Chapter 83

83 The Plan

Finally, my eyes clicked open the next day, and the first thing I saw was the TV.

I then turned and saw that Nikki and September were both still asleep, but Malachi wasn’t in his bed.

I looked around and rubbed my eyes, as I then got up. I walked to the door and opened it, to see Malachi sitting on one of the chairs in the hallway. He seemed the same way I was, tired and disengaged.

“Hey,” I said, as I walked over and sat in the chair next to him. “You couldn’t sleep either?” He shook his head. “Just woke up early, that’s all.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said. “I just feel really on edge.”

“I know what you mean,” he said. “You must be mad Rocke has your power again.”

I sighed. “I guess,” I said. “But it’s not like I can do anything about it.”

“Well yes and no,” he said. “In terms of changing his power, no. But in matters of defeating or killing him to be dark, yes you can.”

“That’s easier said than done,” I muttered.

.....

“I know,” he said. “But that’s the options you got. And trust me, I would kill him in a heartbeat if I had the chance.”

“I know,” I said. “I’m pretty sure he’s searching for the Cybertron right now, so we need to stop him before he gets there.”

“Yeah, that’s true,” he said. “But we can’t do much but fight him when he comes.”

“Yeah,” I said, as I then stood up. My bones began to cry out, as I then walked back into the room.

I needed to rest, but my mind was still racing. I had a feeling that Rocke was searching for me. He would’ve heard for sure that I had the Cybertron.

And if he finds me, then I don’t know what will happen.

All of a sudden Malachi called me, and I then turned to the door. He then opened it and walked in, as he then sat on the bed.

“I wanted to talk to you about something that I’ve been wondering for a while,” he said. “When I heard Mr. Drails was your uncle, it still didn’t make sense how you have a Perk.” I gulped, as I then sat down next to him.

Oh no, what does he know?

Malachi then looked at me with a stern look, as if he was trying to figure out something. My eyes began to bulge out, as I then tried to think of something. But my mind was drawing a blank.

“Well?” he asked.

“It’s complicated,” I said.

“How so?” he asked.

I then sighed, clearing my throat as I then began to speak. “Okay, so you know how my uncle is Mr. Drails?” He nodded. “Well, my father used to be the CEO of the YMPA but then retired to have me, and my uncle came in,” I lied.

“Okay,” he said, as he then crossed his arms.

“Well, when my father retired, the YMPA was um... in a lot of debt,” I said. “And my uncle was the one who saved it.”

“How?” he asked. I shrugged.

“I don’t know, he just did,” I said. “But because of that, my father gave him the majority share.”

“Okay,” he said. “But what does that have to do with you having a Perk?”

“Well Perk-holders usually are CEOs of a mage field, and if my father used to be one. That means I got it from him, duh,” I said, trying to sound as convincing as possible.

Malachi then looked at me with a raised eyebrow, as if he didn’t believe me. Then all of a sudden, September spoke.

“Hey, y’all already waking us up, or what?” she said, as she then yawned and stretched her arms. “I was having the best dream.”

“We just woke up, and yeah,” I explained. September nodded.

***

“Okay, we just need to find who made the Cybertron, a country perhaps,” September said. We all took our showers and freshened up, and we were just discussing at the table. “That’s not gonna be easy. We don’t know where it came from,” Tisiah said.

“There’s gotta be a way,” I said.

“If we could just find out who made the Cybertron, we can return it to them, therefore making it hard for the TSA to do anything to us,” September said.

“I like that idea,” Nikki said. “But how do we find out who made the Cybertron?”

“The website that we went on!” I shouted in excitement.

Everyone looked at me as if I was crazy, but I quickly explained my idea.

“If we go back to the website that we found it at, we can maybe see who wrote it or who constructed it. It’ll give us a lead at least,” I said.

Everyone thought about it for a second and then agreed that it was worth a shot. September nodded in agreement and said, “That’s not a bad idea. Let’s see on the phone.”

September typed in the website on her phone and we all crowded around her to see it. After a few seconds of scrolling, she found a name. “Dmitri Petrov,” she said. “That’s the name of the person who made this website.”

“That sounds like something from...Russia,” I muttered. “The diamond, the whole encountering at Russia. Of course, it would be in Russia!”

“That’s really not a bad idea,” September said. “We can fly out to Russia and try to find this Dmitri Petrov guy.”

“But what if he doesn’t want to help us?” Nikki said.

“We can find something,” Malachi said. “We’ll offer to buy the Cybertron from him or something.”

“That’s not a bad idea,” I said. “Hopefully Nikki can construct ten full bags of money for us.”

Nikki nodded her head in agreement and said, “I think I can do that.”

“Well, it looks like we have a plan. Get to Russia, and find the guy, and we’ll go from there,” September said.

“But let’s calm down first, just to get the heat off of us from the TSA,” I said. “Since we can’t reach Mr. Drails so maybe we can have a little fun here in the city.”

“Yeah, trying to meet some ladies you know,” he said, which no one was impressed by.

“Oh, please, let’s not go there,” Nikki said, shooting him a look. “I think we should explore Florida and its places before some whole nonsense comes again.”

“I guess I like that idea,” Tisiah said.

“Yeah, we should go to the beach and have some fun!” Malachi shouted. “Might see some-”

“Beat it,” September said, cutting him off. “We’ll go to the beach and have some fun, but no ogling women like you usually do.”

“Usually?” I muttered.

“Aw, come on, it’ll be fun,” Malachi said. “And who knows? We might even meet some ladies-”

“Beat it,” September said again, this time a little more forcefully. “We are not going to meet any ladies, and you are not going to ogle anything.”

“Okay, so should we rent a car or continue risking losing our car to the limits of Nikki’s powers,” Malachi asked, getting a cross-look from Nikki.

“We can risk it,” I said. “I think Nikki’s power is getting stronger.”

“I agree as well,” Tisiah said.

“All right, we’ll risk it,” September said. “But if anything happens, we’re getting a new car. Renting perhaps.”

“Makes sense,” I said.

“All right, so we’re all agreed,” September said. “We’ll go to the beach, then maybe eat afterward.” We all nodded in agreement, as I didn’t think anyone was going to argue with that.

Everyone dispersed in their directions, getting changed into their swimsuits and getting their things. I met up with Nikki, as we were going to the same place.

“So how was your sleep?” I asked as we walked together.

“It was good,” she said. “I had a dream.”n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“About what?” I asked, curiously. Nikki chuckled as if she knew something I didn’t.

“You’ll see,” she said, mysteriously. “All in good time.”

I nodded slowly, trying to understand what she meant, but I couldn’t. Nikki just smiled at me and said, “You’ll see.”

Preview:

Soon enough, we left outside the hotel as the crisp air sifted through our clothes. The sun was shining as we walked in the direction of the beach, which wasn’t too far away. It was about a few blocks or so, and as we walked, I began to see more and more people in swimsuits.

“So what kind of dream did you have,” I asked, trying to make conversation.

“It’s hard to explain,” Nikki said. “But it was about you.”

“Okay, that’s all I need to know,” I responded, not wanting to hear anymore. If Nikki was going to have dreams about me, I didn’t want to know. It would only make things weird between us. Soon enough, we were looking at the blue ocean and the sound of the waves crashing on the shore.

“It’s so beautiful,” Nikki said, as we both stopped to look at it.

Malachi looked around for a few seconds and then said, “There’s a hot dog stand over there. I’m starving.”

“You’re always hungry,” Tisiah said. Malachi rolled his eyes. “We’ve been running non-stop and I’m not justified in hunger?”

“Just saying,” Tisiah said, shrugging his shoulders.

“Whatever,” Malachi said, walking in the direction of the hot dog stand. “You guys coming or not?” “Aren’t we already going to a restaurant?” September asked, following Malachi.

“I can eat two meals,” Malachi said, nonchalantly.

.....

Tisiah sighed and followed as well, leaving Nikki and me alone.

“Guess it’s just us,” Nikki said, looking at me. “Ready to go in?”

“Nope!” I shouted. I’m afraid of the ocean, so I was going to stay on the sand. Nikki looked at me, bemused.

“You’re afraid of the ocean? After everything and you’re still afraid of the ocean?” she said, chuckling.

“What can I say? I’m a landlubber,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. Nikki shook her head jokingly and walked away. I sighed, as I didn’t want to go in the water, but it looked like Nikki was going to have fun without me.