Chapter 55

Tuesday 19th October 1999

I know this should be pretty obvious by now, but my life has become absolutely crazy.

This transparency with my parents – about being a Painter and everything – is fine in and of itself, but it coming right when Lucy has become more deeply involved with things has turned this situation into a nightmare. I can’t lie to my parents; I was raised to be an honest person, as you’ve probably noticed by now (idiotic exceptions notwithstanding). Which meant I had no choice but to tell Mum and Dad why their daughter was spending an awfully long time at her summer drama camp. And I had no choice but to tell them when my friends and I were heading up to the country house she was actually staying at for an important meeting.

And I had no choice but to tell them when we returned without Lucy in tow, only the news that she couldn’t care less about coming back home.

Funny how that didn’t go down well…

So began an unplanned journey undertaken by Mr and Mrs Matthews, the fine details of which I shall never know and am probably fine missing out on anyway. They made their way to Adam’s place on the very same day I informed them of Lucy’s decision, and whatever went down, they returned without her. All I was told was that Adam had made a strong case for her staying there, and some negotiations had taken place… I managed to dig a little deeper, and they let me know that the sooner Melody was caught, the better. Reads to me as “once Melody’s dealt with, Lucy will be sent home” … because I really needed more pressure to try and stomp down our nemesis’ plans…

Speaking of which, still no progress, and no meaningful updates on the Lokon detectors yet.

Life almost felt completely unremarkable again. Someone, somewhere, clearly didn’t like that idea, because at the end of my Tuesday Music lesson, as I headed out after my classmates…

“Oh, Alex…”

I turned in the direction of the voice: Mrs Cosgrove, looking up at me while sorting through sheets on her desk.

“I was meaning to ask, have you considered taking part in the talent show?” she enquired with her typical enthusiasm that I normally would never begrudge.

“You mean… playing the piano…?” I asked back.

“No, all those incredible celebrity impressions you do,” she chuckled, her attention returning to her organising. “Of course, the piano.”

“Why…?”

“Because you’re talented and it’s a talent show.”

“That does make sense…”

She laughed a little more after I said that.

“Give it some thought,” she urged me, and looked up again. “I think it’d be good for you.”

“Okay…” I nodded. I really didn’t want to explore her reasoning; the idea daunted me too much to even consider why it would be “good for me”, never mind taking any particular interest in that field.

You would think I’d leave it at that. But oh no, ladies and gentlemen, I’m incapable of helping myself. Mere hours later, as Dakota and I waited for everybody else outside the school gates amidst a haze of our fellow students…

“Anything exciting happen today?” was all my girlfriend asked me, with that sweet tone of voice that she graced the world with.

“Not really,” I told her, and that was all I needed to say, so why I then added, “Mrs Cosgrove said I should enter the talent show, if that counts,” I couldn’t tell you.

Dakota’s eyes lit up, though, so at the very least, I was sure from the off that it did, in fact, count (for her if no one else).

“That’d be amazing!” she beamed at me. “You’re so good at the piano, you’d win the… was there a prize?”

“Steady on, not everything’s a competition!” I smiled back, spurred on by the one-two combo of her joyous expression and the shining set-up she’d presented me with.

Her great big grin shifted to a playful pout, and she hit my arm with the same light-hearted attitude.

“That’s not what I meant and you know it, Matthews!”

“Aaah, I’m injured!” I cried out in mock-distress, clutching my arm and hobbling. “She maimed me! I’ll never play again!”

That elicited one of those gorgeous giggles that made my heart sing an entire opera.

“Really, though! That would be so good. You’d blow everyone away,” she insisted. I must have frowned or something, as before I could even respond, she added, “Alex, you would. Trust me.”

“I’m not that good…” I noted earnestly. She raised an eyebrow at that, like I was putting myself down and not simply saying it how it is.

“You’re not one of those prodigy kids who can play an entire concert without breaking a sweat, sure, but you’re really good.”

“If you say so…” I shrugged, hoping against hope that that would be the end of it.

“Alright, I think you’re good and you don’t,” Dakota began, and suddenly my ego felt dented despite myself, “so how about you sign up and we’ll see what an audience thinks?”

“Still not a competition, Dakota…”

“I know,” she smiled back warmly. “This is only 10% about me being right.”

“Ah, that’s a relief.”

“I want you to see how talented you are.”

“I’m not saying I’m crap or anything- gwuh!”

I know that’s not a normal sound for me to make (well, not particularly normal), but a pair of hands had decided to engage my sides from behind and I couldn’t help but cry out in surprise.

“Gwuh to you too, Mr Matthews!” Miss Carr greeted me chirpily. Her head popped up over my shoulder, chin settling in-place. “Heya Dakota!”

“Hey Kendal!” Dakota waved back. “How’s Alex’s shoulder?”

“Bony,” our friend observed astutely (and through my coat), and then removed her chin. “What were you talking about just now?”

“Alex taking part in the talent show!”

“Or not!” I added for clarity’s sake.

“That would be fantastic!” Kendal declared, because of course…

“Two against one now,” my girlfriend almost smirked. “Three, counting Mrs Cosgrove.”

“Can we drop it…?” I pleaded with a light huff. Dakota’s expression collapsed into a concerned look.

“But you- hey, Zahid!” Kendal interrupted herself, waving emphatically in the direction of the school. I turned in time to see Zahid sticking two fingers up at her.

“You should do it!” she continued while Zahid made his way over to us. “If I could play piano like you, I’d be showing everybody!”

“You’re you and I’m me…” I pointed out drearily.

“We’re not discussing that body-swapping thing again, are we?” Zahid asked gruffly as he strolled into our little spot in the ever-shifting crowd. “We already agreed it’d just end up going down weird sexual avenues…”

“Nah, we’re talking about Alex taking part in the talent show!” Kendal told him without missing a beat.

“Except we’re not,” I added just as quickly. Kendal narrowed her eyes at me for that.

“This feels like one of those times I should stay quiet,” our taller friend muttered, shoving his hands in his pockets.

“Come ooon, Alex…!” Kendal whined all the while, perhaps in the hopes that that would be enough to convince me.

“Kendal, that’s enough,” Dakota eased her with a hand on her shoulder. “Let’s leave it for now.”

“Alright, alright…” the shorter girl grumbled, promptly followed by a loud, ominous rumbling.

Of course, she wasn’t the one to rumble. (She did grumble, but she did not rumble.)

Like a giant flower, something barbed and mechanical arose from the ground, clunking and whirring like a contraption dreamt up in the Industrial Revolution, and stretched out broad metal plates that cast menacing shadows. At some point, the crowd around us had turned into a strange blur, the kind of thing you see when footage gets sped up to a ridiculous degree.

It probably says a lot of us that, other than Kendal letting out a surprised “bah!”, we all summoned our weapons and donned our Painter gear without missing a beat.

“This kind of monster, I can handle,” Zahid declared, sizing up our mighty nemesis as it unleashed large claws mounted on dark, thick arms full of whirring joints and pistons.

“Is this one of yours, Alex?” I was asked by Kendal.

“How am I supposed to know?”

“You’re the one being all grouchy right now!”

“That doesn’t mean it’s come from me-!”

And that was the last thing I got to say before one of those claws rushed forwards and grabbed hold of me, fast enough that it completely blindsided me. Held tight by metal talons, I was drawn forward by the Mechaniflower’s arm and then catapulted straight up into the sky.

No, really. The ground rapidly rushed away from me as my body flew upwards. And yes, I screamed my way through the first several seconds. Don’t tell me you wouldn’t.

I could easily see five blocks around the school grounds in every direction by the time gravity won out over my upwards momentum. For a brief moment, I hung in the air however high up, trying to claw my composure back together while taking in the ridiculous view. I could faintly make out Dakota, Kendal and Zahid battling against the Mechaniflower, and what may have been Bao and Kitty making a beeline for the front gate to join the fray.

Then the inevitable happened, and I began my descent. I now had a matter of seconds to figure out how to prevent myself from a gory return to terra firma and what would most likely be a particularly gnarly revival.

Honestly, this might not have been the best idea, but… I forced my sword in front of me against the wind resistance pressing into me, holding it forwards with both hands and letting the blade charge up. The ground zoomed closer and closer at an alarming speed. Once I was satisfied that the blade was glowing fiercely enough, I spread my arms wide, letting the blue fan out and manifest as wings under my arms, spreading far beyond the fingertips of my left hand and just past the tip of the sword held in my right.

It dawned on me only then that Lokonessence wings might not catch the wind like flesh-and-blood wings would.

Thankfully – and perhaps understandably, for something powered by imagination – a split-second later, I began soaring over the school; gripping the handle of my sword tighter and urging for propulsion, I felt the wings begin to drive me forwards at reasonable speed.

I was flying! Properly flying!

With nothing more than willing it and a little steering, I managed to change my trajectory, arcing over the houses facing school and turning back in the direction of the Mechaniflower. By now, Bao and Kitty had joined the fray, my five friends doing battle against the entity’s petals and claws. Bao was the first to notice me, stopping in his tracks to gawp.

“Dude! That’s the coolest thing I’ve seen this week!” he proclaimed (apparently forgetting it was only Tuesday).

“Thanks!” I called back all the same while zooming overhead. Reaching the Mechaniflower, I peered down from my aerial vantage point and spotted a glowing red crystal buried amongst the spread plates. That seemed to be the heart of it, and probably our target.

Not that I was able to strike it with arms busy helping me fly, not to mention the speed I was travelling at. Easy to accelerate with Lokonessence, but slowing back down seemed like a more challenging prospect.

I didn’t have more than a fleeting moment to worry about that, though, because one of the Mechaniflower’s claws bolted towards me. While I managed to dodge it, it sent me careening towards the school. All I could do was angle myself upwards, heading back up into the sky to avoid crashing into a wall. I span around to face back towards the battle… and, well, kept spinning. Flying upwards and corkscrewing (I think?), like some out-of-control fighter plane or one of those Dragon Flyz toys.

I urged my sword to generate some drag in the air, to build up artificial friction and grind my spin to a halt; it took a few moments, but it worked. What I hadn’t considered in the moment was that it would also reduce my speed, and I began descending under the thrall of gravity once again. Taking in my surroundings and exactly where the Mechaniflower was, I angled myself in its direction and fired up my Lokon-powered propulsion, soaring straight for it.

Since it seemed like I had the best shot of striking the heart of this thing, I had to try my hardest to succeed.

The blue of Lokonessence seemed to envelop me as I drew ever-closer. Perhaps that’s why I seemed to avoid being struck by the Mechaniflower’s thrashing claws: I was shielded from every blow. All I was focused on was that shining red jewel, closer, closer, still closer.

At the last second, I moved my sword forward, blade streaming blue from every inch, and drove it right into that crystal. My body only stopped moving when I slammed into the base of the weapon, winding myself, and my swift inability to find any footing as I came to a halt left me draped over it.

My attack seemed to have worked, though, as the Mechaniflower flailed its arms furiously.

“Are you okay, Alex?!” Dakota called out to me from somewhere nearby. I caught a flash of green in my peripheral vision, and then purple, red, in another direction.

The red gem shattered, crumbling apart, and my body drove the sword down, leading me to tumble forward and into the now-open central cavity of the machine. I desperately propped myself up with all four limbs, holding myself in the mouth of the cavity, but my weapon slipped from my grasp in the process, continuing the journey down.

And then the entire body of the Mechaniflower began to blur away.

“Crap!” I yelped, while letting my feet slip a little so I could begin to fall straight. The surface around me smudged and faded, and in short order I dropped down through the vanishing chute that was our opponent’s body. I finally landed on my feet with a thud, and then collapsed onto my butt, realising only then how shaken I was. Well… shaken, and exhilarated, and really needing to stay as close to the ground as possible for a little while.

“I have to try that some time!” Kendal informed me with almost ferocious excitement, having bounded over to me energetically.

“What was it like?” Bao followed up. “Did you feel like Superman?”

“It was crazy and scary and awesome,” I told him. “But not like Superman. More like… that time I tried to play one of the flying levels in Sonic Adventure.”

Bao patted my back sympathetically at that.

…

“So.”

It seemed like Dakota had waited for everybody else to be out of the room before she said that. Maybe I’d just missed some subtle communication, and she’d sent Zahid, Harriet and Kitty into the kitchen after Bao and Kendal so that it’d be just the two of us… maybe they just felt it safer to not leave that pair unsupervised.

“Yeah…?” I asked her from the armchair under the windows.

“I think that monster was from me,” she confessed.

“I told you to stop thinking about giant metal flowers!” I jested, earning a light smile and a roll of the eyes to match.

“You were too busy to notice, but you were the only one it attacked first. It defended itself from us but it didn’t try to grab any of us.”

“Huh… you sure it wasn’t Kendal, then?” I asked. “She was getting kinda annoyed with me…”

“It was throwing you up,” she continued softly. “Raising you upwards. And I… look, I understand that you don’t believe in yourself, but I believe in you. I want you to be the best person you can be.”

“Dakota…”

“And you being like that… kinda made me feel bad about it. So, yeah, I guess that monster was trying to raise you up because I don’t feel like you’re giving me the chance,” she concluded. Man, her eyes were sad…

“I just don’t feel like I can do it… I can’t get up in front of loads of people and play for them,” I admitted lowly. “I don’t think I’m good enough, or strong enough…”

“I do.”

She moved closer, reached out and put a hand on mine.

“And I think you have to try. I think you’ll come out the other side feeling so proud of yourself for having made it. I know you can’t believe in yourself right now, but believe in me.”

“Believe in the you that believes in me?” I smiled back at her.

“Exactly,” she giggled like she knew she had me.

“I really don’t deserve you.”

“Tough. You’ve got me for the long haul.”

“I’ll do it, I guess…” I told her, reluctantly, but knowing she was right: I had to try and trust her judgement here.

“That’s the spirit,” she replied delightfully.

The kitchen door opened and Kitty poked her head through.

“They want to know if he said yes…” she addressed Dakota.

“I said yes, god help me,” I said with a light, disbelieving shake of the head.

“Congratulations,” she nodded, smiling a little at me, right before the door swung open and Bao, Kendal and Harriet barrelled through full of cheer.

I really hope I can live up to all this hype. A month and a half until we find out, I guess.