Snidely began combing through the contact info, unfortunately, most of the names were in Russian except for one Dr. Rexid. I couldn't believe it! "Why's his name in there?" I wondered out loud. "Dunno. Maybe they're in cahoots" Snidely said, packing the phone in his back pocket. Then he froze. " I forgot to get rid of the gun. Shit. Destroy it will you?" I grabbed the gun from him and blew it up with my magic, sending pieces scattering every which way. The only thing left that even slightly resembled a gun was the trigger which I kicked into the crowded street. Deciding to leave, we left the restaurant, but not before taking our sandwiches. Strangely enough, both Jacob and the owner were no where to be seen when we returned to the the restaurant. Eventually, we came to a Book shop called: "Pages O' fun!" With a smiling brunette wearing glasses bigger than plates on the front. Snidely grinned when he laid eyes upon it and walked up the stone steps like some holy king. I followed, almost tripping on his hair along the way.The store looked like it's only reason for existing was so that someone rich could throw money at what would otherwise be a failing business. Humming rows of white tables sat across from one another by 10 feet or so, and on top of those tables were 12 or so "bowls" that where just turtle shells painted in pastel browns and oranges, filled with soups that all individually smelled bland and boring, but when combined, gave the store this outstanding sense of life that made me feel so many things at once. The smell was partly sweet which reminded me of how amazing it felt when I freed that lightning from my demonic self, as well as bitter which, reminded me of how I had pretty much been lied to my entire life, how I had pretty much no way in hell to save my sister or even figure out how Rexid got his hands on the biome egg! Tears began to pour out my eyelids.Then, the final smell came over me it was a smell similar to the saltiness of the ocean, only it was missed with an abnormal smell like something was burning I can't explain what happened next fully but the moment the smell flared into my nose my mind flashed back to the creature I had seen in my dream the days prior With its red eyes brighter than stars, and it' sits ca cryptic black body that seemed to devour the light around it almost like a black hole. Suddenly, I felt a freezing burning lump in my throat, like I had swallowed a snowball or something, and slowly backed away, motioning to Snidely. However, the moment he turned to me everything changed. The cold feeling left my throat and I could breathe, and land the combined smells of the soup was now just something closer to vanilla extract. tongue. Walking on the rug, made me realize how much it felt like a waterbed. the softness and squishing the rug made under my feet was heavenly.Then I realized the rug was a water bed, just almost disgustingly stretched out. The sound the water made as we walked across sounded like death rattles almost. At the far back was a breakroom. Snidely briskly jogged over to it and looked inside. At first, I didn't know why he was even going to the breakroom, and then when I saw he was looking at a printer near an ugly laptop I still had no idea. Snidely went back to where we were originally, and I saw that in the middle of the store was a perfectly circular desk were a dozen or so cashiers sat, gawking at the bookshelves, or rather what sat on them which made sense since not only did the bookshelves look so boring they'd make watching paint dry resemble the newest Fast and Furious film, there were also strange miniature sets from that were probably meant to replicate scenes in one of the books in that section, as well as tell the genre of said section, propped up on the different bookshelves scattered around.They were so well detailed it was almost disgusting, like motion capture films. One of them had an hourglass figured woman grab tightly onto a rugged man with 1911 in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other, and the two were dancing and swaying on vinyl playing smooth jazz so it was the mystery section, Another showed a weird creature raising its hand to a man, whose head was raised to the sky, sparks rocketing out of his photorealistic mouth to show his crippled teeth and melted tongue so it was the horror section, and so forth. And even though I saw many unique sets my most favorite one was the scifi section. It showed a 2 feet tall robotic humanoid dramatically lifting a submarine out of the water of a nearby Aquarium. Even though all the seats were rigged to activate and do the same thing every 20 seconds, the science fiction one was the most spectacular as it not only had audio every time I walked past would hear the dramatic build-up of music as the submarine was lifted and the people inside would let out guttural screams, but each time they would scream and shout different things.The sound was so clear I could even hear the creaks of metal and small electrical fires all over the ship as it was lifted out of the aquarium. Everything sounded very life-like. I almost wanted to touch the submarine, but unfortunately, the letter at the front desk said it was not allowed. Snidely ran through the numerous sections before stopping at the thriller section, which was marked by a man huddled behind an ice cream truck as mobsters fired at him with bolt action rifles, and just as swiftly rocketed out carrying a pink book, a smirk planted on his face. He walked over to the desk. Across from him was a fat man lounging in a pristine yellow chair, the only one not marveling at the sets, at least I assumed he wasn't. He was wearing not just dark sunglasses but a poorly worn mask that was only covering his nose, his mouth hung open and I nearly fainted when I inhaled his cheesy breath. "Maybe you should put your mask on" I suggested, shifting my head to the side to avoid the noxious smell. It didn't help much as I could feel the germs coat my cheek and chin."Nah man I...I need to breathe" the cashier replied, sounding faintly anxious like he was going to drop like a fly at any second. Snidely plopped the book on the counter and I could see its Title: "Fight Club." Snidely then whipped out a pair of 5 dollar bills and slid them over to the strange man. The cashier packed in the money rather quickly but when it came to giving us the change it took almost a minute because his fingers kept twitching and scattering the money all over the floor repeatedly. When he finally received the change, Snidely turned like he was about to leave only to go out and grab his sunglasses so quickly as to not even make a sound, like a cobra catching a hummingbird. "You going to let me use your printer." He said matter of factly, "because it'd be a shame if I were to take these off right here in front of all your colleagues and security cameras. "Uh...of-of course man!" The cashier murmured, sweat streaking down his pits as he slowly pocketed his key and slid it over the counter.Snidely thanked the cashier and with the key in hand headed to the breakroom, and opened the door? Inside was a vending machine, a dozen or so plush chairs, and a tv in the far ceiling hanging at such a bad angle you couldn't see anything without cracking your neck, plus the laptop and printer from earlier. Luckily for him, I guess the laptop wasn't password-protected so Snidely casually went to google images and typed in something I couldn't quite see and printed out an image of the many nations in southern America shaded in different colors. Once the image was printed out, he grabbed it, left the breakroom, and headed to the desk. "Hey, once we get to the desk, flash your lightning in front of the guy on an on okay?" Snidely asked. I was about to ask why but judging the delightful expression on his face he probably wasn't going to tell me, he probably wanted the reason to be a surprise.Once we were at the desk, Snidely gave the man back his key, and I powered through his rancid breath enough to make eye contact and make a short string of lightning wrap around from one finger to another, rapidly, like the most caffeine-addicted work In the world. The man went deathly still for a moment, then began shuddering, and I immediately stopped my light show and staggered back. and utter shock wondering what to even do, wondering what was even happening to him. His skin turned a faint blue, and he began flailing about, accidentally striking one of the other cashiers in the face which made them all turn to him. I stood there, in complete got my answer when a customer called out, "he's having a seizure!" And reached for the phone, to call an ambulance...probably. Hopefully.The man's sunglasses slid off his face and I suddenly understood why he was frightened when Snidely threatened to take them off. His pupils were dilated. He was on drugs. A cashier ripped off the mask and I figured out what specific drug he was on. Thin white powder could be seen inside his nostrils. He was snorting cocaine. That explained everything from the paranoia to the shaking of his hands. "That was why he was wearing sunglasses indoors and the mask only covered his nose," Snidely said, "he probably snorted some of that Satan sperm a few hours back." I was still so shocked at what was happening it overpowered my will to laugh at Snidely calling cocaine Satan sperm. A crowd was beginning to gather and I could hear some ambulances not terribly far away. Snidely clamped onto my wrist and pulled my body outside, like he was wriggling a worm from dirt, before rushing down the street, in a random direction, occasionally peering at his reflection in the many many windows in the clogged up city."Why'd you blackmail that guy just to screw him over?" I questioned, "And while I'm at it, how did you know the Russian was bad news. Snidely didn't respond, at least immediately, too busy striding down the street and drifting in and out of view from the ambulances, and people rushing to the scene, his nose buried in the pamphlet, but after a while, we crossed the street and he responded. "Firstly, I betrayed him to put him on the trail to rehabilitation. Secondly, I attacked the Russian because he was a human trafficker because he said things like Quota which means how much money people get after delivering the victim, madam, which meant an elderly woman who owned a brothel, so probably whoever he was delivering Barbara to was a woman, and last and most disturbing stroller, which could have just been a mistake on his part and he meant kiddie stroll, referring to an area of prostitution for either woman who appears young or young women themselves like teenagers""I learned all of this from my big bro from the mafia," Snidely said casually like it was the most obvious thing in the world. I was about to comment about how pretty much he made a huge leap in logic by thinking the taxi driver was a sex trafficker when I noticed out of the corner of my eye was the owner of the "La Carne Magnifica" following us. He was across us from a crosswalk, pressing the button to cross feverishly with his left hand, and clutching something in his pocket with his right. I only knew it was him from the brown mustache that was just a few shades off from blending in with the rest of his face. Without thinking, I turned around to him. Our pupils locked. He ripped his hand out of his pocket, clutching a weirdly bulky ring with an illustration of the globe on it, at least it looked like the globe. He gritted his teeth. Now I was getting worried and wondering if he thought we were the ones who attacked his men. Snidely turned around, cursed, and ran down the sidewalk. I quickly followed. The street light flashed from green to red, and the owner strode across the crosswalk with confidence.We kept going in and out of crowds to lose the man, but each time not only would he catch on every time, but he would only become more fierce on getting us, like a tomcat to a laser. Eventually, we came to the beautiful marble steps of the subway and jumped down, the sound of our steps eradicated by the earsplitting screech of a train as it came to a grinding stop a good 30 or so feet in front of us. The owner followed, beads of sweat appearing on his face which I guess made sense, he had been chasing us for the better half of a mile and was a bit on the pudgy side. he twisted his ankle on the last step and fell face first. At first, I thought about just running past him back up the steps since I figured there'd be a 50/50 chance of him getting up in time to attack me.it was a high-risk with a high reward. But then I saw Snidely jump over the gate, land safely on his knees, and then roll over behind a nearby card machine. Snidely may have been an ass but I knew I couldn't leave him. and fighting the man with my magic was certainly out of the question, since unlike the bus there'd be now the way people wouldn't notice the magic, especially since Dawson wasn't there to do whatever he did yesterday, and I didn't bring any illusion pebbles. My leg was aching at this point, and I really needed to sit down, and just when we reached the ticket gate and I jumped over, I received a charlie-horse the instant my foot left the ground. I clenched my teeth and dived used all my stamina to sprint over and hide behind a card machine bolted to the wall exactly parallel to the one Snidely was hiding in. The moment my pained body touched the ground, the owner stood to his feet and walked over to the ticket gate. he frowned when he saw it and began fishing in his pockets for his card. after a few seconds, he finally got his card and opened the gate, the manEven though I saw nothing but blurred figures and the flashing lights coming from everywhere, I could still see the owner. More importantly, I could see the owner rear back a fist for some devastating right hook and sucked just in the nick of time. The air flared against my head as his hand sped bast, slammed into one of the bars with a sound similar to the blowback of a shotgun, and jerked back almost as quickly. His knuckles were bloodied and the watch slipped off and clattered to the ground. The owner sprinted back up the stairs and vanished into the street. Snidely bent down to get a closer look at the watch, at least I assumed it was Snide, all I saw was what looked like a floating stream of ramen noodles connected to a skinny blob of flesh.My vision snapped back to normal, like the flick of a switch, moments before Snidely grabbed my leg, and the next thing I knew we were both rights outside of the subway, and I could see the owner running presumably back to his restaurant, leaving a few blood droplets every few dozen feet. A homeless man in a sleeping bag appeared to be the only one to see us, and he screamed and ran in the opposite direction, screaming about demons and the Rapture. "Wow....that was...close" Snidely gasped in-between deep breaths. I nodded, too pained to speak or even get up. "Well at least we have the watch of this guy, and I mean....since he hired that Russian maybe they're related, I mean he was speaking Spanish on the phone after all." Snidely continued, rhythmically tapping the watch, "Oh and were right where we needed to be, I wasn't even actively trying to run here!"Confused, I looked up at where Snidely was staring it was more like heavy squinting. As luck should have it just half a mile away from the subway entrance, sat a sparkly pristine building with the words "Manhatten Fencing Center" right over its sliding doors. I was still confused. Snidely headed for the center, and with nowhere else to go, I begrudgingly followed, stopping every few seconds to rub my sore limbs, at which point Snidely would give a little snippet of his reasoning for why he was going to the center, but wouldn't say anything as we were walking. Eventually, though, we finally reached the center, and I understood. The pamphlet had a list of physical tasks needed to be completed in a certain order, and the first task was lasting against Rexid's son in saber combat for just 30 seconds.Once we reached the center I immediately noticed Tyler sitting in a chair juggling his now empty bottle of water like a juggling god, and a few feet across from him stood Isaac, who was putting on his fencing jacket as beads of sweat peppered his cheeks, strangely enough, he wasn't wearing any plaster, which is what fencers use as a secondary means of protection. A female fencing instructor stood near Isaac, and handedcl him what I could only guess was his blade, in a beautiful looking blue sheathe. I could tell from looking at the boy, that he was tired but had no reason to be, the match had not even begun to start yet. As if he read my mind Tyler turned to me and answered while juggling the bottle at the same time. ¨Isaac ran all the way out here and he still managed to beat me by a good 10 minutes.¨ Isaac looked like pure irony. His hair was matted and soggy. his eyes kept shifting from corner to corner as if he was seeing something that wasn't there, He had an earplug in one of his ears for some reason, and it seemed that he was mere centimeters from deathś door since his skin had somehow turned almost pure white in the few hours since we first met.But just looking at his face one would not have gotten that feeling at all. His teeth were clenched, his veins when twitching appeared almost like they were mechanical due to how fluid yet rigid they were; like melted steel. And his eyes, dear god his eyes were the worst thing to look at. They looked around with intent. With force. With fear masked by power and full willingness to power on. His eyes seem like the kind to belong to a vengeful cobra about to unleash it's all against a mongoose horde, not the eyes of a simple boy. It was a complete tonal whiplash from the sincere eyes I had seen yesterday. His eyes locked with my own for what felt like the most dread-inducing 10 seconds of my life as he walked over to the chair next to Tyler, grabbed a sheath that was laying on it, walked over to the practicing area, and ripped the sword out so fast it would have appeared to be a bluish-gray blur to pretty much everyone in the center.When his eyes finally left mine I realized I had been holding my breath in that entire time and let my lungs relieve some tension with a powerful exhale that morphed into a wheeze. Isaac's saber was unlike any other I had ever seen. Instead of long and thin it was broad and short, with a slightly curved shape on its blade, and what looked to be a jagged chain from his glimmering white pummel to his crossguard that seemed to be painted in a fiery red and yellow lashes, and whenever the sword moved it gave the illusion of flames blooming from the crossguard itself. I must've been a nightmare to make. To be honest, describing the chain as jagged would be a horrible understatement. It held straight metal hooks on the end and top that resembled the spindly unnerving legs of some spider about to grab some fly and rip it apart.I could almost visualize the hooks digging into Isaac's palm if he held the sword even the slightest bit the wrong way. I looked over to Snidely. He was clutching the south American map as if his life depended on it as he walked over to Tyler, but just before he could show him the map, Snidely was interrupted by Dr. Rexid himself walking into the center, wearing alligator skin boots, light brown pants, a red-painted leather jacket that smelled like apples dipped in corn syrup and a black fedora with a single green feather directly in the middle of it, giving the botanist a 3-way tie between looking perfectly intimidating, perfectly cool, and perfectly stupid. His look was so indescribably strange it probably shut down Snidely's up until this point impenetrable mind, making him stutter, drop the map, trip over a chair leg, and collapse onto its armrest, neck first. ouch.Strangely enough though, the moment, the botanist entered, Tyler turned away and cupped both sides of his face, as if Rexid had a literal cold stare and just looking at him would freeze Tyler to the bone, and wasn't just a rich man with an odd fashion sense. Rexid reached into his pocket and pulled out a cracked vial filled with soil that smelled more like incense and seemed to birth the weirdest plant I had ever seen. It was about a foot tall and 2 inches wide. It was a long green stalk not too similar to a blade of grass. At least, until ny reached the top where its ends slowly parted, forming a little platform of sorts. And based on the looks Tyler and Isaac gave to the plant, the rumbling sound it emitted was certainly not in my imagination. "Are you familiar with this plant Luke?" Rexid said to me, bowing down to my level so sharply it would've given the best of contortionists a run for their money, with a loud crack to boot."No...no I have not" I stammered, too creeped out by his sudden movement to answer properly. Rexid licked his lips and strummed his fingers over the vial like it was the best guitar in the world. "This is what I call a shotgun plant" Rexid began, "...It operates in a way vaguely similar to a tumbleweed as both appear unassuming but can spread a wide amount. When met with danger this little thing can cover one of its seeds in a thin layer of its own flesh and then blast it out of the stalk like a rocket, in a sound eerily like that of a shotgun blast, into the attackers flesh, stunning it. From there, the seed begins to reshape the nervous system of its prey to be more suitable to the seed, and over time the seed seems to split in half like an amoeba and that seed takes control of a limb before spawning another seed which takes over a different limb, and the process repeats until the entire animal would be destroyed and only its broken down skeleton remains, which would now have about 5 shotgun plants growing in its place. Oh and don't worry. These bad boys are not too dangerous to humans. They can only put a dent in person like a flare gun, oh and if your wondering why and how they fire their seeds with a loud noise, I have a theory that they clump up the soil beneath them and siphon it upwards in a very specific way to launch a seed with a satisfying crack, az for the why, I can only guess they do it to ward off predators they cannot penetrate.""Woah...that sounds impossible" I said, very confused at how something so odd could exist in the first place, and could definitely not be real.. Then I remembered that I can literally make lightning and had no right to judge. Rexid nodded and snapped back up to his regular height, his eyes staying on me. "Say Luke, why don't you fight my son?" He said in a way so casual it almost seemed rehearsed, "I mean your friend here can't do it, he's not at his prime currently" he flicked his hand to Snidely, who was taking deep breaths and massaging his throat, "plus everyone else here has already done this trial." I tried to think of an argument, not wanting to utterly obliterate with my reflexes, but couldn't think of anything reasonable, so I agreed, and 5 minute later I was outfitted and given my own saber, it was thinner than usual and smelled like a muddy car on a hot day. One odd thing I noticed, was that whenever the lady would add another article of clothing to me, her eyes would grow more and more teary eyed, and she would almost whisper something to herself. A name i think it was. Something like Mark or Marcus. When I finally was finished and walked out to meet Isaac he stared me down like a Hawk would to a mouse. Tyler whipped out a phone from his right pocket and started the 30 second timer, and the instant he pressed the button, I charged at Isaac, feeling time slow down to a crawl, as I aimed my blade directly as his torso for an easy win. That was when it happened. In one beautiful motion, he sidestepped my stab, batted my saber out of my hand with a powerful bash, disarmed me by slamming his blade into my own, with such force that not only did it send pain jolting throughout my palm making me drop the weapon, it also made me lose balance, only for me to get attacked in midair when Isaac lunged forward with a vertical swing, I was so caught off guard, It was by pure luck I was able to grab the saber with my other hand and smoothly block his at5ack, and that was really only because I practiced saber in the past, and was pulling more on that than my reflexes. Time resumed back at its normal pace as we both jumped backwards after the block. I glanced at Tyler's timer. Only 2 seconds had passed. 2 seconds and I already felt like I was going to lose, Meanwhile the anger on Isaac's face only grew, he really was taking this personally. And from the sheer rage on his face and how he held his sword, I suddenly began to feel that this no longer one of many challenges to get some good food, but more like it was a battle to the death, where the victory had already been decided.