Fishy, fishy, fishy, come swim in my sea.

Chapter 24: True face

Proteus was pleased to see he had beaten his targets to the theatre, showing this in a cruel smile twisting his borrowed features as he played with Astral key he hung from his neck. He wondered if Yuma's friends and the Barians would arrive together, or in smaller groups. He was answered not too long after the thought had appeared in his head.

The cinema in the mall was placed at the bottom most floor and in the centre of a ring made up of the the other floors, that themselves were linked by escalators. Proteus could see the first arrivals with plenty of warning and also knew that anyone coming could see him clearly too. Just as he wanted. There was also a magnificent, large, marble water fountain as well.

Proteus watched with hidden glee as his first two targets approached, the brown haired Alito and the orange haired Vector. They were halfway to him when he found his main target, Shark who spotted him and waved, thinking that Proteus was Yuma. Shark was with the remaining Barians. Proteus waved back, then headed straight over to Vector and Alito as Kite lead Yuma's human friends.

"So Reginald," Rio began as they stepped onto the last floor before the cinema, "what film are we going to watch?" Rio had agreed to go out with everyone without knowing what they were going to see, just eager to spend time with her friends while she could.

"I don't know exactly, I think Bronk chose it." Shark answered his sister as he spotted Yuma waiting, with Vector and Alito approaching him. Shark waved at Yuma, who waved back then met Vector and Alito midway to the cinema. Something seemed a bit off to Shark so he quickened his pace, hoping Vector didn't start anything, as Kite and the others were coming from a separate entrance on the cinema floor. Shark kept his eyes on Yuma and Vector. Something seemed off about the interaction Shark was watching as he walked down the escalator, as Alito went to greet Kite. Yuma and Vector seemed to be too close, Shark decided. Yes he had told the two to be friends, but not this close. Then Shark's world fell into shards around him as Vector kissed Yuma, in full view of everyone.

"YOU BASTARD!" Shark screamed. Proteus stepped back suppressing a smile as a small fight broke out between Vector and Shark. The others all too shocked to stop it.

Meanwhile, the real Yuma was still running at top speed, tightly gripping on to Tori's hand, deftly dodging and weaving through the crowd, getting many disgruntled looks that he ignored. He was even tuning out Tori's pleas to answer her questions, occasionally telling her that there wasn't time to explain, but that he would when this was over. He had a feeling that something big was about to happen that would one way or another end the Proteus problem. 

Yuma stopped running when he was outside the mall. He wasn't one hundred percent sure how far of a head start Proteus had on him, but he was sure it was enough to start something. Tori was panting at his side as he took his back pack off and took out his disk but not his AR headset, as the headset would just get in his way. Next he checked the deck that was always on his belt. Tori watched this, and was strongly reminded of a solider preparing for battle.

"Yuma, stop." Tori said, "You can't fight him..."

"We can't call the police," Yuma cut her off guessing correctly what Tori was going to suggest, "and even if we did, I am sure they wouldn't believe us if we reported a shape shifting God was threatening our friends and had assaulted us. We are the only ones who can do anything about this. Besides, I've stopped mad a God before."

With his piece said, Yuma took Tori by the hand again and charged into the mall, nearly knocking someone over. Yuma didn't stop. Didn't say a word.

"Sorry!" Tori shouted behind her, looking at the person as they recovered, "wait isn't that."