Neo Chronicles
Episode 36: So What Do We Do?
Table of Contents
So me, Noah, an' Kai are in school, right? Right. We chillin' for the mos' part. Hangin' out by the lockers. World passin' us by. Students walkin' an' talkin', teachers givin' us looks cuz they think we up t'no good. The usual.
But you know how it is. Things is goin' down. An' I don't mean down like “the everyday struggle a' life” typa down; I mean the “yo, there's these demons up in dis school, 'bout t'kill errbody, so what is we gon' do” typa down.
Hold up. Demons? Yeah man. You'd think we'da put that junk behind us, but they here now.
Now Noah lookin' like he got da weight a' da world on his shoulders. He buggin' out. Body all slouched ova. You know, I can usually joke around wit' dude, but right now, there ain't no jokes t'be had here. Stern look on his face. Every so often, he'll walk a few steps away, mouthin' sum'm sum'm under his breath, then come back.
“Oh my God,” he says. “You know how bad this is, right?”
I'm lookin' at Kai. He lookin' back. It's obvious that the stress is weighing in on him, too. An' fo' good reason, y'know?
“Yes Noah, we get it!” he says. Now Kai's all tryna play it off, see. He all frontin' like he ain't worried 'bout nothin'. I can respect dat. He knows. The way he carries himself—the narrow eyes 'hind his glasses, the hard wrinkles his baby face makes as he scrunches his eyebrows, the way he leans back against the locker, arms folded, mouth poked out – He's posing. Yeah, but that's his thang, doe. Tough guy act, y'know. Let 'em have it.
“So all three of us have seen them now, right? Black shadows, movin' on their own? Sometimes takin' form. Comin' out.” Noah stops pacin' for a bit an' looks at me. “Nexus, you said you actually saw them attack someone?”
“Yeah, it was real bad,” I say to the dude. “They don't care 'bout hurtin' nobody. Ol' dude didn't stand a chance.”
“Darn it!” Noah smacks his fist in his palm all heartbroken like. I feel a chill pass my way as he does it.
“So what do we do about 'em?” Kai asks, raisin' an eyebrow.
“What I already told you. We stop 'em!” Noah shouts back.
“So we ain't lookin' for Lynn anymore?”
Ooh, Noah didn't like that. He sho' didn't. Lookin' all offended. Eyes buggin' out, both brows raised, an' he gets real animated wit da way he answers. “They've already taken out two of our teachers,” he steps up in Kai's face, holdin' up his two fingers.
Kai lookin' like he ready t'deck the dude out, but he sighs an' looks away. These two don't like each other. Nope.
“And now this?” Noah goes on. He knows he 'bout messed up. He takes a step back, covers his face, holds his head down an' errthang. “Yes we're still lookin' for Lynn,” It gets colder again. You can see Noah's breath as he talks. “But we're also fightin' these demons!”
“Dude, I already done tried that!” I speak out. I'm steppin' in between the two of 'em, tryna diffuse the situation. Smart move. Got my arm leaned up against the locker, facin' Noah, an' all the cold air comin' from his way. “Can't e'en touch 'em!”
“Whaddaya mean, you can't touch 'em?” Noah snaps back. Feels like I'm starin' face first in a refrigerator. Does he know he's doing this? I don't think he does. Every time he opens his mouth, it's like everything drops by a degree.
But I weather the cold an' carry on. “I mean I ran up, tried t'punch it, an' went right through! Like it wasn't e'en there!”
“Are you serious?” Kai asks. “Then how were you fightin' all those demons before?”
Y'know, come t'think of it, Kai ain't any better. I turn around, an' it's like I'm in front of an oven. Ain't none a' these brutha's got a hold on they STs. They're kids. You're a kid, too. It's not like you've had your powers that long. I done had mine fo' two years. And you just now—with Hiro's help I might add—figured out how to consciously speed up your senses along with your speed.
“I had my sword,” I manage to say, in spite a' the annoyin' voice in my head—Hey!—an' beads of sweat formin' on my face.
“Your sword cuts through 'em?”
“I guess so.” I'm tired a' bein' caught between this. Too hot on one side. Too cold on the other. I step away from 'em both.
“Yeah, that actually makes sense,” Noah says strokin' his chin actin' like he deep in thought or somthin'. “Jabari was the one who fixed it, right? Didn't he do some mystic mumbo jumbo on it? Probably made it enchanted.”
“Think I remember that.”
“Well, that doesn't help us now,” Kai points out. “If he can't touch 'em, an' we can't use our powers, then that's it. It's done. We already lost.”
“No, no, no, no, no!” Noah's practically pullin' his hair out, tuggin' on those nappy strands. “You guys still aren't getting it! It's all about your ki!”
“Ki, qi, chi, pee wee sneeze! Noah, we can't do magic!” Kai fires back.
“Ki isn't magic! I can't believe I was the only one who got that! Everyone has ki! It's your spirit! It's the reason you're alive! It's the reason anything's alive! Demons included! If these demons really are just dark spirits—which they are—then the only thing in the world that could possibly affect them is another spirit! Lynn gave us the quick boost when we needed it, but we gotta start doin' this on our own!”
“Noah!” I say. “Chill out!” He looks at me callin' him out. “I mean, don't chill out. Dude, look at what you doin'!”
Then he looks behind him an' practically jumps as he finds the locker door frozen shut.
Kai lookin' all high an' mighty, lets out a chuckle, an' says “You're an idiot.”
“I'm an idiot? Tell me why it ain't a hundred degrees anywhere but here.” Noah points his hands in Kai's direction to make the point. Kai scoffs an' looks to the side.
Noah does have a point, though. Yeah, but so does Kai. Hiro taught us some stuff, but we ain't gonna learn it ova night.
Now while this is all well an' good, it's really on some petty type stuff. Ya feel me? I mean there's way more important stuff goin' on right now. If you take the time to turn around an' look, you'd see it for ya'self. I see a hallway. A school hallway. There are students making their way to the next class. Some are stopping to have a talk. Some are rushing. They're by their lockers, exchanging books. They're by their friends, exchanging looks.
Nah dude, y'gotta look past all dat! Shadows, man. All through the hall. They everywhere! Some are real. Some are actual, honest t'goodness shadows that form from da light gettin' blocked out by some odd thing. That thing could be a group of people walkin' by. Could be a trash can with crumbled up pieces of paper layin' around it. Could e'en be me an' the crew right here.
But then there's da oddities. Like dat one ova there.
“You guys see that?” I point at it.
There's this kid—white boy, dressed in a Tee an' some shorts—standin' by his locker 'cross the hall from us. He doin' his thang, mindin' his own business. Dude's puttin' some books up, takin' some books out. Then outta nowhere, dude looks like he gets hit ova the back a' da head with a brick.
I see. He buckles over. Frantically patting around, looking for something to latch on to. You can hear wheezing. He holds his chest as he inhales and exhales deeply. Looks like he in the middle a' havin' an asthma attack. His body falls against the locker. A couple people stop by an' ask if he's okay. I don't think he can hear 'em. It's terrible as it is, but if you're seein' what we seein', it's a lot worse.
“Good God,” I hear Noah mouth out.
Trust me, ain't nothin' good or Godly 'bout dis. Y'see, those shadows that aren't shadows creep up all around the dude. That coughin' an' wheezin' is a direct result of dem black things—full-bodied, wholly realized—wrappin' they long, slender arms around him. One shadow clutches the boy by the neck. Another pins his head to the locker. And the third –
The third shadow pulls back a hand an' rams it straight through the kid's head. Soon as it connects, the shadow—all the shadows—go up in a black smoke. The smoke's all over the kid. Now the coughin' an' weezin' makes sense. All that smog he's inhalin', his body's tryna spit it back out, but the fog goes all in. Dude look like he 'bout t'throw up. His body absorbs all dat fog.
An' in the next instant,
he's fine.
He picks himself up, dusts himself off, puts the books he dropped on the ground back in his locker, an' goes on his way. But ain't no way he's the same. Nah, homie. It's like there's a dark cloud ova him. The black fog is seepin' outta him. Like some faint, light flame.
Sho', peeps is lookin' at him like he's crazy, but ain't none a' dem seein' what we seein'.
“Okay, that was weird,” Kai says.
“What in the world just happened?” Noah asks.
“You didn't see it?” Kai responds.
“Oh, I saw it. And I think I know what I saw, but someone else throw it out there. Just so we're on the same page.”
“Dude ova there jus' got possessed,” I say.
“Damn.”
Then alla' sudden, the air gets real dense-like. I find that it's gettin' kinda hard t'breathe. Like everything jus' got heavy. I'm not sure if it's Noah an' Kai messin' with the temperature again, or jus' the general feelin' a' dread.
We jus' look at each otha for a moment. The sentiment's the same. The feelin's the same. No smiles, no arguments, no frowns, no grunts. It's pathetic. I hate how pathetic we look. I hate how pathetic I feel, but dang.
Then the tardy bell rings. Our eyes shift around, lookin' t'see if the otha's gonna make a move in response. Ain't nobody knowin' what t'do. Everyone's fidgetin' around in place.
Noah finally breaks the silence with a sigh. “We can't let that happen again.”
Me an' Kai nod in response.
/*
We each end up gettin' t'class. Me an' Kai is sittin' here. He seems more focused on the lecture than anything else. That's good. He prolly doin' it jus' t'take his mind off thangs. Makes sense, I guess. Either way, someone's gotta be on the studies.
My mind is focused completely on people's shadows. I'm ready for it. Soon as I see somethin', I'mma be on it. What are you actually going to do? I dunno! I'll figure it out. I'm like a hawk. Sittin' in the back a' da room. Last row on in inner most corner. I can see errthang.
I see big ol' Bloomberg up front stumblin' ova his words as he tries t'teach. Dude's a trip, but he knows his stuff. Usually I'd be down t'hear the bars he spittin', but I'm on a mission. The shadows around him seem t'be actin' jus' right. They move when he moves. As he points t'somethin' on the board, the shadow follows him. When he fiddles through his notes, nothin' jumps out. Errthang's cool with him.
I see the majority of the kids on they personalized computers, typin' away at they thin-as-paper keyboards, starin' at the holographic screen projections in front a' them. One screen per desk. This is a tech class. It's good that the tech's bein' used.
I see Kai next t'me. He's doin' the same. Takin' notes. Lookin' down an' ova at the front of the class. At first I'm surprised he didn't take his usual seat in the front row, but as I look at an' around him, it becomes real clear why. I'm starting to think he's not that into the lecture. Don't look like it.
That dawg. This whole time he's been spyin' on Octavia up front. He's got a thing for her, right? Negro, I don't know. What he does is his business.
Minutes go by. They feel like days. That ain't no exaggeration, either. It's a slight exaggeration. No it ain't! My senses is on full alert. A side effect of my ST. As I focus in on somethin', the world around me literally slows to a stop. Yeah, yeah, I get all that. But it's not like you're spending DAYS in between seconds. I could if I wanted to! But have you? Ever?
The tempo of Bloomberg's words come out as sluggish, ruggish beats. Every syllable, every letter, every pause, every breath – it's like I'm havin' a full on conversation witchu in between. That's true. We are having a conversation right now.
The slow clickin' an' poppin' of chewed gum goes from happenin' every other second, t'every minute, t'eventually every hour.
The digital clock on the wall shows hours, minutes, an' seconds pass by. To all these clowns, it's movin' like normal, but t'me—right here, right now—I could count t'a million before the next second passes, an' that's me goin' all one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand.
Truth be told, I hate movin' this fast. Really? Why?
No, that's not it.
I hate movin' this fast when I'm not movin'. Sittin' in one place is pretty borin' on its own, but sittin' in one place waitin' for somethin' t'happen is even worse. You hate staying in place? Always have to be moving? Somethin' like that, yeah. Can't explain it. I fidget around. Look from side t'side, keepin' my eye on errthang cast, errthang shaded, errthang misplaced, displaced, an' in place.
Suppose I should thank the most high that nothin' fits the description.
The class goes on. The class drags on. The class pass on. The class lasts on. It's not all that weird. You fidgeting that is. Just means you're a teenager. After what feels like three hours, I take a deep breath an' exhale. Everything around me speeds up. Bloomberg's words sound like words again, the gum chewin' an' poppin' resumes in rhythm, Kai's still low-key thristin' after Octavia.
I'm hungry, ready fo' a second lunch.
Still no demons in sight.
Episode 36: So What Do We Do?
Table of Contents
So me, Noah, an' Kai are in school, right? Right. We chillin' for the mos' part. Hangin' out by the lockers. World passin' us by. Students walkin' an' talkin', teachers givin' us looks cuz they think we up t'no good. The usual.
But you know how it is. Things is goin' down. An' I don't mean down like “the everyday struggle a' life” typa down; I mean the “yo, there's these demons up in dis school, 'bout t'kill errbody, so what is we gon' do” typa down.
Hold up. Demons? Yeah man. You'd think we'da put that junk behind us, but they here now.
Now Noah lookin' like he got da weight a' da world on his shoulders. He buggin' out. Body all slouched ova. You know, I can usually joke around wit' dude, but right now, there ain't no jokes t'be had here. Stern look on his face. Every so often, he'll walk a few steps away, mouthin' sum'm sum'm under his breath, then come back.
“Oh my God,” he says. “You know how bad this is, right?”
I'm lookin' at Kai. He lookin' back. It's obvious that the stress is weighing in on him, too. An' fo' good reason, y'know?
“Yes Noah, we get it!” he says. Now Kai's all tryna play it off, see. He all frontin' like he ain't worried 'bout nothin'. I can respect dat. He knows. The way he carries himself—the narrow eyes 'hind his glasses, the hard wrinkles his baby face makes as he scrunches his eyebrows, the way he leans back against the locker, arms folded, mouth poked out – He's posing. Yeah, but that's his thang, doe. Tough guy act, y'know. Let 'em have it.
“So all three of us have seen them now, right? Black shadows, movin' on their own? Sometimes takin' form. Comin' out.” Noah stops pacin' for a bit an' looks at me. “Nexus, you said you actually saw them attack someone?”
“Yeah, it was real bad,” I say to the dude. “They don't care 'bout hurtin' nobody. Ol' dude didn't stand a chance.”
“Darn it!” Noah smacks his fist in his palm all heartbroken like. I feel a chill pass my way as he does it.
“So what do we do about 'em?” Kai asks, raisin' an eyebrow.
“What I already told you. We stop 'em!” Noah shouts back.
“So we ain't lookin' for Lynn anymore?”
Ooh, Noah didn't like that. He sho' didn't. Lookin' all offended. Eyes buggin' out, both brows raised, an' he gets real animated wit da way he answers. “They've already taken out two of our teachers,” he steps up in Kai's face, holdin' up his two fingers.
Kai lookin' like he ready t'deck the dude out, but he sighs an' looks away. These two don't like each other. Nope.
“And now this?” Noah goes on. He knows he 'bout messed up. He takes a step back, covers his face, holds his head down an' errthang. “Yes we're still lookin' for Lynn,” It gets colder again. You can see Noah's breath as he talks. “But we're also fightin' these demons!”
“Dude, I already done tried that!” I speak out. I'm steppin' in between the two of 'em, tryna diffuse the situation. Smart move. Got my arm leaned up against the locker, facin' Noah, an' all the cold air comin' from his way. “Can't e'en touch 'em!”
“Whaddaya mean, you can't touch 'em?” Noah snaps back. Feels like I'm starin' face first in a refrigerator. Does he know he's doing this? I don't think he does. Every time he opens his mouth, it's like everything drops by a degree.
But I weather the cold an' carry on. “I mean I ran up, tried t'punch it, an' went right through! Like it wasn't e'en there!”
“Are you serious?” Kai asks. “Then how were you fightin' all those demons before?”
Y'know, come t'think of it, Kai ain't any better. I turn around, an' it's like I'm in front of an oven. Ain't none a' these brutha's got a hold on they STs. They're kids. You're a kid, too. It's not like you've had your powers that long. I done had mine fo' two years. And you just now—with Hiro's help I might add—figured out how to consciously speed up your senses along with your speed.
“I had my sword,” I manage to say, in spite a' the annoyin' voice in my head—Hey!—an' beads of sweat formin' on my face.
“Your sword cuts through 'em?”
“I guess so.” I'm tired a' bein' caught between this. Too hot on one side. Too cold on the other. I step away from 'em both.
“Yeah, that actually makes sense,” Noah says strokin' his chin actin' like he deep in thought or somthin'. “Jabari was the one who fixed it, right? Didn't he do some mystic mumbo jumbo on it? Probably made it enchanted.”
“Think I remember that.”
“Well, that doesn't help us now,” Kai points out. “If he can't touch 'em, an' we can't use our powers, then that's it. It's done. We already lost.”
“No, no, no, no, no!” Noah's practically pullin' his hair out, tuggin' on those nappy strands. “You guys still aren't getting it! It's all about your ki!”
“Ki, qi, chi, pee wee sneeze! Noah, we can't do magic!” Kai fires back.
“Ki isn't magic! I can't believe I was the only one who got that! Everyone has ki! It's your spirit! It's the reason you're alive! It's the reason anything's alive! Demons included! If these demons really are just dark spirits—which they are—then the only thing in the world that could possibly affect them is another spirit! Lynn gave us the quick boost when we needed it, but we gotta start doin' this on our own!”
“Noah!” I say. “Chill out!” He looks at me callin' him out. “I mean, don't chill out. Dude, look at what you doin'!”
Then he looks behind him an' practically jumps as he finds the locker door frozen shut.
Kai lookin' all high an' mighty, lets out a chuckle, an' says “You're an idiot.”
“I'm an idiot? Tell me why it ain't a hundred degrees anywhere but here.” Noah points his hands in Kai's direction to make the point. Kai scoffs an' looks to the side.
Noah does have a point, though. Yeah, but so does Kai. Hiro taught us some stuff, but we ain't gonna learn it ova night.
Now while this is all well an' good, it's really on some petty type stuff. Ya feel me? I mean there's way more important stuff goin' on right now. If you take the time to turn around an' look, you'd see it for ya'self. I see a hallway. A school hallway. There are students making their way to the next class. Some are stopping to have a talk. Some are rushing. They're by their lockers, exchanging books. They're by their friends, exchanging looks.
Nah dude, y'gotta look past all dat! Shadows, man. All through the hall. They everywhere! Some are real. Some are actual, honest t'goodness shadows that form from da light gettin' blocked out by some odd thing. That thing could be a group of people walkin' by. Could be a trash can with crumbled up pieces of paper layin' around it. Could e'en be me an' the crew right here.
But then there's da oddities. Like dat one ova there.
“You guys see that?” I point at it.
There's this kid—white boy, dressed in a Tee an' some shorts—standin' by his locker 'cross the hall from us. He doin' his thang, mindin' his own business. Dude's puttin' some books up, takin' some books out. Then outta nowhere, dude looks like he gets hit ova the back a' da head with a brick.
I see. He buckles over. Frantically patting around, looking for something to latch on to. You can hear wheezing. He holds his chest as he inhales and exhales deeply. Looks like he in the middle a' havin' an asthma attack. His body falls against the locker. A couple people stop by an' ask if he's okay. I don't think he can hear 'em. It's terrible as it is, but if you're seein' what we seein', it's a lot worse.
“Good God,” I hear Noah mouth out.
Trust me, ain't nothin' good or Godly 'bout dis. Y'see, those shadows that aren't shadows creep up all around the dude. That coughin' an' wheezin' is a direct result of dem black things—full-bodied, wholly realized—wrappin' they long, slender arms around him. One shadow clutches the boy by the neck. Another pins his head to the locker. And the third –
The third shadow pulls back a hand an' rams it straight through the kid's head. Soon as it connects, the shadow—all the shadows—go up in a black smoke. The smoke's all over the kid. Now the coughin' an' weezin' makes sense. All that smog he's inhalin', his body's tryna spit it back out, but the fog goes all in. Dude look like he 'bout t'throw up. His body absorbs all dat fog.
An' in the next instant,
he's fine.
He picks himself up, dusts himself off, puts the books he dropped on the ground back in his locker, an' goes on his way. But ain't no way he's the same. Nah, homie. It's like there's a dark cloud ova him. The black fog is seepin' outta him. Like some faint, light flame.
Sho', peeps is lookin' at him like he's crazy, but ain't none a' dem seein' what we seein'.
“Okay, that was weird,” Kai says.
“What in the world just happened?” Noah asks.
“You didn't see it?” Kai responds.
“Oh, I saw it. And I think I know what I saw, but someone else throw it out there. Just so we're on the same page.”
“Dude ova there jus' got possessed,” I say.
“Damn.”
Then alla' sudden, the air gets real dense-like. I find that it's gettin' kinda hard t'breathe. Like everything jus' got heavy. I'm not sure if it's Noah an' Kai messin' with the temperature again, or jus' the general feelin' a' dread.
We jus' look at each otha for a moment. The sentiment's the same. The feelin's the same. No smiles, no arguments, no frowns, no grunts. It's pathetic. I hate how pathetic we look. I hate how pathetic I feel, but dang.
Then the tardy bell rings. Our eyes shift around, lookin' t'see if the otha's gonna make a move in response. Ain't nobody knowin' what t'do. Everyone's fidgetin' around in place.
Noah finally breaks the silence with a sigh. “We can't let that happen again.”
Me an' Kai nod in response.
/*
We each end up gettin' t'class. Me an' Kai is sittin' here. He seems more focused on the lecture than anything else. That's good. He prolly doin' it jus' t'take his mind off thangs. Makes sense, I guess. Either way, someone's gotta be on the studies.
My mind is focused completely on people's shadows. I'm ready for it. Soon as I see somethin', I'mma be on it. What are you actually going to do? I dunno! I'll figure it out. I'm like a hawk. Sittin' in the back a' da room. Last row on in inner most corner. I can see errthang.
I see big ol' Bloomberg up front stumblin' ova his words as he tries t'teach. Dude's a trip, but he knows his stuff. Usually I'd be down t'hear the bars he spittin', but I'm on a mission. The shadows around him seem t'be actin' jus' right. They move when he moves. As he points t'somethin' on the board, the shadow follows him. When he fiddles through his notes, nothin' jumps out. Errthang's cool with him.
I see the majority of the kids on they personalized computers, typin' away at they thin-as-paper keyboards, starin' at the holographic screen projections in front a' them. One screen per desk. This is a tech class. It's good that the tech's bein' used.
I see Kai next t'me. He's doin' the same. Takin' notes. Lookin' down an' ova at the front of the class. At first I'm surprised he didn't take his usual seat in the front row, but as I look at an' around him, it becomes real clear why. I'm starting to think he's not that into the lecture. Don't look like it.
That dawg. This whole time he's been spyin' on Octavia up front. He's got a thing for her, right? Negro, I don't know. What he does is his business.
Minutes go by. They feel like days. That ain't no exaggeration, either. It's a slight exaggeration. No it ain't! My senses is on full alert. A side effect of my ST. As I focus in on somethin', the world around me literally slows to a stop. Yeah, yeah, I get all that. But it's not like you're spending DAYS in between seconds. I could if I wanted to! But have you? Ever?
The tempo of Bloomberg's words come out as sluggish, ruggish beats. Every syllable, every letter, every pause, every breath – it's like I'm havin' a full on conversation witchu in between. That's true. We are having a conversation right now.
The slow clickin' an' poppin' of chewed gum goes from happenin' every other second, t'every minute, t'eventually every hour.
The digital clock on the wall shows hours, minutes, an' seconds pass by. To all these clowns, it's movin' like normal, but t'me—right here, right now—I could count t'a million before the next second passes, an' that's me goin' all one-one-thousand, two-one-thousand.
Truth be told, I hate movin' this fast. Really? Why?
No, that's not it.
I hate movin' this fast when I'm not movin'. Sittin' in one place is pretty borin' on its own, but sittin' in one place waitin' for somethin' t'happen is even worse. You hate staying in place? Always have to be moving? Somethin' like that, yeah. Can't explain it. I fidget around. Look from side t'side, keepin' my eye on errthang cast, errthang shaded, errthang misplaced, displaced, an' in place.
Suppose I should thank the most high that nothin' fits the description.
The class goes on. The class drags on. The class pass on. The class lasts on. It's not all that weird. You fidgeting that is. Just means you're a teenager. After what feels like three hours, I take a deep breath an' exhale. Everything around me speeds up. Bloomberg's words sound like words again, the gum chewin' an' poppin' resumes in rhythm, Kai's still low-key thristin' after Octavia.
I'm hungry, ready fo' a second lunch.
Still no demons in sight.
