Nibiru: Chaos Collision

by Knox Locke

Chapter 6: Elements

A few more days passed without incident. After that, Felicity finally gave the go-ahead to unwrap Discord's claw, much to his delight. Felicity could not begin to understand why he was so happy when most of his body was still broken and healing.

The three humans watched the Draconequus, very confused, as he lifted his claw and snapped two finger-like appendages together. Before their eyes, Discord was completely healed. He was standing up as if nothing had been broken in the first place.

He cleared his throat, breaking everyone from their trance-like state.

"Well, I must say, it is a pleasure to finally talk to you three," he said aloud.

"What the fuck was that?" Felicity practically screamed.

"That, my dear," replied Discord calmly, "is why I wanted to know when I could snap my claws."

"And this is where I take my leave," he continued. "See you soon!"

He snapped his claws and disappeared.

---

Some time later, the Grants and Felicity decided to head home and see if Discord was back tomorrow.

Entering their house, Maggie and Luke were greeted by their ten-year-old neighbor, Nick Hempshire. He was one of the few people who actually played a prominent role in their lives. Even their parents had been gone for quite some time now. Maggie facepalmed upon seeing him, for she had completely forgotten that he was coming over for a tutoring session today.

She was about two hours late.

Nick didn't really need a tutor. By all accounts, he was the smartest kid in school. Even skipped a few grades. The one thing he couldn't do was focus on a single subject for too long. He would be studying for schoolwork, then something would remind him of some obscure fact he'd read somewhere, and he'd go off into his books to search for it. This often led to time management issues, and that often led to full-blown panic. This is where Maggie came in. She kept him on track during his research, not allowing him to go off on unimportant tangents unless they had spare time.

Hempshire had started to look at Maggie as sort of a mentor. He loved how carefree she was. She was responsible when she needed to be, but always found time for the occasional joke or prank. Even so, Hempshire knew he could always come to her for help when he needed it.

"Oh, damn it!" said Maggie. "Sorry I'm late, Nick. I forgot you were coming over today."

"No problem, Mag. It happens."

"Ummm..." Maggie said, looking around the living room. "Did you clean?"

Nick chuckled nervously as his cheeks turned red.

Maggie once again facepalmed. This was going to be a long night, but at least it would be enjoyable.

---

The next day, Felicity met up with the Grant siblings at the warehouse. All three of them wanted to know the same thing: Is Discord here?

They made their way to the crater, but there was no such luck. Discord was nowhere to be found.

After a while, they once again left for the day. There was a surprise waiting for the Grants, though. Maggie opened the front door, and ran inside upon seeing a certain chimerical creature lounging on the sofa.

"Discord!" she exclaimed cheerfully as she went up and hugged the monster.

Luke closed the front door and locked it behind them. He didn't exactly want anyone else coming in and seeing the almighty monstrosity sitting on their couch.

"Why, hello, my friends!" Discord chimed cheerfully. "So lovely to see you!"

"Why are you here, Discord?" asked Luke as calmly as he could.

"Why, I'm here to give you these, of course."

He reached behind the sofa and brought his hand back out to reveal six pieces of jewelry. From what Luke could see, it looked like five necklaces and some kind of large tiara.

"Are those the elements you were talking about?" asked Luke, taking a closer look at the gems in Discord's clutches.

"Actually," he replied. "They're not."

He proceeded to toss them to the ground and hold up his claw.

"Don't worry, though. I've been doing a little recon, and I've chosen the perfect place for each element to appear."

"And as for you two," he continued, gesturing at them with his lion's paw. "I've got a special surprise planned for you. I know you'll take good care of this world."

He snapped his claw. Suddenly, there was a sharp pain in the spines of both siblings, but it was over as soon as it started. Both of them were left lying on the floor from the shock of it. With another snap of his claws, Discord disappeared, leaving a note in his place.

Maggie, after taking time to recover from the unknown pain in her back, picked up the note and read it.

Dear Maggie and Luke,

Thank you so much for what you've done for me. Now it was my turn to do something for you.

No matter what comes of this, no hard feelings. Right?

I'll be in touch.

Your Friend,

Discord

P.S.: This note will self-destruct in 3... 2... 1... Boom!

As Maggie read the word "Boom!", the note turned into a land mine, landed on the ceiling, and blew up into a cloud of powdered sugar.

Author's Note:

This chapter introduced Nick Hempshire. Here is a small physical description of him.

Average height for his age. Average build for his age as well. Short, brown hair. Combed neatly. Occasionally uses reading glasses while studying. Not much else of note.

Comments

[Starlight Nova]

Why did you make Maggie a teenager? Wouldn't it make more sense to make her a child?

[Knox Locke]

10316864
Why would that make more sense?

This is an honest question, just so you know. A lot of people tend to assume my questions are sarcastic whenever I put them in text form, but I'm honestly asking. Why would it make more sense for Maggie to be a child at this point in the story?

As for why they're a teen: I wanted to make an interesting character with childish tendencies, but I didn't want to make a child. After all, I wanted her to have a fair amount of life experience.

Besides, there are somewhat childish teens like Maggie, just like there are remarkably mature children and remarkably immature adults.