Chapter 2: It Continues with Preparations

A/N: I don’t own Get Ed. This is the fast-as-I-can update. So no more of the unpleasant discreet lemon and we can start with the preparations of the Everlasting.

“Why do you have Dance Inside at this hour?” Ed asked as he and the rest of the parents walked down the swirled stairs to the basement. He raised his eyebrow and smirked at the male weapon maker.

“We like that song,” he answered.

“At night?” Lan chuckled.

“Y’know what I mean!”

“And why do you smell like—”

“We get it!” the Blazes exclaimed. But they had to admit to themselves, they had to bathe in perfume, cologne and everything that smelled pleasant to get rid of the mud smell they had in the afternoon.

They both had accidentally fallen in a mud and sand puddle while searching for an old arrowhead that Millicent had accidentally dropped while running away from Kayla and the grip she would have had on her tail. Frances and Brandon went down the cliff below Xinai Lighthouse and started to search for the arrowhead. The redhead fell into the dirty puddle and had pulled her husband’s ponytail, making him fall as well.

“Ed, Loogie, for that you’re getting the Armor Gauntlet last,” said Frances.

“You two can’t get a joke, can you?” the two joked once again.

“Not at this time.” Brandon stopped walking. They had arrived at the basement door. He placed his eye close to an eye scanner on the wall next to the door and typed a code on a pad next to the scanner. An invisible light scanned his orange eye and a light chime soon came right after.

The door opened and the lights clicked on.

“Heh, nice basement as always,” the twenty-five-year-old joked once again.

The metallic walls reflected the bright white lights. Shelves with boxes covered two of the walls. Boxes on one wall had pieces of metal, cables and mechanical parts.

The group walked towards a box with gray-tinted glass and two scanners. The Blazes placed a finger on each scanner. The top of the box opened and a little cold smoke came up.

“I wanna see it! I wanna see it!” the children’s shouts broke the tense atmosphere.

The adults looked back and saw their children behind them. Ruiz, Carmela and Lalaine were jumping to see what was inside the box. Benjamin held Kayla, who wanted to go with her parents.

Millicent ran into the room and stopped in the nearest computer socket. She lashed her tail on it. “I told you guys to stay put, meow.” She looked at her owners. “Sorry Frances, but they pulled a fast one on me, meow. Kayla pulled my tail and would not let go. I think she gets it from her father, meow.”

The adults looked at Brandon and laughed.

He sighed. “Millicent, take them up, please. Don’t let them do that. You have authorization to turn Ticat if they do that again.”

“I do not usually listen to you, but okay, meow. Come along, meow.” The cybercat took her tail out of the socket and started to leave.

The children started to leave, but one wanted to stay. Kayla cried on Benji’s arms. She tried to loosen his grip on her. She wanted to see her parents.

Brandon walked towards Benji. He picked up the baby and pulled his Chinese-style ponytail and gave it to her.

Kayla took it and tugged and nibbled on it. Silence had returned once again.

“Hey, you let her do that and you don’t let me do it?” Frances complained.

“She does it playfully and innocently, you do it annoyingly.” He gave Kayla back to the five-year-old boy. “You can heat up some milk for her. She’ll fall asleep right after.” He gave her a small kiss on her forehead.

“Sure, thanks,” said Benji with a sigh of relief.

“You’ve done us a huge favor, Burn,” Dr. Pinch said.

Benjamin left the basement with the rest of the kids and Millicent.

The male weapon maker closed the door behind Benji and then walked towards the gray-tinted box.

“Wow, that’s the kindest thing I’ve even seen you do,” Sarah said in surprise.

“The first and last kind thing you’ll ever see from me,” he warned.

“He’s just kidding,” Frances whispered to her friend and she looked at her husband. He was looking incredulously at her. “What? It’s true. You don’t mean it.”

He sighed in defeat, as he knew his wife’s words were true. ‘When will I be right?’ He turned to the box and picked up a metal orange gauntlet. It had a black fire—his old symbol—and a thin sword symbol on it. “This is my Armor Gauntlet. Call the armor by the name we all gave them and it’ll activate.”

“But please, do it outside. We don’t want the children appearing again,” his wife explained. She picked up another gauntlet, this time in a pink color. “Sarah, this “lovely” armor is for you.”

“Fizz, you’re a woman, not a tomboy. Get over it!”

“I can be a woman tomboy, y’know.” She grinned. She gave the black-haired woman her Armor Gauntlet.

Sarah noticed that her symbol was the same one she had ten years ago, but next to it was a sais symbol. Both were white in color.

“Oh look, Ed’s gauntlet,” Brandon said as he picked up a blue gauntlet. He soon returned it to the box. “Last!” He picked up a purple one. “This is for you, dear.”

The female weapon maker took it and looked happily at her craftsmanship. Her gauntlet had her old pi symbol and a staff-sword in a silver color. “Why, thank you,” she played along and she mentally laughed. She placed the Armor Gauntlet on her left arm and the symbols blinked in a purple light and soon the blinking stopped. “It should do that.”

Brandon picked up the last two gauntlets. One was green with the Joker’s symbol and a staff with nunchucks ends in a turquoise color. The other gauntlet was the blue one with the Guardian’s symbol and a sword in black. “Hope you two had patience.”

“With you, we had to have patience.” Ed grinned as he picked up his Armor Gauntlet.

“Very funny,” he said sarcastically as he gave the last gauntlet to the twenty-five-year-old man.

“This is so monkey, Fizz,” Lan said as he placed his Armor Gauntlet on his left arm. The symbols blinked in a green light for a few seconds.

The other three adults placed their gauntlets on their arms and pink, blue and orange lights blinked for a few seconds and on their respective gauntlets.

“So the weapons are included in the Armor Gauntlet?” asked Ed.

“Yes. Modified ancient weapons. If it gets rough, bring on the modern weapons, which include your Items, Ed,” the redheaded woman said. She started to walk out of the room.

“Hey, hey! Let go of me!” Brandon cried. The Hawklins and Lan looked at the dark-skinned man. His wife was pulling his ponytail and made him walk and struggle backwards. “Frances, stop it!”

“C’mon now! We gotta go to the fourth floor. We gotta check how much do we have left.”

“Not much, I suppose…” Sarah whispered. She nodded to the other two men and the group left out of the basement and waited for the elevator to arrive.

Frances squeezed her husband’s hand. He knew what the action meant. “Nothing’s gonna happen. For tomorrow, everything will be back to normal.”

“I’m more worried ‘bout the children… ‘bout Kayla.”

“Nothing’s gonna happen to her.” Brandon turned his head to the dark blue-haired man. “Isn’t that right, Ed?”

“No, not a thing,” Ed reassured.

The doors to the elevator opened and the adults entered. Dead silence entered with them the whole way up to the fourth and final floor, Xinai.

The metallic navy blue doors opened and revealed another closed door with eye scanner locks. The Blazes placed their eyes close to the scanner and an invisible light scanned their eyes. The door clicked open and went up to the ceiling.

“This place is forbidden to anyone except me, Burn and Kayla when she’s old enough,” Frances said as she exited the elevator. “This is the only time we’ll let you in. When you take a step outside this floor, you can’t speak ‘bout Xinai Weaponry’s inside.”

The rest of the group nodded as a silent agreement and entered the glass room. In the center of the giant circular room was the giant light bulb that once lit the lighthouse. Surrounding that were short metal walls, where they could put in tables and tools like lathes and cutters. In one of the glass walls was a giant monitor.

“Xinai’s not in hiding. Anybody can see through here,” protested Sarah.

“No. We can see everybody, but they can’t see us. The glass has been tampered with. We have eyes on this city and more.” Brandon smirked at the black-haired woman.

“What do you mean by “more”?” she asked as she glared at the eldest.

Frances started to type in the computer. The monitor’s black screen changed and showed a dark red desert of scraps and trash. “Trust us, we’ve got eyes all over this city.” She eyed the monitor for a moment. “Sector Nine is inactive, so there’s nothing there with or against us.”

Lan looked at the glass ceiling. The dark sky was full of flashing stars, balls of hot hydrogen from far away burning themselves to death. But the star he was looking at—the nearing red star—was death. “How much time do we have left?”

The Blazes looked at the monitor as Frances continued to type. The screen’s image changed and showed them the night sky, a few stars and in the middle, the red star. The star was better “admired” from the screen. They could see a black silhouette inside the star.

Brandon gasped. “He’s descending faster than we thought.”

“What?!” the Hawklins and Lan yelled in shock.

“Time left is fifteen minutes,” the redhead announced. “And landing in Sector Fourteen.”

“How are we gonna get there?” asked Ed.

“We have two good legs,” Brandon replied with a smirk.

“What?!”

“Relax, run with the armor and jump buildings. You’ll get there faster,” said Frances as she turned to the door.

“Hey, nobody will say words of encouragement?” Lan said as he gained the attention from the rest of the adults.

“Yeah, I have some,” Ed said. “Don’t get killed.”

The male weapon maker clapped sarcastically. “The best speech ever,” he joked.

The adults ran out of Xinai and waited for the elevator. A second later, the elevator doors opened and they entered.

After the elevator descended, the group ran out of the lighthouse and ran towards the gates.

A loud roar stopped them in their tracks. They looked back and saw a tiger running their way. The tiger had a cream diamond-shaped mark on her forehead and claws and the tip of her tail were metallic.

“Millicent, what’s wrong now?” Frances asked as she turned to the Ticat.

The grown cybercat roared to her. She showed her owner her metal-tipped tail. Part of the metal slid opened and hidden inside were ten golden objects.

“Oh, how could I forget?! Thanks, Millicent! What would I do without you?”

Millicent purred as her owner scratched her head. Frances picked up the small objects and then Millicent returned to the lighthouse.

“What are those?” Lan asked as Frances placed a pair in two piercings on each ear; she had three piercings in each ear, one when she was a girl and two recent ones.

“Remember last month when I asked you guys to get yourselves two piercings on each ear. Well, this is the reason why. These are Audio Capturers, AudioC for short. They can find audio waves so you can hear signals from far away. It also amplifies your hearing and are communicators,” explained the redheaded woman. She gave a pair to each of the adults.

“So this is why you made us do that. Dude, my ears hurt for a week!” Ed took a pair of AudioC and placed them in each two piercings in his ears.

Sarah examined her pair. The AudioC were golden earring clips. “Don’t be such a baby. They don’t hurt at all.”

“Easy for you to say. You already were pierced once.”

After placing their AudioC, the adults ran towards the gates. Trees that protected Xinai Lighthouse surrounded the road.

“Millicent, open!” shouted Brandon to the gates.

The gates obeyed. “They’re opened, meow. Good luck!” Millicent’s voice was heard from the speakers in the gates.

The adults ran out of the gates. “Armor Gauntlet!” they all shouted. Soon they shouted a different name at unison. “Activate!”

“Progress City, prepare for my full wrath!”

A/N: Ha! Finished this chapter! Now the action begins.

Spoiler for the next chapter:

My life’s been an emotional and mental roller coaster… literally. And now while fighting them, I realize that my life was destined to be like that… to support all pain. To grow strong each day. My life is like this, so I stand up in my two legs and say, “I’m still alive.” And I’m alive… because of my family, because of the Dojo, because I have to fight the Everlasting to save all of them.