Episode 34 – Digicells from the Absence
The day was calm and softly windy. The autumn leaves were pouring down onto the school grounds. Posters were showing up for homecoming and Matt could see all the upperclassmen merging into little bits of groups in front of the posters posted on the walls. “What is homecoming?” Matt wondered. “I never heard of it before except on movies but I never understood them.”
Out of nowhere, ShirleyC appeared beside Matt, “WHAT?! You don’t know?” Matt turned around in shock. “Well, I’ll tell you. It’s one of the lovey-dovey dances that the guys go with the girls. Guys like you have to ask the girls, but I’m sure you don’t have guts, right?”
“Oh, I’ll ask someone! R-Right now, watch!”
Matt was looking for a random girl and Shirley grabbed onto Matt’s collar, “Nuh-uh-uh. Don’t even think about trying this year. You are only a freshman. I meant guys and girls as in mostly the Juniors and Seniors. You got a long way to go, idiot.”
Matt scratched his head in confusion, “Can I at least go to one and see what it’s like without having to join it?”
ShirleyC sighed, “That made no sense whatsoever. You have to buy the tickets and become a homecoming attendee. You can’t just go in the event and claim you’re not a part of it. Unless you volunteer, you can’t.”
Matt frowned, “Volunteer? That’s gross. I wouldn’t do that!”
“What, you would rather stay home and play video games?”
“I-I don’t play video games. I draw… but I’m not good at it.”
“Then go out and have an adventure. Dances are one thing but since you’re young, you can attend little school events that you never seem to show up in.” Shirley poked Matt’s forehead.
Matt blinked a few times more constantly than usual to express his confusion. “But… I want to see a homecoming dance in person so that I have experience for the real deal.”
“Well, then you gotta hope you can volunteer for it. It’s the only way.”
Shirley was walking away with a goodbye-wave and Matt pouted. “Awr… I’ll show you it’s possible without volunteering… If I knew how!”
~~~
During lunch, Matt finished going to the restroom. He remembered that his fourth period “Tech. Core” class offered first-come-first-serve modules to work on. Modules, in this class, are the core basis of the class’s grading system. Different modules teach different professions of common jobs in the world and each student partakes in separate jobs to see how easy or difficult it is. Matt ran as fast as he could to get to the modules but on the way, he saw Santi, bended over on one of the small blue round lunch tables. Nobody else was around since no one would commonly appear in this area during lunch period. “Hey, are you okay?” Matt asked.
Santi tried to stand up, “Y-Yes, I am fine.”
“You don’t look fine. What is it?” Matt was concerned based on Santi’s worried expression.
“Olympia… is under attack!”
Matt was in utter shock from this news. He responded with fear, “Olympia? But why?!”
“I am not sure about that. This cause is beyond me. Did you happen to go to Olympia recently?”
Matt looked away in shame, “Yeah sure, blame me as soon as we find out about this.”
“Well, am I wrong?”
“…No. Hey don’t put me on the spot. We’ll go to Olympia right now.”
~~~
In Olympia, Matt and Santi noticed that some buildings were on fire. From afar, Matt could see a bunch of colorful streaks beaming through the air. Matt pointed at the sky so that Santi would notice as well. “Look! What are those?”
Santi could see a green flash pass through before him, “Chronos, the God of Time… And there’s also Orithyia, the Goddess of Wind. They are fighting against those monsters!”
Matt corrected him, “They’re called Digicells, or that’s what Erica calls them.”
“Monsters are monsters. If Gods are at least slightly struggling, then we have no chance. Let’s go back up into the tower and see what’s going on. The red stone shouldn’t have been stolen again…”
At the tower, Erica, as Eidothea, was on the floor, coughing. She said to them, “It’s… the tower. Help…!”
Santi pointed his palms towards the top of the sky. He could not see the tower as the clouds were covering up past floor 80 or so. Time stopped the spawning point of where the red stone once sat. A thundershock zapped Santi’s hands, dispelling the time-stopping.
A demonic echo filled the tower. “What brings you meddlesome children to MY tower?!”
Matt tried to open the door but the door shocked him enough to make Matt fall on his back. Santi said to the door, “Who’s inside?!”
Does my voice not ring a chiming bell? It is Hades, kiddies!” The door broke open and it flew towards Matt and Santi. The door suddenly turned into ice as it fell straight down onto the ground.
ShirleyC appeared behind the tower, “Please, you guys have to hurry and run! There are monsters everywhere and I don’t think we can handle it.”
“What are you doing here?” Matt asked with confusion.
“Never mind that. Come on!”
Santi carried Eidothea and the group of three ran away from the tower. Shirley brought them inside a little storage room, “We are safe here for now. Listen guys, something is going very wrong in Olympia. Eurynome, Goddess of Ice said that Eidothea had left her chamber for quite awhile. I didn’t get what she meant until I realized ‘chamber’ was ‘Olympia’! Erica must have gone to the real world for some time and that had caused the Olympian world to become dangerous.”
Santi was standing by the window, making sure no Digicells approach them. Matt questioned Shirley, “What does Erica’s appearance in Olympia have to do with the dangers in Olympia?”
Shirley turned her head to Erica, who was resting. “Erica… was chosen by Eidothea to combine hearts. It is like a sacrificial thing. If you still don’t understand, I’ll dumb it down for you.” Shirley rolled her eyes.
Matt was serious. “Ehe… can you…?”
Shirley was silent for a moment until she decided to explain, “Geez, you don’t get anything. Erica is Olympia’s safety. She’s everything save that Olympia has. Before Eidothea, there were already other chosen sacred Nymphs to take over and to protect us. I happen to cross this monster takeover when I visited Olympia. I was getting worried about when it is my turn to protect Eidothea. I was successful when she was going to get attacked by a giant machine from above the stage. I froze the rope before it ripped apart. Once I left Olympia for only a little while, I came back, finding out that Olympia was under attack. The ropes were a foreshadow that monsters were coming and they came because before Erica was on stage, she was in the real world for a long time.”
Matt turned away in shame, “It’s… all my fault.”
“What are you talking about?” Shirley said in wonder.
“I promised Jen that Erica would come and see her again at least once more. I told Erica, but she got mad. She decided to quickly visit Jen one last time as Eidothea which would still keep my promise, but it would endanger Olympia.”
Shirley slapped Matt on the face. Matt suddenly stopped talking. Santi pretended he was not focusing on their conversation. Olympia was slowly falling apart and all the group of three could do was sit around and suffer watching the very strong Digicells destroy the city. Shirley screamed at Matt, “Are you stupid?! Did you ever realize that promises are meant to be PROMISES?” She pointed at him, “What kind of a guy are you if you throw promises around without ever thinking about it? Especially promising a girl is even worse!”
Matt did not want to say anything but he did so anyway. “I-I know that! You don’t need to tell me, I already figured that out from Erica. I just… didn’t want to make Jen sad.”
“You should have told her the truth. You should have told her that Erica was not coming back. It would have been better!”
“What if she began questioning where Erica went?! Do I tell her the truth THEN?”
Shirley became silent. She stood up, “Tch. All of this Olympia-takeover happened to be your fault after all.” She walked out of the storage room and she slammed the door.
Matt gave a huge sigh. Santi began walking out of the door, “She has a point.” Matt wanted to cry, just like that strong feeling when Jen no longer had the same lunch period. Santi did not dare to look back, but he knew that Matt wanted to burst out in sadness, “Just understand that she’s only angry. It’s not because of you. It’s because of your words. She’ll get over it.” He made a short chuckle, “Hm. I’ll go see what I can do to protect Olympia for at least the bare minimum. Since you came here through my cellphone, you can stay and protect Erica. I hope that is okay with you.” He began to walk out of the building.
Matt sat beside a stack of hay, “Ugh. I hate myself sometimes…”
~~~
Shirley was blasting ice towards monsters. She once found it simple, fighting monsters one by one. However, as a few minutes had gone through, she could not handle the multiple amount of monsters approaching her. She could not fight them all at once. At some points in her fight, she was being attacked. Monsters would headbutt her almost anywhere.
From nearby, Santi tried to stop time. There were already some monsters appearing from behind which he could not focus on as there were already other monsters in front of him. They began to attack Santi as well. Both Santi and Shirley seemed to have no chance against the monsters. They were slowly inching away towards vanishing back into the real world.
Matt was still in the storage room, listening to the battlefield which Olympia had become. He stood up, “I can’t just stay here and wait for everything to be okay.” He turned over to Erica, who was still resting. He held her and placed her behind a few stack of hay, “No person or monster could find her here… I’m sorry, I will be back as soon as possible.” He ran out of the storage room and he went to the road straight from him. He said to himself while running, “I’ve got to do something! I don’t need my fire powers. I can fight… without it!”
Eventually, Matt could see Shirley and Santi fighting against the Digicells. They were not looking so well. Matt jumped over a monster and he brutally kicked it down onto the floor. Shirley and Santi were getting closer to each other so that they can team up but right when they were next to each other, more monsters were flying towards them. Matt yelled, “Get away from them!” Matt grabbed onto the giant bug’s leg and he threw it onto the ground. Santi was kneeling down. He was starting to vanish as he took much more pain than did Shirley. Matt turned around, “What…?”
Santi was coughing, “I’m… sorry, guys. I cannot fight anymore.” He vanished but the cellphone was still in the Olympian world.
Matt took the cellphone and placed it in his pocket, “Alright!” Matt raised his palms to summon flame through his fists. He began attacking all of the giant bugs closest to him and Shirley. He took out his firestone and stood in front of Shirley, “Don’t get any closer!” The monsters began running away. Matt was about to chase them, but he knew they were not going to come back for another fight again. He looked up into the sky to see that the monsters were finally clearing up. “Even the Gods are doing well…”
Matt turned around and Shirley was sitting down, barely being safe from vanishing back into the real world. She said slowly, “Matt… why would you even help me?”
Matt offered a hand to her so she could get up, “I have to understand that what I promised Jen was wrong and you had the right to hate me. That doesn’t mean we can’t be friends, right?”
Shirley slapped Matt’s hand away. She stood up on her own and she looked away, “Psch. You’re…”
Matt sighed in disappointment. “I see…” He was walking towards the storage room.
“Thanks, Matt.” She turned around, “I owe you one.” She began walking passed him. Matt stood there, confused about how she felt. Shirley turned around and waved at him, “Come on! The monsters aren’t going to clear themselves up, right?” Matt began to smile and he nodded, following her.
~~~
Back at the storage room, Erica waited. She was finally awake. Matt and Shirley barged back in and they were worried if she was okay or not. Erica said to them, “Thank you, the both of you. There are still monsters out there but I’m sure that the Gods are going to clear them up.”
Shirley giggled, “That’s great!”
Matt jumped in happiness, “And I thought it was over for Olympia. Now we have three more stages to go through.”
Shirley agreed, “Yeah. What’s going to happen next…?”
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: On the next chapter, Hades returns for a visit! But what is his reason for constantly returning to Olympia?
Yessenia: You'll have to start thinking about it, Matt. I think I am getting the idea. Everyone has their own reasons for their actions.
Matt: Yeah but still, he's hurting others just to gain what he wants!
Yessenia: If you were in his shoes, I guess you would change your mind. However, we'll see what his goals are.
Matt: I guess you're right. Next chapter, Hades with an Ambition - Part 1!
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