Chapter 8
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Wednesday 12th August 1998
“So, what’ve you been up to?” my friend Russell asked with no idea how big of a question that was.
“Err…” I began while awkwardly tapping the can of Coke I was holding.
I’d been fretting over this since I got up. How much would I tell him? Should I even mention all this Lokonessence colour-coded weapons monster-fighting stuff? How else do I explain befriending three people from our year group, if I even say that much? What else do I say? When I arrived at the shopping centre, I was still scrabbling about in my head trying to assemble an explanation. Once I met up with Russell, the preparation got discarded like a newsreader tossing their papers to the air. Conversation dominated my mind while we trudged from shop to shop and once Russell sprung the question on me…
“Nothing much, really…”
I dismissed the past month-and-a-bit entirely.
“You?”
“Went on that holiday to Naples,” Russell began, “and that was pretty fun. Great food. And man, you should see the girls there!”
“Yeah?”
“Seriously, I would’ve taken photos if it wasn’t weird. Maybe you can see some girls in the background of the ones we took… I’ll have to check.”
“I appreciate it but you don’t have to, man…” I assured him. I may be a hot-blooded young man, but I wasn’t so desperate to see attractive girls that I needed him to scour photos for blurry Italians.
“I mean, I’ll be doing it anyway at some point…”
“Fine, if there are any good ones, show me.”
… well, y’know, if he was doing it anyway…
“And I went paintballing with my cousins,” he continued, pausing to take a swig from his can of Sprite. “Whoever decided paint would make a good weapon is evil to the core.”
“Yeah, it’s pretty crazy,” I nodded. Getting a little close to home there, Russell.
“You ever been?”
“No, but I probably will sooner or later…” Because you know as well as I do that Kendal will inevitably drag us into it at some point.
“You should! It stings like a mother but you feel like… some kind of super-soldier or something. If you’ve got nothing to do, it’s worth a shot. School’s only a month away,” Russell pointed out.
“True…” I muttered, gazing at the ground, tapping my can again, hoping we could move the discussion to the other side of the world of conversation.
“So, you’ve just hung out in your room the whole summer?”
Gah! Russell! Stop!
“Well, uh… not entirely… y’know, piano lessons, for one…”
“Ah, right, all that stuff,” he shrugged. Russell never did understand why I enjoyed playing the piano. A change of subject was inevitable.
“What else, though?”
Damn it…
“This and that, I guess… just, y’know…”
Words, words, find words…
“Things…”
Great.
“Things like what? You’re being cagey.” My friend looked at me accusingly. “Did you get a girlfriend or something?”
Dakota flashed to my mind – senselessly – her smile and laugh and everything.
“Come on. It’s me. Like hell am I gonna wind up with a girlfriend,” I reasoned, with myself as much as him.
“Then why are you blushing?”
What? No! It couldn’t be…!
“A-Am I?”
“Yeah,” he smirked under the impression he’d actually caught me out.
“How much…?” I asked for a reason I can’t fathom.
“Err, sorry, I didn’t bring my Dulux colour chart for shades of blush.”
“No, it’s…”
Words, damn it, words!
“It’s not like that, there’s just…”
“You met someone?”
“I met… multiple people…”
“Damn, Alex, you’re playing the field?”
“Please stop making this all about girls!” I pleaded.
“You’re not giving me much else to go on.” Russell put his elbow to his knee and cupped his chin in his palm.
“Yeah. Sorry,” I uttered awkwardly. Another swig of Coke was in order. Anything to delay this conversation and the bean-spillage that it was hurtling ever-closer to.
“Was it a crime or something? Have you been, I dunno, tagging all over town?”
“No. Do you even know me?”
“Yeah, you’re the guy who’s honest about stuff. Right?”
That left me at a total loss for words for what felt like longer than it probably was.
“Good point…” I finally mustered.
I didn’t really have any other choice, did I? I had to find some way to explain this. It’s not like we were bound to secrecy…
My pocket started beeping out a peppy tune – almost jumping, I quickly dug my hand in and withdrew my mobile phone. I had a hunch as to who it would be, and the little screen confirmed it: Bao.
I’d informed them all yesterday that I was going to be meeting a friend. “Call me if there’s an emergency,” I’d advised. There was a 50:50 chance this was an emergency or Bao felt the need to inform me of something.
“Sorry, I’ve got to take this…” I informed Russell, standing up and taking a few steps away as he muttered something about “player of the year” behind me.
“Hey Bao.”
“Turn on the TV,” he replied.
“Erm… let me walk home from town where I’m meeting Russell, and I’ll do that.”
“Oh. Yeah, sorry, that slipped my mind.”
He chuckled a little, then cleared his throat.
“Is this to do with that show you keep talking about?” I asked, hoping that I wasn’t going to have to outright abandon my meet-up (yes, despite the efforts to kill the conversation with Russell dead).
“Err… kind of, yeah. I’m gonna miss it.”
“I’m sorry. And you were so anxious about getting to see it…”
That said.
“Did… you have to call me about that?”
“Lemme finish!” Bao urged me. “All the TV channels are showing static. And… y’know the 10,000 Volt Ghost?”
I sighed.
“Bao. I appreciate you trying to teach me all the Scooby Doo monsters but no, I don’t remember which one the 10,000 Volt Ghost is.”
To his credit, the impromptu crash course he’d put me through hadn’t gone too badly, but I hadn’t memorised even half the number he’d managed to in the span of about four days.
“Big fuzzy orange dude,” he clarified. The mental image sprang to my mind at that – more or less, anyway. I got which one he meant, at the very least.
“Okay, yeah. What about it?”
“There’s a lot of them.”
“… in the show, or…?”
“No, I mean-”
He groaned as though I was the one being confusing.
“Monsters that look like him! Loads of them! I think they’re blocking the TV signals somehow.”
“Where are you?” I asked, making sure I had my bearings to head off where I needed as quickly as possible. Not that I didn’t know precisely where I was, but I felt the need to scan the area and map out the quickest route as soon as I was given a destination. Amidst the afternoon hustle and bustle, I noticed an arm waving around frantically – though I thought nothing of it at first, my attention soon focused in on it.
“Can you see me? I’m the one that’s waving!” Bao addressed me over the phone. He jumped up and down while flailing his arm around, for added emphasis.
“Yeah. Yeah, I see you.”
I couldn’t help but smile.
“I see you, man. I don’t see the monsters, though.”
Off in the distance, Bao stopped waving, stopped jumping, as realisation seemed to dawn on him.
“Oh. Hang up,” he urged.
“Okay…” I ended the call, unsure as to why I had to do that when he could’ve hung up himself.
The phone sparked and crackled with white-hot electricity. On instinct, I dropped it to the floor – thankfully it didn’t simply break apart. As more bolts consumed the device, a burly figure rose from the tiny storm, fizzing yellow forming a vaguely-human shape, two feet taller than me.
“You’d think I would’ve seen that coming,” I said – whether I was saying it to myself or to the electricity-monster in front of me, I’m not sure.
“What the hell is that?!” Russell screamed – he’d leapt up onto the bench, terrified eyes locked on the new arrival. Wait, that didn’t make any sense…
“You can see it?”
- because every previous monster we’d fought over the past six weeks or so had been invisible to everyone except the five of us… and Lucy and Neil, actually. Had I somehow let the truth slip to Russell without realising? Or did he already know…?
“Of course I can see it! Who could miss it?!” he screeched at me. And once he posed that question, I noticed just how many other people in the immediate area were now scrambling away in fear and panic.
For some reason, I gave the monster a quizzical and accusing look. ‘And the monster said “sorry, it’s shocking how often people notice me,” and we all had a good laugh, The End.’
Snarling away, the lightning yeti (does that name work?) began walking towards me with a devilish look on its crackling face. I kept my eyes fixed on it, stepping backwards at the same pace, trying to figure out how quickly I could get to my sword without this thing electrocuting me. I’d brought it with me, of course, to be on the safe side; but to avoid arousing suspicion from Russell, I’d left it with my cousin in the little bookstore she works in. A few streets away. Maybe a minute if I ran, considering the crowds, but I had no idea how fast this thing could move. It was made of electricity, after all. For all I knew, it could strike me in an instant.
I tightened my grip on the sword as I-
Wait.
Wait wait wait.
My digits explored what was inexplicably in my hand to make sure… yeah, this was my sword.
I suppose it wasn’t the first time it had seemingly teleported…
Without missing a beat, I raised the weapon up in front of myself, emblem facing my chest, and let it douse me in blue. The paint-like veil descended and I pointed the blade at the lightning yeti.
“What the fresh hell is going on?!” Russell cried out – I couldn’t afford to look at him.
“Russell, get to safety,” I ordered. At this point, I was long past being able to hide this from him. Him not getting hurt was more important.
The beast bolted (ha) past me, around me, behind me. I span around, and found it leering over me, hands raised.
A pink arrow struck its shoulder, then another hit its neck. It stumbled off to the side, its form shifting about and crackling louder than before.
“You’re welcome!” Kendal chirped from – I now felt safe enough to turn my head for a brief moment – atop a large bin a small stretch away.
Bao dashed over to me, surveying the lightning yeti as it plucked the arrows from itself.
“See? Total Chinese knock-off of the 10,000 Volt Ghost. I’m allowed to say that cos I’m Chinese,” he added breezily.
“You said there were more of them?” I clarified with him.
“I said there were a lot of them.”
“Yeah, which includes this one…”
“I didn’t know about this particular one, though…”
“Just kill the damn thing!” Zahid growled – striding past us with intense purpose, he raised his axe up high and swung it down, striking the electrical monster in the head. As expected, it steadily smudged out of existence.
“One down, a thousand more to go.”
“Please tell me you’re exaggerating…” I pleaded.
“Dakota’s dealing with another down the street,” Bao recounted, “and we got seven- no, eight- no, it was seven… right?”
He looked to Zahid for confirmation; our friend raised his hands up and outwards in a “why are you asking me? I was busy killing them” kind of gesture.
“More coming your way, guys!” Kendal shouted out to us. We turned to see three more lightning yeti (yetis?) prowling through the rapidly-dispersing and deeply panic-stricken crowds.
“Any clues on why people can see these?” I asked my allies.
“Breakdown of the Someone Else’s Problem field?” Bao proposed, tapping his weapons together all the while.
“Three of them, three of us,” Zahid observed with a gloss of anticipation to his voice. “I’ll take the ugly one.”
“Which one’s the ugly one?” Bao and I questioned in unison, and both started grinning.
“We’re so the Turtles,” the shorter guy added, before speeding off into the crowd. His leftward route left the middle and right yetis for myself and Zahid.
“I forgot that line was from that damn film…” my red-sporting friend groaned, before vaulting towards the centre creature.
I turned to Kendal quickly once more. She gave me a thumbs-up.
“I’ve gotcha covered.”
Dakota was rushing over looking a little worse for wear.
“How many?” she yelled out to me.
“Three. I’m going in,” I called back, before turning and rushing towards the furthest-right monster. Russell had disappeared – I ran for the bench we’d been sat on, springing off of it to give myself a boost into the ever-thinning crowd. I kept my sword close when weaving past people, and quickly reached the lightning yeti, retaining my momentum to stab towards it. Naturally, it zoomed away from the sword, off to my left; I planted my right foot down to halt my lunge and swung in the same direction, clipping it as it moved back.
A pink arrow struck the creature’s back and it turned in Kendal’s direction. While it was distracted, I stabbed into it, blasting blue through it for good measure. The colour filled its fizzing yellow body, coursing through it as it smudged away. Job done, I scanned the area and saw another two yetis leaping down from the roof of the building close by.
“Can’t you guys find some other town to terrorise?” I asked them.
…
“Or just… not terrorise at all? That would be ideal.”
I really should stop talking.
“Forget the first bit. Dunno what I was saying.”
Aaany moment now.
… and lo, I managed to shut up. Time for my sword to do the talking.
… maybe I should shut up here too…
I took a step forward, purely to get them moving in response. One zoomed back up the building – literally running up the wall – while the other used the usual trick of moving behind me. It roared out in pain as soon as it did. Turning, I was greeted by the sight of Dakota, her spear with its tip pulsing green, and the lightning yeti fading out of existence.
“You got the other one covered?” she asked me, withdrawing her spear from the mid-air smudge.
“I could use Spider-Man’s help, but I think I can manage,” I nodded. She smiled back, and turned, darting off elsewhere. I returned my focus back to the electrical entity clambering onto the building’s roof once more.
“Get back down here! Face me like a… whatever the hell you are!”
It got on all-fours at the roof’s edge, and leant back, ready to pounce directly at me.
I gulped.
Without pause, the creature propelled itself away from the roof, shooting right for me – I quickly raised my sword and slashed towards it, unleashing a bigger arc of blue than I’d ever done before. The lightning yeti never reached me, seemingly obliterated by the blow.
A little shaken, I looked down at the sword. Just how much power were we all wielding?
“Watch out!” Kendal called out from nearby. I glanced up from the sword and saw another five monsters approaching me. The street was empty now save for us and our bizarre enemies.
“Damn it…!” I grunted, raising my weapon up. It was a struggle handling one with how fast they were – I was relying on luck and teamwork – let alone a whole bunch of them. And they really did seem to be limitless. Even if they weren’t, how long would we be fighting? What would happen if the police turned up or something? Hell, the military? This whole situation was crazy and it could completely change everything we were doing. Would we have to call Neil to help explain all of this? Would he even bother helping us, or just recover the weapons? All of this-
And then it dawned on me. The lightning yetis had stopped moving. They were stock-still.
Looking around, Dakota, Kendal and Zahid were all likewise being confronted by frozen beings.
“… where’s Bao? Did he do something?” I asked, hoping to make sense of what had happened.
“Or did time freeze?” Kendal suggested.
Dakota held her spear up, moving it to and fro and watching the green glow strengthen and weaken.
“This way,” she beckoned eventually, heading off towards an electronics store. The rest of us followed after. I wondered what out-of-left-field solution Bao may have stumbled upon. Broadcasting some kind of blocking signal, perhaps? Tuning into a certain channel?
The store was full of televisions, VCRs, radios and more. A couple dozen people were at the back of the store, huddled together, a couple holding items in self-defence. And there, sat in front of one TV, the only one displaying anything more than static, was Bao. His tonfa blades were affixed to the aerial.
“Why am I not surprised?” Zahid sighed.
Hearing that, Bao turned to us.
“Oh, hi guys. Shh, I’m watching the show.”
And then his gaze returned to the screen.
“The monsters are all fading out,” Dakota observed, peering out of the shop window; the other TVs returned to muted regular scheduling. “And some guy’s walking over here.”
Russell walked in a moment later, breathing heavily and glaring at me.
“What in the name of Mother Theresa’s knees is going on?”
“… uhm… this is what I’ve been doing with my summer…” I replied sheepishly. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you…”
“No, I mean… I get it…” he reasoned, running his hand through the front of his hair and then looking at the others. “And… Bao, Zahid and Kendal, too?”
“And I’m Dakota,” our Irish friend waved lightly at him.
Bao was leaning closer to the TV, trying to focus in on it and drown us out.
“Have you guys been doing this for long?” Russell asked us.
“Most of the summer! That and hanging out!” Kendal enthused, which brought a confused look to his face.
“You must’ve gotten used to this quick. I would’ve had brown pants if those things were coming at me…”
“Who… who are you?” one man spoke up from the civilian crowd at the far wall. For a moment, none of us answered.
“We’re the Painters,” Bao spoke up, eyes still glued to the screen.
“Apparently, we’re the Painters,” Dakota reiterated. “And we’ll be on our way-”
“After this.”
Bao shuffled a little closer still.
“Not missing it now.”
We stayed there for another ten minutes, dodging questions and generally feeling awkward. Zahid had opted to return to Dakota’s and set up the VCR to record the rest of the show, allowing us to leave once the show got to the break (even then, Bao wouldn’t leave until Zahid called to confirm the recording was going). Thankfully we got away before the press could appear – bad enough our exploits were suddenly public, let alone having our faces on every newspaper and the 10 o’clock News.
Speaking of which… they reported it. “The Painters” are national news. No images or video, just eyewitness reports. Lucy was grinning at me through the whole report. I should probably tell my parents some time…
That and the uncertain future ahead of us aside, this day had presented three new things. Firstly, why were the monsters suddenly visible to everyone else? Secondly, fair enough the lightning yetis blocking the TV signals, but how did Bao bypassing that stop them all? And thirdly… Russell had raised a good point. I hadn’t even realised how quickly I’d grown accustomed to all of this. I’d always figured I’d just maxed out my credulity almost immediately, but… this was all one strange mystery.
Still. Before we’d all headed off, I’d apologised to Russell once again.
“It’s cool, Alex,” he’d assured me in response. “Just don’t forget to hang out with me as well when you get the chance, y’know?”
Beneath everything else, I felt guilty for having neglected him all this time. At least his words alleviated that somewhat. We may not hang out all that much outside of school, but he’s a good friend when it comes down to it.
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