The Phantom: Code Breaker

Chapter 11: Let The Quest Begin!

The next day, Markus prepared to went to school early in the morning.

"Same old days without mom..." he muttered as he munched on his toast. "I guess she wont be home for the next 2 days or three?" he emptied his glass of milk and dropped them all into the sink. "I'll wash you later this after noon." he said to the dishes.

He went outside, whistling like nothing has happened on the previous nights.

To his surprise, Cassandra and Dave poked his head the moment he went outside their house.

"Hey, what was that for?!" he whined.

Cassandra stepped back and said in a loud voice, "How could you do that, huh?" her voice was shaking though, as if she is mad but kind. "We were worried sick, you idiot!"

"You could have asked for us, Marky." Dave said. He still holding his friend's elbow. "We could have thrown a fist or two to those thugs."

"They were high schoolers, we can't do a thing to them." Markus sarcastically said.

"That's not the point!" Cassandra raised her voice again. "And don't tolerate him, Dave. I thought we've talked about it?!"

Hearing the kids' voices, Ned urgently ran to them from his shop and said, "Hey, are you kids alright? Did something happened?" he was wearing his used(old) suit and gloves. His shoes were not even matched.

"Hey, uncle Ned." Markus asked. "You too, what happened?"

Ned saw his reflection on a glass from his workshop. He turned around and coughed a little before saying, "Oh, sorry about that." to wipe off his shame.

Dave turned around to cover his laugh and Markus did the same.

"I thought someone was hurting you when I hear voices outside your house." Ned explained.

"Don't worry uncle Ned." Cassandra said, crossing her arms. "I'm just giving this idiot a good lecture."

Markus looked away.

"I thought it was a fight." Ned said. "Well, anyway..." He grabbed something from his pocket and handed it to Markus.

"What is this, uncle Ned?" the kid asked.

"Some other resources I found in my drive. You could use those for sure."

"Thanks a lot, uncle Ned!" the kid replied with much glee.

"You three should get going or you'll miss the train." Ned said.

"Haiiii.." the three said in reply.

They walked towards the train station as Cassandra gave Markus a pretty long lecture.

"De, what will you say?!" Cassandra asked like a boss. She stood on top of a bench on the subway station and looked down to the two boys.

"I'm sorry, I'll never do it again." the two of them said in unison.

"What did I do to do this as well?" Dave asked.

Markus elbowed Dave's side and whispered, "Just go along with it or she'll hit us again."

The train arrived and everyone went inside.

...

A few months later, he approached Ken and Brent to ask them to join the 3-on-3 tournament again. He looked for them around the school but they have given him a hard time. A classmate said that they were avoiding him. That made him sad.

"I can't blame them." Markus said to himself. "They were hurt because of my stupid ego. I bet they're afraid to even talk to me right now."

He walked towards the fountain near the boy's CR on the left wing of the school gym and found ken, waiting for Brent.