Chapter 19: Becoming Part 1.1
(Two weeks later)
Things after Lady Wifi had been more tame compared to before. The only akuma to happen in the past two weeks was Rogercop, aka Officer Roger/Sabrina's dad. And that was certainly an interesting one.
He was the first akuma to take over the city through the political system, and had a very flawed view of justice. He even had the police somehow obeying him, despite him being obviously akumatized! But he was surprisingly easy to take down when he was cornered.
Now a week later, things had been very quiet. On both ends actually. But now, as the sun rose in Arcadia, the story continued through an early morning fog...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Good morning, Arcadia Oaks. It's 4:30 a.m. If you're still in bed, you are missing the most beautiful sunrise. Clear skies and a beautiful morning ahead," A man spoke through a car radio as a car drove past on Arcadia's bridge, his voice fading out as the car went past. A gust of wind passes through the empty canales underneath the bridge when suddenly, a dark, heavily armored Troll with horns curled around his head lumbered through the fog.
The dark troll, Bular, growled right before he punched at a light blue colored troll with silver plated armor, only for him to jump back, avoiding the hit. Bular ended up punching the ground instead, while the other troll drew his sword to lunge at Bular, attacking him.
Bular then lunged toward him and blocked the hit with his forearm, landing back on the ground, where both knelt down in exhaustion.
"Yield, Kanjigar," Bular demanded, raising his head up to face the armored troll, resting his weight on his knuckles.
"A Trollhunter never yields," Kanjigar responded, breathing heavily in exhaustion as he supported his weight on his sword.
"I'd rather die," The armored troll proclaimed, looking Bular dead in the eye.
"Terms... accepted," Bular growled, his red eyes glowing in the morning fog. He jumped up into the air, intent on smashing into Kanjigar. Their battle escalated, each one trying to land a blow on each other, but are seemingly evenly matched. It isn't until Kanjigar uppercuts Bular, and sended him flying that the scales tipped in favor of the armored troll. Bular landed on the ground and skidded to a stop a ways away from Kanjigar before the Trollhunter walked towards Bular and pointed his sword at him.
"Your turn, Bular. Yield," Kanjigar panted out, right before the sun started to cut through the fog and beam down onto Kanjigar. His shoulder started to smolder, distracting him while Bular used the opportunity to buck kick Kanjigar, sending him flying. The Trollhunter landed on the ground, tumbling towards a growing sunlight patch, but stopped just at the edge of the bridge's shadow, his sword sliding into the sunlight.
Kanjigar recovered, and saw Bular had gotten back up to his feet, prompting him to fearfully crawl to the shadow's edge, and reached for his sword. Unfortunately for Kangigar, his hand started to burn as he did so, but he did manage to get it before turning to face Bular, pointing his sword at the dark troll. The glow from the amulet embedded in his chest plate flickered, worrying Kanjigar.
"There is nowhere left for you to run, Trollhunter. Give me the amulet," Bular demanded, as he walked towards Kanjigar. But the Trollhunter sprinted away from him and up the canal, Bular following behind him, and leaped onto the underside of the bridge.
He grabbed onto a support beam, and lifted himself onto it, gaining the high ground advantage. Looking around, Kanjigar kept his guard up as he searched for Bular, only for the dark troll to jump out from behind in a surprise attack and kick-slam Kanjigar, into another support beam. Bular landed back onto a support beam, then crawled towards Kanjigar while the Trollhunter recovered, jumping away when Bular lunged at him.
The attack soon led to a chase along the underside of the bridge support beams, till the two trolls swung up and back onto the support beams, Kanjigar's sword drawn, where Bular tackled Kanjigar. Bular then threw Kanjigar to the edge of the bridge, and pinned him. Bular grabbed Kanjigar's sword arm, making the weapon fall to the ground, where it landed into the ground and disappeared in a flash of blue sparks, leaving him defenseless.
"It all ends here," Bular laughed as he and Kanjigar wrestled with each other, the side of Kanjigar's face burned from the sunlight when Bular pushed him further into it. But as Bular laughed, and raised his hand up into the air to swipe at Kanjigar, the pinned troll grabbed his arm and held it in the sun.
Bular screamed in pain as the sunlight burned him, and recoiled, letting go of Kanjigar. The trollhunter got up and doubled to his feet as Bular clutched his burning blue arm as it turned to stone while Kanjigar caught his breath.
"It's me or the sun. Either way, you're doomed," Bular taunted as he reached for his dual swords, pulled them out, ready to finish the job.
"No. The amulet will find a champion. We will stop you, and your master," Kanjigar proclaimed as he turned to face Bular, the left side of his face and his left arm and shoulder turned to stone.
"I may end, but the fight will not," The Trollhunter tiredly continued, before he stepped back off the bridge and into the sunlight, his skin hardening into stone as he fell.
"No!" Bular screamed as he ran to the edge of the bridge, only to watch as Kanjigar's stone body shatters in the canal below, the amulet falling free and resting in the rubble. Bular put his swords away, and reached out into the sunlight, only to be burned once more. He sighed in resignation, knowing that he can't do anything until the sun sets, then roared in frustration before retreating.
Meanwhile, the amulet shone in the rubble below the bridge, waiting to be discovered.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Time Skip)
A little while later in Jim's house, the boy's alarm clock turned from 05:59, into 06:00, ringing loud and clear to wake the boy from his sleep.
"Ugh!" Jim groaned as he pushed a Vespa magazine off his head. A bit of late night reading after his nightly call with Marinette. But when he looked at the clock, Jim woke up immediately.
"AH!" The boy exclaimed before he got up from bed. He quickly got dressed for the day, his normal outfit consisting of a blue elbow length sleeve jacket, blue denim jeans, and blue high top converse with white laces, and left his room. Feeling peppy, he clicked his heels together before heading down the stairs, humming as he did so.
Once he was downstairs, he cheerfully started straightening up the living room, all part of his daily routine before going to school. Soon enough, he quickly placed a few pieces of toast in the toaster, which quickly cooked the breakfast he ate as he opened up his phone and pulled up a recipe Marinette had recommended to him earlier. As he returned to the kitchen, Jim chose a knife from the knife block, spun it, and happily started to cook.
After the first dish was placed in the oven, Jim began to cook his mom's much needed breakfast. Like it was second nature, he turned the oven burner on, placed a pan on it with a half made omelet on, flipped the omelet, and seasoned it before putting it on a plate, and set it on the counter, just before the oven rang. Jim took out the meatloaf from the oven and divided it into 3 even pieces, wrapped them in wax paper, and put them into paper bags. He then put one in the refrigerator for his mom, closed the door behind it, and put down the knife he had used.
Once that was done, he cheerfully took his mother's breakfast, consisting of an egg omelet, and a glass of orange juice, up to her room, humming as he climbed the stairs. But when he got there, he saw his mother's room's door closed and a paper on it, with the words "Late night at work, sleeping in. -Mom" written on it. Jim opened the door and saw his mom sound asleep, her glasses still on her head.
When Jim walked into the room, he put her breakfast on the bed stand, knelt down to the floor, and took his mother's glasses off. Cleaning them off, he then put them on the bed stand next to the tray, before his mom moved on the bed. Jim only smiled as he pulled the blanket on his mom to sit on her whole body and kissed her forehead.
"Love you mom!" Jim softly exclaimed before he left the room, heading downstairs, grabbing his helmet and his bag, and going to the garage, reading the Vespa magazine he had that morning. But after looking at his dream bike, and then looking at his current bike, he swiftly came back down to reality.
Soon enough, he opened the garage door, standing in front of it with his helmet on and holding his bike next to him as he smiled. Unfortunately, his good mood was wiped away when he saw a trashcan on the ground, its contents spilt all over the ground.
"Ugh! Raccoons!" Jim groaned as he set his bike down to pick up the trash, and saw Toby standing at the end of the driveway.
"We're late for school, Jimbo," Toby remarked while Jim put the trash back into the bin, cleaning the ground of the litter.
"Sorry, Tobes. Busy with the lunches," Jim explained as he put the last piece of trash into the bin and pulled his bag from his back.
"One for me, one for Mom, and..." Jim began as he pulled out one of the lunches he had made, and gave it to Toby. The boy's eyes lit up at the package as he opened it up to smell the contents.
"Balsamic mushrooms, meatloaf, chunky, sun-dried tomatoes," Toby listed, hitting the mark dead on each time for all the contents he could smell from the bag while Jim got his bike.
"And cardamom," Jim finished as he walked past Toby with his bike.
"Ooh! Taking a chance there, Chef Jim," Toby teased, pleasantly surprised with Jim being so bold.
"Marinette made the suggestion. And what's life without a little adventure?" Jim questioned, just before Toby took one last sniff and held out the bag to Jim, looking away from it.
"I can't eat this. I'm on a diet," Toby decided, as he tried to give the lunch back to Jim, but unfortunately for him, Jim didn't accept it, and pushed it back to Toby.
"You've been on a diet for the past 14 years, Tobes," Jim remarked, knowing that Toby was a huge foodie, and wouldn't last a full day without eating.
"I know!" Toby defended as Jim hopped on his bike.
"You're 15!" Jim exclaimed before going down the rest of the driveway, while Toby put the lunch in his bag.
"Long-term goals. My body's still changing," Toby argued, as he picked up his bike and followed behind Jim, both riding down the street to school. But while Jim was zooming ahead, Toby was having difficulty keeping up.
"I'm right... I'm right...I'm right behind!" Toby panted as he pedaled as fast as he could, while Jim banked left.
"It's 8 O'clock!" Jim shouted, speeding up his petaling to make up for lost time.
"We're going to get suspended, on account of meatloaf!" Toby exclaimed, trying to follow Jim's pace, and managed to catch up a bit.
"Take the canal, Tobes. It'll save us five minutes!" Jim exclaimed, then turned to the mentioned auxiliary road that cut through a forest-like path, with Toby following behind.
"N..N...Not... the... canal!" Toby stammered out as they took the dirt road to the canals, falling a little behind Jim due to the small hills of the path.
"Oh, live a little," Jim called back at Toby, before jumping from a hill, gained big air, and then landed back on the ground.
"It's living that I'm worried about," Toby responded as he followed Jim's example, feeling each impact as he went through the hills and bumps, trying not to crash.
"Come on, Tobes. Don't you ever want a little more excitement?" Jim asked as Toby caught up a bit, before he went down the path, getting closer to the canal.
"No!" Toby laughed, feeling like he had enough excitement in his life, while Jim speeded up, soon clearing the trees and reaching the start of the canal. As soon as Jim reached the edge, he jumped from it, and sailed through the air, feeling an adrenaline rush as he did.
He then landed on the slope of the concret canal, going down the rest of the way, and skidded to a stop once he was on the bottom, and turned to look back behind him as he waited for Toby.
"Come on, Tobes!" The boy shouted out, waiting for Toby to man up and take the jump.
"James...Lake!" A voice called out. Jim then looked around for the source of the voice, only for his gaze to land on a mysterious pile of rocks that was once Kanjigar the Courageous. Not that Jim knew that he looked at the rocks in confusion.
Meanwhile, Toby arrived at the edge of the canal, stopping to catch his breath. But he didn't realize how close he was until he accidentally slid over the edge and went down the canal in a hot second.
"Whoa!" Toby exclaimed as he sped down to the bottom of the canal. As Jim put his bike down and walked to the pile of rocks, the rotund boy reached the bottom and went back up from the other side, and came back down the canal slope again. He then reached the bottom again, and fell face first to the ground from his bike.
"Ha! How awesome are we? Awesome!" Toby proclaimed from the ground as Jim took off his helmet, letting it fall to the ground as he got closer to the rocks.
"Hey! Hey, Tobes! Did you hear that voice?" Jim asked as leaned over the pile of rocks, while Toby got up from the ground, took off his helmet and ran to him.
"What voice?" Toby questioned, looking around for the alleged voice Jim was talking about.
"James...Lake!" The voice responded as if on cue, scaring both boys and making them fall backward.
"Whoa!" Toby yelped in fear as they landed on the ground, now seeing what Jim had ment.
"That! That pile of rocks knows my name," Jim exclaimed as crawled to the rock pile to find out what was saying his name.
"It's a pile of K-spar. Minerals don't talk," Toby argued, right before following Jim's example and crawled over to Jim to help him find answers.
"There's got to be a walkie-talkie in here or something," The geology nerd rationalized as Jim searched through the rocks, and soon saw a blue light in the middle of the pile. Jim took some rock out of the way, and saw the amulet among the rubble.
The boy took the mysterious artifact out of the rock and lifted it to his eye level, looking at it in wonder.
"Huh. It looks like an amulet," Jim observed, as he inspected it. It looked brand new, but at the same time the writing on the rim looked old. But Toby wasn't buying.
The boy got back up onto his feet and walked around, looking to see if someone else was there.
"Who's doing this? Come out now!" Toby called out, thinking that this was a prank. Meanwhile Jim was fully entrapped by the amulet in his hands.
"Hello! I'm listening," Jim said, lifting the amulet to his ear in case it talked again. Toby crouched next to Jim and followed his lead, both of them waiting for the amulet to talk again.
But they were shocked out of the moment, when the school bell rang!
"Yaaagh!" Both boys yelped out, jumping back from the amulet and pulled back into the now.
"Oh! Final bell!" Jim exclaimed, right before he and Toby got back onto their feet, and raced to their bikes.
"We're so late, our kids are gonna have detention," Toby complained as they ran under the bridge and reached their bikes.
"Come on. Come on, Tobes. We can still make it," Jim encouraged as he got on his bike, and rode away.
"I'm right behind," Toby reassured, as he got on his bike and followed Jim.
Unbeknownst to them, in the sewers near the canal, 6 eyes appeared from the darkness, having witnessed the events that had just happened.
"It chose a human?" The 6-eyed creature questioned in shock and surprise. This was history in the making!!!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(Time Skip)
Soon enough, Jim and Toby made it to school, surprisingly on time. They were currently in the middle of history class with Mr. Strickler, as he taught one of the more interesting topics of the year.
"The Peloponnesian War was actually three wars, fought between Athens and Sparta," Mr. Strickler began, while pointing to the projection of a battle map on the white board with his pen.
"The first war is known as the Archimidean War," The history teacher continued as he began to walk around the class, while the students browsed the internet.
Well... all except Jim, who's attention was elsewhere.
"Type that into your search engines. A-R-C-H-I-M-I-D-E-A-N," Mr Stricker spells out, which the students responded by following his instructions. But Toby soon noticed that Jim wasn't doing what Stricker asked, and followed the distracted boy's gaze to see he was staring at Claire Nuñez, the boy's crush.
Toby moves his hand across Jim's eyes while he is staring at Clare, but fails to catch his best friend's attention as he continues to stare.
"Ugh! Really?" The geology nerd groaned, not believing that Jim was so entrapped with Claire. But Jim's fawning was rewarded when the girl in question looked at him for a quick second, before looking back at her work. This only encouraged Jim to stare even more lovingly at her.
"Close your mouth. You're drooling," Toby remarked, trying to help his best friend not make a fool out of himself.
"No. No, I'm not," Jim responded to Toby, not taking his eyes off of Claire. At least until he noticed Toby was typing in something other than what Mr Strickler had requested.
"What are you doing?" Jim asked, while Toby covertly typed into his search engine.
"Research!" Toby replied, all while Mr. Strickler was continuing his lecture.
"Hey, look up "talking amulet"," Jim supplied, still leaning his head on his hand.
"I already did that. All I got was toys. One of them was a plushie," Toby reported, pointing to a toy in the laptop.
All and all, they would not get any answers from the piece of technology.
"Maybe Tikki might know something. We can ask Marinette at lunch after class," Jim whispered, making the suggestion to ask their sisters kwami about the amulet they found.
Despite Tikki not showing up on the screen, Marinette did a good job at acting as a go between for them. What's one more time?
"Jim! Would you agree?" A voice behind Jim asked, startling the boy out of his conversation with Toby to look behind him.
"Sir?" Jim questioned, turning to see Mr Strickler was standing right behind him, fiddling with his pen out of habit.
"With Herodotus' opinion on his tactics of war, as I've described," Mr Strickler replied, even though he knew that Jim wasn't paying attention.
"Uh..." Jim began, before he looked back at Toby, who only looked back at his screen, whistling inconspicuously to avoid getting caught as well.
'Time to improvise,' Jim thought to himself.
"Absolutely!" The junior chef exclaimed, trying to not get in trouble for not paying attention. Hopefully it will work.
"Excellent. Which tactics, specifically?" Mr Strickler slyly asked, deciding to purposely mess with the boy.
"The, uh... winning ones?" Jim offered, causing everyone to laugh. A second later, the school bell rang, signaling everybody to pack up and leave.
"All right, all right. Don't forget, Michaelson, chapters four and five," Mr Stricker reminded as he stopped fiddling with his pen to address the retreating students.
"Jim! May I have a word?" The history teacher asked, turning to face the boy as he packed his bag, only for his attention to be pulled to Mr Strickler as he did so. He was so distracted that it caused him to miss putting one of his books back into his bag, and knock his bag to the ground.
Slightly annoyed, he and Strickler both knelt to the ground to put everything back in the bag. So Mr Strickler took the opportunity to have his word with Jim.
"Jim, you're distracted. You fell asleep between the invasion of Attica and the Peace of Nicias, and your attention wandered for the rest of the class," Mr Strickler began, as he gave Jim his books, feeling worried about the boy.
He knew about his family's... complicated backstory, and was friends with Barbara for a good while now, so he felt close to Jim and vice versa.
"Sorry. I didn't get a lot of sleep last night," Jim replied as he picked up more of his belongings, remembering the late night video call between him and Marinette last night.
Another akuma had attacked before then, and Marinette went into vivid detail, making the call run till midnight. He didn't blame her for that, but he couldn't sleep much after, which ended up with him reading his vespa magazine till he fell asleep.
"I know it's just you and your mother and you want to help her," Mr. Strickler continued as he gave Jim his headphones, trying to let the boy know that he's not alone. He cared about his mom too... and Jim as well.
'The poor boy is running himself ragged.' Mr Strickler thought to himself.
"She's just really tired, Mr. Strickler. She's been working double shifts at the clinic," Jim said, trying to defend his actions, wanting to do everything he could to help his mother.
He loved his dad, sure, and he did help them financially, which made things easier than they could have been. But Jim always thought more highly of Strickler due to his support, which caused a bit of tension in that area of their family relationship.
"I believe I'm overdue for a conversation with her. Have her call me, please?" Sticker asked, knowing it had been a while since he and Barbara had talked, considering the woman's aforementioned busy schedule.
"Uh...!" Jim began, pausing his progress and looked back at his teacher/uncle figure.
"And feel free to drop by my office if you ever need to talk," Mr. Stirckler offered, giving the boy a chance to talk and wanting to help him lighten his self-inflicted load.
"Yeah, I'll do that," Jim said, feeling grateful for the offer Strickler gave him as he grabbed his bag and put it around his shoulder.
"Oh, and, Jim, if you fancy Miss Nuñez, I submit that 'talking to'..." Mr Strickler began as they stood up from the ground.
"...will be much more effective than 'staring at'," The history teacher finished, softly tapping Jim on the head with a book, before giving it back to his student. Jim then left the classroom, and met up with Toby as he stood just outside the classroom door, waiting for him.
Bạn đang đọc truyện trên: AzTruyen.Top