(This is dedicated to my friend ApplesAreAwesome1800, in my top three fantasy writers. Check out Element Hunters and her other fantasy stories! She'll provide you with incredibly unique ideas)
Chapter 4
Planning, Searching, And More Drama
Everything around Donny was new to him and he didn't even feel like he belonged with these type of people. It made him uncomfortable, out-of-place, and helpless, like a lost wolf in the middle of the freezing woods, that had no choice but to limp behind his pack from afar, in order to keep up after watching them slowly disappear in the fog.
Tears splashed down into his lap, leaning the top of his head against the side of his bed while sitting on his knees. A very abnormal position but Donny didn't care. He thought of the times he had with Leina and it just wasn't working out because of her carelessness to get accustomed with him. The boy was being outcasted by her, playing with his mind and twisting it to make him feel pathetic and worthless. Of course, Leina never meant to hurt him like this, but she sure was being rude by the way she ignored him every time she was with someone else.
By the way everyone acted, Donny felt like he was nothing to them, only a weird creep ready to set his life up for failure. He thought, and thought.
Donny was walking to his apartment casually, from about fifteen minutes ago. He saw Leina coming down the hallway just about to pass him by. She was walking with her boyfriend Markus next to her, hearing them gossip about their friend Patrick.
"You really think they'll still be together after that?" Leina asked Markus like he was talking nonsense.
"Yeah, they've survived a lot worse. Here, this is what I got," Malum showed Leina a picture on his phone.
Leina hit him on the side of his arm, "You were spying on them?"
He laughed and started running down the hall, ready to pass Donny, "I snagged it while we were passing them!" Leina ran after him from quite a far distance, increasing her laughter with each step.
Donny watched them, and Markus rushed passed him like he didn't even exist. Then came Leina laughing with the biggest smile on her face.
"Hey Leina," Donny waved with sort of an emotionless expression on his face, just waiting for Leina to do something rude, and he was right. Leina did exactly what he thought, and blew the wind passed him like he was an invisible ghost, not even noticing his presence.
Donny was left feeling empty inside, not even being noticed by his fellow peers. He felt like a ghost that was lost and trapped inside a cage. His shoulders jerked upwards a bit, as he was in his awkward position near his bed, and the tightness in his chest grew, channeling up to his neck, and turning into tears through his eyes. Just the unbearable pain inside him, wouldn't go away no matter how much he wanted to. One small situation, broke him apart into tears, because he knew nothing's changed. Leina was just there to remind him how much of a pathetic outcast he is, one that deserves nothing but death so he cried even harder and the amount of water drops through his eyes increased, panting and suffering.
The heart in him was broken as if he lost all respect for Leina in one day, just as when he was warming up to her. Why was one little situation getting to him so much? He didn't know how he could loose all respect for her over that, but he did.
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The next day, Donny wasn't exactly feeling very happy after that, but then again, he never felt very happy before anyway. He was only a bit more comfortable at this time because he knew it was time for the mission so he didn't have time to cry now, but that didn't mean the pain was gone.
He was all geared up with a black shirt that had shoulder pads with a second part around his tricep, not to mention the gold that outline his shirt and black pants. The material he wore was thick and hard for a sword to pierce through. He carried a blue energy saber right next to his right pocket, resting in it's sheath.
Leina was armed with the same clothes as she wore yesterday, wearing the same black combat dress. She had a red energy katana strapped to her back, also resting in it's sheath.
They were ready to seek out the fugitive scum.
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Donny and Leina were finally together, located in the fourth floor of the Long Beach Cognition Institute. It was destroyed and abandoned of course. Every building around was in ruins so there was no surprise there.
The remains of the laboratory were scattered everywhere, piles rocks in different sizes sticking out of the metal floor inlaid with a grid of circular indents. Donny flicked the lights on, and only one blue light came on, with two of them sparking through the broken light covers. The rest of the room was dark, with only flashes of light through the sparkling wires.
Leina turned on a flash light and whispered, "Someone's definitely been here."
"And they could still be here," whispered Donny.
"Nope, whoever they were, they're gone."
"And how do you know-"
"Search the building. I'll take the counters, you take that room over there," Leina directed with her finger.
It wasn't much of a room considering the open broken down wall, but the ceiling cabinets that were falling apart unevenly caught Donny's attention, so he decided to check there first. Their feet snapped the rocks and dust beneath them.
Leina ransacked the counters, picking and shoving beakers, and science equipment. Donny opened the cabinets, swiftly but quietly, one by one, nothing was in them except darkness, dirt, and cobwebs. "Nothing in the cabinets."
Leina didn't respond, she just moved her body around very energetically, pushing stuff around, too focused in what she was doing at the moment. Donny stopped what he was doing immediately, and looked around due to a buzzing sound that caught his ear, almost like a vibration. He looked over at Leina and spoke quietly, "Leina, what's that sound?"
Donny was looking at Leina for a response, only to watch her take out her phone to quickly check it. Next she flipped it and started texting with her thumbs so rapidly it took her seconds. Leina still never paid attention to him, but Donny just rolled his eyes to himself and continued.
Leina squatted her legs and pulled open a greasy cabinet door under the counter. She flashed her light through the darkness and nothing was there, but the torn label at the side of the shelf caught her attention. The white, fuzzy label looked like it once had words on them. "Donny!" Leina got excited, "I found something."
Donny made his way over to her with haste, then squatted down to her level.
"The label is torn off. I bet the nano-bot capsules were here." Leina ran her finger against the fuzzy blank label, "See how its newly torn? Search around for the rest of the label. I'll search the area."
"How do I find the other half of the label in all this rubble?" asked Donny, "Out of all the places they could've put it!"
"Just try! Damn, it's not like I'm going to shoot you if you don't find it." Leina walked over to a pile of rocks and shined the area with her flashlight while Donny searched around. She examined all of the dust and saw foot tracks leading to a stairway. They looked like as if the person tippy toed out of the room very quickly by the pointed front and dust tail behind it.
"High heels, it's a girl," she tapped her flashlight with her thumb to turn it off and ran to the staircase. There was more dust prints but they were very light since the dust sort of ended.
Donny ran over to her, "What's your deal?"
Leina ran up the case, "She must of taken a helicopter or something back home."
Donny followed her, hurrying to catch up. He was disgusted with her a bit, "You know, I'm not going to be the weak link here. I'm your partner, not your sidekick!"
Leina didn't pay attention, only continuing to run up the stairs as Donny followed. They both reached the top after passing the last floor. They were on the roof of the building, stars shinning in the dark above them. Nothing but the staircase shack, a couple of broken satellites, and an annoying whirlybird vent squeaking slowly as it went around.
"Where ever they are, they're gone," said Leina passing a short, wide building with only one door. She went over to the edge of the roof to investigate anything below.
"Leina," said Donny trying to get her attention, "Are we in this together or not? When are we going to have an actual relationship?"
Leina just looked over the edge, "Hey Donny, can you go down to the fifth floor and make sure there isn't any tracks?"
"Leina!" he raise his voice.
Leina quickly turned and made eye contact. "What?" she whined.
"Your not even listening!" he got frustrated, "You've been ignoring me this whole entire time! This is not how a relationship forms!"
"Relationship?" she said acting like he was talking nonsense.
"Ugh," Donny dropped his arms, "I mean friendship! We're partners and going to be for a long time. I would've thought we would've at least worked together a little bit better then this." Donny crossed his arms and looked away has he calmed.
"We are friends-"
Donny untangled his arms and was frustrated again, "No we're not! I barely met you, you idiot!"
"You just said you wanted to be friends!" Leina raised her voice too a bit.
"Your not getting my point," Donny rubbed his arm and turned his head away from her, "Friendship takes time, and ignoring each other doesn't make anything better, it just makes it worse." Donny paused and sighed, "I feel like you've been outcasting me, Leina. Like I'm some type of failure...or loser." Donny turned his head toward her again and saw her texting on her phone again. Heat from inside Donny burned up to his head, so he snatched the pink phone from her and catapulted it straight off the edge of the building as far as he could.
Leina's jaw dropped and she pointed at him with her arm folded, "Your buying me a new phone."
"You don't even care!" Donny yelled, yanking his head strictly up to her face. He turned and they both stood silently, not looking at each other. Donny's hand spread across the wall of the small structure and leaned there, then pounded his other balled up hand against it. "This always happens," his voice started to rise again, showing his emotion through different levels of sound, "I'm always outcasted, like I'm some sort of freak! And you don't even care!"
Donny snatched his hand back off the wall and quickly turned to yell more at Leina, "You don't even care about how I'm treated! You don't even care about how I feel! I'm a person too Leina! I have feelings, unlike you. I just knew this was going to happen, first day I saw you! You have so many friends and popularity that you don't even see certain people as people anymore!"
Leina focused her eyes at the ground, playing with her lips, arms crossed, secretly trying to ignore him while leaning her back against the roof wall. She then looked at him, seeing tears in his eye while panting from all the yelling.
The boy's shoulder's jerks, covering a cry with a chuckle, "You don't get it do you."
"Look, I'm sorry! Okay?" Leina whined moving her hands out to her lower sides, trying to safeguard herself with an insincere apology, "I won't ignore you anymore. Just stop crying already. Man up, god!" She was disgusted with him so she looked away again.
"You know what, forget it. You don't care," Donny turned and started to walk away.
"God damn it Donny, we have a mission to do!"
"I'm not working with someone who's just going to ignore me! Do it yourself if your so confident!" Donny said, brushing her off.
"I can't!"
At that point he stopped and looked back.
"I'm not...I'm not that confident in my fighting, and who knows what this fugitive could do. I need you, and I'm sorry. Please, don't leave me here alone. I like you." Leina put her hands on the edge of the rail wall she was leaning on after a long while with her arms crossed.
Donny let out a deep breath and strolled on over to her again, "That's all I wanted to hear. I'm just tired of being the outsider." They both paused, in silence again, only hearing the annoying squeak of the whirlybird vent, and the wind across their faces. "I just wanted to work as a team. I'm sorry I yelled at you."
Leina just glanced up at him, looking like the most innocent person alive.
"How about I show you some moves when we get back then?" he changed the subject to try to cheer her up.
She chuckled, "Maybe. Come on Providence, lets just do this." Grabbing his shirt as she pass him, she flung it back like a rubber band, so he'd follow her. Donny hoped that things would be okay now since he never actually stood up for himself like that. Unfortunately, maybe at the moment things would be better, but his doubts still wouldn't go away.
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Picture that inspired the setting: The Abandoned Science Lab