I looked at Rogue. "Are you sure?"

"Come on, Amus! Look at him. There's no mistaking it."

Krone stood up. He moved towards us slowly. His posture resembled that of a puppet's.

His skin began to melt slowly off the muscles and bones, but still stayed on like batter on a whisk.

Rogue stared at him closely and carefully. "He's going to be strong... You don't have a weapon." She turned her ring into a staff. "All your father gave me was a hand-me down scepter. It doesn't turn into a naginata or anything."

"Does it still change colors?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure it does."

"Then we can just use it for determining if he's good or bad. We'll just use Sphal magic for the rest."

"Okay...but if you use too much Sphal power at once, you'll start tiring out. Be careful of that."

"Alright."

I lowered my hand near my bag as Krone stepped closer.

'Creeeaak' went the floorboards.

His back was hunched over as he inched closer to us, rocking his arms lazily about. He opened his mouth to only let out a low moan.

Then...he thrashed out at us.

He smacked the floor and roared as he jumped about the room from corner to corner, edge to edge.

As he reached for me, I swung at him with a two-handed sword. Bag. Spear. Bag. Hammer. Bag.

Rogue scolded me from across the room."Amus! Careful! You'll drain out all your energy like that!"

I whacked the Krone-gostik with my actual bag and yelled back at her. "Maybe someone can give me a little help here!"

When I turned to face her, she was running towards my direction with a wooden bat. She jumped into the air and brought it down on his head.

"Where the hell did you get that?!"

"This is my house, remember? I used to play some baseball with my dad and Lite."

The gostik made a whole bunch of crackling noises as it straightened itself up.

"What other sports do you play?"

"If you want a tennis racquet, there's one on the shelf."

She held off Krone while I got the racquet and came back. "Thanks."

"Anytime!"

I ran forwards to the Krone-gostik and brought my racquet over my head. When I was about to swing it down, his real face flickered on. That was when I stopped.

Why, Krone? For such a long time, he was a great friend to Sannel and me. Is there some other reason why he did this?

"Amus!" Rogue cried out.

Right when I regained sight of the task at hand, he struck his giant hand against my face and I was thrown off to the far wall.

Rogue almost came to me, but she had to hold off against Krone. Still, she shouted to me, "Amus! Amus, get up! Come on!"

My vision blurred and I rubbed my eyes with my bloody hand.

'Rogue...! Hold on! I'll...be...up.'

She smiled at me and knocked Krone over. He rolled backwards, but still landed upright.

Suddenly, I was punched in the gut. It wasn't Krone or Rogue. I coughed up little droplets of blood.

My sight was hazy as my eyelids opened and closed. I weakly struggled.

"Hey... stop moving! I'm getting you out of here! You can't fight in this condition! Especially without an Alchemist's weapon."

My eyes opened wide and darted around at the sound of the word 'alchemist'.  However, I don't exactly know why.

I finally caught sight of this person.

"L-Lite...?!" I muttered before he dragged me out of the house and I passed out completely.

_______________________________________________

"Are you sure he's alright? The left of his face is kind of bruised up..."

"O-oh! Hey! He's waking up!"

I sat bolt upwards, but crashed heads with Rogue and fell back over onto the white sheets.

"Ah! Ouch..." said Rogue as she held onto her head.

"A-ah... sorry!" I apologized, grabbing onto my forehead.

"It's alright," she said, smiling next to Lite.

Lite! That bastard!

I shot up once more to grab Lite by the collar. His face stayed expressionless as I yelled at him.

"What was that for?! Why the hell did you punch me?!" The pain in my abdomen came back. It was the same spot in which I landed on my bicycle when Rogue jumped on me in the alleyway.

Rogue broke me apart from him. "He was just trying to help! It was a rough way of doing so, but he tried."

"How did that help?!"

Lite himself answered, "It was to knock you out so you wouldn't feel any more pain."

"I was gonna help with..." I started, but then remembered Krone. "What happened with Krone?"

Rogue explained how the people of the guild came right on time to aid her in battle.

"So...you guys...killed him?"

"Amus..." her voice was suddenly gentle. "He was already dead. We just released his spirit from Earth."

I nodded in understanding. What about Sannel? What do I say?

Lite walked out of the room as my mother walked in. "Amus! Thank God you're okay!" she exclaimed.

"Mom... where's..." I stood up in realization. "I need to find Allois."

She replied warmly, "You're in no condition to do so. We've already sent..."

I didn't hear the rest of it. After she said 'You're in no condition', I had ripped off the tubes attached to my arm, grabbed my gloves from the table next to my hospital bed, and bolted out the door. Luckily for me, I was wearing my regular clothing instead of those patient clothes that revealed your butt.

I speed-walked down the sidewalk while putting on my gloves.

"Amus! What are you doing?!"

It was Rogue. She had followed me out of the hospital and jogged next to me.

"What do you think?" I replied.

"Well, I don't know! You don't know where he is! I certainly don't either, so what are you going to to do?"

"I'm going home," I said, "to Dad."

She stared at me for a second, but smiled widely. "I'm with you all the way!"

I nodded and made it to the parking lot. I'm so glad that Lite's a trusting idiot. He left his keys in his motorcycle.

I twisted in the keys and started 'Emboli'.

Rogue's smile broadened even more. "Yes!" she whispered. "We're taking Emboli!"

I tossed her a helmet, put on my own, and drove downtown. Once we got to the building, Rogue used her Sphal magic to change it into the training grounds. We ran upstairs and found my dad bending a piece of metal.

"Sorry, son. You're a bit too early." he said while using a hammer to bend the metal.

"No," I said, rolling up my sleeves. "I came to help. We need to hurry. Allois disappeared. I don't know if he ran away or someone took him or-"

He stopped my talking. "Okay, but you don't have to do any work. I completed your requests."

"A-already?!"

"Yeah. I just wanted to make it a surprise." He pulled out two boxes. He handed one to Rogue and placed the other carefully on my hands. "Happy Birthday, Amus."

I removed the lid and found a black wristband with light blue stripes. "Umm...thanks, but what about-"

"The wristband is the weapon. Put it on."

I obeyed. "Uhh...it...feels like rubber?"

"Focus, Amus. Focus on the bracelet."

"Okay..."

The bracelet wrapped around my hand and into my palm. A gun. Silver and black with light blue swirls on it.

"There should be a button near the bottom of the gun. It's small. Hit it with your pinkie. There."

A blade shot out from the butt of the gun.

"YES!!" Rogue yelled from the back of the room. She happily swung her naginata around and turned it from the weapon to the scepter to the ring over and over again. "Thank you!"

He smiled at Rogue and me. "No problem. Now go find Allois."

I nodded and pulled Rogue out of the building. "Can you drive? I need to get used to this."

"Sure! Where to?" She put on her ring and helmet.

"My house."

We drove down the road and I turned my bracelet into the gun. I focused my eyes on a pebble. Immediately, my vision changed. My eyes saw everything like a red targeting system.

A red circle focused on the pebble and I shot at it. The gun used some sort of solid magic force instead of bullets.

The pebble burst, and the gunshot was silent.

Rogue, I guess, saw it all play out. "That... was cool."

She curved at a corner and sped down the road.  Once we reached my house, I finally remembered that the roof collapsed. I know that Krone was interested in architecture and engineering, but I didn't think he'd do something like this using his knowledge of it.

Our landlady ran out of her house when she saw us. Crap. I don't have time for this!

Don't get me wrong. She's actually pretty nice, but when something like this happens...I don't know. Something like this has never happened before.

She's a short and stubby little lady that happened to have the strength of an elephant when she pulled me down by my ear.

"Mrs. Zappl-"

"It's 'Ms.'!" Her voice was loud and she seemed stressed.

"S-sorry, Ms. Zapplocogous." Geez, what a mouth full!

"How do you intend on cleaning this up?! Huh?"

"C-cleaning what up?" I replied, acting all innocent.

"This!" She waved her hands toward the house. It was all fixed up.

Hehe! I knew it! Rogue casted "Reconsructive Attributes" to fix the house.

I stared at the house with and over-exaggerated questioning face. "Hm. Gee, Ms. Z... Maybe you should rest for a bit. I don't think you're exactly seeing things straight."

Her eyebrows scrunched up as she nodded and entered her house. Yes! She forgot about her car!

I walked into the house with Rogue and searched and searched for clues or anything to help us find out where Allois might be. Finally, I encountered one of his walkie-talkies.

It crackled and he spoke. "They're not gonna find us here, Alex."

Alex? I remember Allois having a lion stuffed-animal, but he stopped playing with it once he stopped believing in monsters.

I picked up the walkie-talkie and spoke through it. "Allois? It's Amus. Where are you?"

"Amus?! I don't know where I am. I'm here with Alex. I'm...in some sort of crate...I think. It's moving up and down and I could tell that I'm on water, but I don't think Madagascar is anywhere near."

"I'm coming, Al. Stay calm, alright?"

"But Amus, the monsters are back. I'm serious this time!"

"Yes, I know. I know. I'm coming to get you, okay?"

"Okay. Keep in touch."

"Yeah. I will."

If we're still able to contact each other, then he's somewhere close.

I told Rogue what happened and we walked outside. There stood the people of the guild, my mom, and Lite.

I looked at Lite with a questioning look. "Why're you still here?"

"...no reason..."

"Ehhh...?" He makes no sense. I mean, he didn't even mention Emboli.

Mom came over. "Amus, do you know where's Allois?"

I regret what I said in reply. It was harsh and uncalled for. "Why do you care?"

With that, I boarded Emboli and drove down to the nearest river...without Rogue.

×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×=×

Not so great, I know, but hey, I'm leading to something...I think.

Well, he finally got his weapon and met the slightly kind and confusing side of Lite. And...what else...OH! AND KRONE! He's a goner...or is he? Dundundun!!

Well, tune in for next week's chapter, "Reunions"!

Vote, comment, follow, and continue~

        -!Ri$