March 12th,
a few days after Matt's fight.
So, do you guys know those scenes in books, movies, and anything of the sort, in which a girl spends hours trying to prepare for something special?
Like a date, or something similar. You do? Well, I didn't think any differently. Anyway, in our case, the one spending hours deciding what to wear wasn't Emily. But Matt.
He searched his whole closet thrice, and couldn't find anything to his liking.
And so, he began talking to himself.
"Damn it, damn it... Why the hell do I own so much black shit... Is my personality really that dull...?"
Yes. Never change, Matt. Never change. I'm begging.
Matt then checked his phone.
"Alright... Alright. It's all good. I have two hours before my train leaves. No hurry. At all."
Yeah, so uhh... What was that word, that described something untrue... Ah, right. Bullshit.
The two hours turned into one, and that had been cut in half as well.
"...Fine, fine, fine, fine! Goddamn it, fine! I'm sure she won't wear anything special either way, so I'll... Uhh... This... And maybe that... Or no..."
In about ten minutes, he picked something out. Some normal jeans and a yellow hoodie. Might I add, it was his only hoodie that wasn't a dark color...
He threw on a pair of sneakers, and off he goes!
He eventually got on his train, and once again, started... Playing gacha games... Until he realized what he was doing, and pulled himself back together, then thought to himself.
"No, no, no. Focused, I'm focused. The last thing I wanna do is miss my stop."
And now, with determination, he was patiently waiting on said train. Because he was just looking forward the whole time, he got bored... But he was bored and determined! Way to go, Matt!
Okay, throw that out the window. Forget anything I said. He pulled out his phone two minutes later. But, thank the heavens he did! On his screen popped up a notification, from Emily.
[im here. u gonna take long?]
He quickly responded. Like, hella quickly...
[nope nope. omw, im on the train]
[gotcha. cya soon then]
Did you guys ever hear a human heart beating at 130 beats per minute? No? In that case, y'all should check out Matt's... I think it might've went above 130 as well...
After about ten thousand thoughts along the lines of "Did I fuck up by wearing this?!", his train finally came to a stop. When he got off, he pulled out his phone, and checked the messages from yesterday, to confirm his destination.
[so in front of the big ass fountain k?]
[yup yup]
Alright, time to get going! Eh, Matt's not... Getting going... I think his feet are glued to the ground...
After he pumped himself up, he actually got going.
Step, ba-dump, step, ba-dump, step, ba-dump.
That's his steps. And his heart. Yes, it's uh, loud...
After reaching what can only be described as... A big ass fountain... Anyway, standing in front of it, and admiring the view, was a young lady, with her back turned to Matt.
Obviously, the first thing he noticed was that she was dressed pretty nicely. But according to Matt, she was dressed very nicely.
He then, internally, screamed.
"I fucked uuuuupp!!"
After considering running away, burying himself, and running away again, he finally... Uhm... Pulled out his phone...
Ah, nevermind, he had a plan. Good job, Matt!
He called Emily, while standing about a dozen feet behind her.
"Ah, Matt? You here yet?"
"I'll be there soon. My bus ran into a dinosaur..."
As Matt said that, he quietly started walking towards her.
Step, step.
"Pfft... A dinosaur, huh?"
Step, step.
"Oh yeah. Big and scary."
Step, step.
"Well, how long 'till the dinosaur leaves and you arrive here?"
Step, step.
"Hmm... I donno... But the dinosaur did sound really scary, y'know?"
Step, step.
"Oh yeah? How so?"
Step, step.
"Well... He sounded something like..."
Matt came to a stop, came closer to Emily's ear, and then...
"Rawr!"
"Aaaaahh!!"
She almost stumbled forwards and fell down, but Matt grabbed both of her shoulders as to keep her in place.
"Hey, hey. Don't take a bath right now."
"Jeez, Matt, you scared the hell out of me..."
Seeing Emily face to face only made Matt realize how nicely she was dressed. He did what was right.
Bowed his head and said sorry.
"I truly apologize."
"Woah... Wait... It's not that bad."
"I shall forever pay for the sins that I bought upon myself."
"Wait, wait, you sound like a knight from a thousand years ago... You didn't even do that much..."
Matt raised his head, then looked in Emily's eyes apologeticly, while putting his hand on his chin.
"You look like a princess and I look like a homeless guy..."
Emily then burst out laughing.
"Pfft... What, y'never heard of The Beauty And The Beast?"
"I mean, sure, but don't they get married at the end...?"
"Well well, isn't someone looking too far into the future?"
"Right, right. My bad."
"Wait a second, what does she mean by 'into the future'?", he thought to himself.
"So, shall we go? Mr. Homeless."
"Yes ma'am. I shall take thee to wherever your heart shall desire, ma'am."
"Wait, you sound like a knight again."
"Thou shall not stop I!"
The two then started making their way towards the place that they agreed upon yesterday while laughing. It was a 'small but cute café, who also served some pretty good food', according to Emily.
Well, anyway. I'm not gonna take you through the whole thing. It's a highschooler's date. Best not to intrude too much. Anyway, they talked for a while, had a coffee, ate something, then left the café.
"So, where to now, Mr. Knight?"
"Hmm... Let's see..."
After thinking for a while, Matt finally thought of something.
"Ah, I know. How about the arcade that's near here? Ten minutes of walking, at most."
"The arcade, huh..."
Oh, that's right, I forgot, my bad.
"Hell yeah! Let's go!"
Emily's also a gamer. Hooray for Matt. That's right up his alley.
They then started walking towards the arcade. As they were talking, Matt suddenly turned around, and checked what was happening behind him.
To his surprise, it was nothing out of the ordinary.
"What's up, Matt?"
"Ah, my bad, it's nothing. Thought I heard something. Must've been a cat."
"Wait, really? I love cats!"
"We don't have time to go search for a maybe-real cat... I have one too, at home, if you wanna see one that badly."
"Hmm? Did you... Just invite me to your house~?"
"W-Wait, shit, no... I mean, uh... Maybe? Or..."
"I'm just joking, just joking. Let's go."
"Yeah..."
When the two got there, they checked out the prizes you can exchange.
"Ah, look. If you beat the boss on Alley Fight 5 you get one of those plushies."
"Damn, I really want that panda... Y'wanna try and get it?"
"Sure, I'm pretty good at AF4. How hard can the fifth be?"
30 minutes later.
"Impossible. It's impossible. There's no way that can happen! He killed me all the way from China!"
Matt was suffering, and Emily was barely holding back her tears while laughing.
"Pfft... Dude, dude, it's fine if you don't get it... This was fun enough, really."
"No way. You said that you wanted the panda, and I really wanna beat this monk. So I'm gonna. Just watch."
"R-Right. Thanks."
After about 20 more minutes of struggling...
"Wait... Wait! No way! Holy shit! I got him! I beat his ass!"
"Only took you 50 minutes, and about ten thousand button smashes."
"Well... Y'know... Maybe... But I beat the boss! I'll go get the plushie, wait right here."
"'Kaaay."
Matt then came back with the plushie, and some drinks. After sitting down and taking for a while, Matt checked his phone for the first time in a while.
"Ah, it's getting pretty late."
"Hmm, true. Do you wanna call it a day?"
"Sure. Though we never did dance, huh..."
Emily chuckled a bit, then got up.
"Next time, next time."
"W-Wait... Next time? Hey, hold up!"
The two went outside, and Matt started walking Emily towards her bus station. Yes, one took the bus, one took the train. They live quite far from each other, unluckily.
As they were talking and walking, Matt received a notification, and pulled out his phone, only for it to fall to the ground.
"Ah, shit. Two seconds, I'll get it."
As he bent down, his hand touched the ground, and he felt... Footsteps? Somewhere behind him...
If you're wondering how, by the way, it's because of his Agily.
When Matt turned around, once again, there was nothing.
Matt got his phone, got up, and faced Emily, while at the same time facing the direction from which he felt the footsteps from.
He quickly got close to Emily's ear, whispered to it.
"Hey, sorry, but remember the cat? Yeah, it's no damn cat. Someone's tailing us. I think the dude's invisible. Must be hybrid."
"W-Wait, really? What do we do then?"
Well, Matt had a plan. It wasn't a great plan... But a plan it was nonetheless!
"Well, uhm... Sorry, but can you... Pretend to kiss me for a second or two, while I can figure out where he is and electrocute him?"
Emily was just about to scream "Ki-?!", but quickly gathered herself, and agreed to it.
"Okay. I'll, uh... Start now."
"Y-Yeah, sure..."
After what felt like 10 years and a half of awkward movements from both of them, Matt finally locked on, and yelled out.
"Gotcha now, asshole!"
He then shot electricity from his hand, and it seemed like he missed. But, a glowing, bright purple silhouette, proved otherwise.
The invisible man fell to the ground, and his invisibility started wearing off. And he wasn't a man at all, he was just a kid. Probably a lot younger than Matt and Emily.
"Huh? He seems young... Maybe... 13? 14 years old?"
"Yeah. Wait for a second for my electricity to wear off, then spray some water on him."
"Roger."
And so they did. When the kid woke up, he seemed scared and confused, but also a bit... Excited? Well, ain't he a weird lil' kid...
"Hey, lil' man. Why were you following us?"
"..."
"Yeaahhh, not surprised..."
"You did technically shoot him, after all, y'know."
"It was self defense... Kinda. Anyway, look kid, you're gonna have to answer some questions, okay?"
"...Why would I?"
Matt's face grew red with anger.
"Becaaause~ I was happening to walk home a very lovely lady when someone interrupted me, y'knooow~"
Matt's hand started showing sparks again.
"S-Sorry! Wait! Don't! I'll answer! I will!"
"Don't scare the kid, Matt..."
"I'll try my very best. Alright, lil' man, I'm getting tired of calling you, y'know, lil' man. So give us a name, would ya'?"
"It's, uhm... Alex... Alexandri Svardosk."
Matt looked in confusion at Emily.
"...Russian? What's a Russian hybrid-"
Matt then suddenly remembered something.
"Shit, the news! The news from a while ago!"
Emily was in thought for a bit, then exclaimed.
"Oh, right, right! About the hidden Gates and stuff, no?"
"Exactly. He must be a kid related to that."
Alex looked even more scared. Looks like they hit the bullseye.
"Aight, Alex. So, tell me, why're you alone? Didn't you come with other kids? Same as you, with Agilys?"
"I... Got separated... A few weeks ago..."
Damn... This kids English is good! My sincere congratulations to his teachers. Oh, right, sorry... Back to it...
"I see. Weeks, huh? How many of you are there?"
"From the Motherland... I came here with just 500..."
I see, I see~ 500 hybrids~ Hold on a second or two, 500?!
"Ahh, so there's 499 or quite possibly even more kids with superpowers running around the U.S. unsupervised whatsoever? Great, great..."
"Matt, c'mon now. Play nice."
"Okay, mom. So... Why're you following us, then? You've been on our asses for a while too."
After a brief "Language!" from Emily, the kid responded.
"Well... I was alone for a long time... So when I felt your powers, I started following..."
"Wait a minute, felt? Felt how?"
"Hmm? With my heightened senses. You... Guys can't do that?"
Matt and Emily shared an confused look.
"No, Alex. We're limited to one power per person."
"Really? One? Me and my comrades can use three each."
Hold on a fucking minute, what?! Three Agilys per person?! There was literally zero cases of someone with two, and you're telling me there's people running around with three?!
Matt and Emily started whispering to each other.
"What a lovely date this was, huh..."
"Well, the first part wasn't bad at all."
"W-Wait, really?"
"Three Agilys... This could be trouble..."
Changing the subject, are we? Well, whatever. Matt played along.
"What do we do now? Do we report him to the A.C.T.P. or TGG or something?"
"He's just a kid, Matt... We can't just throw him in a cell..."
"Fuck... Fuck. Alright. You're right."
"Wait. I have an idea."
"I'm all ears."
From Alex's perspective, he could only hear stuff like "What?!", "No way!" and "C'mon, Matt!"
After a while, the two finished talking.
Matt came up to him, squatted down, and pat his head.
"Alright, Alex. I'm about to offer you a deal. You either accept or reject. Understand?"
"Y-Yes! I do!"
"Alright, alright then... So..."
Matt glanced at Emily, who nodded at him. He then took a big breath.
"Since you ruined my date, how would you like to join me for school tomorrow?"