03x06: DRIX, Green Eyes, and Mischief

Austin becomes one with a band and gets a little bit jealous. Top it off with the second attack on the Island and you've got the beginnning of this downward spiral.

DRIX, GREEN EYES, AND MISCHIEF

 

     That weekend, the DRIX fan page completely blew up in fans. This made a lot of people happy.

     Due to this, Austin talked to Bambam that Monday morning. He was the bassist of the band.

     “So, Bam, I’m gonna make a timeline of the band members for the fanpage. Do you mind enlightening me with this?”

     “Sure.”

     “Tell me all the members, as in every single one, even ex-members.”

     “Well you got me, Bruce, Enriko, Ivan H., Jolo, Luis, Sean, Dominic, I don’t think you know him.”

     “I talk to him over the internet, carry on.”

     “You got Laurenz, and Michael. As for former member, we got Asuka.”

     “Why’d you kick him out again?”

     “Well, he gave a less than satisfactory performance in last year’s FS Night.”

     “Oh, hey, how about when they joined and when they quit.”

     This took a bit more time but eventually, Austin got them all.

 

The day went on as usual. During the second period of the day, which was Filipino, they had a “balagtasan” activity which is technically a heated argument.

     It was a boy on girl discussion on whether schools in the Philippines should study in English or Tagalog.

     They were given a script and Ms. Becky asked for volunteers. Three per side and one host. Austin was picked as host and Froilan was one of the volunteers.

     Ms. Becky, for some reason, pronounced Austin’s name as “Aw-stin” and he was mildly annoyed by this and his classmates playfully called him by this but it wasn’t that much of a big deal.

     Froilan completely bastardized the script, eliciting laughs from the whole class but still, it was kind of boring.

     Later that day, Sr. Philip told everyone who knew how to play the guitar to go to him that lunch. Austin wasn’t that good so he didn’t go.

     Midway through Lunch, Austin told Ernst and the gang about a video he saw on YouTube.

     “Then he mentions all the reasons why the HTC Evo is better than the new iPhone. It goes ‘Its battery is replaceable” and the other guy replies, ‘I don’t care’ in a deadpan manner. ‘Its memory card is replaceable’ ‘I don’t care’. ‘The monthly bill is cheaper’, ‘I don’t care’.”

     The guys were already laughing out loud.

     “Then it just goes on! ‘It ****ing prints money’, ‘I don’t care’. ‘It can grant up to three wishes, even if one is for an iPhone.’, ‘I don’t care’. ‘It has an app that builds you an island and transforms into a jet that flies you there.’ You know the response!”

     The guys were trying to catch a breath after all this.

     “And when the first guy gets pissed off, here’s the best part, he says this in a syllabic manner, “It is mother-****-ing in-destruc-tible.”

     Ernst then laughs out too loud, releasing laughing gas, causing everyone around their table to look at him and start laughing uncontrollably.

     “Well, I don’t remember the rest,’ Austin said while trying to hold back the laughter. “But I thought you mastered your powers.”

     Austin then broke into laughter.

     “Well, I lost it for a second!”

     “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

    

They were on their way to the library when Austin started some more mischief.

     “Hey, you know the joke ‘You can pick your friends, you can pick your nose, but you can’t pick your friend’s nose.’?”

     They nodded.

     “Let’s do more of that. I mean, ‘you can play with your friends, you can play with your balls, but you can’t play with your�"“

     They started laughing already.

     “DUDE! Just stop!” Bianca said.

     “Hyper, much?” Ernst asked.

     “A little bit.”

     They were already on the second floor.

     “Come on, try one. Just do ‘You can X your Y, you can X your Z, but you can’t X your Z’s Y’ or vice versa.”

     “What?” Bianca said.

     “Well, I had to integrate notation in it, sheesh, it’s as if you don’t know me.”

     A bunch of girls from the canteen passed by. Bianca separated herself from Austin.

     “I don’t know him.”

     “Well, thanks for proving me right.”

     “Shouldn’t you have been avoiding me?” Ernst asked.

     “Oh yeah.”

     “Don’t you get it? She did not do that because she loves you!”

     “WHAT?!”

     “Never mind.”

    They went in the library and saw Janella, Alyssa, Dania, and Justin there.

     “Hey guys, wassup?”

     “Austin!” Alyssa said. “Did you go to Sr. Philip?”

     “Nope. Why? What was that about?”

     “The school is signing up for a Guinness World Record. Most number of people playing a single piece on the guitar at the same time.”

     “Oh. Janella, are you joining?”

     “No, I don’t know how.”

     “I can teach you before, um, when is the thing?”

     “August,” Alyssa answered.

     “I can teach you in a month. Hell, I learned in a month.”

     “No thanks.”

     “Oh, fine.”

     “Hey, let’s check on Oreo.”

     “Who’s Oreo?” Austin asked.

     “Oh, nothing,” Nica suddenly said from behind Austin.

     “Dude, you startled me!”

     “Oreo’s just Janella’s new boyfriend, that’s all.”

     “WHAT?!” Janella said. “Austin, don’t believe her.”

     Austin acknowledged the possibilities of codenames, of course but this scenario is definitely a hoax.

     “Still wanna check on him?” Alyssa asked Janella.

     “Yeah, let’s go.”

     “Enjoy your date! Alyssa, try not to interrupt too much,” Nica said.

     “Hahaha, very funny,” Janella said in a deadpan manner.

         

Later that TLE time, Ms. Joan had assigned them definitive partners. In Ms. Joan’s words, he was paired with “The Quiet One and The Loud One.” These two were Ibarra and Mo-on. They were assigned to the front row and the leftmost column, near the window.

     They had to design a set of clothes, sew it together, and model it. Austin once again tried to handle the sewing machine and slightly got better.

     He talked to Ibarra a lot but Mo-on was busy talking to the surrounding people.

     Eventually, Mo-on came back our world and talked to us. Ibarra was the one good at drawing so he volunteered to design the clothes while Mo-on and Austin started talking.

     Austin found that it was actually pretty nice to talk to Mo-on. First impressions don’t last after all and they became pretty good friends by the end of the double period.

     They got dismissed by Ms. Joan early. He decided to wait for Janella. When they got back, Anne Nicole went up to Austin.

     “Austin! Janella replaced you already!”

     She was nowhere to be seen.

     “Who?!”

     Anne pointed to a guy. He was tall, light-skinned, and pretty good looking. This single second flash struck immediate fear in him but he knew better to believe Anne after sixth grade.

     Well of course, everyone matures.

     Austin continued to wait for Janella and for the first time in the year, walked her to the waiting area.

     They eventually said goodbye and Austin’s day was complete. It was small things like this that made a tiring day worthwhile for him.

When Austin got back to his room, he opened up Facebook and saw that Bukidnon was going have a reunion that Friday at the trellis near the bridge.

     The next day, Austin attempted to advertise Inception to a few more people like Sean, Jib, and to his surrounding people again. Dorothy and Mo-on were sold ever since he posted the trailer on Facebook and they saw it and were blown away.

     The next morning, Austin inquired about that mysterious person. He looked in his organizational lists and fished out his name. He was on the eleventh floor and lived in room 87.

     “Bam, what do you know about the man in room 87?”

     “Huh?”
     “11^th floor? Room 87? Tall? In this class? Sits somewhere there?”

     Austin pointed to the corner.

     “Oh… Marky.”

     “Yes, what about?”

     “Dude, do not believe Anne. She’s just messing you up. They’re just best friends.”

     At this point, he arrived.

     “Want me to prove it? HEY MARKY!”

     “HA-SSSSSTTTT!!!!” Austin said in panic, covering Bam’s mouth. “When did you become impulsive all of a sudden?”

     “Yeah, Bam?” Marky answered.

     “Did you do the homework in Math?”

     “Yes.”

     “Okay.”

     Austin glared at Bam who had a smile on his face.

     “I was curious if he did his homework.”

     “Well let me tell you that I did my homework as well and this is not the end of this…”

     “Mmm… yeah…”

     Awkward silence followed.

     “So, since I’m your online manager. Would you… sorta… like me… to be…”

     “Our offline manager as well?”

     “Yeah, something like that.”

     “Hmm….”
     It was not a very long time before Bam replied.

     “Sure, why not? But you have to ask Bruce first.”

     “Great! Thanks.”

     Austin went the next section, Sultan Kudarat, where Bruce was. Went he went in, he immediately saw Joel, his “best friend” last year who betrayed him. He tried to avoid his eyes and looked for Bruce.

     “Austin, he’s over here!” Bam said.

     Joel looked at Austin as he quickly went back outside.

     “Hey Bruce, can I be the manager for your band? As in offline manager as well.”

     “Sure, why not?”

     “Well, Austin, welcome to DRIX,” Bam said as he shook both their hands.

     He went to CV and told Ibarra and Sean, who congratulated him.

     During Science time, they were having a quiz. Sr. Jojo was walking by the aisles and stopped beside Austin’s seat.

     “Austin, were you a medalist?”

     “Well, not last year since I didn’t get an honor in the first quarter but in elementary, I was in all six years.”

     “Oh, I just noticed that your grades in Bio were pretty high. I thought maybe you could study harder. You are really good in Bio.”

     “Sure, sir, I will.”

     Sr. Jojo then carried on. Austin felt happy now.

     He told Sean that he wanted to join the Guinness thing and he gave him an extra copy of the registration form. He gave it to Sr. Philip and went straight the DDN room.

     “Hey, Janella, I joined the record.”

     “Oh, that’s great!”

     “Did you?”

     She remained quiet for a while.

     “I’m sorry, Austin. Just do your best, okay? I’ll be rooting for you guys.”

     “It’s okay. Thanks.”

     Austin gave her a reassuring smile and noticed her ID. He never saw her Id up close before.

     “Hey, can Is see your ID?”

     “No way! I’m way ugly here.”

     “Ugly? That’s impossible, let me see it.”

     “You can live without seeing it,” she said playfully.

     “No I can’t.”

     “Promise, my ID is hideous.”

     “You’re not just exaggerating but flat out being sarcastic.”

     “Hahaha…” she said in a flat tone.

     “I rest my case. Come on.”

     “Austin, that’s enough.”

     “Fine.”

     “Look, I’m really sorry.”

     “It’s okay, really.”

     He gave her another reassuring smile and went back to CV. On the way, he went in front of DOR.

     “Alyssa!”

     She looked his way.

     “I’m in the record!”

     She was being crowded by her classmates and being muffled by their noise so she just gave a thumbs up as Austin carried on and gave Sean the news.

     It started raining hard later that day so there was a calm, relaxing atmosphere during classes.

     During that Lunch, Austin’s “in love-ness” was somewhat intensified due to yesterday’s events and the happiness streak he has received in this day.

     They were in the library. Janella was sitting in the table next hem reading a book.

     “Austin, are you okay?”

     “Yeah, it’s just that I am deeply in love,” he said in a dreamy state.

     “Snap out of it, bro,” Bianca said.

     “She’s like if the girl of my dreams found a way out. Man, I love her.”

     The guys gave up and resumed their reading. Janella noticed him looking at her and slightly smiled before returning to her book.

     “Oh crap, she caught me staring.”

     “Get over it bro,” Bianca said while buried in her book.

     “Don’t worry, one day Ernst will profess his love to you as well and it’ll be you who is caught staring at him.”

     “Very funny,” she said in a deadpan manner.

     “Sheesh, Maybe I should read a book as well.”

     Janella stood up and returned the book she was reading and walked out.

     “Hey, guys, I gotta go.”

     “Go ahead and stalk her. We’ll be right behind ya,” Bianca said, standing up and putting her book back. Johan stood up as well but Ernst stayed.

     Austin rushed out of the library and got his bag. Bianca and Johan followed.

     “Hey, where’s Ernst?”

     “I’m right here. You guys couldn’t wait?”

     Bianca pointed at Austin.

     “Bye guys, gotta go.”

     Austin went on to go to her but he couldn’t find her anywhere.

     “Well, someone lost his ‘dream girl’,” Bianca said.

     “I did not ‘lose’ her, I ‘lost track’ of her.”

     “Is there a difference?”

     “Not to Ernst there isn’t”

     “Hey?”

     “You two are sweet,” Austin said.

     “Shut up,” Ernst and Bianca said simultaneously.

     “I rest my case.”

 

The rain got a lot harder to the point that there were rumors that classes were suspended after lunch. These rumors were soon confirmed by Sr. Geck. Everyone was hectic and hyper but he calmed them down enough to give some reminders like there would be a quiz on Friday and stuff like that.

     Mo-on was also himself during this time, much to Sr. Geck’s dismay.

     He also called him “Mon” instead of “Mo-on” for some reason.

     “Okay, thank you for your time. Goodbye, CV.”

     Austin went to the bus area but once again, he couldn’t find her. He tried looking around the buses but found nothing.

     He went back to his room and sent her a message over the DP (Desk Phone).

     “Hey there. I just wanted to say that you were beautiful awhile ago. :-)”

     She replied soon enough.

     “Haha, you’re great at flattering.”

     “I’m not flattering you. Yesterday too. For me, you’re the most beautiful Sophomore.”

     “Haha, thanks.”

     “Anyway, how’s undercover life? You and Berna okay there? Any mysterious stuff or something?”
     “No, not really. But the loft is awesome. Berna passed by there once, asked John to make us a universal console. We play Xbox when we’re bored.”

     “Universal console? Nice. Does it have PS3 and Wii compatibility?”

     “Yeah but Xbox is the most used.”

     Austin wasn’t much of a game person so this was the end of this conversation.

     The classes were suspended the next day. Austin spent the free time doing homework, reading a bit on Bio, and lying down.

     He also listened to Avenged Sevenfold for the first time this day. The song was Seize the Day, which Ivan Handog played the previous day. Austin instantly loved it.

     Eventually, the unusual storm cut off the power and even the Fulgurkinetics (electricity controllers) were unable to do something about it.

     Austin decided to look over his balcony, staring at the pouring rain. Something about this was just calming and he loved it.

      Eventually, he got tired and laid down on his bed.

     There were still no electricity the next day and therefore, no classes. Austin tried to fix the electricity but to no avail. He found some snapped wires but fixing them did nothing.

     It was extremely odd so he went to the Base. He grabbed one of John’s Power Absorbent Magazines, which fit in the Telegun. He charged it with electric power using the Dome.

     He took out the Space Manipulation magazine from the Telegun and loaded the newly created magazine.

     He went back the hotel and fired the gun at the central generator. Still nothing.

     “Hey, Austin,” John said from behind him.

     “What is it?”

     “Hey, is that the Telegun?”

     “Yup, I took one of your magazines. I hope you don’t mind.”

     “No prob. Umm, I found this in front of my door. It has a message on the back.”

     Austin recognized this as an Identifier, a gadget he used back before the “power overload incident” when he just had flight. It can sense all mutants within a certain predetermined radius and it also detects a mutants powers. He gave his to Kyle after their graduation.

     This one looked slightly different since it was black and more advanced looking.

     “You don’t know how to use this?” Austin said as he turned it on.

     “Nope.”

     Austin tuned into the mutant detector. It was not detecting anyone.

     “That’s funny, nobody’s here. We’re in a hotel full of mutants but nobody’s here.”

     PING! PING! PING!

     “Rooftop. Why does it only detect one?”

     Austin looked at the back of the Identifier and it was printed “Follow Me.”

     “John, I’ll check it out. Try to use this to fix the electricity.”

     Austin teleported to the rooftop and saw Janella there, looking over the edge.

     “Janella? What are you doing here?”

     “Oh, Austin. I got bored in Woodridge and  wanted to go here. I just happened to land on the rooftop since we don’t have a Telegun and it was raining so I decided to look over the balcony. It makes me feel calm or something.”

     “Exactly. Wait, is this yours?”

     Austin showed her the identifier.

     “No. I don’t know what that is.”

     Austin checked again and there was nobody detected.

     “I think this thing is glitching all the way.”

    PING!

     “Austin, behind you!” Janella said.

     Austin was pushed forward and into the ground by an extremely strong gust of wind.

     Janella fired up her hands and aimed it at the mysterious figure.

     “Who are you?”

     Austin got back up and looked behind him. It was a  woman.

     “Switch to ice,” Austin whispered to Janella.

     She did this and got ready. Austin switched to Fulgurkinesis and charged his hands.

     “Answer the question!” Austin said.

     “You can call me Accel.”

     “Accel, eh? What can you do?”

     Accel raised her hand into the air and lightning started to form, accompanied by thunder.

     “So you’re the cause of this storm, eh?”

     “Yes but do not, for one second mistake me for a fair-weathered friend.”

     Accel charged her hands with swirling air and fired a blast at Austin. He fired a bolt of electricity straight at it and the gust disappeared. She fired two at Janella and she turned both of them into icy wind.

    “You’re not that tough on the offensive, are you?”

     Accel then brought her arm down in a spinning motion and a small twister formed on the roof. Austin tried to calm it down, switching to Aerokinesis.

     “Janella, get away from the twister. I’ll handle it.”

     Janella charged towards Accel and fired a beam of ice at her. He was knocked back and immediately retaliated with an extremely strong gust of wind, knocking Janella back, hard.

     Accel fired another one towards the ground, resulting in an upward angle, flinging Janella to the edge of the roof.

     Austin destroyed the twister and rushed to Janella.

     “Take my hand!”

     Austin was them pushed by another gust and fell off the edge as well. HE switched to Telekinesis and flew up. He also carried Janella to the rooftop.

     When they got there Accel was already forming a portal. Austin ran towards her but she released an entire flurry of wind through the portal, making it impossible for him to move forward. Eventually, the portal closed and it was too late. The good news was, the storm was gone.

     Austin and Janella went to the basement where John was fixing something inside the generator.

     “John, did you fix it?”

      “The problem isn’t the electricity, the problem is that someone stole a part from the generator that enables infinite, organic, electricity. We couldn’t charge it without usual powers since the generator got so used to the 'organic electricity' that our electricity was just too inadequate. I tried recreating it and I’m just installing it.”

     “That’s a relief. Anyway, there was another ‘assassin’ upstairs who got away.”

     “Another one?”

     “Her name is Accel and she controls the weather,” Janella said.

     “Well, that makes sense. I’m sensing a theme here. ‘Barrage and Accel’. Barrage refers to the barrage of explosions and Accel might be short for accelerate. You know, like wind acceleration? If this goes like they always do, you should expect one more of these guys unless they’re a duo and they have a pet cat who talks or something but I digress, it’s fixed.”

     John flipped the switch and the basement lit up. They could hear the cheering upstairs.

     “We won’t be able to find out who these people are. In fact, I’m not even sure if Barrage and Accel are on the same team but it’s best if we rest for now and solve this problem when we have more info,” Austin said.

     “I’ll still check out the space distortions on the rooftop. I might find something interesting.”

 

Compared to the rest of the week, Friday was pretty uninteresting.

     They also started teasing Mo-on and Tasha. It was just some random shipping.

     The Bukidnon Reunion was rather uneventful. They all ate McDonalds Chicken Fillet which was the same thing they ate during the farewell party.

     Eventually, Austin sat near Janella, Queennie, and Justin. They were talking about Oreo again and Austin just couldn’t help but wonder who that was. Austin then noticed her Id was facing front.

     “Janella…”

     “Yup?”
     “I see your ID,” he said in a sing song way.

     “NO!” she yelled, quickly turning her ID.

     “Come on, it’s beautiful!”

     “You’re ju�"“

     “I’m not flattering you.”

     “This is so sweet, I wish we had popcorn, right Alyssa?” Nica said as they dropped in.

     “Hey guys,” Janella said.

     “SO did she introduce you to her boyfriend yet?” Nica asked.

     “No,” Austin said.

     “Haven’t you looked in a mirror lately?” Nica murmured.

     “Excuse me?” Austin and Janella said in unison.

     “Ahihihi. This is so sweet!” Nica said.

     “Mirror? Are you implying that I’m her… wait who? Oreo? What is this?“

     “For Pete’s sakes. Oreo’s just a cat. Get a hold of yourself. See, there he is right now,” Janella said.

     She pointed to a white cat with black ears and a black tail.

     “Oh,”

     RING!

     “It’s time. Bye guys,” Alyssa said as they walked away.

     Austin was still in shock over his illogical paranoia.

     “Austin, let’s go,” Janella said.

     Austin stood up and they walked towards the room when they heard a screech tease from the Bukidnon people behind them.

     “Hey, don’t mind them.”

     “I’m not.”

     ‘And I’m sorry I’ve been kind of a jerk lately.”

     “You aren’t.”

      “With the ID and stuff.”

     “It’s okay.”

     They arrived at the DDN classroom.

     “Well this is my stop. Bye.”

     “Bye…”

     Austin went back to the CV classroom.

     Sr. Geck gave out the MTAP (Math Teacher’s Association of the Philippines) bulletin to Maan and Austin. One could still compete in the competitions without attending the sessions anyway(which were four hours on Saturday morning) so Austin opted to just stick to in-campus training.

     Austin sort of managed to advertise Inception to Sr. Geck but he wasn’t sure if he’d watch. Mo-on helped advertise to Sr. Geck as well.

     Overall, he was able to advertise Inception thoroughly throughout the week and overall, this was a good week for him

     The only thing that bothered him was about Barrage and Accel. What could these two probably be up to?