Inner-Selves No. 4, Part B
Sometime later, Blaze and the three adults arrived at the arcade. Macho gave Blaze some money and let him loose to have some fun as he saw fit. Blaze tried his best to have fun, but couldn’t help but worry about the others, he didn’t want to see anyone get hurt anymore because of him. Fidget and Kat kept a short distance from Macho and Blaze, trying to look like they were there to have fun as well. Uknown to Fidget, Twitch had gone to the arcade after school let out, he had no homework today and wasn’t expected home until dinner. Twitch noticed Blaze sitting against the wall all by himself, plenty of money in his hand but looking too sad to have any fun. “Hey, what’s the matter?” Twitch said walking up to him. Blaze looked up at him, not knowing what to say. “Oh nothing” he lied. “You seem to have a lot of money there, why aren’t you playing anything?” “Don’t really feel like it” Blaze said, lowering his head. “I was gonna play air hockey, wanna play with me?” Twitch asked hoping he’d cheer up. “Well, I don’t know..” “Please? It’ll be fun!” Twitch smiled. Blaze was really worried about what would happen to Macho and the others, but nothing had happened so far today, and he really did come here for a good time. “Okay, I’ll play with you” Blaze said smiling weakly. Twitch smiled and ran over to the air hockey table, the two new friends were off to a fun start.
Fidget and Kat figured they should at least play something to make it look like they weren’t spying on the other two, so Fidget played a shooting game while Kat watched. “So this is a video game? I can’t believe little kids play such violent stuff” Kat said fascinated. “Not all games are like this, besides this game isn’t meant for little kids anyway” Fidget replied while continuing to shoot zombies on the screen. Kat’s phone suddenly started beeping, there was a strong spirit eater headed to their location, and it was moving quickly. Kat couldn’t hear the phone going off because of the noise in the arcade, and because of Fidget’s enormous energy level, she didn’t sense its presence until a sound like an explosion was heard from the far wall, near the air hockey tables. Macho was near there, he’d just won a prize at the “test your strength” game, but dropped it suddenly after hearing the screams of the other furs in the building. Blaze ducked and hid under the air hockey table, fighting back tears. “I knew something like this would happen, I just knew it would” he cried.
Twitch felt a strong crushing feeling in the air, and he suddenly remembered what had happened at his house that one night. Because he’d been exposed to this kind of energy before, and the youth sprite powers of his brother, Twitch could just barely make out the image of a huge monster standing in front of the hole in the wall. “Oh no, not again” Twitch said terrified. He ran away, thinking Blaze had already ran off, he wanted to get as far away from here as possible. Fidget and Kat had noticed the panicking and fleeing crowd, and headed in the direction of the broken wall. “Why didn’t my phone go off?” Kat said. “I don’t know, but I don’t like the look of this!” Fidget replied running off. Twitch didn’t look in front of him and bumped into Fidget. “Huh?! Twitch what’re you doing here? Are you hurt?” Fidget said embracing him. “Oh Fidget, it’s you, I’m so scared big brother” Twitch cried, but somewhat happy to be with someone he trusted. “Twitch, what happened? Did you see anything?” Fidget asked him as Kat caught up. “It was a horrible monster, I could hardly see it, but I know it’s there, it’s just like the one that hurt mommy and daddy, Fidget we gotta get out of here!” he pleaded, sobbing into Fidget’s pant leg. “Fidget, take Twitch home, I’ll take care of things until you get back” Kat said. “What?! How can you say that, I have to help” Fidget exclaimed. “No, no, no! It’s too dangerous, please don’t!” Twitch pleaded. “Fidget, your brother’s safety is more important right now, get him away from here, I’ll be fine” Kat said. Fidget hesitated, then agreed. He picked Twitch up on piggyback and turned to Kat. “Be careful Kat” he said. Kat nodded and ran off to the scene of the trouble. Fidget ran to the exit with Twitch on his back. “Big brother, why did you let your friend go? She’ll get hurt” Twitch sniffled. “Don’t worry about her, there’s more to her than you think” Fidget reassured him. “Big brother, did you see a Fox about my age run out of there? He was playing air hockey with me.” Fidget was worried now, Blaze was the reason the arcade was attacked, and he hadn’t seen him leave the building. “I gotta get Twitch home fast, then I gotta go help them” Fidget thought as he ran faster.
The spirit eater stood over the hockey table that Blaze was hiding under. “Alright boy, where is he, where is your new mentor? I have something to share with him” it snarled as it clenched a fist. “P-please, don’t hurt him anymore, he’s been so kind to me” Blaze sniffled. “And let him get in my way? Never! Your spirit belongs to me, no one else!” it growled. Kat arrived, and faced the monster. “Stop this right now, spirit eater, your going down!” she boasted, dropping her bag at her feet. “So you can see me too huh? Who the heck are you?” it sneered at Kat. “A regular spell didn’t work last time, I’d better use a full incantation to make sure it’ll have an effect” Kat thought to herself. “If you intend to defy me, then I’ll have to take you out as well” the spirit eater shouted as it swiped a clawed hand at her. Kat avoided the attack and proceeded with the spell she’d chosen. “The youth sprite always yields good advice, on good virtue instead of vice, now stop fighting and let’s all play nice!” she declared as she wove a hand sign and pointed her palm at the monster. “Crippling technique number 9, Diaper Pin Cushion!” Suddenly a bunch of giant white diaper pins appeared above the spirit eater and pinned themselves into its back, through its body and into the floor. “Yes, it worked!” Kat grinned. Just then the pins disintegrated, and there was no trace on the monster that the spell was even cast. “How pathetic!” the spirit eater laughed. Kat was shocked, even with a full incantation the spell was still too weak, her powers weren’t returning to her at all it felt like. “So you’re a youth sprite, well that explains why you can see me, but you have hardly any power at all, that spell had no effect on me” the monster chuckled. Blaze was struck with fear, the monster was angry and now the girl that was with him earlier was gonna get hurt, maybe even killed. “Since you have no other moves, I’ll make mine!” the spirit eater shouted as it swung out at Kat again. Kat felt helpless, there was no way she could fight him like this, it was over for her. Suddenly Macho ran up and punched at the spot Kat was staring at, not really sure why he did it, just a feeling maybe. He expected to hit air, but he definitely hit something hard, and he saw the change machine over by the wall get knocked over by something invisible. “I hit something?!...Alright!” Macho said. The spirit eater was now laying on the floor on top of the toppled change machine, confused. “Don’t tell me you can see me too” it said to Macho. “He can see that thing?” Kat thought to herself. Macho randomly started punching the air around him, hoping to hit something again. “That answers that question…” Kat thought. “Hey Macho, nice going” Kat said. He turned his attention to her. “Oh, Kat, are you ok? You looked like something was trying to hurt you, where’s Blaze?” Blaze kept his mouth shut, he was too afraid to say anything.
“I don’t know, but listen Macho, you can’t see it, but there’s something here that is a threat to us all. If you let me be your eyes, we can take it down together” Kat said. Macho remembered hitting something invisible, so he felt like he could trust Kat on this one. “Alright, just tell me where to move and hit” Macho said. Kat nodded her head, she didn’t think it was safe to get an ordinary fur involved in this, but she knew it was the best way to hold out until Fidget returned. “You think you’re a match for me tough guy, then bring it on! I’ll show you what happens to those who get in the way of my prey” the spirit eater growled. “Fidget, please hurry” Kat pleaded as she and Macho readied themselves.