Chapter 5: Cespion Village

It was seven in the morning when Jayce's dad woke up. He stretched his arms and got up. He did a few more stretches but stopped when he arched his back and his injury started to hurt again. He fell back onto his bed and massaged his wound. For the most part, it didn't hurt but sometimes it hurts a lot when he moved a certain way. He slowly got up from the bed again and went to the main room to set up shop for the day. He initially did not see the letter on the counter as he was doing some light cleaning first. When he turned around to get the broom behind him, he saw a piece of paper on the counter. He picked it up and read it. As he read it, his expression became worried. He dropped the paper and ran to Jayce's room. He pushed the door open and found the bed empty. He started to breathe heavily and began to panic. He grabbed the keys from the table and unlocked the storage room. He ran to the corner where the weapons were and saw it was missing along with a backpack. He stormed out of his house shouting his son's name. He tried to run to the town's entrance but he collapsed a few feet from it. His wound was aching badly. "Jayce" he cried out as he slowly closed his eyes.

Hiva was getting ready for her morning patrol. Her mom was having a coughing fit in her bedroom. Her condition has been getting worse since yesterday. She opened the door to her mom's room to check on her. She continued to cough. Hiva assumed that her cold came back. She grabbed the medicine from her cabinet and poured her some to drink. Her mom took a sip from it. "Okay mom, you rest now when I come back I'll make you some soup," she said. Her mom nodded as she blew her nose. She closed the door and made her way to the front door. As she opened the door, she looked down and saw a half of a paper. She picked it up and flipped it. She read it and began to cry. She ran to Jayce's house with tears rolling down her eyes. When she got there, she saw Dober helping Jayce's dad back to his house. Dober saw her and explained to her what had happened. "I'll take it from her, thanks Dober," she said. She helped him onto a chair in the main room and fetched him some water. "I don't know why he would do that," he said as he sipped the water. "He told me about a plan yesterday but he told me he wasn't going to do it but I guess he changed his mind," she said with a sad face. "What does he have to prove? His mother was proud of him even if he didn't take down bad guys like her, she still loved him. She trained him so he can at least protect himself and know about weapons so he wouldn't be defenseless but she didn't care if he continued her legacy or not because she still loved him" he said. Hiva was just standing there worried about whether or not she will ever see her only friend again. 

At this point, Jayce was really tired. His legs were aching, his arms were droopy, and his throat was dry. He wondered if he will die before he even got to Cespion Village. He wished he had a car but nobody in town had a car. He would have already been there if he had a car. He was tired of walking on gravel and dirt. He never knew his town was isolated. He continued walking tiredly until he saw a boulder to rest on. He sat on top of it and took a quick sip from his water canteen. The sword continued to glow even when he placed it down beside him to massage his legs. It's quite an unusual sword he thought to himself. However, he still couldn't figure out how to make it flame. He stared out into the distance in front of him. There was nothing except dirt, gravel, and a few boulders. To the right, the dirt road looked like it went on for miles. He sat there thinking about his crazy plan. He was unsure about it, he felt like he couldn't do it. He considered going back to his home until he caught a glimpse of a white bird perched on a boulder across from him. It looked like the same bird he saw in Blanto with Hiva. The bird looked at him and chirped. He stared at the beautiful small white bird in awe. It chirped again and flew towards the direction of Cespion Village. Jayce took it as a sign of hope and his mood improved. He got up and continued on his quest. After walking for a bit, he noticed the ground began to be more green and less gravel was visible. Up ahead, he could make out a sign that read; Welcome to Cespion Village! He saw lots of greenery near the entrance as he quickly walked towards the village. When he got there, he saw many nice-looking houses. He had seen Cespion Village before when he was younger but only when he was traveling with his parents via carpool to do business in the big cities. The village remained beautiful but there were lots of destroyed houses and he remembered there were more trees. He looked down and saw the dirt road became concrete which was expected.

"Now what?" he said to himself as he walked around the village. Was he actually going to wait for GhostStrike and for how long? He was already questioning his plan again. He walked towards a plaza where there was a rusty playground and a basketball court. The plaza itself looked rundown too. He theorized that the kids were too scared to play and the maintenance workers no longer cared about the plaza. Up ahead, there was a gazebo and a volleyball court. There was a statue of someone at the center of the park. He went over to check it out and saw the plague read; Our founder: Al Cespion. He was astonished when he saw that the face of the statue was burnt off. He wondered who did this. 

At the end of the plaza, he saw an abandoned building. He went to go investigate what was in it when suddenly there was an explosion and green smoke appeared in one of the streets. Jayce dove into one of the broken windows of the building's windows. He peered out and saw an old lady wearing a black robe and hat. It was a witch. "Rise and shine you, hooligans, it's time to pay up so wake up right now before I turn you into a more pathetic creature!" she yelled out. He was confused why GhostStrike still wasn't there. He looked around the room he was in and saw that it was an abandoned arcade. There were many arcade machines, table games, and a gift shop. He peered out of another window and saw the townsfolk were already coming out of their houses. Before the witch could reach the first house, another cloud of smoke appeared. It was GhostStrike. 

"Sorry darling, but the boss said this is my area now," said GhostStrike. "Excuse me?" the witch asked. GhostStrike shoved a note at her from Pyranical stating that he was now going to take over this village. She glared at him after she finished reading. "I'm going to talk to him about this you stealer!" she yelled. She then teleported away. "There he is," Jayce said to himself. Before he could react, he was pushed and held down by an unknown entity. 

"Let me go!" he yelled. He jabbed his elbow back at the attacker. The attacker let out a yelp and he was let go. He quickly got up and was ready to fight but stopped when he saw a girl that looked to about his age. She had short brown hair and gray eyes. Her skin was lighter than his and looked slightly shorter than him. "I'm sorry," she said rubbing her nose. "I thought you were the witch." She looked at his glowing sword. "You're Valencia's kid aren't you?" she asked. He nodded and told her his name. She noticed her face still had a surprised expression on it. "My name is Neon," she said. "What are you doing here?" she asked. She told her about GhostStrike and his plan. She looked outside and saw a ghostly figure with rags and a bowling ball for a head. 

"So that monster terrorized your town and now replaced the witch to terrorize my town?" she asked. He nodded. "And you're telling me you are going to defeat that monster by yourself?" "Hopefully." She glanced back at the window to where GhostStrike was. "Well, you are going to need help, can I join you on your quest?" she asked. "Sure, the more the merrier." He noticed that she had a belt on and it was holding various flasks with caps on them. One of them was labeled Hydrochloric acid and on the bottom of the label read, Dalton Labs. "Wait a minute, are you Dr. Dalton's daughter?" he asked. She nodded. "How did you know?" He pointed at the flasks. "Oh, duh" she laughed. He had known about Dr. Dalton when he heard about the explosion that happened in his lab which killed him, his son, and the assistants from the radio at Dober's house. "I am sorry for your loss but can I ask what exactly happened at the lab?" he asked. She sighed. "My dad became crazy after his fame decreased because of numerous scandals and lack of new scientific breakthroughs, he was desperate to make a comeback so he experimented with some new formula on my brother to increase intelligence and focus but something horrible went wrong which caused the explosion. Now, I'm on my own and homeless because Pyranical destroyed my house when he first invaded here" she told him. Jayce looked back at the window. "Nobody wanted to help you?" he asked. "When we moved here, my dad kept me and my brother isolated from the neighbors because they didn't want some crazy scientist who mistreats his workers living there so he kept us hidden to protect us" "I see," Jayce said as he looked down. Suddenly they heard the back door collapse.