Friendship is a Game

Frida

I’m tracking the thief now. Hopefully she doesn’t discover the things power.

Good. Keep me posted. I’m visiting that Jackie guy now.

After a quick sign off from Crystal…Micro…Perl…whatever! Frida walked into the police station with Jade by her side.

“You’ve never said what exactly it is you do,” Jade asked. “I mean it’s clear you kick butt, but-“

“Dear,” Frida whispered. “If I mentioned all the stuff I’ve done here, they’d try to have me behind bars. Emphasis on try.”

“…So cool!” Jade squealed making Frida smirk. While both Frida and Zecora agreed they weren’t the type to raise kids, she did like the amazement young ones had…even if it wasn’t necessarily for the greatest of influences.

After they arrived at the visiting room, it only took a few moments for Jackie to be brought out front. Seeing Frida, he gasped.

“You! You’re the one from last night!”

Frida nearly face palmed.

“No duh,” she said. “And could you keep it down! If you say stuff like that they might try and lock me up as an accomplice.”

“Oh, sorry,” Jackie said. “But…what are you doing here? And with my niece?!”

“Don’t worry Jackie,” Jade whispered. “The cat is in the bag.”

“What?”

Frida sighed.

“We have the Pink Puma,” she hissed out. “We were planning on offering a trade with the thief for the snake talisman.”

“What!?” Jackie cried out, only to be silenced with a glare from Frida. When he calmed down, he started questioning her again. “You have to return it! If you show them I didn’t steal it then-“

“Captain Black is working on the paperwork to get you out as we speak,” Frida said. “For now, we just wanted to give you an update. As it stands, we have to get going before Crystal finds that thief.”

“Who was she anyway,” Jade asked. “You never gave me any details.”

“The full story will have to wait until we meet up with Captain Black again. For now, all you need to know is she’s working for the Dark Hand.”

Tirek

“What do you mean the boy has vanished?!”

Wiley dropped to his knees in pain as the handprint on his head started to burn.

“I’m sorry my Lord,” Wiley gasped. “But surveillance in the area only shows the two girl Gamers, Chara and Cleo. We have expanded our search range but have come up with nothing.”

Tirek growled, but eased up on the pain. Terror was fine. Executing traitors or failures was fine. But if he killed everyone that brought him bad news he would have no one left.

“Find him. He has quickly become a thorn in my side. He killed our best bounty hunter, captured one of my elites, and defeated multiple of you fools!”

Wiley winced at that while Tirek contemplated what to do next. While he could go himself, the Sun and Moon princesses were still outliers. They would absolutely sense his presence, and he still saw question marks when Observing footage of them. He had to rely on his minions to retrieve them, since they won’t be sensed as easily. Thankfully, the boy and his friends were still well below his level, but still. Absorbing those three’s levels would be so delicious.

“Well…my Lord…” Wiley began speaking. Tirek glared at him but motioned for him to continue. “Now that a number of their forces seem to be gone…would it perhaps be wise to prepare an attack against them now?”

Silence reigned in the room for a few moments before Tirek laughed.

“Sometimes I forget despite all your failures in your world and this one, you are rather intelligent. Prepare a force to attack. We don’t know how long this window will be open.”

Wiley nodded and left the room as Tirek just smiled.

Viper

“You have got to be kidding me!” Viper growls as she throws the rock across the room. “Those two ruined my biggest payday in years.”

After taking a couple deep breaths, she calmed down and began thinking things through.

“Well…it must have some worth…” She grumbled, picking it up off the ground. “Two others were after it… what is with you little guy.”

“Hand it over and I’ll let you know.”

Viper turned and saw the other female thief from last night sitting on her window sill, some weird four headed dragon thing in hand with the head closest to her glowing.

“Sorry,” Viper said. “But I’ve grown attached. It has my mark on it.”

The other girl tilted her head in thought before chuckling a bit.

“Wow. The is quite the cowinky dink.” Then the smile turned slightly cool. “But my boss wants that stone, and it wouldn’t look too good if I failed my first job.”

Viper began getting into a fighting stance.

“You have me at a disadvantage. I introduced myself last night, but you didn’t.” The other thief laughed.

“The name’s Crystal,” she said, hopping down from the sill. “And I will be taking the Talisman now.”

Viper balled her hands into fists, wrapping her fingers tightly around the stone, causing the snake pattern to glow. Crystal blinked and when she opened her eyes, Viper was gone.

“What the hell!?” she gasped. Viper looked down at herself and saw…nothing. Reflexively she loosened her grip and her body formed again.

“Woah…” she said. “That’s new.”

With a smirk she gripped the Talisman again, vanishing and Crystal looked around in panic for a moment, before glancing down at the dragon. Seeing one of the heads pointing left start glowing, she snapped a kick in that direction. While she didn’t make contact, she saw something bump into the table in front of her. Quickly, she placed the tracker between her teeth and followed up with a punch toward the torso. This time she hit and pressed forward, attempting to pin Viper to the wall. A fist contacted Crystal’s face but she held firm and gripped that wrist, squeezing tightly.

The Snake Talisman fell as Viper reappeared. Crystal snapped her free hand out and held the Talisman lightly in her fingers as she jumped back. Taking the tracker from her mouth, she sighed as she used it to bat aside a weak punch. A quick kick to Vipers knee sent her to the ground.

“Not bad for a thief,” Crystal said. “But nothing to a trained assassin. Here’s a warning, stay down or I will have to put you down.”

Gripping the talisman in hand, Crystal vanished from sight.