Across the Rift (SNT X Rookie/Gizmo)

Chapter 10: The Mall and the Null

SNT, Maria and Blaze are at the Capital City Mall. Rookie and Gadget are working and SNT didn't want to be alone at the house. "I'm glad you let me tag along with you Maria." SNT said. "You're welcome. I'm actually tagging along with Blaze! She was going to go here alone but I decided to come with her." Maria responded. Blaze joined them at their meeting spot. "Hi Blaze!" Maria said. "Hello." SNT waved. Blaze waved at Maria. "Nice to meet you." Blaze said to SNT. "Hi! I'm SNT." SNT and Blaze shook hands. "I heard from Maria that your from another dimension. I also reside from another dimension." "You do?!" SNT was shocked. Blaze nodded her head. "She's also a princess but she doesn't really like mentioning that to people." Maria added on. "That's amazing!" "Let's get going now." Blaze said. Maria and Blaze went looking for a store while SNT followed. "Hey Maria, how's Gadget? I don't really know him well. He's always absent from the house. Rookie tells me he works at your studio a lot." SNT asked. "Yeah he takes his job as an editor seriously. It's a shame he can't spend that much time with you or Gizmo. He tells me that neither of you seem to mind." "When he's not editing he hangs around and chats with us." Blaze added.
Blaze stopped walking and looked at a store. "Is that a new store? I've never seen it before." Maria and SNT looked at the store. It was labeled 'Princess' Closet'. "I wonder if there's other princess shopping there?" Blaze asked. "It's just the store's name Blaze. It would be funny to see other princess shopping there! Maybe we can check that store out later. I want SNT to have an opportunity to look around." Maria told Blaze. Blaze already made up her mind and started walking to the store. SNT and Maria followed. The trio walked into the store. Inside was a selection of clothing that looked fancy. "I think this store's too expensive for us." Maria said to Blaze. "I'll pay for you two." Blaze started wandering around the store. "I guess the name is fitting." SNT commented. Maria chuckled a little bit. SNT and Maria followed Blaze. They were at the shoe section when SNT saw something she liked. It was a pair of brown boots. She picked them up and examined them. "This would go well with my fall outfit. Hey Blaze can I have these?" Blaze looked over at SNT holding the boots. "Of course. You don't need to ask." "But you're paying. I just want to make sure you're fine with this." "I'm fine with whatever you want. And I don't need you to pay me back at all." Blaze went back to looking around. SNT got the boots.
The trio exited the store. "You didn't get anything Maria?" Blaze asked. "Nah. I just wanted to come shopping with you." "That's nice of you." Blaze said. "Silver wanted me to get him some food while I was here. Can you hold these bags for me?" Blaze asked Maria. "Sure!" Blaze handed the bag of clothes to Maria and went to the nearest food court. Maria and SNT looked for a bench to sit on. They found one and sat down. "Hey SNT can I ask you something? I hope it's not too personal." "You can ask me anything." "Are you and Gizmo dating? Sorry for asking! It's just you two look like you have a thing for each other." SNT's face turned a little red. "We are. But only since two days ago." Maria gasped. "Congratulations!" "Thanks. It was nice finally letting my true feelings out." SNT noticed she was being Sensed by Rookie. The feeling went away after a bit. "I guess he's checking up on me. I only texted him about me going to the mall an hour ago." SNT didn't ponder the feeling any further and brushed it off. "SNT?" Maria said. "Huh?" "It looked like you zoned out for a bit." "Sorry! I was just thinking about Rookie." She realized how that sounded. "Aww." "Not like that! We can sense each other's location and feel when we're using the power." "Oh yeah! You told me at the diner."
Blaze came back with a bag of food. "I got a little worried when I didn't see you two at the exact spot we were at." "Sorry Blaze! We just wanted to sit down while we waited for you." Blaze smiled. "Thanks for waiting for me. I should probably get these to Silver." Here's your bags back." Maria tried handing the bags back to Blaze. Blaze didn't grab it. "I don't like having my new clothes too close to food." "Then we can come with you." SNT told Blaze. "You don't have to. I'm sure I can find a way on my own." "Don't worry about it! Maybe I can see what Gadget's up to!" Maria excitedly said. "Silver isn't at the studio. But I guess we can go there after we go to Silver."
Meanwhile
Rookie was flying around a constructed building with his wispon. He landed on a nearby building to check out his progress. The constructed building looked nearly finished. "I think we're done!" A coworker yelled from the ground. "It just needs to be painted now!" Rookie yelled to the coworker. "Let me notify the boss!" The coworker used their wispon and went to the construction headquarters. "He really needs a phone." Rookie mumbled to himself. "Everything's finally done." Rookie thought to himself. "I'll have to get another job now. Maybe I can work at the diner with Shadow. He seems neutral towards me so I don't think he'll mind. Or maybe I can work at Gadget's lawnmower business he joked about. I think the idea's good." He was about to swing to headquarters when he felt something. He felt Infinite Sensing him. He looked around for a portal to appear at any moment.
A portal opened in the sky behind Rookie. Rookie turned around and Infinite came out. "Did I catch you at a bad time? Good." The portal closed and Infinite floated slowly towards Rookie. "What are you doing here?" Infinite looked around. "Is this your work? You really did a good job restructuring." "Don't even try it!" Rookie warned Infinite. "Try what? Destroying it? You couldn't stop me if I wanted to." "I could." "Not with that wispon." Infinite pointed at Rookie's wispon. "Why are you bothering me? I hung out with you so stop stalking me!" Rookie looked to see if his coworker came back yet. He didn't want to fight Infinite and cause damage. The way the conversation was going, it seemed like that was inevitable. "I couldn't bother SNT, she's gone." Infinite said coldly. Rookie Sensed SNT to see if he was lying. He was. "Made you look. You started focusing on nothing for a bit." Infinite said. "Can you Sense her? It's inconsistent for me. I can only Sense her occasionally and only for a little bit. I'm sure you know what I'm talking about." "Yeah." Rookie lied. "Maybe it's because you held the Ruby Prototype first and she was just close enough to also get affected."
Infinite started mumbling to himself. "Catch." Infinite spawned his Phantom Ruby Cubes and broke a chunk of the newly constructed building. He flung it towards Rookie. "Ahh!" Rookie grappled to another building. "Hey! What was that for!" "You were suppose to catch! I'm testing out a theory." He broke off more of the building and threw it towards Rookie. Rookie dodged many more chunks of building being hurled at him. Rookie grappled towards Infinite to hit him. Infinite caught him in mid-air. "See what I just did. Do that!" Infinite sounded annoyed. He flung Rookie towards the building. Rookie hit the building and broke through it. Rookie howled in pain. "Weak." Infinite scoffed. He threw another chunk of building at him. Rookie slowly got himself off the ground. He dodged the rock coni towards him. Infinite broke off another piece of the building. "Are you going to catch this one or will we be here all day?" Infinite asked. Rookie thought to himself. "There's no way he wants me to catch that with my bare hands! Wait! If he's using the Phantom Ruby's powers to throw them at me, does that mean I can use them to?" Infinite was waiting for Rookie's answer. "Fine I'll catch!" Rookie closed his eyes and concentrated. Infinite threw the destroyed building piece. Rookie opened his eyes. Phantom Ruby Cubes spawned and formed a giant hand before catching the rubble heading towards Rookie. "Pink? Why are your Null Cubes pink!" Infinite was heated. "None of this makes sense!" He threw another piece of rubble towards Rookie. Rookie was ready. He caught it and threw it back that time. Infinite wasn't prepared. He got hit by the piece of rock. He lost his balance in the air. Rookie looked for his wispon before Infinite regained his balance in the air. He found it laying on the ground around some destroyed building piece. He grabbed it and tried to flee the area. Infinite's Null Cubes caught him in mid-air and dragged him back. Rookie was brought to Infinite. They were face to face. Infinite looked murderous.
"HOW DO YOU TWO DO IT! WHAT MAKES YOU SO SPECIAL! YOU DON'T HAVE THE PHANTOM RUBY ON YOU AT ALL! WHY CAN'T I SENSE HER! WHY ARE YOUR CUBES A DIFFERENT COLOR! HOW DID SHE GET TO NULL SPACE!" Rookie tried to get out of Infinite's clutch. He wiggled around to free himself but that didn't work. "I KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT THE PHANTOM RUBY! HOW DID BOTH OF YOU GET THE POWERS!" Rookie spawned some of his Null Cubes. He used them to break Infinite's grasp. He was slowly being released. Infinite continued ranting. "If I could find her alone then I could interrogate her! Since you won't tell me anything!" Infinite went to Sense SNT to interrogate her. This gave Rookie the opportunity to escape. He summoned a giant fist and hit it on Infinite's head. "AHHH!" Infinite let go of Rookie. Rookie used his wispon and grappled to the now destroyed building. The building was starting to become unstable. "I won't let you near her!" Rookie shouted. "I'll make sure you won't have a choice." Infinite and Rookie started to summon their Cubes before Infinite got hit by a spindash.
Rookie and Infinite turned to see who it was. They saw SNT. She was flying to match Infinite's level. She flew towards Rookie. The 3 of them then saw someone use a wispon to join them on the building. "What's going on!" "Who are you?" SNT asked. "I'm Mighty! Gizmo's coworker." They all faced Infinite. Infinite just looked at them. His eye spiraled in rage. He summoned a portal and left. Mighty let out a relieved sigh. "I didn't want to face that guy again." "Sorry for the damage." SNT said to Mighty. "Don't worry about it. We can just let the boss know it was a villain who did this." SNT turned to Rookie. "What happened! I used our Sensing Ability to see where you were and you were fighting Infinite! You weren't answering your calls and I got here as fast as I could!" The building started to shake. SNT, Rookie and Mighty all leapt out of the building. SNT flew while Rookie and Mighty grappled to another building. The building collapsed and a pieces scattered. "Hey Gizmo from what I saw it almost looked like you could use The Masked One's powers." "Oh I-" the pain and fatigue hit Rookie hard. He collapsed to the ground. SNT caught him. "That took a lot of energy out of me." Rookie said. Mighty took out some of his rings and gave them to Rookie. "Thanks." "Gizmo I keep telling you to have rings on you while we work!" "Sorry." SNT helped him up. "What did he want?" SNT asked. "He was just throwing stuff at me. I didn't know what he wanted at first but I realized he wanted to see if I could use his Phantom Ruby Cubes. He started getting angry about our powers being different then his." "You two have a Phantom Ruby?" Mighty spoke up. The Duo looked at him.
"We did but she accidentally broke it." Rookie told Mighty. "So he's targeting you because you can still use it without the Ruby?" SNT and Rookie thought about that. "That does sound like Infinite. He's very egotistical so of course us having Phantom Ruby Powers without the actual Ruby would make him feel jealous." SNT said. "You two can go home now, I'll handle everything." Mighty grappled away.
"If Infinite tries anything, just know I'll protect you." SNT said. "Me to." Rookie looked at the damage. "Infinite." He groaned. "We should go now. How about we go to Maria's studio? I was hanging out with her and Blaze before I went to you. If Infinite tries anything again then he'll have to deal with all of us!" Rookie nodded his head yes. "I'm still tired. It took a lot of energy to use the Null Cubes." "Null Cubes?" SNT tilted her head. Rookie summoned one to show her. "Don't do that your tired!"  "I'm fine. It's just one." "Still! Don't use anymore energy!" SNT picked up Rookie bridal style and started flying to the studio after Rookie pointed her towards the right direction. "Hey Rookie, since you can use the Phantom Ruby's Cubes does that mean I can to?" "Definitely." "Can you teach me how?" "Of course!" "Thanks! It's a date then!" SNT gave Rookie a smooch. Rookie turned red.