A dangerous encounter

After visiting Juliet’s tomb, they decided to spend the rest of the day together.
Nyco kept his promise and invited Emma to eat. They went to an underground restaurant called “The Mole”. It was a themed restaurant where you sat down in a big Mine Cart with a table in the middle that took you through different stops. In each of the stops you had typical food from all over the world. Emma’s favorite was Italian food whereas Nyco was more into Japanese food. Even though they gave you a small serving in each stop, they ended up full.

To try and get the food down they went for a walk through the city center. The poor boy had to follow Emma around to what seemed like an endless quest of finding the perfect dress. They were in their 8th shop when Nyco felt he had to say something.

-One more shop and I’ll learn how to sow. That way you can just tell me what you want and I'll give it to you-, he complained as he sat down on the chair near the fitting room.

-Don’t be so impatient. It takes time to look like this-, she said waving her virtual dress around. She was standing in a crystal booth in which you could select the dress you liked and the machine would automatically form an image around you with your selected dress and size. That way you could see if it looked good on you without having to undress and try it on. -Do you like this one?-, she asked. Nyco looked up and saw a white dress with a long skirt and short sleeves. It looked great on her as it accentuated her waist and other attributes. He had to look away so she didn’t notice him gazing for too long.

-...It’s… ok

-Just ok? Mmm I was thinking of buying it but, with that reaction… I’ll check another one-. she decided.

Thinking it would be a crime not to have her wear that dress Nyco quickly corrected himself.

-No no. It’s really good, honestly

-You are not just saying that because you are tired of shopping with me right?

-Mmmm… 50/50-, he joked. -It looks good on you, Em. You should take it.

-He heee. Thanks-, she smiled. She could read him like a book and knew he really liked it from the start, she just wanted to hear it from him.

Nyco was carrying the bag with the white dress as Emma thought of someplace else they could go.

-Mmmm, maybe we can go to a boy’s shop. You do need a change of look-, she teased.

-What?! What’s wrong with what I’m wearing now?!

-Well… Let’s just say you won’t be invited to a lot of red carpets this year. Maybe we could buy a…

Emma suddenly stopped talking after seeing her friend Yve with her boyfriend coming out of another shop. If they saw them together they would tease her for months. Her and Gyanna would say they went out on a date and she would never know peace again from all the gossiping. She had to do something, Yve could not see her together with him.

-We could buy a…? what? The tension is killing me-, Nyco said sarcastically. -Don’t leave a sentence mid…UFFFF

Emma pushed Nyco into some bushes in order to hide him from them. She took the bag from him so it didn’t get dirty from the branches.

-What the hell was that for?!!-, he complained.

-Shhh! Yve is with her boyfriend and they are walking this way. Stay silent, I’ll distract them and then you go the other way-, she planned. Nyco also didn’t want people to get the wrong idea so he agreed.

-Ok, talk about how many shops we’ve been to. That’ll scare them off.

-Shush! Bushes don’t talk!

As the couple got closer Emma noticed something was wrong. It looked like they were arguing. Yve's boyfriend suddenly grabbed her bag and tried to take it away from her. Yve didn’t let go of the bag so he punched her in the chest and threw her to the ground. Then he took her necklace and her rings. “Hey. What are you doing?!” yelled Emma running over there to stop him. The man saw her coming and crossed the street, leaving his girlfriend on the floor crying.

-What happened Yve!?-, asked Emma confused.

-Emma??!-, Yve hugged her friend and cried. -He… he wanted me to buy him something but I refused… so…

-That bastard. Ny…!

Emma didn’t have to call him for help. Nyco heard all that happened and came out of the bushes running directly towards the violent boyfriend. He was quite fast, Nyco had to run as fast as he could. They both ran across the road and a car almost hit Nyco, but he was able to jump over the car hood and slide over it. The target looked back and saw that he was being chased, so he pushed people to get on his way. Fortunately, Nyco was able to dodge them and continue the chase.

They were running for minutes when the thief finally went to a secondary street that didn’t have so many pedestrians. That made the chase much easier for Nyco. As he was running, Nyco remembered he still had his homemade rocket shoe on. He sprinted in order to get closer to him and when he was close enough, he activated his shoe momentarily sliding the button upwards on his glove. This gave him a small push that made him jump over the thieving boyfriend. He grabbed his shirt as he was flying over him and smashed him on the ground as he landed. The thief hit the floor with his head but not with enough force to knock him down, he got up immediately feeling a flow of blood pouring out of his nose.

Nyco, on the other hand, had a problem. The booster on his shoe was definitely not made to be used in a regular shoe. It overheated and started melting his shoe. The poor boy felt how his foot was burning as smoke came out of the booster and he fell to the ground from the pain.

The thief didn’t know what was happening, but he took the opportunity of the distraction that the burning shoe provided. He got a small pocket knife out of his pants and went to stab his pursuer. Nyco was able to stop the knife momentarily, but since the boy with the knife was standing up, he used his body weight to press the knife downwards. The knife ended up cutting Nyco on his right cheek and punctured it. The attacker then moved it abruptly making his knife slice through Nyco's cheek and come out his mouth. Feeling his face burn up from the cut, Nyco was able to push the knife wielding boyfriend out with his left foot. He touched his bleeding face and saw his hand full of blood.

Nyco got up as his attacker got into a defensive position with his knife.

-Don’t get any closer or I’ll stab you again!-, said the punk.

-.........-, Nyco said nothing as he got closer ignoring the pain from his foot and face.

-Did you not hear me?-, go away!!

It’s not that Nyco didn’t hear him, it’s that he couldn’t. He was so immersed in the moment that all his attention went to the attacker and the knife, the rest was just background noise that diluted like salt on water. The boy holding the knife started feeling something was wrong with the boy that was coming towards him. Even though he was bleeding so much from his face that it dripped into his shirt, the boy was smiling. He kept telling him to go away but he didn’t say anything. Feeling cornered, he tried stabbing him again, but Nyco dodged every single one of his attacks.

When he got tired of playing around, Nyco grabbed his attacker by his left shoulder and activated the booster from his rocket shoe again. The booster exploded as it lifted his leg up with great speed. Nyco pulled his attacker’s face down with his hand and landed his knee right into his nose, breaking it completely.

They both fell to the ground. Yve’s boyfriend started crying from the pain of his broken nose while Nyco just stood on the floor with his foot completely exposed. His foot sole had third degree burns that hurt like nothing he had felt before. He thought of his experience with Emma the other day when the magma swallowed them. This hurt in a completely new level. He laughed in disbelief about the debastating difference in pain levels as Emma rushed over to aid him and then took her E-C out to call an ambulance.