(Author's Note: All text inside of [these brackets] are referring to a previous point in the novel or a flashback.)

...

“What… happened? I’m alive, right?”

“YES. NOW WAKE.”

As soon as that was put into Stress’s mind, he was lying in the grass outside of his local police station, still in confusion, and got up to see his hands and body intact. The road in front of him was silent, the pavement on the other side of the road was silent, the town centre a bit in the distance was silent, the sky was silent. And so, Stress begun to piece it all together; what he had just experience and what it all meant.

“Alright then, let’s assess. There was that urchin girl (I apparently have some form of business with them still according to that thing), that tall old man (Ruben Scarlet, was it?), that undercover policepostwoman and her weird water gun (policepostwoman is not a word, I’m just using it due to not remembering their name for now), and finally that thing that proclaimed itself as Pitch Black.

[“THE URCHIN. FIND HER. SHE NEEDS YOUR GUIDANCE.”]

[“YOU SAT TOGETHER. THAT BENCH. THE GATEWAY LIES THERE.”]

“Ok then, I have no other instruction or direction other than that so I might as well hear out Mr. “Pitch Black” for now (though I’m not denying that I am sceptical).”

Luckily, Stress knew where he was and could easily get back to the bench that he found the Urchin on in that field. He kept on walking, trying to rationalise everything even more. But soon enough, he was back at that field again.

“Right then, so the fairgrounds were an illusion or something… So many confusing things have happened I think I may be a little bit number to it now. All I need to do now is find that bench and get some answers.”

Stress then saw a bright blue ball in the sky, riding the wind in an innocent, carefree motion. He suddenly remembered what the Urchin remarked.

[“I-I will use… my hydrokinesis if I must,”]

[“I’m a hydrokinetic wielder and I’ll prove it!”]

“Water control… a bubble-like object… She could be near!”

After travelling across the entire blank field, the closer he got to the bench, the warmer lights begun to flash to his side. Suddenly, the fairgrounds were back. He immediately knew that he was on the right track. Stress had found that same bench once again.

She was sat there, her single eye with her single blue pupil expanding as she caught sight of Stress approaching her, walking closer.

She quickly tried to reach out for her bottle, tipping it over in the process and then backing up on the bench, dropping a weird wired stick that seemed to be the source of the bubble from earlier.

She yelled hastily, “Who are you?! What do you want?!”

Stress responded rather absentmindedly, “Do you not remember me? I sat next to you, and you freaked out and threatened me.”

“Wha? You were here? Sorry, I’m bad at remembering faces… Wait! I threatened you. When? Also, your outfit is rather… plain, so plain in fact that it’s scary… Wait!”

She quickly grabbed her bottle from the bench, actually grabbing it this time, and held it in front of her in both hands away from her waist. It was then that Stress noticed it’s strange straw wrapped around and pointing straight through the top of the bottle start to glow a dark blue, in unison with her strange single pupil. Stress could’ve never made something as miraculous as this up if he tried.

A blade made from pure water all flowing around and past the straw. It glowed a royal indigo, that of which sparkled with the glisten of a deep sapphire, the kind only found on the crowns of old and new. Purity. It was as if her entire soul and character was portrayed through the blade itself, readying itself and herself for the future that has yet to come.

“Sword of Tides… Waving Blade… Ocean’s Edge… what would it be called?” said Stress thinking out loud.

“What was that?”

“Oh I was just so caught up in that water magi- AHEM, I meant “hydrokinesis” that I started brainstorming potential names for it. Sorry.”

“Wait, really?! You think this is cool?”

“Of course! It looks so mesmerising and beautiful! Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?”

Her eye lit up more than it already was from its glowing as she said “Uh, sure!”

Stress and the Urchin had both sat down on the bench with the blade of water in the Urchin’s hand. Stress begun asking away.

“Can I hold it for a second?”

“What? No! No way!” she said while recoiling a bit.

“Why?”

“W-well, you see, it’ll retract if I let go… so, yeah!”

“Alright then, so what kind of power this have to it?”

“Mmmm… It’s enough…”

“Strike my arm with it. I want to gauge it myself then.”

“Oh… ok.”

She raised the bottle, paused, then brought the blade down onto Stress’s lower right arm. It only just soaked it and made no cut or even bruise. There was a silence from them both as the Urchin just turned around and wailed.

“WEEEEH, I know it’s weak, please don’t judge me too hard! I’m sorry for being so weak…”

Stress looked at her sorry state in surprise; he had so many questions he wanted the answers to. He didn’t hesitate.

“Can you show me some more of this hydrokinesis?”

The Urchin slowly turned around. She then, with an incredibly confused expression, said “But… I don’t know how to do much else… Even if I knew how to do more, it would still probably suck, badly…” tipping her head down into a more defeated expression.

Stress replied quickly saying “No no, please do show me if you have anymore.”

“Huh? But I meant it, I really don’t have, like anything else other than that…”

“Then can you make something new or is that not how this works?”

“Uhm… it’s not like I can’t make anything new, I guess…”

“Then what’s stopping you from making anything completely brand spanking new!? If you don’t have anything else, then experiment with your power! If it’s your power, then why don’t you use it to the fullest! If you can’t do that then tell me what’s the issue!”

Stress had realised that he might’ve raised his voice too highly to a literal child. Before he could apologise, she stood up. She looked at her bottle, eye wide open, and spoke to Stress once again.

“Could you… if possible… show me what you mean?”

Stress had gained something on his face, a gentle smile.

…

Stress and the Urchin moved over to an area away from the noise of the busy-ish fun fair. Stress sat down, almost matching her in height, and begun to discuss about her abilities.

“Alright, so… I’ll admit I don’t know much about this hydrokinesis so if you could show me kinda how it works I might be able to help you out a bit.”

“Well… This is really just a thing called a Kinetic Sabre if I remember correctly. Do you know what those are?”

“Not entirely, however from that name, I can infer that it’s a blade which is powered by kinetic energy.”

“Yes, that’s kind of it, but the sabre itself is made from whatever is stored inside the… conduit? Yeah, the conduit.”

 “Does the conduit refer to the bottle?”

“Yes, whatever is inside of this bottle is what the blade is made off, and I use hydrokinesis so I fill it with just water. I hate it when I run out though, I get so thirsty when I’m outside…”

“Hold on, you said that whatever is inside that bottle becomes the blade right?”

“Mhm.”

“Can I borrow it for a second then? I want to test something real quick.”

“If you want to put anything in there, don’t do anything solid. I can’t control them that well…”

“Don’t worry about that, just turn around for a bit and I’ll tell you when you can take it back.”

She looked at him with a suspicious expression, however she still turned around and waited, hearing only the sound of the water in the bottle being chucked out, then the bottle filling back up behind her. She was intrigued. Once Stress gave the bottle back, the Urchin couldn’t wait a second and released the blade from its plastic hilt.

The sabre had turned yellow, the same sparkles shining through which made it’s colour truly more of a gold. The Urchin stood there in awe, mouth wide and all. Said awe only lasted for around 6 seconds due to it being disrupted by a horrid stench that emitted from the blade. Stress then exclaimed quite loudly.

“YES, THE PISS SABRE IS REAL!”

“Sir, what is piss?”

It was only at that moment that Stress had realised that there was a seemingly young urchin girl holding a bottle full of his own pee that he gave her, then said pee was now a blade coming out of said bottle being held by said girl. But at the same time, he had proven that she wasn’t wrong in her explanation of the sabre. She then spoke up about this tomfoolery after she identified the substance.

“Did you seriously pee in my drinking bottle! I’m going to have to throw this bottle out now, what a waste…”

“Oh I didn’t think about how that was your water bottle, that’s actually really disgusting… O-ok I’m very very sorry for that I will try to repay you if possible, is that good enough?”

“Awh, sure… I guess…”

…

“Poooowheeee! What in the hell is that infernal stench? It smells as if someone had just pissed in a bush or something because- ooooooh, I see now, it’s you two.” said a mystery voice walking on the pathway beside them going towards the fairground, now approaching Stress and the Urchin. They looked more than a bit odd, goofier looking in their googly button-eyed mascot head and tattered suit and top hat.

“You look exactly like that urchin that dad mentioned. That blade, however, is rather disgusting. I LOVE IT! Maybe as much as banoffee pie, but probably not as much, yeah I like banoffee pie more.”

Stress recoiled a bit at this mascot’s bizarreness and comment on the blade (and banoffee pie) and so did then Urchin. Stress inquired about the first sentence they said.

“Do you want anything with this girl? And why were you looking for her if you do?”

“I don’t like it when you make it out like I’m some evil person, I just need to do a quick recording with her, that’s all I assure you.”

“What do you mean by recording?”

“Do you know who that girl even is?”

“Well, not entirely, I’ve just been trying to help her out with her hydrokinesis. I don’t even know her name yet.”

“Woooooooow. Disappointing ain’t it?”

“What is disappointing? Is she well-known or something?”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re just some goofy little stranger. Just let me do some silly little recordings reeeeeeeeally quick?”

“You don’t seem to be all that serious with language like that.”

“Oh, I do assure you.

I AM VEEEEEERY SERIOUS ABOUT THIS.”

The mascot had snapped their fingers and produced a scarlet light from within their grasp, a burning light which highlighted all his tainted singing on their suit and hat. The flame had begun to form a coil around their torso coming out from their pointer finger on his right arm, burning through their glove as a crimson light shone through the small holes through his unconventionally attached button eyes. The Urchin was visibly shaking in fear, shrunken pupil, holding the bottle of pee like a sword hilt in front of her. She yelled.

“P-please, I don’t like that face you’re m-making, please… STAY AWAY!”

The mascot replied with a harmless question. “Have you played tennis before?”

“W-what? No, I-I haven’t…”

“Alright then little urchin, all you’ve gotta do… IS SLAP THE BALL BACK AT ME!” he said while swiping his hand across and a chunk of the ring of flames shot off right at the Urchin.

The chunk pierced right through the blade of pee, hitting her directly in the eye, pee splashed all over her now collapsed, steaming yet burning body. The mascot spoke joyfully ecstatically.

“BOOM! Now that was ABSOLUTELY SICKENING! Hey stranger! Why’d you just stand there! Now she’s covered in your pee! That means you technically peed on a little girl, HOW CRUEL! YOU. ARE. DISGOOOOOUUUUUUUUSSSSSTIIIIIIINNNG! That would be an inspiration for a select few disgusting people out there, so that’s something right? Hey? You in there? You’re on this planet, right? Yoohoo!”

Stress stood there in disbelief. He just stood in silence, looking down at a little urchin girl, holding her eye, scrunched up, covered in his pee. But then, those messages from that thing reappeared in Stress’s head.

“HE SHOULD PAY FOR THAT, SHOULDN’T HE? YOU WANT TO PAY IT ALL BACK TO HIM, DON’T YOU?”

“I won’t lie… I do want them to pay… That is an innocent little girl… That… I want to punch him… So badly…”

“CLOCK’S TICKING. PUNISH HIM.”

While he didn’t look at it, from behind Stress, a large, tall tentacled shadow appeared, the only thing inside it being two tiny white glowing dots. The mascot, looked up at the darkness.

“NAAAAAAH! YOU’RE WITH THAT THING?! YOU’VE GOTTA BE TROLLING ME HERE! DO YOU WANT TO CAUSE A GIANT STIR!?”

From within the darkness, a glowing outline appeared, resembling a hand. It slithered through the air, pulled off Stress’s hat, reaching his hair. The hand then twisted a small couple of hair together until they formed a small rope-like thing popping out of his head. The hand formed a fist, thumb in, and flicked it’s thumb out of it’s fist and producing some glowing sparks. Said sparks reached the twisted hairs. It was then when the mascot had realised what those twisted hairs were. They were a fuse. The fuse was lit. Stress finally rose his head.

“RELEASE YOUR STRESS.”

Stress heard it. He walked towards the mascot. Walking turned to fast-walking. Fast-walking turned to running. He held his fist forward.

Sparks flew.

As much as the mascot tried to move, they were now no more than a scattered pile of burnt fluff and steaming metal.

The Urchin, with difficulty through her damaged eyes, was seeing a beautiful display of raining sparks falling from the sky as she lay there.

It was a sight she would have engraved into her memory.

“It’s so sparkly… Mesmerising… and beautiful…” she thought to herself.

She couldn’t hear a thing except the sizzling sky above her, not even the ginormous explosion just a bit away from her.

Episode 2 – Sparkling Sabre: END                          By: PuzzlePig