And here we have chapter four. Don't worry, nobody dies in this chapter, but we do see an Antagonist fight, so there's that.
Don't worry, we'll get some action with Lincoln and Ynovation (not that kind of action, pervert!) eventually, but first, we have to establish something important about the world.
1) Guest: Don't worry, Haiku will still be the one we see the most. ;)
2) Nobody245: Those are all good questions. Give me a second to think of a half-baked answer for them. XD
3) Jim Darney The Weird Fictionis: Maybe.
4) Mr. Haziq: Next week, crossover special with Randy Cunningham, 9th Grade Ninja!
5) Guest: Yeah, because Cristina being thick clearly means she's related to a thick woman. Truth be told, though, I completely forgot that it was a fan favorite theory. Is that still the case? I haven't been keeping up with the fandom lately.
And now, to the chapter!
After officially, kinda, joining Ynovation, Lincoln went back to his classroom… and boy was he disappointed.
Not that the teacher was terrible, in fact, Mrs. Johnson was probably one of the nicest people that's ever taught him. But everything else was the standard high school stuff: Math, Geography, Physics, and so on.
They had superpowers! Why not have a class to teach about them?!
"And now, we'll learn about Cliches."
Finally!
"The History of Cliches, to be exact."
Damn it!
"Now, if we're going to talk about the history of Cliches, we have to start at the very beginning, back when humanity had no superpowers."
Oh? Now this was intriguing.
"A thousand years ago, humanity encountered a shock in the very first Cliche to be developed," Mrs. Johnson explained while she wrote about it on the blackboard. "This was discovered in a young girl whose name was lost to time, and who, once she reached adulthood, stopped aging altogether."
Lincoln quickly raised his hand.
"Yes, Lincoln?"
"So, this girl was immortal, or could she be killed?"
Mrs. Johnson hummed while tapping her cheek. "According to history notes, staying young forever was the only thing her power gave her. She could be injured, she could get sick, the only thing she couldn't do was die of old age."
"So, she's no longer around?"
"I never said that, and in fact, nobody really knows," the woman shrugged. "The last anyone ever saw of her, she left her country of origin to walk around the world, and see everything it had to offer."
Mrs. Johnson paused and lowered her head. "Unfortunately, it was at this very moment that chaos spread. For more and more Cliches developed within people: some harmless, some dangerous, some indescribable."
Mrs. Johnson wiped the blackboard clean, and then quickly wrote and drew something as she explained:
"As more and more Cliches appeared, people began using them differently. For good, for evil, for their own benefit, and eventually, when everyone in the world had a Cliche of their own, it led to an event that is now known as…"
The woman stopped writing and drawing, and moved aside to reveal a battlefield.
"The Originality Wars."
Lincoln and the students quickly wrote that down, the woman pausing to let them catch up before adding:
"The reason the wars were called that was because the inciting event was the question of the source of Cliches. What were they supposed to be used for? Why did they appear all of a sudden? Every time the question was asked, a dozen different answers would be given, and when the question became more and more frequent, conflict emerged."
The woman erased the image and wrote and drew yet again.
"The war lasted a Century, but long after it ended, people were unsure of what the purpose of Cliches were. And so, several centuries of uncertainty came…"
Then, she smiled.
"Until last century, with the creation of…"
The woman moved aside again, this time revealing a large building located in the middle of Royal Woods.
"The Index System!"
Lincoln narrowed his eyes and wrote that down, now more curious about the system than ever.
Once school was over, the childhood quartet walked back home, with Ronnie Anne being the first one to comment:
"So, wait a minute, Cliches just appeared out of nowhere? There wasn't any particular reason for them to exist?"
Clyde shook his head. "Mrs. Johnson said it herself: one day, humanity got superpowers. Just because."
"That's not completely true!" Cristina stated with a smile. "You all know how stories about empowered humanity go: one day, everyone gets superpowers, but what seems like a random event is in fact the herald of a greater threat yet to come!"
"Or it could be a freak accident that just so happens to give everyone powers," Ronnie Anne suggested with a shrug. "Not everything has to have a higher meaning, you know?"
"You don't know that!"
"Uh, none of us do. That's why we're guessing."
And as the girls kept talking, Lincoln began to walk ahead of the rest, catching a worried Clyde's attention.
"Lincoln, wait!"
Clyde grabbed Lincoln's shirt and pulled him back, just in time for the quartet to notice what they were about to run into.
A giant iceberg in the middle of the streets, with several stalactites (or were they stalacmites?) spreading across it.
"Looks like there was a fight here," Ronnie Anne stated.
*BOOM!*
"Correction, there is currently a fight here."
The iceberg shattered as a small girl was sent flying to a wall, with a boy chasing after her soon after.
The boy had Blonde hair styled in a fancy way, and he was wearing a pink suit with a matching cape, with white gloves with symbols on the palms.
As for the girl? She had Blonde hair too, but she also had light blue skin, and wore a white fur dress with hot pink opera gloves.
"Your days of bringing forth the ice age are over, Antagonist!"
The boy aimed his palms at and shot energy blasts, which she easily dodged by sliding down an ice ramp she created, saying:
"Ice age? You really need to pay more attention with who you fight, Winston; Lindsey's the one with the "Ice Age" Cliche."
The boy, Winston, turned around. "Really? Then what's your Cliche?"
The girl raised her arms, and the ice by her sides transformed into icy golems, who roared at him as she said:
"Ice Queen."
The golems ran to Winston and prepared to attack him, just in time for Lincoln to exclaim:
"Lola?!"
"Oh, sorry Lincoln, I didn't see you there," the girl, Lola, said casually. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, Clyde stopped me before I hit your iceberg," Lincoln said before scanning his surroundings. "Sorry if we interrupted you while you were working."
"Nah, it's fine," Lola rolled her eyes and turned back to Winston. "Anything to deal with the monotony of dealing with this moron."
Winston destroyed the golems and dashed to Lola, shouting:
"My name is Winston!"
Lola slid to the side, dodging Winston completely.
"I'd love to talk with you about how our days went, Lincoln, but I have work to do," Lola smiled. "But I'd be happy to provide you a quick ride home."
"No thanks, your ice cars are rather… well, cold," Lincoln answered, his friends groaning at the pun. "We'll walk there."
"Understood."
And with that, the friends kept walking, leaving Lola behind to look at the sky with melancholy.
Meanwhile, in outer space, Luna floated in the atmosphere, her cape flowing as she waited for something.
And as nothing happened, she gritted her teeth and growled:
"Still nothing…"
