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  1. Prologue
  2. Pendulum - Prelude (Instrumental Edit)
  3.  
  4. Once, in this world, was a singular star. A star that spread warmth and light to all the inhabitants of the universe, some thousands of years ago. It was the supreme being in this universe.
  5. There were two parts to this singular star—the Guider of Light—and the Crusher of Darkness. These two might have been polar opposites of each other in nature, but both worked together to bring comfort and joy to all.
  6. Over time, the star began to split itself in half due to some unforeseen conflicts within itself. And when the separation was complete, only a core of light and a core of darkness remained there, floating, in space…waiting for the day that they would be idolised, worshipped…
  7. The two cores found their way into Planet Earth several millennia later, disguised as objects that could not be described by words alone. After all, where darkness is, light must be as well to counter it. Only time would tell what would happen as these beings would wage several wars to assert dominance.
  8. The two World Wars…the wars all from ages and eras past…were all caused by two warring incarnations of stars.
  9. This is the story of the most recent one, and the most deadly one. May none of the terrors caused by this war ever be repeated again.
  10.  
  11. Chapter 1: The Good Old Familiar Situation
  12. Infected Mushroom - Spitfire
  13. (Crystal)
  14.  
  15. Some Sunday mornings were not a fun time. In general. Especially if there was the requirement of rising from the comforts of bed early in the morning. Even so if there was the biggest race up to that point that she was preparing for. The one race that she had seen so many generations of paddlers before her train so hard for, and only lose narrowly by fractions of a second.
  16. Crystal let out a long yawn before dressing in her race attire. Blue CYC jersey, black Spandex and shorts, and a dark grey hoodie. These three were all objects that she grew accustomed to during her time paddling, which, in addition to her black PFD and carbon-fibre paddle, let her stand out as truly one of the best paddlers on the team.
  17. “Mom, we’ve got breakfast covered at the lake. Let’s just go quickly, we’re late anyways,” she called out as she assembled the rest of her race things and leaped out of the door and towards her car.
  18. The time read 6:30 AM on Crystal’s phone. Her mum hurried along and drove her to that hole known as Lake Merced as quickly as she could. Crystal jumped out of the car door almost literally, thanking her mother for transporting her to what was perhaps her most important race up until now. She remembered everything as just how it normally was on race day: tents scattered in every which direction, paddlers messing about and having fun with each other to relieve stress, the stench of the lake water…why did she think of that in the first place? Locating her team, she made her way past a series of tents and ran into all of her friends.
  19. “Crystal! Check out what we’ve made!” Genevieve and Melissa turned around, each pulling Crystal into a hug at the same time.
  20. “Wait…ribbons? Just like…” Crystal responded as she hugged them both back.
  21. “Yep! Just like last year and, from what we were told, the year before that!” Mel eagerly screamed as she calmly pulled out a bag. “Let’s see…A, B, C…aha! Here’s your ribbon. We hope you like it!”
  22. Crystal gently took the blue ribbon from Mel’s hand, carefully studying its appearance. That ribbon was the same one made as the one from last year: blue body with “CYC” written on one main side of the ribbon, and “Crystal C.” in neat capital letters on the other main side. Seeing this made her recall how everyone would don these ribbons, as some would touch up their hair by tying a ponytail with the hairband attached to the ribbon. Others attached it to their PFDs due to there being a convenient slot for them in their centre. But there was one special way that no one really saw before, and that no one had ever done.
  23. Sam…her mind flashed with an image of the alumnus. He appeared more calm than normal, and he was wearing his trademark blue windbreaker and black track pants. His very own blue ribbon was strung through the loop of his white hat, and his glasses…resonated with the thoughts of a pure maniac. If only he was there to help her now…
  24. “Uh, Crystal? We’re the next heat!” her friend Remi called to her, shaking her from her daze. “Remember that they’re doing genders first this time around?”
  25. “Oh no! I forgot about that!” Crystal alerted herself as she scrambled to exchange her tennis shoes and socks for the pair of flip-flops she always wore. “At least we’re just warming up. Thankfully.”
  26. Indeed they were, but as the various girls on the team completed a couple of laps around the race waiting area, she couldn’t pay attention to Gen’s and Mel’s banter. As a matter of fact, she could only remember one thing about races. The memory of last year’s sad ending when it should’ve been a happy one for everyone, that led to an intense fight to save the world. She had a gut feeling that something wrong would happen today, but she didn’t know exactly what was her reasoning behind that thought.
  27. “I’ve gotta push these aside and concentrate. Concentrate, Crystal, concentrate! We made a promise to everyone, and now isn’t the time to fall back on it!” she scolded silently, hoping that no one would notice her slightly weird footing.
  28. From below Lake Merced, a bright object faintly emanated a shimmering ray. No colour could be interpreted at all from the surface, but something within that light seemed to react to Crystal’s thoughts. That person, however, remained oblivious, even after completing an easy heat and leaving the lake to return back to base.
  29. “Is it just me, or are you scared?” she asked her captain Nathan, who just so happened to be free at that very moment. “I just don’t want to repeat last year over again, even though we won the race.”
  30. Nathan turned quickly to face her, then turned back towards the bridge and the other teams currently on the water. “I don’t really think it matters whether we won or not. We were always told it was the race that mattered, not the results. I kinda get what you’re talking about, but I’m not scared in that way.”
  31. “So you mean…?”
  32. “That something’s gonna go down here? Yeah. I’ve got similar feelings as you, but I’m not sure if I can help you out in this state. Speaking of which…Thunder, get in your lineups and head to marshalling!” he called out loudly. “Just try to get it out of your mind now. Hopefully today goes by without anything bad happening…” he whispered before staring straight ahead once again.
  33. “I don’t know…”
  34.  
  35. Chapter 2: Rise Here
  36. The Glitch Mob - Take Me With You (ft. Arama)
  37. (Crystal)
  38.  
  39. The time came for the final races of the day. As per tradition, there were four finals, and Crystal had managed to land her way in the top of the pack. By this point, everyone knew what they were capable of, and it made A division seem all the same to the viewers. Lincoln Gold, Lowell Crewzers, GCD 1, CYC Lightning…a year ago, these were the four teams that had to get themselves unified to save the world. Many of the paddlers on those teams could recall all of the events that unfolded after that, culminating with the sacrifice of the two masterminds of their joining, Sam and Jerry. They also knew that those two, plus Daven and Justin, would certainly be present to witness this final race.
  40. Crystal paddled with Lightning to the starting line, feeling extremely nervous at the pressure of her racing. How did she get to be at this spot in the boat? How was she on Lightning in the first place? Could she perform her task, and do it perfectly at least once for the seniors and alumni watching them?
  41. She could see the four former leaders out of the corner of her eye, all of them wearing their respective teams’ hoodies and black track pants and looking towards the starting line. She desperately wanted to do something to garner their attention, but that couldn’t happen as the usual “Paddlers, are you ready?” echoed from the starter.
  42. Instinctively, she and every other paddler jammed their paddles in the water, with her not letting the “Sha!” from a distant boat to her left break her resolve.
  43. “Attention…” She mentally steeled herself for the hell that was about to take place at the lake.
  44. The horn rang, and the loudest grunt the lake heard up until this point almost shook the ground where the spectators watched. Each single stroke of her start led her to give more and more of what she had left.
  45. “Five, UP!!!” came the voices of fellow captains Clinton and Will as their boat gradually gained some more speed, pulling it ahead of the pack.
  46. Her strokes finally gained power as she felt the souls of her boatmates embed themselves into her mind. Emily B’s incredible ability, Caitlyn’s dedication, Ivy’s passion, Katelyn’s and Wendy’s motivation…all of it became clear as to why they had those abilities. “Three…two…one…!” she screamed along with everyone in the boat as their rate slowed down dramatically, but not their power.
  47. The surge felt by the boat was almost incredible. It felt like whatever monstrosity lived down in the foul lake wanted to give its own power to Crystal’s boat, which almost could never have happened on its own. They all paddled on with strong strokes, Chris Wu up front screaming at Chris Liang in engine to give more and more. With Allan, it was entirely obvious that he was doing everything in his power to keep them ahead.
  48. “Second half…march!” Michael called out. “I need…you…now!” he strained as he reset his own technique, the entire boat following suit.
  49. All of the other boats weren’t far off from the leader. Three dominant voices rallied them all, one voice for each of the other three teams, and slowly the race began to close up more and more. Crystal could sense it, but knew if she panicked and called for a power, everyone would lose their flow and sync.
  50. By this point, one boat was still clearly ahead of all the others. Suddenly, there came another loud “Finish it, NOW!” that was just as loud as the beginning of the race. The paddlers’ strokes only became more fierce and rapid, no one wanting to lose a race due to the stupidest mistake from them. She knew there was too much on the line for CYC to fail at this point, after they had held off everyone else for so long. So she took matters into her own hands, calling out “Who…are…we…?” in an angry tone.
  51. The rest of the boat knew how to respond to that. Half of the paddlers shouted “C…!” and the other half responded “Y…!”
  52. And when the whole team screamed a final “C…!!!” to the lake, they had crossed the finish line. And they had done it first.
  53.  
  54. Chapter 3: You Can Call It a Ceremony
  55. Hellberg & Deutegen - The End (Follow My Heart) (ft. Matilda Dalhberg)
  56. (Lydia)
  57.  
  58. For the first time, Lydia felt a real sense of satisfaction. Satisfaction from giving all of her teammates what she could, and a complete serving of it. She knew that they weren’t going to land on the podium, but it was all in good spirits. She loved the competition, but it wasn’t all simply for competition’s sake.
  59. She tried to catch her breath as she let out a scream to the sky when her crew heard a “Let it ride!” from the steers. So many loud sighs of relief, sadness, and joy all mingled together in one place at the other end of Lake Merced. She was a part of it all. Her face lit up with joy as she fell back into her seat, only being caught by the lap of the paddler sitting right behind her. “Thanks…everyone!” she whispered as all vision around her began slowly to blur into all sorts of colour, ranging from red to blue to…violet? Yellow?
  60. Something must have been odd.
  61. “Lydia! We’re about to go!” her seat partner Eric called.
  62. So everyone on that boat set their paddles up in the air, and relocated themselves all back to the now-refurbished dock. Her old captain, Daven, set up a fundraiser to finally fix the old dock that had been broken since who-knew-when, and only during the wintertime was all that money finally used to repair the thing. Even after that, the job was finally finished only a week before race day, a real testament to the aloofness of construction workers citywide. The GCD paddlers offboarded the boat, thanking the volunteers sincerely as they walked by.
  63. “So, Lydia, how was your first A final?” Eric asked her, looking quite happy himself.
  64. “I didn’t expect it to be this competitive, actually! To be honest, whatever the result is, I really don’t care,” Lydia answered. “I just know for myself that I did all I could.”
  65. “And that’s what we’re looking for. We don’t have to be uber-competitive like CYC, Lincoln, and Lowell to perform as well as we did, maybe even perform even better. But we just want to, to make the game way more fun for everyone watching and everyone participating.” He paused a moment, and then pointed in an arbitrary direction. “Is that…those four?”
  66. “Eric, which four…oh!” she exclaimed, running along with him to the four masterminds from the past year. “Hey!”
  67. Jerry raised his eyebrow a little bit. “Daven, this is your paddler, right? Wait, I meant to say ‘was’ your paddler,” he giggled with a slightly intimidating tone.
  68. “Man, you don’t have to sound so mean all the time!” Daven burst out. “And, yes, you’re right. Lydia, you’ve definitely made me proud today. Keep on going like that. Eric, you’re gonna keep bringing wonders to the team. I can’t wait to find out which ones you’ll perform.”
  69. “Aw, thanks!” She turned over to Sam and playfully stabbed him in the back with her paddle. “And that’s for all the times you did that to me.”
  70. Sam turned around and laughed a little bit. “Yo, I think the ceremony’s about to start. Do you think we should make our way over there now?”
  71. None of them even needed to move, for as soon as the majority of the paddlers gathered around the statue of the unknown man, a now-visible glimmer of golden light emerged from the depths of the water. The four masterminds and two GCD paddlers jogged over to that source of light, which shone brighter and brighter. Over time, something began to emerge itself from the water, a bright yellow object that seemed to tower over all that it saw.
  72. “What the f––” Lydia managed to squeak as she watched the thing finally leave the water and float over everything, somehow not managing to drip water over what was underneath it. Nearby, all of the paddlers huddled in fear together, not caring if the person next to them was their worst enemy on another team. The being itself was completely yellow, with two emerald-studded shields surrounding an almost humanoid core. What its head could be remained unknown, but it seemed as if there were two golden wings behind the head. Another pair of wings folded downwards at its mid-body level, almost as if they could represent legs. Two red eyes stared down menacingly at all of the paddlers there.
  73. Almost immediately afterward, it levitated near where the table where all of the plaques and medals stood, waiting to be distributed to their rightful paddlers. From there, it could only radiate more electricity as it seemed to put up a complete barrier around itself, letting no eye see what was behind it. The medals and plaques all seemed to attract themselves to that metallic thing, and they made a cling-clang attaching themselves to it. Lydia watched in horror as all of the prizes absorbed themselves into its main frame, and from there, all she saw was a flash of absolute white.
  74. “Don’t tell me…” she thought to herself as she felt herself sink into a deep sleep, but somehow not really one at all.
  75. “If my instincts are correct, then…it really is,” she heard Justin’s voice come up in her mind. “But how?”
  76.  
  77. Chapter 4: Fallen Angel?
  78. JVNA - First Storm
  79. (Lydia)
  80.  
  81. “Where…where am I?”
  82. Lydia seemed to have awoken from her nap, but her location wasn’t at all the same as she had thought it was. She, along with the people she was with before the being emerged from the lake, was enclosed in some sort of transparent sphere that overlooked a view of the universe. Colourful swirls of stars and stardust passed around her, shining in a series of blues and greens. Planets stood majestically, showing nothing but complete smoothness on all its visible sides. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed the sparkle of a distant comet, its tail signalling the arrival of something really special.
  83. She turned around to see Eric lying down on the floor of the sphere. Closer by, Sam, Jerry, Justin, and Daven all were looking at each other in a worried manner. Was it something that they saw just then? She couldn’t figure that out in time and immediately, for then she noticed some other thing that seemed rather strange.
  84. Three girls, each of them wearing their own team jerseys.
  85. Why was it that there were four girls and four boys on the four teams? Lydia could sense that the worst had indeed come to the worst. There was to be another fight. But why would it bring them all the way to some remote location in outer space? She tiptoed to where the four old leaders were talking, and managed to overhear some pretty interesting things.
  86. “The cores are back, Justin. When they’re back, you know the world is gonna go to shit, not like it’s already in enough of it already,” Jerry snapped.
  87. “That much is obvious, but we don’t paddle for the old teams anymore. There’s gotta be new people that are going to stop them from wreaking havoc everywhere!” Justin called out, seemingly losing his mind a little bit.
  88. From the background, the newly-identified core started to descend from the apex of the sphere, that which seemed very high up for any human to comprehend. It certainly appeared less intimidating than how it did so when it appeared at the race site, as in almost none of the electricity crackled from the body at all. Once again, it still floated a couple metres above the floor’s sphere, almost beckoning to everyone. To make them come over to it. As she was about to take one step forwards, a glint came from atop the core, and immediately afterwards, a giant head just magically attached itself to the real top of the core. It appeared as it was just another, different version of the head of the core, yet it seemed a lot more menacing. A halo of gold surrounded the very top of the head, with two pairs of smaller yellow wings flanking the very sides. Red light beams spewed vertically upwards in very intermittent patterns and lengths, almost like it was trying to communicate to everyone in some way.
  89. Sam ran up to Lydia. “Is something the matter? You look a little…shaken, for lack of better words to use.”
  90. She nodded and only turned to face the machine, signalling Jerry, Justin, and Daven to all walk towards it. The other three girls turned towards that machine, and they all gazed earnestly, waiting for it to say something, or at least do an action that proved that it was a living machine. And to her surprise, the machine spoke.
  91. “You only gaze upon a remnant of the complete machine. I am Windsor, the memories of this core, Seraphis.”
  92. Its voice sounded completely monotonic, yet there was clearly a sense of distress within it. “The world is about to come to war because of the Crusher of Darkness. And you are our only hope of stopping the complete destruction of the world, even the galaxies as we know it. Do you four wish to take on this task?”
  93. Jerry muttered something weird to himself, but it didn’t catch on to Lydia. Something about the world of games coming into the realm of the living, but what did it matter. She called out, “Explain what’s happening. Who needs to go? What must the ones who do go accomplish to save this world?”
  94. While the machine whirred a little bit in attempting to analyse the request it heard, the other three girls steadily moved closer to Lydia, taking a spot behind her. “Do you know anything about what’s going on?” one of them whispered.
  95. “Allow me to tell you the story.” Seraphis paused for exactly ten seconds, then continued, “There were two entities of the Star of Life millenia ago. Orpharion—and Despharion. One side represented light, the guidance of stars. The other represented darkness, the crushing of that darkness. I, Seraphis, am the core of Orpharion, the one who is supposed to suppress the darkness with stellar strengths.”
  96. The robot paused yet again, and then the head, Windsor, spoke once more. “To make a robot machine, you need more parts. There are four necessary parts that you need to complete me. If you look carefully, then you will find out exactly what those parts are. I need you to find them, and then bring them to me. Only then will Despharion not bring his influence over the world and prepare to wage yet another war.”
  97. Lydia looked very carefully at the core and head. Now that she thought about it, she noticed that there were indeed some parts missing, but how could it get away with just levitating like that? There were four different empty spots, each one corresponding to a part that was required to fill it in. She thought long and hard, and she came to the realisation that Seraphis was missing a set of wheels and maybe some sensors. However, a gut feeling told her that wasn’t the complete story.
  98. Yet another one of the girls spoke up this time, clearly showing signs of fear. “What are we looking for? Who is going to be going?
  99. “Child, that is an easy question. You four are to hunt for four limbs. Aquor, Frahje, Trigo and Dukdey. They are all hidden somewhere in this place, and it is your responsibility to find them. Not just find them, find them FAST. I will stay with the other four. Be warned—to get the limbs will not be easy for you. You will have to do some…tinkering to coax them out of their hiding spots. Now go!”
  100. Lydia gasped as she felt some things rush over her. She tried to scream to Seraphis, “Is it us four paddlers or the four old heroes? Please answer the question!”
  101. Quickly, the sphere crumbled into a million pieces, sending everyone flying throughout the starry sky towards a world that had nothing left. She screamed as her acceleration through the sky skyrocketed to levels that would normally tear a person in three. She noticed violet fire surrounding her during her fall, which prompted her to scream even louder. But must she die in such a way? Would she die in that way?
  102. “You four girls are. Good luck out there…” Windsor’s voice droned, before all sharply went completely black.
  103.  
  104. Chapter 5: Unbreakable Barriers to Build
  105. Slander - Happy Now
  106. (Kiara)
  107.  
  108. She knew everything that happened last year with Jerry. Kiara’s insights into the misadventures at Vancouver were not slim, surprisingly, but somehow, she managed to figure out all of the things that happened within the span of two months. As one of the strongest members of LDB, it was her duty to tell the truth about what happened, even though at the very end, she didn’t know, she could only assume the worst.
  109. Somehow, that sphere…just the sight of the sphere and those trapped inside made her recall last year’s events. Four other people that she probably didn’t know…and yet, she’d have to work with these four? To bring about a light that would eliminate the darkness for at least a certain period of time?
  110. “Man, I just don’t want to think about it!” she burst out angrily as she literally threw on the clothes of the day while heading out the door towards school. “I don’t know how I’ll tell my friends about everything that’s happening. Do they know who the other three are at all? Hell, do the older leaders know anything?”
  111. Kiara arrived at school looking clearly angry, emotionally drained after yesterday. At that point, she didn’t care if Crewzers hadn’t won gold. It didn’t matter in the first place if all that was going to go away because of something she could stand against. She made her way to the tennis courts and almost literally dropped her bag on the floor. Seconds later, out came a tennis racquet and a few tennis balls, and then a scream as she served one of those tennis balls to the green wall. Her racquet made contact with the ball with such a force, so much so that the ball actually caught fire and bore a hole through the wall before its flames smoked out.
  112. “At least I didn’t set off the smoke alarm,” she thought as she struck more and more tennis balls even harder than all the times she did so before it.
  113. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed someone in a red windbreaker approach the tennis courts. She could not tell who exactly that person was because none of the text on the article of clothing showed up clearly at all. So she stopped rallying with herself and set the racquet’s head on the ground, leaning on it slightly. “Is something the matter?” that person asked, obviously concerned with Kiara’s unusual behaviour.
  114. “Yeah, just…shit’s going down the drain right now. I just need some space to vent now, Isabella. You did know what happened at race, right?” Kiara answered, approaching Isabella and looking dejected.
  115. “It’s the same situation as last year, apparently. Jerry’s not going to be involved in this, I don’t think. You are the one that has to lead the team and join the others. Other than that, you’d have to ask Adela, although I don’t think she would like to remember last year at all.”
  116. “Maybe I’ll have to do that then. Plus, I’m late for class anyway. See you later at conditioning, Isabella,” Kiara said as she slung her bag over her shoulder and started walking off towards the main building.
  117. Isabella waved, but stopped as the girl she was waving to turned back, apparently having something new on her mind. “By the way, if you know anyone on CYC, GCD, or Lincoln…see if you can try to figure out who the four really are. Please?” Kiara pleaded before really heading back to her class.
  118.  
  119. 3:30 PM, Kiara checked her phone. She really didn’t want to go to conditioning, as even though it was scheduled for today, no one would really be motivated to go to it anyway. Solitude didn’t really fit her, even though she genuinely wanted some feeling of privacy earlier that day. And despite that, she managed to brave her wants, making her way to the TRX and expecting to see no one there. Instead, she saw two people, and both of them she hadn’t seen before. One of them seemed to be her age, but the other looked almost creepily similar to Jerry. That one person waved slightly, beckoning her to approach the pair that sat on the ledge.
  120. “Have I seen either of you two before…?” she nervously asked to neither of the two in particular.
  121. “You probably have heard of me, but I’m not surprised you forgot. I’m Sam,” said person replied, looking up with eyes hidden by dark glasses lenses.
  122. “THE Sam from last year? I’m so sorry, I forgot all about you!” Kiara shouted, looking slightly ashamed at the fact that she did. “But her…I may have seen her in the sphere, but is there really a way I can confirm that notion?” she asked again his time.
  123. At that moment, she could predict what Sam was going to say next. It would go something along the lines of “That’s for you to figure out.” Was she really ready to begin to form a friendship with those that seemed hostile to her? Not really, no. Inside feelings still conflicted within her as she struggled to find some more words to say, especially as she hadn’t met that other person before.
  124. “I’ll leave you two now. Just remember this, you two. We’re not always gonna be here, but there will definitely be a way out of this entire situation. Good luck, as the first steps begin with your actions now.”
  125. Sam stood up and literally backflipped up to the roof of the school, where a figure that looked like Jerry waited up above there for him. Both the two saluted below before scampering off somewhere else. There was still the step that she had to accomplish.
  126. “Hi there, what’s your name?” Kiara inquired, extending her right hand to the other person to shake.
  127. Neither party spoke for a little bit. There were so many past prejudices that both girls carried on both their teams towards each other, but it still made sense that they were both to unite, to get their teams together one time. Sam and Jerry, as much as they quarreled sometimes, still managed to pull it off. Yet Kiara knew that it would take more than just the desire to completely unite to force seemingly different teams to yet again get themselves completely as one team. And that was what the two original leaders really wanted in the end of it all.
  128.  
  129. Chapter 6: Beginning a Temporary(?) Alliance
  130. RAM & Stine Grove - Saving Angel (Extended Mix)
  131. (Kiara)
  132.  
  133. “My name? Oh, I’m Crystal. I presume that you’re Kiara, right?” the other girl responded enthusiastically, shaking Kiara’s hand firmly. “I’ve heard a lot of good things about you, but there’s some important matter that we have to discuss…”
  134. “Let me guess. That Orpharion guy, do you know if he is right or not? I think that some parts of his story seem a little bit off. Four parts, four of us…” Kiara drabbled slightly. “Do you suppose that there really are four parts to him?”
  135. “Sam was explaining the lore to me before I met you,” Crystal said. “Apparently, both of the robots, Orpharion and Despharion, are present in so many places. Some of the buildings downtown are representations of either of the two, but not necessarily as to which one they’re allied to. Just by coincidence, the both of them are in some game he plays.”
  136. Kiara invited Crystal to take a walk with her throughout the school campus, not wishing to take her on a tour of a place that she know decently well already. The sight of an LDB and a CYC paddler together just talking might have drawn suspicion from the paddlers of both teams, especially to those who didn’t know the complete story of what happened at last year’s Vancouver race. As both of them made their way past the science building, the former girl noticed a group of LDB boys actually holding a session of conditioning. Crystal commented something about that being a wish for her own team, that they’d actually get together on their own and just drop to do a few push-ups or something. Kiara laughed a little bit before taking both of them to their final destination.
  137. “Here’s a good place where we can discuss everything. What do you suppose we do? I don’t know if we have a deadline to find the parts or any of that,” asked the LDB paddler while stepping into a random empty classroom.
  138. Crystal followed Kiara into that classroom, closing the door behind her and taking a little cylinder out of her pocket. She pressed it in seemingly random spots before setting it down at the door frame. Quickly afterwards, she also shut all the shades with complete accuracy, leaving the two in a completely darkened room. A light came out from the cylinder thing, leading Kiara to question exactly what that thing was. Crystal, however, answered that question immediately with “That is a soundproof device. No one outside this room will be able to hear us talk, because with this kind of information, we could literally die and fail the mission.”
  139. Kiara’s face changed into one of seriousness, and then she nodded. “I didn’t know you had that, but thank you for putting that thing up. Anyway, I just want you to tell me everything you recall from yesterday. We’ll go from there.”
  140. Crystal also nodded, and then she started to speak. “There’s something really weird that happened as we were warming up for girls’ seeding. Almost as if something was…trying to influence my own thoughts. Every time I stepped foot on the boat, various memories of wars long past came flashing through my mind. Other times, I could see a big city that was clad in complete darkness, menacing light edging across every corner. During A final, it felt like a force was giving my boat power, the power to push through the race and come out on top, but it was all short-lived.”
  141. “Why so? I might have noticed you afterwards, and you looked like you were…burned and burdened, for lack of better terms,” Kiara replied.
  142. “It felt like something was trying to take me over, as the only thing I could really do was resist that power. I’m sure that you felt some sorts of knowledge flowing through your head around that time too.”
  143. “That’s right! Then at awards ceremony…he emerged from the water, and it kept everyone under a spell of sorts…and then it seems like the sphere came and enveloped everyone!”
  144. Crystal sighed again. “I was honestly scared when I woke up from that sphere and didn’t see anyone I knew. I only saw you and two other girls. Some people on GCD were telling me that they saw the four leaders there too? I can’t confirm any of that, but from what Sam explained to me earlier today, it’s a reasonable assumption to make…”
  145. “Fair enough.” Kiara paused, and then added something else. “You noticed that we all hid behind one person in the sphere? I couldn’t tell who that person was, there wasn’t any identification possible. And now that I think about it, I did actually notice Jerry and Daven talking about stuff that I can’t describe at all. They were indeed in the sphere as well!”
  146. All of a sudden, something in the cylinder began to flash rapidly golden. Quickly afterwards, the entire damn thing started shining, first pulsing to a blood-red, then to a midnight blue, over and over again. Something within it threatened to burst open the soundproofing device, resulting in the two of them both lunging towards the cylinder in an attempt to shut it off. Neither of them succeeded.
  147. “Crystal! Do you remember how you turned it on?” Kiara screamed, hoping that no one outside would hear what was going on.
  148. “I don’t know how to turn it off, only how to turn it on!” Crystal screamed back, chucking the cylinder at the wall while hoping that something would result from taking that particular action.
  149. The latter’s wish came true indeed, for a sort of weird-looking object came flickering into clear view for the both of them to see. It seemed to be in the shape of a disfigured golden arm, with a face similar to Seraphis and Windsor at the location of the lower arm. There was no upper arm present at all, but rather, at the base of the lower arm, a black hand slid very slowly out into the classroom, showing five perfectly proportioned fingers. From the looks of it, the blue face, emerald-studded design, and crackling white electricity, it had to be one of the four parts Seraphis had talked about yesterday.
  150. “It seems like you have indeed found me, hero. I cannot let you use my power just yet, however. You will have to prove something first,” it droned, wriggling its hand around really mechanically.
  151. “Identify yourself,” Kiara commanded, taking a step forwards.
  152. “Simple enough. I am the right hand of Orpharion. You can call me Aquor, if it makes things easier for you,” the right hand droned again. “Well done, but you still have to prove yourself to me.”
  153. Crystal thought of a question, and started to ask, “What must we do?”
  154. Aquor levitated to her, however, and snapped. When he did so, Crystal screamed as white lightning encased her fully, Kiara not knowing what to do at all. “Why did you do that?” she asked, clearly getting ready to bash something into the right hand.
  155. “She is not the one that I am destined to find. As such, I have had security measures implemented in me such that only that one person can communicate with me. If I were you, I would make it quick, so that she does not die.”
  156. She gritted her teeth, and asked the same question in a more pleading tone, looking at Crystal’s suffering with the corner of her eye. The latter was clearly not having any sense of enjoyment, despite her boat being named for the very thing that was slowly shocking her. “Aquor, what is it that we need to do, no, I need to do to obtain your power?”
  157. “That, too, is simple. Find the previous hero’s weapon and armour, the one whose destiny YOU carry now!” commanded Aquor before snapping again.
  158. Immediately, Crystal fell to the ground, smoke surrounding her. Kiara sprinted over to her, checking in on whether she was alright or not. All it took was for the latter to tell the former that she was indeed alright, before slumping into a deep slumber. The fire alarm started to blare, signalling that it was their time to exit the building, and so Kiara slung Crystal over her shoulder and bolted out of the school building surprisingly quickly before anyone noticed her. As she did, though, she had a few questions. Did the right hand mean that she had to carry Jerry’s old paddle? Or was it that special one that he used last year? Either way, there was no way of knowing what was the plan for her. She just had to get out and figure it all out later.
  159.  
  160. Chapter 7: I See Everything, I Think
  161. Project 46, Varien, & Ephixa - The Anthem
  162. (Lily)
  163.  
  164. Was there really a reason to believe there was something bad about to happen? Lily was always skeptical about hearing things randomly that seemed too scary to be true, but maybe it was. Especially if they were coincidences happening around the same time every single year. Lily walked through her own school’s halls, trying to contemplate everything that happened the day prior to this one.
  165. “What the hell is happening?” she asked as she noticed one of her elder teammates coming out of a random classroom. “Allison! Hey there.”
  166. Allison put her index finger to her mouth, signalling her to keep quiet. “There’s a test going on. I just finished, so if you want to talk, let’s go someplace else. Preferably not indoors.”
  167. Both of them silently walked out to the schoolyard, which was completely empty save for a handful of other kids playing basketball in some distant court. Lily could take in the essences of the noon sunlight at this time, visualising the changes that would have to be made for future times. “I don’t know about this stuff I saw yesterday. I’m completely unsure of what my particular role is in trying to get this world saved, because it’s hard to be completely thrown into that specific task,” she voiced annoyingly.
  168. “For that…you’d have to ask Justin,” Allison answered.
  169. “But he’s so hard to reach these days, with all that DJ-ing and stuff.”
  170. “I believe you’ve answered your own question, then…” a voice came from behind the two people.
  171. Both Lily and Allison whirled around where they were standing, to find the other of the two original leaders, this time garbed in a simple red jacket and traditional shorts. “You mentioned a DJ, and the fact that Justin himself does that? Easy enough for you to sneak in to one of his concerts.”
  172. “Jerry!” screamed Lily, attempting to reach out to him.
  173. He shook his head before attempting to stop her. “And the fun thing is this. I have intel about when that particular one would be. And no, in case you were wondering, there isn’t an age restriction.”
  174. Allison laughed a little bit, trying her best to keep calm. “So you’re saying we could get in to that concert for free? Just us two?” she inquired.
  175. “I suppose that is the case. One more thing.”
  176. Jerry reached into his jacket, and pulled out a small black cube. There was no other colour present on that cube until he motioned for Lily to enclose it with her left hand. She complied, fearful that something adverse would happen if she didn’t do so, and then, warmth came flowing into her. Lines started to trace on the cube, growing steadily thicker and thicker and these lines filling with all sorts of colour. Pretty soon, she herself began to glow yellow all around, that aura rapidly increasing the radius of coverage. Allison was too intent in watching that growth, before it suddenly subsided just a few minutes later.
  177. “I see now…I think I know who and what to find! Thanks–” Lily began, before noticing that Jerry was all but gone from the place.
  178. “Lily, what was that?” asked Allison, clearly concerned about what had just taken place.
  179. “Who to find…what to find…what to do…it all makes perfect sense now! I have to establish myself as the one that will bring peace to a war-ridden world!” Lily declared as she dragged a protesting Allison back inside to the school building.
  180. From the roof of the school, Jerry turned to another figure that watched the entire encounter. Both the two saluted in the direction of the football field before again scampering off someplace completely random. In the distance, several streams of stars began to streak across the sky in a diamond pattern, followed by several darker star streams in that very same pattern. Something was about to brew, and Lily knew she had to find the three others before it was too late.
  181.  
  182. Chapter 8: Don’t Ignore Requests I Make, Please
  183. Direct - Tranquility
  184. (Lily)
  185.  
  186. At home now, Lily had several sheets of paper sprawled out on her desk. It was only 9:00 PM, yet there was still so much planning for everything to come together. Her laptop was open to a website of game information, and she grabbed her favourite blue Muji pen and started to write some different words and phrases.
  187. “What we know.”
  188. She contemplated for a second. What exactly was it that she knew? The sphere wasn’t showing everything she had tried to comprehend. She could recall that there were four people indeed present in the sphere, four girls to be exact. They all seemed to be the only ones that were conscious while the…robot-thing made its little spiel. Something about four parts that needed to be found, a dark counterpart of the robot that she couldn’t quite remember the name of. Seraphis, yeah, Seraphis was its name. Once again, her pen made contact with the paper, tracing squiggles that managed to appear as neat block letters.
  189. “Four heroes, four parts. Dark version exists.”
  190. Once again, there was a parallel. While she did go to Vancouver last year to fight against the shenanigans that were now a distant memory, she couldn’t recall minute details about the battle there at all. But was that really important? She had a few connections to other people on different teams so that she could inquire about those weird events. I see, she thought to herself silently as she began to write more and more on the blank page in front of her.
  191. “I am to find the other four. We are to find each other and unite our teams once again. Where they will strike, that is completely unknown to me.”
  192. She softly shouted, “What the hell? That’s gonna be a drain on all of our money! I can’t just do that…”
  193. All of a sudden, her computer screen flashed briefly, signalling a notification coming to her. She decided to look at it, not knowing the name of the person who sent her that message. The content of that message was completely unreadable also, but was it really because she didn’t know the language it was presented in? Instead of clicking on the message, she opened a new tab and searched up the names of the two robots, Orpharion and Despharion. The Google search result that popped up was indeed completely surprising. Instead of all fun-looking toys and strategies on how to defeat them in various games, there was instead a much darker series of links. Black markets, governments, scam sites…
  194. “Searching up either of the two robots’ names brings up weird phenomena. Perhaps it relates to the conflict at hand.”
  195. Lily got up and stretched herself. Sitting at her desk for a couple of hours straight, not even doing homework…yeah, her parents would definitely kill her for that. But at that point, she didn’t care about doing homework. She had to always plan everything, especially something that would mean the life and death of her and the world. “Maybe I ought to find out what that message reads…” she thought once again as she exited her room to finish some family business outside.
  196. Little did she know that the message was really from someone that she definitely knew. At least she’d have time to check on it later, when her mind was fresh.
  197. 11:45 PM. Lily knew that time passed by really quickly whenever she had to deal with anyone that wasn’t herself. Once again, her laptop seemed to beckon to her with a string of unread messages. This time, she was determined to figure out what all that mess was about, but as she scrolled through, she became completely scared.
  198. “Lily, we’ve got to meet up quickly, and fast. I managed to find one of the parts, but it claims that we have to prove ourselves to obtain its power. I don’t know if you have found any part yet, but it’s clear that we have to do so quickly. There are three chances that the dark robot will strike, so we only have that much time to find everyone. Unite everyone. We are the next generation of heroes. Crystal.”
  199.  
  200. Chapter 9: How They Take Everything
  201. Au5 & Fractal - Dreaming
  202. (Crystal)
  203.  
  204. Crystal wasn’t always someone that wished to involve herself in conflict, much unlike many of her favourite people that were long gone from the team. Something else was much more important to her, how she’d be the one to resolve this conflict. Sure, she had to find some series of parts, and she may have seen just one of the parts, but it wasn’t her own. Did she have an idea that there were…assignments of sorts?
  205. There was no time to contemplate that. Clinton and Will already called the beginning of practice. She sighed loudly before joining her peers in the circle, starting stretches like what the rest of the team was doing. So many things went through her mind at that very moment, but none of them were related to what her friends might have thought about the events that happened at race.
  206. “Apparently there was some golden light that shone in the sky from Lincoln,” Allan just spoke out of nowhere.
  207. Allan was often regarded as the team’s “beast,” although he was quite soft-spoken. For him to point that out was really a sign of his attentive eye. “Crystal, I thought you would have noticed, considering that you go to the place.”
  208. “What? You can’t be serious!” Crystal shouted back, eyes opening really wide.
  209. “That’s just what I heard from some of the Lincoln people Chris was telling me about. I thought you might know the person responsible for it, that’s all,” Allan responded back.
  210. Crystal leaned down in an attempt to touch her toes, succeeding on her first try. “I…might know people. I’ll probably go and as—ah!”
  211. All of a sudden, there was a swarm of paddlers rushing to the parking lot entrance at the lake. Since when did people just ditch their own commitments? Much less the captains also? Crystal signalled to Allan, “I wonder what’s going on down there. We have to investigate, I’m just not sure about how this will play out.”
  212. The pair did that, not wasting a moment of time. Both bolted towards the entrance and the swarm of CYC paddlers. All of them were arranged in some ring formation, surrounding some foreign object that no one could quite identify. It looked very familiar, however. On the ground lay a cape of some sorts, coloured pure white even after looking like it had been on the ground for some time. There was no smidge of dirt or dust on that strange piece of fabric at all, in fact.
  213. Nathan stepped up to it, with Clinton, Will, and Ivy following suit immediately. As soon as they approached it, they stepped back in shock, apparently with them having realised something completely off was happening at that very moment. Crystal asked, “What is that thing?”
  214. Will scratched his head, trying to think of the least shocking answer. “That thing is related to Sam. But Crystal, why are you interested in that thing at all?”
  215. “Nothing, I’m just trying to collect a few answers.”
  216. “For what?”
  217. “N-nothing! Just…don’t worry about it.”
  218. Ivy walked to Crystal, who was now looking down at the floor, almost ashamed of something. “You don’t have to tell everyone what it is. If you’d like, we can get everyone else on the boats right now.”
  219. Clinton added, “That’s a good idea. CYC, gear up and line up at the hill! Brandy and Henry will take care of you from there.”
  220. “Clinton, that’s not what I meant. I suppose I could tell you over dinner…” Crystal moped before joining all of her friends at the hill.
  221. Behind her, Nathan muttered, “I wish she felt better, honestly. That burden must be…his burden must be really tough to bear.”
  222.  
  223. All four captains were now sitting at a table at the food courts at Stonestown. Crystal joined their group, bringing back boxes of fried chicken wings for the five of them to snack on. “I made sure they were your favourite flavour, Nathan,” she spoke softly to the named person.
  224. “Thanks, Crystal. No pressure, but would you tell us what’s going on right now?” he asked her, sounding extremely concerned.
  225. Clinton, Will, and Ivy silently ate while simultaneously paying attention to what Crystal was saying. “So at race, before the awards ceremony, there was just some weird robot coming at us. You saw how it just attracted all of the medals and plaques to itself? Then it flashed, right? Do you remember up to then?”
  226. The other four nodded intently, making Crystal sigh in relief. People were listening to her, taking her seriously outside of dragon boat. Maybe it was because they recognised that their futures were at stake once again, she thought to herself silently. “Well…after the flash, I managed to wake up from unconsciousness. I found myself in a sphere of pure light, stretching all the way up to some place in the sky…” she continued.
  227. Clinton paused Crystal to ask one question. “Did you manage to see anyone there? Anything there?”
  228. “Clinton, I was about to get to that. I met three other people, and they all looked so similar to the people my age. Four girls…yeah, four girls. There was also the four heroes from last year…and also the same machine that attacked us at race. It revealed to all of us that the world was about to come to a catastrophic war, and the only way to stop it is when his four parts are gathered.”
  229. Will then noticed a correlation. “Wait, this is almost exactly like last year, isn’t it? How Sam had to gather four heroes and save the world before dying and resurrecting once again to us?”
  230. All of a sudden, there was an awkward silence between the five of them. The wings were finished by now, and then Ivy pulled out that same white cape from earlier. Almost as if his name prompted something special to come into it. She said, “Crystal…Sam used to own this sheet. I don’t know exactly what it does, but because it was used by him, I hope it’ll guide you to find what you’re looking for.”
  231. Nathan popped in, adding, “Bryant and them never officially told Sam, but if you need it, we four are willing to bring in the entire team to help you out. They did once, so I promise I’ll utilise all of my power as captain to make it so the world survives.”
  232. Now completely reassured, Crystal rose from her seat. “Are you gonna tell the team about what I just told you?”
  233. Clinton answered, “Only if you wish for us to.”
  234.  
  235. Chapter 10: Signs of the Rift
  236. Dabin - In Flames (ft. Lexi Norton) (Inukshuk Remix)
  237. (Kiara)
  238.  
  239. “Crystal?” came Kiara’s voice from her room. “Have you been able to find any leads? Anything at all?”
  240. It followed that both these CYC and LDB girls grew a strong friendship with each other after the latter saved the former from near instant death. After all, that was what it took to get the part revealed in the first place. What more was required to bring out the remainder of them, much less obtain them?
  241. Crystal came crashing up the stairs to Kiara’s room. The former appeared clearly rushed and tired, given her huffing and puffing after scaling only two flights of stairs that weren’t even that steep. Kiara noticed something on the other girl’s back, not something that she expected anyone to bring to her house so spontaneously. It appeared to be a cape of some sorts, pure white without a speck of impurities on it. “Yesterday, my captains found this on the ground right in the middle of practice. They decided to give it to me because I think they recognised something about us,” she rattled off.
  242. “Such as?” Kiara asked, now completely intrigued.
  243. “You remember Sam? This sheet was his!”
  244. Kiara’s mouth opened up quite widely at this time before she searched her memory banks for a memory of him. Sam…all that popped up was references of Jerry. Clearly the two of them must have been related somewhat…
  245. “You mean the leader that was in blue? And Jerry’s, uh, relative?” came her voice, seemingly recalling everything that happened the year prior.
  246. “Yeah…he was perhaps one of the best people I’ve met, a real friend on my team before he died the first time. I don’t remember much at all during Vancouver because we were so preoccupied with keeping everyone safe. Come to think about it, now I vaguely remember that sheet. It had some other magical power, didn’t it?”
  247. Kiara walked over to the sheet, which Crystal removed from her shoulders and handed over. The first girl carefully ran her fingers over the smooth fabric, not getting any sense of magic running through the thing. Despite that, her eyes started to shine brightly, almost as though Sam’s lost memories were flowing through her. Her hand remained on the sheet, this time beginning to feel not a warmth from the friction, but a different kind of warmth. What it was, she couldn’t explain at the time.
  248. “Crystal, I see now! If this sheet was Sam’s…then I’ll have to get…the cardinal! That cardinal. The one that Jerry showed all of us that one practice.”
  249. “And if my intuition is correct…the army of centurions and the celestial dragon have to be found once again!”
  250. Both girls high-fived each other, proud of what they had deduced together. There was still one looming question over them, however. Just what was it that both of them needed to do? How would they obtain their sources of power, their very namesakes? The both of them decided to head downstairs to prepare dinner. Although it was only 7:30 PM then, just talking and formulating all sorts of plans made them very, very hungry. “Anything you want in particular?” Kiara asked Crystal, taking out a frying pan from the cabinet under her stove as well as some other various ingredients.
  251. “I was going to ask you the same, actually!” Crystal laughed. “Actually…do you have instant ramen somewhere? I know the perfect way to make it the best way you’ll probably ever imagine…”
  252. Both girls laughed before beginning the almost perfect storm in the kitchen.
  253. And above the house, bright-coloured lightning flashed diagonally across the sky, changing everything around it to darker shades as the sky parted ever so slowly. Rain came pouring down, first as a drizzle, then a deluge as the girls had finished preparing their ramen. They ate and formulated more plans for their inter-team meetings, just how Sam and Jerry had done so a distant year ago.
  254.  
  255. Chapter 11: Driving a Storm to Hell and Back
  256. Kayzo & RIOT - Wake Up
  257. (Lydia)
  258.  
  259. Nothing more than strangers passing by…that’s how everything felt these days. School was always a drag, but practice…practice never made Lydia’s day boring at all. As such, she’d always get excited whenever she passed by the strangers that were the various students at Galileo High, knowing that she was almost unique in her own way. The best part was that practice wasn’t going to have any bad weather conditions, which meant perfect time to practice remained always nearby.
  260. 4:30 PM, and Lydia found herself doing stretches as Benny led them all. Benny was perhaps one of the most respected paddlers on GCD, maybe even the entire city, due to his involvement with the US national team, U18. For Lydia to be able to know him was really an honour. The same could be said about Kali, another girl Benny’s age. Her drive to paddling, even going to paddle for college teams, showed a lot of what GCD could really accomplish if they set their minds to it.
  261. Pretty soon, it was time for everyone to head on the boats like they always did. Vancouver was relatively soon, and so, training frequencies had increased. “Why are we going this year when we went last year?” asked a boyish voice behind her.
  262. She whirled around before noticing Tyler, one of the underclassmen with big potential and a bigger drive to succeed. “Well, last year was kind of a necessity for us to go because Daven went. This year…I can’t really say much about it, but it’s probably going to be a necessity again, given all the crazy stuff that’s happening now,” she lazily answered.
  263. For a moment, while she was headed into the first boat’s dragon butt, she pondered the answer she gave to Tyler. Was there a way that she could tell him, no, the whole team, in a more serious manner? Probably not, not as of right now. But she knew that she’d have to do so soon. The boat pushed off, and she reflected back on how hard she had worked to get a spot on GCD 1, similar to all of her friends on other teams. All the pain and suffering, just to be a part of the dragon boat elite, was all worth it to her.
  264. “Lydia! Are you alright?” Eric asked her. “I’ve just gotta look out for my teammates, you know.”
  265. She shook herself mentally awake, focusing more on the strokes she took out to the bridge. “I’ve just been thinking about stuff. What happened while you were unconscious in the sphere at race should definitely concern you,” she answered again.
  266. Bad answer!
  267. “Actually, let me rephrase that…we’ve gotta find the piece. We’ve gotta find the other three so that we can stop Despharion from a chaotic land!” she screamed more passionately, surprising everyone on the lake with that particular volume.
  268. It was then that a rumble seemed to come from the sky. All of the paddlers that were currently at Lake Merced attentively peered upwards at a golden light that steadily shone brighter and brighter. Lydia herself could only stand up and try to gaze at it, and the boat couldn’t really do much to stop her. But it was fine, as she wouldn’t make the boat tip due to her rather lightweight status. When the thing that was shining descended down towards the water level, her face reddened in shock.
  269. The object was shaped in a rather oblong fashion, almost like a coffin or sarcophagus. Where the intricately-decorated head was, instead there was that familiar blue face with red eyes and an emerald implanted atop the face. Near the bottom was a slot that could extend what seemed to be a…foot, although there weren’t visible toes to confirm that theory. Lightning fizzed around the entire thing, and then more rain began to fall on the lake.
  270. “What is that thing?” Lydia asked out loud, not daring to extend any part of her body outside the boat now.
  271. “That thing you refer to…is Dukdey, the left leg of Orpharion!” boomed the machine part, lowering itself down to submerge its lower third in the lake water.
  272. “Everyone! Don’t touch the water, don’t put any part of yourself outside those boats!” she commanded, something she didn’t expect to do in the heat of the moment either. “Dukdey! What is it that I must do?’ she screamed as wind started to pick up.
  273. “I just request that you beat me in a race. Should you accomplish that task…you will be able to gain my power. Do you accept the challenge?” it asked, steeling itself to race and bolt somewhere.
  274. “As long as I don’t die, as long as we don’t die, and as long as you give me some answers…I shall accept your challenge!” Lydia declared, setting her paddle into the water and motioning everyone else in her boat to do the same thing. “I’m ready for you, and we’re going to save the world, one step at a time!”
  275. “Paddlers. Are you ready?” asked Dukdey robotically.
  276. Nothing but the sound of paddles entering electrified water could be heard from that point.
  277. “Attention? Go!”
  278. And Lydia’s boat began to perform its deadly start. From the shore of the lake, another girl stood on the fishing dock, watching everything unfold from that very moment.
  279. “I found you…one of the next generation!”
  280.  
  281. Chapter 12: Observe! Adapt! Claim!
  282. Trivecta & Wooli vs. 1788-L - Falling vs. A S T R A Y / R
  283. (Lily)
  284.  
  285. “I knew that you would guide me here…” Lily muttered, pulling out the cube she had obtained a couple days earlier.
  286. It had a yellow-orangish glow jetted in various erratic patterns. She would figure out eventually what that meant later, but now was the time for her to observe how this heroine would call the shots. Plus, the fact that there was a part of Orpharion meant that there was so much more at stake. From afar, there was a boat, presumably the one that…she…was on at that very moment. Dukdey, the part called itself. She knew that for a long while, ever since Justin hooked her up on a particular game that she forgot the name of by now. The characters, however, remained memorable in her mind.
  287. “Looks like the paddlers will win. There’s not much to compare now, I guess I’ll just go on home right now…” she muttered, but then a loud groan made her twirl around and scale the small wall on that dock.
  288. The boat that was winning at the time had some hints of smoke coming out the tail end. Meanwhile, Dukdey whirred on ahead, not really caring about the aftermath of the race itself. A girl’s voice screamed in the distance, and shortly afterward, the rest of that boat followed suit, attempting to catch up to the machine. “That race isn’t unwinnable for the boat, but what happens if the robot piece wins? Does everyone die?” Lily thought to herself once again. “I ought to…”
  289. “HELP OUT!” she screamed as she somersaulted directly across the lake and into the paddling boat, shocking everyone in that specific boat. She had a deathly yellow aura surrounding her, and she materialised a black carbon-fibre paddle from seemingly nowhere. When she jammed her blade in the water, the paddle started to glow a yellow hue as well, forming a stripe pattern along the blade and shaft. Even her outfit shifted as well, as she now wore a black, sleeveless shirt, adorned with four golden stripes and doubling as a workable piece of armour. She turned around to the person that seemingly was the true heroine, and asked, “WHAT’S YOUR NAME?”
  290. That person gritted her teeth and screamed back, “I…am Lydia! And this…is my race to win!”
  291. “Lydia! My name is Lily, and I’m happy that you’ve…been chosen to help fight this monstrosity! Have you found the Cube yet?”
  292. “What cube…” Lydia shouted as she passed the finish line, Lily noticing that they actually beat Dukdey in that previously mentioned race.
  293. “You are talking about the Cube, eh? You there! Pass it to the other one. You deserve to do so because you have succeeded against me. Now, go! Show what happens!” commanded Dukdey.
  294. Lily wasted no time in doing so, passing off the cube to Lydia. Immediately, the colours on the block shifted from a bright yellow to a bright violet, spreading all over her body. The same yellow aura around Lily now duplicated, this time becoming a purple one surrounding Lydia at that moment. Her paddle also changed, and it was exactly the same as Lily’s, save for the purple that was characteristic of Lydia. The same thing happened to her shirt, becoming a black sleeveless shirt with a decorative purple pattern around it.
  295. “That is better. And, Lydia, heroine…as I promised, you are now permitted to wield my power whenever you wish to!” Dukdey shook out, before steadily shrinking itself into a more phone-sized shape.
  296. Lydia picked up the piece and stuffed it into her PFD, before raising her paddle and firing a shot of violet energy into the darkening sky. Lily leaned her back against Lydia’s own, repeating the same action to have a yellow shot of energy in the air.
  297. “I think we’re gonna make great partners, then great groupmates. Let’s get together our own teams!” Lily giggled while commanding the boats to head back to dock.
  298. “Glad it was all for everything, Lily. I didn’t know a lot of things until now, but just you showing up made everything crystal-clear,” Lydia responded. “Will you explain to me exactly what’s happening with this new armour and weaponry a little bit later?”
  299.  
  300. Chapter XX: Interlude
  301. ?
  302. (n/a)
  303.  
  304. Excellent…all is according to plan, isn’t it? Just as they would’ve wanted…
  305. The clacking of a keyboard, and then the sound of voices.
  306. Knowing their luck, soon the four of them will be gathered. And at that moment, they get wiped down for lack of experience.
  307. There are four of us, stupid. Little do they know that we have the core to our own star machine.
  308. Ah yes!
  309. The Dark Star Crusher!
  310. Despharion!
  311. But in the meantime…we are to wait.
  312. Something will go wrong for them…
  313. That is when we capitalise on their blunder.
  314. More machines whirring in the background, and then the cry of various other digitally-produced characters.
  315. Are you sure this is the right choice to make?
  316. It has to be! We have to battle together! As one complete unit!
  317. I suppose that works.
  318.  
  319. Chapter 13: A Dance to Shake Cores
  320. Sound Remedy & Nitro Fun - Turbo Penguin
  321. (Lydia)
  322.  
  323. “I don’t understand. Would you say that again for me, please? I’m just a little bit tired…” came Lily’s voice as she lay down on Lydia’s couch. “I shouldn’t have jumped in there, you know?”
  324. “Lily, don’t apologise! I just wanted to know a couple of things about the Cube, the parts, the other two that we need. I thought you might know the most about it, considering everything about you just…changed all of a sudden,” Lydia stated simply. “You actually hid behind me while we were in the sphere…why?”
  325. Lily’s eyes closed a little more than they did so before. She yawned, covering her mouth in the process out of politeness. “We did…the cube is just how the power of the previous captains was stored away. Whether Orpharion or Despharion did so is irrelevant, but now it doesn’t really matter. We just have to get the two others to touch the cube, then Sam’s and Jerry’s souls for saving the world will reignite once again!”
  326. As soon as she finished that statement, she fell into a deep sleep. Lydia was thankful that the both of them showered prior to this, else her parents would be very, very mad. She whispered something to herself very quietly before silently turning to her computer to do some more research on other things…and those that related to the task at hand.
  327.  
  328. Sundays were normally practice days, but somehow Lydia managed to convince her captains to not hold practice that day. Instead, she carefully extracted the miniature representation of Dukdey, the left leg, from her PFD. She noticed that in this state, the machine was completely static. No sounds came from it, no movements traced themselves around. Its intricacies all remained the same, that much was certain. They were just smaller, but they managed to pierce through the silent air and bring about nervousness all around. She breathed heavily while setting the part down on her desk, covering it with a piece of blue paper, and scrawling “TOUCH THIS AND YOU DIE” on said sheet.
  329. Lydia walked outside to see Lily, now clearly awake and typing frantically on her phone. “Lydia, my parents are gonna kill me when I arrive back home! Helphelphelp!” she wailed, pulling her into a rather tight hug.
  330. “Oh…I’m sorry about that, but ya know…I’d just tell them that things required you to stay the night over here. Anyway, would it be alright if we resumed our talk from last night?” Lydia inquired, this time really wanting some answers.
  331. Lily pulled out two slices of bread from the toaster and smeared them with soft butter before sprinkling some plain white sugar on top of it all. “Yeah, sure! Because the Cube is in existence again…we get to channel all the power that the four heroes set into them. Because of that, we get their paddles and armour. They look really cool, don’t you think? I learned you can extend and retract a pair of sleeves as well,” she spoke clearly and calmly.
  332. Lydia poured four beaten eggs into a buttered nonstick skillet, stirring them gently. “Do you recall at all the fact that those four had MORE than just paddles and armour? I vaguely recall Sam having some sort of sheet that did some special things, those particular things I don’t remember much of,” she answered as she continued to stir.
  333. “Oh, the cardinal, the dragon, and the army?” Lily wished to clarify. “Those are…I don’t know if we can still collect them, much less see pictures of them. As far as I know, all record that those things existed is completely deleted…” she sighed, taking another bite of her quick breakfast.
  334. The fresh scrambled eggs came out onto a plate. Lydia brought over two forks and portioned the hot eggs evenly between themselves. “Word has gone around on GCD that the sheet itself was found somewhere. I do not know who has it.”
  335. Lily’s eyes opened up wide. “Don’t tell me…if the sheet exists, then surely the other four MUST be somewhere! Wait…there’s a dance at my school today. We’re weird and combine junior and senior proms together, and I have a feeling that we might have the third person we’re looking for there!”
  336. “Then let’s get ready. How do you intend to sneak us in there?”
  337. “Don’t ask. We’ve got six hours until it starts.”
  338.  
  339. Lydia checked her phone for the time, which read 5:50 PM. Apparently, either Lily had miscounted the time, or they were entirely late for the dance to begin. Both of them wore outfits that totally didn’t suit the formality of prom, but as they planned to actually attend the event super last-minute, there wasn’t time to get proper prom dresses. Plus, neither of them wanted to drop several hundred dollars just for something that’d get ruined instantly. Just their team windbreakers would suit them nicely.
  340. The two girls were walking downtown, right past the Ferry Building and towards the Hyatt Regency ballroom where things were to go down. They entered the door of the hotel and were immediately presented with a “Do either of you have tickets?” by one of the security guards.
  341. Lily sharply said, “No. Both of us are hotel guests.”
  342. “I-I see. Please enjoy the rest of your day, then.”
  343. Lydia, as she walked by the commotion of students, could only stare in awe at the magnificence of the hotel lobby. Two escalators led them to the true main lobby, carpeted floors leading to plenty of open seats and space galore. A bar served many of the student clientele, although only adults came in to drink some alcohol. On top of that, each outfit she noticed looked absolutely stunning. She wished she had taken the time and effort to choose the prom dress that fit her.
  344. “Lydia! Lydia!” came Lily’s voice to the right. “We’re taking the elevators right here. I’ve got keys to a room to reduce all suspicion.” She brandished the card keys, tossing one.
  345. Now, the both of them finally made their way into the cylindrical elevator. Lydia marvelled at the transparent sides that enabled anyone to view the lobby from a different angle each and every floor it rose. Lily hit the close-door button, and they rose, higher and higher, until they reached the twelfth floor. They stepped out, and swiped into the room that was directly in front of the elevator bank.
  346. “This is where we strike. Remember we’re not going to hurt anyone, by the way. We only want to see if my suspicions are right and that particular person has the sheet on them. I’m sure there are bad people that warrant the use of the sheet, but you know what? That’s the plan. All that’s left is to wait for a couple of hours…” Lydia instructed, surprised that the pair didn’t go along with Lily’s original plan.
  347. “We’ll leave at 9 PM. She should show herself by then,” Lily muttered before turning on the TV to some random channel.
  348. What a night they would be in for.
  349.  
  350. Chapter 14: Making Her Way to the Wishes of Elders
  351. Mazare x Feint - Where Do We Go (ft. RUNN) x Lift
  352. (Crystal)
  353.  
  354. “This is gonna be such a fun day and time!”
  355. “I know, right? You look really, really cute right now!”
  356. Crystal and her junior friends Caitlyn, Remi, Sara, Ariel, and Ivy were all in the very same room, helping each other fit their prom dresses on perfectly. Most of that crew had next year to go to a real prom, but decided it would be nice to go for a…test run of sorts. Not that anyone would really know who the majority of that group was.
  357. The six of them quickly situated themselves on the street, hailing a limousine driver that happened to be travelling past Crystal’s house. They laughed a little bit, talking about paddling phenomena that occurred over the past few weeks. “You heard that Gen managed to fall for someone, right? I think he’s really cute…” swooned them all, exchanging the names around for various other people in their community.
  358. Crystal herself, on the other hand, was deep in thought. She knew that she’d be meeting up with Emily B a little bit later on, but was going to prom really the right move for anyone? She had a gut feeling that danger was to be present at the venue, the Hyatt Regency. Danger…from the things she didn’t know, what she couldn’t embrace at the time. “Emily’s going to meet us all at the place, because she’s closer to there than she was to my house,” she told her group. “But I have a bad feeling about what’s gonna happen.”
  359. The tone in the back suddenly darkened. “Wait, why?” Caitlyn asked. “I thought you were really excited to go!”
  360. All eyes then turned over to Crystal. “Well…I have to show you all something. Maybe you’ll remember what it looks like…”
  361. She reached into the back of her dress, taking out a simple white sheet. The white sheet, in fact, that the old hero used. “This thing…” Crystal shook the sheet before readjusting her dress, “was actually Sam’s! Ivy knew that, but I decided to reveal it to you now.”
  362. The four remaining girls’ eyes opened widely. “Caitlyn, weren’t those other, well…things…destroyed a long time ago? That one time we paddled out with Justin’s and Daven’s stuff was supposed to be the end of the conflict, right?” stammered Remi, clearly a little bit concerned about her friend’s duty.
  363. “That couldn’t have been true. If the sheet is here, then surely the remainder of the items have to appear somewhere. Maybe they’ll be found right here at prom!” declared Ariel, now quite determined to help out with the cause.
  364. “We’re here!” called the driver. “Enjoy yourselves…”
  365. The six girls exited the vehicle, graciously thanking their driver for going all that distance, before heading into the hotel lobby. Along the way, they picked up Emily from before, and the group of seven boarded the escalator…
  366.  
  367. Excision & Illenium - Gold (Stupid Love) (ft. Shallows)
  368.  
  369. 8:00 PM, and now all of the girls walked onto the dance floor. Caitlyn immediately speed-walked over to her boyfriend, Collin, who seemed to be waiting for the seven of them. “Collin! Why the hell…” Sara asked before being swept up into a crowd of people that was dancing themselves away. The same thing happened to the remainder of Crystal’s friends, leaving Crystal all alone for the time being. “DIdn’t expect it to go this way…” she muttered.
  370. “Wait! I have…the cylinder! Maybe that’ll…” she thought to herself once again, gripping onto it tightly and uneasily entering that same crowd of people. She had time, so she might as well have enjoyed the entire event to the fullest while she could.
  371. She could hear the voice of the DJ calling out, “LINCOLN! Are you READY?” while beat after beat of deathly buildups played loudly throughout the ballroom speakers. As the kick drum sped up to its sixteenth-note pattern, that DJ screamed, “I WANT YOU TO SING THESE WORDS WITH ME ONE TIME!”
  372. Crystal found herself bouncing on her feet harder and harder, but she had to be careful to not break her very fragile shoes. Soon, the drop kicked in, and she found herself singing the lyrics to the song. “Is it stupid that I love you? Was it all just a big…mistakeee?”
  373. Now her voice lit up in a scream as she shouted the next words, doing so in complete sync with everyone else. “Do I wanna let it happen? Do you wanna just walk away?”
  374. She might have gone to a rave before, but the fact that this kind of music played made her question the real formality of prom. She certainly didn’t expect to be crying, or, at least, close to doing so. Sam would’ve looked enthusiastic that she had gotten herself completely immersed in EDM culture, but not necessarily into the rave culture. Despite that, it wasn’t his wish that she did so. His wish was for her to inherit his old power and to use it for good. But how could she accomplish that task?
  375. “One! Two! One, two, three!” screamed the DJ once more as the second drop hit the entire dance floor.
  376. Immediately at that moment, glass shattered above the mass of people on the dance floor. Two girls leaped forwards from the rubble, both wearing purely black outfits. Neither of them could be distinguished from one another, yet Crystal felt that those outfits looked oddly familiar: sleeveless top, long bottoms, and a helmet that left the face to mystery…just who were these people? The two black-clothed ones approached the lone girl, fumbling around for the sheet in the back of her dress. Crystal managed to yank out the sheet, twirling it around and expecting nothing to happen, but instead, a black cylindrical object dropped to the floor, cracking open and revealing some sort of blue core inside it.
  377. “It is her! You there…tell me your name and the team you paddle on!” commanded the both of them at the same time, drawing out carbon-fibre paddles from seemingly out of thin air and brandishing them at Crystal’s neck.
  378. All of a sudden, a nimble figure managed to scamper towards the three girls, and took defence of Crystal. “Kiara! What are you doing?” she asked loudly, sounding quite scared at this point.
  379. “I’m here to, uh…never mind! I’ll explain later!” Kiara shouted back.
  380. “And to you two…my name is Crystal!” the named person shouted, waving the sheet in an aerial zigzag pattern.
  381.  
  382. Chapter 15: Awaken, Heroines!
  383. Blastoyz & Reality Test - Kabalah
  384. (Lily)
  385.  
  386. “Crystal, hm? I’ve heard of you from my teammates before. Don’t worry, we’re not here to hurt you at all,” Lily declared, her and Lydia retracting the visors on their helmets and extending their hands to Crystal. “You look really pretty, by the way. It’d be a shame if you were to burn in such fancy attire…”
  387. Crystal grabbed Lily’s hand, scared at what she had just said. “Did you say I was going to burn? What is it that you mean by that?”
  388. “It’s simple. That sheet that Sam owned…we figured out its magical power. The way you waved it around was a keystone to awakening yourself as one of the next generation of heroes. If you were completely aware of its power, it would set the entire place aflame…” muttered Lily grimly. “Fortunately, you were not awakened fully, so nothing bad happened.”
  389. The scattered crowd of dancers stood up from their fallen positions, surrounding the Lily, Lydia, Crystal, and Kiara. “Hey, why are you four trying to ruin prom for us? It’s supposed to be a special night!” shouted a random boy before charging at all of them.
  390. Kiara screamed, “Stop! That’s not our purpose. We’ll move over. Forgive us for that untimely interruption.”
  391. “Before you do, you two…Crystal! Kiara! I know your names now, and now you have to show that you are indeed the heroes. If you are, touch the Cube that Lily will bring out for you!” commanded Lydia just as Lily did that very same action.
  392. As expected, both of them laid their hands on the cube simultaneously, bringing about a feeling of dread to all the promgoers around them. Lily watched with delight, but still felt a little bit fearful of what was to happen should their plan fail. Crystal and Kiara both grew a separately-coloured aura around them, blue for the former and red for the latter. Their eyes closed while their bodies shined, and the cube’s colours seemed to fight for dominance over which one to take on. Red stripes overlapped blue ones, which overlapped with more reds and blues, before all of a sudden, the cube itself shattered completely into a billion pieces.
  393. But Lily knew that it didn’t matter, for the transformation was now complete. The two new girls’ outfits looked exactly like the ones the two older girls’ outfits appeared. “Hey! I actually like this. Feels representative of how Sam and Jerry were before…” Kiara admitted, admiring the new sights.
  394. “You’ve awakened completely. But why did the cube break? Is it trying to tell us something, or…” Lily whispered, looking down at the floor that was now beginning to shake violently.
  395. Crystal shouted, “I think I know what’s happening! My Cylinder and your Cube…I think that they’re reacting to each other, but…”
  396. “Crystal! Get away from there!” came Lydia’s voice, with all three of the other girls diving out of the way of some weird object. “Is that?”
  397. “A part! Aquor…is that what we had to do?” Kiara shouted at the now-materialised right hand, signalling the three others to get everyone else out of the hotel before any more damage could be caused.
  398. “You would be correct. I see that you have all awakened. But you must pass my test before you can gain my power. Firstly, I will provide you with nothing. It is up to you to figure out the task at hand,” it droned, bracing itself.
  399.  
  400. Chapter 16: Puzzle and Puzzle, Partly Difficult Edition
  401. MitiS - Namaste, Alvida
  402. (Kiara)
  403.  
  404. “Remind me what your names are, so that we can get ourselves together before anything else,” Kiara spoke as she and Crystal approached Lily and Lydia. “If we’re the heroines, then we have to know each other as if we were best friends…”
  405. Immediately, colour started to snake across all four girls’ outfits, each colour representing a particular team. Crystal sported dark blue zigzags, Kiara had crimson V-patterns, Lydia showed violet spirals, and Lily simply wore golden, orderly, parallel lines. The four of them introduced their names before turning to face their particular opponent, the right hand of Orpharion, Aquor. Why was it so unwilling to help out, even to provide any sort of information when its own host was required to save the world? Something was clearly off, but Kiara shook all that aside.
  406. “Did you notice us bringing a paddle from the depths of the void?” Lydia asked both Crystal and Kiara. “You have the power of your two older heroes now, so you should be able to accomplish that with ease.”
  407. Both of them did so without even having to think about a mystic subdimension running underneath life as they knew it. Soon, the paddles, too, shone their respective colours, and now the team was complete in itself. Aquor simply floated around, observing every little movement the four girls made, not even speaking a single word. That was what made Kiara mad, the fact that everything important was hidden from her, regardless of importance to the world. She had made a vow earlier to change that, and there was no way she would deviate from that very same promise now.
  408. “Think! Since it said it will provide us with nothing…what sort of riddle provides us with nothing at all?” Kiara questioned out loud, twirling her paddle in a simple circle and tracing a red outline in the air with the paddle’s path.
  409. Lily walked around the almost-ruined area, seeking for some sort of clue. Flat ground with patternless floor wasn’t going to help her a lot, but still at least something had to be tried to make this work. “Well, Orpharion and Despharion are represented in a game. I actually knew that Justin played the game, and Sam and Jerry still do. But it’s almost impossible to get ahold of them right now due to our situation…” she thought out loud.
  410. “Lily, say that again!” Kiara pleaded, a bright idea going off in her head. “You said the word ‘game,’ so maybe that’ll be a place to start!”
  411. Lydia pulled her phone out in the hopes that it wasn’t dead, and she sighed in relief, presumably discovering that that wasn’t the case. Kiara looked over at her screen, noticing the various loads of games that were downloaded for a day and forgotten until now, as she tried to piece together in her mind which the correct game was.
  412. Crystal, inspecting Aquor without making direct contact with it, called out to the other three, “Ah yes, that game! We all used to play it at some point. I remember now where it came from!”
  413. “Care to reveal the name?” Lily asked impatiently, still searching for any sort of clue. “We might have a timer set up in here, ready to make this place blow.”
  414. Hearing that, it seemed, Aquor shook in glee. “Ah yes, you have…I do not know, I suppose…seven minutes to solve the puzzle. Do not worry as you will not have to fight against me in any sort of way. All you need to do is call their names!”
  415. Their names…who could “they” be in this situation? Kiara pointed out to one game on Lydia’s phone, and asked politely for her to tap its icon. As she did, though, some strange happenings in the behaviour in the robot started to stir up, causing it to erratically bang itself on the ground, sending shockwaves around. Crystal took the full brunt of the first couple shockwaves, but drew a square with her paddle to hold the shockwaves back, at least for a time. “This won’t last long! Hurry, hurry!” she pleaded, straining quite a lot.
  416. Aquor mechanically drummed out, “You have two minutes.”
  417. On Lydia’s phone, Kiara quickly scrolled through the endless menus of text and icons that she couldn’t decipher, until one particularly interesting phrase caught her eye. “Heroines,” it read. Perhaps that was the key to the puzzle! Nothing could be shaken around or moved slightly, save for the heroines, but still, she felt knowledge surging through her.
  418. “I’m gonna share that knowledge with you!” she screamed, raising her paddle in the air and circling around herself once with it, before dropping it bladefirst to the crack in the ground. “Prepare to call the name, on my command!”
  419. The ground began to shake more and more violently, triggering the four girls’ safety reflexes to find cover together. Red particles of Kiara’s memory about what she had just called started to rain down from an invisible dome, imbuing themselves within the bodies of the girls. They all screamed as shockwave after shockwave came after them, and they skilfully dodged each and every single one of them.
  420. “Ten, nine, eight…” Aquor beeped.
  421. “I’ve got it! Come, Oria!” called Kiara, folding her hands.
  422. “Cherun! Guide us!” called Crystal, repeating the same motion as Kiara.
  423. “Seven, six, five, four…”
  424. “Ilmina! Appear now!” shouted Lily, bracing herself for a fall.
  425. “Three, two, one…”
  426. “Last one! Planar!” screamed Lydia over all the chaos going on around them.
  427. At the very last syllable, everything stopped happening in slow-motion. Chunks of floor magically reattached themselves to where they used to be previously, and the area managed to return to its previous state. The four girls and Aquor, however, still remained just as they were at the present moment, and they watched with awe as everything shifted right before their very eyes.
  428. “You have proven yourself. Kiara. Take my power now!” burst Aquor as it shrunk into a little long shape, finding its way into her jacket pocket…
  429.  
  430. Chapter XX: Buildup
  431. ?
  432. (n/a)
  433.  
  434. They are now awakened, it seems…
  435. Never fear. Just like they did, we shall awaken also.
  436. What is patience in the first place? I want to get powers NOW!
  437. You know that isn’t possible. Chill out…and let the world be taken by storm when we are on the scene!
  438. The sound of steps diminishing in volume.
  439. The sound of energy forms flowing into an entity.
  440. Wind gusting throughout the place.
  441.  
  442. Chapter 17: Go On, Now Tell Us
  443. Shut Eye x Cloudier - Play Pretend x Fantasy
  444. (Kiara)
  445.  
  446. Fortunately for Kiara, there wasn’t any more planned formal to occur for at least another couple of months. Not after the disaster that was Lincoln’s prom. It was crazy to think that only three weeks had gone by since the incident at race, and there was so much progress towards the requirement made already. She smiled slightly before finishing her lunch and heading off to class. It was 1:20 PM already, and she was already quite late for class. She noticed that she took longer to eat because of the fact that she had to plan so many new things for the team, none of which included any short-term bondings whatsoever.
  447. On her way to class, she bumped into one of the captains of LDB, Ryan. He, though quite short and “cute” (as described by many of the boys on that team), held so much hidden power inside of him that propelled him to captain status that year. “Ryan! Did you see my plans for what we can do over summer?” she asked gleefully.
  448. “Kiara, hey! I was just about to look at them. But I do have a question—why are you making these plans in the first place?” he responded.
  449. Uh-oh, she thought to herself. How was she going to explain this to him, that she was the next chosen heroine? Ryan wasn’t particularly close to Sam, neither was he to Jerry. As such, would he really know what was going on?
  450. “Well, if I’m honest, I’ll just let this show you.”
  451. She reached over at her paddle, activating a faint red glow surrounding it and shutting it off again. His face remained at a standstill, which was quite the opposite reaction as she expected. He must have been thinking about it, though, given that he stayed still as the two were walking to some building.
  452. “I need to get the captains in this. As for me, personally, I want you to succeed as a paddler, but is going to so many races over the summer going to wear you out at all?” he asked, sounding much more worried now. “I’m scared that last year is going to repeat itself over again, I don’t want anyone else to falsely die on us.”
  453. “Ryan, if there’s anyone that ought to be really scared, it’s Adela. She had to go through double the trauma, losing BOTH Sam and Jerry at the exact same time. In fact, she had to witness them dying too while she couldn’t do a single thing about it,” Kiara answered, sounding a little bit annoyed. “I also don’t want anyone to die, whether it’s real or false. That’s why I believe that we should go to every race. Macau, Vancouver, Long Beach…I just don’t know how this will play out.”
  454. She stuttered over the last few lines before tears started to well up in her eyes. She attempted to no avail to hold these tears back, and released a flood of them onto the pavement. Ryan couldn’t do anything but hold her in a hug so that she’d feel at least a little bit more comfortable. “It’s not you, Ryan. It’s just the pressure that’s digging into me right now. There are times I feel unsure…” she sobbed.
  455. “I’m sure it’s so. I’ll see what I can manage with the CYC captains, what they know about the other two teams. One thing I can promise you is that we’ll definitely have all four of our teams practicing together sometime,” Ryan tried to comfort her.
  456. And she thought to herself, “As long as we don’t go for six or more hours at a time. I can imagine why that would be necessary, though.”
  457.  
  458. 4:45 PM at Lake Merced on a Tuesday afternoon meant that LDB was all present, ready to practice for whatever sort of event came next. But before that, they were known to be a team that took a notoriously long time to follow any direction that came from anyone, really. Kiara felt it as weird, given that they were still regarded as one of the most elite paddling teams in all of San Francisco. Regardless, it was time for them to get on the boats, and Ryan and fellow captain Audrey began calling lineups for the said boats. Kiara fell into place in her proper spot, right with Crewzers. That was her home ever since the year began, and she had no intention of losing that home.
  459. The crew made their way down to the boat and boarded it, pushing off silently. There was no conversation whatsoever with this group of people, which was yet another oddity present in these days of post-race shock. Kiara couldn’t stand the silence when she was used to conversing with all of her partners, her friends. She couldn’t help but think that they were all affected by her own burden. And that, for her, wasn’t something that she wanted for them. She wanted them to be safe, but it wasn’t possible at the moment when everything was literally out for blood.
  460. Paddling provided at least some sort of outlet for Kiara to vent her anger and frustrations out. Her old captains always told her to leave her anger out on the water, and last year, that phrased always resurged between Sam and Jerry to the rest of the masses. Every stroke led to an expression of anger, some way to release everything that she felt from the day, whether it was good or bad. Emotion, passion…all that embodied themselves in the sport they called dragon boat.
  461. “Let it ride!”
  462. Ryan turned again to Kiara, who clearly wasn’t feeling the rhythm of practice for such a crucial race. “I thought that taking you out to practice would help you somewhat, but I guess I was wrong…” he whispered sadly.
  463. “Again, it’s not you. I just want to get the whole team, no, all four of us, together one time at least. Maybe then I’ll feel a little bit better, I hope…” she responded before trying to focus on what their coach was teaching them all.
  464.  
  465. Chapter 18: Older Plans With Newer Paddlers
  466. ILLENIUM & Said The Sky x Porter Robinson - Where’d You Go x Divinity
  467. (Crystal)
  468.  
  469. Sam had told Crystal once last year that he was to save the world. At that point, she didn’t have a single clue as to what that meant. He wasn’t really known to confide in people that he didn’t really talk to, but since he told her something that vague, she had thought that he was crazy. Back then, that feeling of craziness had a backdoor feeling that he was definitely suffering through an ordeal he told no one else but her about. She reflected back on that encounter, when even last year, everything was just…normal.
  470. Now, as she prepared to meet with Lily, Crystal realised that Sam made lots and lots of plans for various scenarios that could occur. That much she learned from him, it was good to make plans, especially for something so ambitious. She hoped that if ever it was to happen again, there would be no repeat casualties. 3:15 PM. The time had come for the real meeting, the one where all of her plans would be drafted and, hopefully, become a reality. For the world’s safety and well-being.
  471. “Oh, hey! What’s up?” came a familiar voice from behind her.
  472. Crystal turned around to see Lily behind her. The two waved at each other before approaching the other. “Not really much. I’ve been looking forward to meeting you, actually,” Crystal said. “Let’s go somewhere a little bit more private, just in case we have CYC or your paddlers around.”
  473. Both of them agreed to that plan, and so they walked side-by-side towards another random classroom, with no words being exchanged. Lily opened up the door and led Crystal inside, before entering the room and shutting the door quickly afterwards. They took the places of two desks, sitting down in them. There was no part of them that knew what sorts of plans either of them would encounter.
  474. Lily spoke up after a few minutes of complete silence. “Let’s get this out of the way right now. I want our four teams to go to three races over the summer.”
  475. Crystal appeared surprised for a second. She knew of two races that they could all go to, them being Vancouver and Long Beach. But since when was there a third race? She had to dig her mind for a long time before the answer was presented right before her.
  476. “Lowell goes to Macau every summer, according to some of my friends on that team. I was thinking that maybe we could go there as well…” Lily whispered. “We’ve got to increase our chances of finding parts, considering how slowly we’re going in the first place. I figured that’s the most logical option for us.”
  477. Crystal interjected, “But have you considered the costs? I don’t know how ALL of us managed to sneak in Vancouver last year, but you’re really ambitious here! I don’t know how we’re gonna make everything work with more races.”
  478. Lily reached for her bag, opening the zipper carefully and extracting a small manila folder. She set it on the desk with even more caution, opening the folder and showing a series of intricately-drawn blueprints. Of what, Crystal didn’t know yet. Everything was to be explained in due time, but…
  479. “The first stop is Vancouver. It’s not really usual that this happens, but it’s something to realise. I thought it was gonna be the other way around. Anyway, do you know how Vancouver works?” asked Lily.
  480. When Crystal shook her head no, the other girl continued, “It’s just like a two-day race. All of the seedings and semis are on the first day, and all of the finals are on the second. Technically, there’s a day beforehand that’s dedicated to practice, but we shouldn’t be worried about that…”
  481. “That should be the easiest for all of us to sneak into. After all, our four teams always register for that race,” Crystal commented. “What about Macau?”
  482. “I only know the dates that it’ll happen. And Long Beach is, well, Long Beach. I would assume we have at MOST until then to figure out what the hell is going on, and to stop the entire thing.”
  483. “Haven’t we been here long enough? Not that I want to get out of here, but I feel that our plans are solid now…”
  484. “Since we’ve got two hundred again, and we don’t have Justin’s hacking at our side easily, we’ve gotta think of something else. Camping at the race site simply isn’t an option for all three places. I’ve managed to get our teams registered for those races, however. Hopefully, Lydia and Kiara will tell their teams to register themselves as well.”
  485. “So it’s lodging that’s the problem, then. I could try to get UBC for Vancouver. Kiara would have to help us out in Macau, and then Lydia for Long Beach. I think we’ve got prowess now!”
  486. Both girls exclaimed, “Now all we have to do is get everyone to practice! Together!”
  487.  
  488. Chapter 19: Join the Army, You’re Drafted
  489. Makoto Shinkai & RADWIMPS - Weathering With You OST: Grand Escape (ft. Toko Miura)
  490. (Lily)
  491.  
  492. “Attention, Lincoln Dragon Boat! One of our paddlers has an announcement! Lily, please explain the new situation!” Allison announced to the entire team as they were all at practice, huddled together on that grass as normal.
  493. Lily hopped up to take her spot at the front of all the paddlers there. She cried, “Hi there! I just wanted to tell you that…it’s no longer gonna be just us at practice. We have some special guests here that’re gonna join us for three more races. Why don’t you observe the distant land? Check it out.”
  494. All of the paddlers obeyed her immediately, looking towards the clubhouse to see a large swarm of…paddlers? People? Only Lily knew that that crowd was all people. People from three different teams, in fact, all uniting together for a common cause the second time. She remembered her first practice with over two hundred people strong, how Justin and Jerry managed to handle all of them at once and make a team work. She recalled Sam’s and Daven’s incredible heart, wishing to train them harder to save their lives. All in all, it was an amazing, yet sorrowful experience for her. She certainly wished that the next generation of paddlers didn’t have to experience that, that the veterans had to go through it all over again. But she knew deep down that it was all due to necessity.
  495. Pretty soon afterwards, that cloud of people fast overtook the area of grass where all of the Lincoln paddlers were. Lily’s eyes brightened at the sight of different colours, paddles, PFDs, and overall people that came to her today. “I want to introduce to you now the three others that will assist me in bringing us to have a great summer. You three know who you are, why not come on up?” she asked.
  496. One random voice shot, “Since you’re gathering over two hundred of us, does that mean we’re in a desperate situation, like last year?”
  497. From the amalgamation of paddlers, three very distinct figures stood out, ones that could only be known as the leaders. Lydia, Crystal, and Kiara joined Lily at the front, much to the surprise of so many of the paddlers.
  498. “So they’re…”
  499. “Who are they…?”
  500. “Can they…”
  501. The three new heroines introduced themselves to everyone, and then immediately set forward their plans for the summer. In great detail, they explained what they were going to be doing during June and July. The paddlers’ eyes brightened over the mention that they were all going to be racing in not one, not two, but three races, all of them in different venues and against different people. “One thing is certain about this. You’ve gotta be really, really careful about what’s going on around you. Especially since we don’t want to repeat last year’s unfortunate events…” Lily muttered sadly. “Anyway, let’s go. Gear up and line up on your lefts and rights!”
  502. As they did so, the official captains of all four teams gathered to separate them all into their proper lineups. The four heroines moved over to the side, worried about what they had all gotten themselves into.
  503. “You sure this is the best plan?” Kiara asked nervously.
  504. “I’m sure of it. To be fair, I’m kind of scared too…” whispered Lydia. “Despite that, we’ve still got to push on if we want to have any hope of completing Orpharion and the world’s future. You see?”
  505. “Let’s do it, then. For us,” Crystal declared.
  506. The four of them circled together, putting their hands in the very centre.
  507. “For them.”
  508. “Are you ready?”
  509. “I’m ready.”
  510. “I am.”
  511.  
  512.  
  513. Chapter 20: Clearer Skies, Aside From a Purpose
  514. Seven Lions & Crystal Skies - Sojourn
  515. (Lydia)
  516.  
  517. After their brief huddle, Lydia hopped in the line with her usual spot just waiting to be claimed. After all, since there were so many new people to get to know that she neglected to do the year prior, she wished to do so right then and there. “Hey, how are you?” just seemed like such a cliché thing to ask to a random person. Instead, she decided to just wait until they had all gotten on the boat.
  518. Everything felt like it was all the same these days, especially considering that she sat in the same place on the boat, and she was surrounded by the same people mostly. Did she see the usual stuff each day? She could definitely consider herself as someone who always looked for patterns in everything. The ripples of the water as the boat paddled, the same angles that all of the paddlers made with their top arms and the angles that their blades entered the water, the rhythm of all their breaths. Nothing else felt so formulaic, yet so intriguing at the same time to her.
  519. “Hey, what’s your name?” she asked to the person in front of her.
  520. That person turned around, and he looked like he was HUGE. “Me? Oh, I’m Chris. I paddle for CYC. You seem like Sam, if you know him. What’s your name?”
  521. “I’m Lydia. I do know Sam, if we’re talking about the same Sam. Leader from CYC last year, sacrificed himself to save us…you’d know him. He used to jab me in the back back in those days, you know?”
  522. “No, but I would assume it was playful and not to hurt you,” he sighed before returning to paddling.
  523. She heard a “Let it ride!” coming from her coach. Everyone stopped paddling immediately, allowing Lydia to gaze up at the sky. For an early May afternoon, the sky was blue and clear, something unusual for that time of year when it was normally foggy and bleak grey. But something seemed to be odd about her observations. Almost as if she was thinking a little bit too deeply about everything she knew up to that point.
  524. “Are you alright?” she heard a voice from behind her.
  525. Immediately, she snapped out of her daze and turned around to see a Lincoln paddler waving a friendly hello. “My name’s Preston. I just wanted to make sure you were alright. And based on that reaction, I can say that you are.”
  526. “Thanks, Preston. I’m just fine, I needed a little bit of time to think,” she answered, not really thinking about the words she said.
  527. “O-okay, I see.”
  528. Lydia once again steeled her thoughts, preparing to paddle out again. She knew that paddling wasn’t really a hobby at this point in high school, it was a real career (albeit unpaid) and the best lifestyle she had known up to this point. As she set her paddle in the water and pulled to her hip like the coaches of old instructed her, she realised something. This was what she wanted to do all this time. To have an influence on many of the younger and older folk on the team. That was her opportunity to do so. Each stroke she took made her reflect more and more on these thoughts. And above her, the sky grew more clear, the sun making its appearance for a short time.
  529. Grateful for a team to support her, for leaders that she could call friends, for the heroines. For the heroes who saved her life. So many thoughts ran around her mind so that she couldn’t really concentrate on the main goal.
  530. “Paddle like your hearts mean it!” a loud voice called from the middle of the boat.
  531. Of course Riyad would say something like that. He had Daven’s touch running right through him, which was completely unsurprising to Lydia. She liked that, though. For people to share a similar passion as her, right on her own team.
  532. “Let’s have a race!” called a voice from the boat to her left.
  533. Had they really been out there that long already? She didn’t have time to think about that, for Kiara’s angry voice shouted, “Paddlers, are you ready?” to the groan of so many people on the water.
  534.  
  535. Chapter 21: Early Fruition
  536. Slander vs. Gammer - Superhuman (Spag Heddy Remix) vs. THE DROP
  537. (Kiara)
  538.  
  539. The four girls hadn’t actually gotten the chance to talk in-depth to each other before, so hopefully this was the best time for them to do so, Kiara thought. AP exams came around this time, and frankly, none of the four wanted to do anything to study for them. “Don’t study the day before,” she always heard the seniors on LDB tell her. She knew she would learn in due time when she took that particular calculus teacher the following year, the one where many fun and funny stories would be told. But that wasn’t something for her to worry about at that moment.
  540. Kiara and the other three heroines were at the new malatang restaurant that had opened at Stonestown, all enjoying a delicious bowl of spicy soup. None of them exchanged any words whatsoever, focusing only on the delicate balance of flavours from each ingredient that they added into that concoction. Choice meats, fresh vegetables, potent condiments…that’s what made a bowl of malatang really good, considering they’d never had such a dish before.
  541. “Spicyspicyspicy! Aaaah!” Lily screamed, doing so as softly as she could without attracting attention to themselves.
  542. “Calm down! I thought you were able to handle spiciness…” Crystal groaned, filling up yet another glass with water and handing it to the suffering girl.
  543. Lydia and Kiara looked at each other, slightly giggling as they continued through their bowls of soup unscathed. “This place is actually good! Shame it’s so expensive though,” the latter girl moaned as she took another bite of noodles. “Everything’s so premium, so I guess that’s the reason why we spent so much money.”
  544. The four girls continued eating, not seeming to notice four very familiar faces approaching their table. All of them wore the very same jerseys that represented some sort of paddling team that none of them knew. At least, Kiara didn’t know who they were, but Lydia gasped, “Wait…are those Northwind jerseys? Don’t tell me…”
  545. Jerry turned around before readjusting his red windbreaker. “Yep, we all managed to find ourselves in here. We’re Northwind, indeed. Are you surprised?”
  546. Kiara asked, “So, is Northwind the best team now that the four of you are with them?”
  547. Daven answered, “You can never say you’re the best team. We all just got here to eat some food. If you want more food, it’s on us.”
  548. The four girls graciously thanked him, but declined. All of a sudden, Lily’s face lit up with a question on her mind, it seemed. “Justin. I was informed that you were gonna have a concert soon, so would you tell us when it’ll be?”
  549. That person scratched his head, then all of a sudden, he whispered, “It’ll be tonight, actually. All four of us are going to be going back-to-back on that stage tonight at Bill Graham. Since I know you personally, you’ll get in there free of charge.”
  550. Crystal protested, “Hey, what about the rest of us?”
  551. “Don’t let anyone on CYC know I’m performing if you want to get free admission,” Sam whispered, almost in a threatening, yet playful tone. “I’ll say the same for you, Lydia, Lily. See you tonight, I guess.”
  552.  
  553. 10:30 PM, and the four girls found themselves together in the Bill Graham floor. Usually, this place was widely used as a venue for Lincoln, Lowell, and Galileo graduations, but when it wasn’t June, said place became a haven for concerts and raves alike. Everyone wanted to have at least one rave here, whether all ages or not. They all found themselves headbanging to the hardest drops that Justin knew, crying to Daven’s beautiful melodies, and just plain dancing to Sam’s glitch hop and Jerry’s drum and bass at the same time. All in all, stuff really proved to be a fun night, at least for what it seemed.
  554. “I didn’t think that security wouldn’t ID us, you know?” Kiara screamed while jumping up and down to good old-school techno.
  555. “Those guys did say that we were gonna be just let in! I thought we were gonna get VIP treatment tonight, but I mean, they can’t do everything!” Lily shouted back.
  556. Neither of the four old heroes spoke a single word aside from their greeting to the audience, although Justin often showed signs of wanting to burst out some encouraging words to them. Kiara only got more into the event as she felt the rhythm and melodies of all sorts of music thrown at her, everything from simple drum beats to complex electric guitar solos performed by Jerry himself. Sometimes, she noticed her companions crying when Sam tinkled a series of notes that invoked pure emotion, but she herself couldn’t cry with them. She didn’t know why that was true.
  557. Her ears continually pounded with adrenaline from the message of the four heroes’ music. Lydia pulled her phone out and got the heroines in a selfie, then got one with the DJs at the set right while they were performing. “I’ll remember this for a long, long time, guys,” she screamed through tears. “Love you!”
  558. After what seemed like three hours, Sam shouted into the microphone, “Thank you for coming tonight! We all hope you enjoyed it, get home safely!”
  559. Slowly, all the ravers left the place, and it left nothing but the four heroes and the four heroines. Both groups stared at each other, the females all activating their armour. “I think something’s off here,” Crystal noted. “We’ve gotta be careful.”
  560. Justin looked up to the ceiling and got a glimpse of something really odd. Something almost metallic, and with a shine? That meant that…could it be a part?
  561. “Kiara, try to fire something at it,” Jerry calmly instructed.
  562. She obeyed, and shot out a red blast of energy from her paddle. But instead of a big clanking of metal and a task, she, along with everyone heard a big bird’s cry.
  563. “That’s Brian!” Daven exclaimed, looking up towards the ceiling and catching the sight of the metallic cardinal descending down. “So all of our memories are still alive, then…”
  564. Brian let out another cry, before settling down right next to Kiara. Said person spoke, “Jerry, it’s ironic that he chose to lodge here. I don’t think after all the people on my team went to races here that the cardinal would even dare to come to Bill Graham.”
  565. Jerry chuckled. “Well, it’s true I wouldn’t come here unless I performed myself. I guess that came true today, didn’t it?”
  566.  
  567. Chapter 22: Time’s Not to Run Out, But It’s Happening
  568. Makoto Shinkai & RADWIMPS - Date 2 (Kimi no Na Wa OST) vs. Sky Clearing Up (Weathering With You OST)
  569. (Crystal)
  570.  
  571. It was really coming, wasn’t it? All of those races that Lily had such grand schemes for were really approaching them, and what had she done? Crystal decided she needed a little bit of a break from talking to people, at least for a little bit. 7:20 PM was a fine time for her to write down her thoughts and feelings, or, at the very least, to think about them deeply. Why was she chosen, really? What made her be thrown into the sphere that fateful race day, made to inherit the destiny of such heroes like Sam and Bryant?
  572. She slammed her fist on her desk. “I…can’t answer that! Just why?”
  573. Hoping to find answers, or some relief, she pulled her phone out. She opened to some random app, trying to watch videos and relieve her stress. TikTok didn’t help in that regard. Same with Snapchat’s trending snaps and her friends’ streaks that she neglected to read for two weeks. Even YouTube videos about cooking and paddling technique did nothing to alleviate any of the feelings she had about being one of the heroines. She couldn’t handle any of it, and so she decided to try and find stress relief in some other way.
  574. “Mom! I’m going to take a walk now,” she called as she exited her room, donning a black jacket on the way out of the house.
  575. “Crystal? Where are you going? Don’t be out…” Crystal’s mum started, but couldn’t finish that statement. “Maybe she needs this…”
  576. Outside, the child took her steps with a degree of uncertainty. That slowly diminished itself, and before long, Crystal took many steps, increasing her pace steadily, but not so much that she was actually running. A colourful sunset sky rained down warm light on her, neatly illuminating all of the houses and roads she passed by. Every plant and lawn seemed so much more beautiful with all the light coming down on it. To her, this seemed like a world of ideal, far different from the time she spent identifying with one singular colour. That was something she genuinely enjoyed.
  577. “Shit, I left my phone at home…” she whispered to herself upon feeling her pockets. “Maybe it’s better this way, I can at least not be distracted by random ass crap. Onward, I guess?”
  578. She heard a rustle of footsteps behind her, and instinctively swung a fist in that direction really quickly. Upon hearing the “Ow!” in a rather familiar voice, she turned around and immediately looked rather surprised. It wasn’t a person that was making footsteps, but instead, a different thing entirely. The thing in question looked very, very similar to another part that she had encountered before. Which was the name of that part? Aquor, she recalled from her near-death experience in the Lowell classroom with Kiara. That meant…
  579. “Are you the left hand of Orpharion, Frahje?” Crystal asked harshly, stepping forward to the left hand.
  580. “You are correct in assuming so. Believe it when I say that you have already passed the task that is required to obtain me,” Frahje said in the robotic monotone classic of machines these days. “Would you like me to explain?”
  581. Since when did Crystal pass any sort of test? The only thing she could conclude at this point in time was that part was her assigned part, the one that she could interact with and not die at the same time. But after all, she knew that Kiara and Lydia had to pass their own tests, so, she reasoned, it would be right to inquire as to why.
  582. “Do.”
  583. “The answer is simple. You freed yourself from a simply mentality of doing one thing only. Even though you still technically must do one thing only, the fact that you have recognised when to turn away from something giving you stress and doing something about it helped you. The Star Guardians noticed that when you went to paddle, when you did any sort of work begrudgingly, you always focused intently on it to get it done.”
  584. She protested, “But paddling isn’t a burden…!”
  585. “You have said it before. Everything you have said is recorded in our memories, available for your own reflection. Come, let us walk together. Is that not what you came out of your room to do?”
  586. That wasn’t something she could question. Defeated, she decided to lead Frahje to a small park, one that was enough to accommodate several small groups of people who wished to picnic in the outdoors. By now, it must have been 8:00 PM, but that was irrelevant as though the sky was darkening rather quickly, so many of the colours she admired remained visible in the light. She approached some random area of grass, and then the left hand floated directly in front of her, standing about three metres away.
  587. “Is paddling really a burden for you, young lady?” asked the left hand. “Please answer the question truthfully.”
  588. “Of course it isn’t! Well…as of late, it has been, solely because of that task. I’m unsure about it all, and it relates to paddling,” Crystal answered, feeling a little bit sad at her answer.
  589. “I understand. Heroes and heroines often must endure a terrible fate. Surely you remember the story of the last generation of heroes, where two of them were unfortunate enough to fall in their battle that they won themselves.”
  590. “I remember…”
  591. “Good. That proves that you have won one battle, looking back at unfortunate events that you were indirectly involved in. We have to know that you are prepared to experience such an event yourself. Do you believe that you are ready?”
  592. Hearing those questions, she felt a surge of wind begin to kick up around her. FIrst it was a little gust, and then its speed ramped up exponentially, so much so that she struggled to keep her footing on the grass. Bracing herself, she noticed Frahje remaining still without any sort of need to readjust its position. And as such, she concluded one thing, and one thing only. Rain began to pour down on her, immediately followed by a bolt of lightning that happened to land there as an unlucky coincidence. She screamed in agony, feeling as if her skin was about to literally be ripped off her frame by that wind. She could also feel the sting of lightning again, not unlike what she experienced in that classroom weeks earlier. But that lightning seemed to spark a hidden fire within her, one that caused her to break free of the pain and say one final thing.
  593. “I am!”
  594. And just like that, everything returned to how it had normally been. Frahje said nothing, but it simply shrunk down and found its way into her pocket.
  595. “What a walk that was…”
  596.  
  597. Chapter 23: Usual Stuff
  598. Teqq - Lock in Your Love (ft. Charlotte Haining)
  599. (Lydia)
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