02x07: Woodridge Place

Austin and Patrick look around Woodridge Place but more unexpected things happen in the process.

WOODRIDGE PLACE

 

     After the “Linggo ng Wika”, Austin noticed strange things happening around the school. First of all, the irreversible anti-rad matter was appearing in random places like the boys’ bathroom, the board games area, certain areas of the catwalk, and others. Roey had to look for another place to play Ninjas and Magic but lesser and lesser people were playing it.

     After Wednesday of the week after, Austin teleported to his suite as usual. He saw a letter on top of his desk.

 

     Austin,

 

     Meet me in my suite after you get home. If I’m not there yet, wait for me. And I’m sorry for the argument we had. I just wanna catch up.

 

Your friend,

 

 

Kyle

 

     Austin went out. He forgot what they had fought about anyway and teleported down to his suite. He knocked on the door and no one answered. Then he heard a ding near the elevator. Austin waited near the door but it turned out that it was Kyle.

      “Austin, umm, right, I invited you,” He said.

      “Alright, what is it?”

     “I just want to talk. Come on, let’s get in.”

     They went in the room and Kyle closed the door.

     “Sit over there!” Kyle said, pointing towards the chairs near the window. Austin forgot that Kyle’s room had the best view of the shore while his had a view of the school.

      “So, what’s happening?”

     “Umm… let’s see, I have a few new friends. Remember Joel from first grade, when you hated me?”

     “Yeah, why?”

     “He keeps me company. Umm. There’s a guy named Ernst, he’s weird.”

     “Just by the name I can conclude that.”

     “Umm. There’s a cool guy named John. He’s awesome. A guy named Rico, he’s hilarious. And oh! Ricardo, cool as well.”

     “How about the girls?”

     “Umm…, same-old, a few new students. I’m not exactly an a*****e anymore so they’re my friends though my old self shines a bit sometimes and I annoy them but not like last year “

     “Anything else?”

     “Well, I can talk to the guys we used to hate.”

     “Like who?”

     “I still can’t talk to Jelo but PJ is communicable to. The other guys too are actually kind of cool if you get to know them.”

     “You can talk to them?”

     “Well yeah but I still manage to balance my old life with the new. Lanz and I don’t talk as much. Lance is moving away. Cedric moved out.”

     “I hate Cedric.”

     “What? Why? You were the best of friends last year.”

     “He pissed me off before we all went home. We were just having a good time and I tried to talk to him but he was busy hanging out with his new friends, Dave, PJ, Jelo, and Ivan.”

     “Well, that’s not gonna happen to us. I promise.”

     “I trust you Austin. Let’s pretend that fight never happened.”

     “Anyway, how about your life?”

     “Well, my new school sucks. The people there hate me. They don’t even know the meaning of prejudice. PREJUDICE!”

     “Well, you’re being a bit prejudicial.”

     “Not only that but they are all douchebags. Much like Lanz.”

     “He’s fine but he hangs out a lot with Dave. I just feel my old friends are drifting away.”

     “I’ve got no one to talk to really. But I’m the smartest guy over there at Merry Treasure.”

     “You switched a few meters away?”

     “Well, technically yeah but just to be clear, the people are the ones I hate. I just miss my friends so much.”

     “Speaking of friends, how’s you and Berna?”

     “I haven’t talked to her for so long.”

     “Aww… Kyle misses his girl�"“

     “SHE’S NOT MY GIRLFRIEND”

     “Yet… Not yet.”

     “Ugh…”

     “What’s wrong with you and her hooking up anyway?”

    “Umm…”

     “See? Nothing?”

     “But the pressure!”

     “There’s no one to pressure you anymore. Just do as you wish.”

     “When did you become the girl expert?”

     “What? I’m such a noob at dating or anything like that.”

     “You have a girlfriend, don’t you?”

     “No”

     “Not yet.”

     “What happened to originality?”

     “Anyway, let’s talk again some time; I need to do my homework.”

     “Ok, see ya.”

     Austin went out of the room.

     Saturday finally came. Austin met with Patrick at the lobby and Mrs. Fernandez took them to Woodridge Place, somewhere in Tagaytay Highlands. It offered lofts and stuff like that.

     While they were touring around, Austin saw a quick flash of purple down a cliff but Patrick didn’t see anything. Austin took this opportunity to catch up with Patrick.

     “So… Pat, how’s school.”

     “Fine.”

     “Anything interesting?”

     “Don’t read my mind.”

     “The Band’s set on Space Manipulation from when the Anchors Away went flying remember?”

     “Right.”

     “Wow, I haven’t used my powers for a looong time.”

     “OK, OK, I HAVE SOMETHING TO TELL YOU!”

     “What did I say?”

     “I need someone to tell this to but I have a crush on somebody.”

     “Wow, does everyone I know start having a crush on someone?”

     “You have a crush?”

     “I’m not saying I do”

     “You’re not saying you don’t”

     ‘Yes I do!”

     “We really are bonding aren’t we?”

     “You read my mind,”

     “And I, you probably read mine.”

     “Wait. Cover me from that guy,” Austin said, pointing at the tour guide.

     Patrick started disguising Austin as his mom and the tour guide were talking as they were walking around the place.

     Austin teleported to the base where he ran towards the shelf where he put the mutant bond, a biological object that evolved from a rock that shows all mutants existing on the planet. In the center is a giant white orb which is the mutant core. If it was destroyed, every mutant would turn to dust. Every mutant is represented by a smaller sphere. Red spheres meant mutants with “clean” consciences while black spheres meant they were “dirty“. There were still a few black spheres but PJ’s sphere had turned red and so have some others. Austin noticed that the black spheres where the people he still disliked. Since he was the last mutant to touch it, maybe it was from his point of view.

     Now two mutant spheres might have a link connecting them together. All the spheres have a link between them and the core. But if two smaller spheres had a link, they would be mutant links. Red to red means they help each other, much like mutualism. Red to black is a lot like parasitism. Black to black was much like mutualism too.

     Austin noticed a bond between him and Kyle, which was also there last year but noticed one between him and Patrick as well. He also noticed a small link sticking out of his sphere which wasn’t connected to anyone yet.  He teleported back to Woodridge.

     They were about to go in a van. Austin caught up.

     “What did you tell them?” Austin asked Patrick.

     “That you were using the bathroom why.”

     “I was gone for 10 minutes.”

     “What did you do?”

     “I was observing the mutant bond and I found out some information.”

     “FYI, you were gone for 5 minutes.”

    “That’s not important.”

     “Ok, fine.”

     “I found we had a link. This means we can read each other’s minds and send messages without anyone, even the Mastermind, intercepting our communication.”

     “Cool.”

     “Anyway, who’s your crush?”

    “You don’t know her.”

     “Oh well.”

     They were about to go on the cable cars. There were three cable cars but they all went into one car.

     The ride was cool. The sights were beautiful and Austin was happy to finally see something that was not the island.

     After a few seconds, Austin was feeling another twitch. The same feeling on the Anchors Away before it took flight was hitting him again. He tried to resist but he failed. Once again it involved a spike.

     A spike was launched from within a forest. It whizzed past through the trees and found the cable cars. There was a red beeping device on the spike’s side. It was heading straight for the cable cars. It blew up and…

     He was back in the cable cars.

     “Mom, we have to get off.”

     “Why?” she said.

     “We’re about to be attacked.”

     “Come on, you’re just being paranoid.”

     “Look, I saw it. A spike should be heading our way right now.”

     “Are you sure?”

     Suddenly, he was at the base.

     He was drinking some kind of beverage and he set his glass down on the table. He sat back to relax when suddenly a man who can expel spikes from his skin appeared out of nowhere. He attacked him and they struggled. He was somehow trying to reach the black band.

     He was back in the cable car. He was screaming.

     “Austin, you’re scaring me!” Mrs. Fernandez said.

     “We’re gonna die.”

     He heard Patrick send him a message, “just get us out of here, I feel what you feel.”

     Then suddenly he saw a spike behind his mom and it hit the cables above. It made a small explosion and sent the cable cars spiraling from the ground.

     Austin held his mom and Patrick and tried to teleport them out of there but he saw something horrific on the floor of the cable car, another one of those irreversible anti-rad matter. They were trapped in the cable car and as they were falling, Austin saw a man run through the forest. Austin desperately started hitting the glass windows. He started to crack it and soon, there was a big hole in the window. There was still about 20 feet so he told the two people with him to get ready to jump. Austin jumped out but noticed the hole was too small. But he got his hands out of the car and his body was blocking the effects of the anti-rad matter. He felt his body weakening like a living metal slowly creeping from his feet to his hands. He quickly aimed inside the car and teleported them safely to the ground.

     They were in the entrance of the forest. The cable cars were just a few feet above them. They hit the ground with a loud explosion.

     “Stay here, call for help. I have a man to chase.”

     Before his mom could say anything about it, Austin was running at super speed through the forest. He was looking for the man but couldn’t use psychic and super speed at the same time. He tried tracking the man but he sensed that he was moving too fast. He located Patrick using his link and teleported there.

     “Did you find anything?” he asked.

     “Nope. Someone was trying to kill me and I won’t rest till I find out who he is.”

     They went back to the island and saw Kyle in the lobby.

     “Austin, are you okay?”

     “Yeah, I’m okay Kyle.”

     “Guess what?”

     “I see you’re happy about something. Okay, what?”

     “Berna arrived this noon!”