A/N: Previously... I left you guys waiting for a much longer time than i expected and I'm sorry for that. But here's a reward for the steady reading:
Angel's on her first trip to Mount Pillar with Kit. Guess what? She got herself lost!
But now she's met this new boy who she thinks is cute.
Some of you have guessed at his heritage and some of you are partially right. But let's look a little further to see if this crush is worth investing time in.
Meanwhile…
Angel's POV
I did promise Kit that I would port back and call him if we got split up. Then I met this guy and… My sense of adventure is calling me! This guy, brown-hair-and-ski-hat, hasn't told me his name yet, which makes him more mysterious. And…he is kinda cool. I can tell he knows this place. He seems to have the path of the patrols down by memory, and he has a hiding spot in each place to avoid being spotted. He looks back and says to me. "Stay close, got it kid?" And he's rude…
"For the record, I'm PerimPride." I won't give him my name until he acts nicer.
"Ah, it is? Good for you." He says uninterested.
Okay, so conversation is dead. Guess the game really is super important to guys like him. Unlike me, he doesn't seem to be looking around. But there is so much to see! And if I want to keep seeing it, I have to learn how to play and survive. So Cranky-boy takes the lead.
We manage to make our way down, unseen by any Danians. Taking cover beside a giant jade, he says "Now watch an' learn, love. This little meeting can give us scans an' info."
"Sounds good to me." I don't know what to say to this guy that won't tick him off. So just agreeing is my best option.
And he still looks off-put by what I said. Now I'm the one getting annoyed, "What?"
He says nothing, and then. "Chad. The name's Chad." And he turns around to scope the area. Your name isn't really my problem with you at the moment. Yet, somehow it's still nice to know.
From one side of Jade Pillar comes three Danians. Lore, and two mandiblors. I know about Lore, from my mom's deck. He's like- no, he is the best Muge to the Danian Tribe. He has the ability to drain an opponent's energy and make it his own! If I can I would definitely like a scan of him. From the other side of the pillar, comes two more mandiblors escorting a much bigger one! "That's Wamma." Chad whispers pointing him out to me.
Wamma looks… fat. He's much taller and has a lot more mass in his stomach region than any other Danian I had ever seen. And he also looks… angry. I don't know why, but from his card I have in my real deck, I would have thought Wamma would be a happier persona. I remember what Chad said about him being a guard up at the Fire Gate, maybe his perma-frown is connected to that? At any rate it would also be cool to have a new scan of a creature mom used to have! I now know my targets!
"One at time." Chad orders me. "I'll get the fat one, you take the old dude."
"What?" I jerk my head up at him. I draw the line at bossy! This guy is so not as cool as I first thought he was.
"Hush up!" He orders. "And listen in. Ya might learn somethin'."
My hand automatically clenches into a fist, but I hold it down in favor of overhearing what the Danians are talking about.
It's Lore who speaks first. "Alright Wamma, let's make this report quick: What news of the Fire Gate since the Human's Return?"
"Virtually, none." Wamma responds. "Not a single best has so much as a single pest has been spotted coming close. I'm guessing the passageway from here to the Forgotten City is forgotten by their kind."
Lore shook his head. "That is all well and good, but Queen Azil is interested in the humans. She heard of her mother's encounter with one and wishes to make contact without disturbing the activities of the Hive!"
"No humans!" Wamma roared. "Especially female humans! They are not to be trusted."
"I will put that suggestion in my report to the Queen." Said Lore. "A male human as a desirable liaison. But it may surprise her that such a thing will be coming from you! Years ago wasn't it you and a human named-"
"Do NOT say HER name!" Wamma screamed in complete rage. The staff he was shaking out in the air, blasted a ray of yellow light the bounced off several jade shards until it became directed at us! Chad and I both gasped, and I grabbed the back of his hoodie in time to throw us both out of the way!
And in plain sight of secret meeting…
The all of us; the mandiblors, Lore, Wamma, Chad and myself all froze on eye contact. It took a moment, then Wamma pointed an accusatory claw at us, "Humans! I hate humans!" At which Chad and I took off running as several blasts of I-don't-know-what were sent our way.
"Way to go, girlie!" Chad yells at me.
"Would you prefer to be code? Cause it's not too late for that." I challenge. We take cover under too separate boulders. Wamma is in pursuit of us along with the guards.
"Get the boy, but blast that female into code!" Wamma orders. "The females are the least trustworthy of all humans!"
What does this guy have against girls? I'm reminded of the Boy's Tree House Club, it cost Manny a few social points when we were five, but he didn't join if they wouldn't let me. And we won the Battle of the Water balloons that year. I look over at Chad, he may be a jerk, but he's jerk who knows this place. "Chad, what's the quickest-"
But it looks like chad already decided to bail. He's long gone and I'm left here being fired upon. "Jerk." I spit out. I look farther ahead and there he is, rolling and dodging out of the line of fire. Just port out, Angel. If kangaroo-boy is half as smart as he thinks he is, he'll be just fine. Then a second voice in the back of my head nags at me: He helped you in. Wouldn't that make you the jerk if you didn't return the favor?
Voice of morality, you are going to kill me one day.
More of the attention is on Chad who keeps moving, so much energy is really on him that I think even Wamma has figured I ported out already. I know Chad is headed for the rocks, his eyes keep focusing and coming back to one spot over there. So I just need to wait for him to get close enough, then I'll distract the guards so he can get away and I'll port myself back to Chaotic. Easy enough… If I can avoid being blasted.
"We have him cornered!" One of the mandiblors call out.
I take that as my cue and jump out from my hiding place! On top of the rock I call out, "Hey, Wamma! What do you have against human girls!?"
All eyes become directed at me. For the briefest moment, all heads turn to Wamma who gives out no word. Why did he stop firing? Can he be in shock? I'll have to goad him further if I want to get all the attention away from back-stabbing Chad. Waving my arms around I say, "Hey, you guys know what game humans play with ants back home? SQUASH!"
That did it.
Every single attack becomes focused on me, and I begin my own duck and run. I hide behind every boulder, but never for more than three seconds. Either they get blown up or the mandiblors are always getting closer. I can leap and run even faster than Chad, only problem is I don't know how to get out of here. Until finally, I'm cornered against a wall myself. Turning around, Wamma and all four mandiblors are in a semi-circle around me at point blank. I reach behind my back, ready to press my return to Chaotic button on my scanner. Now that they're far enough away, "Shall we shoot, sir?" one of the mandiblors ask Wamma. Wamma never looks away from me, particularly my face. I'm guessing that from how I'm standing he doesn't notice my hand reaching for my scanner.
"You look…" Wamma starts to say.
A buzz noise interrupts him. And not a buggy buzzing noise. A mechanical, porting noise! And it's Chad who's suddenly standing right beside me and tightly grasping my upper arm. "I just want you to know," he says to me, "I hate you for this." And he ports me out Justas the weapons fire.
The next time I blink, Chad lets me go and we are standing in the middle of an underground-style library. "Gee, thanks." I say in monotone. I'm not sure if I should be grateful, or angry at him right now.
"That's how you thank someone who saved your code?"
I gape at this guy's nerve. "Save my nothing is more like it! I saw you bail on me when we were being fired at! The only reason you were able to get away is because I took their attention off of you."
"I didn't ask you to help me!" He objects.
"It's called being a decent human being! You should give it a try one time!"
"ENOUGH!" A louder voice boom s over the two of us. Up by a stone railing is an orange Danian with white hair and dressed in a tan robe with some kind of mugic medallion around his neck. He starts coming down, and in a normal voice he says, "I'm fairly sure the rules of the library are universal. But, you should know the most basic rule of a hiding place is to be quiet."
Chad just looks away, annoyed at this Danian's chiding. I smile at him being told off. "Well now, is this the comrade you went back to save?" He asks looking at me.
"She's no comrade. I only brought her with me cause she has a little talent in making good jokes." Chad responds, putting his hands in his pockets.
Placing my hands on my hips, I turn to Chad and say. "Oh, good. If you had said it was because I saved your sorry butt, you'd have be disappointed cause that will not be happening again."
Chad sneered, and said nothing back. Victory for me!
"Yes, that does sound like you, Chad." The Danian said to him. And that's game! Since Chad went and sat down in a chair. "Allow me to introduce myself, little one. I am Raznus, Keeper of the Tomes."
I smile up at Raznus. Unlike chad, I feel like since he's given a nicer impression that I can be nice back. "And I'm Angel. How do you know each other?"
"Chad wandered in several times. He already had his own wanted poster by the time he found my library, and my tribe can be rather: shoot first, and question later." Raznus explained. "But I've been curious about the human's sudden return. Between us both we exchange information, places for Battle Gear, Locations and Creatures. While Chad does some sleuthing in Chaotic for me on why the connection has been restored."
Chad snorted from his place in the corner. "And just so you have a heads up, Razzy! Wamma said no girls are allowed in Mount Pillar."
Raznus only sighed, "Well, that does little to surprise me." He seemed to be talking more to me than to Chad. "Believe it or not, Wamma once had a dear friend among the Chaotic Players, a female around your age no less. She was devoted to the Danian Tribe, and was always willing to help Wamma. His best friend."
"Was he upset that she never came back after the Wrip Wave?" I asked. It seemed the most obvious.
"Sadly, no." said Raznus. "She was gone for solons before that. While there were still Players around, she just stopped coming one day. I guess Wamma feels like she abandoned him."
The sound of Chad's fist hitting hard on the table cut off the conversation. "I don't need to hear all this!" He turned and yelled at us. "Raznus, I brought you that green rock to study like you wanted. I'll just take my payment and go."
Raznus pointed up the stairs to an office. "Help yourself, it's right in there." As Chad walked away from us (finally), Raznus said. "I have a complicated relationship with the higher-ups in my tribe. They refuse to give me access to any other rooms save for here. I am a scholar at heart, but do need to experiment when I am surrounded by knowledge."
"I can understand that." I tell him. Sitting around and only reading about amazing places is fine for relaxing, but it's never the same as living it. "What I don't understand is why you tell a human with such a bad attitude all the good stuff about your tribe."
To that Raznus responded, "Chad is… a complicated being. True that he often seems angry, but he never objects to what I ask of him. And what I hope he sees is the good parts of Mount Pillar, and gains them favor with Chaotic Players. Though… I find you, Angel, a much less trying child."
I laugh. I got a compliment at Chad expense, and I feel no shame in it. "Thanks! But some Creatures might disagree with you, Raznus."
He smiled down at me. There's something else I like about Raznus. I don't know what it is, I can just pin it down to that he's no ordinary Danian Muge. "Also, thanks for not immediately blasting me or kicking me out, today's been pretty rough for me."
"Then why not make it easier? I still want to open up parts of Mount Pillar to humans, take a look around my library, scan a few mugics. If they can help you learn something about us, it would no question make my day."
Chad must have ported out as soon as he got his scan. I hadn't managed to get my scan of Lore or Wamma, but Raznus was kind enough to let me have a scan of him, along with the mugic Chad got and one he pointed out to me in the library. Raznus said that because the Danians are so heavily focused on military, hardly any time is devoted to history or mugic, not least not by comparison. Thus, his library is often empty and always open as a quick Location scan right into the tribe. He let me take that one too.
With a full scanner, and what felt like time to spare, I must have spent an hour conversing with Raznus, when I got a call from All-H'earring. I forgot about Kit! I quickly answered, "Kit?"
"Angel, where are you?" Looking at the background, I could see that Kit was back in Chaotic. "I had to finish the Scan Quest alone, and I port back to this mess!"
"What mess?" Kit turns his scanner for me to see a crowd of Chaotic Players cheering loudly at the Drome monitors. It looks like a Mudeenu is in heavy combat with a Takinom in a grassy plain.
"Kat and Manny are having a beat-down!" Kit said. "I'm glad you're alright, but can you port back here now? It's escalating fast, and depending on who wins we may need to do some damage control."
Oh, he's right! "Okay. Stay put, I'll be right there!" I turn it off.
"It appears that you have been summoned." Raznus observes.
"Uh-huh," I nod. "Two of our friends don't take well to losing. It's part of my job to keep the peace."
Somehow that made Raznus laugh. "Then I understand your rush. But… may I see your scanner before you go? Humans have been around for years and I have never yet held one myself."
"Um…" I only hesitate because I've learned just how important this little device is. "Sure, I'll trust you, Raznus."
He turns the little red machine over in his hands. Weighing it, pressing the buttons that don't work for him, and feeling its texture before handing it back to me. "I don't suppose you know how your scanner works, Angel?"
I shake my head saying, "No, sorry. That kind of thing is beyond my knowledge. By human science I don't even know how me being here is possible."
Raznus looked interested in that. "Interesting… Another unsolved mystery of Perim and Chaotic."
I responded. "Another puzzle to solve between Creatures and Chaotic Players."
With that bid Raznus farewell and returned to the Chaotic-between world.
By the time I did, I was in there to see the end of the match close with a draw. Now neither Manny nor Kat were speaking to each other, their arms crossed and looking grumpily in opposite directions.
"Mipedians rule." Said Manny.
Kat said back, "Underworlders rule more." And nothing else.
Sitting next to each other, soaking up the tension, Kit whispered behind his back to me, "Just like we rehearsed, okay?"
"Okay." I whispered back. I cleared out my throat and said. "Hey, who wants milkshakes and pizza?"
The feuding friends dropped their grudge and raised their hands, "We do!"
The Everything-In-Perim Pizza was brought to us first. Manny and Kat each grabbed two and started munching away.
"See?" Kit said, helping himself to a piece. "Just give them their favorite food and all else is forgotten." He added quietly, "That's how I trained our puppy."
I chuckled and gave Kit a thumbs up for his genius plan. We saw our shakes coming over and waved to call the robot. He had each of our favorites right there on the tray. A hand suddenly came up from beneath it, sending the sweat, cold drinks flying and soaking our beloved pizza! And all over the four of us!
"What the freak!" Kat shouted, standing up. We all glared at the kid who had done it. I recognized him right away in the purple sweatshirt and sinister smirk as he walked away.
I growled between teeth. "Chad." So not cool.
Truth about life: not everyone is going to be fair or nice.
And Chad isn't either one of them! Why? That'll take some further explanation...
What's up for the gang next time? Where will they go? Who will they meet? Will Angel NOT get lost for a change?
Let me know if this is worth continuing!