Prodigies: Virtual Defenders

by Javelin Lightspear

Chapter 9a: Apple Assistance, Mysterious Meeting

Time flied, and the weekend was here. With the help from Magistrike, Saberblade was teleported near Applejack’s house. He took a piece of paper from his baggy pants, on which Applejack had written her address. Despite the fact that every house looked almost the same, it didn’t take too long to find Applejack’s red house.

“There ya are,” Applejack walked out and down the steps. “Thought ya never show up.”

“Well, I’m here, right?” asked Saberblade, spreading his arms.

“Well… come with me,” said Applejack, heading to the back with Saberblade following behind. They walked for some time along the dirt path under the morning sun. When they reached a huge orchard filled with apple trees, Saberblade was already sweating when he reached there. There was also another guy in the orchard.

“Big Mac! Our assistance’s here!” Applejack called, waving. “Saberblade, that’s my elder brother Big Macintosh. Big Mac, this here fellow’s my classmate, Saberblade. Why don’t you show him what to do here?”

“Eeyup!” Big Macintosh walked towards one of the apple trees, and gave it a hard kick. A few ripe apples fell from the tree.

“I assume ya know what to do?” asked Applejack.

“Too easy.” Saberblade folded his arms.

“Just hope ya won’t get too exhausted!” Applejack chuckled.

“I won’t.”

Using his fantasy powers, Saberblade used his strength to jump a meter high and spin-kicked a nearby tree. Around ten of apples fell.

“What in tarnations?” Applejack gasped. “How’d you do that?”

“Do what?” Saberblade turned around and asked.

“How’d you jump like that?”

“Uh… I used to be a school representative for the high jump competition… and… I’m… uh… used to be a karate expert too...” lied Saberblade, scratching his head when realized that he overused his powers.

Applejack nodded. “Well, just take it easy there, Saberblade. The last thing our family needs is our orchard filled with fallen apple trees.”

“Haha… okay!”

Without a second to waste, they began collecting the ripe apples from the trees and putting them in baskets around the orchard. Around an hour past noon, Applejack decided it was time to rest. She threw an apple to Saberblade.

“Take a break, sugarcube. You’ve earn it.”

“Thanks, but I prefer to do this!” Saberblade put the apple in the basket beside him and jumped high. He plucked an apple from the lowest branch of the tree he was standing under and took a bite of the apple.

“Well, after this, we’ll need to deliver these to the stores ‘round town.”

“Got it.”

Saberblade took another bite from the apple looked up to the sky.

I hope we’ll get back soon enough… Saberblade thought. Suddenly, his visions slowly turned black.

“Uh… hello?” he asked. “If this was a joke it wasn’t meant to funny right now! Whoever’s doing this piece of junk illusion, show yourself!”

He looked around in what he thought was a black endless room, until a person shrouded in black slowly became visible in front of him.

“What the?” Saberblade almost choked.

“Don’t be alarmed…” said the shrouded person. “I am not here to fight you...”

“Oh… kay… then… why the illusions?” asked Saberblade.

“I am here to tell you your purpose here,” said the guy, which Saberblade assumed that he was by his voice. “I am Necromancer, which so called ‘gamers’ like you and your two other friends like to refer me as the ‘final boss’.”

Saberblade became surprised, his jaw dropped and lost grip of the apple, letting it fell. He summoned his weapon.

“Final boss?” he recalled. “What are you doing here so early at this part of ‘this game’?”

“Calm yourself,” said Necromancer. “I told you, I am not here to fight you.”

“Yeah, you said that to calm me so that you can get the first hit! That’s what all villains are about, right? All tricks and mind games!”

“If you insist on fighting, I’ll let you give the first hit.”

“With pleasure!” Saberblade ran towards Necromancer, dragging his blade over the ground which made sparks and a loud noise, due to the friction with the ground. He jumped high halfway his charge, attempting to cleave Necromancer from the sky. However, his blade just went through him and hit the floor.

“WHAT?!” he exclaimed.

“For the last time, I am not here to fight you.” said Necromancer. “Now, I assume you believe me now?”

“Let me guess, you’re an illusion too… Well, fine then...” Saberblade retracted his blade and put it on his back. He jumped about two metres away from Necromancer and dismiss his weapon. “You still haven’t answered me, what are you doing here appearing so early at this point? Don’t final bosses came out at the last minute?”

“Well, I thought you wanted to go home as early as possible?” said Necromancer. Saberblade became speechless. “Well, I’m here to tell you how to go home. However, there’s a catch.”

“Okay… what is this ‘catch’?” asked Saberblade.

“You see, you, your friends and I were a link to a legendary tale based on ancient times of this world.”

“Okay, I’m confused… I get that every place whether it’s a fantasy or not has it own legend,” said Saberblade. “Don’t know about you, but how can someone from a reality world, like my friends and I, be part of a tale in a fantasy world?”

“Your friends will have the other pieces of the puzzle.” said Necromancer. “My other illusions are giving your friends their pieces as we speak. As for your piece of the puzzle: For every thirty moons, a door opens for days of three, an alternate dimension awaits, new elements given to bear.”

“Oh… kay… what does that mean?” asked Saberblade.

“That’s for you to figure out yourselves,” Necromancer turned around. “But one thing is for sure, even if you decided not to come here in the first place, the legends of this world will not change and you will eventually be here sooner or later…”

That was the final words before Necromancer disappears. Soon, everything went back to normal, Saberblade was standing below the tree that he was before.

“Saberblade!” He felt that someone was shaking his shoulder, calling his name. “Saberblade! Wake up!”

Saberblade came to his senses. He looked around and saw Applejack right in front of him.

“Huh? What happened?” he asked. He started to feel dizzy, assuming that it was from the illusion earlier. He put a hand on his head and shook slightly.

“What happened? You were talking to a piece of nothing like a hooligan, that’s what happened!” said Applejack.

Damn! Does that mean she saw my powers? Because I just summoned my blade to cleave that illusion of Necromancer.

“So… you saw me cleave ‘nothing’ with my blade?” asked Saberblade.

“A real one? Not really,” said Applejack. “An imaginary one? Yeah, I saw you jumping into the air cleaving that piece of nothing with your blade made of air!”

“Erm...” Saberblade scratched his head. He was relieved that his powers were not exposed.

“The sun must have got to you, sugarcube. My brother and I were shocked of what you’re doing and thought you have gone nuts.”

“Well… I’m not used to work under the sun...” he lied. Suddenly, Applejack noticed his cheeks turning red.

“What’s wrong, sugarcube?” she asked. “Your face looks as ripe for the picking.”

“Uh...” Saberblade looked at his shoulders. Applejack then realized that she was still putting her hands on his shoulders. She pulled back her arms quickly and apologized. They laughed.

“Well, time to deliver these apples ‘round town.” said Applejack. “After that, you may enjoy dinner with ma family, if you like.”

“Sure, I guess,” Saberblade accepted Applejack’s offer, because all he had back in the house on the valley were just plain bread, butter and lettuce enough to make a decent sandwich with some instant noodles.

They began loading a truck with crates filled with apples. After that, they rolled out with Big Macintosh on the wheel. Delivery was not as tiring as picking apples for Saberblade. All he had to do was to sit in the truck, waiting to arrive at a destination and just move some crates into the stores. Then, he sat back in the truck to replenish his energy and repeat the whole process.

Around six o’ clock in the evening, Saberblade had dinner with the Apple family back in their house. He was not disappointed, although every single dish on the table had included an apple in it.

“That’s a pretty fine young man you brought over, Applejack.” said an elderly lady, who Saberblade recognized her as the cafeteria lady at school. “You may call me Granny Smith, sonny.”

“Uh… okay...” Saberblade put a spoonful of apple pie in his mouth and started chewing.

“Say, big sister?” said a girl sitting across her, who Saberblade also recognized as a student in school.

“Yeah, Applebloom?” Applejack replied.

“Are you going to marry Mr Saberblade there?”

The moment that those words came out of Applebloom’s made Applejack spat whatever she was chewing directly onto her sister’s face. Saberblade who sat beside her did the same onto Big Macintosh’s face in front of him at the same time.

“Is it Apple Spitting Day already?” asked Granny Smith.

“Nope.” replied Big Macintosh.

Saberblade and Applejack wiped their mouth respectively. Then, Applejack spoke.

“Well, Saberblade’s just a friend...”

“Yeah, what your sister said.” Saberblade agreed awkwardly.

After dinner, Saberblade collected his first payment, left the Apple family and headed back to his house. Along the way, he could not stop thinking of what Necromancer said.

“Links with a legend? Thirty moons? New elements to bear in an alternate dimension and a door that opens for three days?” he monologued. “Well, the only way to know is to catch up with my friends back home...”

After that, he picked up his pace and ran home.

Comments

[zeldawolffang]

lol Applebloom

[Javelin Lightspear]

5645481 A reference from Dragon Ball Z

[zeldawolffang]

5647452 XD

[Chrisnamdee]

MOAR

[Javelin Lightspear]

5669433 Gladly, coming soon.