Lainey and the Magicians (First Draft)

Chapter 35

 "A lot of people on the internet act that way and boycott people. I'm sorry some of them were mean to you, but when someone becomes like a 'media shill' on the internet, people make memes sometimes. My friends and I stood with Haz except for a couple of them who had grown up in more 'tolerant' households so-to-speak," Codebreaker said.

 Lainey knocked on Chard's door. In a few seconds, he motioned for them to come in. When they came in, he had on his mask and black hoodie. He must have not had his voice modulator when they had first knocked on the door to his room. Chard was playing a game on his TV called WII Pay Rent. "You haven't paid your rent in six months! If you don't bring your rent up front sometime today, I will kick you out of the apartment," said the chat box of a bald character with a suit pointing a finger at another character and steam was coming out of his nostrils and ears. The other character must have been Chard's character.

 Lainey thought about what Codebreaker had said about Chard and what she had said.

 "Hey, Chard," Lainey said.

 "Hi," Chard replied.

 "Is this your favorite game?" Lainey asked.

 "It's a good game. It's a favorite, but I don't usually play a lot of games since I don't see the point in doing so. I'm supposed to be an Anti-Magician, not a kid in a GameStop," Chard said.

 "Yet you're sitting in here playing games when you could be training," Lainey replied.

 "Yeah. Want to watch?" Chard asked, shrugging.

 He had ignored her question.

 "I can't. I have to say bye and go, but first I would like to talk to you a little bit. We don't have endless time," Lainey said, thinking of the game and of Mars.

 "Alright, we can talk. What do you think of soy games like this? My character's the guy with the hipster glasses and the green 'saves the world' t-shirt if you didn't already know that," Chard replied. Codebreaker saw the game and he seemed to be analyzing it.

 "Soy games are fun," Lainey said. She saw the landlord in the game storming away from Chard's character. Codebreaker reached for the controller.

 "Can I play?" Codebreaker asked.

 "A new game. This one is special to me. Lainey, what do you want to talk to me about?" Chard asked. She could still feel the hate inside him and the emotions swimming in his body. Lainey clicked into her timer app and set a timer for 2 minutes. She had two minutes to talk to Chard, say bye to people, and leave David's house to get to the underground club Stonerz.

 "What do you hate the most?" Lainey inquired.

 Chard seemed to be frozen a few moments before he answered. His fingers picked at the WII remote. "I hate busybodies, false accusations, and idiots. You are being a busybody right now. It's the blunt truth. If you want to talk about something else, we can talk about it," Chard said.

 "She tried to ask me questions earlier. She's curious," Codebreaker replied.

 "You've done it before too. Curiosity killed the cat," Chard sighed.

 Lainey doubted that it killed the cat, but on most things in her life curiosity had killed her, such as her joining the Magicians & the Jewels and becoming Shadow Rider. She became a master of darkness and the powers of the night. The power tugged at her in the chest. "Use your power, force the information out of them. You have time," her Rider nature said to her in her mind for the third time today. Lainey ignored the voice. She wasn't going to force the information out of them. Her Rider nature seemed to be holding up her end of the deal so far, but some of her proposals boarded on being too far. However, that was expected from a piece of darkness himself that had been split from him by the Photonic light spirits and their forces.

 "Chard, do you like taking baths? I like baths, but I hate them sometimes. I thought you would hate baths since you're always about the mission besides playing WII Pay Rent," Lainey said.

 "That's none of your business. Thank you for asking," Chard replied.

 "Are you that mad about Nathan's government comment and blaming it on me?" Lainey inquired.