Period 4, Journalism

In Steven’s 4th period class, it was going as usual. Until, Mr. Noronake had an announcement. “Students, I would like to show you something.” He then went to his closet, and pulled out a rusty sword. “This is a sword from ancient Japan. It was made sometime in the 1700s, I would guess.” The whole class marveled. “I suppose it’s pretty useless now, with how old it is and whatnot.” He then swung the sword. “But a sword is a sword, is it not?” Steven then asserted, “Swords are cool and all, but guns are better.” Mr. Noronake asked Steven, “Why do you feel that way?” “Well, they’ve got more range, more power, more mobility, more...well do I have to explain.” Marty argued against that, “Well, maybe it isn’t always about the actual usefulness of a weapon...but perhaps the style? Like you can only shoot with a gun, but with a sword you can slice, dice...mice?” Iris stopped Marty from speaking any further, “Marty has the right idea, but a completely wrong way of explaining it. How good a weapon isn’t completely based on its usefulness, but the feeling of the weapon. It is hard to explain, which is probably where Marty fell flat. There’s a difference between fighting with a gun rather than a sword. With a gun, there’s no spirit or honor or strategy put into that, only a pull on a trigger. To know how to use a sword, you have to train for years and even then you may still lose.” Seven interjected, “But isn’t the point of a weapon to hurt? Isn’t it a good thing it requires little skill?” “I was about to say that. Who gives a damn about spirit or feeling or any of those other concepts you mentioned,” Ivy joined in. Mr. Noronake declared to them, “It has to be the sword. Think of which you would want. One option is a famous painting, for sake of scale let’s say...The Creation Of Adam. And the other option is a brand new house. Anybody would pick the painting, no?” Steven debated against that, “First of all, The Creation Of Adam was painted on a ceiling, how would someone go about owning that? Second of all, I in fact would pick the brand new house. What’s a nice painting in a dirty house? It’s like Jesus being born from a homeless person.” Mr. Noronake shook his head. “You’ve just gotta look at it from a different perspective, Steve.” Steven being called Steve reminded him of his father, who would never call people by their full names. That was the only person who’d call him “Steve.” Mr. Noronake smiled, “I guess I can’t change everyone’s mind. Marty stammered. “Well, think of it like this. Uhh uhhh uhhh. Anyway, to truly understand we have to first think of it in a different light. Let me tell you an analogy. Hitler vs. Stalin.” Iris started laughing, “Shut up, Marty…” Clara then came out of nowhere, “If we’re talking military power, Hitler wins any day and I’ll bet money on that.” Steven grimaced, “I don’t even want to get into that…” Marty stammered, “No no, listen! People know both Hitler and Stalin, but people would agree that Stalin was better because…” Seven asked, “Because he didn’t cause the holocaust?” Steven shook his head, and asked “What is your point?” Marty shrugged in defeat, “To be honest, I don’t even know.” The bell rang, and class ended. Mr. Noronake pulled Seven aside to tell him, “I have a feeling it was you who blew up my doorway a few days ago. And I’ve seen your schedule, you’re taking Theatre. Since you’re so dramatic, you would be perfect for the Journalism club.” Mr. Noronake winked repeatedly, and Seven said “I guess I’ll look into it.”

Afterschool

All of the students had put on earpieces to communicate with each other. As Seven and Steven left their 7th period class, they both gave a nod at each other as they both headed off into different directions. Iris was in Mr. Noronake’s room, and would be staying there as she’d be telling them of things that’d happen with Slide Zone. The rest of the students were taking their places in the plan. Filip was sitting in room A-102, when he heard a knock on the door. “No need to knock, my friend,” he said. Then, the door opened. There was a student with brown hair, a black cowboy hat, and standard cowboy attire. He had a belt with a revolver and a bunch of bullets. He was on a brown horse with a white line in between it’s eyes that went from its forehead to its nose. “Howdy, Filip,” the student said to him. Filip asked “Hey, Nick. You have the payment?” Nicholas responded, “ ‘Course, a little insulted you’d even ask me that.” Nicholas started digging through his pockets and pulled out two 20 dollar bills. Filip took them, and thanked Nicholas, “Thanks.” Nicholas responded, “No problem, partner.” He patted his horse, “Let’s go Robin.” He started to head out the door, but Filip had stopped him. “Wait, there was a guy…I think his name was Garlic or something like that. Anyway, he came here a few minutes ago asking for me to tell you to meet him in room D-104, but he didn't tell me why though.” Nicholas nodded, “Noted.” He then left and rode his horse to room D-104. He knocked on the door, but noticed it was unlocked and decided to come inside. When he did, he saw Cato standing on a desk. Cato was surrounding himself with poisonous gas using Toxic. He held his finger up. “Nicholas Nift Bull, your punishment for theft!” Nicholas shook his head, and dug through his pockets. He pulled out an empty cigarette box. “Damn…” he mumbled under his breath. “This poisonous gas is my signature. Named Toxic, you hear!?” Nicholas threw the cigarette box on the ground, “Hear ya loud and clear,” He answered. He then took his revolver. Cato laughed, “Guns don’t wo-” Nicholas shot his revolver and the sound of it was loud. Louder than any gun of that size should have been able to be. The bullets went straight through the poisonous gas, and Cato was hit by them. Nicholas almost instantaneously shot three bullets, and all three hit Cato in the stomach. Cato fell to the gound. “I need me a smoke,” Nick said to himself. He then patted his horse, and they left. From above the doorway, Spencer was hanging onto a bar. He dropped down, and ran over to Cato. He saw the state he was in, and turned on his earpiece. “Guys, Cato is injured and Nicholas is on the move. I didn’t get a chance to attack him since he didn’t fully go through the doorway, my bad.” Iris responded, “That’s fine, we planned for something like this anyway. Get Cato to The Healer.” Spencer picked Cato up, and with the last of his strength Cato turned on his earpiece and warned his friends “I don’t know what his power is, but it has got to be related to his gun. His bullets went straight through my poisonous gas...which shouldn’t...have…” Spencer told Cato, “Relax man, say all of that after I get you healed.” Spencer began to bring Cato to the hole. Nicholas was making his way through the hallway. He made a turn into the other hallway, which had two potted plants on both sides. Nicholas walked through the hallway, and the plants grew into large vines. The vines blocked the way back into the original hallway, and they were growing along the walls of the hallway that Nicholas was in. From two opposing doors in the hallway, came two people. Ivy and Marty. Nicholas eyed Ivy, telling her “You look mighty familiar.” Ivy got mad, “Of course I’m familiar, you stole from me damnit!” Nicholas thought aloud, “Ivy Viflora...the girl who I sent Garlic to steal from…” He then smiled, “Your chain made a dandy badge for me.” He then pointed towards a badge of his face that was on his shirt. Ivy told him, “You’ll pay for that.” Nicholas chuckled, pulling out his gun. “I think you’re mistaken, missy.” He then shot at her. The bullet almost hit, but a vine from the wall had caught it. The bullet was still moving, but slowly. “I don’t know what your signature is, but you can’t get me with a single bullet,” Ivy proclaimed. Nicholas got off his horse, and the horse began to run away. Nicholas asked Ivy, “Are you sure?” The bullet then burst through the vine, and hit Ivy in her shoulder. Ivy was knocked to the ground by the impact. Nicholas kissed his teeth, “Tch tch tch. ‘Spose I should tell you how my signature works, perhaps then I can at least have a bit of fun.” Marty turned on his earpiece as Nicholas was looking at Ivy. “I’ve called it Big Iron. It makes the bullets I shoot incredibly powerful. It also makes my fingers fast when I’m holding a gun, therefore I can pull the trigger at impossible speeds.” Ivy fell face-first onto the ground. Marty cried, “Damnit Ivy!” He ran over to her, and Nicholas shot at him. The vine caught the bullet, but since Ivy wasn’t able to control it, it went through quicker than it should have. The vine twisted around and the bullet went through it. Marty went behind the vine and used Lose Yourself to turn into a butterfly. The bullet hit a wall. “Interestin’ signature you got there,” Nicholas told Marty. Marty flew around Nicholas, but he was able to shoot through one of Marty’s wings. Marty began to fall a little bit, and Nicholas walked up to him. He punched him to the wall, but before Marty could be squished he turned back into a human. “Marty,” Iris informed him through the earpiece, “His revolver only holds 6 bullets, he has already shot all 6! It’s empty!” He held Nick’s fist in one hand, and pulled Nick towards himself. With the other hand, he punched Nicholas in the face. Nicholas’ hat fell off his head, and from under it came out a bunch of bullets. Nicholas tilted his head downwards, and thanked Marty, “Thanks partner.” The bullets fell, and Nicholas caught 6 of them in the middle of the air with his revolver. He then shot Marty 3 times in the neck. “POW POW POW!” Marty fell unconscious, his body leaning on the wall. “Time for you to go now, Seven and Steven! Marty and Ivy are down,” Iris ordered the two on the earpiece. They both began making their way over there. Nicholas turned around from the wall, but was greeted by Ivy jumping at him with a bunch of vines around her. She yelled, “Welcome To The Jungle, bastard!” She then punched Nicholas in the face, and vines went all around him. He shot her twice in the chest, “POW POW!” He couldn’t get a clear shot to her again because the vines had held his arm down. Ivy had her right hand on her chest wounds. She then pulled out a knife, and had a vine sprout out a knife as well. The vine’s knife was cutting his neck and Ivy’s knife was aiming towards his face. He struggled as the vines held both his hands, and Ivy’s knife cut his eye. He winced in pain from his eye bleeding, and closed it. He dropped his gun, and kicked it up with his foot. He grabbed it with his mouth and used his tongue to pull the trigger and shoot Ivy in the head. “POW!” Iris told Seven and Steven, “Ivy is really down now, get in there before he leaves!” As Ivy fell to the ground, she turned on her earpiece and told them, “He won’t be leaving.” The vines that blocked the hallway opened for a split second, and Seven ran to the other hallway before they closed again. Steven was too late, and was blocked by the vines. The vines then began spreading all over the floor. “Seven, I suggest you don’t move too fast,” Ivy advised, “The vines on the floor are thigmotropic, which means that they’ll react to touch. They can feel air vibrations, so they’ll help stop any bullets as well. Good luck…” She then went unconscious. The vines that were holding Nicholas had gone away, and he had reloaded his gun. He shot once at Seven, “POW!” and the bullet was pulled downward by the vines on the ground. It hit Seven in the leg. Seven shot a grenade from his grenade launcher, and it was grabbed by a vine. However, it was able to get close to Nicholas before being grabbed, so it ended up exploding right in front of him. Nicholas was knocked back by the blast, and vines held him up by the legs and neck. Seven took out his flame thrower and began spreading flames across the vines towards Nicholas. Nicholas shot twice, “POW POW!” aiming a little above the flamethrower for the vines to pull the bullets down to it. It hit the flamethrower’s propane tank, and Seven was covered in fuel. He tried to dodge it, but half of his body got covered in the fuel. It didn’t take long for it to begin to burn Seven. Seven, who was staggering because of the pain, had shot a grenade up to the ceiling. The ceiling tiles fell, and when they did many of them were grabbed by vines. However, there was one that didn’t. Seven ran on the tile and began to do stop drop and roll. The flames on him began to go away. Nicholas shot one of the tiles that were in the air, “POW!” and the power of the bullet had made the tile break apart. One of the pieces of the tile was shot over to Seven, who was hit directly in the head. Seven took the piece out of his head, and it began to bleed. Seven stood up on the tile, and shot a grenade at Nicholas. This time, Nicholas shot at the grenade before it got far. “POW!” This caused the grenade to explode right in front of Seven, and he was blown away by the explosion. He hit a wall, and fell unconscious. At this point, the flames on the vines were close to Nicholas, and since he was being held by them he couldn’t move his legs. He reloaded his revolver, and shot the vines that were holding him up. He fell back to the ground, and shot at a vine that was holding a tile up. The tile fell, and Nicholas slowly got onto it so that the vines wouldn’t grab onto him. The fire began to spread on the vine wall. Iris on the earpiece told Steven, “Steven, you’re the last one up now! I don’t know how you’ll do this, but you have to!” Steven was making his way through the vine wall by pushing the vines away, but the fire made the job easier. He got through the wall, and took out his pistol. He shot towards Nicholas, but the bullet was stopped by the vines and pulled down. Nicholas said to Steven, “Don’t tell me you’re the last one, I only began having fun with that grenade fella.” Steven didn’t say anything, and tried to shoot at Nicholas again. The bullet was pulled down by vines as well. “Lemme tell you a secret, boy,” Nicholas informed him, “With your puny guns, you can’t do jack to me. I tell the truth!” Nicholas started slowly reloading his revolver. “Big Iron is the ultimate gun signature. Hell, it may even be the ultimate signature of all if you think about it. Do you want to know why?” Nicholas grinned, and pointed his revolver at Steven. “It’s ‘cause I got the power of the second amendment on my side!” He shot Steven, six times in his torso area. “POW POW POW POW POW POW!” Steven fell to the ground. He dropped his pistol. Nicholas then began to take something out of his pocket. It was the chain. Nicholas looked at it and said, “You did all of this and you still couldn’t get a measly chain...I pity you all for being so weak.” Steven looked up, and took out his tommy gun. “The vines will still catch the bullets,” Nicholas told him. Steven told him, “Yeah, I know. But there’s something that they definitely won’t catch.” On the side of the tommy gun were engraved words. They were “SOUNDS OF GUN!” Steven began to shoot the tommy gun. Engraved on every bullet was the word “Bullet!” Around the bullets, there were letters flying in the same trajectory. They were “ATATATATATA!” The bullets were being caught by the vines on the ground, but the letters went on straight to Nicholas. “ATATATATATATA,” the letters hit Nicholas straight in the chest, and there were plenty more coming “ATATATATATATA,” more hit him all over his body. He was being hit so fast that he couldn’t even react. The letters didn’t hurt as much as bullets, but the number of them overwhelmed him. “ATATATATATATATA,” more and more were hitting him. Eventually, Steven ran out of bullets, and Nicholas fell face first to the ground and was knocked out. Steven turned on his earpiece, “Iris, Spencer, I’ve done it. He’s down.” Steven began to teeter over to Nicholas’ body, where he took the chain. “I’ve got the chain, we win…” Steven then fell onto the ground, and went unconscious. Iris came fairly quickly, with a fire extinguisher to put out the fires. Then, Spencer, Cato, and Victoria came. “Hey Iris, this is my friend Victoria. She can make things out of books, so I brought a medical book with stretchers in it. We can use the stretchers to bring Steven and the others to The Healer.” Victoria took the book, and made four stretchers from it. The four began to put the knocked out students on the stretchers, except Nicholas of course. As they began to get healed, Seven told them all, “You know guys, I think this is cause for celebration. Let’s all have a party in Mr. Noronake’s room tonight, I’ll buy Pip’s Pizza. Iris, you can bring that pool table of yours. We’ll all have a fun time.” The others agreed to that. They all met up at Mr. Noronake’s room at around 8 pm. Seven had asked Steven, “You brought Bash?” Steven took out a game disk. “Right here!” They went inside, and Seven began setting up a game console. When he finished, they all started playing on the console. The game started up, “SUPER BASH BROS RUMBLE!” Marty told Iris, “You know Iris, I’m actually a bit of a natural at this game. I played the original on the 69 and was a Kinkajou main.” Iris told Marty, “Kinkajou takes like no skill at all to play, plus this is the latest game. A lot of things have changed, like for example there are new mechanics.” Ivy asked Seven, “What is this game? What do you do in it?” Seven replied, “You just have to knock the opposing players off the stage, the controls are easy to grasp.” Steven corrected him, “They’re easy to grasp EXCEPT for the characters from fighting games. Damn them.” So everyone got a controller, and in total there were eight people playing. It was Steven, Marty, Iris, Seven, Cato, Spencer, Ivy, and Victoria. Marty asked Seven, “Why didn’t Garlic or Filip come?” Seven answered, “I texted Garlic about it but he says he doesn’t trust group meet ups ever since he got jumped in Pine Hills. And Filip said he’s tired.” Marty shook his head, “Makes sense.” They all chose their characters, and started playing. Steven had chosen a very powerful character named Dog, and Seven chose a character who was very similar to Dog named Hyena. Iris chose a character named Peacock, who was flashy but was weak. Marty chose Kinkajou, who was a character that was very powerful in the first game but in every game after that has been the mascot for F tier. Ivy chose Big-Ass Turtle because she thought it looked cool, but didn’t actually know much about it. Victoria chose a character named Jane because she thought that she looked like herself. Spencer chose Rabbit. And Cato, wanting to win very much, chose the character he believed to be the most over the top: Rock With A Glock. The game started, and Marty was getting beaten by Steven. “Ohhh, hit with the Slide-Dash oh my god,” Steven popped off. Marty asked him, “What the hell is a Slide-Dash? And why did they change Kinkajou’s moveset so much!?” Ivy was the first to lose, then Spencer, then Marty lost. Victoria stayed to the side and began T-bagging while Steven and Seven were having a heated battle. “Your luck has run out, number boy,” Steven quipped, “Prepare to taste the meat machine!” Steven and Seven’s characters started glowing, and Steven accidentally missed a button. “WHAT,” he cried. “SORRY STEVEN,” Seven told him as he unleashed his special move in the game. He quoted the character as they both said “I PREFER THE BONE!” Steven had lost. Victoria was still to the side T-bagging, and Seven began to target Iris. “Wait wait wait, let’s make a deal,” Iris negotiated, “If I land the Pea-Pea combo then you have to quit. If I fail it then I have to quit.” Seven agreed, “Ok, just don’t let your fingers slip now, ahaha!” Iris began the long combo on him, it must’ve been 15 seconds. Iris was sweating, and her fingers were moving fast on the controller. Then, right before she was gonna get the final hit, the screen paused. “How do I move with this character,” Cato asked. “Rock With A Glock can’t move, it’s its gimmick,” Steven explained to him. Iris threw her controller to the ground. She began shaking her head, as Cato thanked Steven, “Thanks.” The game was unpaused, and Peacock fell. Marty patted Iris on the shoulder, “That’s the way Wonderwall works.” Now Seven shifted his attention over to Cato. Cato chuckled, “Seven Trecidecim, the one with Wonderwall. It’s a formidable signature, but I’ll have you know that I’m an equally formidable opponent. As Nikola Tesla once said, ’Life is and will ever remain an equation incapable of solution, but it contains certain known factors.’ And there is one known factor: The factor that I will win!” He then began to button mash and his character shot a bunch of random guns. Most of which failed to hit Hyena. Hyena ended up getting close to Rock With A Glock and hit him off the stage. “Damnit…” Cato mumbled. However, before the Rock hit the bottom of the stage, it used a grappling gun to hit Hyena and pull Hyena off the stage after it. “I WI-” Seven almost exclaimed before realizing he wasn’t the last one standing. “I WIN, OH MY GOD I’VE NEVER EVEN PLAYED THIS GAME BEFORE,” Victoria cheered before doing a small dance. Then, the pizza delivery man opened the door. He was an old man, “Haven’t you kids ever heard of closing a goddamn door? Normally, I’d cancel the order, but I know how girls get sometimes.” He gave Victoria the pizza boxes. “Have a nice day.” He then closed the door. They put the boxes on desks, and then they realized something. “We have no plates,” Spencer pointed out. “Damn,” Marty went, “Maybe Mr. Noronake’s got some plates in his room.” Iris told Marty, “Good idea, let’s look around.” Iris opened up a drawer in the teacher’s desk. Her face widened from what was in the drawer. “Oh my gosh guys, you’ve got to come look at this.” The students began surrounding the drawer, and looking inside. After viewing the contents, Steven said, “Woah…” Inside of the drawer was a bunch of bullets and big guns. Steven asked, “Why...does he have this…”

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TO BE CONTINUED!