Zach came in his house once he took his shoes off. He had fallen again off his megaboard. "I so need the Fire Megaboard," he sighed. His was too worn-out that sometimes it stopped hovering, drawing bumps in his tanned skin. The first he sees once his brown eyes adapt to the obscurity of his clay house, was his mom serving dinner to his older sister, Alexandra.
"I need a job."
"No, you won't get one. You're just twelve," Mrs Molly grumbled.
"You have a billionaire friend, ask her some money," Alexandra suggested in her characteristic emotionless way of talking.
Maybe the most intriguing of Alexandra Mole was not the fact she was a neogoth and showing any good emotions were banned for her subculture, but she was a regular human. The only one of her kind living as a moloid. She was abandoned when kid and Mrs Molly and her husband raised her, in opposition to most of Aznar region.
"Zach knows I don't like him to be friends with that wealthy girl. A moloid shouldn't have friends like those."
Zach said nothing. He cared for not to make his mom, a moloid woman in her forties obsessed with disco music, get angry. Both he and Alexandra knew their mom had anger problems and when she's out of her mind, she can beat them black and blue. However, the neogoth girl complained about dinner, which put a sour grimace on Mrs Molly's face.
"But I made Zach's favorite, conchiglie."
"It's Zach's, not mine. I wanna eat another thing."
"You two ..." she grumbled " ... you are gonna eat what I prepare or else..."
"Wait, mom," Zach rushed to stop her fire, "Alexandra and I are going to eat this delicious dish on our own, right, sister?"
As Alexandra Mole didn't show emotions in her face, it was pretty difficult to establish whether she felt nervous or not, but Zach was tremulous and he lived his life at home trying to take the stones out of his mom's road or she'd be accosted by wrath and her children would pay for it. What Alexandra did love to do was to get her brother into trouble no matter if she was dragged to consequences either.
Once done eating, the boy whispered his itch against the teenager in her ear and locked into his bedroom. His Teddysprouts were waiting for him.
The lights were off. Zach set his mind up to seclude Randall and Billy Bear, more Randall, which despite his cuteness and size, talks pretty disturbing things Zach had to care about.
"Hi, Willy." For no reason, the small Randall called Zach like this.
"Do you want some conchiglie? I saved some when mom was not seeing."
"We don't eat, Zach, but thanks," said Billy Bear.
Zach smiled. He was unaware of the whole plot but came to be the most crowded changer. He had gotten two Teddysprouts: Randall, a small cute brown bear who wants to be a villain rather than a hero, and its big brother, Billy Bear. Another blessing was that they both talked and if Hunter didn't exist, Billy Bear would be the perfect companion. It was polite as hell, very thoughtful and empathetic. It understood Zach's situation and why, as a changer, needed to keep them under lock and key away his sister and mother. Also, Billy Bear had a magical scarf that could lengthen and transform in any kind of item. It was now a staff and thus it spoke:
"We need to seek for rubins," but Zach didn't understand what it always said.
"I am evil!" Randall shouted in its raspy voice and jumped throughout the bedroom.
Then, the skateboarder received a text message from Paris. He didn't understand this either.
---
Gina opened the door and got in the Belt house pretty miffed. The dog was doing something suspicious in the tablet and left it behind it once Samantha was coming in too. She called its name with that tone people use with pets, but Hunter did not do other thing than clearly ignore her.
"I challenged her to a smartball match and the bell rang, it was so annoying. She just turned around and left. Who she thinks she is?"
"Now why're you angry, this time?" Mr Mitchell asked from the kitchen counter. He was actually making food this time. "Samantha, can you explain it? I see, Gina is about to burst out."
The redhead smiled nervously. "How to say it? There's a girl in our class whom Gina is hating much right now."
"I gotta work harder to beat her. Yeah, I need to be bigger than her." The jet-black hair girl spoke to herself while she turned around in the hall.
Gina was referring Minna Shiro, an orange-haired girl who was just doing good at everything. She was good enough at P.E. to be named captain of the female smartball team; she was the fastest doing math with no calculator that even Mandarina Furutsu had troubles today being the teacher's girl; she knew about the date of every mammal's extinction and the sucession of mayors in New Heart Hill, she even got an A+ leaving Gina Belt with just an A for biology class. What the heck? Who was this girl who interrupted Gina Belt's good roll at school?
"She needs to pay off," Gina showed a gloved fist and a devious smile.
"I didn't give you those to beat kids at school, Gina." The tone Mr Mitchell utilized sounded calmed and peaceful, very strange in him as he showed his concern about his daughter's outrageous behaviour in a very visible way.
"The worst part is Minna is very cool," Samantha added, "half school likes her a lot."
"Who are you with, Samantha Wayne?"
The redhead laughed. Gina's dad was focused on his carrots and Hunter showed nonchalance. Its attitude was bothersome and it was a grouch over situations that weren't about Nettai's rubins. It also expressed itself in a bossy way, which hit the nerves out of the Belts. Gina and it had collected eight rubins that Hunter hid inside its plush.
'This chatting is not of my business,' the dog thought. Suddenly, a rotten odor fogged its sight and felt queasy. Hunter barked at Gina. It was indeed a very unusual bark, didn't sound like one an actual puppy produces and Samantha believed it had been Mr Mitchell who faked poorly the sound. Gina shut her trivial thoughts and asked Samantha to leave, pretending a bit of malaise.
---
Today, Gina's first news at school was the change of principal. Mrs Moonface, got to be officially the head of Nettai's public high school. It was bad news, knowing that woman was an oni in contrast to her husband. She was one of those Nettai citizens who felt and showed an open hatred to Gina, like Mrs Hodoson, the librarian, or Mrs Figg.
After the anthem, Gina got in showing her silver rocketboots. She had no need now of walking anywhere or being humiliated by the schoolbus. The girl showed triumph and swept her black hair, as far as her skirt. She smiled confidently. Some students ogled the blue slit gem in her throat and whispered funny things about her orange belt apparently full of bombs, or even commented those gloves which substituted the tiger pattern ones she used to wear. But this was all. And she wanted more. Truly, she just fomented kind of fear in the students.
Minna Shiro walked past her. Her hair smelled fragrantly and was bouncing in the air, her smile and gracile way of walking transmitted a gentler attitude. She looked just juvenile. Gina was vanished in a jiffy.
"Hello, Minna."
"Hi, how's everything?"
"Shiro!"
"Good morning, Shiro!"
Samantha said hi too, Gina crushed her with her violet eyes. "What, Gina? I'm just saying hello."
Gina was miffed because she couldn't sense anything authentically malignant in her, on the contrary, her mood was contagious and her exaggerated dexterity put her on a pedestal.
"That girl is killing me. She's getting popular, there can't be anyone more popular than me."
This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
"There are," Samantha said. "There's Paris Healtown."
"Oh, please," the Belt girl snorted cynically, "I've seen her pay students to say hi to her."
"Then, there's The Ashes."
"SHUT UP, SAMANTHA."
---
The bell rang at 3 and something. Gina came out turning her rocketboots in velocity 2 as her house was close; she was about to ascend the sky but then she saw Minna Shiro walking out the school on her bare hands while everyone clapped at her.
"What is she? A circus monkey? I can't put up with her." Gina decided to follow Minna to see if she indeed was capable of getting to the bus stop walking on her hands.
The Healtown limousine was parked.
"Zach, who's that freak walking like the Exorcist?" Paris was peeping through the window.
"Minna Shiro, she goes in third. She's one of the most known girls here, Paris. She's got good vibes."
"Ha! Who could follow her? Look at her hair, she's obviously not Japanese."
"Well, she's more Japanese than you, for sure."
"How dare you, Zach?" Paris pouted. "I definitely liked you more when you didn't talk. Oh, look, that's Gina Belt," she meant the pink and blue spot flying over, "it seems like she's following the stupid circus girl."
"Let me see, is she? Oh, Minna keeps on walking on her hands, she's so dope."
"Alfred, don't crank the car up."
"As you wish, Ms Paris."
"What'll you do, Paris?"
"Go, Zach, we're following them too. We could ask about the message we received" The girl grabbed her magical handbag and Zach seized his megaboard and started to follow Shiro taking a prudent distance. Shiro unexpectedly diversed into the wood area instead of 'walking' on the sidewalk.
Gina felt a slash of air very close to her right ear. It was a swift small ray of light that could've ripped her ear off with the velocity it was flying. The ray was leaving an amber track in the sky and lost intensity each time until it started to plummet. Minna cartwheeled and stood on her feet, dusting her hands off.
"Wow, I couldn't anymore," and then she saw the shiny ray falling in the deepest wood area. "Holy! What was that?"
Crown St, where the Belts live, was separated from Abura St and Kaki St by the wood area. This zone is crowded of trees and spiny oaks, marking the frontier with the frightening Forbidden Forest. The light tail made a hole in some bushes like a cannonball and stayed in the shape of a rock in an almost dry creek. Minna came to the small rock jogging.
"A gem?"
Gina descended and hid behind a spiny oak. 'A rubin?,' she thought.
"What do you see, Zach? What is it?" The moloid was zooming up on the whole scene with his goggles while Paris was bothering pulling from his bomber jacket. They were hidden in some muranko bushes far from Gina Belt. "Shiro is picking up something from a creek."
"What's she picking up, dammit?"
"Silence, Paris. They could hear us, do you want to be busted by Gina? Huh, it is a yellow pip, the thing in the creek, very weird. It shines like the one your dog came from."
"I must have it, hotkey!"
"Oh it disappeared."
"Beg your pardon?"
Gina also witnessed herself, she was close enough so, she really cast a glance at what it happened. Minna put a fingertip on the amber rubin and this one had just stopped being.
"How odd," Minna let say. She just stretched and left the creek like normal.
"Do rubins do that?" Gina remained ignorant of many features regarding being a changer.
Minna walked her way out of there. Gina heard some rumour nearby and screamed at the direction of this, knowingly Minna wasn't nearby anymore. Zach and Paris came out of the bushes, arguing with each other.
"I told you you were making too much noise, Paris."
"You two bedbugs are a pain..." Gina snorted.
"Ha! You just envy me because I'm rich and you're a moneyless girl with a bad sense of fashion."
"I can know more about fashion than you, brainless bimbo!" Gina felt indeed insulted by the Healtown girl and made a blue sphere in her right hand just ready to blow her face away. A sound that disturbed their ears came from around.
"Help!"
It was a scream. It was Minna's voice which then surprised them turning itself into a Machiavellian laughter.
"Stop arguing," Zach said, "let's see what happens."
When they reached her, Minna was in the middle of the wood area looking at her hands, absorbed. When she turned around and faced the trio, Gina, Zach and Paris witnessed that the yellow gem peeped through Minna's throat and her orange hair had elongated as to make her look like a skinny Medusa.
"You will die," Minna said and her angst blanked face showed elation and she laughed like killing the three changers was the most amusing activity in the world. She flung against them, elongating and tying her orange strands in the branches. Gina evaded the slashes the hair strands threw her, so did Paris and Zach.
"What's the problem with that lass?" Paris said.
Out of nowhere, possessed by what it seemed a grudge, Minna's hairs slashed and shook yearning for hurting the trio. She saw her field open when Paris looked less stealth than the rest. Minna grabbed Paris, tying her with orange ropes and suddenly, darted into the deepest of the wood area, it means, the Forbidden Forest. "Paris!" Zach screamed, and what followed, he drew his claws and made a hole in the ground to stick in.
Gina used her boots to levitate in the direction that Minna had gone. She stopped, dubious, when she ran into the stacked old sign that read: "Forbidden Forest. The township of New Heart Hill doesn't take responsibility of those who go inside." She wasn't really scared but was this a good idea? Paris Healtown had Zach to rescue her but it was also a matter of rubins. This was Gina's job according to Hunter.
Gina stepped in. The forest had a bunch of gloomy rotten-skinned trees with something like eyes and arms. They laughed and whispered things that made Gina tremble. She wasn't iron, anyway. The branches like fingers stretched to scratch her face or prick her ribs. Gina turned her gloves in Mode One and blasted trees with her spheres.
"Disgusting trees, die!"
She saw pitch black silhouettes dancing on the surroundings and running on the corner of her eyes, the laughter and the whispers didn't ever stop. A shady tall figure whispered something in her ear and she realized Minna was in front of her. The mad girl had webbed her strands throughout the branches catching Gina in a spider snare. Paris was on the floor, bundled in orange.
Minna laughed. "You'll die here."
When she prepared to attack Gina with strands like sharp knives, Zach Mole came out of the ground and cut the menace with his large moloid claws. He set Paris free and threatened Minna. Gina cast light spheres but they were useless as Minna vanished them only with a smash of her strands. Only Zach represented her defeat.
"Zach!" Paris commanded really pissed off, fishing some electropliers from her magical handbag. "Let's attack that freak."
Gina was astounded but the rich girl had just made a very good copy of them.
Zach cut Minna's web in the branches with a powerful slash while Paris made her dead set against Minna, already showing an expression of lostness.
But when they shouted victory, a large figure stood tall among Minna and the two of them, scaring the hell out of Zach. Paris called Tobby out of her handbag. "Tobby, just destroy them. I really hate this supernatural place."
Tobby came on stage. The Teddy cast an electric ray through its mouth and the large figure sent a wave of air, tossing Tobby away. Zach was mesmerized. He was underneath this spectre. He was paralyzed, although his job had been effective, Minna's cobweb joined together slowly again.
The figure was tough. It was clad in a black cloak whence some horns could peep through. Two red ambers glowed from the face. The figure aided Minna by appeasing her misgiving.
"Unhappy mortals."
"That voice is really eerie!!" Zach screamed.
"Get away from us."
Zach fell to the floor, frightened. His claws disappeared by shrieking. Paris cursed about the way her cute Teddysprout had been sent away and ran with her electropliers against the figure and the Medusa. The figure grabbed her weapon and broke it. Defenseless, Paris walked backwards.
Gina had been observing the actions of each of these characters calmed and voiceless. She was not this kind but she was taking notes in her mind. Gosh, the wishes she had to beat this guy black and blue!
"Hey you ..." She finally said. She meant the tall figure. "Leave Minna alone."
"Minna?" The figure laughed. It was a ghostly sound. "Her name is Venciello now."
"What makes you think I'm working with you?" Minna said smiling cynically.
"Well, you're certainly a freak. Acting like an attraction because you can't hide your freakiness and you desperately look for a way to blend in despite of this. Realizing feats you shouldn't, trying to be celebrated. But you will be hated now. Look at yourself." A bony hand fingered Minna's gem, which peeped out of her throat skin. "You can't hide your freakiness no more."
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"Leave her alone!" Gina shouted. "Mode One," the gloves said.
"I'll give you a purpose, Venciello."
Gina levitated with her boots. Both of her open hands carried luminous spheres. She was ready but, suddenly, the tall figure popped out in front of her in the middle of the air. It slapped Gina's left cheek so hard that she was sent away worst than Tobby. Gina hit the trunk of a dusty living tree. The figure took Venciello forcibly and went in the deepest zone.
"Unhappy changers," it let say.