Chapter III: Evens Up.
    Hotaru sat on the steps of the school; the bell had already rung and the classes dismissed. For everyone but her, it seemed. She was lonely and cold; she had left her coat at home. Now she was going to go spend the weekend in a strange hotel, and answer questions in front of thousands of people. She didn’t even know who was on her team. She hoped that the smart people would be with her so she wouldn’t have to talk.
    “Hotaru!” A familiar voice called out. It took the girl a second to realize it was Greg. He came running up. “Are you ok? You must be freezing!”
    “It is a little chilly.” She said, as she folded her arms around herself. She was visibly shivering. Greg sat next to her, and removed his coat.
    “Here little one.” He said, as he draped the coat over her shoulders. “Wouldn’t want you to freeze waiting for Professor Tomoe.”
    “He’s not picking me up. I’m going on a trip.”
    “Oh? Where to Hotaru?”
    “A place very far away. I don’t want to go. But papa asked me to, so I said I would.”  Hotaru said, as she tightened the coat around her. It was soft, and she felt warm and safe inside it. She was more than figuratively warming up to it, it was actual warmth.  It was almost as if someone had put the coat on a radiator to heat it.
    “Oh?  Where is that exactly Tomoe Hotaru?” Greg asked, the girl looked at him strangely, and continued. His eyes convinced her he wasn’t going to tease her. Besides, there was no one else to talk to.
    “To a game show. They call it, I.Q. Testers. It sounds lame.” Hotaru said. She finally felt like some of the weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
    “It probably isn’t! Come on, you get to stand up in front of the entire country and say: ‘I am smart! And proud of it!’ Don’t tell me you think it’s a bad thing? Because, I’m going too, and I don’t want you to spoil all my fun.”
    Hotaru studied his face, but he was only kidding. She decided the best thing to do was just tell it like it was. “I don’t want people to know how smart I am. I want people to leave me alone, I don’t want people looking at me strangely and whispering about me.”
    “People won’t do that, Tomoe Hotaru.” Greg said with a smile. “They’ll all say:  ‘there goes Hotaru! She’s the smartest person I know’.”
    “I don’t want people to say that. I don’t want anyone to say anything! Why can’t you understand Greg? I just want to be left alone.” With that, she huddled deeply inside the coat, and refused to come out.
    “I hear we get to ride a boat there.” Greg said, and Hotaru turned green. He hoped the trip wouldn’t get too complicated.
* * *

    “Casey! Have you located the piece yet?” Gina asked.
    “Yes, the only way to get there though is by boat.”  The smaller girl said.
    “All right, we’ll just get there soon.”  Rose mumbled as she appeared next to them.
    “So the mighty Rose has fallen?” Gina questioned.
    “Yes, Queen Sillan wants this piece, no matter what the cost.”
    “Last I heard, you were expendable.”  Gina responded.
    “Shut up.”  Why did Rose’s life have to be so... complicated?

  * * *

    Jedite grinned, as he picked up the small glass piece.  Having barely survived Fort Skyler’s explosion, and barely reaching the safety of the escape pod, he had been recuperating.  Now he had got the first of his clock back.  The former Dark Kingdom general also knew other people would come looking for it, and that’s where his decoy piece fit in.
    Leaving it here, it would hopefully gather him enough time to find the other pieces.  As he dropped the extra piece, a janitor walked in.
    “Hey, you can’t be in here!” He said.
    Jedite turned around, and laughed. Gray tendrils of energy shot from the janitor as he collapsed to the ground, nearly completely drained. “You shouldn’t have been here.” He said, as he walked out the door. Life certainly was getting, well complicated for Jedite.

* * *

    “Why won’t you talk to Greg?”  Lita asked Amy, as they prepared to get on the boat.
    “Because, I don’t want him to know I’m here.”
    “It’ll be pretty obvious when you walk on stage with him.”  Lita said, as she walked onto the gangplank.  Amy sighed, as she walked alongside Lita.
    “Yes, but you must understand Lita, it’s different between us now.  He thinks I am in love with him, even though it was only Rochelle that was acting like me.”
    “Ever heard about a river called denial?” Lita asked.
    “Haven’t we had this conversation before?”  Amy said, as she retreated into the safety of her scarf.  The late October breeze was beginning to chill her.  How could Lita not be cold?  Amy was only wearing her coat (the one with an ‘A’ on it) and a scarf over her school uniform and that could be why.  Lita on the other hand was more bundled up than an Eskimo.  She had on several scarves, and a coat that was puffier than the sheep the wool was spun from.  Not to mention, Lita was probably able to bear lower temperatures than Amy was.  This, must be why she isn’t cold, Amy concluded.
    The next problem she had was her feelings for Greg.  How could she say to him, ‘I don’t love you, we’re only friends’?  He would be heart broken.   And, even though Amy didn’t love him, she didn’t want to see him hurt.  Then again, she also did have feelings for him, deeper then friendship.
    Oh, why was life so complicated for her.
 

    Hotaru skipped merrily up and down the deck of the ship.  She knew how sick she would get when it started, so she might as well use all of her energy now.  There were also so many interesting people!  She had yet to see Ms. Haruna, who would be their official chaperone for this trip.  Maybe something had happened?
    The girl touched the barrette on her head.  Her father had given it to her before she had left for school the day.  He said to her, ‘My little girl, even though you may never see Florence, you can always feel like you did’.  It was his way of telling her, he knew she didn’t like what she was doing, but he was proud of her.
    It was then, that she felt an odd feeling run through her.  It was the feeling she got when she thought someone was watching her.  She carefully walked towards where Greg was.  He was looking over the side of the boat, trying to find Amy.  Before she reached him, a tall man with sandy brown hair intercepted her.  The man was tall, almost as tall as she remembered Darien being.  And his hair and eyes though they were nice looking were hiding some dark secret.
     “Excuse me, did you drop this?”  He asked, handing her the transformation pen.
    She nodded, and took it quickly. “Thank you.”
     “Don’t worry about me little girl.  I’m Christian, and I’m going to be the artist for the competition at I.Q. Testers.”
     “All right, thank you again.”  Hotaru said, as she ducked aside.  As soon as she was hidden, she looked at the man.  That man was scary. Too scary and something about him made her very suspicious.  Then her eyes began to glow an iridescent purple color.  The sign of Saturn appeared on her head.  In a minute it was gone, she had just had an involuntary reaction to that man!  But what did that light mean?  Maybe she was scared more then she thought, it had to be a dream.  Greg would know what to do, if not him, then Amy!
     When she looked back, Greg had disappeared.
     “Ahhh!”  Greg muttered to himself, as he collapsed in one of the many chairs.  A massive ball of energy was forming around him; lucky for him it was invisible.  He could see the images, of that man that attacked him on the hill, and of that girl… Rose.
    The next image was of Hotaru, she was crying.  Was she in pain, depressed? Greg couldn’t tell, more intense images appeared in his mind.  Then, Professor Tomoe, Laura (Amy’s mum) were together, he couldn’t tell what was going on.  It was all a blur.  Not one of the words made sense.  An empty parking lot, and then a black mass of energy.  He screamed again, people were starting to stare.  No one could tell what was really going on his head.
    He felt a soothing hand on his temple, the pain didn’t subside, but he could feel that it was somewhat more tolerable.  Finally, through his own screams he heard a voice.  It was Amy, her exact words couldn’t be discerned, but just hearing her voice was comfort enough.  The next vision was clearer than any vision he had had before.  He watched as Amy was viciously attacked by some sort of monster.
     In a minute he knew it wasn’t a monster, but three women.  He couldn’t get his mind together.  He screamed one final shout of defiance, and then he lost conscious feeling.

    “Dr. Mizuno?”  Professor Tomoe asked, as he saw the woman watching the boat silently drift away.
    “Yes?  Who would you be?”
    “I am Professor Tomoe, haven’t you heard of me before?”  He asked.
    The woman thought for a moment and smiled. “Yes, Amy has told me so much about you.  Why are you here at the docks though?  It must be dreadfully cold.  And, how do you know me.”
    “I am just here to see my daughter off.  I’m sorry I couldn’t see her though.  She’s going to be on television. And, you are pretty well known in my field of research.  So, how is Amy doing?  I hear very little from my Hotaru.”
    “Is she really on that game show?  If it’s on that game show, my little darling is to.  They grow up so fast.”
    “Yes, they certainly do.”  Tomoe said.
    “Well, I truly cannot wait to see the show.”
    “Really, maybe you should come by my house tomorrow to see it?”  Tomoe asked.  Dr. Mizuno thought for a minute, and nodded.
     As Dr. Mizuno left, Professor Tomoe thought to himself, did I just make a date with her?
 
    Greg slowly came to, and noticed Ms. Haruna looking down on him.  He groaned audibly.  “What happened?”
    “You had some sort of epileptic shock, at least that’s what the ship’s medic says.”  The teacher responded, standing tall.  Her long red hair had been tied back into braids, and she wore jeans and a plain red T-shirt.  “As for you young man, get some rest.  You don’t want to miss that competition do you.”
    “To be honest Ms. H. I’m fine.  Maybe it was something I ate?”
    “Stay in bed Mr. Ryo.  That’s not a request.  Should I leave the door locked?”  She asked, he shook his head and the teacher left.
    Minutes rolled by, then an hour.  Greg finally couldn’t stand it.  “Hello… world?  Is anyone out there!”  Greg shouted out.  A man, one with sandy brown hair and dark unblinking eyes opened the door.
    “Is everything alright young man?”
    “Yes…” Greg could get a strong feeling from this man, but before he could say more he heard someone shouting.
    “You there!  Leave him alone!”  The man turned, and stepped outside.

    Lita stared into the man’s eyes.  She wasn’t flustered a bit, like she usually was.  This man was different she could sense something moving within his eyes.  Finally she struck out, and saw him fall to the ground.  The man doubled over in pain, blood running from his nose.  Though he didn’t scream, the man did run.
    Lita stepped into the room, and saw Greg hiding something under his bed.  “Greg, who was that?”
    “I… I don’t, have a clue.”   Greg muttered.  Lita came and sat next to him.
    “Do you want me to stay here and protect you?”
    “No!”  Greg said almost immediately.  “I can protect myself.”
    “Just cause I’m a girl?”
    “Not that, just that because… I can do this on my own.”
    “Yeah, hey Greg!  I’ve got the idea!  I’ll send Amy by and you two can be left alone… for some private time…” Lita said with a sly grin.  The way Greg looked away made her almost sick.
    “Greg, what’s wrong?  What did she say?  Whatever it was, she didn’t mean it!  You know how Amy gets around stressful times!”
    “It’s not that.  Just, watch over Hotaru, ok?”
    “Sure.  Why?”
    “I really, don’t know.”  Greg said as he put his temple into his hand.  “I just, sense something special about her.”
 
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