl and clamped my hand over her mouth, an act that looked ridicules considering that she was half-a-foot taller than me.
"Waff arhh youf do'ng? Gef youf hannf off meh! (What are you doing? Get your hands off me!)" shouted the girl through my hand as she began to pound on me with her hands while I surveyed the area around us quickly. Luckily, there was no activity to be seen.
"Will you be quiet? There may be Halogens nearby!" I hissed at the flame-haired girl after bring my free hand up to defend myself from her blows, which lessened at the mention of Halogens. Glaring at the girl in the moonlight, I waited until her hand became still to talk to her once again.
"Okay. I'm going to remove my hand now. Do not scream or talk too loud, okay?" I whispered to the girl, who nodded before I detached my hand from her face, only to be met by more blows.
"H-Hey! Stop that!" I hissed as I once again brought my arms up to protect myself from the deranged girl, who whispered back her anger.
"Don't you ever, EVER, do that to me again!" she exclaimed as she stopped her barrage of fists and began to adjust her clothing. "I'll make sure you regret it next time you try touching me without my permission!" she continued, her threat falling on deaf ears as I recovered enough of my wits to realize something important. She was the first person outside of the 0ccult Division that I had actually interacted with! Of course, there was the pilot of the helicopter that dropped me at the site, but I did not enter the cockpit to discuss with the man (or woman). I was strictly forbidden to. But now…
"-are you?"
I was taken out of my thoughts by the girl's voice, the last part of the question she had asked me the only thing that I heard. Puzzled, I kept my mouth shut, which made the girl repeat her question once again with an annoyed tone.
"Hey! I asked who are you? What are you doing here?" she said to me with her arms crossed, the dark green sleeves of her jacket receding a little to expose her wrists.
"What am I doing here? What are you doing here? You just appeared all of a sudden!" I said to the flame-haired girl who snarled at my response, moving her hands to her hips as she closed her eyes and moved her chin up, acting as a superior berating a subordinate.
"If you must know, I'm an Isotope who is here on a secret mission for the organization known as Helli0n. Since you're a civilian, I must ask you to leave." She said in a manner that made me want to pierce her with multiple shadow spikes. Thankfully, I restrained myself, for the most part.
"I'm not leaving. I'm also an Isotope. I was given a mission here too, and was told to complete it no matter at what costs. So if you excuse me, I must be heading back to my post. I can't let any Halogens get by unnoticed." I stated officially before turning around to walk back to the tree from earlier, only to be stopped by a few words.
"Wait a minute. You're doing what I'm supposed to do! I was given that job!" she announced with confusion and shock, which made me match her expression of puzzlement equally. Why would the 0ccult Division send another Isotope to do my mission? Was she there to keep tabs on me? Was I supposed to protect her on top of my given orders? As both of us pondered how we were given the same mission, the cold wind decided to slam into us hard, making both the girl and I hunch up in our outerwear clothing.
"Let's talk about this later. Right now we have to get out of this wind. Follow me." I said to the girl as I began to walk back to my shelter in the tree, only to have the girl yell at me once again.
"Why would I follow a pervert like you?" she shouted in disgust before another sudden gust of wind hit her, making her close her eyes due to the force of the freezing air.
"Do you want to be stubborn and frozen or do you want to be someplace warmer?" I responded back the best I could with the wind beating into my face, having only turned my head to talk back to the girl. The flame-haired girl stood there for a minute, her fiery hair flowing wildly as she contemplated her options, before she ran after me, stopping right behind me shivering.
Reaching the tree, I pointed up to indicate to the girl where the shelter was, and she then proceeded in climbing it first. After her, I followed suit, and before long, we were both on the large branch I had claimed earlier on, our bodies finally stopping from shaking.
"T-Thank you, pervert." The girl said to me as she avoided eye contact, her arms wrapped around her body to reclaim some lost warmth. She was obviously not glad to have accepted my offer to help. Leaning against the bark once again, I sighed loudly, the hood of my sweater still over my head.
"My name is Aiden-0913, not 'pervert.' Remember that, Miss…" I stopped once I realized that I did not know her name, a lack of knowledge quickly filled by the flame-haired girl.
"Molly. My name's Molly-0757. Don't forget that, pervert." The girl named Molly said to me with a sadistic smirk after she uttered the word 'pervert' once again, causing annoyance to arise in my mind as I brought my knees up to my face, looking at her fiery red hair once again. But strangely, there was only one negative thing I was feeling at the time. Perhaps it was the sensation of talking to a new person. Perhaps it was just the joy of having company. Whatever it was, in that cold windy October night, I was content.