Oddball
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Chapter 4. Live and Learn. We cut back to the scene with Odd and Shadows in the Inn. Odd was staring directly at Shadows, he had a look of despair painted onto his face. Shadows just sat there and tried to talk, he couldn't find the courage to tell his friend. Odd spoke out again "Answer the question..." "I...." Shadows started to panic, how could he explain himself? Odd suddenly slammed his fists against the table, attracting the attention of everyone in the room "ANSWER ME!" Tears were now streaming down his face. Odd felt an immense mixture of emotions welling up inside of him and had to get them out somehow "Odd... I..." "Is everything alright?" Shadows looked in the direction of the voice and saw Vera stood there, a concerned look on her face. Odd glared at her as to say "Go away." Vera gulped and continued "If you're going to have another outburst like that... I'll have to ask you to leave" Oddball stood up and without saying a word, walked out of the Inn. Leaving Vera, Ray and the rest of the patrons wondering what had just happened A few hours pass... "And that's what happened" Shadows was sat on the bed in one of the Inn rooms, Vera and Ray were standing on opposite sides of the room. Ray looked at Vera and then back to Shadows. Vera was the one who broke the silence "Sounds rough..." Shadows just nodded and returned to staring at the floor. The three entered a silence again and remained as such for, what felt like, a lifetime. A knock at the door, followed by an all-too familiar voice snapped Shadows out of his trance "Is everything okay in there?" Shadows rushed to the door and opened it... shocked to who he saw stood in front of him "Ohoho, fancy meeting you here" Shadows gritted his teeth and clenched his fist "Rayne.." Rayne stood before Shadows, smiling innocently "We seem to be running into each other a lot these days, don't we?" "Miss Rayne... you know Shadows?" Shadows looked back at Vera with a blank expression, his mouth suddenly turning dry. Without warning, Rayne placed her hand on Shadows' shoulder and smiled at Vera "Of course, we go way back" Shadows shrugged Rayne's hand off of his shoulder "Don't touch me." Rayne frowned and placed her hand back at her side and started looking around the room "Say.... I don't see that boy anywhere" Shadows looked at the floor and clenched his fist harder. "You two fight or something?" Shadows looked up and noticed something, he didn't know if he was imagining it or not, but it appeared that Rayne had a slightly concerned look on her face. Shadows decided to play with her a little. "What's it to you?" Rayne flushed a little and looked away from Shadows "Don't get me wrong, I.. I'm not concerned at all" Shadows giggled to himself a little upon seeing his old partner acting like this "I have to admit, you can be cute sometimes" Rayne instantly went bright red and her eyes snapped back to Shadows, who was standing there grinning. Rayne was silent for a brief moment before regaining her composure "Vera!" Vera, who had been watching the two exchange words the whole time, jumped at the sound of her name being barked "Y. Yes ma'am?" "I want to accompany Shadows wherever he may go" Vera looked surprised at Rayne "But... What about-" "I can handle it." The two were staring directly at each other. Ray was balancing a knife on his finger, as he had lost interest in the conversation long ago. Vera nodded "I understand." Rayne span on her heels and walked out of the door, closing it as she did. Shadows let out a sigh of relief and turned to Ray "That I didn't expect." Meanwhile... "Stupid, STUPID me" Odd was pacing back and forth in the forest on the outskirts of town, to people passing by, he must have seemed like a crazy person "What did I do that for? I'm sure Shadows had his reasons for talking to her... I'm such an idiot." Odd dropped to his knees, wiping his eyes with his hands. "And now... I've lost my only friend" Odd curled into a ball and lay there, quietly sobbing to himself. A voice brought Odd's attention elsewhere "You're not alone" Odd sat up almost instantaneously and scanned the area, there was no sign of anyone else. Again the voice called out to him "Let me in..." "Who are you!?" "I am all that you need" Odd started running towards the town. He had to find Shadows and feel safe again "There's no use running" Odd stopped in his tracks and realized the town wasn't getting any closer, in fact, it was moving further and further away. "NO. Let me back" Odd started to breathe heavily, his fragile mind couldn't process what was happening to him. Again, he heard the voice. It was louder than last time; but slower "L E T M E I N " Odd saw something in the corner of his eye and before he could react, the substance entered Odd's body. Memories of a past life started flooding into Odd's mind; Death, destruction, betrayal, all swirling in him like one massive vortex. With a long, halted breath, Odd collapsed. Meanwhile, back in the town... Shadows was frantically looking around for Odd, Vera was not too far behind him. Ray had said he would stay at the Inn and help Rayne with her "Problem" Shadows stopped and thought to himself "I wonder what they're up to." Vera stood beside him and tugged on his sleeve, Shadows buried the thought and looked at Vera. "C'mon, Shadows. Let's go going... I can sense something bad is happening" Shadows nodded and continued searching, he HAD to find Odd if it was the last thing he would do. As the two were running, Vera spoke out. "Hey... what would you do if Odd was hurt?" Shadows stopped and looked at the floor, he clenched his fist and gritted his teeth "I'd kill whoever did it and all those involved, too." Vera blinked a couple of times, Shadows didn't seem like the type of person to go handing out death threats like this... But she knew she had just met the guy and that everyone has their secrets. "You're... serious about this, aren't you?" Shadows looked at her and smiled a little "Yeah..." He looked away again, Vera swore she could have seen tears dropping out of his eyes. "I really am" Meanwhile. The Inn. Rayne and Ray were sitting down at one of the tables, both not saying a word and just taking sips of their drink now and then. Rayne thought about breaking the silence with a question, but Ray beat her to the punch. "So, how do you know him?" Rayne looked up at Ray and then back at the table. "We've known each other for a long time and used to be fairly close. But one day..." Rayne stopped there, Ray looked confused and spoke. "What happened?" Rayne looked up at Ray and smiled "Nevermind that. The reason I wanted to talk to you is because I need your help." Ray still had that confused look on his face "What would you need my help for? I remember a while ago you were saying you had this all under control" "Yes, well..." "Well what?" Rayne stood up, bowed, and thanked Ray for listening to her before walking to her room. Ray leaned back and put his hands behind his head "Now, what was that all about?" We cut back to Odd laying down in the forest, two figures are now standing over him "We have to do something!" "But what can WE do!?" "Let's take him back to the base, maybe we can do something for him there." Several hours later Odd awoke in a small, bright room. He shielded his eyes from the light until he got used to having them open again. He stood up and checked his surroundings. "Empty... completely empty." Odd wondered where he was, his trail of thought being cut short when the door opened. Two people were stood in the doorway. One male, one female. "Ah, it's good to see you're up and about" "Who... are you two?" "You'll find out about us later... right now we're more concerned about you. Can you tell us what happened?" Odd looked at the two of them, they seemed friendly enough... but Odd knew that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. "Why?" "Because it's important that we know what happened to you to make you pass out like that" The female knelt down in front of Odd and placed her hands on his shoulders "Please." Odd sighed, he had been taught that "Please" was a kind word and that he should do what that person asked, if they seemed nice enough. "I was..." "Hmm?" "I was attacked... this black... thing forced itself into my body. No... my very soul." The male nodded slowly "And then?" "And then.... That's it. I passed out" "What a strange story..." "You don't believe me?" "Of course we do." The female member stood up and rejoined her colleague in the doorway, she turned back to face Odd and smiled warmly "My name is Aurauris. Call me Aura" The male smiled with one side of his mouth "Call me Titan." Odd nodded and looked at the floor "Thank you both... for rescuing me" "It was our pleasure. You need to get some rest now, we'll be back soon" And with that, they closed the door. Odd was alone again in a place he wasn't familiar with. We cut back to Ray sat in the Inn on his own The Inn was quiet, too quiet for Ray's taste. The bar patrons were all silent and Rayne was nowhere to be found. The teen sighed to himself and took a swig of his drink, sighing again has he did. Ray started talking to himself "It's never this quiet in here... something's up." "So you noticed, mister?" Two young boys appeared on the other side of the Inn, one slightly older than the other. "Aaand who are you two supposed to be?" The pair giggled in unison with eachother "Wouldn't you like to know?" Ray stared at the two and frowned "Listen, I haven't got time to play this stupid game with you. Who are you!?" The two started giggling again and the older boy slowly extended his arm in front of him. He started chanting something weird. Ray raised his arm and closed his eyes, knives appeared out of what appeared to be nowhere and slotted themselves into the gaps between Ray's fingers, he then clenched his fist and the knives stayed in position. He proceeded to do this with the other arm, and he crossed his arms in an "X" position in against his chest. The younger of the two looked in awe at him "Wooow... mister, how did you do that?" Ray opened his eyes, they had changed from their original brown, to a now bright silver-y colour. The older boy had stopped chanting and spoke softly "Rise, my pet..." Underneath the boy's hand, a dark portal had appeared. A body with a ninja-like outfit slowly rose out of the portal. The boy started laughing maniacally while the younger one looked almost scared. Ray looked on at what was happening and grinned. "Finally, some action." The ninja-like figure was now fully free of the portal, his shackles were finally broken. It slowly turned around and knelt before the two boys. "What will you have me do, my masters?" The two of them looked at each other and smiled, they created a portal behind them and slowly walked through. Before the portal had closed, however, the older boy had spoke out "Two things before we leave you. Number one, Kill him." He then looked at Ray "Number two, remember our names, hero. We are the ones who will send you to hell... we are Break Eventide and Dragonknight." Ray watched as the portal slowly closed and the ninja drew his Katana. "Before I cut you into pieces. Tell me your name, boy." "My name is Raylas." "Very well... Raylas. My name is not important, you'll be dead before you get the chance to move." Raylas grinned at these words "We'll see about that" Barely after Ray had finished his sentence, the ninja was right in front of him. He swung his Katana down, only to be blocked by a bowie knife Ray had pulled off of his belt. Ray pushed the ninja back and proceeded to throw the knives in his left hand at him. The ninja disappeared and re-appeared behind Ray "Got you." Before Ray could move, the Katana had been impaled through his back. The ninja started to laugh "What are you laughing for, you've let your guard down" With knives that had suddenly appeared back in Ray's left hand, he slashed behind him, cutting the ninja's mask open... along with a small part of his face. He pulled the Katana out of Ray's back and appeared on the other side of the room. "You... you should be dead" Ray just grinned at the ninja and let his arms swing loosely at his side "You wanna know something?" The ninja stared at him for a while before replying, his voice sounding almost scared of the teen stood there. "... What?" "You were doomed from the start." The ninja suddenly felt a change in the atmosphere... almost like all of the mana had suddenly been drained away. He looked around the room, then back at Ray. Hundreds of small objects had began to form a wall in front of him "What... What's going on!?" The objects got bigger and bigger, until they finally had a proper shape. The ninja looked in terror as a wall of knives were aimed directly at him "There's a reason they call me the knife master." The knives were thrown at the ninja, he couldn't react at all. The torrent of knives impaled every inch of his body, he dropped to the floor and was sucked back through a portal that had appeared. Ray placed his hand over the wound and sighed "Where's Vera when you need her"
< Message edited by Oddball -- 2/12/2013 23:33:52 >
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