Neil opened his eyes slowly and watched the bright white light for a while, he sighed heavily in frustration and without more hesitation... He stood up and sat upright with his head slightly bowed to the ground.
He lifted his head and looked at his reflection in the mirror, he observed the black flower-pattern on his purple iris.
"Guess you awakened with me." He smiled.
He hopped off the bed and headed straight to the door, which opened widely as Dr. Midori stood in front of him with her Left arms resting on her waist and a smile on her face.
"Seems I have become a regular customer to your bay.?" Neil looked at her. "You will have to get me a VIP resort."
"Of course darling." She laughed.
Neil managed to smile and walked past her, his eyes were closed and hand inside his pocket.
"And where are you headed?" Dr. Midori asked.
"My friends need my back up." Neil opened his eyes.
"I see." She smiled. "You always look out for your friends... I wonder why?"
"Not because they need me." Neil spoke. "But because they need someone who always watch their back when they are being careless."
"A pure intention you have there." Dr. Midori spoke. "I wish they will watch your back too."
Neil kept walking and waved her goodbye and that very moment she turned to look at him, she gasped when that gesture triggered a memory she tried to forget.... A guy with white hair, red robe and black jean with a hand band which had chains on it and he was waving her goodbye as leaves fell down the path he walked past.
Her vision came back to reality the moment Neil walked around a corner and disappeared.
"Guess they don't have to." Dr. Midori whispered.
She stared at the lobby for a while before she proceeded with the next schedule of the day, Neil came out of the infirmary. Without further delay he decided to head straight to Miss Wade's office, he went around a corner and bumped into Delia as she was returning from God knows where she headed. Both of them stared at each other for a while contemplating and thinking of what to say to each other, Delia walked past Neil without uttering a word and without further delay..... Neil turned to ask her a question when he spotted her face that had the indication "don't ask" expression on her face.
Neil decided to let her go and they walked opposite direction to their destinations.
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"Why did you lead us here Rory?" Zoe asked. "Aren't we supposed to go to where she is?"
"I... I don't understand." Rory closed his eyes. "This is the right spot.... Then what's going on."
They all turned and decided to head back, and they had disappointments written on their face. Rory began to hear a little voice in his head, he turned around to see where it was coming from.
"Guys..." He called out.
"What is it?" Kai asked.
"I can hear something." Rory whispered.
"Maybe it's our thoughts you are hearing." Reece whispered.
"No...." Rory protested. "This is something else.... There's something blocking us here."
"For real?" Kai asked.
"Yes... I know i wasn't wrong about the location." Rory said.
Without further delay on who was with him; Rory stretches his arm towards a door they opened, wanting to see if he would go inside if he touched it but his arm suddenly halted mid way like he was obstructed by something.
"Told you." Rory smiled.
"There's something behind this obstruction." Reece said.
"We need enough power house to pull it down." Kai commented.
"Leave that to me." Zoe squeezed her fingers together and they made cracking sounds.
She dropped her arms and clenched them as red skeletal auras sprang out of her body, as if it was human; flesh began to cover the skeletal parts of the body and it looked like a gorilla. She ran towards the invisible wall and the auras although halved to the waist went with her as if it was her shadow, she hopped in the air with a punching stance.
Her punch and the gorillas punch landed on the wall simultaneously, and it gave out ripples. They continued the punching with more angrier gesture as the ripples began to make the visible room to fade and a dark appearance began to portray, she threw back her arm and clenched tighter.
With a shouting ovaction from both Zoe and her auraed gorilla, they landed a massive punch on the wall.
Crack.....
The wall shattered to pieces as if it was glass in the first place, just as the glass began to drop to the ground; Rory sensed something behind the glass.
"Zoe...." Rory yelled. "Hop back now."
Zoe complied but it was too late as a hand stretched out from the behind the fallen glass and was heading straight for her neck, a very fast arm that can't be easily escaped by anyone unless one is a speedstar.
As the arm was about to grip Zoe by the neck, an explosion came from underneath and pushed both candidate backwards into the pillars close by.
Before anyone could figure out what was happening, few average pebbles fell towards the enemies hiding behind the glass wall..... Boom..... Smoke and the smell of blood filled the air. Zoe stood up as she brush off dust particles on her clothes and coughed a little because of the smoke.
"Are you guys okay?" A voice called out from the smoke.
"We're good." Zoe replied. "You should have given us a heads up before blowing things up.... Cheryl."
"Sorry." The voice replied. "We had to act fast."
Cheryl came out of the smoke as she wore her gloves, Sandy and Jayden came out of the smoke too.... Though both of them seemed to be supporting each other, for they look drained and had difficulty walking.
"What about Jade and Freda?" Reece asked.
"They are still down on the first floor." Jayden pants.
"Let's go get Chiyo." Rory reminded everyone.
"You guys go on." Sandy lift his finger in the air, though they were shaky. "We have to recover all we've lost."
"You've got it." Kai walked down the lobby.
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.
.
Freda and Jade looked lifeless on the ground as they pant softly, they both stared at each other for a while but couldn't say a word like they had a padlock fixed on their mouths.
"For how long are we going to remain like this?" Freda finally broke the silence. "Shouldn't you be on your feet by now?"
"And look who's talking." Jade laughed. "You're in the same situation am in right now."
"And what if an enemy just arrived here." Freda groaned. "Who is going to save us?"
"Well...."
Jade was about to proceed when they heard some vehicles stopping just outside the building and footsteps were coming fast towards them, Jade smiled and stretched her arm towards Freda who on the other hand did the same thing.
"It was an honour for me to know you." Jade smiled.
"Am more than honoured." Freda laughed. "Am blessed to be in the same class with you... And having to spend the last minute with you."
"Let's seal our fate with a kiss." Jade teased.
"You've got to be joking." Freda frowned.
"Kidding." She laughed.
Freda closed her eyes as if she was praying for a helper to come, Jade seeing her gesture did the same all the while they still laid on the ground... Powerless....
"Please.... Anyone.... Help us.... Anyone." Jade wept silently. "Is this the end for us.... But we're too young to die now.... Anyone... Help us."
As the footstep got closer and closer, Jade's heart pounded heavily in her chest as she shivers... This was going to be the end for them and no one is around to help them out now, a drop of tear fell off the corner of her eyes as the footsteps became more intense and louder.
She squeezed her eyes tight and waited for the final painful or painless slash on her skin and she was ready to give it a loud yell to the response of the pain..... When....
It all suddenly went quiet and calm..... no more footstep was heard.
"Am I dead?" Jade thought. "Why is it so calm?.... And whose hands are these that is holding me?"
"My hands of course!" A voice rang in her head.
"Who's this?" Jade asked.
"Open your eyes and see." The voice replied.
Jade opened her eyes to see a smiling kind face that looked familiar, her vision cleared out and saw the face and it was indeed a familiar face.
"Neil.....?" Jade looked with surprise.
Neil smiled and tapped her on her back before taking her hands, she helped her to sit and did the same with Freda.
"Where are they?" Freda asked.
"Where they can't easily find us." Neil replied.
Neil stood up and looked around to see the messed up ground, he smiled before looking at the pillar Sandy made.
He pointed at it and looked at the ladies with a questioning eye, the ladies looked at him and understood what he was talking about.
"Sandy..." Both of them replied.
"Where are they?" He asked.
"Upstairs....!" Freda replied.
"Fine then." Neil turned. "Can you handle that?"
"Who are you taking to?" Jade asked.
"Whatever." Delia replied. "Let's just get this over with."
"Yes ma'am." Neil smiled.
Without further delay Neil squatted and placed his arm around the waist of Freda and Jade, before they could respond they disappeared leaving only Delia behind. She looked at the stairs with her usual blank face, then looked up at the ceiling and stared intensively and hard without changing the blank state of her face. She stretched her arm and created a large ice spear and flung it to the ceiling with less effort, it grew bigger and wider into a pillar and punched through the ceiling.
She jumped into the air and landed on a flate wide snow flake she created with her feet... With that thrust she hopped again into the air, the process continued until she went into the next floor.
The moment she stood; she noticed a presence and did not hesitate conjure an ice with pointing tips and threw it at the person at her side, but the person suddenly disappeared. She moved her iris to the left to see who it was for the individual has appeared beside her.
"That would have killed me you know." Neil held his neck.
"I knew it was you." Delia said. "That's why I didn't kill you."
"That's so cold of you." Neil thought.
She looked up and sighed like she was frustrated, Neil could sense her frustration and walk towards her. He was about to hold her... When..... She conjured more sharper ice and held it to his neck and he held his hands up.
"Touch me and I will kill you." She coldly said.
"I was only trying to get you up there." Neil pointed to the top.
She looked up for a while, then she looked at him with a cold eyes before lowering her ice from his neck. Neil sighed and lowered his arms, she turned and looked towards the window.
"Get it over with already." She said calmly.
Neil walked to her and held her hands, she wimped silently. Neil could feel her hands shaking, like the way it shook the same day he held her hand at the cafeteria. Neil smiled at the image of the memory in his head and without further delay he looked up and they both teleported.