LIGHTNOVELONLINE 011 – When the World Is Running Down
Looking around the destroyed Hot Topic, I tried to find Roxanne in the middle of glass and merchandise.
"How is she still sleeping?"
The receptionist barely flinched when we were fighting.
Is she dead?
I'll check her later.
I need to find Roxanne now.
"Roxanne?"
"...yes?"
"Where are you?"
"...here"
I found her laying down on her side in a corner, in a fetal position.
"Are you-"
When I got closer, I saw a small piece of glass pierced near her eye.
There's a 5 cm distance between the glass shard and her left eye.
Looking at her expression, I could see that her lips are trembling and she was crying before.
"Why, Kurtis?"
"Why what?"
"Why does it have to be me..."
"I don't know"
"Cool..."
She diverted her eyes to a wall with a dejected expression.
*Sigh*
"Look, Roxanne.
I don't want this either.
I never asked for this too.
But at least I'm trying.
I'm trying to survive this bizarre fate that I stepped into unwillingly"
"Ok..."
"But you know what's good about this?"
"What?"
"That I'm not alone"
I crouched and gave her my hand.
She stared at my hand for a while.
"Get up, I don't have any more inspirational monologues"
*Chuckle*
"Alright"
She grabbed my hand and I lifted her up.
She's a bit heavy for me, the hand was more of a symbol than a real help, but I got her up.
Doll Parts quickly took the glass shard out of her face.
It looked like she wanted to look at the body but at the same time pretend that it wasn't there.
"You don't have to look at it"
"...What are you going to do?"
"Let's leave for now, we can talk at home"
"What about the clothes we were buying?"
"They're not going to mind some Bart t-shirts missing"
"So we're stealing?"
"I just killed a woman inside the store that is already all destroyed, I don't think that stealing is going to change anything"
"...right"
Grabbing the clothes, I looked one last time at the store and at the body.
"Is she still sleeping?"
Roxanne brought my attention back to the receptionist.
I checked her pulse.
"She's sleeping or in a coma. Hey! Wake up!"
"Wait! Don't wake her up, let her sleep"
"Why?"
"She needs to be at 100% when she wakes up to this"
"Hmm"
I think she's right.
And it would be good to have less witnesses.
"Let's go"
---
Talking about witnesses, in the start of the battle I remembered that this world is not as simple as it seems.
So I destroyed every camera that recorded or would record us.
I'm sure they have more methods of tracking us.
The enemy and SHIELD.
But it's better than nothing for now.
Going back home, I noticed her happy expression looking at her new clothes.
She's really that simple?
"Kurtis"
"What?"
"What now?"
"I don't know, we can't leave if every day is going to be like this"
"So?"
"We need help, but I don't know anyone who could help us"
"The Avengers?"
"Why would they help two random nobodies? They're all for 'the greater good', they wouldn't help us"
"Right."
Wait.
"Unless..."
Tony Stark.
I'm pretty sure he researched alien technology to improve his suit or something.
If I was a genius scientist type of guy, I would study every alien thing I could find.
So...
---
In the middle of our conversation, Kurtis stopped talking and started to stare at nowhere.
He's thinking?
Then he turned around, looked at the door he said I should never open, and asked:
"Do you think Tony Stark could be trusted?"
"Why?"
"I didn't get my Stand with the meteorite"
He opened the door and walked into a corner of the room.
Entering the room, I was impressed by what I saw.
It's a big room with a lot of...
Manga?
Posters and little statues of characters from different anime.
There's a poster and a couple of statues of a redheaded girl with a skin tight red body suit.
There's a poster of a bored looking girl and she has a strange lock of hair with an X in it.
There's a guy and a monster behind him, the monster has kind of a stupid but scary face and black wings, the guy looks smart and is wearing a suit holding an apple.
There's a lot here.
It's kind of cool.
I saw him pulling a shelf to the other side.
He looked at the ground then looked at me.
"Hm?"
"What is that?"
He pointed behind me.
"What?"
I turned my head to the door.
There was nothing.
I turned back.
"Must have been my imagination"
Now he was holding an arrow.
What happened?
"What did you-"
"With this arrow, you can give someone a Stand if they survive the hit"
"But how did you-"
"I don't know where it came from but I was pierced in the heart by it when the alien invasion happened"
Ok, he doesn't want to talk about what happened.
Does he have a secret teleportation technique?
It doesn't matter.
I just want to know:
"How did you survive?"
"If the target is 'spiritually strong', they're chosen by the arrow and survive"
"What does this have to do with Tony Stark exactly?"
"Someone will eventually find out about this arrow.
They could have the wrong intentions and with it they could have an army of Stand users.
The best approach would be to destroy this thing, but I'm not sure what could destroy this, IF it could be destroyed by normal means.
The second best would be to secure it in a safe place where no one would be able to get it.
Knowing the tropes about leaders and organizations, someone will end up getting it anyway.
I'm just a random civilian with a Stand, I can't deal with the responsibility of having something so powerful with me.
The only way for me to contain this is to put it beneath the floor and pray to God that a enemy Stand won't find out about it.
So I'll give this to Tony Stark, so he can study it, contain it, eat it, I don't care.
I want this out of my house as soon as possible"
This is a big trope for adventure stories.
It's a Plot Device.
But this isn't a stupid story.
This is real life.
And this "Plot Device" has real horrifying consequences.