Earthbound: Champions of the Future

Chapter Thirty Three

~ Gaius Rucker's POV ~

"You two are a cheery bunch this morning." I commented to the blue haired girls the next day. "Seriously. I can feel the joy and smiles rolling off y-"

"Your sarcasm seriously isn't needed, Gaius." Naoma cut me off. "I'm kind of panicking right now. We have Enigma, my father's army and former friends out to kill us. All of that versus the three of us isn't going to end well."

"Four of us." Syo corrected, crossing her arms.

"We'll be fine!" I grinned, patting the girl's shoulder. "You know what they say: you can't recognise good times if you don't have bad ones."

"I think we can distinguish what good and bad means, thank you very much." Syo huffed. "Anyway, plan! We need a plan ASAP, people! If we act fast, maybe we can get everybody back!"

"But where would we begin to look?" Azura questioned. "None of them mentioned where they would be going."

"In that case, we'll have to guess!" Naoma cried. She paused, her smile fading slowly. "Look, I don't know!"

Syo sighed. "So much for cooperation... We're even worse now than how we were before..."

I whistled, hands behind my head. "Wow, that must have been bad."

"It was!" Syo yelled. "Nobody trusted anyone else! It was so awkward every day since nobody wanted to speak to each other! There was so much silence! How we managed to stick together for this long, I'll never know!"

"Hold up," Naoma interrupted, holding up a hand to silence the conversation. "I-Is... that who I think it is?"

She was staring at a woman with short red hair, strolling through the bustling streets of the city. "Do you know that woman? Is she important in some way?" I questioned, completely confused about what was going on.

"Is she important...?!" Naoma repeated. "Of course she is!" She set off at a sprint, shoving through any poor soul who happened to be in her way. "Hey, Rebecca! Over here! Rebecca!"

'Rebecca' turned around and gasped when she saw Naoma running towards her. She opened her mouth to speak, but was too busy being hugged to death by the younger female. "I'm so relieved to see you!" Naoma continued to shriek.

"Me too." Rebecca responded with a smile, stroking a hand through Naoma's hair. She noticed the rest of us after a while and nodded in greeting. "And who are your friends?"

Naoma jumped back from the hug and straightened her back. "Right! Well, guys, this is Rebecca Henderson. She's... well, she's like my mom, really. Rebecca, this is Azura Mizu, Gaius Rucker and- huh? Where's Syo?"

I sighed as I felt a rustling in my hood, so I reached back and grabbed the tiny green creature, who was struggling to be released from my grasp. "Let me go!" Syo cried. "I hate being manhandled!"

Rebecca's brown eyes widened. "Oh my," she said. "That certainly isn't something you see every day, is it?"

"For me, it is." Naoma shrugged. "This is Syo."

"I was supposed to stay hidden..." Syo grumbled, giving up on trying to break free from my hand. "But I guess there's no point now... Thanks a lot, Gaius!"

I shrugged, opening my hand. Syo shrieked as she swiftly plummeted towards the concrete ground, but fluttered her wings to steady herself. She immediately zoomed up to slap me on the arm, although it felt like more of a pinch than anything. "Gaius!! I could have died!!" She yelled.

"Not my fault." I replied.

"So, anyway, what are you doing here, Rebecca?" Naoma asked, turning back towards the older woman. "This is a long way from Flewick..."

Rebecca looked away, playing with a ring on her finger. "To be honest, one of the reasons I came here was to see you. I hadn't heard from you in such a long time..."

Naoma gasped. "I am so sorry I didn't call you often...! Lots of things were happening and I got totally caught up... Even now, this isn't the best situation for us to be in..."

~ ~ ~

It took us a while to explain the situation to Rebecca. Even I didn't know half the things that the girls were talking about, to be honest. By the end of the long and boring explanation, Rebecca looked stunned. "You've certainly been through a lot, haven't you?"

Azura nodded and turns towards Naoma. "It certainly hasn't been easy. But Naoma has been keeping us all together, making sure we never gave up."

A light pink blush tinged Naoma's face, her face digging into her scarf to cover it up. "C-Come on, Azura, don't embarrass me here...!" She begged. "I'm supposed to be impressive here...!"

Rebecca laughed. "You don't have anything to worry about, Naoma. I'm very impressed with you."

"Y-You mean it?" Naoma gasped, her eyes widening slightly.

Rebecca pulled the younger girl into a hug. "Of course. Knowing that I raised such a brave girl, who would go on to achieve so much... well, it's a feeling I can't really describe. I just hope your other friends can come to see that in you, too..."

"Me too..." Naoma replied, her voice slightly muffled by Rebecca's clothing.

I sighed, leaning back in my chair. "Wonderful, more mushy bonding stuff. I'm going to need a lot more candy to see me through this."

"Mushy bonding stuff...?!" Syo repeated. "That just makes you sound so unsympathetic! Try and go along with this!"

"Oh yeah?" I smirked, raising an eyebrow, having the perfect rebuttal for this. "Well, I think I'd 'go along' pretty nicely with that purple-eyed cat girl, if you know what I m-"

"Okay then!" Naoma interrupted. "Moving on...! Now-"

All of us suddenly went flying out of our spaces.

I landed face first on the road, suppressing the groan of pain that came with crashing onto concrete. Azura ended up not that far away from me. She was already pushing herself to her feet (how she did anything with that long hair and that dress completely escaped me).

"Wh-What the crivens was that...?" I muttered, a greenish blue light emanating from my hand as I healed my aches and pains. "Just when we get settled down, too..."

"There!" Naoma cried, pointing to a giant dust cloud that had gathered at some point. "I don't know what the heck's going on, but we'd better go check it out!"

Naoma jumped to her feet and ran towards the disturbance, both myself and Rebecca calling out to her to stop her. Obviously, she ignored us and kept on going until she disappeared from sight.

When you think the day is going well, and then it all has to be ruined...

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gaius needs to stop himself before he gets hit with a tree branch

AceAttorneyFan over and out!