And here's the next chapter, which is very much just a big training montage! Well, I say that, but there's probably some other important stuff to look into.
Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.
Now, let's answer some reviews:
1) Mr. Haziq: That's… actually a very real possibility.
2) Nobody245: Can't we say it's both and be done with it? XD
* I'm guessing none of them are good?
* Tabby's not part of the league.
* I hope you enjoy this one. :)
3) Guest: Yup, Wilbur's here.
* Technically given that everyone's in high school, it's more like Lincoln is Maggie's age, but I'd rather not open that can of worms.
* It doesn't matter if she hears or not, her mind will fill in the blanks. Yay...
* Interesting you mention Lincoln's friends, because one of them is featured here...
4) Carvenstone: I have to admit, I don't remember that well what happened in the last version of the story, but I can at least tell you that yes, Royal Woods ISN'T the only place in the world with Cliches.
And now, to the chapter!
Leni walked down to the kitchen and opened the fridge, only to find the ice cream she had placed there to be in the middle of melting.
"Dang it, why do I always forget to put it in the freezer?"
"Greetings, Leni."
The hacker turned around, and to her surprise, Lola was sitting at the table, eyes glued to her phone.
"Lola? I thought you were at the detention center, what are you doing here?"
"I was allowed to leave since I have work today."
Leni lowered her eyelids and folded her arms.
"Okay, so I escaped, but I have to leave in order to go to work, so what difference does it make?"
Leni nodded in agreement while she placed her ice cream on top of Lola's head, who barely noticed as she added:
"How's Luna?"
"She's been better. Her request to quit Space Watch was rejected."
"Was she seriously expecting anything else?" Lola scoffed. "She was talking to bureaucrats who have absolute power over the Index System, of course she was gonna be rejected."
Leni couldn't help but lower her head and frown. The Loud family did have experience in dealing with the council, and they always proved to be a pain.
Luckily, something else came up with Lola's joking tone turned into a serious one.
"Leni, how long has it been since Lincoln was declared a Protagonist, and how long must someone be a Protagonist before they're added to the Protagonist-Antagonist conflict?"
"I think… not even, like, a week or something," the hacker hummed. "And, at bare minimum, a month. Why do you ask?"
The ice queen looked at her older sister and sighed, handing her phone to her as she helped keep the tray on her head.
And it didn't take long for Leni to find something wrong with Lola's Protagonist for the day: Lincoln.
"Okay, someone's totes hacking the system."
"I hope Winston doesn't find out," Lola rolled her eyes. "He's quite the jealous guy."
Leni handed the ice queen her phone back and stretched before heading to the door.
"Where are you going?"
"I need to go check up something with a friend," Leni hastily answered. "I'll be back soon-"
"You're not planning to try to investigate if the biggest network of Royal Woods has been hacked, will you?"
Leni paused at Lola's words… and left the house.
"Welcome to my humble abode!"
Lincoln, the Ynovation girls and Darcy went awestruck upon seeing Polly's house, which not only resembled a rural Japanese house, but was even surrounded by nature and situated far away from the more urban setting of Royal Woods.
"Neat, huh?" Polly snickered. "The Pain family history goes back to Japanese ancestors, so my parents decided to bring us back to our roots."
Tabby raised an eyebrow. "Your parents?"
"Yeah, but don't worry, they're not home right now," Polly replied, stretching to the best of her ability. "They normally work until nighttime, so we got more than enough time to screw around."
"With Lincoln, right?" Giggles inquired.
The boy flinched and faced the girls, just in time for Polly to state:
"Lincoln, you're gonna train with me. Tabby, Haiku, Giggles, train with yourselves or play with Darcy in the meantime."
Tabby shot a teasing look at Haiku. "Is that okay with you?"
The Crystal Ball user huffed and walked to the house, followed by Tabby and Darcy, the latter rolling around Giggles while the clown turned into a ball form.
"So, uh," Lincoln blurted. "What are we training with?"
As if on cue, the guy was struck by a long staff, which fell on his hands as Polly jumped off her own staff and grabbed it.
"That's called a bo staff. Some Cliches can give an enhancement to a weapon, but first you need to know how to wield a weapon," Polly smiled cockily. "A bo staff is fairly simple, so you should be able to learn quickly."
Polly raised and swung her staff several ways, Lincoln keeping a close eye on her movements until she stopped.
"Something like that. Now you try."
The boy nodded, held the staff, and tried to imitate Polly's previous moves. Though it was a bit obvious he was nowhere near as fast as hers.
"Okay, this is fine so far. A little slow for my liking, but it's better than nothing," Polly tilted her head. "Wanna try a little spar?"
Lincoln winced. "We barely just started training."
"And with the speed you're swinging that thing, it's gonna take forever for us to make any progress," the monkey girl pointed out. "Besides, it's easier to try to enhance a weapon when you're fighting someone."
"And what if my Cliche can't enhance weapons?"
Polly paused… and smacked Lincoln with her staff.
"Ow! What was that for?!"
"For being pessimist."
And then again.
"And that was for not being fast enough."
Now frustrated, Lincoln's eyes glowed as he placed his staff on his head when Polly tried to smack him again.
However, as soon as the staffs collided, Polly's staff was sliced in half, the upper half hitting the ground as the duo looked astonished at the development.
"Well…" Lincoln blinked twice. "That was unexpected."
"But not unwelcomed," Polly snickered. "Wanna keep going?"
The guy returned the smile, and nodded...
Back with Leni, the hacker entered a dark alleyway, where she was greeted by a teen girl with red hair and a green-blue striped shirt.
"Becky.
"Oh hey, Leni! It's been a while!" Becky said with a little smile. "Why did you call me?"
"I need to enter cyberspace," Leni stated. "There's something I gotta verify in there."
Becky's smile slowly turned into a frown, and she paused for a moment before replying:
"Leni, I'm not an Outsider like you. The Index System actually tracks what I do: if you're not careful, you could get us both into trouble-"
"If what I think is happening really is, like, happening, then all of Royal Woods will be in trouble."
Becky winced and took a step back, before she sighed. "Fine, if the situation really is that dire, I guess I could make an exception."
Becky promptly turned around, extended her hand forward, and her palm glowed before opening a green portal into some technological alternate dimension that seemed like one of those very early alpha builds videogames had.
Leni promptly walked inside, and as soon as she did, her outfit transformed into a black full bodysuit with turquoise highlights. Even her goggles transformed.
"I'll be back in a minute, Becky," Leni stated as she put her goggles down. "Keep the portal open until then."
"Before you go, Leni… where exactly are you going?"
The Hacker paused, faced the portalkeeper, and stated with an oblivious smile:
"To the Index System."
The Hacker flew off soon after, leaving the befuddled portalkeeper behind.
Leni flew as high as she could, and scanned the cyberspace counterpart of Royal Woods until she found what she was looking for: a floating spire in the sky, resembling the Citadel where the Index System stood.
"Bingo."
Leni flew towards the spire, and the first thing she noticed was that nothing was trying to stop her from getting closer. Security drones, firewalls, malware disguised as phony ads, nothing.
And once she got close enough to the point a firewall emerged, she saw why: not only were the security drones deactivated, but there was a gaping hole in the middle of the firewall, which glitched between its code and it's full form.
"Aha! A security breach!" Leni ran forward past the gap. "Now the question is, who did it, and are they still here?"
To get the answers she was looking for, Leni ventured deeper into the spire, running past several terminals and hallways until she reached what she believed was the very center of it.
At least, that's what the giant database suspended in the middle implied.
And speaking of said database, someone stood in front of a terminal, sporting a bodysuit with red highlights and a tail extension while tapping on a keyboard.
They did this until Leni aimed a finger gun at them and shot a lightning bolt at them, causing the individual to scream in pain and drop to the ground.
Leni promptly ran to the terminal, punted the figure away, and typed on the keyboard until…
"WARNING! SECURITY BREACH! LOCKING DOWN THE CENTRAL HUB!"
And before anybody could do anything, the doors in the spire all slammed down, trapping Leni and the mysterious person in the place.
"What have you done!?"
Leni turned around to see the figure stand up, revealing themselves to be a girl with horns, a tail, and red eyes. She also sported tanned skin and raven black hair.
"A Demon Lord, can't say I, like, expected that," Leni folded her arms. "As for your question, I reactivated the security systems so we'd both be locked in here."
The girl scoffed. "Correction: you locked yourself in here!"
She was enveloped in a white light
"Why can't I teleport!?"
"Yeah, I figured you'd totes try something funny like escaping, so I hacked your form to keep you trapped in this exact spot," Leni's smile turned into a scowl. "And by the way, when I say funny, I really mean, like, frustrating and annoying."
"Both words mean the same thing!" the Demon Lord girl snapped. "Let me go!"
"On one condition: tell me your name, and what are you doing here!"
"Those are two conditions, genius."
Leni narrowed her eyes, prompting the Demon Lord girl to get serious.
"The name's Stella Zhau. And if you really wanna know why I'm here…"
She summoned a black fireball.
"You'll have to fight for it!"
Once training was over, Lincoln and Polly sat down and had a little snack, the latter taking a big bite out of hers before talking:
"Apparently, you somehow managed to give the bo staff an edge. Since "edge" can refer to cutting edge, that's what you might've given it before we clashed."
"I see…" Lincoln hummed. "Oh, and uh, sorry about the bo staff. I really didn't mean to cut it in half."
"Nah, it's fine: I always end up breaking them when I go too far, anyway, so I'm used to it," Polly chuckled with a wide smile. "If anything, I'm glad I'm not the one who broke it this time "
Lincoln laughed back and took a sip of his drink… until he felt some goosebumps.
"Okay, so far, your Cliche lets you dash across the room, and give weapons a literal cutting edge," Polly said as she drank her drink obliviously. "I'd say that's some decent progress. What would you like to try now, Lincoln?"
But the boy didn't answer, as he was staring in the distance.
"Lincoln?"
"Polly, don't you feel like we're being watched?"
The monkey girl tilted her head as Lincoln kept staring… until he saw a pink glow in the distance.
"Polly, look-!"
The monkey girl rolled in front of Lincoln and spun her staff, causing the projectile to deflect elsewhere.
And with that done, the duo turned to see that the projectile was actually a pink arrow with a heart-shaped head.
Which was all the warning they got before the one who shot it walked out of the bushes.
"Nice to see you, Lincoln."
The boy grimaced. "Cristina!"
