VIII
The Manticores
~~~

"Father?" She put down her falls and asked.

"What is it, my sweet little girl?" He spoke absentmindedly while reading his newspaper.

"Do you not like Gar?" She asked innocently.

"Why would you think that sweetheart?"

"You never speak to him when he comes over," she starts. "And you are very rude this parents."

"Rae, you shouldn't be asking these things. It's none of your concern anyway."

"But Father he is my friend! It is my concern! If you do not like him then I want to know why!"

"For the last time Rae, it is none of your business."

"Father!" He ignored her with a grumble. Fed up, she stood up and reached out towards his newspaper. But her reach was stopped by her father's swift hand.

"I do not like to repeat my self, child. Now if you continue to ask questions I will break both of your wrists." His voice was already deep, grizzly, and grim naturally. But when he got mad, that increased tenfold and became terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. Just his voice alone would reverberate in your head a million times, each time plunging you more into fear than the last.

"Father, that hurts! Let me go!" The nine-year-old spoke with sheer horror in her voice. The more she struggled however, the tighter his grip became.

"Will you stop being so curious?"

"Yes!"

"You better not be lying to me girl."

"I-I'm not! I promise!" He roughly threw her hand back at her face and continued to read his paper. She took her dolls and went up to her room go cry her eyes out.

"Gah!!"

"Raven? You good?" She looked up at the figure standing over her. To her surprise, it was Gar, looking extremely surprised to boot. She blinked a few times.

A memory of Father... I completely forgot about that. I guess the little incident with Adam earlier at lunch triggered it.

"Gar? Why are you here? You're not in my Writing and Poetry class." She asked confused.

"Kori told me that this was your class. I was hoping you'd come with me to meet the WCGL coach here. Mrs. Tale said you hadn't left yet, but I didn't expect you to be asleep."

Me either.

"Oh. Yeah...I had a rough night. Sure, I'll go with you. Do you have a car though? 'Cause I don't."

"Well I do, but Rita and Steve drove me to school today so they could meet the principal. So they took the car. I was gonna just walk home."

"Ah dammit. Whatever, it's fine. I've got nothing to do anyways."

"Sorry Rave."

"It's fine. Don't worry about it." She gets up and father's her things. As she does, she drops a piece of notebook paper. "Hey Rave, what's this?"

"Hey–!" He raised it high over his head (like a douche) so she couldn't reach it and teased her. "Are you always this much of an ass?"

"Only on the weekends, honey." He winks and gives her finger guns. "Is this a story?" He says after bringing his hand down to read it.

"Yes, but you're definitely not reading it." She snatches the paper away from him and stuffs it on her bag. He then begins to pout like a child.

"Aww whyyyy?" He complains.

"Aren't you supposed to be 17? Because you're actually acting like a giant baby." She laughs.

"Actually I'm 16 so mlaaahhh!" He sticks his tongue out, making the most childish sound a person could make without actually being a kid.

"You are so lucky I like you. C'mon Bang Boy. Let's go." Instead of dragging him by his ear she took hold of his bangs and dragged him like that the whole way.

"Rave–"

"Nope."

"But–"

"Nuh uh."

"Ouch! Raven!" She held in a laugh.

"Gar you should be taking notes."

"What do you mean? Ow!"

"I mean taking notes for when you get a wife. Because if she's shorter than you, I'm sure that teasing for it isn't the way to get her in bed with you." She says grinning evilly.

"Wait what?! Raven!" She can't hold it back anymore and bursts out laughing.

"You heard me." A smile on her face.

"Jesus Raven why did you have to go there??"

"Oh don't even play me. That's all you guys seem to think about anyway." Good thing she was in front of him, because he was pretty sure he had turned into a beetroot.

"That's...not true..."

"Yeah ok." She said smugly. They went down a flight of stairs into math hall. Then Raven turned into a computer lab, still dragging Gar behind her.

"Rave are you sure we're in the right place?" There was no way the school's computers would allow the games he'd played.

"Yes. But it's not in here." She walks over to a door in the back of the room. "It's in there."

"How do you know? You don't seem like the type to be a part of this." Gar asks.

"Mother is friends with Amber." He tilts his head in confusion like a puppy. "Amber Oritz-Edwards. She's the coach."

"Oh that's her first name. Ok. I was kinda confused for a sec."

"She goes by AOE as her screen name." Raven explains. "It's her initials." It took him a second, but it finally clicked in his head.

"Haha! That's clever!" Raven knocked on the door and it flew open. They were greeted by a tall woman, about a foot taller than Gar, which was about 6 feet. She had brown hair with blonde pieces scattered about that looked hereditary rather than dyed. It was put into a braid and draped over her shoulder.

"Hi Raven. Did you bring him?" She asks. Raven nods and moves out of the way so Gar can greet her properly. "Ah! Finally! Everyone has been really excited to meet you Gar! I'm Miss Amber, but you can just call me Amber. We don't do formalities unless it's your screen name. Ha!" She says enthusiastically.

"I've been excited to come here. Just because I move doesn't mean I stop playing!" He enthuses with a bright smile.

"C'mon, you have to meet your teammates. You can come in too Rave." The two kids follow the tall woman into the room.

The room's walls were painted black with gold carpeting on the floor, to match the city's colors. High end gaming computers lined the walls, 8 of them to be exact. Almost every one occupied except one. Every person had their headphones on and looked to either be playing a game or doing their homework. Either way none of them heard them enter the room.

Amber went over to the back of the room and grabbed a small microphone.

"I use this to talk to them when they have their headphones on. There always has to be at least one person not playing in case something happens." She flips a few switches and a light over her head goes red. "Hey guys? Can you pause for a sec? He's here." She spoke initials the mic. All of the kids' faces lit up and they instantly dropped what they were doing, took off their headphone, and looked around. When they saw Gar and Raven they all jumped up from their chairs.

"Dude!"

"Yes! I knew AOE wasn't joking!"

"No way this is awesome! We really have the Beast on our team!"

"Well guys don't just stand there gaping at him. Introduce yourselves." Amber pushes them.

"Oh! Right!" All of 7 of them form into 2 rows, 3 in the back and 2 in the front, and the other two stand up more, making it obvious that they are the captains. They stand straight at attention, while the two captains cross their arms and have a wide, commanding stance.

"We are the Jump City Manticores!" They all say together.

"I'm Myra Clements AKA Crusher. I'm a junior and one of the captains. I use brute strength and my fists to solve my problems in game." Myra looked just as rough and tumble as she sounded. Her brown hair was thick and curly and she was big sweatshirt, jeans, and converse.

"I'm Jack McCain AKA Cain. I'm a senior, the co-captain, and always the mage. Magic can always do more than power can! That's my motto." He looks more put together than Myra, but still a little rough around the edges with his ruffled black-brown hair and combat boots.

"I'm Jackie Stone AKA Vitesse and I'm a freshman! My username literally means "speed" in French, so you can guess which type of character I like to use." This girl was enthusiastic and bright. She also looked a lot like Vic, could she be his sister? He didn't know he had one.

"I'm Callum Cane AKA xXDROPDOWNXx. I'm a junior and I specialize in flight. My signature move is a kamikaze-like strike down onto our enemies!" Callum seems pretty down to earth despite his preference in-game. He's wearing a button down shirt with khaki shorts with his light brown hair flipped to the side

"I-I'm Tony Wilson AKA LockHart87. I'm a sophomore and I'm one of the healers on the team." He spoke very quietly. His role looks to suit him. He was shorter than most of the others except for Jackie and had curly red hair.

"The name's Adam Lhorwik AKA The Damned! I'm a senior and I love playing as the demonic characters. I'll either kick your ass or burn it to hell!" He was the tallest of all of them donning what looks to be practice clothes for some sports team. Gar notices his last name but decides not to say anything about it.

"And I'm Mike Oscar AKA Flinch40. I'm a freshman and also a healer. I usually attack more than Tony, But my HP is usually low, so staying alive for my team is always the most important thing!" Mike still hasn't grown out of his baby face or his baby voice. His hair was thin and his bangs were combed and upwards.

They were all smiling, including Tony. They were all so excited to have Gar on their team.

"Woah you guys are so cool!" Gar compliments.

"Thanks! Dudes he just complimented us!" Mike says. All of them except for Adam, Jack, and Myra, got really excited and giddy, while the three of them just got a wider smile.

"Guys calm down. Gar's just a normal kid like all of us." Raven says.

"Yeah! A normal kid that is a GOD at video games!"

"Thanks Jackie, but could you guys just treat me normally? I'm not like a celebrity or anything." He stresses the point lightly.

"Yeah totally." Jack replies calmly. "They're just younger and get excited easily."

"So how do you like our setup Gar?" Myra asks. "It's a little small, but we were able to make do with what the school gave us, and we've always been updating it every year."

"I think this a pretty cool place. A lot better than my room haha." Gar states.

"Good! I really hope you enjoy it here, because none of us are letting you leave." Myra says with a sky grin on her face.

"No plans to anyway." He replies confidently. "Hey Jackie?" She whips her head around and tries to contain herself as Gar begins to talk to her. "Do you have a brother?" Raven grins.

"Yeah." She answers.

"Yes Gar that's Vic's sister." Raven basically read his mind.

"You're friends with Vic?" Adam asks.

"He's friends with me." Raven says. "Gar actually used to live here in Jump, but he moved away when he and I were 10. He just moved back."

"Oh that's so cool! I didn't know you knew my brother! He never talks about you at home." Jackie raves.

"I haven't really been in contact with them for a while."

"Oh. Makes sense."

Gar continued to ask them questions. From questions about their record to who they were as people. He found out some of their strategies, how they pick captains, and that his suspicions we correct that Adam was Ms. Lhorwik's son.

Sometime during that conversation Raven snuck away to talk with Amber in the back.

"Finally got a full team." She said to Amber.

"Yeah. Gar is going to do great things here." Amber replies. "At this school and on this team."

"How do you know?"

"I heard about what happened during lunch. That kid has guts. If he doesn't change something here before he graduates next year it'll be a loss."

"Mmm." Raven nods. "He's always been like that. Protective of me. Even now that I don't really need it anymore."

"So he used to live here?"

"His parents died. I suggest telling them not to ask him about it."

"Oh. Definitely." They kept on watching all the enthusiastic kids talk until Amber turns to Raven. "What's your relationship with him?"

"What?"

"You two are very close. Especially for not having contacted eachother in 6 years."

"He...keeps me going. I always made sure to keep him in mind. If I hadn't I probably would have lost myself a long time ago to my father's insane whims."

"That's good. Most people would forget."

"Forget? Forget about Gar?" Gar makes a joke and gets a noogie from Jack. They all seem to be having a blast. "Tch. Yeah right."

Word Count: 2267