Perspective Shift: Steven

Earlier that day

Steven was repeatedly checking his phone, while working on some math homework. He would keep looking at his phone at any notification he got. Then, he got a phone call from Cato. He picked it up, “Hello.” Cato told him, “Alright, I’m ready. Come to science class.” Steven walked through the courtyard, looking at a large sign over the hole the healer was in. It read, “IF YOU ARE SICK BECAUSE YOU ATE TOO MUCH YESTERDAY, I CANNOT HELP YOU! I’M SORRY!” Steven walked in the science room, with Cato standing on a table. “What is with you and standing on things,” Steven asked. Cato replied, “It’s nice being high up.” Cato then cleared his throat, “STEVEN, there’s a mystery that we need to solve!” Steven got a little excited, “A mystery? And what would that be?” Cato replied, “Who is The Healer?” Steven was unimpressed, “...really? Aren’t there bigger mysteries we could solve? Like who’s the Mountain Killer or Ignited Justice?” Cato told him, “We have to start off small first. Now, let’s use the clues we have. We know that this person is a 9th grader, which removes most of the school from the question…” Steven told Cato, “I’m not doing this, it’s stupid. If you want to find out who The Healer is, ask Iris. I don’t even know why you want to find out who it is.” Cato jumped from off the table, “I tried asking Iris, and she said no. I want to find out who it is because…it sounds like a good challenge for a future figure such as myself.” Steven told him, “Well, why find out her identity if she’s helping us. It feels less like a challenge and more like an invasion of privacy.” Cato thought to himself, “Perhaps…” Steven asked, “Is that all you brought me here for?” Cato responded, “Sort of…wait, you said you had homework right? Maybe we could help each other.” Steven questioned Cato, “Do you have Algebra 2?” Cato looked shocked, “What are you asking me that for? That’s an eleventh grade class! You don’t have that.” Steven clarified, “I do. I’m gonna go use the bathroom, I’ll be right back.” Steven walked to the bathroom, and entered. He heard someone in there, accompanied with a low clapping noise. He asked, “What the hell?” Then, the person said, “WHAAAA-GET THE HELL OUT!” Steven left the bathroom, and went to another one in another building. He went into a stall, and began peeing. He thought about what Seven had told him yesterday afterschool.

Yesterday

Steven and Seven were walking from their 7th period. Seven was informing him, “Felicity told me that there were people coming after us. She said she didn’t know why, but an assassin seems to be hiring people to come after us. For me it was this guy named Carlonoah. I would’ve been dead if Felicity hadn’t saved me. These guys are no joke, so be careful. Please.”

Present

The bathroom door opened, and Steven was still peeing. In his head, he thought, “Damn…I didn’t know I was holding this much.” Then, he heard a bang on the stall door. “Hey, I’m in here,” He said. Then, the banging continued further. “HEY, I SAID I'M IN HERE, GO TO ANOTHER STALL,” he yelled, as he finished peeing. He started to smell a slight rubbery stench. He looked under the stall door, and saw something black. It didn’t look like a shoe. “What the hell,” Steven thought to himself. He got on top of the toilet seat, and jumped on the stall wall. Then, the stall door broke down. What was banging on it had been revealed to be a tire, which was moving on it’s own. It then started banging on the stall wall that Steven was on. Steven jumped onto another stall wall. The one he was previously on had then been broken down, and Steven jumped off the one he was currently on. He landed on the floor, and ran out of the bathroom as the tire was giving chase. He closed the bathroom door, but the tire broke that down too. He tried to run from the tire, but it was quickly catching up to him. He ran into a classroom, closed the door, and quickly tried stacking chairs and desks at the door. He then ran once he heard the tire close. The tire was slowly breaking down the chairs and desks, but it gave Steven enough time to open the window and run out of the room. He ran back to Building D, and heard the “BRRRRMMMMMM” sound behind him. The tire was catching up. Steven ran through the hallway, and slammed the science class door open. He quickly shut it, and told Cato, “Help me barricade this!” Cato looked at him shocked, “What happened?” Steven told him, “There’s a tire after me!” Cato pushed a table to the door, “A tire?” Steven and Cato both pushed the table up, and it was completely blocking the door. Then, they blocked it off with chairs. They heard banging from the other side. Steven pointed to the other door in the room, mouthing to Cato. They both took another table, and did the same thing. They stopped hearing banging, and let out a sigh of relief. “Phew…” Cato looked to the window that was at the back of the classroom. “OH SHIT, STEVEN!” He saw the tire was about 20 feet away, and was quickly approaching the window. However, it was moving so fast that before anyone could do anything, the tire burst in through the window. When the tire got on the floor, it started spinning in place really fast. Then, the bottom of the tire caught on fire, and it jumped at Steven. Steven held his arms up to block it, but it was burning his skin. Cato tried pulling the tire off, but it wasn’t working. Steven pulled one of his hands into his pocket, and pulled out his pistol. He shot the pistol a few times at the tire, “BANG BANG BANG!” The tire got deflated, and fell to the ground. Steven was exhausted, and put his bloody hands on his knees. “Just in case…” Cato picked up the tire, and started slashing at it with some kitchen knives. The tire shredded in a bunch of different pieces, and fell to the ground. Cato looked around, and asked Steven, “So…whose signature was that?” Steven replied, “I…don’t know.” Cato looked around, and out the window. “They have to be nearby.” Cato then walked up to Steven, “We’ve got to find this guy. That’s our mystery.” Cato started removing the chairs and table barricades from the doors. Steven looked closely at the tire pieces, and saw that they were moving around. “Clip! Clip! Clip,” they began connecting together to remake the tire. “Cato, we’ve got a problem,” Steven told him. Cato finished taking off the barricade, and looked at Steven. “Okay. Steven, you go. I want to test something out.” Steven left the room, and the tire was fully formed. It then started leaving the room, but Cato closed the door. The tire passed Cato, and went towards Steven. Cato went behind the tire, and tried to stop it by holding onto both sides. However, the tire was pulling him. He used a knife to stab into the ground, while he held onto the tire with his other hand. The tire was burning, and Cato couldn’t hold it any longer. He let go, and the tire went after Steven. Steven was outside of the building, with a marker in his hand. He quickly wrote on his pistol, “Sounds Of Gun.” When the tire got outside, he shot at it a few times, “Bang! Bang! Bang!” Those sounds were words that hit the tire, and ripped it apart. Cato went outside, shaking his burnt hand a little bit. The tire was on the ground, but was slowly reassembling itself. “What should we do about this,” Steven asked. Cato answered, “I think I’ve got a plan. Go back inside and get some boxes. I’ll keep the tire here.” Steven said, “Alright,” and went back to the classroom. Cato was cutting up the tire pieces smaller, and not allowing them to stick together. Steven came back with four steel boxes. “There weren't many, but I hope this is enough.” Cato said, “It’s perfect.” He distributed the tire pieces in between the four boxes, and used knives to stick the tire pieces in the boxes. He then closed the boxes, and told Steven, “Do what I do. I’ll take two, and you take two.” He then started kicking one of the boxes on the top, and making it unopenable from the outside. He then continued on another box, and Steven did the same on the other two boxes. Steven sighed, “Well, that was something. Now, what homework do you have?” Cato looked closely at the boxes. They weren’t moving. “I don’t think this is enough. Can we go visit your friend Seven, he has something we could use.” Steven said, “Oh, okay.” They took the boxes, and went over to Seven’s dorm room. When they knocked, Seven answered. He looked sickly, and sluggishly greeted the two, “Hey Steven…and Cato…” Cato asked him, “Mind if we use your flamethrower really quickly.” Seven said, “Go ahead.” Cato took the flamethrower and lit the boxes on fire. When the fire was done, he was about to pick one of them up. He asked Seven, “Uhh…got any heat resistant gloves?” Seven pointed to a drawer, and Cato opened it. He took out some thick gloves, and gave a pair to Steven. Cato asked, “Oh, and one last thing. Do you have a shovel?” Seven shook his head. Cato and Steven left, and Cato told Steven, “You take behind the garden and storage building. I’ll take behind Building D and the track. We’ll bury our boxes there.” Steven said, “Alright.” Cato buried his two boxes without a hitch. So did Steven, but at the storage building, he saw a person with a mask watching him from the other side of the building. He pulled out his gun and ran to them, “WHO’S THERE?” The person ran off, and when Steven turned the corner, they weren’t there anymore. “Damn…” He went back to Cato, and told him of the situation. “Damnit Steven, I thought you were at least somewhat competent!” Steven snapped back, “Well what would you have done?” Cato replied, “Pretend like I don’t see them, and pull out my phone to record. Then, I’d at least have a video version of how they looked. Anyway, how did they look?” Steven responded, “I didn’t really see them well, but I know they had a mask on. Also, they had a grape cluster in their hands. And it was a boy, not a girl.” Cato scolded him, “Not very good information, but we can work with it. Me and you will have to be on a look out for anyone like that tomorrow. Now, let’s get to our homework.” Steven told him, “Wait, I’ve got to get my papers from my room.” “No problem. I’ll get my laptop and papers from my room, and we’ll do it in yours.” They went into Steven’s room, and did homework and talked about things.

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Perspective Shift: Iris

Noronake pulled into the school with his car. He left it, and so did Iris and Beck. Beck told him, "Thanks for the ride, Mr…" Noronake finished his sentence, "Noronake." He turned to Iris, "I'll be heading to my room to get something for Steven and you. Can you text him to come over?" Iris nodded, and sent him a text message. Beck headed off to his dorm room, "See ya Iris!" Iris told him, "Try not to get beat up too much." Beck remembered his impending doom, and left. Noronake and Iris went to The Healer to get Iris healed, and then to the classroom. Noronake told Iris, “I have something in my closet for you too. I forgot to give this to you earlier.” He pulled out a long metal stick, “It’s a steel bo staff. It even has a tip at the end, so you can hit cue balls with it. Or…” He pulled out 12 metal balls, “Steel balls. Now, they match with your stick.” Iris took the objects, “Thanks.” Steven and Cato then walked through the door. “Hello,” Steven said. Noronake then dug in his closet, “Steven, I have this gift to give you! I wore it at your age, and now I think it’s your turn to have it.” He pulled out a brown trench coat, “With this, you have four pockets. One at the bottom could easily fit your pistol.” Steven took the trench coat, “Wow, it feels pretty nice for something that’s been used. Thanks.” “Mmmmm” Cato looked around the hallways for a bit. Iris asked him, “What are you looking for?” He responded, “Hmm…it’s nothing.” “Mmmmm” Cato turned to Noronake, “Umm, I don’t mean to be rude…but why are you making that noise?” Noronake asked, “What noise?” “BRRRMMMMMM,” the four heard coming from the hallway. Steven and Cato looked at each other in dismay, “Oh shit.” They looked and saw the tire fast approaching them. Steven explained to them, “There’s someone targeting me with their Signature. The signature is the tire! It won’t stop chasing me.” Noronake closed the door. “A tire that’s chasing you…I have an idea.” Noronake put his hand on the door, and the tire started banging on it. However, the door wasn’t breaking down. “See,” Noronake said, “I like to call this trick the invincible door. By repeatedly reverting the door back to its state a few seconds ago, I’m pretty much repairing it as soon as it gets broken. So the tire isn’t doing shit! Wahaha.” Noronake kept his hand on the door, and the tire wasn’t able to break through. He kneeled on the ground, and started sighing, “Using my signature for this long is exhausting. How’d you guys escape this guy?” Cato explained, “shredded, burned, and buried.” Noronake joked, “This tire is about as persistent as a tax collector then, huh?” He thought to himself, “Well…if all that worked then…” He opened the door. The tire charged straight towards Steven. However, Noronake held his hand out and touched the tire. The tire’s rubber then turned into a gooey white and black substance on the ground, with the middle wheel falling in the middle of it. The wheel started moving, but he stopped it with his foot. He took out a water bottle, and poured it on the wheel. Then he took out a salt shaker, and poured salt on it. Then, he put his palm on the wheel, and the wheel turned really rusty. He picked it up, “By aging the rubber as it was in 1990, I turned it into latex and oil. Then, I put salt water over the tire wheel and aged it as if it was made in 1990 to make it super rusty. And now,” He crushed the wheel in between his hands, as it fell in a powder-like state. Steven asked, “Wait, I thought your power just aged things as if it was made in the 1990s?” Noronake explained, “I can age something to look as it was in the 1990s, or as it was MADE in the 1990s. For example, a person born in 1985. If I aged them as if they were made, or born I should say, in 1990, then they would be younger. However, if I aged them as they were in 1990, they would be 5. It’s a very easy concept to understand.” Steven said, “Not really.” Cato asked, “Wait, you’re a Signature user?” Noronake laughed, “Hehe…yes I am! Running In The 90s.” Cato thought, “I didn’t think teachers had them…” Noronake told him, “I’m a special case,” and continued to explain his situation. Once Noronake was done explaining, Cato turned to Steven, “You never told me about a crystal. That’s a whole other mystery we’ve got to solve.” Steven shrugged. Cato facepalmed, “So now we need to find out The Healer, The Mountain Killer, Ignited Justice, The Student With The Tire Signature, and now what that crystal was.” Iris told him, “Oh, I know who The Mountain Killer is. Me and a friend fought him a while back…” She then went on to tell the story of what happened at the mountain. Steven then thought, “So he isn’t a problem anymore. But now I’ve got that damn tire guy after me.” The room was pretty silent. “So,” Noronake tried starting a conversation, “Any of you play Bash? I’m a pretty nasty Roboto main.” Steven said, “What? Roboto was only good in Super Bash Bros Collide.” Noronake asked, “Huh? Isn’t that the most recent one?” Steven shook his head. “Oh boy! Please tell me they added back Nun Gunner! That was my shit.” Iris told him, “Nun Gunner wasn’t in any of the Bash games. She was only in the Expecto Vs MapOn games.” Noronake was confused, “Wait…I thought that was the same thing.” The students sighed.