Chapter Four: Two Lynxes One Cat
Location: Lexistropolis, Raventide High-school
Date: Date: Monday, January 4th, 4337
Time: 11:56 A.M.
Lizzy waited impatiently for the clock to strike twelve. Ever since it had made it to eleven-forty-seven she had been counting and counting to herself. Math was not something she particularly enjoyed, which made it all the harder.
11:57. A small amount of relief came by that small ticking noise as it reached the next minute, but it was soon replaced by increased stress.
11:58. The sheer boredom of the lesson, and how little she could keep up with was overwhelming the black-cat, giving her very limited options.
11:59. Lizzy’s foot started to thump up and down at her unnatural speeds. Then she remembered something. To save herself for a few seconds, she opened up her bag, and took out a small wrapped up piece of gum, which she began to chew vigorously, as to relieve some of the boredom. Others noticed, and some of them shushed her a bit. Boredom returned.
12:00. Relief. Lizzy now had an entire 45 minutes, give or take a few, to relieve all of the energy that was built up inside her from the boring lesson.
The young Eventide girl located her… mystery meal, which she almost didn’t eat out of skepticism. When she did, she discovered that it actually tasted quite delicious… that and she had forgotten to eat breakfast, and was near starvation.
Lizena Eventide made short work of her dish, then chose to walk around the school’s field’s and gardens for a while. She saw a few people reading books next to trees, a few… in romantic conversation, and one that she took for as Chells… who was with a girl.
“Now this is a surprise!” She said as she walked up to the two of them, only to find that the boy was not Chells, but a dark-clothed student, who was passing drugs to the other girl. “Oh, sorry. Thought you we-… What’s that?”
“You were at the meeting. You know.” He responded, confusing Lizzy greatly.
“Meeting? What meeting?”
“The one that we were all at!” The girl informed unintelligently. “At the fan-generators… I saw you there. Don’t deny it.”
“Uh… r-right… the meeting…” Lizzy fibbed.
“Here.” The boy said as he handed her a small bag of the… medicine. Lizzy was hesitant at first, but then got an idea.
“Thanks.” She said with a grin as she received the “gift”. “Anyway, that short dude wanted me to ask where the next little meet up is going to be. As if he would remember.”
“Mink or Stez?” The boy asked.
“M- Stez!” Lizzy answered with a stutter.
“Well we were going to meet up for a little… prank later on tomorrow. We found out that on Tuesdays Prof. Liff lets his students out early, and there are no windows, or ANYONE coming inside. We’re all bringing something for it. You can bring the pepper.”
“Will do.” Lizzy replied as she walked off. At first she felt proud. She actually tricked them into revealing one of their locations… but this soon turned into a slight depressing feeling.
They actually thought that SHE was a druggy. Was Nova right about how she acted? Was she really THAT anti-social? Did she really dress like she’d be one of them? “No!” She yelled in her mind. “At least they’ll know when I show the principal.”
Later in the Principal’s office…
…“And you say that they are going to meet in Proffesor Liff’s class-room later on tomorrow?” The principal asked.
“Yes. I have this to prove that they’ve been dealing drugs.” Lizzy handed the lady the bag that the Druggy had handed her.
“Hmm… How did you get this from them?”
“One of them thought I was a druggy, and just handed it to me.”
“He just ‘handed it’ to you?”
“Yes.”
The Principal pondered for a moment, then stupidly Lizzy asked “Aren’t you going to go get them now?”
“I’m still trying to decide something.”
“What’s there to decide?”
“Whether or not I can trust my students.”
“What? I just gave you-“
“Yes, you just gave me a small bag or drugs that you were given by a druggy who thought you were also a druggy, who also told you the location of the next meeting, not to mention the fact that you were able to identify one of the other druggy’s names and height.”
“What… are you saying that I’m a druggy?”
“I’m saying that you might be. Lizzy I’m going to be candid. You know all of this information. You were let in easily. To me this looks less like a good deed, and more like someone who’s trying to get rid of the competition, OR lead me on a wild goose-chase.”
“I’ve never done that before! Why would I now?!”
“Lizzy, we both know that you have a history of a bad past. That doesn’t inspire trust.”
“But I-…” Lizzy ran out of the office with tears in her eyes. Not even the Principal believed her. What did she do that made her such a target-… or what did someone else do… Terry.
Teresa Johnson was the little voice behind everything that had ever gone wrong with Lizzy at the school. The book getting soaked at the Fan-party. Everyone thinking she was V. The constant naggings and little insults along the way. There was very little doubt that Terry was the one behind this too.
The flustered feline had half a mind to storm up and beat up her rival, but stopped herself in time to think. It could backfire. And it would give Terry another reason to spread rumors about her. That is, if she hadn’t already. Lizzy didn’t even think Terry knew why she hated her so much. She needed Tess and Zen to cheer her up.
After a short amount of searching, Lizzy found Tess and Zen at the frontal hallway, arguing with Chells about the girl he was always drawing.
“… and you don’t think that ANYONE would find that weird?” Tess asked the irritated fox just as Lizzy had approached them.
“We talking about his glasses or the girl in his notebook- Hold on! ... aren’t you supposed to be back at the base?” Lizzy said to Chells.
“I got leave by a higher authority.” Chells informed.
“Yeah? Who?”
“Cyclist.” Chells smirked.
“Okay… again, are we talking about your shades or the girl you keep drawing?”
“The girl… but I’ve got some questions about the glasses too!” Tess informed. Chells groaned lowly.
“I like to draw. Whoopdeedoo.” Chells defended.
“But you don’t let anyone else see it.” Lizzy added.
“You saw it- wait, who’s side are you on?” Chells replied.
“Hey, a girl’s got to be entertained somehow.” Lizzy chuckled. “Besides, I only saw part of the face.”
“Really? What species was it?” Zen asked curiously.
“A lynx I think.” Lizzy blurted out.
“Ooooooooooo, a ly-yyyyyyyyyyynx. Chells likes the stripy ones.” Tess teased.
“I’ll try not to make you cry with a response.” Chells said through his teeth. “What did you need, Lizzy?”
“Hmm? Oh, nothing. Just wanted to see what Tess and Zen were doing.”
“Well now you can have them all to yourself.” Chells hinted as he started to walk away.
“Wait! What was her name?!” Tess urged.
“Let’s just say it starts with the letter-“ Chells ended abruptly with a tease, as he turned his head from them.
“…WHY WON’T HE TELL ME WHO THAT GIRL IS??!!!” Tess exclaimed, annoyed by Chell’s secrecy.
“He’s secretive, so what?!” Zen defended. “He’s probably got a good reason… somehow…”
“Well when you find out what it is, call me!” Tess suggested rhetorically.
The three hybrids began walking back towards their blind friend, when they heard the school’s front doors fling open. The echo from them gave a chilling sound, as did the image coming from them. The foggy and snowy day made it look as if there was no one there, but there was.
A female-lynx figure slowly walked into the school. She had a green shirt, a dark-grey jacket, sliding off to the side a bit, long jeans, skull indentations on her tennis-shoes, and a punkish hat. Her fur was a murky dark brownish-greyish color, while her eyes were simply dark and grey. She had a strange smirk on her face, and both hands in a fist. She slowly entered the hallway, scanning the area with her fixed eyes, until landing them directly at Lizzy’s group.
“Who’s that?” Zen asked.
“Ira.” The lynx girl said, quickly walking up to Zen. “Ira… Black.”
“uh… Hi!” Tess greeted, trying to be friendly. “I’m Tess! This is-“
“I know.” Ira interrupted, turning her face to Lizzy. “The mysterious Lizena Willow… Eventide.”
“Are you naturally this creepy, or is it environmental?” Lizzy asked. Ira seemed to ignore her, then turned to Chells.
“I recognize you from somewhere.” Ira said to Chells, attempting to turn his head, in hopes of getting a better look. Chells made an un-amused face as he turned, but when he actually saw her face, he looked as if he had seen a ghost, then quickly turned away.
“Cute.” The strange lynx smirked. “Well apparently I have to go find my assigned classes now. It was charming to meet you all.”
They all stood there without motion as the slender strange person walked off. That was until… “Who… was that?” Tess questioned. “Wait… That’s… the girl you were drawing!” She pointed at Chells.
“Wha- That ‘Ira Black’ is NOT who I drew!” Chells replied angrily.
“OH COME ON!!!!” Tess yelled. “She’s a lynx! She thought you were cute! She recognized you! How can that not be her?!”
“I don’t need or want to prove how she isn’t.” Chells informed. “All you need to know is that she is not, and never will be anyone I would consider liking.” Chells walked away.
“That was… equally weird.” Zen noted.
“Ya think?” Tess teased. “Chells definitely knows that girl. He wouldn’t have been so negative otherwise. I don’t know anything about this Ira Black, but there’s definitely something weird about her.”
“Agreed” Lizzy said as they once again started to walk back to the middle of the school, but were stopped a second time, by another person coming into the school.
It was another female lynx, but seemingly a bit younger than Ira. She had light orange-brown fur, with tattoo-like designed black ears hand and feet. Her hair was mixed as purple and black, and her eyes were mint-green. Her bangs hung over the left side of her face, while the back of her hair seemed to be down to her shoulders in a slight curl. She was wearing a purple-silvery two-piece dress, with a pink belt, sandals, and a strange looking necklace.
As soon as she saw Lizzy and the others, she walked up to them. “H-hi.” She said in a nervous oriental accent. “My name is Sung Le. I just moved here.”
“… Two of them?” Tess said in confusion.
“… Excuse me?” Sung asked in deeper confusion.
“We just had another Lynx encounter.” Lizzy explained. “She was a bit… abnormal. I’m Lizzy. Miss confusion is Tess. And dreamy-eyes over there is Zen.” Lizzy pointed at Zen who was in complete awe of the new female.
“Nice to meet you.” The girl greeted shyly. “Um… where could I find the Principal’s office? My grandfather told me that I should check in there.”
“I’ll show-“
“I’LL show you where it is.” Lizzy interrupted in an attempt to save Zen from a large embarrassment.
“Th-thank you.” She said nervously as they walked off.
“No problem.” Lizzy assured. “So, you live with your grandfather?”
“Yes… is that strange?”
“What? No. It’s just that I live with my grandfather too.”
“I kn- I mean, Really?”
“Yep. You live near here?”
“Well we only moved in to a hotel for now. The house isn’t going to be finished for a couple of days, but I was signed up for school before we left to come here.”
“Well it’s nice to meet you… could I ask you something?”
“Oh… okay…”
“Do I seem… emo or gothic, or something like that to you?”
“I just met you.”
“I know, but I just seem to have that impression for some reason.”
“Oh… I don’t think you are like those things. You seem normal to me.”
“Are you sure you’re not just saying that to be nice?”
“Y-yes! Why would other people say that?”
“It’s a long story.” Lizzy sighed as they approached the office. “Here’s the principal’s office. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you as well.” Sung waved as she entered the office. “Thank you.”
“So why did I just meet someone who called you trash?” Ira asked from right behind Lizzy.
“DAH! WARN SOMEBODY NEXT TIME!!!” Lizzy yelled in surprise.
“Sorry. Just met some girl named Terry. She doesn’t seem to like you.”
“That’s the understatement of the year.”
“Any idea why?”
“Not really. Though she’ll probably have a reason pretty soon.”
“Which would indicate that something bad is going to happen to you… which is…”
“… I found a some Druggies who thought I was a druggy. I tricked them into giving me some drugs so that I could show the principal, but the principal didn’t believe me, and thought I was one of them too. Soon the whole school will be talking about it.”
“Then why not just catch them in the act?”
“Because it will still look like I’m involved somehow.”
“Then why not get some other to do it. Like Fox-boy. I know he’d help.”
“Wel-… What do you know about Chells?”
“Chells?” Ira chuckled. “That’s his name? Well never mind about that. If that’s what his name is, he’s definitely not who I was thinking of.”
“Okay… well anyway, if I had any of my friends do it, everyone would blame them too.”
“Then why not just get someone you don’t know. Like me. Or the other new-girl. That way the principal can’t say that you were involved, because she wouldn’t be able to say that we were involved.”
“That… might work… thanks.”
“No problem… where is the meeting place anyway?”
“Tomorrow at Proffesor Liff’s room. But we’d have to ask Sung if she’d want to go in the first place.”
“Go where?” Sung asked as she left the office.
“That was quick.” Lizzy noted. “How’d you get that over with so fast?”
“My grandpa took care of everything already, so I just had to sign a few things.” Sung answered. “Is this the abnormal lynx girl you were talking about?”
“That’s me!” Ira answered with a chuckle. “You want to stop a druggy meeting tomorrow?”
“A… what?” Sung asked.
“There’s a bunch of dealer-teens meeting in a class-room tomorrow, and they’re getting a prank ready there.” Lizzy informed with a groan.
“You want to join in the fun?” Ira asked.
“Uh…” Sung didn’t respond with anything but “uh”.
“Wonderful way to start a conversation, Ira.” Lizzy said with an eye-roll.
“Hey, she was the one wondering. So you want to or not?” Ira asked impatiently.
“I… guess so. If it helps the school.” Sung replied shyly.
“Cool!” Ira said as she started to walk off. “See ya two then!”
“… I seriously hope that after that I don’t see that girl again…” Lizzy groaned.
“She does seem… troubled…” Sung agreed. “Do you know the boy fox?”
“That depends… do you?” Lizzy asked, hoping that Sung might be the lynx-girl in Chells’s pictures.
“I just moved to this school.” Sung defended.
“True.” Lizzy sighed. “Well if you did know him, you probably would have said something else, so there goes that option. That was Chells. I guess you would consider him my ‘friend’, but really, he’s pretty much just the one standing there insulting everyone, but he’s good with advice.”
“Well he seems… nice, I suppose.” Sung guessed just as the school-bell rang. “Oh! I have to get to class now.”
“Same here. See you later.” Lizzy departed with a wave.
Lizzy spent the rest of school in a rather… peaceful manner. No one was shoving her, or insulting her, and Terry wasn’t annoying her. She knew not why, but she felt it was better not to jinx it by asking. She soon found Tess and Zen who told them that Cyclist needed them at the base.
When they arrived, the vigilante was the only other person there. “Where’s the others?” Lizzy asked.
“I only need three of you… but mainly you, Lizzy.” Cyclist informed as he walked over to a wall. He waved his hand in front of it back and forth in a varying pattern, and it slid down, revealing a glass-prison cell holding about five New Legion agents.
“Whoa!!” Tess exclaimed. “That’s a lot of echidnas!” The agents gave them all a cold glare.
“Can I come out now?” An agent asked.
“Yes Mike, you can come out.” Cyclist opened the door slightly, then before the other agents could make it out, the one agent slid through.
“Lizzy, Tess, Zen, meet the recently renamed agent of the New Legion, Torscus.” Cyclist introduced.
“Is this the inside guy you talked about in the police station?” Lizzy asked.
“That was me.” Torscus answered.
“Okay then first…” Lizzy gave the echidna a very large slap to the face.
“OW! Why did you-“
“Do you recall a certain meet up point last month, where your buddy went crazy-dragon something on me!?”
“It was Cyclist’s idea!” He defended. “When he found out that you were down for the count, he sent me to pretend to collect you, then drive you over to him.”
“I just needed you all to meet, so that there aren’t any… confusions…” Cyclist hinted.
“Okay, that I get.” Lizzy replied. “But what about the other agents?”
I’m planning on giving them a mind-wipe.” Cyclist informed. “But that’s not the other reason you’re here. I’ve noticed that your powers have… evolved, and I need to check them out to make sure they’re stable.”
“Well it’s really only two. Apparently I can turn into smoke, and teleport through the smoke now. That and I’m faster.” She answered.
“Can you give us a demonstration… outside?” Cyclist urged.
“Sure.” Lizzy agreed as she looked over at the agents again. “Why are they here anyway?”
“They found the HQ easily, but Chells was here while I wasn’t. Good thing you kept him here.”
“Oh yeah. Why did you let him out? He could have Cyclops DNA.”
“Have you seen or heard anything about a Cyclops?”
“Well no… but someone saw him get shot with it!”
“Maybe he’s immune then. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t keep an eye on him, but you can’t keep him in the HQ all the time. He’s probably got a worried parent too.”
“I guess.” Lizzy replied as they all exited the HQ. “So… what do you need to see first?”
“Try smoke-forming.”
“Okay… let’s see… um…” Lizzy concentrated hard on the thought of black smoke, and eventually caused her arm to turn into smoke. “Whoa…”
“That… is… AWESOME!!!” Tess exclaimed. “OH! Now try teleporting!”
“Smoke-porting actually.” Cyclist informed. “Concentrate on a place you’ve been… try not to make it-“
Too late. Lizzy had already smoke-ported to the school, right were a bunch of students were, which surprised Lizzy as she knew not why. They didn’t seem to be doing anything in particular. They all gaped at her, but she was still in a puff of smoke, and they did not see who it was.
Before any of them could tell who was inside the puff of smoke, Lizzy had smoke-ported back to Cyclist and the others, but one student managed to say “fascinating” in a voice that Lizzy found strangely familiar.
“Too far. I was going to say too far.” Cyclist groaned. “You’ll need to work on that. Try to limit your smoke-porting to small range. If you don’t, I’m thinking that you might end up running out of energy.”
“I do kinda feel weaker.” Lizzy admitted.
“Can you still run?”
“Yep!”
“Whoa!” Zen said in surprise. Lizzy is actually non-angry with Cyclist.
“Shocking, I know.” Cyclist replied. “Moving on…”
Lizzy crouched down, then charged forward in a black-smoke, which seemed to burn through anything in her way. She returned after she had drawn the word “YAHOO” in the nature-debris.
“Hmm… the acid might be a problem.” Cyclist noted. “Can you try to not run with the smoke?”
“Already did that. I usually have to use it though, or I run out of energy too quickly.”
“Hmm… must be the energy absorption. Well that’s all I needed. I’ll check up on you in a day or so.” And with that Cyclist left.
“Anybody else get really annoyed by that guy?” Torscus asked as he walked out of the HQ.
“He was able to reform you, wasn’t he?” Lizzy reminded.
“Uh no. He wasn’t.”
“Huh? ... Then why-“
“He threatened to kill my family.”
“HA! That’s a good one.”
“You don’t think he has the guts to do that?”
“No. He has the guts. But he wouldn’t. He’s a self-appointed super-hero. They don’t usually kill the innocent family… Me however…”
“Alright, alright. Wait… what am I supposed to do now?”
“Get a cab.” Lizzy chuckled back. Torscus gave a small sigh, then began trudging through towards the main road.
Lizzy, Tess, and Zen left for the day (all of them wondering why they left the other agents in the HQ alone, cell or not), and looked forward to various things. Tess looked forward to everything basically, being the innocent easily amused person that she is. Zen looked forward to seeing Sung again, as she was the latest girl he would soon try to woo, and most likely not. Lizzy however looked forward to retribution. Being able to say to all of the students “SEE!!?? I’M NOT LIKE THAT!!!!”
The next day as Lizzy entered the school…
“Uh Lizzy?” Siera waved as she approached her feline friend.
“Hey Siera. What’s up?” Lizzy greeted.
“Zen is making a fool out of himself… again.”
“Sung Le?”
“Sung Le-… how do you know her?”
“Short story that I don’t want to explain. Fortunately I can fix the fool problem.” The two of them walked over to Sung and Zen, who were currently in an awkward pause.
“Hey Sung. Hey Zen.” They both greeted
“Hey Lizzy.” Zen greeted.
“Hello Lizzy. Do you need something?” Sung asked.
“Just checking to see if you’re ready for the ‘you know what’ thing.” Lizzy hinted.
“Oh. Yes. One moment Zen. There’s something Lizzy and I must speak about.” Sung informed to the poor boy as she and Lizzy walked out of ear-shot.
“So you know where Ira is?” Lizzy asked.
“No, but she will probably be here.”
“And has anyone been talking about the meeting?”
“I didn’t hear anything.”
“Good. If no one’s talking about it that probably means that Terry doesn’t know.”
“Are you sure that it is a good idea to try and catch them without the Principal’s approval?”
“Not usually, but the Principal doesn’t trust me, as you know. I doubt that she’d even come if we told her at this point.”
“Alright… but I’m still a bit uneasy about this. What if something goes wrong?”
“How would it go wrong?”
“Well what if one of us told someone by accident, or was really just helping the teenagers who were doing it?”
“Like me?” Lizzy said in a slightly angered tone.
“What? No! No, no, no.”
“Then why would you-… did you tell someone?”
“… No.”
“You told someone, didn’t you?!”
“I swear that I did NOT! It was just a suggestion!”
“… *sigh* Alright. We should probably get going before we miss something now.”
The two girls walked off in different directions, and were meant to meet later at lunch just before the time that they assumed that the prank was going to be pulled, but something else happened.
“Lizzy!” Ira waved as she rushed over to the lunch-eating feline.
“There you are! Where have you been?” Lizzy asked in an annoyed tone.
“That’s kinda what I have to tell you. I sort of ticked off a teacher, so I’m in detention in like… three minutes. They said I could tell you really quick about something important, but I’ve gotta get back soon.”
“… Wonderful. Well at least Sung’s still with me.”
“That’s another thing. I think, and I’m not sure about this, but I think that I saw her talking about the plan to some kid.”
“What?! Are you sure?”
“No. Like I said, I’m not sure about this… kind of already said that. Anyway, I really don’t know much of what she said, but she kind of acted shifty…ish.”
“Well what did she say?”
“I mainly stuck to the body language, but I heard her say something about… pepper… probably not it, though I could have gotten the word wrong. I was across the room.”
“… Nope… you were right…”
“So…what now?”
“Well I’m going to tell her that she’s been caught and-“
“Hold it! You’re just going to tell her? If you tell her then she’ll know she’s found out, and be telling all of her little bomb-friends before you even get to the Principal’s office!”
“Then what do I do!?”
“I don’t know! … Well… I guess-… well…”
“Say it already.”
“Well you could tell her something like ‘Apparently we got the wrong location. We have no idea where it’s going to be, so we’re going to have to wait until next time.’ That way, she trusts you, and you can follow her until she leads you to the Real prank-zone.”
“Why don’t yo-… oh right. Detention.”
“Huh? Oh right. And I should probably get to that now. Three minutes are almost up. Good luck!” Ira ran through the crowds and into the greens… which wasn’t the right direction.
“IRA! WRONG WAY!!!” Lizzy called out, but she didn’t hear her. “Ugh! Newbies…”
Lizzy told the little fib to Sung, who seemed to believe it, but was a bit disappointed as she went on her way. Directly after that, Lizzy ghosted her face slowly into the class-room from outside, as not to be seen in action by other students, but saw nothing.
Assuming that they had yet to arrive, Lizzy waited behind the front-stand. She waited for quite a while. Almost ten minutes. Everyone would be going back to class soon. Why hadn’t they struck yet?
Suddenly a giant explosion sounded from across the school, which shook the entire room. Without hesitation, Lizzy charged out of the class-room at her incredible speed, ghosted across in a straight line, and found herself standing (once she slowed down enough) in front of what used to be the gaming-room.
Six students, including the druggies from the other day, were trapped behind a caved-in roof, and two gaming-stations. “HELP!” They called out.
Lizzy quickly tried to pull the station away, so that she could start digging through, but was shocked in the process, and dare not allow herself to let her powers to be shown. A couple of other students jumped in as well and began to pull at the non-blocked wreckage.
Lizzy was about to try and cautiously absorb the electricity so that she could move the station away, but before she could, a familiar voice yelled “MOVE!”. Lizzy watched as Sung charged in, shoved the station away, then started to move the planks.
“Whoa…” Lizzy gaped.
“Lizzy! Help me!” Sung urged. They both strained to lift away at the concrete and wood until there was a hole big enough… for Lizzy’s front to fall through and get stuck in.
As she and Sung attempted to free her, a large piece of concrete started to fall right at the druggies, who couldn’t move anywhere to avoid it. Without hesitation, Lizzy thrusted her hand at the chunk, and ghosted it until it landed on the ground, without the students noticing.
The security was here now, as were plenty of adults, who instantly began to move the top pieces first, as not to have it all collapse on the druggies. Little did any of them noticed however, that a loose electrical wire got caught in the wood and had been sparking the entire time. It was now in flames, and about to consume a teacher.
Before Lizzy could notice, Sung shoved the teacher to the side, then fan-kicked the entire amount of flaming wreckage to the side, and out of the wire’s reach. Strangely enough however, her foot did not look harmed at all by the impact.
The druggies were saved after a while, and the wreckage was being taken care of.
In the Principal’s office…
“W-we weren’t’ trying to make a real bomb! Honest!” A druggy defended. “We just didn’t get the pepper we needed. She was the one who came up with the plan!” The boy pointed to Sung.
“What? I didn’t- I don’t even know you! I was helping Lizzy try to help catch you before you did that!” Sung said in her defense.
“Sung, Ira told me about you telling someone about the pepper.” Lizzy said.
“Ira told you abou-… That pepper was for…” Sung ran out of the Principal’s office with a face full of tears.
“As for you, Lizzy.” The Principal noticed, ignoring Sung. “It would appear that I was wrong about your intentions, and you have my apologies. You did a very good job in helping those students get free.
“But… so did Sung…” Lizzy reminded.
“She did help, but she was also part of the problem. That explosion almost killed many people. That does not go without punishment… but she did come to the rescue. She will not be punished as much as the rest. But I’ll be sure to tell your… guardian that you will be receiving extra-credits.”.”
Lizzy left the Principal’s office feeling less than good. The look on Sung’s face did not look like the expression of guilt, but one Lizzy had had. The expression of when stereotyped and betrayed. But she had to have been in league with them. The pepper was a special part of the plan. And Ira said that she had seen her talk about it.
As she walked the halls to leave for home, with the school closed for the day, she noticed an older Lynx, that looked like he might have been Sung’s grandfather. He was carrying a large cardboard box, and seemed to be looking for Sung.
“Excuse me Sir.” Lizzy greeted. “Are you Mr. Le?”
“Yes. … Are you the Lizzy girl that Sung is always speaking of? And the lynx girl… Iras?” The man guessed.
“Ira.” Ira greeted out of the blue, as she walked up to them. “Nice to meet you. Anything special in the box?”
“Why actually yes.” Mr. Le opened the box and pulled out two redish-looking cinnamon cookies, and handed them to Lizzy and Ira, who instantly began to nibble at them.
“My granddaughter told me yesterday that she was so excited about meeting you and your friends, and she was so excited that she had met such nice and funny people, so we ended up spending all night making these special pepper and cinnamon cookies. She wanted to give you this note”
Both Lizzy and Ira gave a large “GULP” sound when they heard that. Lizzy’s hand trembled as she took the note, though she could not bring herself to read it at that point. “W-well… please tell her that… she is… a much more amazing person.” She stammered.
“Once I find her I will.” The elderly man said, as he tipped his base-ball cap, and started off again.
“… Great, now I’m eating guilt.” Ira groaned. “Well I heard that you and her saved the day, so they probably don’t think that you’re druggies now.”
Ira walked off, while Lizzy just stood there frozen… holding the cookie, and the note. Slowly she opened it.
“Dear Lizzy,”
“I would like to say thank you for being my first public-school friend. I know we have not spent very much time doing any girl things, but I am just glad to have met an amazing person like you, and such a ‘fascinating’ person as Ira, lol. Whatever the other people think, you would never be a drug-person, or bad-student to me.”
“Sincerely,
Sung”
Lizzy fell to the ground. What had she done? Not only was she wrong about blaming Sung, but she had done all of what she had wanted to not happen to her.
The black-furred cat sat next to a wall too shocked and ashamed to even cry, though her eyes did water-up quite a bit. She glanced over just a bit, and saw what she hoped she hadn’t. Ira Black was giving a high-five to one of the druggies, as she and they all walked off through the school.
It was all Ira. She was the one who told the other to move somewhere else for the prank. She was the one who told Lizzy to get rid of Sung. She wanted her out of the way so that they could get away with the prank… which they did.
Lizzy was so full of rage that the dark-smoke started to emerge from her hands as she clenched them.
Little did Lizzy know, that not only was this going to be a rivalry more deadly than anything she had seen yet, but that it wasn’t even the beginning.
Location: Lexistropolis, Raventide High-school
Date: Date: Monday, January 4th, 4337
Time: 11:56 A.M.
Lizzy waited impatiently for the clock to strike twelve. Ever since it had made it to eleven-forty-seven she had been counting and counting to herself. Math was not something she particularly enjoyed, which made it all the harder.
11:57. A small amount of relief came by that small ticking noise as it reached the next minute, but it was soon replaced by increased stress.
11:58. The sheer boredom of the lesson, and how little she could keep up with was overwhelming the black-cat, giving her very limited options.
11:59. Lizzy’s foot started to thump up and down at her unnatural speeds. Then she remembered something. To save herself for a few seconds, she opened up her bag, and took out a small wrapped up piece of gum, which she began to chew vigorously, as to relieve some of the boredom. Others noticed, and some of them shushed her a bit. Boredom returned.
12:00. Relief. Lizzy now had an entire 45 minutes, give or take a few, to relieve all of the energy that was built up inside her from the boring lesson.
The young Eventide girl located her… mystery meal, which she almost didn’t eat out of skepticism. When she did, she discovered that it actually tasted quite delicious… that and she had forgotten to eat breakfast, and was near starvation.
Lizena Eventide made short work of her dish, then chose to walk around the school’s field’s and gardens for a while. She saw a few people reading books next to trees, a few… in romantic conversation, and one that she took for as Chells… who was with a girl.
“Now this is a surprise!” She said as she walked up to the two of them, only to find that the boy was not Chells, but a dark-clothed student, who was passing drugs to the other girl. “Oh, sorry. Thought you we-… What’s that?”
“You were at the meeting. You know.” He responded, confusing Lizzy greatly.
“Meeting? What meeting?”
“The one that we were all at!” The girl informed unintelligently. “At the fan-generators… I saw you there. Don’t deny it.”
“Uh… r-right… the meeting…” Lizzy fibbed.
“Here.” The boy said as he handed her a small bag of the… medicine. Lizzy was hesitant at first, but then got an idea.
“Thanks.” She said with a grin as she received the “gift”. “Anyway, that short dude wanted me to ask where the next little meet up is going to be. As if he would remember.”
“Mink or Stez?” The boy asked.
“M- Stez!” Lizzy answered with a stutter.
“Well we were going to meet up for a little… prank later on tomorrow. We found out that on Tuesdays Prof. Liff lets his students out early, and there are no windows, or ANYONE coming inside. We’re all bringing something for it. You can bring the pepper.”
“Will do.” Lizzy replied as she walked off. At first she felt proud. She actually tricked them into revealing one of their locations… but this soon turned into a slight depressing feeling.
They actually thought that SHE was a druggy. Was Nova right about how she acted? Was she really THAT anti-social? Did she really dress like she’d be one of them? “No!” She yelled in her mind. “At least they’ll know when I show the principal.”
Later in the Principal’s office…
…“And you say that they are going to meet in Proffesor Liff’s class-room later on tomorrow?” The principal asked.
“Yes. I have this to prove that they’ve been dealing drugs.” Lizzy handed the lady the bag that the Druggy had handed her.
“Hmm… How did you get this from them?”
“One of them thought I was a druggy, and just handed it to me.”
“He just ‘handed it’ to you?”
“Yes.”
The Principal pondered for a moment, then stupidly Lizzy asked “Aren’t you going to go get them now?”
“I’m still trying to decide something.”
“What’s there to decide?”
“Whether or not I can trust my students.”
“What? I just gave you-“
“Yes, you just gave me a small bag or drugs that you were given by a druggy who thought you were also a druggy, who also told you the location of the next meeting, not to mention the fact that you were able to identify one of the other druggy’s names and height.”
“What… are you saying that I’m a druggy?”
“I’m saying that you might be. Lizzy I’m going to be candid. You know all of this information. You were let in easily. To me this looks less like a good deed, and more like someone who’s trying to get rid of the competition, OR lead me on a wild goose-chase.”
“I’ve never done that before! Why would I now?!”
“Lizzy, we both know that you have a history of a bad past. That doesn’t inspire trust.”
“But I-…” Lizzy ran out of the office with tears in her eyes. Not even the Principal believed her. What did she do that made her such a target-… or what did someone else do… Terry.
Teresa Johnson was the little voice behind everything that had ever gone wrong with Lizzy at the school. The book getting soaked at the Fan-party. Everyone thinking she was V. The constant naggings and little insults along the way. There was very little doubt that Terry was the one behind this too.
The flustered feline had half a mind to storm up and beat up her rival, but stopped herself in time to think. It could backfire. And it would give Terry another reason to spread rumors about her. That is, if she hadn’t already. Lizzy didn’t even think Terry knew why she hated her so much. She needed Tess and Zen to cheer her up.
After a short amount of searching, Lizzy found Tess and Zen at the frontal hallway, arguing with Chells about the girl he was always drawing.
“… and you don’t think that ANYONE would find that weird?” Tess asked the irritated fox just as Lizzy had approached them.
“We talking about his glasses or the girl in his notebook- Hold on! ... aren’t you supposed to be back at the base?” Lizzy said to Chells.
“I got leave by a higher authority.” Chells informed.
“Yeah? Who?”
“Cyclist.” Chells smirked.
“Okay… again, are we talking about your shades or the girl you keep drawing?”
“The girl… but I’ve got some questions about the glasses too!” Tess informed. Chells groaned lowly.
“I like to draw. Whoopdeedoo.” Chells defended.
“But you don’t let anyone else see it.” Lizzy added.
“You saw it- wait, who’s side are you on?” Chells replied.
“Hey, a girl’s got to be entertained somehow.” Lizzy chuckled. “Besides, I only saw part of the face.”
“Really? What species was it?” Zen asked curiously.
“A lynx I think.” Lizzy blurted out.
“Ooooooooooo, a ly-yyyyyyyyyyynx. Chells likes the stripy ones.” Tess teased.
“I’ll try not to make you cry with a response.” Chells said through his teeth. “What did you need, Lizzy?”
“Hmm? Oh, nothing. Just wanted to see what Tess and Zen were doing.”
“Well now you can have them all to yourself.” Chells hinted as he started to walk away.
“Wait! What was her name?!” Tess urged.
“Let’s just say it starts with the letter-“ Chells ended abruptly with a tease, as he turned his head from them.
“…WHY WON’T HE TELL ME WHO THAT GIRL IS??!!!” Tess exclaimed, annoyed by Chell’s secrecy.
“He’s secretive, so what?!” Zen defended. “He’s probably got a good reason… somehow…”
“Well when you find out what it is, call me!” Tess suggested rhetorically.
The three hybrids began walking back towards their blind friend, when they heard the school’s front doors fling open. The echo from them gave a chilling sound, as did the image coming from them. The foggy and snowy day made it look as if there was no one there, but there was.
A female-lynx figure slowly walked into the school. She had a green shirt, a dark-grey jacket, sliding off to the side a bit, long jeans, skull indentations on her tennis-shoes, and a punkish hat. Her fur was a murky dark brownish-greyish color, while her eyes were simply dark and grey. She had a strange smirk on her face, and both hands in a fist. She slowly entered the hallway, scanning the area with her fixed eyes, until landing them directly at Lizzy’s group.
“Who’s that?” Zen asked.
“Ira.” The lynx girl said, quickly walking up to Zen. “Ira… Black.”
“uh… Hi!” Tess greeted, trying to be friendly. “I’m Tess! This is-“
“I know.” Ira interrupted, turning her face to Lizzy. “The mysterious Lizena Willow… Eventide.”
“Are you naturally this creepy, or is it environmental?” Lizzy asked. Ira seemed to ignore her, then turned to Chells.
“I recognize you from somewhere.” Ira said to Chells, attempting to turn his head, in hopes of getting a better look. Chells made an un-amused face as he turned, but when he actually saw her face, he looked as if he had seen a ghost, then quickly turned away.
“Cute.” The strange lynx smirked. “Well apparently I have to go find my assigned classes now. It was charming to meet you all.”
They all stood there without motion as the slender strange person walked off. That was until… “Who… was that?” Tess questioned. “Wait… That’s… the girl you were drawing!” She pointed at Chells.
“Wha- That ‘Ira Black’ is NOT who I drew!” Chells replied angrily.
“OH COME ON!!!!” Tess yelled. “She’s a lynx! She thought you were cute! She recognized you! How can that not be her?!”
“I don’t need or want to prove how she isn’t.” Chells informed. “All you need to know is that she is not, and never will be anyone I would consider liking.” Chells walked away.
“That was… equally weird.” Zen noted.
“Ya think?” Tess teased. “Chells definitely knows that girl. He wouldn’t have been so negative otherwise. I don’t know anything about this Ira Black, but there’s definitely something weird about her.”
“Agreed” Lizzy said as they once again started to walk back to the middle of the school, but were stopped a second time, by another person coming into the school.
It was another female lynx, but seemingly a bit younger than Ira. She had light orange-brown fur, with tattoo-like designed black ears hand and feet. Her hair was mixed as purple and black, and her eyes were mint-green. Her bangs hung over the left side of her face, while the back of her hair seemed to be down to her shoulders in a slight curl. She was wearing a purple-silvery two-piece dress, with a pink belt, sandals, and a strange looking necklace.
As soon as she saw Lizzy and the others, she walked up to them. “H-hi.” She said in a nervous oriental accent. “My name is Sung Le. I just moved here.”
“… Two of them?” Tess said in confusion.
“… Excuse me?” Sung asked in deeper confusion.
“We just had another Lynx encounter.” Lizzy explained. “She was a bit… abnormal. I’m Lizzy. Miss confusion is Tess. And dreamy-eyes over there is Zen.” Lizzy pointed at Zen who was in complete awe of the new female.
“Nice to meet you.” The girl greeted shyly. “Um… where could I find the Principal’s office? My grandfather told me that I should check in there.”
“I’ll show-“
“I’LL show you where it is.” Lizzy interrupted in an attempt to save Zen from a large embarrassment.
“Th-thank you.” She said nervously as they walked off.
“No problem.” Lizzy assured. “So, you live with your grandfather?”
“Yes… is that strange?”
“What? No. It’s just that I live with my grandfather too.”
“I kn- I mean, Really?”
“Yep. You live near here?”
“Well we only moved in to a hotel for now. The house isn’t going to be finished for a couple of days, but I was signed up for school before we left to come here.”
“Well it’s nice to meet you… could I ask you something?”
“Oh… okay…”
“Do I seem… emo or gothic, or something like that to you?”
“I just met you.”
“I know, but I just seem to have that impression for some reason.”
“Oh… I don’t think you are like those things. You seem normal to me.”
“Are you sure you’re not just saying that to be nice?”
“Y-yes! Why would other people say that?”
“It’s a long story.” Lizzy sighed as they approached the office. “Here’s the principal’s office. Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you as well.” Sung waved as she entered the office. “Thank you.”
“So why did I just meet someone who called you trash?” Ira asked from right behind Lizzy.
“DAH! WARN SOMEBODY NEXT TIME!!!” Lizzy yelled in surprise.
“Sorry. Just met some girl named Terry. She doesn’t seem to like you.”
“That’s the understatement of the year.”
“Any idea why?”
“Not really. Though she’ll probably have a reason pretty soon.”
“Which would indicate that something bad is going to happen to you… which is…”
“… I found a some Druggies who thought I was a druggy. I tricked them into giving me some drugs so that I could show the principal, but the principal didn’t believe me, and thought I was one of them too. Soon the whole school will be talking about it.”
“Then why not just catch them in the act?”
“Because it will still look like I’m involved somehow.”
“Then why not get some other to do it. Like Fox-boy. I know he’d help.”
“Wel-… What do you know about Chells?”
“Chells?” Ira chuckled. “That’s his name? Well never mind about that. If that’s what his name is, he’s definitely not who I was thinking of.”
“Okay… well anyway, if I had any of my friends do it, everyone would blame them too.”
“Then why not just get someone you don’t know. Like me. Or the other new-girl. That way the principal can’t say that you were involved, because she wouldn’t be able to say that we were involved.”
“That… might work… thanks.”
“No problem… where is the meeting place anyway?”
“Tomorrow at Proffesor Liff’s room. But we’d have to ask Sung if she’d want to go in the first place.”
“Go where?” Sung asked as she left the office.
“That was quick.” Lizzy noted. “How’d you get that over with so fast?”
“My grandpa took care of everything already, so I just had to sign a few things.” Sung answered. “Is this the abnormal lynx girl you were talking about?”
“That’s me!” Ira answered with a chuckle. “You want to stop a druggy meeting tomorrow?”
“A… what?” Sung asked.
“There’s a bunch of dealer-teens meeting in a class-room tomorrow, and they’re getting a prank ready there.” Lizzy informed with a groan.
“You want to join in the fun?” Ira asked.
“Uh…” Sung didn’t respond with anything but “uh”.
“Wonderful way to start a conversation, Ira.” Lizzy said with an eye-roll.
“Hey, she was the one wondering. So you want to or not?” Ira asked impatiently.
“I… guess so. If it helps the school.” Sung replied shyly.
“Cool!” Ira said as she started to walk off. “See ya two then!”
“… I seriously hope that after that I don’t see that girl again…” Lizzy groaned.
“She does seem… troubled…” Sung agreed. “Do you know the boy fox?”
“That depends… do you?” Lizzy asked, hoping that Sung might be the lynx-girl in Chells’s pictures.
“I just moved to this school.” Sung defended.
“True.” Lizzy sighed. “Well if you did know him, you probably would have said something else, so there goes that option. That was Chells. I guess you would consider him my ‘friend’, but really, he’s pretty much just the one standing there insulting everyone, but he’s good with advice.”
“Well he seems… nice, I suppose.” Sung guessed just as the school-bell rang. “Oh! I have to get to class now.”
“Same here. See you later.” Lizzy departed with a wave.
Lizzy spent the rest of school in a rather… peaceful manner. No one was shoving her, or insulting her, and Terry wasn’t annoying her. She knew not why, but she felt it was better not to jinx it by asking. She soon found Tess and Zen who told them that Cyclist needed them at the base.
When they arrived, the vigilante was the only other person there. “Where’s the others?” Lizzy asked.
“I only need three of you… but mainly you, Lizzy.” Cyclist informed as he walked over to a wall. He waved his hand in front of it back and forth in a varying pattern, and it slid down, revealing a glass-prison cell holding about five New Legion agents.
“Whoa!!” Tess exclaimed. “That’s a lot of echidnas!” The agents gave them all a cold glare.
“Can I come out now?” An agent asked.
“Yes Mike, you can come out.” Cyclist opened the door slightly, then before the other agents could make it out, the one agent slid through.
“Lizzy, Tess, Zen, meet the recently renamed agent of the New Legion, Torscus.” Cyclist introduced.
“Is this the inside guy you talked about in the police station?” Lizzy asked.
“That was me.” Torscus answered.
“Okay then first…” Lizzy gave the echidna a very large slap to the face.
“OW! Why did you-“
“Do you recall a certain meet up point last month, where your buddy went crazy-dragon something on me!?”
“It was Cyclist’s idea!” He defended. “When he found out that you were down for the count, he sent me to pretend to collect you, then drive you over to him.”
“I just needed you all to meet, so that there aren’t any… confusions…” Cyclist hinted.
“Okay, that I get.” Lizzy replied. “But what about the other agents?”
I’m planning on giving them a mind-wipe.” Cyclist informed. “But that’s not the other reason you’re here. I’ve noticed that your powers have… evolved, and I need to check them out to make sure they’re stable.”
“Well it’s really only two. Apparently I can turn into smoke, and teleport through the smoke now. That and I’m faster.” She answered.
“Can you give us a demonstration… outside?” Cyclist urged.
“Sure.” Lizzy agreed as she looked over at the agents again. “Why are they here anyway?”
“They found the HQ easily, but Chells was here while I wasn’t. Good thing you kept him here.”
“Oh yeah. Why did you let him out? He could have Cyclops DNA.”
“Have you seen or heard anything about a Cyclops?”
“Well no… but someone saw him get shot with it!”
“Maybe he’s immune then. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t keep an eye on him, but you can’t keep him in the HQ all the time. He’s probably got a worried parent too.”
“I guess.” Lizzy replied as they all exited the HQ. “So… what do you need to see first?”
“Try smoke-forming.”
“Okay… let’s see… um…” Lizzy concentrated hard on the thought of black smoke, and eventually caused her arm to turn into smoke. “Whoa…”
“That… is… AWESOME!!!” Tess exclaimed. “OH! Now try teleporting!”
“Smoke-porting actually.” Cyclist informed. “Concentrate on a place you’ve been… try not to make it-“
Too late. Lizzy had already smoke-ported to the school, right were a bunch of students were, which surprised Lizzy as she knew not why. They didn’t seem to be doing anything in particular. They all gaped at her, but she was still in a puff of smoke, and they did not see who it was.
Before any of them could tell who was inside the puff of smoke, Lizzy had smoke-ported back to Cyclist and the others, but one student managed to say “fascinating” in a voice that Lizzy found strangely familiar.
“Too far. I was going to say too far.” Cyclist groaned. “You’ll need to work on that. Try to limit your smoke-porting to small range. If you don’t, I’m thinking that you might end up running out of energy.”
“I do kinda feel weaker.” Lizzy admitted.
“Can you still run?”
“Yep!”
“Whoa!” Zen said in surprise. Lizzy is actually non-angry with Cyclist.
“Shocking, I know.” Cyclist replied. “Moving on…”
Lizzy crouched down, then charged forward in a black-smoke, which seemed to burn through anything in her way. She returned after she had drawn the word “YAHOO” in the nature-debris.
“Hmm… the acid might be a problem.” Cyclist noted. “Can you try to not run with the smoke?”
“Already did that. I usually have to use it though, or I run out of energy too quickly.”
“Hmm… must be the energy absorption. Well that’s all I needed. I’ll check up on you in a day or so.” And with that Cyclist left.
“Anybody else get really annoyed by that guy?” Torscus asked as he walked out of the HQ.
“He was able to reform you, wasn’t he?” Lizzy reminded.
“Uh no. He wasn’t.”
“Huh? ... Then why-“
“He threatened to kill my family.”
“HA! That’s a good one.”
“You don’t think he has the guts to do that?”
“No. He has the guts. But he wouldn’t. He’s a self-appointed super-hero. They don’t usually kill the innocent family… Me however…”
“Alright, alright. Wait… what am I supposed to do now?”
“Get a cab.” Lizzy chuckled back. Torscus gave a small sigh, then began trudging through towards the main road.
Lizzy, Tess, and Zen left for the day (all of them wondering why they left the other agents in the HQ alone, cell or not), and looked forward to various things. Tess looked forward to everything basically, being the innocent easily amused person that she is. Zen looked forward to seeing Sung again, as she was the latest girl he would soon try to woo, and most likely not. Lizzy however looked forward to retribution. Being able to say to all of the students “SEE!!?? I’M NOT LIKE THAT!!!!”
The next day as Lizzy entered the school…
“Uh Lizzy?” Siera waved as she approached her feline friend.
“Hey Siera. What’s up?” Lizzy greeted.
“Zen is making a fool out of himself… again.”
“Sung Le?”
“Sung Le-… how do you know her?”
“Short story that I don’t want to explain. Fortunately I can fix the fool problem.” The two of them walked over to Sung and Zen, who were currently in an awkward pause.
“Hey Sung. Hey Zen.” They both greeted
“Hey Lizzy.” Zen greeted.
“Hello Lizzy. Do you need something?” Sung asked.
“Just checking to see if you’re ready for the ‘you know what’ thing.” Lizzy hinted.
“Oh. Yes. One moment Zen. There’s something Lizzy and I must speak about.” Sung informed to the poor boy as she and Lizzy walked out of ear-shot.
“So you know where Ira is?” Lizzy asked.
“No, but she will probably be here.”
“And has anyone been talking about the meeting?”
“I didn’t hear anything.”
“Good. If no one’s talking about it that probably means that Terry doesn’t know.”
“Are you sure that it is a good idea to try and catch them without the Principal’s approval?”
“Not usually, but the Principal doesn’t trust me, as you know. I doubt that she’d even come if we told her at this point.”
“Alright… but I’m still a bit uneasy about this. What if something goes wrong?”
“How would it go wrong?”
“Well what if one of us told someone by accident, or was really just helping the teenagers who were doing it?”
“Like me?” Lizzy said in a slightly angered tone.
“What? No! No, no, no.”
“Then why would you-… did you tell someone?”
“… No.”
“You told someone, didn’t you?!”
“I swear that I did NOT! It was just a suggestion!”
“… *sigh* Alright. We should probably get going before we miss something now.”
The two girls walked off in different directions, and were meant to meet later at lunch just before the time that they assumed that the prank was going to be pulled, but something else happened.
“Lizzy!” Ira waved as she rushed over to the lunch-eating feline.
“There you are! Where have you been?” Lizzy asked in an annoyed tone.
“That’s kinda what I have to tell you. I sort of ticked off a teacher, so I’m in detention in like… three minutes. They said I could tell you really quick about something important, but I’ve gotta get back soon.”
“… Wonderful. Well at least Sung’s still with me.”
“That’s another thing. I think, and I’m not sure about this, but I think that I saw her talking about the plan to some kid.”
“What?! Are you sure?”
“No. Like I said, I’m not sure about this… kind of already said that. Anyway, I really don’t know much of what she said, but she kind of acted shifty…ish.”
“Well what did she say?”
“I mainly stuck to the body language, but I heard her say something about… pepper… probably not it, though I could have gotten the word wrong. I was across the room.”
“… Nope… you were right…”
“So…what now?”
“Well I’m going to tell her that she’s been caught and-“
“Hold it! You’re just going to tell her? If you tell her then she’ll know she’s found out, and be telling all of her little bomb-friends before you even get to the Principal’s office!”
“Then what do I do!?”
“I don’t know! … Well… I guess-… well…”
“Say it already.”
“Well you could tell her something like ‘Apparently we got the wrong location. We have no idea where it’s going to be, so we’re going to have to wait until next time.’ That way, she trusts you, and you can follow her until she leads you to the Real prank-zone.”
“Why don’t yo-… oh right. Detention.”
“Huh? Oh right. And I should probably get to that now. Three minutes are almost up. Good luck!” Ira ran through the crowds and into the greens… which wasn’t the right direction.
“IRA! WRONG WAY!!!” Lizzy called out, but she didn’t hear her. “Ugh! Newbies…”
Lizzy told the little fib to Sung, who seemed to believe it, but was a bit disappointed as she went on her way. Directly after that, Lizzy ghosted her face slowly into the class-room from outside, as not to be seen in action by other students, but saw nothing.
Assuming that they had yet to arrive, Lizzy waited behind the front-stand. She waited for quite a while. Almost ten minutes. Everyone would be going back to class soon. Why hadn’t they struck yet?
Suddenly a giant explosion sounded from across the school, which shook the entire room. Without hesitation, Lizzy charged out of the class-room at her incredible speed, ghosted across in a straight line, and found herself standing (once she slowed down enough) in front of what used to be the gaming-room.
Six students, including the druggies from the other day, were trapped behind a caved-in roof, and two gaming-stations. “HELP!” They called out.
Lizzy quickly tried to pull the station away, so that she could start digging through, but was shocked in the process, and dare not allow herself to let her powers to be shown. A couple of other students jumped in as well and began to pull at the non-blocked wreckage.
Lizzy was about to try and cautiously absorb the electricity so that she could move the station away, but before she could, a familiar voice yelled “MOVE!”. Lizzy watched as Sung charged in, shoved the station away, then started to move the planks.
“Whoa…” Lizzy gaped.
“Lizzy! Help me!” Sung urged. They both strained to lift away at the concrete and wood until there was a hole big enough… for Lizzy’s front to fall through and get stuck in.
As she and Sung attempted to free her, a large piece of concrete started to fall right at the druggies, who couldn’t move anywhere to avoid it. Without hesitation, Lizzy thrusted her hand at the chunk, and ghosted it until it landed on the ground, without the students noticing.
The security was here now, as were plenty of adults, who instantly began to move the top pieces first, as not to have it all collapse on the druggies. Little did any of them noticed however, that a loose electrical wire got caught in the wood and had been sparking the entire time. It was now in flames, and about to consume a teacher.
Before Lizzy could notice, Sung shoved the teacher to the side, then fan-kicked the entire amount of flaming wreckage to the side, and out of the wire’s reach. Strangely enough however, her foot did not look harmed at all by the impact.
The druggies were saved after a while, and the wreckage was being taken care of.
In the Principal’s office…
“W-we weren’t’ trying to make a real bomb! Honest!” A druggy defended. “We just didn’t get the pepper we needed. She was the one who came up with the plan!” The boy pointed to Sung.
“What? I didn’t- I don’t even know you! I was helping Lizzy try to help catch you before you did that!” Sung said in her defense.
“Sung, Ira told me about you telling someone about the pepper.” Lizzy said.
“Ira told you abou-… That pepper was for…” Sung ran out of the Principal’s office with a face full of tears.
“As for you, Lizzy.” The Principal noticed, ignoring Sung. “It would appear that I was wrong about your intentions, and you have my apologies. You did a very good job in helping those students get free.
“But… so did Sung…” Lizzy reminded.
“She did help, but she was also part of the problem. That explosion almost killed many people. That does not go without punishment… but she did come to the rescue. She will not be punished as much as the rest. But I’ll be sure to tell your… guardian that you will be receiving extra-credits.”.”
Lizzy left the Principal’s office feeling less than good. The look on Sung’s face did not look like the expression of guilt, but one Lizzy had had. The expression of when stereotyped and betrayed. But she had to have been in league with them. The pepper was a special part of the plan. And Ira said that she had seen her talk about it.
As she walked the halls to leave for home, with the school closed for the day, she noticed an older Lynx, that looked like he might have been Sung’s grandfather. He was carrying a large cardboard box, and seemed to be looking for Sung.
“Excuse me Sir.” Lizzy greeted. “Are you Mr. Le?”
“Yes. … Are you the Lizzy girl that Sung is always speaking of? And the lynx girl… Iras?” The man guessed.
“Ira.” Ira greeted out of the blue, as she walked up to them. “Nice to meet you. Anything special in the box?”
“Why actually yes.” Mr. Le opened the box and pulled out two redish-looking cinnamon cookies, and handed them to Lizzy and Ira, who instantly began to nibble at them.
“My granddaughter told me yesterday that she was so excited about meeting you and your friends, and she was so excited that she had met such nice and funny people, so we ended up spending all night making these special pepper and cinnamon cookies. She wanted to give you this note”
Both Lizzy and Ira gave a large “GULP” sound when they heard that. Lizzy’s hand trembled as she took the note, though she could not bring herself to read it at that point. “W-well… please tell her that… she is… a much more amazing person.” She stammered.
“Once I find her I will.” The elderly man said, as he tipped his base-ball cap, and started off again.
“… Great, now I’m eating guilt.” Ira groaned. “Well I heard that you and her saved the day, so they probably don’t think that you’re druggies now.”
Ira walked off, while Lizzy just stood there frozen… holding the cookie, and the note. Slowly she opened it.
“Dear Lizzy,”
“I would like to say thank you for being my first public-school friend. I know we have not spent very much time doing any girl things, but I am just glad to have met an amazing person like you, and such a ‘fascinating’ person as Ira, lol. Whatever the other people think, you would never be a drug-person, or bad-student to me.”
“Sincerely,
Sung”
Lizzy fell to the ground. What had she done? Not only was she wrong about blaming Sung, but she had done all of what she had wanted to not happen to her.
The black-furred cat sat next to a wall too shocked and ashamed to even cry, though her eyes did water-up quite a bit. She glanced over just a bit, and saw what she hoped she hadn’t. Ira Black was giving a high-five to one of the druggies, as she and they all walked off through the school.
It was all Ira. She was the one who told the other to move somewhere else for the prank. She was the one who told Lizzy to get rid of Sung. She wanted her out of the way so that they could get away with the prank… which they did.
Lizzy was so full of rage that the dark-smoke started to emerge from her hands as she clenched them.
Little did Lizzy know, that not only was this going to be a rivalry more deadly than anything she had seen yet, but that it wasn’t even the beginning.
