[guncannon109]

Episode 23: Calm Before the Storm

Alex stood in the center of an empty street. The destruction of buildings and cars surrounded him as the sky burned in a hue of crimson red.

A strong wind blew from both sides of him as two riders charged towards each other, sword in hand and clashed their blades together.

Alex looked at the two riders and instantly recognized them.

“Yuki?... Ryu-O?” He thought to himself, “Wait, if they’re here then that mean,” he surveyed his surroundings before returning his focus back to the two riders that were engaged in combat before him, “Shiore! Carter! You two need to stop this!” he shouted as he tried to move his feet, however they seemed to be bound to the ground he stood on, “I can’t move… what’s going on?”

The two fought in a state of deadlock for a long while before the the seemed to tire each other out and they both fell back out of breath. The two readied to charge at each other once again however at that moment a giant laser blast came from out of nowhere and struck the ground between the two riders, engulfing them in the blast and knocking him to the ground.

As the smoke cleared, two neon green eyes lit up as a dark figure emerged from the fallout of the blast aiming a gun at Alex.

Alex clawed his way to his feet and took off down a near by alleyway. He turned a corner and rested on a trash can.

“Xtreme,” a voice called out. Alex looked in front of him and saw a figure clad in white armor wearing a butterfly shaped mask standing before him, “The devil draws near, he will
destroy your world… be sure you’re ready to face him.”

“Wait, what?” Alex asked as the figure faded away almost as quickly as it had appeared. “What do you mean by devil?” He sighed and hit the lid of the trash can he was leaning on.

He then turned around to the sight of the green eyes of the figure that had been chasing him.

"Pity," the green eyed figure said switching his gun into a sword, "I honestly thought that at least you would be able to defeat me." He raised his sword for one final strike, “No matter, I’m sure you’ll fare better in the next life.”

Alex fell to the ground before shutting his eyes and bracing himself for the impact. He then reopened them to see the alleyway had replaced by his bedroom and himself on the floor.

He looked around his room and rested his eyes at the doorway to see Cole standing just outside the door.

“About time you got up,” Shiore said.

“Shiore?...” Alex asked in a daze while rubbing his eyes, “What time is it?”

“Seven o five,” Shiore returned, “day one schedule.”

“Seven o five...” Alex said yawning, “I don't have class until nine forty-five. Go on without me.”

Shiore counted to three on her fingers.

“Wait...” Alex added turning back to Cole, “Did you say day one schedule?”

“Yep,” Cole returned with a sigh.

Alex stared blankly at the ceiling for a second, after about three seconds his eyes widened. “...Oh my god.”

“Oh crap, Mr. Merde is gonna kill me if I’m late again!” Alex shouted jumping out of bed. He stopped for a moment and looked over to Shiore, “... um.”

Shiore blinked, “what?”

“GET OUT OF MY ROOM!”

{Insert Opening Theme - Extreme Dream}

Alex stood in front of a mirror brushing his teeth excessively fast. He stopped for a moment and banged his head against the bathroom mirror. “What's wrong with the world?”

“I'm going on ahead!” Shiore shouted back to Alex while opening the front door to Alex's apartment.

“Okay.” Alex replied.

“Try not to be too late this time,” Shiore added before walking out the front door, “makes the rest of the team look bad when one member can’t even make it to class on time.”

“Hey, I'm never...” Alex began while running out of the bathroom, “that late...” Alex surveyed the room to find that Shiore had already left. “Woah… talk about deja vu”

Toast popped out of the toaster. Alex grabbed it immediately “Ha ha hot,” he said fumbling it a bit. Alex dropped the toast on a plate, spread peanut butter over it and headed for the door.

Alex then grabbed his bag and opened the front door and stopped for a second. He looked over to the picture on the mantle. “Bye mom, I'll see you later.” He said before walking out the front door of his apartment and down a flight of stairs to the street below.

He looked down the street in front of him and saw Shiore hadn’t gotten very far. “Hey wait up!” He shouted catching up to her.

Shiore turned around as Alex ran up to her side, “That was quick.”

“INCOMING!” A voice shouted from behind him.

Alex looked behind him to see Tara on roller blades hurling towards the two of them.

In one quick motion Shiore pushed Alex out of the way and grabbed Tara by her wrist swinging her around until the two were right in the other’s faces, “Gensoku shite... kudasai.”

“Uh… thank you?” Tara said shaking a little.

Shiore let go of Tara, Tara stumbling a bit as she regained her balance.

Shiore sighed, “Baka.”

Tara tilted her head to one side, “What exactly does that mean again?”

“Special,” Shiore returned, “As in a very special person.”

“Oh… Thanks, good to know someone out there’s sees it besides me!” Tara exclaimed with her usual smirk. “Anyway, we’d love to stay and chat but we’ve gotta jet,” She turned on her heel and took off down the street, “Catch ya’ you later Super Snow Stars!”

Alex’s eye twitched, “If she thinks that’s actually what baka means than she really is one.”

Shiore snorted for a split second.

Alex looked over to Shiore, "What was that?"

"I sneezed," Shiore said avoiding eye contact with Alex.

"Oh..." Alex returned, "Well, that's one weird sneeze."

"Let's just go," Shiore demanded as she walked ahead of Alex, “Cole said you had something you needed to take care of before school started?”

“Oh yeah, I never told you did I?” Alex returned, “every morning I go for a twenty lap run around the track before school starts.”

Shiore raised an eyebrow, “Why is that?”

“I used to do it with a friend of mine,” Alex said as his eyes began to tear up, “however she…” he gulped, “Isn’t around much anymore… but I still keep to the schedule she laid out for me. As a reminder of all the good times we spent together, and the bad.”

“That’s pretty noble of you,” Shiore said, as she turned on her heel and continued down the road, “I’m sure that friend of yours is happy… wherever she is now.”

“Try to keep up,” a voice echoed in Alex’s head, “because I won’t slow down for you.”

“I will,” Alex nodded before running after Shiore, “count on it."

---

Sampson sat in his office looking over a few files, with several others in boxes lining the floor.

He threw the file in his hand down on his desk, “After so many years… why now does he choose to return?”

The door cracked open as Marcoh walked in with his arm in a sling.

“Chief?” Marcoh asked closing the door behind him, “Everything alright in here?”

“I wish I could say,” Sampson sighed, “But with the chaos that’s been going on in past couple of days it’s hard for me to tell. Poor kids, no one especially children should have to go through what they’ve been through. What makes it worse is that I can’t get help but feel that things are only going to get worse for them.”

“I know what you mean. Feels like just yesterday Alice was doing everything she could to make sure that kid was safe, now he’s in the same position she was,” Marcoh added leaning against the wall behind him, “Time moves so fast it’s hard to keep track of it all… and all we can do as adults is make sure the next generation is ready to pick up where we left off.”

“Very true my friend,” Sampson said with a somber tone to his voice. “Which is precisely why…” Sampson reached under his desk and pulled out a black brief case similar to the one he gave Alex the day he received the X Driver, “the time has come for this to come into play. After all, you said that yourself right?”

“Indeed I did,” Marcoh nodded, “and the boy has indeed proven himself if I do say so myself.”

“Agreed,” Sampson returned, “However, the shadows grow strong… and I’m certain they won’t remain dormant for much longer.”

---

At META headquarters, Vainglory stood in the shadow of several large pillars as Joel and Spite stood on the landing below him.

“I shall ask you one final time Inertia,” he proclaimed turning to his former commander, “Why now do you choose to return?”

“I already told you,” Inertia replied, “the dream we shared when META was established must end… No matter the cost.”

“I see,” Vainglory said avoiding eye contact with Joel, “So you’d risk the lives of the innocent to achieve this selfish goal of yours?” He disappeared into the shadows and reappeared behind Joel, “Or have you forgotten the very reason why META was formed in the first place?”

“Indeed I do,” Joel sighed, “We both realized back in those ruins… we realized that this world was rotting away, we knew that humanity was doomed if something was not done soon. That’s why we formed META, to assure that change was made by any means necessary,” he turned to face Vainglory and looked him in the eye, “However what you plan to do to save this world is unacceptable. If Alice were here, she’d never allow you to get away with what you’ve done.”

“Save this world Joel?” Vainglory laughed, “Is that what you think I’m attempting to do?... on the contrary, the world I seek is not this one, but another. One where there is no fear, no hatred and most of all no one has to die.”

Joel smirked, “So even after all these years, you’re still only a child.”

“What was that?” Vainglory demanded.

“It figures as much. You still don’t understand that no matter how powerful you become you’re still only human,” Joel proclaimed, “You can’t bring the dead back to life my old friend… no matter how hard you try.”

Spite held out her hand as a red ball of energy formed in her palm, “You barge in here, uninvited, insult our intentions and now you dare speak to Lord Vainglory in such a tone? I’ll have you killed for this you worthless little-”

“Hold your fire Spite,” Vainglory instructed, placing his arm between Spite and Inertia, “I’m curious though Inertia… what’s the true reason for you coming here?”

“I’ve prepared the riders as much as I can… now I merely wish to watch as things unfold,” Joel proclaimed, “Nothing more, nothing less.”

Vainglory raised an eyebrow, “Are you sure that’s the only reason?”

“Yes,” Joel nodded, “This is not my fight so I shall let the pieces fall where they may.”

Vainglory smirked, “Then you shall have it.”

{End of Part A}
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
{Start of Part B}

Alex stood on the roof of the school, a cool breeze rushing over him. He heard a quiet flapping sound which ended with a small ding against a metal surface. He turned around to see Kree perched on the rail opposite him.

“Kree?” Alex asked. He then grunted and turned away from the bird, “What do you want?”

“I merely wish to talk,” Kree stated, “Are you be able to spare a moment?”

Alex sighed, “Sure... what is it?”

“It’s nothing major,” Kree proclaimed, “But I’m beginning to sense an unusual amount of tension between the three of you ever since Yuki and Ryu-O. I was wondering, would you have any theories as to why this could be?”

“I can’t say,” Alex returned, “Why not ask Tara?”

“Well, there’s a slight problem with that,” Kree lowered his head a bit, “The girl for whatever reason cannot hear me… I’m not entirely sure why but I believe it has something to do with her inability to allow anyone to get too close to her.”

“What do you mean by that?” Alex asked.

“My partners heart is tricky to understand,” Kree explained, “It’s like a storm that refuses to die down and is always shifting, refusing to let anyone in to resolve it. I had hoped that with time, she would allow at least someone to get close to her, but sadly this has not come to pass.”

“What about Cole?” Alex asked back, “Didn’t you say that he was getting close to her?”

“Indeed he is,” Kree sighed, “But the closer that boy gets, the more he is pushed away.”

“I see…” Alex said balling his hand into a fist, “Isn’t there anything we can do to help her?”

“Brave youth, I am most certain that there is… though it pains me to say that I don’t know it,” Kree proclaimed, “all I can say for sure is that memory is the key.”

“Memory is the key…” Alex repeated.

“Alex?” A voice called out.

Alex turned around to see Shiore standing directly behind him.

“Oh... Shiore,” He said with a jump in his voice, “You really need to stop sneaking up on people you know that?”

Shiore raised an eyebrow, “Who were you talking to?”

“Oh, I was…” Alex turned back around to the rail only to notice that Kree had vanished, “... he left?”

“Are you alright?” Shiore asked.

“Yeah, perfectly fine,” Alex said turning back to Shiore, “How’d you know I was up here anyway?” Shiore pointed to Alex’s shoulder as a small white wolf poked it’s head out of his sweater.

“I placed a tracker on the three of you a while ago,” Shiore stated as she quickly turned away from Alex and headed for the door to the roof of the station, “thought it would be best to keep a close eye on you.”

Alex blinked, “Oh… I see. A trick like that must be pretty handy I guess.”

“It has it’s uses,” Shiore said as she leaned against the fence. She raised an eyebrow, “Hey, that tower over there… what exactly is it?” she asked pointing to a large structure in the distance.

Alex looked to what Shiore was pointing to, “Oh, that’s Ardent Tower. It’s the tallest structure in the city, it’s actually a centerpiece to the whole thing really. Believe it or not there’s actually an entire network of ecologically clean generators that supply power to the entire city.”

“Alright,” Shiore returned taking her first step down the stairs. She stopped for a moment, “Also, you don’t need to thank me… for anything. If I remember correctly it was designed by an architect named Kirito-”

“Fubuki,” Shiore interrupted, “Kirito Fubuki… he was my father’s brother.”

“Wow, that sure is one hell of a legacy,” Alex proclaimed resting on the fence beside Shiore, “I wonder though, what exactly was he like?”

“He left for the west before I was born, so I didn’t know him very well,” Shiore sighed, “Still… glad to know he’s doing alright.”

“Must be difficult being so far away from home, huh?” Alex said looking down to the ground a bit, “But, you’ll see your folks again someday.” He smiled and placed his hand on Shiore’s shoulder, “Besides, with social networking it’s not like you’re completely cut off from them right?”

Shiore slapped Alex’s hand off her shoulder and stepped away from the fence.

“Uh… did I say something wrong?” Alex asked.

“Sorry… it’s just that I need to be getting back to class now,” Shiore returned as she headed for the door to the roof, “You should too… if you don’t want to be late.”

“Oh yeah,” Alex said to himself, “Uh, thanks I guess.”

“I already told you,” Shiore’s hand twitched, “you don’t need to thank me… for anything.”

“Huh?” Before Alex could respond Shiore had already disappeared as if she was never even there to begin with. Alex blinked, “... Was it something I said?”

---

An hour or two later, Alex sat at his desk in his fourth period math class. The bell rang as several students shuffled in and took their seats. Alex looked over his shoulder to the empty desk behind him, for some odd reason this made him feeling a little uneasy.

“She not showing up today?” Cole asked taking his seat in front of Alex.

Alex shrugged, “She was here at lunch, heck I even talked to her for a bit.”

“You say something to piss her off?” Cole asked once again, “You never were that good in conversation, especially when it came to girls.”

Alex slammed his fist on his desk, “THE HELL IS THAT SUPPOSED TO MEAN!”

“I’m joking,” Cole chuckled, “Though it is rather odd that Shiore of all people would skip. She’s only been here for about a week and yet she hasn’t missed a single class, even when she was trying to kill us.”

Alex sighed, “That’s the part I’m worried about.”

“Maybe she’s just really stressed out,” Cole suggested, “I know I’d be after what she’s been through the past couple of days.”

“WELL OF COURSE SHE IS!” Tara shouted as she popped her head into the open window of the class.

“GAH!” Alex screamed, “Tara, what the hell are you doing here?”

“My class got boring, so I came to see what you guys were up to,” Tara proclaimed leaning against the ledge of the window. “And it looks to me like we showed up just in the nick of time.”

“How exactly are you even staying up here?” Cole asked.

“Tree branch,” Tara returned, “Anyway, that’s not important right now. We gotta find a way to defrost the ice queen and luckily I know how to do it!”

“Darwin! Desmond! Keep it down over there!” Ms Foster shouted.

“Oh boy, looks like you two got yourselves into big trouble,” Tara laughed, she let go of the ledge and ran off down a row of tree branches by the window, “We’ll catch ya later once you get out of jail cirimals!”

Alex’s eye twitched, “... what just happened?”

Cole sighed, “I’ll go and knock some sense into her later.”

“Yeah, you go do that,” Alex nodded, “God knows somebody has to.”

After that bit of excitement, Alex and Cole worked on their work along with the rest of the class. About an hour and a half later the bell rang signaling the end of the day. Alex and Cole made their way to the door and down the hall. The two soon came to a fork in the hall.

“I need to go to my locker,” Alex said pointing down the right hallway, “I’ll catch up with you later.”

“Kay, see ya,” Cole waved proceeding down the hall to the left.

“Yeah later,” Alex returned before going down the other.

Alex walked down the hall until he came to his locker on the right hand side. He removed the lock, opened up the door, put his books into his locker, grabbed his bag and closed the door again putting the lock back on it immediately after.

Upon closing the door he looked up and saw Tara right in his face.

“Gah!” He jumped, “How many times do I need to tell you to stop doing that!”

“Yeah yeah, over nine thousand I got that,” Tara said waving her hand in front of Alex’s face, “So, getting back to what we were talking about in class I know the perfect way to defrost Sayuri.”

“Her name is Shiore,” Alex butted in.

“Whatever like I was saying,” Tara continued completely ignoring what Alex just said, “I was thinking we take that poor girl out for some fun at my personal favorite place in the whole world, the Cat’s Eye Cafe.”

“The Cat’s Eye?” Alex asked raising an eyebrow, “I’m not sure that Shiore would be very interested in something like that.”

“Ah shows what you know,” Tara exclaimed slapping Alex in the back, “Listen, once you’ve tried what the Cat’s Eye has to offer no one, not even that sour wolf Shiore would be able to hold themselves back! Besides, it’ll be fun for all of us so what do ya say? How about we go tomorrow after school?”

“Actually, you do have a point there,” Alex said thinking for a moment, “Sure, that sounds like a great idea. I’ll ask Shiore and see if she would like to go with you.”

“With you?” Tara raised an eyebrow, “What do you mean you?”

“Well…” Alex scratched the back of his neck, “I was kind of planning to the library to do a bit of research on… personal stuff.”

“Aww! Man that sucks!” Tara grunted, “Fine, I guess two will work just as good as three.”

Alex raised an eyebrow, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Oh… nothing,” Tara said as her face turned a bright red.

“Tara,” Alex demanded.

Tara sighed, “Okay fine, you see I told my dad that I’d be bringing some customers by tomorrow and well… He got all excited and started preparing special menu for it.” She clapped her hands together, “So, could you possibly reschedule that trip maybe?”

“Sorry, has to be tomorrow,” Alex returned, “If I don’t do it tomorrow I’ll just end up putting it off and then it will never get done.”

“Alright, I see you’re point,” Tara sighed, “Oh well,” she added regaining her usual smirk, “A party is still a party, even with only two guests!”

---

Back at the police station, Sampson was putting the filing cabinets in his office back together when the door opened and Marcoh stepped in.

“I’m heading out now,” Marcoh said grabbing Sampson’s attention.

“Alright, be careful out there,” Sampson returned.

“Don’t worry I will,” Marcoh assured him stepping back into the hall and shutting the door.

A few seconds passed before Sampson ran over to the door of his office and stepped out into the hall, “Marcoh wait a minute!”

Marcoh stopped and turned back to Sampson.

“Do you think… what we’re doing is right?” Sampson asked.

Marcoh turned back around, “In a world like this it’s hard to tell… the difference between right and wrong,” he said in a somber tone, “All that we can do is what we think is best.”

Sampson nodded, “True.”

Marcoh smirked and shook his head, “You worry too much.” He opened the front door of the station and made his way outside closing the door behind him.

“Thanks Marcoh,” Sampson said with a grin, “I needed that.”

Sampson made his way back to his office. He opened the door to the sight of a young man with black hair making his way out the window. Sampson reached for his gun.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” The young man said pointing a black twin barreled blaster with blue markings along gold and silver highlights, “You see this treasure is mine… and I intend to keep it that way.” The thief spun the blaster around in his hand, “Catch ya later.”

The thief jumped out the window as Sampson ran over to him. He looked out the window in search of the thief but couldn’t find him anywhere.

“Damn it!” He shouted punching the ledge of the window. He pulled a small radio out from his pocket, “Attention all available units, a highly classified piece of equipment has just been stolen from ACPD HQ. Suspect appears to be rather young and of Japanese descent with black hair wearing a brown cargo jacket. He is armed and extremely dangerous… proceed with caution.”

---

Alex opened the door to his apartment, stepped through it, threw his bag onto the couch and closed the door behind him.

“Gah, what a day!” He sighed as he made his way to the kitchen and pulled a bottle of pop out of the fridge. He slumped back to the living room, collapsed onto the coach and switched on the tv, “Man, I’ll never understand women no matter how hard I try.”

“Well if you give up that easily you never will,” A voice called out.

Alex looked over to a large shelf where he kept his DVD collection to see Shiore standing in front of it. His eyes widening, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE!”

Shiore looked to Alex then back to the shelf, “Your DVDs are a mess… Seriously who organized this? You have Azumanga Daioh and Zeta Gundam next to Rosario to Vampire and School Days… why do you even have School Days anyway?” she asked rearranging the various DVDs in alphabetical order, “Hm? Hey, what’s this?” She picked up a somewhat large pastel colored box and read off the title on the top, “Ma-do-ka Ma-gi-ca…”

Alex ran over to Shiore and grabbed the box from Shiore, “That one is… personal.”

Shiore raised an eyebrow, “How so?”

“It was a gift… from someone that’s very important to me,” Alex said avoiding eye contact with Shiore, “Oh, that reminds me,” he turned to Shiore and looked her in the eye, “Tara asked me to ask you if you were interested in going with her and Cole to this cafe she keeps going on about. It’s called the Cat’s Eye I think.”

“A Cafe huh?” Shiore asked, “I don’t know, I don’t really care for that kind of stuff… Plus I find that girl to be kind of a pain.”

“Oh come on,” Alex pleaded, “Just this once?”

“Alright fine I’ll go,” Shiore said crossing her arms, “But on one condition.”

“and what would that be?” Alex asked.

Shiore held up the Madoka Magica box set, “I want to watch this, right now.”

Alex’s jaw dropped, “... serious?”

“Dead,” Shiore returned, “Is there a problem?”

“No, of course not,” Alex said taking the box from Shiore and walking over to the TV, “I just didn’t expect you to be interested in this kind of stuff.”

“Fair enough,” Shiore said sitting down on the couch, “but maybe you shouldn’t judge people before you get to know them.”

“That’s for sure,” Alex laughed a bit, “Now I’m gonna warn you, this one gets rather… dark let’s say… like really dark.”

Shiore shrugged, “Can’t be any darker than the world we live in.”

“Good point,” Alex returned opening up the DVD player, “Okay then, let’s get this show on the road then.”

---

A young man with a twin-lense magenta camera stood on the outskirts of Ardent City, a white cruiser style motorcycle with magenta highlights parked directly behind him.

He took a shot of the cityscape, “So this is the World of Xtreme,” he said letting the camera drop down on the strap around his neck, “A world of five riders, each based on an element of nature… I wonder how much of that is true.” He hoped on his motorcycle and put his helmet on, “Guess I’ll find out soon enough.”

To be continued

{Insert Ending Theme - I’ll Believe}