Zoe stepped into Ginger Academy. She sniffed the air, an almost overwhelming smell of cinnamon, making her eyes burn and water. 'No one else is in here.'
She walked to the counter, tapping the bell next to the cash register.
Her eyes wandered over to the shelves, finally falling upon the bag, exactly as described by Olivia.
"Hello?" She hit the bell once more. 'Marcello was supposed to get the bag, but it's still here and he's gone.' Zoe grabbed the purse from the shelf, examining it then awkwardly slung the massive thing over her shoulder. 'I can't stand using these things!'
She rang the bell once more. Looking at the ceiling, she made direct eye contact with a blinking security camera. Quickly, she stared at the floor, 'It's over. I looked right at it. I've really got to go, but no one is here!' She grabbed a pen from the counter and was about to write an I.O.U. but stopped. "I've got to find him. Sorry!" She mumbled at the camera, sprinting out of the store.
She ran down the hallway, thinking. 'I should find Marcello first. Where would he be? If KTA were the ones behind the blast, then he would definitely suspect them as well.' She stopped running, looking out a hallway window toward the front entrance. She couldn't see much other than a plume of black smoke and embers billowing from the entrance. To the right, a massive traffic jam of cars attempting to exit Stygian Tower.
Zoe hit the stairs, taking three at a time, stopping after several flights.
Zoe's eyes widened. She sprinted toward where she felt it. She wasn't sure who it was, but it was close. 'This feels like energy! It has to be Marcello!'
She turned down the hallway, seeing a gate halfway down. A guard with a machine gun in his hands stood.
He held up his hand as Zoe approached, stopping her. "I'm gonna need to see a ticket."
Zoe looked back down the hall, then to the man's shoes, unmoored. "I…don't have one. I'm just a-"
"Orders. If you don't have a ticket, you're not coming through. We can't have random people walking around." He was clearly annoyed and took a step forward, looking down at the girl with white hair, seeing her dilated blue eyes dart awkwardly as if a refusal to make eye contact. "Are you high?" He asked in an accusatory tone, noticing her odd mannerisms.
"No."
"I swear. All you rich kids here with your parents. Useless pieces of shit who just sit around and get high all day! No respect!"
"Sir, I…" She trailed off. A thought sprang to life. 'Wait, what would Ivy do?' She shrugged the large bag off her shoulder, taking a deep breath.
"Wha-" The guard blinked in surprise, seeing the glowing orange aura around Zoe.
A quick punch and the guard hit the ground, clutching his chest and out cold. Zoe stood over him. She looked down at her fist, her energy curling confidently around her body. 'I thought that was going to be a lot harder.' She had a look on her face. Her lips pursed, a look like she was trying not to smile.
Picking up the purse, she continued down the hallway toward where she felt the presence, watching as a mass stepped from a doorway. A tall man wearing opulent clothes as if he were a royalty from the middle ages. A massive red cape billowed behind him as he walked into the hallway. In his right hand was a small treasure chest, big enough to hold a loaf of bread.
Zoe stopped in surprise, not even realizing her energy was still activated. Covering his head, the man wore something that resembled a woven basket, intricately woven with strands of the purest gold. He could see out, but she couldn't see in.
An eerie silence fell over the vacant hallway. Zoe took a step back; her energy flickered nervously. 'He's dressed like a king. I feel his eyes on me.' She knew he was staring right at her.
Like a crack of lightning, a red aura erupted around the king, as he took a wide stance, facing her. That's when Zoe noticed the blood on his hands.
'That isn't his blood,' she thought. In a flash, she dropped the bag, kicking it to the side, and took out two cards, holding them between her fingers. 'It's highly probable this was the energy I felt. I think I did only sense one presence. I'd say the chance of him being in KTA is commensurate.' Zoe's ears twitched, hearing a buzzing sound as if hundreds of mosquitos had filled the hallway.
The king spoke, his voice raspy and tinny inside his woven helm. "You won't stop me!" He put his hands in the air, his loose sleeves falling back to his shoulders, revealing his forearms. Spider-like insects began to rip their way out of his arms. The squishy creatures squirmed out of the king's soft skin, falling to the ground. A fiery red energy surrounded each bug. "I will bring glory back to my country!"
He yelled out, "From a young age, I, Azibo, displayed an innate affinity with the insects that thrived in my kingdom. Beetles scuttled at my command, butterflies followed me in harmonious formations, and bees orchestrated a symphony in my presence!"
"Don't you dare!" Zoe tried to sound threatening as the spiders swarmed toward her.
In that moment, Zoe figured she had two options. The basic fight or flight. Book it down the hallway as fast as she could, putting all her energy into her speed. 'No,' she thought, 'There is no way he's going to let me just run away.' In that case, Zoe would have to fight. 'I feel like my heart is about to burst out of my chest. But Colson is right!'
"Hm," Azibo felt the tone in her energy shift, no longer like a weak flame about to sputter out in the breeze.
Zoe thought back to a memory from many months ago, several weeks after Ivy had gone.
She stood in an open clearing inside Crater's forest. The warm afternoon sun beat down.
"Zoe, don't you usually have class at this time?" Colson asked, resting under the shade of a nearby tree.
"Yes."
"Oh." There was a long pause. "You wanna keep practicing or?"
"Yeah, I think it's my turn, correct?" She took a wide stance, holding a deep breath. Her baggy orange t-shirt and white hair billowed in the breeze. She exhaled.
There was a snap in the woods, and Colson shot to his feet, peeking cautiously around the tree. Zoe stiffened, nervously standing as straight as possible. After a few seconds he turned back around, "I think that was an animal again."
"Okay," Zoe breathed.
"I doubt anyone's gonna be wandering in these woods right now. Especially as deep as we are. We gotta stop freaking out at every sound. No one's gonna catch us in here."
Zoe started her ritual once more. She exhaled, and a warm orange colored light flowed around her. "I can now effectively activate my energy now with little prep. Starting at over five seconds, now it's almost instant. Though…" She strained as hard as she could, feeling her aura expand ever so slightly. "Ah!" The world spun around her, causing her to fall back.
"You good?"
"I'm still not good at this. The excretion. I feel like I have no actual power. Nowhere compared to you, Reiza, or…even Ivy still."
"Zoe, you're strong."
"Yeah, right," Zoe said, sarcastically getting to her feet.
Colson plopped down under the tree again, "Why are you always doing that?"
"What am I doing?"
"The self-doubt. I'm not gonna pretend to know anything about energy, but I feel like you shouldn't compare yourself so much. Whether you realize it or not, Zoe, you're a prodigy. Think about how far you've come in just some months. Reiza's probably had energy for years now, and she can barely manifest a knife. I really hate her…Hold on, do your card thing again."
Zoe reached in her pocket, taking out her box of cards.
She concentrated, staring at the seven of clubs in her hand. After a few seconds, her energy morphed around the card. A smile crossed her face as she felt the card harden under the will of her energy, becoming nigh unbreakable. Then she sharpened the edges.
A light flick of her wrist chunked the glowing object deep into a tree.
"Yeah, see!" He got to his feet, pumped. "You hit Reiza with one of those, and it's so over! Real talk, that's decapitating someone. I think it's perfect. It's efficient. You're using the Alteration path of energy to just change an already existing object instead of making something new. From what I can tell, you're expending very little energy."
"Colson, I'm just being logical. What would happen if I had to fight someone like Kiari or the others at Cassius? Right now, I'd lose."
"Right now, sure. I mean, take it one step at a time right? I don't think people are born being as strong as them…What'd Keigh say about it?"
Zoe huffed, "He was saying what you're saying. But I don't want to wait! I'm not interested in the basics." She deactivated her energy, and the card fell out of the tree. "We figured out, that the overall 'energy-pool' I hold is pretty large comparatively. He also theorized that I'm not even in the alteration path, but my body may be an 'Oddity.'"
"An 'Oditity?'"
"Yeah, you don't remember? It's when you don't fit in with Manifestation, Alteration, Enhancement, or Manipulation."
"Then what do you want to do?" Colson asked, watching her walk to pick up the card.
"I want what's beyond all of this. Not just some strong energy ability. But something more."
"Okay," Colson scoffed. "How're ya gonna get there, huh?"
She held up her card in the air; on its edge, a small black beetle struggled to balance. "First, I'll just need to understand the 'rules,' so I can break them!"
Zoe stared at the glowing king standing in front of her. 'I'm not there yet. Not even close, but I've made progress. In the past few days especially, I've made so much more! I'll go Beyond one day. I know it!'
A swarm of massive black spiders crawled toward her.
Zoe spoke. "Now, BugKing, you're going to be my test subject!"