2 The exploding trigger

***Blaze, a week before the challenge***

Blaze was sitting on a tree branch near his home, lost in thoughts. Gilly was sat on a bench just below the tree. They had been there for some time now when Blaze stated what was up in his mind at last.

"Something terrible is about to happen, I swear, I'm sure."

"You know they are just nightmares right? However scary they are, they will never come true."

"But they 'aren't' just nightmares, there is something else stuck in between them. Sometimes, I get nightmares and sometimes I get a weird world were battle monsters don't exist and I live a normal life."

"This still doesn't have anything to do with them being real or not."

"I'm getting more and more confused, sometimes, when I wake up, I'm not sure anymore which is real and which is a dream. And every morning I am more sure than the last that something awful will happen when I turn seventeen."

"Don't be silly, nothing is going to happen that day, I will be with you the whole time. We are going to have a great time, you will get your battle monster at last and we will be able to go have fun travelling together. I just can't wait!"

It was true that he was supposed to finally get one then, he was thrilled to finally get his own.

"Good thing the guys gave me those odd jobs, I would never have gotten one otherwise."

"Yeah, the guys are great, what do they call themselves now? The Plainriders?"

"No, I think they changed for something like Team Dragonlaw recently."

"It somehow sounds better."

"It does sounds better but they are as idiotic as they were the day they left. I just don't understand what they need all these codes for."

"I don't care what they need them for, as long as they pay up."

"Yeah, at first I thought so too but... An Echorecorder, a top of the line laptop, and now even a battle monster? Don't you think this seems fishy, where did they get all this money?"

She made a grunt and shrugged to express that she didn't know and didn't care.

"They didn't say what kind of monster thought, knowing them it could be a common carp." She said.

"We are friends after all right? They wouldn't do that to me would they?"

"Probably not, if they do, I'm going to find them and hit them so hard they'll think it was the slap of a bearsleep."

Blaze laughed at that, he was pretty sure she wouldn't be willing to go around searching for old friends lost who knows were. She wasn't really the type to leave home.

"You don't think I would?" She said seemingly hurt. "If you paid attention, you would know that I prepared for our trip for a long long time. I could go away anytime."

"Preparations like what?" He asked with a smug smile plastered across his face.

"I took a lot of random classes, I learned three more languages, and got myself all sorts of things so we can go camp outside as safely as possible."

"I don't think sign language counts as a language though, you're never gonna use it." (1)

"Of course I will! Now we can talk in silence and nobody will understand what we say, this is the best language to learn if you want to keep secrets!"

"What kind of secrets do you even keep?"

(So you think I can say out loud that I sleep in your bed every night? Is this at last an acknowledgement of our relationship?) She signed while she made him a face with her tongue out. (That doesn't mean anything at all!) He signed back (You're just teasing me!)

(How can anyone be so dumb! Who would sleep in the bed of someone to tease him!)

(Only you of course, that is why I told you to stop years ago!)

They continued to bicker at each other for the whole day, mostly like usual. Those kinds of day, the town rejoiced at the calm.

***Aurora***

Somewhere else, later that day. Nine years old Aurora was eating supper with her father and her mother around their enormous dining table. As usual, the food was perfect looking and delicious. But as usual, her father was talking about his business, how it went and musing out loud about how he could make more profits.

She never talked to either of her parents much. Both did not understand how to interact with a small girl, even more so with the fact that she was mute. They loved her very much of course, but Aurora sometimes felt like she was loved more like some kind of jewel you keep near you at all times than a human being. Who would talk to a diamond? This frustrated her to no end.

How come the parents in her dream where so much more interesting than her real ones! She felt lonely and bored. She had felt this way before but now it was just excruciating. If only she could turn ten already and go away somewhere to do absolutely anything else.

It had already been decided, she needed more life experiences if she wanted to inherit the company, her father had said. She would collect a mountain of cute creatures to bring back home and would at last be able to have some friends.

"What do you think I should do my snow fairy?"

Of course, her esteemed father was talking to her. She had not listened at all to his problems, too lost in her own thoughts and of course, not interested at all. He was probably talking about his competitors doing nuclear and solar energy technological advancements. She was looking at him with her usual cold face and responded with sharp gestures.

(You could just fire half the workforce, close the factories, who cares.)

"Maybe you're right... maybe I'll do that."

Of course, he had not understood a word of it, she could plainly read it on his face. The butler Hergis knew too but he just shut up instead of telling him what she had said, like usual.

(You're an horrible person) She signed flatly at her father. (why don't you learn to at least read the sign language for your own daughter instead of going out to play every night?)

This was the kind of speech that made Hergis stop translating long ago for fear he would get himself in trouble. He had nothing to gain in this after all, he was only paid for so much. Aurora turned her attention on her mother. The perfect example of a flat painting, without any depth.

(And you mother, I never saw you do anything else than pamper yourself all day long or play with my hair. I am not a doll, I don't need to be buried in makeup and strange hairstyles all day!)

Her mother just smiled at her, completely deaf to her plea.

She went back to her food, only half listening to her father's story. If only there was a way to make her birthday come sooner.

***Blaze, birthday***

Blaze was eating his breakfast with his mother and Gilly, watching the news from the corner of his eyes.

<In the news today: President Richard Stardust announced that five out of his ten mega factories in his home region of Orre would be shut down loosing the jobs of thousands. The head of Starfuel claimed that new breakthrough in solar energy had recently harmed his business in many regions including Newone and Florence regions, two previously big importers of petroleum gas. "We will stay strong and make a comeback somewhere in the next ten years, our own scientist are working hard to find the new black gold of this century." In the meantime, many ask of what will happen to those who lost their jobs but Mr. Stardust stayed silent on the subject.>

"That is boring news for today. It's Blaze's birthday after all, they should make some kind of effort to send out good news."

"Why would they? They don't even know I exist."

"Well, soon, everyone will know your name. I'm sure you'll do something big soon, right mom?"

Gilly had started some time ago to call his mother mom too for some unknown reason.

"Yes, you are a really intelligent person Blaze, I'm sure everyone will soon see what a good son I have."

"Thank you mom. To change the subject, Gilly got herself a monster too." He said to escape those embarrassing words.

"Of course she did, she was just waiting until you got yours to get one."

"No one asked her to do that."

"I couldn't possibly go out alone, I had to wait for you. What's more, there was no way I was going to pick up a monster recommended by your neighbor."

"So you waited almost ten years to get your own monster just to spite him?"

"No, of course not! Who would do something so stupid!"

"Only you it seems, you're always doing that."

"Name one example, I dare you!" She denied.

"Like how you sleep here every night or when you stick to me like glue outside or when you scream insults at him from my window."

"None of those things are to spite him!"

How could one scream insults at someone so often without feeling spite?

"Of course they are, what else!" He insisted.

His mother started to laugh at them with a bright smile.

"What's funny mom?" Blaze asked puzzled.

"It's just so funny, you already quarrel like an old couple."

"But we're not old!" Exclaimed Gilly.

"No, the real point here is that we are not a couple." Corrected Blaze with a sigh.

"Wait, does that mean you think I'm old?"

That had nothing to do with it but he still went along to annoy her.

"You are just nineteen but that is still two years older than me."

His mom interrupted them there to transmit some not so valuable facts.

"They say that most normal peoples think that the man in a couple should be older."

"Good thing your son isn't normal then!" Said Gilly, munching on a bacon strip.

"I am normal! At least on that point."

"But I thought you liked big breast!" Gilly said while squeezing hers towards him.

"What the fuck does that have to do with age or anything!"

His mom laughed again and told them how cute they were.

"You both bicker all the time but in the end, you never really fight outside the bed. It's a good thing, you'll be together for a long time."

This was a fatal blow for the both of them. They instantly turned red. Of course they had never done the deed, they hadn't even kissed! Still his mom seemed to think otherwise.

"I hope so." Gilly said in a small voice.

"I swear we haven't done anything yet." Scrambled Blaze to put an end to this madness.

"You said yet!" Suddenly screamed Gilly while pointing at him. "I win! Mom he said yet!"

"You are focusing on the wrong part." Said Blaze dispirited.

"Yes, it seems it worked, he almost admitted his feelings for you dear. Now he only needs a small push."

"You too now mom?"

"Of course, I was in from the start."

Blaze didn't know what to do with himself at this point. He grunted and then expelled all the air in his lungs, took a giant breath and ran towards the door. Anything to get him out of this messy situation.

"I'll go check the package instead."

"Hey wait up! Thanks mom for breakfast!"

"No problem dear." Blaze's mother responded with a wink.

Gilly ran after him with a last strip of bacon in her left and her new pearball in her right. They both took the small package he received by mail upstairs in Blaze's bedroom and opened it to reveal six balls, a badge, a peardex, three potions and a letter. One of the six balls was even a pearball-ultra.

"What is all this?" Asked Gilly. "I thought they were only supposed to send you a battle monster?"

"I don't know." He answered, puzzled.

"Then quick, open the letter!"

Since he was as curious as her, he did not object and unfolded the letter without wasting much time. They both read it at the same time, Gilly spying from above his shoulder.

<Dear Blaze, first of all, I am sorry. In case you are wondering what is going on, it is me, the leader of Dragonlaw and also, your dad.>

What? His dad worked with his idiotic friends?

<I know I wasn't there much for you and I also know that I shouldn't use your friends to get access to your brilliant mind but I absolutely needed these codes cracked, or written, whatever you kids say.>

He didn't really want to hear about his father or any of his usual nonsense, it would just be a waste of time. He did not quite feel like reading the rest of it now but since the letter was so long, it must have contained at least one thing of importance. However much he felt like his dad was taking a roundabout way to make him look stupid, he should still read the rest.

<Before I tell you what is going on, let me explain what is in the box with this letter. First of all, I got my hands on a peardex as you can see. I felt like you probably had a peargear already like everyone your age but since you did not have a battle monster, I thought this might help you. Then, the potions go without much explanation, they are just plain old ordinary potions. Next, I included a badge of our group, not any badge, my very own. It represents our determination and fiery spirit of conquest and bravery. Keep it on yourself please.>

Blaze took a look at the pin-badge, it was representing a deep purple dragon head breathing an orange fireball. From afar, it looked like a spiky thing half purple and half orange.

<In the Pearball-ultra, you'll find a chesspawn, a shiny one. Since you are in Gleanne, you'll probably stand out with it but I couldn't resist the temptation of giving it to you. I caught it myself in Florence last year, I had the greatest of luck finding a shiny one. It wasn't even what I was looking for but I thought it fitted you well. Both of you are hard headed and posses a strong shell, in your case, mainly emotional.>

"Dad what are you talking about!" Blaze screamed angrily in his head.

<The other pearballs are just ordinary ones I wish to give you to help you start. Finally, there should be a key taped at the back of the badge.>

Gilly picked up the badge and un-taped the key hidden behind it.

"Got it."

<This key opens up my rented storage at the end of the street, you know, the building with a fucked up red roof.>

Blaze knew exactly what building his dad was talking about, even if they had repainted the whole thing in green last year.

<In there, you'll find a bunch of gear you may need. Take it all before the cops get there.>

What? He must have read something wrong, he read it again.

<Take it all before the cops get there.>

It seems he had not read it wrong after all.

<You must think you read wrong but I assure you it is not a mistake.>

"Too late dad, I already checked, now tell me what is going on!"

<Our Dragonlaw is not as small as you think it is son, and not as... accepted by the police as we wish we were.>

"Please don't tell me you did something stupid!" Thought Blaze.

<We did something stupid, I am not going to lie, it is looking pretty bad.>

"God damn it dad!"

<But we had to for our revolution!>

"What are we even talking about here!" Wondered Blaze, half angry and half confused.

<The codes you cracked were all from the government, more specifically military code.>

"Oh god, please why!"

<We are about to do something really big son, it will blow your mind, and other things too, but don't worry I will be fine.>

Blaze didn't worry for him at all, he was just angry, no, infuriated.

<Thinking back, I should have told you what you were doing,>

"Yes you should have!"

<but it didn't occur to me until just now that hackers sometimes let their signature on their work.>

"Oh no!"

<I hope you did not because you are going to be in real deep shit son.>

"Shit!"

<I won't bore you much longer with my stories but know that, if this was ever your case, whatever you do, you should not let the cops catch you alive.>

"Why!"

<Thinking a little more, you are probably going to be treated as a terrorist and executed on sight.>

"What was he about to do with those damn codes!"

<Also, maybe your mom shouldn't watch the news for a while.>

"For fuck sake!"

<I promise this will all get better soon. Maybe in two years.>

"Two years!"

<Well, maybe ten...>

"DAD!" He almost ripped the letter in half because of how furious he was.

<I hope my letter reaches you before it's too late and also happy birthday!>

"You are the worst! Birthday my ass!" Blaze screamed at the top of his lungs.

<ps: You should probably not let your girlfriend read this. Maybe lock her up somewhere while you make your escape.>

"She is not my girlfriend and too late for that too!"

<pps: Burn this when you are done reading in case the police search the house.>

"I swear if you lock me up I will hit you so hard you'll wish you were dead." Said Gilly.

"Is this really the only thing that is bothering you in all this!"

"Well, he is clearly saying nonsense is he not? There's no way he really tricked you into hacking army codes right?"

"..."

"Also, there is no way you're dumb enough to sign your hacking job right?"

"..."

"You and your father are both the worst!" She exclaimed flipping the chair she was sitting on upside down out of anger. "What are you gonna do now!"

"We should check the internet first, maybe nothing happened yet, there was only that thing about Starfuel in the news earlier."

"Right, no reason to panic quite yet."

She put on a brave face and they opened the computer. They searched the news for a while but the only thing they found were rumors about the fact that it was the president of Starfuel's daughter that had first come up with the idea of closing the factories, they even claimed they had video proof. There was nothing else in the news for now. They slowly felt better until just as he was about to close his browser, a breaking urgent news appeared. A nuclear bomb had just blew up in a military base just on the border between Florence and Alemany regions, on Alemany's side.

"There is no way it's really your dad who did this right? Any minutes now there will be a confirmation that it was some kind of tragic accident." Said Gilly to reassure herself while cold sweat dripped from her face.

The next news came in, someone hacked a launch code from Florence and launched the bomb from there. Blaze became green instantly and closed his computer screen. Gilly looked at him in complete amazement.

"You hacked a nuclear bomb launch code without even realizing it!" She screamed. "How can you be so dumb! This is by far the stupidest thing you've ever done!"

"It was you who told me to just do it!"

"Yeah but I thought you were working for those idiots! At worse I thought they wanted to steal a bike!"

"Why would you need a hacker to steal a bike!"

"I don't know! Why would the nuclear codes be so easy to hack!"

"I'm so screwed! What the fuck am I supposed to do!"

Gilly looked around in panic before exclaiming,

"Get all your things, we go now, we have to run!"

"Why would you even come with me!"

"No time for your ignorance game Mr. 'you don't even like me', give me that letter so that I can burn it."

"How will you even burn it?"

"With him of course!" She said opening her brand new pearball for the first time in front of Blaze.

From it appeared a big black dog. An enormous, fiery demon dog. It was a demon-dog. It was the scariest dog he ever saw besides the ones in his dreamscape of course.

"You chose a demon-dog?" He asked while giving her the letter.

"Yeah. Houndy, could you please burn this for me?"

The dog breathed some ember and the paper was set ablaze.

"Good boy, I love you." She said rubbing his back with her other hand.

The dog looked really pleased.

"Why?"

"What why? I like dogs."

"Why did you pick the devilish one though?" You could have gone for a dofiger.

"But this one is dark type too. I thought maybe he could sniff out the ghost."

"We already tried this and many other things." He said while bringing chaos to his entire bedroom to get his stuff in a backpack. "There is no way to get rid of those nightmares."

"And I tell you, there is no way you're doing those nightmares for no reasons at all."

Blaze did not answer and finished packing.

"Ok, done."

"Then let's go! Houndy come back."

She put her dog back in his ball threw the burning paper in the empty trashcan and followed him downstairs.

"Mom! I'm going now!"

"Ok, where?"

"I don't know yet."

"And when are you coming back?"

"I don't know either."

"Don't go to sleep too late ok?"

"Yes mom, I love you bye!"

"Bye! I love you too. And you too Gilly." Finished Blaze's mother.

"Yes, see you later!" Answered Gilly.

It was how he left home. Of course, at this moment, he was overwhelmed by what was happening so he did not quite realize that he would be gone for a long time.

They went straight for the storage container at the end of the street. The number was written on the key so they did not take a long time to find the place.

Blaze turned the key inside the lock and yanked the door open. He was surprised to see what was on the other side. The curious duo found a Parachute, a wingsuit, rappelling gear, a rebreather, a welding torch, a Flak jacket and a disassembled sniper rifle in a case with some ammo boxes.

"What the hell! Why is there a sniper rifle in there! What was he even doing!" Complained Blaze again

"I don't know but I guess we should take it, he said to pick everything up after all."

"We?"

"Oh my god, again! You are so annoying!"

She turned him around gripped his head and smashed her lips against his own. Blaze's brain short-circuited. He wasn't sure how long she kissed him for but when she stopped, she barely removed her head and planted her green gaze right in the depths of his dazed eyes. With all the seriousness in the world, she told him.

"Now if you dare say I don't really love you or that I'm teasing you or that I'm doing it to annoy the neighbor, I swear to all the gods in the world, I will slap you so hard you'll think a dozen great-whales just smashed you."

None of it was a joke? All the strange things she did for the past five years were all real? It was not his mom that was weird for siding with her but himself all along? Even his dad knew and he wasn't even there! How could anyone be more of an idiot than himself! How was he even supposed to react? He had never thought of this possibility.

Was she even girlfriend material? Definitely. Was she good looking? Also definitely. Could he imagine himself with her for an extended period of time? He couldn't do the opposite, she was always glued to him, always had been since the moment he was able to walk. Would his mother approve? Clearly yes, she was an accomplice of Gilly's strange antics all along. Was there any objection in any part of his brain? Well she was older by two years but was it really a point? Conclusion, he had just got himself a girlfriend!

All of this took a split second in his brain before the light of consciousness came back in his gaze and he decided to kiss her in return. She let out a surprised yell and froze a split second as well. It was normal, after all, he had just done the same mere moments ago. She was right to be surprised, following his usual behavior, he wasn't supposed to kiss her back, this was absolutely unexpected.

Of course, it was what she had desired him to do but she did not think he would actually do it. She expected something like "Why did you do that!" or "This is far from the right time to do this!" but instead, she actually got what she wanted for all these years in which he refused to look at her clearly. He hugged her and she did the same. By the end of their long kiss, she was actually crying from happiness. She had won at last!

"I almost can't believe it." She said.

"You know what, at first I thought it was the worst birthday ever but I'm not so sure anymore."

"Idiot! Now isn't the time right? let's talk on the way to my house, I need to pick up my stuff."

"Right."

This was the answer she wanted, no more fighting, she was going with him.

***Aurora***

Meanwhile. Aurora was staring straight in the eyes of a budding-saurian.

"I knew you would like it!" Said her father. "I know that you really like those yellow flowers in the garden, in fact, yellow is your favorite color even if you always wear white. So I spared no money and found you a shiny budding-saurian, when it will evolve into a blooming and then flowering-saurian, it's enormous flower will be yellow.

She did not quite know how to respond to this, in fact, it was absolutely useless to answer since he would not understand. For once, he was actually right about her, her favorite color was in fact yellow and then tints of oranges and reds. She did not know however how to feel about living with an enormous plant lizard thing for only companion. At least, his aura told her it was not unhappy to be there. She flashed him a smile to let her father know that she accepted his gift with all the grace she could muster.

Her father smiled happily, took a picture of her and the plant and then told her he had to go, he had stuff to attend to after his conference this morning. She waved her hand at him cutely as he expected of his perfect daughter and left.

Now that she was squatting alone in front of the lizard, she taught of something that had not crossed her mind ever before. How was she supposed to give it commands and train it without talking. Of course, battle monsters did not know the sign language. "Better pay attention lizard" She taught, you're going to have a rough time. Then, another question popped in her head, was it a boy or a girl? If she could talk, she could just ask it, it would understand, but she was still mute. Her life had not changed overnight.

Well, maybe the butler could help her train it to understand hand language. She looked around to find him but of course, he had disappeared long ago. The budding-saurian looked around too, curious about what she was doing. "Well, no matter. To the garden!" She thought. She signaled it to follow her with her hand and moved quickly to the garden, the lizard in tow.

She played around with her new friend for most of the day before going back to her computer to see if she could not anger someone on the internet for fun. Whatever site she went to, everyone were talking about two things.

First, a terrorist blew up a nuclear bomb in a military base and they were tracking back the hacker all the way to Gleanne. This was sure terrible but it was not nearly as terrible as the other thing that was happening, at least for her.

Apparently, her father had just fired thousands of peoples. Moreover, people had got their hand on a video of her clearly telling him to do it at the dinner table and him agreeing to it. The whole thing was subtitled to let everyone see what words her hands had been forming. Now everybody seemed to hate her and called her the Little frozen witch. She was getting flamed left and right.

<Look at her face.> They were saying <She has no emotions at all.> <She is wearing white because she thinks of herself as someone so pure no colors could possibly taint her.> <Or just because she doesn't like anything, not even colors.> <No one cares about all those poor trash people, by the way, use all the money we could use to pay them and buy me a freaking shiny monster, the pricier the better.> <Look at the face of her poor father, even he had a hard time to accept what she was asking!>

Those types of comments continued on and on, sprinkled with death treats of angry workers and all kinds of insults. She could barely believe it, nothing said there was true at all! She didn't mean for them to lose their jobs, she wasn't even listening at that time! She wore white only because it was way too hot to wear anything else and finally, she didn't ask her father for anything in particular, she only wanted a friend.

She started crying. She felt hurt by what the people were saying about her. They didn't even know her, how could they say those things about her.

Then her mind went blank, she taught she was about to faint but instead, something in her mind got unlocked. At this very moment, She remembered all of her last life, she remembered the white space and how she had chosen her own new life. If only she had known then she wouldn't have done this!

Resentment, anger and pain all flowed into her.

The voice of the white space had lied to her, this wasn't fun at all! She wanted her old family back, she wanted her voice back, she wanted her friends back! Survive ten years, it seemed so easy, well it wasn't at all! Now all the workers who had lost their jobs where joining criminal gangs of the region out of necessity and she was already receiving death threats even though she had nothing to do with this at all! And she was just about to start her journey.

Everybody knew what she looked like, if she was ever to set a foot outside she would be done for! She jumped in her bed and beat her pillow with all she had. Screaming in perfect silence with all the air she had in her. She fell asleep hours later in her bed drenched in tears.

***Blaze***

At the moment Aurora got her flash, the same happened to Blaze. He was in Gilly's room and he suddenly fell backwards hitting his head against the floor.

"Oh my god Blaze are you all right?" Exclaimed Gilly quickly going to his side.

"Survive ten years?" He said half in a daze.

"What?"

"That son of a bitch! Was it not hard enough to put me in a world full of monsters, you had to set the world against me too!"

"What are you saying Blaze? I don't get it. Maybe you hurt your head while falling?"

"No, I didn't... I just suddenly understood all those fucked up dreams in between my nightmares. We have to go quickly, the police will come here soon."

She didn't seem convinced but agreed anyway.

"Yeah, OK, got it, I'm almost done."

"Good, I'll tell you latter what just happened, I'm still confused myself but on the bright side, I don't think it's a bad thing that you are nineteen anymore."

"You changed your mind about my fabulous breasts?"

"That still doesn't have anything to do with anything!"

"Good, you're in tip top shape." She confirmed happily.

"Nobody says that." No one ever says tip top.

"Well I do."

They then heard a voice from the front door, it was Gilly's mother.

"Gilly! What's this case doing here, what is this thing?"

"Oops, I'm going to occupy her while you finish up your luggage. Don't bring to much beauty products, your bag is going to weight a ton."

"There's no way I'm bringing them all! Go annoy my mom instead."

"Yeah yeah."

Blaze ran downstairs to meet Gilly's mom. She was like a taller, older and a little larger version of Gilly, but with brown hair instead of copper. Neither of them where fat of course, her mother seemed to be healthy but had somewhat exaggerated hips and Gilly was curvy with just enough meat at the right places. At least it was his opinion. He also liked slim girls and fit girls and all kinds of girls really but since right now his very own girlfriend was full of curves, that is what he preferred.

He wasn't quite sure how to consider her mom in his mind. Weirdly, right now, he felt confused about his age. using logic, he was forty-two years old right now, biologically, he was seventeen and mentally, he wasn't sure. Maybe in his twenties? He was not quite sure on how to tell the difference. So right now, when looking at the mother of his girlfriend, he wasn't really sure if he was supposed to see her as an elder or an equal. He was not sure of her age but the fact was, he had probably lived longer than her in total, it was quite confusing.

Anyway, he had to explain the case containing the sniper rifle. At least now he knew why there was a sniper rifle there in the first place, he had bought it himself in the white space.

"Welcome back home Mrs Linton, that case is mine, sorry to have left it in the way."

"Oh, Blaze, I wasn't expecting to see you today since it's your birthday, don't worry, it is not bothering me. Just by curiosity, what is in it?"

A sniper rifle.

"Parts of a disassembled thing I will build back later."

"Oh, I see, you are quite a good mechanic after all. Say, my toaster seems to have a problem and my husband's a real klutz with that kind of thing, could you maybe take a look?"

I don't have time for this at all! He thought. At least she wasn't making that scary look she often showed. Every time she did, it made him shiver in fright. He tried to decline hoping it would not anger her.

"I would love to help you out but me and Gilly are really busy right now."

"What kind of pranks are you pulling off again you two? Don't tell me you removed the headlights of every cars in town again."

"No, of course not, doing the same thing twice would be boring. No, it's something completely different."

"How different?" Asked her mom really suspicious of him.

Her face didn't change at all but he could feel it, that was the look. Almost as scary as his nightmares. Maybe she thought it was because of him that Gilly did those insane pranks? It wasn't though, most of the time, she was the one to come up with the ideas. When Ms. Linton was like that, only her husband or Gilly could cool things off. Speaking of her, she chose this exact moment to appear at the top of the stairs, ran down and jumped on his back, almost making him fall, and squeezed her cheek against his.

"Mom! Meet my brand new boyfriend!"

"By the gods, did the calamity duo really finally happen?" She looked despaired, probably like the rest of the town if they ever had the chance to hear about it before they ran. At least she didn't have the look of a murderer anymore.

"Huh huh, it sure did mom!" She said planting a kiss on a smiling Blaze's cheek.

"Great misery, I need a drink before your father gets home, tell me all about it later... No, tomorrow."

She grasped her head like she had a sudden headache and went to the kitchen. First obstacle defeated! He raised his hand and Gilly swiftly completed the high-five. The only thing stopping them from being the perfect team was that they were bickering all the time. Now that they had resolved their principal source of disagreement, they would become, as the town had guessed long ago, a great calamity.

They quickly picked up all their stuff and they ran back outside. They had to start their trip right now, if they slept here, they would get caught in no time. As they were running on the road out of town, Blaze took out is peargear and texted his mom. <I'm not going home tonight, I'm sorry, dad tricked me! Tell him I hate him if you see him, I'll sleep outside tonight. Don't worry, I'm with my girlfriend.>

That should be enough for now, maybe things wouldn't be as bad as he thought.

***

(1) What, don't look at me like that, we need it for the story to progress smoothly.

() I went for "" for speech, <> for text and TV/radio, () for sign language and "" again or nothing at all for thoughts. Let me know If you think there is a better way to do this, I'll edit those two chapters back if someone comes up with a better system.