Written: Sunday. March 1, 2020.
Everybody went home afterwards. Toby was bombarded with questions by his mother. What have you and your friends been up to in the last few days? How were you able to do all of those things that I saw you do just then? What happened to Miss Victoria and John? Who was the girl he was with inside of the plant cocoon? What the hell is going on? All very important questions to be asked by a loving mother. Toby laid it out for her. He told her the truth; something he wouldn’t ever do. But under the circumstances, there was no hiding the fact that he just flew up in the air and shot fire balls out of his hands.
And Toby wasn’t really in the spirit of hiding the truth as of now. He was too caught up with his thoughts. Why did Veergha walk out like that all of a sudden? He kept thinking to himself. Was is something I said?
As he finished telling his mother the truth, his father arrived from work. His mother stopped yelling at him when he entered the living room. Edmund noticed the awkward silence filling the room. “Did something happened?”
“It’s nothing, dear.” Lily replied. She looks back at Toby. “Go upstairs, Toby. You’ve had a long day.”
Toby nods at her, and heads for his room.
“Hey, dude!” Omnius greets Toby as he enters the room. “How’d it go?”
“Ribbit.” Macrodon added.
“I didn’t ask you, Mac. I asked — hey, what’s wrong?”
Toby just sat in his bed, un-acknowledging Omnius’s words.
“I gotta tell you, Toby. That was some weird stuff that happened outside.”
“You’re weird.” Toby stated.
“We’re not talking about me, here.” Omnius jumped up at Toby’s bed and sat beside him. “We’re talking about that girl that used to be Lady Veergha.”
“Korriavania.” Toby corrected him. “That’s her real name.”
“Yeah, that. What happened to her back there? Why’d she change her looks all of a sudden? One minute, she looked like a hot teacher — “
“What?”
“ — then in the next, she’s a cute teenage girl. What is up with those aliens?”
It took a while for Toby to steer clear of the fact that Omnius has the ability to know how attractive women could be. “Listen, man. Your guess is as good as mine. I dunno what happened to her, or why it happened.” Just then, Toby noticed something. He raised his hands and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate. “It’s gone.”
“What’s gone?”
“My powers.” Toby replied. “Er, Lady Veergha’s powers.”
“Korriavania.” Omnius corrected him.
“Shut up. I think it’s finally gone! I don’t have fire abilities anymore!”
Toby stood up from his bed, and clenched himself, as if getting ready to jump. “Nothing. Not even my flying abilities from awhile ago.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” Omnius asked.
“Yeah,” Toby smiled. “I guess it is.”
Drew got home and opened up the desktop. It was a Friday, so he was allowed the full access of his computer. Drew opened up Defenders Online, and quickly messaged Tom to go online inside of the game as well. Then he messaged Amanda, to see if she’d be available inside of the game as well. She said she’ll try going online as soon as she gets home.
After 45 minutes of endless side quests, Tom’s avatar finally arrived inside of the game. “Wuz up, neegrumpz?”
“Please don’t.” LDOT replied in the private chat. “We need to talk about what happened awhile ago at Toby’s place.”
“Sur thang, ombre.” PolygonSky replied.
Drew was about to scold Tom about his racial slang, but then he noticed Amanda asking for an invite inside of their chat. Drew accepted this. “What kind of side-quests are we gonna do tonight?” Hirundinidae asked.
“We’re not here to do any side-quests.” LDOT said. “We’re here to talk about Toby and Lady Veergha.”
“Sur thang, ombre.” PolygonSky replied.
“What?” Hirundinidae asked.
“Don’t mind it.” said LDOT. “Look, we have to be careful when we see Lady Veergha the next couple of days. I don’t think it’s safe to call her by who she looks.”
“She looks like that girl from our school, right? Mara, was it?” Hirundinidae asked. “I at least know that much.”
“So she turnd int th luv of Tob’s lif,” PolygonSky replied. “So wht?”
“Can’t this guy come with subtitles?” Hirundinidae asked.
“Tom,” LDOT said. “If you knew exactly what Toby did to get Mara to leave him, then you’d agree with me that Lady Veergha’s the most unstable person to be around right now. And I’m not talking about her powers.”
“Drew,” Hirundinidae said. “We’re talking about Lady Veergha here, not the actual Mara.”
“We don’t know how the Mind-breach works.” LDOT replied to her. “And did you notice the way Lady Veergha left? How she took her hand off of Toby like that?”
“Yeah?”
“Wut abut i?”
“I’m saying that it might not just be Mara’s appearance that Lady copied, but her memories as well.”
“Nw wer wuld she evn gt Mra’s memries frm, dud?”
“Where would Lady Veergha even get Mara’s memories from?” Hirundinidae asked.
“Tht’s wht I sed!”
“Remember when Toby suddenly went berserk after the first mind-breach? He’s been gaining Lady Veergha’s memories. And her powers! I’m not totally sure if I’m on the right track here, but if what’s been happening to Toby is also somehow happening to Lady Veergha, that would mean Toby’s memories are being passed on to her as well. To answer your question, Mara’s memories isn’t what we need to watch out for. At least, not her REAL memories.”
It took a while before someone answered. “Toby’s memories of Mara?!” Hirundinidae asked.
“Exactly.” LDOT replied.
“Im nt fllowing.”
“We don’t know exactly what Toby’s memory of Mara is.” LDOT said. “He might’ve captured her looks perfectly — almost too perfect — but memories are different from the truth. Lady Veergha may look like Mara, but she’s not the real Mara. She’s Toby’s Mara.”
“Tlk abot nxt-lvl obsessd.” PolygonSky said.
“What exactly DID happen to the REAL Mara?” Hirundinidae asked.
Drew cracked his knuckles. This is gonna be a long chat.
As the weekend passed by, nothing strange happened. Which only made it stranger. Toby went online a couple of times to play with his friends. Drew specifically told Tom and Amanda not to talk about their conversation with Toby, so they didn’t. Toby felt like they were hiding something from him, so he tried asking June about it. She wasn’t much help, either. June just gave Toby yes or no answers, which reminded him of Toae’ras. And remembering Taoe’ras made him remember about Lady Veergha, which only lead Toby to remember what happened to her last.
Toby got into the habit of taking Omnius outside for a walk, like an owner taking his dog out for a dump. When the neighbors asked about Omnius, Toby just said that he was a new generation robot toy from Japan, which only got them scratching their heads. Some nodded and went their way. Others tried talking to Omnius, which didn’t really help Toby to answer why Omnius’s vocabulary is so similar to that of a regular fifteen year old. He’d repeat the “made in Japan” thing, and the neighbors would just nod and go about their day. Omnius brought Macrodon along, too. So it was like looking at a pet-owner walk his dog out, but the dog had its own pet frog; Petception.
As Monday arrived, Toby got ready for school. He hid Omnius inside of his back-pack, and Omnius hid Macrodon inside of a cookie jar, inside of Toby’s backpack. So Toby arrived a little bit late that morning because of the intense weight he had to carry. “Damn. I wish I had a better bag.”
“Or, you could just take me out of this thing and tell people I’m from Japan.” Omnius said to Toby inside of his back-pack. “That’d make things way easier, bro.”
“Shut up, Omnius.” Toby replied.
Toby took a deep breath before going inside of the classroom. When he was ready, he quickly went inside and sat down on his desk, looking forward, as if nothing strange just happened. He felt the whole room looking at him. Shit.
“Hi.” June said to him.
“Hello!” Toby shouted out. His classmates looked at him for a second, then went back to their own little circles. Toby took out a handkerchief to wipe off his sweat. “Jesus Christ, it it just me, or is it getting hot in here?”
“You would know.” June replied.
Toby noticed the double meaning in June’s comment. “You just reminded me of something.” he grabbed June’s hand.
June tensed a bit, “What if you — “
“I won’t.” Toby assured her. Their hands both held each other.
June looked at Toby. “You can control it now?”
“There’s nothing to control, June.” Toby said to her. “I don’t think I have powers anymore.”
June smiled at this. “That’s good.”
“Yeah.” Toby replied.
Then they realized that they were still holding hands. So both of them quickly got out of it. An awkward silence happens to both of them.
“Toby,” June whispered to him. “I was wondering — “
“What’s that?” Toby asked her.
Before June could continue, the door suddenly opened. “Toby, we need to talk!” It was Lady Veergha, in Mara’s image.
Everybody in the room quickly looked to where Toby was sitting. Toby started sweating again. “Jesus Christ, can somebody turn the air conditioning up!”
Everybody went home afterwards. Toby was bombarded with questions by his mother. What have you and your friends been up to in the last few days? How were you able to do all of those things that I saw you do just then? What happened to Miss Victoria and John? Who was the girl he was with inside of the plant cocoon? What the hell is going on? All very important questions to be asked by a loving mother. Toby laid it out for her. He told her the truth; something he wouldn’t ever do. But under the circumstances, there was no hiding the fact that he just flew up in the air and shot fire balls out of his hands.
And Toby wasn’t really in the spirit of hiding the truth as of now. He was too caught up with his thoughts. Why did Veergha walk out like that all of a sudden? He kept thinking to himself. Was is something I said?
As he finished telling his mother the truth, his father arrived from work. His mother stopped yelling at him when he entered the living room. Edmund noticed the awkward silence filling the room. “Did something happened?”
“It’s nothing, dear.” Lily replied. She looks back at Toby. “Go upstairs, Toby. You’ve had a long day.”
Toby nods at her, and heads for his room.
“Hey, dude!” Omnius greets Toby as he enters the room. “How’d it go?”
“Ribbit.” Macrodon added.
“I didn’t ask you, Mac. I asked — hey, what’s wrong?”
Toby just sat in his bed, un-acknowledging Omnius’s words.
“I gotta tell you, Toby. That was some weird stuff that happened outside.”
“You’re weird.” Toby stated.
“We’re not talking about me, here.” Omnius jumped up at Toby’s bed and sat beside him. “We’re talking about that girl that used to be Lady Veergha.”
“Korriavania.” Toby corrected him. “That’s her real name.”
“Yeah, that. What happened to her back there? Why’d she change her looks all of a sudden? One minute, she looked like a hot teacher — “
“What?”
“ — then in the next, she’s a cute teenage girl. What is up with those aliens?”
It took a while for Toby to steer clear of the fact that Omnius has the ability to know how attractive women could be. “Listen, man. Your guess is as good as mine. I dunno what happened to her, or why it happened.” Just then, Toby noticed something. He raised his hands and closed his eyes, trying to concentrate. “It’s gone.”
“What’s gone?”
“My powers.” Toby replied. “Er, Lady Veergha’s powers.”
“Korriavania.” Omnius corrected him.
“Shut up. I think it’s finally gone! I don’t have fire abilities anymore!”
Toby stood up from his bed, and clenched himself, as if getting ready to jump. “Nothing. Not even my flying abilities from awhile ago.”
“That’s a good thing, right?” Omnius asked.
“Yeah,” Toby smiled. “I guess it is.”
* * *
Drew got home and opened up the desktop. It was a Friday, so he was allowed the full access of his computer. Drew opened up Defenders Online, and quickly messaged Tom to go online inside of the game as well. Then he messaged Amanda, to see if she’d be available inside of the game as well. She said she’ll try going online as soon as she gets home.
After 45 minutes of endless side quests, Tom’s avatar finally arrived inside of the game. “Wuz up, neegrumpz?”
“Please don’t.” LDOT replied in the private chat. “We need to talk about what happened awhile ago at Toby’s place.”
“Sur thang, ombre.” PolygonSky replied.
Drew was about to scold Tom about his racial slang, but then he noticed Amanda asking for an invite inside of their chat. Drew accepted this. “What kind of side-quests are we gonna do tonight?” Hirundinidae asked.
“We’re not here to do any side-quests.” LDOT said. “We’re here to talk about Toby and Lady Veergha.”
“Sur thang, ombre.” PolygonSky replied.
“What?” Hirundinidae asked.
“Don’t mind it.” said LDOT. “Look, we have to be careful when we see Lady Veergha the next couple of days. I don’t think it’s safe to call her by who she looks.”
“She looks like that girl from our school, right? Mara, was it?” Hirundinidae asked. “I at least know that much.”
“So she turnd int th luv of Tob’s lif,” PolygonSky replied. “So wht?”
“Can’t this guy come with subtitles?” Hirundinidae asked.
“Tom,” LDOT said. “If you knew exactly what Toby did to get Mara to leave him, then you’d agree with me that Lady Veergha’s the most unstable person to be around right now. And I’m not talking about her powers.”
“Drew,” Hirundinidae said. “We’re talking about Lady Veergha here, not the actual Mara.”
“We don’t know how the Mind-breach works.” LDOT replied to her. “And did you notice the way Lady Veergha left? How she took her hand off of Toby like that?”
“Yeah?”
“Wut abut i?”
“I’m saying that it might not just be Mara’s appearance that Lady copied, but her memories as well.”
“Nw wer wuld she evn gt Mra’s memries frm, dud?”
“Where would Lady Veergha even get Mara’s memories from?” Hirundinidae asked.
“Tht’s wht I sed!”
“Remember when Toby suddenly went berserk after the first mind-breach? He’s been gaining Lady Veergha’s memories. And her powers! I’m not totally sure if I’m on the right track here, but if what’s been happening to Toby is also somehow happening to Lady Veergha, that would mean Toby’s memories are being passed on to her as well. To answer your question, Mara’s memories isn’t what we need to watch out for. At least, not her REAL memories.”
It took a while before someone answered. “Toby’s memories of Mara?!” Hirundinidae asked.
“Exactly.” LDOT replied.
“Im nt fllowing.”
“We don’t know exactly what Toby’s memory of Mara is.” LDOT said. “He might’ve captured her looks perfectly — almost too perfect — but memories are different from the truth. Lady Veergha may look like Mara, but she’s not the real Mara. She’s Toby’s Mara.”
“Tlk abot nxt-lvl obsessd.” PolygonSky said.
“What exactly DID happen to the REAL Mara?” Hirundinidae asked.
Drew cracked his knuckles. This is gonna be a long chat.
* * *
As the weekend passed by, nothing strange happened. Which only made it stranger. Toby went online a couple of times to play with his friends. Drew specifically told Tom and Amanda not to talk about their conversation with Toby, so they didn’t. Toby felt like they were hiding something from him, so he tried asking June about it. She wasn’t much help, either. June just gave Toby yes or no answers, which reminded him of Toae’ras. And remembering Taoe’ras made him remember about Lady Veergha, which only lead Toby to remember what happened to her last.
Toby got into the habit of taking Omnius outside for a walk, like an owner taking his dog out for a dump. When the neighbors asked about Omnius, Toby just said that he was a new generation robot toy from Japan, which only got them scratching their heads. Some nodded and went their way. Others tried talking to Omnius, which didn’t really help Toby to answer why Omnius’s vocabulary is so similar to that of a regular fifteen year old. He’d repeat the “made in Japan” thing, and the neighbors would just nod and go about their day. Omnius brought Macrodon along, too. So it was like looking at a pet-owner walk his dog out, but the dog had its own pet frog; Petception.
As Monday arrived, Toby got ready for school. He hid Omnius inside of his back-pack, and Omnius hid Macrodon inside of a cookie jar, inside of Toby’s backpack. So Toby arrived a little bit late that morning because of the intense weight he had to carry. “Damn. I wish I had a better bag.”
“Or, you could just take me out of this thing and tell people I’m from Japan.” Omnius said to Toby inside of his back-pack. “That’d make things way easier, bro.”
“Shut up, Omnius.” Toby replied.
Toby took a deep breath before going inside of the classroom. When he was ready, he quickly went inside and sat down on his desk, looking forward, as if nothing strange just happened. He felt the whole room looking at him. Shit.
“Hi.” June said to him.
“Hello!” Toby shouted out. His classmates looked at him for a second, then went back to their own little circles. Toby took out a handkerchief to wipe off his sweat. “Jesus Christ, it it just me, or is it getting hot in here?”
“You would know.” June replied.
Toby noticed the double meaning in June’s comment. “You just reminded me of something.” he grabbed June’s hand.
June tensed a bit, “What if you — “
“I won’t.” Toby assured her. Their hands both held each other.
June looked at Toby. “You can control it now?”
“There’s nothing to control, June.” Toby said to her. “I don’t think I have powers anymore.”
June smiled at this. “That’s good.”
“Yeah.” Toby replied.
Then they realized that they were still holding hands. So both of them quickly got out of it. An awkward silence happens to both of them.
“Toby,” June whispered to him. “I was wondering — “
“What’s that?” Toby asked her.
Before June could continue, the door suddenly opened. “Toby, we need to talk!” It was Lady Veergha, in Mara’s image.
Everybody in the room quickly looked to where Toby was sitting. Toby started sweating again. “Jesus Christ, can somebody turn the air conditioning up!”
End of Chapter.
* * *
* * *
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