Of Love and Death.

The Present Chapter 15: Rabbits, Nightmares, and More! Pt. 3

Kit crouched down behind the corner of the brick wall. It was quiet, the only sound that he could hear was his heart beating violently in his ears. Also the breath of Laban, much slower and much calmer right next to him. Closing his eyes, he tried to remind himself that everything was going to be fine. The Five had done things like this countless times. Kit was only nervous because this was his first actual mission as a member.

And Ilya had made it sound important too. Apparently, there had been a breach in the fabric of the universe, and something alive had come out of it. That something was now walking around in the middle of London. Not just the middle of London, no. The creature was somewhere in front of Big Ben, in the middle of one of the largest crowds Kit had ever seen.

Swallowing hard, Kit looked over at Laban. The ex-king of the beasts had taken out a pair of binoculars and was peering out around the building's corner. "Do you see them?" Kit whispered quietly. He didn't exactly see anything unusual in the square, but he could feel something. Like another sense, letting him know something abnormal was nearby. It wasn't exact. Not by any means. Kit just knew generally where the thing he was looking for was.

Unfortunately, it didn't look like Laban had found anything either. The panther turned back to Kit with a slightly dejected expression. "No, which is both good and bad," Laban started. The Master of Wind settled in for a long explanation. Thankfully Ilya wasn't the one with him, or else this would be a two hour lecture. Laban's story would just take twenty minutes. "The fact that I can't immediately pick out our target means that they aren't some kind of eldritch monster from the depths of people's nightmares. So we won't have to come up with an excuse for that.

"However, it also means two things. First, we are going to have a hard time finding our universe traveler. Second, they either come from a place very similar to our own or they have specifically disguised themselves to look like they come from our world. That would be bad," Laban said in perhaps the most upbeat tone Kit had heard from anyone but Valt.

Well, at least the explanation hadn't taken twenty minutes, that was nice. On the other hand, you know, everything else could be bad. Or worse. "Should we walk around the square, or...?" Kit asked, trailing off. It seemed like the only way to find their target. But if that someone was actually trying to sneak around the Universe, well, what if they knew about The Five.

There was a moment where Laban contemplated it. The panther tilted his head back and forth for a few moments. Then, something seemed to occur to him. The blader's greenish-yellow eyes lit up with a realization. For some reason, Kit got chills. He had a bad feeling about this. "Um, Laban, what is it?" he asked hesitantly, somewhat afraid of the answer.

A terrifying chuckle came from Laban. "Even if our 'friend' is someone we've met before, they don't know you!" Oh yeah, that made sense. Kit had only been a member of The Five for a two and a half months or so. Supposedly, during that time, there had been quite a few incidents like this one. But he hadn't been allowed to deal with those. Something about "not understanding anything". Which may explain why Ilya had been teaching him so much.

Wait. "You don't mean I have to go looking for them alone, do you?" Kit asked, a bit terrified. Was he really being sent out on his own so soon? Even if he'd only be across the street from Laban, what? Could he actually do this? What was he going to do? What if the interdimensional traveler was some kind of unknown horror? Was he going to choke when he saw it? Oh, Kit wasn't ready for this! He was freaking out!

An exasperated sigh came from Laban. "Oh for crying out loud," the panther muttered, rolling his eyes. Okay. All of The Five just loved to roll their eyes, didn't they. Kit was going to probably have to learn how to do that, wasn't he. Which might be a problem. His mom had drilled it into him pretty hard to not roll his eyes at people.

But then, before Kit had time to come up with a good response, he was very rudely shoved. From the back. Into the street and the crowd. And possibly some kind of supervillain who'd come to invade the universe. Turning around, the last thing Kit saw before Laban disappeared inside a portal to Pocket was a thumbs up from the panther. A moment later, he appeared on top of a small building. Well, more like ten feet above the roof. How was Laban this bad at using Pocket? It was one of the few things about all of this Kit had been able to master.

Well, it looked like there wasn't much Kit could do. Not without using his wind or going into Pocket himself. So, begrudgingly, he started braving his way through the crowd. After a moment, Knight appeared next to him as a ghostly figure. "I figured you could use some help," the bey said with a smile.

It would have been hard to explain how thankful Kit was for his partner right then. Even if the bey couldn't be much more than an extra set of eyes, he was an appreciated set of eyes. "Tell me if someone tries to like, jump me or something," Kit whispered under his breath. Although he didn't quite close his eyes, the master of wind did pay less attention to his surroundings. And more to that sixth sense of his. But still, nothing exact popped up.

With nothing else to do, Kit kept walking around the square. After like ten minutes of combing the street, he realized that his mark might not even be on the street. There were plenty of little shops all around. So, Kit popped into a coffee shop. He didn't expect to find the creature on the first try, but...

As he pulled open the door, Kit was greeted with two separate feelings. The first of which was an overwhelming memory of the day he officially joined The Five. He'd been coming out of a coffee just like this when he'd run into Laban. "Yeah, that was a weird day," Knight remarked. Normally, Kit would have chuckled. But he was too absorbed in the second feeling.

The mark Kit was looking for was somewhere in this shop. It was overpowering. Totally overpowering. Quickly, he got in line, eyes darting all over the place. Was there anyone or anything that seemed odd? Ilya had said anything he could ever imagine and more was out in the Multiverse somewhere. Was the creature a living table? Or maybe, like, a bag of chips?

As the master of wind slowly shuffled through the line, nothing jumped out at him. He knew that the creature was here. But all he could see was half asleep morning people getting coffee to start their day. The strangest thing in the room was the rabbit sleeping in a cage next to the counter. He was curled up and looked happy as a clam, soaking in the warmth. Kit imagined he must be loving it as well. All that black fur would absorb the sunlight that fell on his face.

Then, with a shock, Kit realized that it was his turn to order. He stepped up to the counter, more than prepared. But stopped in his tracks. Because now he was right next to the rabbit. Definitely. That creature was definitely the one he was looking for. "Um, what's their name?" Kit asked, pointing at the cage.

The lady whose name tag red Arline looked up from the cashier. "Oh him?" She asked. Kit nodded. He realized that his foot was nervously tapping against the floor. With a little bit of luck, the nerves weren't showing on his face. "We call him Chocolate. He just showed up two days ago." Ah. So the invader from another universe was just a bunny. That wasn't too bad. Maybe he'd just fallen in from an exact counterpart to this world. Just where, like, Valt had red hair or something.

Then that theory was promptly disproven. As if Chocolate had sensed Kit, the creature perked up from sleep completely alert. For a second the two of them just looked at each other in shock. Then Chocolate opened the door and ran out through the store. "Hey!" Kit shouted. Okay, so not a normal bunny. Great. Just great.

Snapping into action, Kit charged across the tiles and out the door. Which his mark had also managed to open. How? But at least the creature hadn't gotten far. He kept running after it. And then kept going. Pretty soon he had Chocolate cornered next to a wall. "Haha, I got you!" He shouted triumphantly, leaning down to pick up the rabbit. That had been simple. For a second, the master of wind had been nervous. Maybe this creature really was just a smart rabbit.

Then that theory was promptly disproven. Around Chocolate, the fabric of Spacetime rippled, and the bunny disappeared. Okay, so now he was gone. That made Kit's job kind of simple. A little underwhelming, though. "Kit, he's behind you!" Knight called out. Whirling around, the master of wind saw that his partner was right. So, without any further ado, Kit took off again.

Yes. Yes this did go on for a while.