Chapter 72. Michael! Julie!

“Michael! Julie!” Arthur ran up and exclaimed at the two who were sitting beside each other enjoying snacks on an empty bench.

“What is it Arthur?” Julie asked.

“Shelly told me we’re playing a game. We have to be on the lookout for suspicious looking people.” Arthur stated excitedly. His words confused Julie and Michael who raised their eyebrow at Arthur’s comment.

“Okay…” Julie responded. She didn’t know what else to say to Arthur’s comment. She couldn’t help but ask “Did she say anything else?”

“Nope!” Arthur shook his head and quickly ran away. “I’m going to look for Seth now! Bye bye!”

“Bye Arthur!” Julie waved and turned back to Michael who was just as confused as her. “Be on the lookout for suspicious people…?”

“This doesn’t seem like a game…” Michael responded as he contemplated about Shelly’s words.

“Mhm… but if it’s just keeping an eye out, we can do that.” Julie smiled and handed another kebab to Michael.

“Thanks, I sure hope nothing happens…” Michael sighed and accepted the kebab. He started to scan the surrounding, paying more attention to each and every individual hoping to see something suspicious. Julie did the same as she sat beside Michael.

While those two were the first to receive Shelly’s message. Arthur continued to run around the entire Festival smiling happily and excitedly talking to everyone he knew. Seth and his friends received the message and nodded their head, only Seth took Shelly’s comment seriously as he looked around.

After Seth and friends, Arthur ran to Poe who was calmly conversing with Carson and Krystal as they watched Boulder onstage still being challenged by an even bigger crowd of kids.

It’s been almost an hour since Boulder was challenged and yet, as the fight went on more kids went up and also challenged him after the group of enraged kids exhausted themselves.

They didn’t know why everyone was challenging Boulder but saw an opportunity to beat someone with Powers in front of their parents and took it. It didn’t help that half of the parents in the audience even encouraged their kid to go up and challenge Boulder.

If only it wasn’t for Boulder’s stubbornness to not to decline a challenge from those weaker than him, he’d have call it quits a long time ago. His chance of beating Poe who was once tired after fighting Mason was gone. He didn’t even try to step off the stage after every win. He just stood there and waited for the next kid to challenge him.

“Oh Arthur, what’s up?” Poe glanced at the boy who was slightly out of breath after running around the entire Festival.

“Shelly said…we’re playing a game! we have to keep an eye out for suspicious people.” Arthur repeated what he had said to everyone else.

“Oh a game? Where is she?” Poe asked as he looked around the festival ground trying to find the white-haired girl with sapphire eyes.

Arthur turned to the spot where Shelly was and pointed at the girl who was calmly petting her kitten.

“Anyways bye!” Arthur ran back to Shelly immediately after pointing at Poe, he wanted to start the game already.

Poe immediately noticed Shelly after Arthur’s direction and calmly observed the girl sitting there. At first, he just assumed Shelly was enjoying this game that Arthur was talking about as she sat there looking at the people in the audience. However, immediately noticed she would close her eyes for roughly ten seconds every minute as if she was trying to sense something…

“Poe~?” Carson asked the boy who was staring at Shelly without blinking for almost a minute.

“Hm?” Poe turned around and looked at Carson and Krystal who was weirdly looking at him.

“Do you have a crush on Shelly?” Krystal asked.

“Huh!?”

“You’ve been looking at her for almost two whole minutes~” Carson replied.

“N-No! you idiots, I was thinking about the game!” Poe retorted; he couldn’t believe these two would assume that just because he was looking at someone for a minute.

“Uh huh…” The two were not convinced.

“Really! Look!” Poe pointed at Shelly who had Arthur beside her again. “She’s been closing her eyes for 10 seconds every minute.”

“Wow~ you paid that much attention to her already~?” Carson asked.

“C’mon you two, Krystal, look at me in my eyes, do I have a crush on her or not?”

Krystal looked at him deeply in the eyes and calmly replied. “Mmm… okay I’ll believe you for now. Tell us, why are you looking at her then?”

“She’s meditating. I don’t know why, but she probably saw some suspicious people and are trying to sense their energy.” Poe answered. He continued “If that’s the case I think they might be super strong; I can’t sense anyone besides Mason.”

“What if they’re Exotics~?” Carson asked.

“Then… we’d have to wait for them to use their powers to find them…”

“Why don’t we just tell the adults.” Krystal asked.

“We should~” Carson answered.

“Let’s find suspicious people first, we’ll tell them after.” Poe replied. He didn’t think it was right to bother Cobble, Pebble, and Gran who were busy with the Festival about suspicious people that they haven’t seen yet.

“Let’s go talk to Shelly then, if she saw them then we can go tell the Chief about it.” Krystal answered.

“Yeah, let’s do that.”

The three quickly hurried to Arthur and Shelly who were talking to each other. Arthur would at time scan the entire audience and pointing at people as he asked Shelly beside him, “are they suspicious? What about him? Her?”

Shelly could only go with Arthur’s enthusiasm and play along. Sometimes agreeing and other times disagreeing about the people Arthur pointed at, letting the boy beside her create a tally on the ground about the amount of suspicious people they’ve found.

While Arthur was doing that, Shelly continued to quietly observe the robed figures that no one else seemed to notice. The first time she looked at them one of their members immediately noticed someone looking at them and have been vigilant ever since. That person continued to scan the surrounding afterwards trying to see if it was just their imagination. However, he didn’t sense anything unnatural besides that first instance. Eventually, his attention turned back to his target.

“Oh Poe! Carson! Krystal! Did you guys find someone suspicious already?” Arthur asked.

“No, we were going to ask Shelly if she’s found some suspicious people.” Poe walked up and answered.

The three turned to Shelly who turned her gaze at Poe.

“I’ve only found those that young master has pointed out.” Shelly calmly replied. Her reply left the three who came up to be unconvinced. Krystal used her powers again hoping to sense any falsehood in Shelly but just like last time, it proved ineffective.

Poe knew Shelly was hiding something and asked her if she would follow him further away to talk. Shelly agreed and carried Silver with her as Carson and Krystal entertained themselves with Arthur pointing at random people and guessing whether or not they were suspicious. Whenever Arthur pointed at a villager they knew, the girls would laugh and correct him about who those people are.

Poe and Shelly didn’t return until some time later. Poe tried to maintain his calm, but both girls instantly knew something was wrong when he returned. However, they didn’t say anything as they bid Arthur and Shelly goodbye and followed Poe further away.

“So~? What happened~?” Carson asked as they found a comfortable spot to sit.

Poe shook his head, “Shelly told me they were standing over there.” Poe directed his gaze towards the spot where the five robed figures were standing and sighed. “But I can’t see anyone standing there. Can you two?” He asked the two girls.

Carson and Krystal looked in the direction Poe gazed at and shook their heads; they didn’t see anyone suspicious there. In fact, it was empty as there was nobody standing over there.

“Are you sure…?” Krystal asked.

“How can I be sure? It was just whatever Shelly was saying, she could be lying and is actually just playing a game with us.” Poe responded.

“Did she tell you what they looked like?” Krystal continued to ask.

“There’s two in green robes and three in purple robes, completely covered from head to toe.” Poe answered. His words creeped the two girls out. What Shelly had told him sounded suspicious.

“P-Poe” Carson stuttered.

“Hm?”

“D-Did Sh-shelly say th-that th-they c-could mu-multiply?” Carson asked, her eyes were wide with terror as she stuttered.

“Hm? No, she didn’t say that at all…why?” Poe asked.

Carson’s hands shook as she pointed at the audience around them. Poe and Krystal immediately turned towards where Carson pointed at. People after people were slowly transforming into Green and purple robed figures right before their very eyes.

They couldn’t believe it; they wiped their eyes hoping that it would change things back, but everyone was transforming into robed figures.

“Wh-what’s going on!?” The three exclaimed at once as they stood close to each other, their eyes were wide with panic.

“P-Poe! Yo-your arm!” Carson screamed.

Poe immediately looked down at his arm, it wasn’t his anymore, it was a sleeve of a purple robe.

“Wha-what’s happening!?” Poe exclaimed. The sleeve continued to crawl up his shoulder enveloping it completely before spreading out to the rest of the body. Poe tried to shake it off however, no dice, in less than thirty seconds Poe’s entire body transformed to that of a hooded figure in purple robe.

“Ahhh!” Carson and Krystal screamed when Poe finished his transformation.

“G-guys! It-it’s still me!” Poe tried to explain himself. However, the two girls were completely frightened by what they were seeing, they slowly inched away from the purple robed Poe. If the person in front of them even so much as took a step forward they would instantly run away.

“C-Carson!” Krystal exclaimed when she looked over at Carson.

“No!” Carson cried out as she looked at the sleeve of her arm. It too was turning purple. “Get it off, get it off!” Carson shouted.

“Kr-ystal, you too!” The purple robed Poe exclaimed as he pointed at Krystal’s sleeve. The two girls were quickly becoming purple robed figures themselves!

“Nooo!” The two girls shouted as they became completely covered from head to toe.

Their screams and panicked noise drew the attention of the adults and students sitting around. They turned over to look at who was making such a ruckus only to see it was just three preteens screaming and pointing at each other. They quickly ignored it and returned to look back on the stage where Boulder and the kids were still fighting.

Boulder’s eyes went wide as he looked at the kid before him. “Hey! Your arm!” He pointed at the kid’s arm that was slowly transforming to a sleeve.

The kid looked down and then looked back at Boulder. “What are you trying to pull? I won’t fall for your trick again, Boulder!” The kid pointed at Boulder and exclaimed. “Boulder, I challenge you!”

“D-dad!” Boulder shouted ignoring the challenge of the boy.

“No fair! You can’t bring the Chief into this fight!” The kid shouted as his entire body became completely cloaked in a purple robe.

Gran immediately noticed something was wrong on stage and rushed up beside Boulder. He looked at the opponent Boulder was facing and asked. “Chama?”

“Y-yes Ch-chief!” The tiny purple robed figure saluted. “I-I’m ch-challenging Boulder.” The kid stuttered. He didn’t know why his Chief was staring at him and asking for his name.

“D-dad! Wh-what’s going on?” Boulder turned to Gran and asked.

“Hm…” Gran’s brow furrowed as he looked at the kid before him. He immediately closed his eyes…there was energy surrounding the entire body of the kid before him.

“Chama, do you notice anything on your body?” Gran asked.

The purple robed Chama looked at his arms and legs and shook his head.

“Stay still Chama.” Gran sent an energy blast blew away the energy surrounding the boy before him, turning him back to a pale faced frightened kid who almost peed his pants when he felt the energy blow at him.

“Ch-chief?”

“Chama, go down stage, the fight is over. I’m postponing any more fights for the time being.” Gran’s voice was serious. He immediately noticed the sleeve on the boy was slowly regenerating back to a purple sleeve. Whatever this illusion was it was powerful enough to come back after being blasted away.

He quickly looked down at his son. There was a purple sleeve on him too.

“Boulder! Use your energy, expand it outwards, now!” Gran commanded.

As if rehearsed thousands of times, Boulder instantly did what he was told and blasted his energy outwards removing the purple sleeve growing on his arms. Boulder sighed in relief, but then turned around and looked out towards the audience. His eyes went wide as he nearly fainted to seeing a sea of green and purple robes.

Gran did the same and turned his attention to the audience who were confused about what was going on, why did Gran stop the match and tell Chama to go down the stage? However, while the audience was confused Gran couldn’t tell at all. To him two-thirds of the audience were already Green and purple robed figures.

“Everyone!” Gran’s voice was loud and clear as he instantly got the attention of the confused audience.

“The Festival is over! I’m sorry about this, but I’m going to need everyone to leave this place immediately!”

BOOM!

The moment Gran said that, the entrance to the Festival exploded and collapsed startling everyone in the Festival grounds. Whoever caused it, did not want anyone to leave.

“AHHHH”

A shrill scream followed by many others echoed in the air as the entrance gate exploded bits and pieces. The panicked audience immediately got up and began running around like headless chickens trying to find an exit.

“STOP!” Gran shouted. His words caused the majority of those who were running to stop, they immediately looked over at the calm expression on Gran’s face and calmed down.

“Return to your spot, don’t move.” Gran’s voice calmly reverberated in the air. The sound of his voice instantly got all the villagers to return to where they sat. It was their Chief, if he said something they would obey completely. Only those who weren’t of Boulderville were still panicked and disobeyed.

“Back to your seat!” Gran shouted, this time everyone froze and returned to their seat after seeing the calm and serious gazes of the villagers sitting there waiting for orders.

“It’s just an entrance, I can fix that easily. Don’t worry don’t worry” Gran tried to maintain calm as he looked at the pool of green and purple in front of him. He continued “To those who have learned how to harness their energy, blast it outwards.”

Poe, Carson, Krystal and everyone else who have obtained their powers instantly did what they were told. Their eyes went wide as they can see the looks of the people next to them again. However, it was still them surrounded by a sea of green and purple robes...