Chapter 7: "It's a Secret to Everybody, Gob!"(Part 1)
Jude wasn't known as a very reliable guy. Dressed in a red jacket that was four sizes too small and cloaked in a similar number of hand-me-downs, Jude had met some back luck and even worse planning in his life.
A delivery truck had just arrived at the electronics store at the local shopping center and Jude was keeping an eye on it from behind a corner.
"So, what's the plan, Gob?" a grumbling voice behind Jude muttered.
"You idiot," a similar voice replied, "We'z gonna take the stuff and sellz it for moniez, Gob!"
"We'z nevah makes any moniez doin these jobs, though, Gob," a higher-pitched voice remarked.
"That's cuz we get ripped off every timez we sellz them, Gob," a distinctly lower voice quipped.
That was enough for Jude, "Shut up, you guys!" he whispered to his crew, a set of five, small humanoid creatures with large, bushy beards and sharp teeth dressed in various raggedy armors. One held a sword, another an axe, a third clad in pink held a wand, a fourth had a knife, and the fifth wore a huge ceremonial mask, "If you don't shut up, they'll hear us! We'll swoop in and take the stuff once the workers move away, and-"
"You mean like right now, Gob? The sword-bearing monster remarked, gesturing out to the lot. Caught off-guard, Jude looked up to see that the truck and its precious cargo were all by themselves.
"Gah!" Jude startled, "Go, go, go!" The six promptly scrambled out from behind the corner and rushed the truck. The knife-wielding Gob got to the truck first and jumped on. Grabbing the first box he saw, he tossed it down to the waiting axe-wielder, who tossed it to the masked one, who tossed it to the staff-wielder, who tossed it into the waiting shins of Fighting Dragon, Demongodal.
Wait, what?
The staff-wielding goblin glanced upwards at the notorious fighting dragon. He was wearing the same shirt as the delivery service company. He tapped his finger impatiently on his crossed arms.
"What do you think you're doing?" Demongodal remarked to the stunned monsters.
"Ah, buzz off, ya you bird-brained, big-bellied, butt-headed, buffoon!" The axe-wielding crony yelled, hefting his oversized axe into the air and leaping towards Demongodal.
…Who easily caught the axe with one hand.
"Hey, leggo, ya lily-livered, low-class, limp-wristed, lunkhead!" The axe wielder complained as it dangled from its weapon, fruitlessly kicking the air.
Judging by the increasingly angry expression on Demongodal's face, he wasn't too fond of those remarks. An overwhelming sense of fear suddenly gripped the axe-wielder as the dragon drew back its fist.
"Oh my Gob…"
...
Hideki yawned as he stepped out into the living room. While he had been awake for a while and was fully dressed, there was just something about Sundays that made him feel sleepy.
However, the sight that greeted him woke him up…marginally. His mother, a middle-aged housewife with long, wavy, dirty-blonde hair was working out to that "Something, Something, Asmodai" show on TV. However, to Hideki's surprise, Marie had joined in and was doing the same routine.
"What are you doing?" Hideki asked.
"What do you mean?" Marie said, looking at him upside down as she leaned back in a lumbar stretch, "I'm exercising. You didn't think I was born with all that athleticism, did you? I have to stay in shape!"
"I'm just amazed you didn't get surprised by the 'tiny man trapped in the box'," Hideki replied.
"Oh, come on!" Marie jabbed as she stretched to the floor, this time looking at Hideki from between her legs, "I know what a television is. Shion's told me all about the kinds of things here in the human world."
Hideki shrugged. He then turned towards the door to get his shoes from the entrance.
"Where you goin'?" Marie asked as she did a twisting back stretch.
"A few friends of mine are meeting up at the mall." Hideki replied as he tied his shoe.
"The mall?" Marie said excitedly. Dropping her exercises, she pattered over to Hideki, "Isn't that the place where humans go to shop for clothes and stuff?" Her eyes gleamed, "I've always wanted to see one!"
"And here I'd thought you'd want to go to Shion's place," Hideki replied.
"Actually, I've already talked to Shion," Marie said.
"Already talked to her?" Hideki raised an eyebrow.
"I know what a telephone is, too, wise-guy." Marie quipped, "Apparently she and the Professors are up to something today. I mean, I'd like to hang out, but the Professors are a bit of a bore if you ask me."
Hideki couldn't argue with that, "Fine," he said.
Marie giggled and clapped her hands excitedly.
"Do you need money for the train, dear?" Hideki's mom called from across the room.
"Nope," Hideki said as he grabbed his goggles, slipping them over his head.
...
In a back alley, huffing and gasping for air, a battered Jude and his five compatriots had taken cover from Demongodal's assault.
"Who'd a thought they'd get hired muscle?" Jude said.
"You're supposed to, Gob!" The sword-wielding scrawny one said, "You're the leader, right, Gob?! It's your job to know these things, Gob!"
"Eh, shaddup!" Jude yelled. Rubbing his thumb over the stubbley corner of his mouth, Jude could see that it had finally stopped bleeding. Curling his hand into a fist, he pounded the ground in frustration.
"Having trouble, are we?" A cold, yet attention-demanding voice behind him said. Jude and his cohorts turned to see an armored figure standing above him. To the figure's right stood an even larger figure with six-arms and clad in red armor.
"Who the heck are you?!" Jude said, leaping to his feet in an aggressive posture.
"A friend," The masked man replied, "Or a foe, your choice. I have a proposition for you. If you want to turn your miserable existence around, it might be worth your while."
Jude paused.
...
Moving at a far more casual and controllable pace, Hideki and Marie coasted their way towards the mall. Waiting outside of it were three people about Hideki's age. On a bench sat a boy with wild, light brown hair and a pair of headphones tapping his foot to the music. Next to him was a short girl with purple, shoulder-length hair and a stoic expression who was tucked into a book and, hanging above them on a sign bar by her legs, a third girl with a blonde ponytail tied with a ribbon was doing a continuous stream of hanging situps.
It was the blonde who noticed Hideki approaching first while she was halfway into her latest crunch.
"Hey, Hideki's here!" She called, letting her stomach relax.
"Hey, Lemmy," Hideki said as the blonde swayed upside-down in the air, "How many situps you done so far?"
"Oh, 200, maybe?" Lemmy replied as her shirt finally heeded gravity, revealing her muscular stomach and toned abs with clear definition. Marie gulped a bit at the sight. Looking over the blonde, Marie could see hints of her musculature under her loose clothes, most noticeable being some thicker biceps peeking out from her short sleeves.
"Do you ever stop exercising?" Hideki snarked.
"Well," Lemmy replied, "I figure if all else fails, I can at least model for those exercise machine commercials."
"Those commercials want girls who are toned, not ripped," The book-reading girl deadpanned.
Lemmy chuckled in response.
"But that's not important right now," The book-reading girl replied as she stood, "The important thing is," She slapped her book shut, "When were you going to tell us?"
"Tell you what?"
"That you'd gotten a Buddy Monster, dude!" The headphoned male exclaimed, leaping off the bench, "Everyone in school's talking about it. You didn't even call us?! And I thought you said you didn't play!"
"But I don't," Hideki replied. He sighed, "Well, these are my friends," he gestured to the three, "Lemmy, Fujiko and Kensuke" motioning to the blonde, the book-reader, and the boy in order, 'And this is Marie, you guys," he returned to his friends.
"Uh…Nice to meet you!" Marie said cheerfully, making a friendlier pose.
"So?!" Lemmy said, instantly invading Hideki's personal space and grabbing him by the arms, "How'd you two meet? Tell us everything!"
...
"And here we are, safe and sound," Mr. Takihara said as he left Shion at her house.
"Thanks again, Mr. Takihara," Shion replied as she unlocked the door, "See you again, tomorrow."
Seeing that Shion had made it inside, Mr Takihara activated his core gadget and took off into the sky.
Shion's house was quiet as she kicked off her shoes and walked upstairs. Her mother was no doubt still at work and for now she had the house to herself. Opening the door to her room, she didn't bother to close it behind her, opting to instead flop her tired body face-down onto her bed, a light breeze from her open window wafting in.
What she failed to notice, however, was that, as her door retreated from the wall, three of Jude's minions, perched on eachother's shoulders, were waiting for her.