The final world has finally opened up. The world of Edmund is gray and gloomy as ever. Memory losses have become an issue, but death is a more important factor to take note of. Each power wielder now has to face the truth as to why they are who they are. Are some born different? Many people would want to show their worth to the world while one may claim that saving the world is the most important ordeal to go through. Many students will show their impact and reason through existence, past, and of course, Rena’s storytelling. Of course, she has lots to tell but there is little time left. What will the group decide to do next in the world of Edmund…?
Episode 96 - Stolen Signs and Winny's Words of 2608
It was days later after the basketball game. May was coming closer to an end. In order for the students to enjoy their last few weeks of the school year, Matt and a few friends decided to take a long walk down an area nearby called ‘San Gabriel’. Shirley, Yessenia, Jaime, Alex and Venus were on their way for a restaurant.
“How much longer do we have to walk?” Alex complained.
The complaining slightly bothered Matt but it was no big deal. They walked for almost a mile already anyway. Matt did not mind the long walk especially since he was not able to do this in his past. He had never left California, after all. Jaime yawned, “Where are we eating again?”
“Always thinking about the food, huh Jaime.” Shirley teased, “It is Noodle World. Actually, there’s usually a lot of people there right?”
“Sometimes when I go there with my family, there would be a lot of people so we would have to wait almost a half hour just to get our tables. Then we have to wait even longer for our food.” Yessenia mentioned.
Venus was busy fixing her hair. “Eh, how about somewhere else.”
“Got any suggestions?” Yessenia responded.
“What suggestions?” Venus did not take her eyes off of the mirror-like windows of a building.
The group shook their heads in shame. “Well, we don’t know where to eat. I’m tired of walking!” Alex exclaimed.
“Calm down, stupid! After all of the walking, it will pay off.” Shirley yelled at him.
The six of the students had arrived at a gas station. Alex pointed at the gas prices, “Look how much it is right now. 4.50 dollars for gas?!”
“Having a car is still worth it. We’ve been walking for an hour.” Jaime said.
“Imagine if the gas price was…” Venus began walking over to the signs and she took out the “4” from the panel, “50 cents?!”
“Wait what are you doing?!” Shirley was surprised.
Venus shook her head, “Oh shoot, I wasn’t thinking.” She ran off and the group followed her.
“You stole a gas sign, of all things?” Yessenia said with annoyance. “You should put that back.”
Venus threw the sign in the bushes nearby, “D-Don’t worry. We’ll be fine.”
~~~
After about another 20 minutes of walking, the group of six had finally arrived at a restaurant. “How about this weird place. ABC Café?” Jaime suggested.
“Sure. Have you ever tried it though?” Shirley took a look at the chicken and beef. “It does look a bit yummy.”
The group walked in and Venus was still behind. Alex headed for the restrooms to freshen up from all of the walking. Matt turned around, “Hey Venus, are you okay?”
Venus took a step back, “I’m not feeling very well.”
“You’re guilty, aren’t you?” Yessenia teased.
“Yes! I am. I should go back and return it.”
“We’re pretty far already though.” Shirley stomped her foot in exhaust, “I’m not going back there.”
“Then I’ll go back there on my own.” Venus decided. “I’ll be back. Go inside and eat first.”
“Um, alright then. We could wait if you want.” Matt said but Venus suddenly ran off to return the gas sign back at the gas station.
~~~
Meanwhile, in Edmund, Mariel appeared in front of the school within the shack. “Phew! I’m back, safe and sound.” She took a look into the sky, “It’s still sprinkling. This world is crazy.” She entered the school to find more information on how to fix the cold world. “Every last bit of these buildings still look just like El Monte in 2008. What is the big idea?” She cold see somebody familiar from afar. There was a girl standing around the trailer area while Mariel was on the narrow road which attached one side of the school to the other. Mariel tried to look closely, “Is that Winny?”
Mariel ran towards Winny as quickly as possible. Winny turned around. “Huh?”
“Winny! What are you doing here by yourself?” The sight of Winny alone concerned her.
“Oh… this place interests me.”
“How come?”
“This is the place where my sister first introduced me to this school. She showed me all of her cool friends, all of posters that we would have to do when we become more involved, and told me which clubs I should join. But, if you look at this place…”
Mariel slowly walked ahead and she noticed that some buildings were broken into complete pieces, “What is this?” She became surprised.
The whole trailer area of the school was broken into bits! “Does this surprise you?” Winny said quietly.
“But why? Why does this area look like it has been destroyed?”
“You don’t have a single clue about where we are. That does not matter. The real issue is about Rena. I can see it in her heart that she is a good person. However, I knew you and Danny took her here. That was dangerous because the Diablo knew her every moves. The fact that he now knows that you and Danny are acquainted with her, the Diablo and Stan will go after you. What you did, bringing her in Edmund like that, was a huge mistake.”
Mariel was shaking. She took a step back in fear, “Mistake? I just want to save this world.”
“From what? From ultimate despair? Edmund’s made up of cold and freezing atmosphere. This world is completely different from our world.”
“I don’t understand!” Mariel yelled. “This is just the future yet all the buildings are the same buildings from 600 years ago. How is it completely different from our world? Can you tell me that?” Mariel clenched her fists.
“There are so many things that you do not understand, Mariel.” Winny crossed her arms. “Let us take a seat. I have a lot to explain to you.”
~~~
The group of four excluding Alex and Venus ordered their food. As the waitor walked away, Matt asked Shirley, “Are you sure it was okay to order food for Alex? Shouldn’t he make his own decisions?”
“No. What for?” Shirley asked innocently. The students watched her in confusion. “Anyways! So about Edmund… When should we venture in there again?”
“You make it sound like visiting is a fieldtrip. Do you know how dangerous the world can be?” Yessenia warned.
Jaime placed his hands behind his head and then he leaned over the table, “I’m out of this situation. Echoville’s problems with the Halflings were annoying enough. It was bad enough to fight against Sirius, the producer of clouds.”
Alex returned from the restroom and Shirley threw a small jar of salt at Jaime’s face, “Okay sh he’s coming!”
Jaime covered his face. “Arwh whrr ded yu dooo thawt!?!”
Shirley pointed at Alex, “We can’t talk about this when he’s around!”
Alex arrived and then he sat down. He looked at everybody in silence, “This is awkward. Why is everyone so quiet?”
“I don’t know. Hey I got you some steak.” Shirley said quickly.
“Isn’t that the most expensive?” Alex gasped.
“You can afford it.” Shirley said bluntly. “You always bring like a hundred dollars with you wherever we go.”
Matt had to stay in silence. He wanted to talk about Edmund as well but of course, the group could not talk about it when Alex is sitting with them.
~~~
In Edmund, Mariel said with a serious tone, “So Edmund is made up of cold atmosphere? Why, when the core is super duper hot?”
“Do you think the core is hot?”
“I know, not think. It has been proven!”
“Not here.”
“Don’t lie to me, Winny! Tell me the truth!” Mariel screamed at her.
“I can’t do that. There is too much for you to learn and you will see it as time passes.” Winny stood up.
“See what?” Mariel wondered. Winny only walked away. Mariel stood up as well. Her heart was racing as she was angry. “This world is completely messed up and now even I can’t help it? The world is made up of cold atmosphere – how the hell can I help now when I have water powers? If only I could heat up my powers, I could help the world!” She knelt down, punching the floor and crying, “I’m useless yet again. I… I…!” She opened her eyes wide after her brain sparked. “That’s it! Water powers, heat, I know exactly what I should do. But how can I make this work?”
~~~
As the group was eating, Matt, Shirley, Yessenia and Jaime were noticing that Alex was eating slower than Jaime. Usually, Jaime would be the last to finish even if he was the type of person who looked as if he would eat the most and quickest. Alex spun his fork slowly around his pasta in silence.
Shirley became frustrated. She clenched her teeth in impatience as she grabbed onto Alex’s hand and she forcefully tried to raise it up to Alex’s mouth, “Eat it you damn dinosaur!” Of course, being called a ‘t-rex’ was Alex’s nickname because of the way he would move his hands around similarly.
Alex only moaned and yelped, “Auugh!!”
“S-Shirley, uh…” Matt tried to calm them down.
“What is wrong with you? Why aren’t you eating faster? We’re almost done.” Shirley said angrily.
“Your plate is full.” Yessenia pointed at Shirley’s plate.
Shirley slid it over to Matt’s side, “No it’s not. My plate doesn’t matter anyway.” Matt glared at her but Shirley shook his anger off her shoulders. “Alex, why are you acting so different all the sudden?”
“It’s about Mariel.”
“Again with Mariel.” Shirley said. “Why are you always talking about her?”
“You asked me to talk about what I was thinking…”
“Come on, you’ve got to stop thinking about her. She’s doing fine.”
“Without me?”
“I-I didn’t mean it like that…”
Matt whispered to Yessenia, “Actually, we’ve been around Mariel more often than Alex lately. Still, we couldn’t find out about how she thinks of Alex. Should we ask her?”
Yessenia shrugged. “She might get angry.”
Jaime was finishing his plate now. Alex explained to the group, “She hasn’t shown up often when I need her and she’s happier around you guys. That’s why lately I’ve been trying to hang out with you all. To make her happy… was my intention.”
“Why do you care about her so much? You’re not getting married to her or anything.” Shirley complained. “You shouldn’t depend on others in order to make you happy either.”
“But still! I want to be her friend even if it does mean that I can’t make her happy anymore. I just want to be around friends who I was with before…” Alex made a point. It wouldn’t matter if friends weren’t happy or angry. As long as two friends could be together, as friends of course, then the memories will be kept forever. “Thinking back to friendship would make me happy, wouldn’t it?” This made Matt extremely guilty. Matt thought about how he unintentionally abandoned Stan and Kalpesh. Although Kalpesh didn’t care, Stan was the complete opposite.
“We’re the same, Alex.” Matt spoke up.
“Huh?” Alex said quietly as the rest of their friends turned over to Matt.
“I used to hang out with Stan and Kalpesh all the time. The truth is, I kind of do miss them but I kind of don’t. All my life, I’ve hung out with friends who loved to talk about games, play games all day, go to movies only when it comes to going out, and other stuff that gamers would do outside of school. They are smart in school too which is why I liked hanging out with them. I wanted adventure more than playing games though, you know?”
“Why did you stay friends with them then?” Yessenia questioned.
Matt responded, “Well, to me, for the past eight years of school with them and others from the same school, I had to choose between gamers who were smart, or adventurous people who were completely dumb brainless people. I chose to hang out with smart people because they would make me smart and prepared for high school. To me, there was no such thing as ‘adventurous people who are super smart’ but until high school came, I found people like you.”
“We’re not smart!” Shirley screamed. The crowd around her watched.
“Smarter than them at least. In high school, there are people far smarter than my Columbian friends. It is a win-win situation with me if I hang out with you guys. Losing you all would hurt me, as much as it already hurt Alex with Mariel.” Matt said to Alex, “What I’m thinking is that Mariel will open up to you someday. Someday soon.”
“You think so?” Alex was worried.
“Yeah.” Matt nodded. He asked the whole group, “Why don’t we have Alex hang around us more often and see what happens when Mariel is around? It won’t hurt to try.”
Shirley agreed, “Of course! Alex always has the money.”
Yessenia followed along with the agreement, “It will not bother me.”
“Sure, whatever.” Jaime said without care.
“Thanks guys!” said Alex. “I won’t be a bother, I hope. So don’t worry!-…”
“Guys, I’m back!!” Venus interrupted while barging into the door.
Matt covered his face, “How embarrassing…”
Shirley took back her plate and she began stuffing down food from her plate. She said after, “Remember, we don’t know her!”
~~~
---- Next chapter preview:Matt: Next time on episode 97, Matt's cellphone signal makes him unavailable!
Mariel: Damn it. That one time when I actually need your help!
Winny: It's pointless to try...
Mariel: N-No it's not!
Matt: Whaaaat the? Why are there two versions of Winny?
Winny: Hi there!!
Shirley: She doesn't look like she's okay...
Santi: I say we should help her. Danny, do not keep your eyes off of her.
Danny: Will do!
Matt: Winny seems to be having a strange malfunction with her split personality powers. Also, Mariel is rebelling against others' actions! Next time on episode 97, Winny's Past in Edmund, Mariel Sees It All!
Mariel: Hehe...
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