ToLaD: Chapter 10: Goodbyes
He cannot concentrate.
Not with all of those scrunched up pages that are being thrown to the back of his head.
All that he wanted to do was get through this maths test with flying colours, but he cannot with the possibly hundreds of impacts that seem to hit him in the same spot every damn time.
He almost snapped his pencil in two with his bare paw had it not been for Amato's sneaky brush down. But they just kept on coming.
The teacher glared up, her eyes scanning the crowd of kids and saw nothing out of the ordinary. So she looked back down, only for the sounds of impacts to be heard once more. Subtly, she looked around the ground, seeing paper balls around the legs of Braedon's chair. She raised her eyesight, seeing a paper ball fly and hit the back of his head.
"Braedon Reischer, can you see me outside now?" The teacher ordered, although masked as a question.
Braedon looked up, shocked. There was silence in the room, although one last impact of another paper ball was heard off the back of his head. Braedon shifted his chair back, moving all of the paper piled around his chair out of the way. He stood and walked around, meeting the teacher just outside the room, the door closing behind him.
Her eyes weren't the evil glare the other students associate with her. Instead, her eyes were caring right now.
"Were you able to-" the teacher began to ask.
"Look, miss, its fine." Braedon interrupted.
"No, Braedon, it isn't. Now, let me ask again, were you able to concentrate?" The teacher asked once more.
Braedon sighed, his head lowering. Instead of looking back up, he just shook his head while looking at the floor.
The teacher leant back, crossing her wings in front of her. "Listen carefully. I know that doing well requires attention, and right now, you weren't doing your best. See me after school and you can complete your test then, okay."
Braedon looked up and nodded. The teacher opened the door once more and Braedon entered, only for another paper ball to come flying at his face. As a reaction, he leant back to avoid it. However, a tendril of pure shadow came out of his forearm and caught the ball mid-flight. The teacher quickly deduced who threw the ball due her seeing it and came upon the one student who does absolutely nothing.
"Brutus, see me after class for your actions." The teacher said, back to her old glaring ways.
Brutus, a Komodo dragon, simply shrugged and looked at his friends. "But I did nothing wrong, miss!" He shouted.
"I saw you do it, Brutus. And can the bad influences you call your friends stay back as well." The teacher added.
The class, all at once, 'oooooh'ed at them for being caught. Even the teacher smirked a bit. Braedon grabbed the paper ball, the tendril retracting back inside his forearm, and threw it into the bin for good measure. A few more minutes passed of test time and the bell for lunch sounded. Each of the students handed their tests back quickly, the teacher placing Braedon's apart from the others. Brutus and his friends still sat at their spots, bursting into giggles while the teacher piled the tests neatly and soon began to glare deeply at the group of procrastinators.
The group immediately stopped laughing, now knowing that the teacher is deadly serious about seeing them. And they were missing lunchtime rugby while they were at it.
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Braedon just finished texting his father that he had to stay behind to complete a test. When his father asked why, he answered back truthfully. The text he got back made him smirk. Sometimes, watching his dad move boxes filled to the brim with Braedon's mother's newly published books for a showcase is funny, but imagining him doing so is even more so.
Braedon locked his phone once more and kept wandering over to the normal spot he and his friends hang out. Once there, he only saw Leonardo and Scales standing, talking. It was uncommon to see them talk straight to the other. Normally, they would argue, but they seem to be having a legit conversation. Braedon walked up to them, the features becoming more and more clear on Scales' face. He seemed unhappy.
"Have you heard the news, Braedon?" Leonardo asked.
"No. What news?"
"My mother has enrolled me into one of the richer private schools in this area. Says that this school is having a bad influence on me." Scales answered.
"But, don't you.....?" Braedon asked, all three knowing exactly what question the fox was asking.
"Yeah. I hate posh schools and rich kids, despite being one myself." Scales stated, chuckling a small bit with the other two.
The three chatted away until the rest came, except Amato for some reason. However, only when Braedon heard a click of a lock from behind did he notice something.
He turned around, seeing Amato sneak a small padlock key into his pocket. Braedon felt around his neck, confirming his worst fears.
A collar was placed around his neck. And it had a bell, too.
Amato immediately began to run away, leaving Braedon to give chase, the bell ringing slightly every time it moved. It was amusing for Amato and the rest to see and hear, hearing Braedon's commands for Amato to "unlock the damn torture device" from around his neck. Eventually, the collar was unlocked from Braedon's neck, revealing the colour to be light blue.
With the small fiasco over with, Scales revealed his news to the rest of the group. While some of the girls in the group almost cried, Leonardo had to do something dramatic.
He stood up, placed a paw over his heart, and begun to speak in a voice unheard of.
"Today, we commemorate a good friend of ours. A friend which we all have known for a good time now. While he will not physically be here with us later down the line, his spirit may. Today, raise your imaginary glasses for Scaleificus Caspian Xavier Alistair Riviera IV, for a friend, a job well done." He announced, taking his announcement skills to a whole new set of levels.
Scales lightly slapped Leonardo's back as a way of thanks. They soon began to talk the rest of lunch away, all of them knowing that they will miss a dear friend.
And the collar was placed back on Braedon without the black fox's knowledge. Again.
And he had to keep it on for the weekend, too.
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Light awoke from his good sleep-in. However, he noticed a distinct lack of noise coming from this building. Suspicious, Light slowly got up and crept through the house, not caring that he was top-half naked to the world. His red eyes scanned every dark corner of the apartment, his ears listening to every small noise.
Soon enough, his eyes came upon a folded note. Elegantly scribbled on top was 'Light' in Skye's wing-writing. Light calmed down and unfolded the note, reading the contents carefully. He always takes time to admire the wing-writing of Skye's that he loves so much.
Light,
I am sorry I wasn't able to tell you this before. Or say a goodbye, either.
I had to leave for the far southern lakes of Loscade as soon as I was able. I have no idea when I would be able to come back, but it wouldn't be until the far future.
I have four targets there, and all on my own. And all of these four targets are dangerous, since they were ex-military. Just in case I don't make it, I will leave the shop and the apartment to you, since there is no one else. And for the record.....
I love you.
Skye.
Light placed the unfurled note back down upon the bench it was placed upon. He moved aside, not wanting to stain the possibly only thing he may have of Skye left with his tears. But he cannot get one thing out of his mind.
'She said she loves me.' Light thought, a tear of what he presumed was joy running down his face. A foreign feeling to him, as either nothing or anger comes to him.
Suddenly, he heard his communicator blipped with another message from his bedroom. He groaned, walking back into the mess of a room and placed it over his ear and eye. It came up with an order.
Come over to HQ right now, Light.
He pulled the communicator off and got dressed in his usual attire. Since he saw that it was early in the afternoon and on the last weekday, not a lot of anthros were walking the streets.
When he came to the gun range to go to the HQ, he was surprised that there was no one at the counter. So, he grabbed one of the orange keycards and walked through the gun range. The smell of gunpowder was still there, but not breath-choking. He swiped the keycard and entered into the empty room.
He pushed the brick and descended the stairs. When he got to the rigged entrance.....
It came as a shock to him when the lights turned on.
The sudden change in brightness blinded him, but his ears weren't tricked. He heard the automatic turrets power up. Instinctively, he crossed his forearms like an 'X' in the common vain attempt to stop the bullets. However, a full body shield of light covered the albino fox. So, when the bullets made contact with the body shield, the bullets ricocheted off in different directions. When the turrets were reloading, Light uncrossed his arms, dissipating the body cover made of light, and dashed to the open door. He dived through it, disabling the trap that they have rigged so nicely.
And yet, he wondered how he managed to bring up that shield.
It was only the second time he has ever seen that power in action.
He didn't have much time to contemplate on the matter, since the head of this not-so-merry band of killers came up to the fox. A black bear, a white eyepatch covering the left eye that has been missing for years, and was rather large even for a bear.
"Well, well, Light. You never seem to disappoint."
"No, Ra~id." Light responded.
"That is the second part of the test completed, although in a different way than the rest. Time for the third to begin." Ra~id said.
Ra~id motioned for Light to follow, and took him through the familiar halls. However, they passed the door meant for the higher members, Light found it imperative to stick close. If he didn't, he probably wouldn't get back out again.
Ra~id led Light to a vast room filled with tech and weapons, but it was the statue of Osyn that was at the back of the room that really catches the eye. A female black panther was twirling a knife in one of her paws at one end of the room and a familiar jaguar in a lab coat huddled over the bodysuit that Light wanted to go to somewhere far far away.
"Light, this is where the third piece of your test starts. You already know Fahyim, but the panther in the corner is Akumi, our blade in the night." Ra~id stated.
"Another one, Ra~id? The last one barely lasted a minute in here." Akumi asked in a tone that could only be described as dark.
"That may have been because you made her piss herself. Now then, down to business." Ra~id responded.
Akumi placed her dancing knife by her belt and Fahyim walked away from that bodysuit to walk over to the table filled with notes. Light stayed back, unsure of whether he was meant to indulge with their plans or not. When he was waved over by Ra~id, he cautiously walked up and stood opposite Akumi.
"Already lasted longer than most, kit. And braver, too." Akumi stated, smirking and licking her lips. The last action slightly unnerved Light.
"Listen up. The bodysuit has been tested and the kinks have been ironed out. Light," Ra~id began. Light turned his head to the bear when he heard his codename, "you will be the one to kill the owner of Vision Tower, as part of the third test."
Ra~id shuffled a few of the notes around and pulled out the building plans of Vision Tower itself. For a few minutes, they ran through the plan. When they were done, Ra~id told Light to say goodbye to anyone he considered a friend, just in case.
He didn't say goodbye to anyone else. For two reasons.
One, he plans on coming back.
And two, the only person he would say goodbye to has gone.