Pov Shift: Steven

Period 4, Journalism

Class ended, and the usual students stayed after class. “Mr. Noronake, I don’t trust your suspicions anymore,” Seven said. Mr. Noronake was shocked, “Seven! It was an honest mistake, really! Anyone could have done it!” “Neither do I, to be honest,” Iris added in. “Steven, I’m sure that the girl I’m sending you to on Friday is guilty! I know it, I just do!” Steven asked him, “What’s her name?” “...I forgot.” “I should have expected as much.” “BUT I KNOW SHE’S GUILTY, MAN! SHE’S ALWAYS TALKING ABOUT YOU!” Seven asked, “Is she a 9th grader?” “OBVIOUSLY, WHY WOULD I SEND HIM TO A-DAMN YOU, SEVEN!” Marty rubbed his cast, “Mr. Noronake, I feel way better now!” “NO, YOU DON’T! YOU JUST WANT TO JOIN IN!” “...Maybe.” Mr. Noronake took a deep breath, “Okay guys. Let’s not lose focus. Steven, let us know what happens on Friday! We’ll wait until that day comes before doing anything.” Steven nodded his head, “Alright!” The day passed without anything suspenseful happening, and it was now Wednesday.

Afterschool

Pov Shift: ?????????

A blond spiky haired boy was moping around in a hallway once school had ended. He had earrings and a bunch of chain bracelets on his arm. He was thinking about something, but was quickly interrupted by a boy yelling, “AYO HOLD ON, IS THAT LEVI???” A crowd came out of nowhere and surrounded him, “OH MY GOD, I HAVEN’T SEEN YOU SINCE 3RD GRADE!” “YOOOO, LEVI, HOW’S IT GOING?” “LEVI, LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK!” They all kept yelling stuff at him, as they slowly started closing in on him. He was getting overwhelmed. Then, a chain from the ground came up and wrapped around his right arm. “Oh no…” he whispered, “the chains…” He crouched on the ground as they all got closer. Another chain from the ground had wrapped around his leg. They continued yelling stuff, without noticing the chains. Levi said, “Leave me alone!” They couldn’t hear, and kept getting closer. “I SAID, LEAVE ME ALONE!” A chain came up from the ground, and lashed all around the crowd. They all backed up and ran away in fear, as Levi got up. The chains wrapped around him went back in the ground, and he ran away. He ran into his dorm room, and shut the door. He plummeted on the bed, “I’m so…lost…the chains…always grab me…I can’t control it…my signature…”

Pov Shift: Steven

Wednesday and Thursday passed without anything eventful happening. Steven started walking over to where Filip did his forging. Marty ran up to him, “Hehe…hey Steven!” Steven was confused, “...Hey Marty? I thought Mr. Noronake said you weren’t supposed to be-” Marty interrupted him, “MR. NORONAKE…isn’t here, now is he?” Steven sighed, “You’re a dumbass.” “I’ll be fine, don’t worry.” Steven thought about it, “Hmm…I guess you are resilient. I remember that one time you damn-near scraped your arm to the bone in 7th grade.” “Oh…hehe, you remember that? Sometimes I forget we were in the same middle school…” “Yeah. I wish I hadn’t seen it to be honest. It was yucky. But you came back to school the next week and it was healed.” “Yep! It’s because I drink lots of water!” “Welp, you better hope your arm heals half as fast.” They arrived at Filip’s room. He was sitting at a table, with a hat sitting on the table. Filip greeted them,“Good afternoon, Steven and Marty. She should be coming anytime soon.” He then asked, “What are you doing here, Marty?” Steven looked at the hat, while Marty said, “Err...uhh…well…hehe…I just wanted to help?” Filip replied, “I don’t mean to be rude, but we kind of already have help coming.” Steven walked up to the hat, inspecting it. Jupiter then walked into the room, “I hope I’m not la-Marty, why are you here?” Marty answered, “I want to help too. Even if my arm is like this, I-” “HOLY SHIT, MARTY,” Steven turned to him, “LOOK AT THAT HAT!” Marty looked at the hat, “It’s a white peaked cap. Kind of like the ones you’d expect armed forces to wear.” “NO, MARTY! FOR FUCKS SAKE, DO YOU NOT REMEMBER THAT HAT?” Steven looked around, “OH SHIT, I CAN’T BE HERE!” Marty inspected the hat even further, “Umm, am I missing something- Oh…It’s her hat.” “Umm…who’s hat?” Jupiter asked. Marty answered, “Cecilia de Braccio, Steven’s Ex.” “Oh,” Filip said, “That makes sense.” “FILIP! IF I LEAVE AND SHE’S COMING HERE, I MIGHT BUMP INTO HER. DO YOU HAVE ANY PLACE I COULD HIDE.” “I’ve uhh…” Filip looked around the room, “I’ve got a chest. Might be a tight squeeze through. Is it really that bad?” “YES. I ABSOLUTELY CANNOT MEET HER!” Steven jumped into the chest, and closed it to hide himself inside of it. Filip said, “Hmm…I think you’re overthinking it. I bet she forgot about you!” Marty told Filip, “Cecilia is not that type of girl, trust me.” Jupiter said, “Uhh…guys, I think that’d be her coming now…” Filip said, “Both of you, stand by each side of the table.” “Right,” Jupiter said. Him and Marty stood by each side of the table. Then, a girl with short pink hair walked into the room. She walked up to the table, and tipped an invisible hat to Jupiter and Marty, “Boungiorno to you two fine men.” She turned to Filip, “And buongiorno to you too Filip. I believe you said it was $25, yes?” “That’d be right.” She went into her pockets and pulled out $25. She gave it to Filip. She then put on her hat, “Thanks, Filip! I appreciate it alot.” “No problem.” She started walking away, but then turned around to Marty, “Umm…you wouldn’t happen to be named Marty Morpho, would you?” Marty froze up, “...Yeah, that’d be me…” She walked up to him, “Do you remember Steven?” Marty put on an uncomfortable smile. He eyed the chest, and said “Yes…” Cecilia asked, “Have…you seen him around?” Marty eyed the chest again, and replied, “I think he…went to a different school. I don’t know, if I see him around I’ll let you know.” Cecilia sighed, “Okay. Well if you ever see him, tell him I said…I’m gonna fucking kill him.” Marty clenched his teeth. He eyed the chest again, and then nodded his head. “Umm…Marty, you’ve been looking at that chest for a while now. Are you lying to me? Is there something relating to Steven in there, like something that could lead me to him?” Jupiter lied, “We have drugs in that box!” Cecilia paused for a moment, and then looked Marty in the eyes, “Is that true, Marty?” Marty didn’t answer. Filip was sweating. Jupiter was speechless. Steven thought to himself, “I gotta do something…” Steven held onto the two sides of the box. He then extended his legs, and then they popped out of the chest. It made the chest seem as though it had its own legs, as he stood up straight. Everyone looked at the chest. Cecilia said, “Wait, what the hell? Is that-” “That’s my signature, Cretin Hop!” Jupiter lied again. Steven ran into the wall, and then turned around to run out of the room. “THAT’S STEVEN, ISN’T IT?” “NO, IT’S CRETIN HOP! IT ALLOWS ME TO MAKE LEGS FROM OBJECTS!” She didn’t believe him, “That’s just stupid, now I know you’re lying!” Cecilia was about to run after Steven, but Marty grabbed onto her shoulder, “W-wait wait, I-” She turned around and hit him with a roundhouse kick to the face. Marty fell to the ground. She glanced at the other two boys, before running after Steven. Jupiter and Filip both started running after her. However, once their feet were lifted from the ground, a bunch of arms came from below their shoes. The arms grabbed their legs, and kept them on the ground. Jupiter was confused, “What the-” Filip realized, “This is her signature! We’re stuck!” She started chasing after Steven down the hall. Steven was running, and could barely see from the cracks in the chest. He ran towards the elevator. When he got there, he quickly nudged the button to open it, and ran inside. Cecilia was quickly approaching, “STEVEN, IS THAT REALLY YOU?!?!” The elevator was slowly closing. Right as Cecilia was about to get in, it shut. Steven let out a quiet sigh of relief. However, the elevator wasn’t going up. Then, from the cracks in the chest, he saw Cecilia slowly prying open the elevator door. “Shit shit shit,” He thought in his head. He quickly shuffled his hand to a pocket in his trench coat. He took out a marker, and wrote on the inside of the top of the chest. He then kneeled down a little, so that the top of the chest was facing Cecilia. When Cecilia fully opened the elevator door, Steven said, “Now!” Then, the letters “N-O-W” started hitting the chest lid. It then broke off from the rest of the chest, and hit Cecilia. She fell to the ground, as the elevator door closed. Steven, now being able to fully stand up with the chest around his waist, let out a huge sigh. The elevator went up to the third floor. Once it stopped, Steven readied himself to leave. When the door opened, a bunch of arms came out from the opening of the door. Steven was taken aback by this, but then thought, “Is this…her signature? From what just happened, it seems like she can make arms come out of things…” Steven braced himself, and then ran through the arms. He tried dodging them, but they grabbed onto the chest. The elevator door was closing, and he kept trying to push the arms away. The door was pushing on the chest, and then broke it. Steven then jumped out of the way, and the elevator door closed with all of the arms going away. Steven looked around his current hallway, “Hmm…” Cecilia quickly ran out of the building, and took out a small hand scythe from her pocket, and made a cut on the building’s wall. From the cut came out an arm. Cecilia stood on this arm, and made a cut with her scythe even higher up. She kept doing this to get higher up. Steven took out his pistol, and hid inside of a classroom. Meanwhile, Jupiter managed to get the arms to let go by increasing the size of his shoe. “Alright then!” He said, “Now I’ll do the same to your shoe, Filip.” Filip nodded, “Thanks.” He then turned back, “Marty, we’ll be back, so just-umm…” He then saw that Marty had already left the two of them. Steven looked through the window of the classroom he was hiding in, and saw a blue butterfly flying around. He opened the window, and let Marty in, “Marty! You shouldn’t be fighting.” Marty turned back into a human,“It’s not a problem. Besides, I know you want help with this.” Steven fell silent. Marty said, “Exactly!” Then, they heard the window of another room break. “She’s here,” Steven said. He aimed his gun at the door, as he heard doors opening in the rooms. Then Cecilia yelled, “Steven! Come out! You can’t hide!” She then opened the door to his room, and Steven shot. The bullet went straight towards her heart, and she froze. Steven thought to himself, “Oh shit…I didn’t want to kill her…” Then, the bullet was pushed out of her chest by two small hands. “STEVEN! YOU SON OF A BITCH! I’LL FUCKING KILL YOU!” She threw her hand scythe at Steven. Marty ran and blocked it with his cast. “Well hey! I guess this was useful for something after all!” The hand scythe made a cut in the cast, and fell to the ground. Then, a bunch of arms came out from the cut in the cast. “What the-” Before any more words could come out of Marty’s mouth, the arms all balled their fists and punched Marty’s broken arm. “YEOWWW!” Marty cried, as he fell to the ground once again. Steven said, “C-Cecilia…I-” “Shut it! I don’t care what you have to say, I’ll never forgive you for what you did!” “We can just…Uhh…we can talk this out, can’t we??” Cecilia shook her head, “Steven, you can’t talk out a broken heart!” She ran towards him and jumped. She tried to hit him with a flying kick, but Steven barely dodged and she crashed into a desk. Steven ran to the door. She got up, and picked up the hand scythe that was on the ground. She threw the hand scythe at the door, and from the cut made in it came out a bunch of arms that grabbed onto his shirt. Steven said, “I think I understand your signature now. It only works when you make a tear in something, or two objects, correct?” Cecilia said, “Yeah, that’s it. Rolling In The Deep. If you know what's good for you, you’ll stay there so I can kill you with one swift strike.” She ran up to Steven and tried to hit a karate chop on his head. Steven dodged, with Cecilia’s hand making a dent on the door. She looked Steven in the eyes, and started blushing. She quickly looked away and hit him with a roundhouse kick to his torso. This broke the door down, and Steven was knocked out of the room. Cecilia took a deep breath, “Steven, we had a good relationship. We were so happy together…and yet you ruined it that day. I wanted you to be my first kiss, and yet you…you…I still remember the exact words you told me, ‘I don’t know if you’re the one I want to give my first kiss to.’ And then you never spoke to me again.” Steven said, “Cecilia, I-” “NO! Don’t say another word! I don’t care anymore. I don’t care about what we had. I don’t care about whoever gets my first kiss anymore either! I just want revenge for how you treated me.” Cecilia got into a fighting stance, “I’ll make sure you hurt like I did!” Steven then ran off, making sure to raise his legs high so that arms couldn’t grab them. Cecilia took her hand scythe and then followed. However, Marty pinned her down and yelled to Steven, “Go!” Cecilia quickly pushed Marty away, and then kicked him into the wall. It knocked him unconscious. Steven turned into the next hallway. Cecilia was about to run after him, but looked back at Marty. She kicked his head, “Fucking liar.” She then continued her chase after Steven. Steven found Victoria sitting next to the wall. She was reading a book titled, ‘20th century technological advancements.’ “Victoria!? Why are you here?” Victoria replied, “They were being loud in the library, so I came here for some peace and quiet. Guess I came to the wrong place.” “I need your help! A girl named Cecilia is chasing after me and she wants me dead, you have to help!” Victoria shrugged, “Eh, why not? From a scale of 1-10, how drastic is your current position.” “11!” Victoria looked through her book, “Alright. It’s coming.” She then went into a nearby classroom. Cecilia entered the hallway, and ran after Steven. Steven backed up, as he heard a loud horn, “MRRRRERRRRRRRRRMMMMMM” Then, from the wall behind him a train had burst out. The train had a sleek design, with a white, blue, and yellow color scheme. It had the number 87 written on the front three times. It slid a little on the ground, charging forward. Steven ran to the side of it, and jumped up. He grabbed a handle of the train, and went into the locomotive through the window. Cecilia was shocked, and jumped up from the ground. From the tearing of her shoes and the ground, she formed a bunch of arms to throw her to the top of the train. She landed, using her hand scythe to make sure she didn’t fall off. The train was about to hit the other end of the hallway. Cecilia quickly jumped down into one of the passenger cars. The train then smashed out of the building and headed towards the courtyard. When it made contact with the ground, all of the cars shook and the two students had trouble keeping their balance. Filip and Jupiter saw what was going on. Filip asked “What on Earth?” Jupiter told him, “Look in the passenger cabin third from the front cabin!” Filip looked and saw Cecilia looking at both of them. “It’s her,” Jupiter said, “We’ve got to help Steven! Do you know how to ride a tank?” “I’m gonna have to say no.” “You’ll learn fast enough!” Jupiter then threw out Grauberg from his pocket, and said, “Blitzkrieg Bop!” Grauberg then grew to its normal size. Filip hopped in, and Jupiter got to his turrets. He told Filip, “Alright! Now you’ll see two levers. I want you to-” The tank started moving forward, “Hey! You didn’t even listen to what I had to say!” Filip answered, “I think I can understand well enough. Just focus on firing till I mess something up.” Jupiter answered, “Got it.” Filip started driving the tank towards the train, which was still moving forward. Jupiter turned his turret and shot at Cecilia’s cabin. However, a bunch of arms came out from the turret and grabbed the shell. Jupiter said, “Oh shit!” The shell’s momentum stopped, and it fell to the ground. From inside the train, Cecilia was formulating a plan. She ran inside of the car that was in front of hers, and broke it off with the coupling. Her part of the train was still going forward, however the other part started slowing down and losing control. It went sideways, and blocked Filip and Jupiter. “The train’s blocking us!!!” Filip told Jupiter. “Trust me, Filip, keep driving forward. It’ll be a narrow shot but I think I can do it.” Filip kept driving. When the tank was about to hit the train, Jupiter aimed at the coupling. “THOUGH IT MAY BE NARROW, MY SHELL WILL STRIKE LIKE AN ARROW!” The shell hit the coupling and the train divided into two sections. The tank was able to get through. Jupiter cheered, “Alright! Uhhh, why’d we stop moving.” Jupiter looked down, and saw arms holding onto Grauberg from the broken coupling. “SHIT, SHE PLANNED THAT!” The arms then grabbed Grauberg. Jupiter quickly went inside of the tank, and the arms flipped it over. It was a tight squeeze for him and Filip, “Umm…I guess we wait for someone to come for us…hopefully…” Cecilia was looking out the window, and smirked when she saw what happened. When she turned back, she saw Steven standing in front of her. Steven tried to reason with her, “I really don’t want to hurt you.” Cecilia shook her head, and jumped into the air. She tried to hit him with a downward kick, but Steven dodged. Steven then ran into the next car. Cecilia ran into the next car after him, and yelled, “DAMN YOU, WHY WON’T YOU STOP RUNNING!” Steven said, “I’m not running anymore.” Then, one of the tables next to Cecilia entrance smashed into her. She fell to the ground, as the table kept applying force to her. Under the table wrote, “Milliseconds Cecilia de Braccio is directly next to or under this” and tic marks kept typing themselves onto the table. She tried pushing it off of her, but the force was increasing. She put her hands on the table. Then, she closed her fingers and then opened them. When her fingers split apart, arms came out and pushed the table up a little bit. It wasn’t by much, but she was able to roll out from under the table. She could barely even stand up. “Cecilia, I’m really sorry about how I treated you…” Cecilia coughed out, “Sorry isn’t enough.” She then spun and kicked Steven. Steven was knocked back, and almost fell to the ground. He took out his tommy gun, and pointed it at Cecilia. The train then crashed into the cafeteria, and finally stopped. This shook the two up a bit, but they were able to stay on their feet. Cecilia looked at Steven’s tommy gun, and told him, “Bullets don’t work on me. I told you that already. Have you gone dumb over the years, Steven?” Steven said, “No, it’s not the bullets I’m trying to hit you with.” Steven started shooting at her, and the bullets were being pushed out of her on impact. However, the words “ATATATATATATATA” were hitting her. Cecilia then ran up to Steven and kicked him again. Steven was knocked down. He pointed his tommy gun back up at Cecilia, who tried kicking him again. “ATATATATATATATA” The sound kept hitting her, and her movements were slowing. She kicked Steven as he was trying to get back up. Steven kept shooting, while struggling to get back up. “ATATATATATA” Cecilia kept kicking him, and he kept shooting. “ATATATATATA” His back was to the wall on the ground. The moment he tried to get up, arms came out from behind his back and legs, and trapped him to the ground. The only thing left for him to do was to keep shooting. “ATATATATATA” Cecilia kept kicking him, but her moves were getting extremely sluggish. Cecilia kicked one last time, before collapsing on the ground. The arms trapping Steven had gone away, and he was breathing heavily. He stood up, and leaned on the wall. “Thank you…Eclipse…” He staggered out of the train, and Victoria met with him. “Is it all done?” She asked. Steven nodded his head. Victoria said, “Good!” The train disappeared, and all damage that it caused had disappeared as well. Cecilia was now lying on the cafeteria floor. Grauberg was upright once again. “Woah, what happened?” Jupiter asked. Steven walked up to Victoria, “Sorry but…can you bring me to…The Healer…” He then collapsed, but Victoria caught him in her arms. She told him, “Easy now, you’ll be fine.”

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Chapter 25.5: Teen Spirit Part 2

Victoria was sitting in the library. There was a group of seven students talking loudly about how much they hated school. Florida walked up to her, “Hello. You’re Victoria Vellum, yes?” Victoria replied, “That’d be me.” Florida said, “I’ve heard about you. Your signature allows you to make things from books turn real, yes?” “Pretty much, yeah.” Florida asked her, “Could you make a throne for me? I want the one that Cleopatra had. Let me show you from this book.” As Florida dug through her bookbag, Victoria asked, “Why do you even want a throne?” Florida put her hand on her chest, and smiled, “So that people can see me as the queen I am. Ho ho!” Victoria asked, “Wouldn’t it be better to just get a crown? With a throne, it’d be a pain to move it around. And plus, you couldn’t carry it with you all of the time.” Florida paused, “You have a point! Please, make me a crown that-Well actually no.” Victoria asked her, “What’s wrong with that?” “People will think I’m childish if I walk around with a crown, and I think it’d be tacky.” “That’s true.” “Okay! I don’t think I want anything anymore! Thanks for helping me!” “Umm…I guess you’re welcome?” Florida left, and Victoria turned back to the seven students. “Those guys just won’t stop, will they? I’d better go someplace quieter.” She then stood up, and headed to the A building.