Tiger & Dragon: Take a Step Forward

Friday, February 13th (Epilogue 1/2)

The next day, Shaze headed into the science club room half an hour before class started. Alpha and Brock were overseeing the room, while he spotted Regina working with Mace and Jelica on her laptop with her equipment.

"Did you get it uploaded?"

"Yeah, I woke up this morning, and submitted the research. We should get the news in a few minutes."

"That's good. But what else did you want to tell me about?"

"You said before that Bel said something weird about no one being able to remember anything, right?" He nodded.

Mace picked up the canister. "Well, he wasn't exactly wrong."

"So this was the gas they were using huh," Jelica noted. "If those two kept dowsing us with it, then he might as well could have."

    "You know what it is?"

Regina answered. "It's a version of xenon gas." He leaned his head, curious, and she continued.. "It's a type of gas that's used for photos, lamps, and uv light."

"Like from the sun, right?"

"Yeah, but I heard a few years ago, it has the potential to erase people's most painful memories but it hasn't gotten tested for that much. I didn't think Bel's ego was always for show, but he really is a genius." She covered her mouth, and it looked like she was choking.

"Omygod, are you okay?"

She nodded and burped. "Ugh, saying that almost made me gag."

"Yeah, he's a prick. But why memories? What, was he trying to make us forget?"

Jelica pondered the thought. "My guess is killing us would've put them in a lot more legal trouble than they wanted to go through, so Mathias and Bel figured if they were going to stop us from entering the competition, they would use us as his test subjects for it."

Mace added on. "And because those two were making it hard and stressful, they were probably going to use the full version of it to erase our memories of what they put us through this week. If you guys hadn't figured out what he was doing, we would've been screwed."

Shaze blew a sigh of relief. "Wow this was complicated. You didn't deserve to go through it."

Jelica got up and inspected him. "Wait, last year, you said you were thinking of joining. Are you?"

"Well, I have to join a club eventually, but I'm not that good at science."

"Don't worry. This club's founder wanted us to help people learn more about it and respect it. We used to do fun things and experiments all the time...until those two decided to join."

"You sure?"

"Yup. We'll definitely guide you. Especially you, right Regina?"

"Of course. If he wants it, but you're helping me too."

"Sure sure. By the way Shaze, just so you know," nudging him on the shoulder. "I think you were the reason a certain someone," nudging Regina, "ended up joining the club. I think you owe it to that person if you stay. Isn't that r-"

Upon hearing that, Regina viciously dragged her down to their computer. Shaze leaned over to Mace.

"Are they going to be okay?"

"They were like this before Belthias came into. With them gone, this is just back to normal for them. Though, we don't have a lot of members as we used to. More company that's not just pushing and dividing us would be welcome."

"Alright then, I'll join."

Regina and Jelica perked up. "Really?"

Then they got a notification. "It's from the organization." All of them huddled around the screen and read the email.