The city of Standart City was never too kind to most people, especially regarding those who sank too far economically, making it hard to reach the line of ordinary economic value. It turns into a daily struggle if you don't have the money to pay for things you were supposed to survive on.
That is what Charter Buss thought as he peddled his rusty bike down through the roads, uncomfortably listening to the air-depleted front wheel. If he was a good enough of a fixer at broken things, then he would've had his ordinary bike turned into a vehicle of high-end class status.
It was after school when he decided to get a quick snack from one of the convenience stores. Mr. Mouch was pretty gung-ho on going all strict on Charter for his failed assignments and his terrible excuses for his missing homework. Then again, maybe the teacher should've made it like "how to create a bike from scratch", or something like that.
He sped away on his bike, feeling the cool breeze plant into his skin; the lack of safety helmets was intentional, to feel more of the natural air flowing through his lungs.
As he finally made it to the front of the convenience store, Charter attached his bike with a measly piece of string, so feeble and delicate that it looked like it would disappear if breath from a person were to make contact. However, for him, it was enough for security as it was.
The second Charter stepped inside; his nostrils were immediately met with the familiar scent of fresh snacks and hot dogs spinning in the counter.
He could see that there was only one person working behind the counter, and that was Carlie Anders, the highly distracted person who talks too much with the people on her phone.
"And so I went there with my head up in the sky, ready for another new day to give me sunshine and rainbows, you get me...?" she said to the person on the other line.
Of all the times that Charter went inside the convenience store, not a single time did that girl even notice him at all, much less directly talk to him. In fact, she was more absorbed in that device that was attached to the wall than in doing her own job. He could try to tell her to focus on her shift, but who was he to intervene?
Alright, let's see what this place has to offer. Hope there's a restock of those yummy pudding cups, or maybe I can snag one of those beef jerky packs again without anyone looking in my direction.
To tell the truth, Charter was only there for his own survival. His family's dirt poor, and they could barely scrape by with what measly income was available. Now was not the time to have fun at all; only the need to swipe anything for his family to calm down their collective hunger.
It wasn't something that he was proud of, but for his survival's sake, he should probably let it slide for this very reason. After all, he definitely hoped his family would have some stable job, even if it was a low-paying one, so he wouldn't have to do this almost every day.
The act alone caused his conscience to be crushed with overwhelming guilt the first time he did it under the pressure from his mom and dad, but over time that feeling was buried deep within, intentionally so he wouldn't falter under normal circumstances.
What he would do was that he would look intentionally at the empty wallet in his pocket and cause his hunger to spike, so the determination would also be high for Charter to successfully do the deed.
So without another moment to waste, Charter stood by the magazine stand, faking his interest in the contents of the magazine pages while listening for any signs that indicated Carlie's distraction with something.
"I know, right? Josh was supposed to bring the drinks, but he forgot to get them when we left! Talk about being useless all the time!"
Charter heard the words seeping through the shelves of stocked goods; the way she was speaking sounded like she was distracted for a moment. This was it—a chance to get something with a set of eyes looming over him.
"Listen, though, I have so much crap to deal with my parents, and not to mention my college plans next year. Maybe I should get that journal to schedule my days so I wouldn't be feeling so overwhelmed. God, like spare me from not having a fun year as a senior," said Carlie. "You get me, Kaye? I hope you do..."
He carefully wedged himself into the security camera's blind spots, memorizing the layouts from sneaking into the security room, and carefully learned how to delete the footage just in case of a slip-up.
After affirming to himself that it would be worth it and that he was finally going to get one of the fruit gummy packs—his hand literally inches away from getting it—a loud smash from the front startled Charter enough to pull his hand away from the snack and snap his body into a not-so-suspicious position.
He peeked through the opening of the empty shelf and saw that a leg was outstretched from outside the front door, and the appearance of that limb made Carlie back away from the shock of someone else entering the convenience store in such a booming way.
"You know about Mallorie Vernic, she—hey! What the hell?! You really just kicked the door?!"
The leg retracted back outside after being suspended in the air for a couple of seconds, and its full body was now revealed to those present inside the convenience store.
It was a guy who looked like a middle-aged adult. He wore a blue T-shirt and navy trouser shorts, paired with blue running shoes. There was also his most eye-catching feature of his whole person, and that was his shaven, crew-cut-styled blonde hair that gave off a personality of rigid security.
The only person in Charter's memory bank that seemed to fit the description had to be Cristo Drudge, a person in Mr. Mouch's homeroom class. A guy who was so obsessed with the concept of being safe that he would act like a second security guard after Mortin Kowpinn to watch over things more carefully.
"Can I help you, dude?" Carlie asked, rolling her eyes at the boy's dramatic entrance.
"GREETINGS, FELLOW CITIZEN, HOPE YOUR DAY IS GOING GREAT!" Cristo boomed in response.
Carlie covered his ears from the auditory assault, dropping her phone while at it.
"GAH! Have you heard of using your inside voice? When you're actually inside, for crying out loud...?"
"Oh... my bad." Cristo apologized, finally taking down a notch with his voice. "My name is Cristo Drudge, born and raised to value safety above all else. A Standart City citizen with dreams of becoming a police officer of strength and justice. And to top it all, an insatiable need to protect every building around the area, just like the hero I look up to, Officer Grudge!"
Cristo looked at Carlie, hoping that his rousing speech would be rewarded with a round of applause, but she only gave a blank stare that was written all over her face.
"What..."
"I'm here to survey the area in case of robbers trying to target this poor store. If I am here, then those evil-doers would think twice before robbing this place... and also... I really need a snack to replenish my stamina; it takes a lot of you to run all the way from home to here."
"Whatever, man, just don't be so... 'that' all the time..."
Carlie went back to the call on the phone that was dropped.
Meanwhile, Cristo had his hands on his hips, his chest puffed up like a superhero overseeing the whole city from the top of the building.
"Well, isn't this a dandy," he said to the air. "I never thought to see one of my classmates in the store right now..."
Charter broke down in a cold sweat as he felt someone place a hand on his shoulder. He looked over again at the front of the door and saw that Cristo wasn't even there at all. A shudder ran down his spine as he realized that once he blinked, Cristo disappeared from his view, all without Charter noticing him right next to him. This action suggested an extremely strange and superhuman thing for anyone to do.
Cristo laughed heartily at Charter's reaction, seemingly not knowing he was frozen in shock from his own speed.
"Ah, Charter, it's one of my classmates from the respected math class of Mouch. You know, I've always wanted to know what kind of name like that was inspired by," he said, jolly.
"Hahaha...!" Charter laughed out loud, nervously. "It's nothing really; my parents just thought it was a kind of unique name, weird but had some charm to it. That name doesn't ring any suspicious bells because I'm definitely not doing anything suspicious here at all. Please don't think I'm a bad guy—not a bad guy..."
Charter expected him to look right through him and his lies, so he held out his arms for the handcuffs, despite Cristo not actually being a police officer, but the overwhelming dread caused him to believe otherwise.
However, what he thought was the case, Cristo was actually looking the other way. His look scrunched up as wrinkles strained around his eyes. Then he sniffed the air, lifting his head to get a better scent.
Charter, confused by what he was seeing, tapped his shoulder.
"Um, Cristo... You good, buddy?"
"Huh?"
"What is with you today? You seem a little more, um, like a dog trying to find a bone somewhere in the backyard. I mean, yeah, if that makes sense and all."
"Sorry, Charter, it's because of my nose," Cristo explained to him. "My nose is telling me something dangerous is close. It usually happens when people are trying to steal things when I'm around. But this time... this time, it's a weird smell, like it wasn't anything ordinary at all..."
Charter looked around with a hint of worry. "What could that mean...?"
He clenched his teeth from thinking about how Cristo would have caught him in the act of stealing the fruit gummy pack. Charter didn't expect his tracking skills, or his nose, to be that spot on. The only reason he wasn't suspicious from the get-go was that Cristo dropped his guard, thinking he was a buddy from class, but deep down he knew he would spot his worried look.
Maybe if Charter got on his knees and begged, perhaps Cristo would give him another chance. But it would only make stealing the food here more difficult than it has to be. He mustered up the willpower to use his voice and crookedly turned his face towards Cristo.
"H-hey Cristo, I don't know if you caught me or not, just let me explain about my whole family situation, and please, if you're going to capture me anyway, try not to rough... try not to—try not to... rou..."
Charter's voice faltered and slurred when trying to focus on his words. His vision started to get sluggish, trying to maintain his grasp on his remaining consciousness. He looked at his hands and saw that they were trembling from what looked like barely visible blue gas.
In front, Cristo was already on the floor with his eyes still wide open, the little dots within the eyeball darting from one end to the next, signaling that he was still awake. It was surprising to see how big and physically strong he might look; he dropped down first to the floor while Charter was only affected by the blue gas going on around.
Whatever it was, it was making Charter sleepier instead of... somehow being in a paralyzing state like Cristo.
With nothing else he could do, Charter internally pleaded to himself that what he was experiencing wasn't poisonous gas at all. And at last, the slumber overcame him
* * *
The streets were unusually empty on the way to Standart High, but that just made Nate rush more towards the school, fearing the Pallnem had to be utilizing his Faden army, but he hoped that the reason was that there weren't a lot of people out today on the streets.
After defeating Theum Xeron inside the Morkiss Museum storage room, he had to leave quickly outside, with no time to properly make an excuse for why he was going directly to the high school.
Nallie definitely didn't buy the whole thing with the gardening club meeting part, but more pressing matters were at mind at the moment.
Nate ran as fast as he could along the sidewalk, his vision in front as the buildings looked like they were moving back with how fast he was.
His sword, Rupture, might stand out, along with his disheveled appearance from fighting a mummy in a dirty storage room. Add the fact that he was running at his top speed; then people with no context would assume Nate was some sort of crazy homeless dude with a lethal weapon like Pallnem, so he tried to cover up the sword as much as possible with his moving limbs.
He kept moving and moving until he came across a known convenience store with a gas station next to it.
What Nate saw next immediately alarmed him about what was inside.
He hid inside the bush and saw that the window of the store was broken and that blue gas, barely visible, was floating around. There were also three people on the floor, lying down on their stomachs.
"N-no... am I too late..." Nate said to himself in horror. "No... No—I refuse to believe that those people are dead in there. I must try to save them before it's too late!"
Once he thought of a minor gas leak that caused them to go down on the ground, but the next thing he saw firmly confirmed his suspicions.
There was a spot right in the corner where the cold perishables and ice cream snacks were placed, where a large clump of blue gas was swirling around.
Upon squinting his eyes, the thing that was in the middle made its whole body visible to anyone standing near or far away.
It was definitely a Faden. It was simple in its deep purple and pink body structure, super round with glossy orbs sticking right out of its circular body to act as limbs. It only rolled around as its primary source of movement, bumping into the various shelves as though it didn't have enough control over where it wanted to go.
The monster had to be the cause of the unusual-looking blue gas that clouded everything near the convenience store, probably some sort of localized skin patches somewhere in the body that secreted sleep-inducing gas to get those around it to lower their guards.
If not dealt with quickly, the Paralizar Faden—based on the description of it before—would end up killing or eating the people inside the convenience store.
With no time to spare, Nate readied his sword, aimed at the hole in the broken window, and threw the Rupture like a projectile, spinning in the air until it hit a shelf next to the Faden.
The Faden shrieked in gassy squeaks and attempted to roll over to another section, but Nate wouldn't give it a chance to cover against his assault.
He held out his hand and summoned his sword once again, teleporting from the convenience store to where Nate was in an instant. Then he would repeat the method and throw the sword again, then retract it.
The Paralizar Faden rolled from one end to the next, moving in a straight pattern like a golf ball hitting against the wall, trying to go for the hole in the ground.
Broken pieces of the shelves and glass were in the air as Rupture flew into the store, the dust flowing in every direction along with the gas, and bits and pieces of perishables inside were covering the whole room from top to bottom.
Nate continued until the gas seemingly disappeared, and then came with a loud cry along with a balloon-like pop that faded away into silence. He then saw that the Paralizar Faden was nowhere to be found, evidently another win against a Faden before it could do any more damage.
As he saw that no threat was nearby and that the woman up front of the convenience store was still breathing, Nate bolted in the direction of the school.
Nate would've tried to check if they were not too injured, but the primary goal remained firm in his mind: preventing something worse than the whole situation right now from happening inside Standart High. He ran with the wind following him.