Season 1, Episode 2 - The Sewer II - "The Spray Paint"
That night.
Standing in the middle of his apartment, his couch and table pushed away in a corner to give himself room, Isaac held his hands up. The sound of bamboo flutes played from his television.
“To test one’s abilities every day, that is the only way to live,” the old Shaolin Master explained to his students, his voice slow and deliberate, full of wisdom (and some static from the videotape). “That is the only way we can find our limits. And once we find our limits-”
“Then our body begins to take shape, those limits providing the outline of it,” Isaac answered. He threw a few mock judo chops to an imaginary enemy.
The old Master lifted a handful of sand, then let it slowly fall between his fingers. “And by finding the shape of our body-”
“That’s how we come to know ourselves, and our true form.” Isaac jumped and did a front kick. He landed with his hands in a boxer’s pose.
He felt ready for tomorrow.
Family man Ted Last threw his hands into the air. “What’s the deal with these newfangled things? I leave the wife alone for one minute...”
His son sat inches away from the television. “Televisions are in, Dad. They’re the new wave.”
Ted Last simmered. “The only wave that’s in are the waves going into your head because of this thing. Back in my day, we listened to the radio every night, to all five shows they had on.” Ted thought fondly of yesteryear. “And so we wouldn't get confused by who's talking, they gave all the radio characters unique voices. A lot of lisps. It seemed like everyone had a lisp! Since I spoke normally, I thought I was the odd one out!”
Watching television on her couch, Audrey laughed along with the laugh track.
“I mean, it’s ridiculous,” Ted Last continued. “It’s going to rot your brain!”
After a beat, his son blinked. “...you say something, Dad?”
Audrey held her stomach, laughing so hard she thought she might burst. She took another big scoop of ice cream – a sitcom episode and a bowl of ice cream, that was her nightly ritual that meant bedtime soon after.
And tomorrow wouldn’t be just any sort of normal wake-up. It would waking up for a mission.
Audrey swallowed a little nervously at that.
Takibi and Yuji stood at the top of YujiCorp Tower in downtown Tokyo, a black sky hanging ominously above the city. Wind rustled through both of the men’s clothing and hair.
“You were my best friend...but it looks like you’re beyond redemption,” Takibi finally declared. “The only way to save the world is to kill you.”
Yuji understood. “Then come.”
Reed yawned and stepped outside her apartment, leaving the television playing to an empty room. Takibi and Yuji fought three times; this was the second fight, and though Takibi got closer this time compared to Yuji wiping the floor with him in their first round, our main protagonist would still be narrowly defeated. Having rewound her videotape to see this fight a number of times already, Reed decided to step outside for a little bit.
She stood outside on the walkway, overlooking a side street. Yawning once again, she saw a car slowly reverse out of its spot on the other side of the street.
Reed raised a finger gun and followed the car as it moved forward again, heading away from her. Right as it arrived at the corner to turn-
The finger gun fired.
“Bang.”
The next morning.
Isaac smiled wide as he felt the grip of the uniform on him. The Academy gave its Rddhi users two different types of uniforms; the first was the normal school uniform, displaying a patch on the upper right arm with the emblem of the New England pine tree in front of the golden spiral of the Rddhi, as well as the shiny silver markers that designated the users' class.
The second was the combat uniform. The patch and markings weren't present on the combat uniform to avoid letting the enemy know the soldier wearing it was a Rddhi user. While the normal school uniform was an olive green, the combat uniform looked more faded, mixed in with some mottled gray for camouflage.
The combat uniform. Even though he still hadn't worn a uniform with markings, Isaac felt just as much pride in this one. I'm going to fight! Finally, I can return the favor to everyone! Isaac could feel waves surging within him, propelling him forward, steeling him to do whatever he needed to do in order to finish the mission and bring everyone back in one piece. People were counting on him after all, none so more than the two girls walking alongside him as they headed for the sewer entrance.
Unfortunately, on this clear Saturday morning on the boundary line of late summer and early autumn - both weather-wise and calendar-wise - with the sun hanging high in the blue sky above them, the conversation Audrey initiated was less about the uniform and more about what was underneath it.
"Really Isaac? I'm surprised."
"What? You'd let a guy eat food off of you?" Isaac questioned.
Audrey shrugged. "Sure! I think it would be interesting."
Isaac shook his head. "Not a chance for me."
Audrey smirked. "What? Are you scared?"
Isaac felt a bead of sweat roll down his face.
"Scared of what?" he questioned, crossing his arms. "There's no chance I'd let a girl eat chocolate sauce off of me. Or any sauce, or any food, for that matter. Food is food and women are women. I prefer each on their own. The two spheres shouldn't intersect."
"You're real lame Isaac, you know that?"
"I'm a man of principles."
"Lame! What about you, Reed?"
Reed thought about it for a moment.
"I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm on Isaac's side."
Both Isaac and Audrey looked at her.
"Food costs money, right?" Reed explained. "I'm not wasting my food, letting someone else eat it off of me. If they bring their own food, then I'd have to consider it. I guess I'd want something more out of it, too. If they paid me or something, maybe they could eat their own food off of me."
"...that's a dangerous line of thinking," Audrey supposed. "But what about eating it off someone else?"
Reed shook her head. "I enjoy eating food because it's all about the eating. Eating off of someone's body just takes that away."
"You guys are so lame," Audrey repeated, her words carefree and cheery.
They arrived at the southwestern corner of Elizabeth Pond, home to rundown buildings, cracked streets, and one particular sewer entrance. The buildings seemed quiet, lonely, made of bricks that were just barely stronger than the people inside. Before they built the Academy, all of Elizabeth Pond looked like this. Then the Academy and funds and outsiders came in, pushing the poor out along the way, until only remnants of the old Elizabeth Pond remained in the corners.
As the three walked through a grassy alleyway between brick buildings, Reed suddenly stopped, a small smile on her face.
"Hold on for a second, guys. I need to take a whiz."
"A whiz?" Isaac repeated.
Reed shrugged. "Nature calls."
"You're gonna pee outside, right here?" Audrey asked.
"Well, not here. Around that corner."
Reed pointed to a smaller alley that branched off from the bigger alleyway they were currently standing in, forming a perpendicular connection. As Isaac and Audrey looked on, Reed took her leave, disappearing behind a red brick building that sat at the corner between the small alleyway and the larger one.
Isaac looked at Audrey, who simply shrugged.
That's when they noticed two figures calmly approaching them in the distance. One was tall, the other short. As they approached, they saw the blonde hair reach past the shoulders of the tall one, the blue streak in the smaller one's hair, and they realized their identities.
Audrey waved excitedly.
"Mackenzie? Lynn? What are you guys doing here?"
The two girls arrived in front of them. Mackenzie looked annoyed, but a slight nudge from Lynn made her sigh.
"I just wanted to...apologize to Reed for yesterday."
Not knowing her too well, Isaac kept quite, letting Audrey do the talking.
“That’s amazing!”
Mackenzie crossed her arms across her chest. "It's not that I want to, just so you know. It's just that it's the right thing to do."
Audrey saw the knowing smile on Lynn's face and smiled back. "I'm sure she'll apologize to you too. Friendship's all about compromise, right?"
Mackenzie looked away. "Yeah, well, where is she?"
Audrey and Isaac looked backwards. "She's around that corner," Audrey explained. "Taking a whiz."
"A whiz?"
Audrey shrugged. Mackenzie rolled her eyes.
"Mackenzie's worried about you guys," Lynn announced. Mackenzie shot her a sharp look, but Lynn kept smirking. "She's the leader of the Rddhi Detection Network, their fifth person. She won't admit it because she's too shy but she's worried about you guys going down there-”
"I'm not worried!" Mackenzie's face turned red as she grabbed the collars on Lynn's jacket and shook her senselessly, though the smile on Lynn's face suggested that she enjoyed it. "I'm just, you know, I'm the one who led the detection effort, so I..."
"You're worried the info might be wrong?" Isaac suggested.
Mackenzie stopped shaking Lynn.
"It'll be alright!" Audrey exclaimed. She put her arm around Isaac. "With our powers combined, nothing can stop us!"
Isaac raised his fist in determined agreement. "Don't worry, Mackenzie. Between my intellect, Reed's skills, and Audrey's heart, we'll be the best Rddhi team this school has ever seen!"
Mackenzie’s face softened at that.
"A terrible trio, more like it," she said with a grin.
Mackenzie let go of Lynn and dusted her collars off in apology.
Reed suddenly appeared around the corner. "Hey guys, check it out. I've been doing this all over the district. I bet that stupid Mackenzie would love to see this-"
She stopped when she saw the tall figure standing with her friends. Reed quickly dropped the can of spray paint and kicked it into some nearby bushes.
"What would I love to see?" Mackenzie questioned. As Lynn raised her hands in an effort to calm things down, the fire appeared in Mackenzie's narrowed eyes. She ignored Lynn and marched over to Reed, who started sweating.
"Well, you see..."
Mackenzie stepped past Reed and headed around the corner. Reed sighed, and Isaac and Audrey shook their heads as they passed by her, Lynn offering her a sympathetic look.
They all assembled around the corner, in the little alleyway, its concrete road now largely dissolved into dirt and dust, grass growing in patches. On an old brick wall in front of them, lit by the sunlight, the words "MACKENZIE SMELLS" were spray-painted in red.
"...this is the best you could think of?" Isaac commented.
"Think of?" Reed said uneasily. "Are you implying I had something to do with this?"
The group looked at her dryly.
Reed kept sweating.
She just wanted to get back at Mackenzie in her own Reedy way. But Mackenzie had friends, a lot of friends, including all those Rddhi Detection guys, that girl with the blue streak in her hair that always followed her around, and well...a lot of people. In contrast, Reed had nobody but the two food-sources she attached herself too. Her revenge had to be indirect to avoid pissing off the wide array of people Mackenzie had on her side.
Because nobody, nobody bakes Hibiscus Reed a goddamn cake and then refuses to give it to her.
"Aw, geez, I was saying wait until Mackenzie sees this because, because I think it's so awful." Reed tried to show concern on her face but it appeared in the form of an uneasy smile. "Who would do this?"
Red energy poured out of Mackenzie's palms, crackling as it made her way up her arms.
"Reed."
"...yes?"
"I came here to apologize, did you know that?"
"...no."
Mackenzie didn't say anything, just letting waves of red energy wash over her, red electric currents that looked dangerous and angry.
"Do you know how I detect things?"
Reed shook her head.
"It works like a radar. I send out waves of Rddhi and see what gets reflected back. That little subconscious manipulation of the energy fields that surrounds us. That's what I detect."
"...ok."
"Normally, my detection waves are harmless. But there's a reason why I'm Class 3."
Red energy exploded out of Mackenzie's body, moving in all directions, appearing similar to the vortex ring around the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion. When the energy moved through Isaac, Audrey, and Lynn, they felt a slightly odd tickle; when it moved through Reed, she felt herself collapsing to one knee, struggling to keep herself from throwing up.
"Do you like that? Do you like waves of Rddhi moving through you?" Mackenzie taunted. "I can control what parts of the vortex ring are harmful or not. I would never hurt Lynn, nor Isaac or Audrey for that matter, because they're not complete effing assholes!"
And she didn't say effing.
Reed pinched the bridge of her nose. “You know, one day, our positions are going to be reversed, and it’ll be you down here while I’m looking down on you from up there, and it won’t be pretty. In fact, it’s going to be the opposite of pretty. It’ll be nasty-”
When Mackenzie went to blast her again, Lynn grabbed her from behind while Isaac grabbed Reed.
"What happened to the spirit of forgiveness?" Audrey exclaimed, standing between them.
Mackenzie stared down Reed, who returned the stare. Lynn felt Mackenzie relax a little and loosened her grip.
"Have fun in the sewers, Reed," Mackenzie finally said. "Have fun smelling like dog shit and vomit. It's ironic, you know? You saying I smell bad when you're the one about to wade in sewer water."
Reed struggled against Isaac, who had his arms wrapped under her shoulders from behind. "If I'm gonna smell like shit, then I'm gonna make you smell like it too," she finally said.
"What, are you gonna bring back some sewer water and splash me with it?"
Reed's expression remained the same as she stared Mackenzie down.
"...no."
Mackenzie smirked. "Have fun, Reed."
With that, she turned and left.
Lynn stayed for a moment. "Good luck you guys. And keep your head up, Reed. You'll find your happiness some day."
The three watched them go. Isaac felt the fight go out of Reed and loosened his grip around her.
Reed narrowed her eyes, watching the two girls disappear around the corner.
"It's a bad day to be someone who doesn't want to smell like sewer water," she finally said, a plot rapidly forming in her head.
"Well yeah, none of us want to smell like sewer water," Isaac pointed out from behind her. "It's a bad day to be us."
Reed's expression didn't change.
"...you know what I meant."
"No, I don't," Isaac told her.
Reed sighed.
"I'm gonna splash her with sewer water after we get out."
"Oh."
