I'm finally going to show up! Nix is finally going to show up!! Remember what happened on the last episode? Yessenia was right after all! Jaime did turn out to be a bad guy. But now the question is: why? Matt, Yessenia, Venus, and Alex seem to have gained something out of the Pendulum of Time. Could it be their powers or something? Anyway, lots of new characters are starting to show up now. I hope the main group can make it through even more danger on what's to come! We'll see about that.
“Oh… Mm…” Matt was groaning after a long and pleasant sleep. Well, from what happened last time, Matt did not start out with a pleasant rest. His fingers twitched first and there was a young girl staring right at him. Matt opened his eyes slowly and he could see the girl watching. In surprise, Matt yelped which triggered the girl’s scream as well. Simultaneously, they screamed for about four seconds. Matt stood up and said to her, “Hey, you’re Amy, right?”
“Y-Yes.” She said shyly. “Amy Chieng. Do you remember?”
“Of course I do! You’re Jeanette’s friend. Wait, what are you doing here?!”
Amy frowned. She felt like she did not belong ‘here’ anymore. She said in a sad tone, “B-But… I go here for school.”
Matt looked around and then his eyes slowly opened wider. After examining the blacktop, he said to her, “Amy… where are we?”
“Huh? We’re in El Monte. You don’t know?”
Matt suddenly became excited. “No way, no way!” Matt began jumping in happiness. “I’m back, I’m back, I’m back!!” He shook her shoulders vigorously, “I’m freakin’ back!!” In enjoyment, he ran off without saying bye.
Amy became dizzy from the shaking. “Uhhhhh~…” She shook her head to regain sanity. “What was he talking about? Hm…”
The high school of El Monte was much more advanced compared to last year. The whole construction area was complete at last! The large empty lot became a large circular library with more book space, faster computers, and three large television sets. The old library, near the cafeteria, became a learning center. Those who came from foreign countries usually lurk around there.
Matt ran around the campus, especially across the new area. He yelled out loud, “I am finally back!!” He closed his eyes while yelling. He felt proud to be home, away from the creepy world of Elsiya. All of the sudden, someone punched his face and he fell to the floor.
A girl with short-shorts appeared in front of him. She placed her hands on her hips. “Hmph! Matt, why are you making such a ruckus? You should get slapped for that.”
Matt felt his cheeks, “As if punching me wasn’t enough?” He stood up and he hugged her, “You’re back!! Gahahaha!”
“Barbaric!” Shirley cried. “Get off of me! You act like you haven’t seen me in years or something. Just yesterday, you yelled at me saying that I should wear pants on rainy days. And now, you’re-…”
“Yesterday?” Matt interrupted her. “It felt like forever to me.” He started whispering, “I was in another world for the longest time.”
“What? D-Don’t play games with me, Matt. We don’t have powers anymore.”
“I know, we don’t. But I was still in another world without powers. It was weird.”
Shirley looked away, thinking about it carefully. “Well, I don’t know if I should believe you but after all that we went through last year, it is possible. But why…? I thought we got rid of our ability to go into another world anyway?”
Matt checked his pockets and he found his cellphone. “Whoa! I have my cellphone again?!”
“You mean you lost it before?!” Shirley yelled at him. “Don’t be like me when I lost it before we went into Echoville! Sheesh, you should take care of it more from now on. I don’t know who else can appear and find it like Stanley did.”
Matt turned away in shame. “Yes ma’am…”
“Anyway, tell me the whole story. I must know the gossip.”
“It’s not gossip… It’s the truth.”
“Tell me then!” She commanded.
And so, Matt explained his whole story about what happened in Elsiya. This surprised Shirley especially about the part where Jaime looked as if he was using shadow powers. Clearly, he and all the other students had lost their powers over a month ago. Well, class was starting and Shirley had to leave. Matt lost track of time but he realized he had class with her for Biology. They decided to walk together.
Matt was about to barge on in and yell out in excitement but Yessenia could see his eagerness from down the hall. She ran up to him and then she covered his mouth. “Do not even try it!”
Shirley walked into the classroom first. “Weirdo.” She said to Matt.
Matt tried to speak even if his mouth was covered. He wanted to push her away but he did not want to cause a scene right outside of a classroom. He calmed down until he was allowed to say something. “Geez, I’m just so happy that we’re back to this boring life. I couldn’t handle Elsiya at all.”
“You have to be careful. You do not know what just happened to all of us in the end.”
“Something happened?”
“Think fast.” Yessenia quickly opened her palms and a large wind appeared in front of Matt. Matt quickly summoned fire from his hand by accident in order to protect himself from the wind. The fire abruptly disappeared right after.
Matt’s heart skipped a beat. This did not just happen… he thought. “No… no way…” He shook his head in denial. There was no damn way he could have fire powers again. He was almost sure that it was gone for good. “Why is it back?!”
“We need to worry about it later. We have Biology class right now. The good thing about our powers is that our strength picked off from the last time we had it. It is controllable.”
Matt remembered the first time he ever had fire powers the previous year. “Eheh… at least it is controllable.” He repeated her.
They entered Biology class together and everything seemed normal. Well, Alex was holding tightly onto his backpack as if people were trying to steal things from him. Venus was in the back corner, fixing her hair. Jaime was still missing, however. Their Biology teacher announced, “People! Okay, it is one week into the school year and now we have a TA. So, if you ever have any questions whenever I’m not around, you can ask Michael.” She pointed at him.
“Hi.” He only said.
“Gee, it’s like I’ve heard his voice before.” Matt whispered to Yessenia as they were sitting in the back corner near Venus.
“Hm…” She focused. “I will just have to let this one slide. Maybe I am thinking too much.”
“What do you mean?”
“Um, never mind. Forget about it.” Yessenia shrugged.
Matt rummaged into his backpack for a piece of paper so that he could get started on the notes for class. When he unzipped the largest zipper, he saw a brownish fuzzball bird with huge eyes appear with a smile. It squeaked, “Yay!”
“AH!” Matt said shortly. He closed his backpack and then he quickly zipped it up. “Uh- um, um, yay~ I love taking notes.” He whispered to Yessenia again, “I have so many damn questions right now; it’s not even funny.” His face fell flat onto the table in utter confusion. Yessenia only chucked from his torment.
Later as Matt and his friends’ Biology class ended, Matt rushed out into a private field area next to the math building. He checked if there was anybody nearby and then he unzipped his backpack to check what he saw inside during class. Out came the same brownish little fluffball. It flew but not so high. It flapped its wings as fast as it could but it fell flat onto the ground. “Oof!” It squeaked again.
Matt’s eyes were shining in amazement. “Oh… my… geezuhs! It’s a chicken!!”
The bird squealed, “I’m a bird! A bird! Ah… ah…!” It stopped. Matt waited and then the fluffball sneezed. After it sneezed, a bunch of feathers flew off of it. “Ooh no! I hope I don’t have a fever! That would be terrible!”
Matt poked it. “Nyeh heh!”
“Noooooo my feathers!” It twitched a bunch of times. “Please don’t poke my fluffs! I tried so hard to grow them.”
“Where did you come from anyway?”
“Ooh giant man. I’m a bird, a big bird!”
“You sure are a big bird.” Matt joked about its roundness.
“Thank you, Mr. Giant Man! I don’t know where I came from.”
Matt had to think twice about finding the little bird amusing because now it seemed a bit annoying to him. “Why are you answering my questions after one late response?” He grabbed the furball and he shook it vigorously, “Come on bird!”
Matt let it go in the air, forgetting that it was a terrible flyer. The bird fell with a plop! noise. “Ouchies! Mr. Giant Man is very, very mean.”
“Er… anyway, what’s your name?”
“Nix… Nix… I forgot.”
“What?! How can you forget your name?!”
“My mommy and daddy told me but I just remember ‘Nix’ being in there. Oh well. I don’t need a name!”
Matt held onto the fluffy bird. “Your name will be ‘Nix’ then! Where did you come from?”
“Didn’t you ask that already?”
“Yeah, but you didn’t answer it…”
“Oh really? Mmm, I don’t remember!”
Matt clenched his teeth. “Ergh, what do you remember?!”
“Probably not a lot- Uh oh!”
“What is it?” Matt asked. The bird began acting strange. It was vibrating and its eyes closed as if it was constipated. “H-Hey, are you okay?” The bird began to scream. “Ahhh! The flames are coming!!”
“F-Flames?!” Matt had a feeling that the bird was going to blow fire. Matt kneeled down and he covered himself, “Duck and cover!!!!” He panicked. A ball of heat and flame appeared out of the bird’s mouth. The flame flew rapidly and it looked a bit scary. A bit scary, actually, not much. The flame was only an inch wide. Matt was still covering his head but he could not feel the heat at all. “…Huh?” He opened one of his eyes and the flame was gone already. “What just happened?”
“I learned how to blow fire! Look!” Nix said to him. It blew an inch of fire again. “See!”
Matt sighed. “Oh man… you’re not deadly at all.”
“I’m kind of tired. Can you send me away?”
“What do you mean? You want me to kill you?”
“Kill me?! Mr. Giant Man, why? That’s not good!”
“It’s Matt, not Giant Man!”
“Okay, Mr. Giant Man!”
“Er…” Matt focused on his palms, “Maybe I can send you away. Maybe you’re a spirit that belongs a part of my fire ability, just like the pigeon who gave me the fireball ability…” Matt successfully made the bird vanish away. “I wonder if I can summon you any time now, hehe.” He suddenly frowned with a nostalgic feeling. “You sort of remind me of that fire baby chick that sacrificed itself to save me back in the Forest of Emille… only you’re fatter and you can talk.”
Matt was walking to the bus stop by going through the front gate. He thought to himself, “Hm… just like old days when I used to always walk through this path… It’s kind of different now. The campus looks almost completely different and new.” It then occurred to him. There was one person still missing from his sight throughout the day. “I wonder where Jaime is?” He accidentally said to himself out loud. He could hear a footstep stop from behind.
He turned around in alert and he saw Venus behind him. She had a serious, nervous look. Venus’s fists were shaking. “Matt…?”
“Oh, it’s you, the girl who usually hangs out with Santi.” He tried to not think about what happened to Santi as it would always hurt him to know that he lost a friend.
“Santi is gone, isn’t he?” Venus asked. Matt did not say a word. “You knew all along but the rumors were said that he just went on the longest vacation. I thought that excuse was a bit childish and odd. Tell me, what happened to him?”
“N-Nothing… He really is on vacation.”
“You’re a bad liar, Matt! Tell me!”
“Why should you care?”
“Because I put all the pieces together. You’ve always had fire powers and he always had time powers. He died, didn’t he? He sacrificed himself to protect all of you. I know that.”
Matt shook his head, “No, that’s-…”
A strike of thunder appeared in front of Matt. Matt fell to the ground in surprise. Venus yelled at him, “You’re lying again!!”
“V-VENUS?! Did you just…!”
“Thunder power. It’s an amazing aspect that I have, don’t you think?
Matt crawled away from her. “You got that from the machine that the lieutenant switched, didn’t you?”
“The machine? Well sure I did but that doesn’t matter. What matters now is that I know what’s going on here. You’re still wondering where Jaime is, right? I overheard you.”
Matt looked away. Despite what Jaime just did before Matt arrived back in El Monte, Matt still believed that Jaime is a good person. “I guess… Maybe something happened to him. Maybe he was mistaken of something. I just want answers.”
“Then I’ll go with you! Let’s go back to Elsiya together and find Jaime!”
Matt stood up and then he objected to her idea. “We can find him some other way! Going back there could be risky!”
“If you don’t want to help me, then I’ll go myself!” She took out her cellphone and began pressing a button. Matt grabbed onto her arms and Venus shook him off. “Let go. Leave this problem to me!”
“Wait, don’t do it!” Matt pleaded. Venus vanished and Matt sighed, “No…”
~~~
-NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW-
Matt: You actually have friends?! After how evil you are?!?!Alice: *slap* Shut your mouth! I love her. She's my best friend and if you're going to laugh about it, then you should shatter into pieces, Matty-boy!~
Matt: T-T-That nickname always gets me shivering.
Venus: Jaime! There you are! What are you doing? Snap out of it!
Yessenia: He's not the only person doing something mysterious.
Matt: I've seen him once last year...!
Nix: Did you all forget that I'm here?
Venus: Please, Jaime, stop what you are doing! We don't need powers to be happy!
Matt: We have to stop them before they kill that girl too! Next time on episode 132, An Encounter with Fear, the Best Friend is Miki!
Alice: MIKI!!!!
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