:::On Hold::: The Affinity Between Our Stars

Chapter 4: The Kraft

*Conan Doyle High*

We hop onto our Tafels and initialize the autopilot sequence.

"Want to freeform?" Rain asked with a mischievous smile.

"Maybe when we're on our way back, sis. Besides, we wouldn't want you to look filthy when you start flirting, now do we?" I smirk.

"It was only that one time!" She steadies herself as the Tafels start forward from autopilot.

"Careful sis, we also don't need you to splat yourself on the slipstream before even getting to school." I warn.

"I'm good, just been a while since we used these things." She turns on her holo to look up the daily gossip.

As she did her thing, I watched the scenery speed by me and contemplated the new development regarding the dream. Last night's occurrence had been very vivid and horrifying, nothing like the one that had been plaguing me for the past few months. Usually I was left alone in a place of light, transgressing to a distant spectating session of someone killing a few monsters, That was the norm I was accustomed to. But something like the thing I'd just experienced, put me at unease for whatever odd reason. I mean, it was just a dream, right?

Right?

"Oh wow, did you hear how crime rates rose up by one percent overnight?" She absentmindedly clicked the postlink on the screen.

I shake my head, glad to be distracted from the disconcerting thoughts. "A whole percent? That's new."

"Not necessarily a whole percent but a point one increase. It says here that the National Independent Detection Agency released a statement on how it was just a minor fluctuation for now, which in turn caused the Crime Salutem Organization to use that as an excuse in diluting the information to non-existence."

"Obviously that didn't work out." I stated.

"No crap, after the they tried to pull that little stunt, Hacktive released a video all over the Breach saying that CSO had been doing this for a long time now and they'd keep doing it if unopposed. The video was taken down a little bit later." Rain finishes off.

"Hacktive's back? I thought they went into hiding or died out or something of the like."

"Well, apparently not." A familiar voice said as our Tafels approached the massive garden area of Conan Doyle High.

"Cayde, Rain! My two favorite Brits in the world!" He says enthusiastically, as he gives each of us a hug.

Rain giggles. "We're the only ones you know, Nicholas."

"Which makes you guys even more of my favorite. And what's with the formal names, just call me Nick. " Nick's personality was infectious.

I grin. "How's life treating you, Nick?"

"Its posi-tute-ly horrible!" He says, returning my grin.

Leaning into the shadow of a tree, Nick's jet black hair and big light brown eyes made him look like a budding anime character. And at six feet, he was your regular ol' half-geek, half-jock hybrid (as some people said). Much hadn't changed over the summer, especially his goofy demeanor.

Something else that hadn't changed was his trademark cringiness.

We were walking through the main doors of the hallway when Nick suddenly piped up.
"Guys, did you hear? My new mixtape just dropped" Nick said nonchalantly, mainly directing the conversation towards my sister.

I immediately felt a little piece of myself die at the statement which contained a never-ending amount of cringe.

Rain, the innocent freshman that had just started a new chapter in her adolescent adventures, was completely clueless. "What's a mixtape?"

At this point I was silently pleading to all that was holy for something or someone to intervene before the memes started.

"Well, a mixtape is-" Nick was cut off by a prominent voice.

"Oh heeell naw!" A girl with hazel eyes and sienna tinted skin exclaimed.

"You are not going to tell me what to do! The government is obviously corrupt and people like you refuse to see it."

Well, looks like my prayers were answered.

"Who is that?" I whisper to Nick.

"That, my good sir, is Sharkesha, the epitome of free will and beauty." Nick seemed to say in a daze.

"Sharkesha? That's quite an interesting name?" I look suspiciously at Nick.

"Hey, I'm not the one who named her." When I continued to glare, he added. "And I swear I'm not making this up." He crosses his heart in emphasis.

Sharkesha seemed to be in a heated argument about something between a group of hulking highschoolers in yellow attire. The resident pricks of Doyle High.

"Thanks to this quote end quote "corrupt government", our country hasn't seen any major crime in three decades. Besides, even if it was, a corrupt government is better than no government at all." Jerry, the second in command of the Kraft, said.

Sharkesha let out a disbelieving laugh. "Do you honestly believe that?! In that case, the naïveté you have shown proves that you're more idiotic than I thought."

Jerry walk to her and pushes her with enough force to bring her to the ground. "Say that again." A warning clear in his voice.

"You're an idiot pure and simple." Sharkesha spat out after slowly crouching to her knees.

Jerry looked as if he were about to explode. Ah shite! I saw the punch coming from a mile away.

"Why you little bi-" Jerry is stopped short by the split second sight of my body barreling his way.

*oofff*

He manages to get a punch in even as I pin him to the lockers.

"What the hell Cayde?! She's a nobody! If you do this you'll be making the Kraft your enemy. Do you want that?" Jerry wheezes out.

What the bloody hell was I doing? I'd be making a metric shite ton of enemies by continuing this. And what about Rain? Did I really want her first year of highschool to be horrible, because of my actions?

You know what? Screw it. Hopefully Rain would understand.

I knee Jerry in the groin causing him to curl up on the floor. "Well I guess the Kraft is my enemy now, isn't it? I just had to make sure."

I look back and extend my hand. Sharkesha takes it and let's go after standing up. I motion for her to follow me, along with Nick and Rain.

As we escape to a different hallway, Sharkesha starts talking.
"Thank you... Uh.. Cayde right? You didn't have to do that."

"He didn't have to, but he knew it was the right thing to do." Rain stated firmly, looking proud of me.

"Dude, what you did was pure amazeballs! Although now we're going to have to be careful." Nick said.

"We?" I asked confused.

"Since you did that, its not only you and Rain that's going to be affected. Its going to be all of your friends."

"Shite... sorry I didn't even think of that." I felt horrible.

He brushes the apology away.
"Nah, its alright, we know you can't help but being a big softie at heart." He said with a grin, "Besides, its time someone did something about those assholes."

"I agree with you, and I'm sorry I brought you guys into this. By the way, my name's Sharkesha but you can just call me Shark." She said with a friendly smile.

The bell rings and I look up. "Well it looks like we'll be seeing you later Shark."

"Hopefully not too late." A mischievous smile played on her face.

After that, we said our goodbyes, and departed to our classes.