Ezra Phantoms: The Cursed Sword

11

"That's a peculiar stone you have there, Hector," I said to him, trying to sound as casual as possible. 

"Yeah, I found it randomly while trying to get some parts for something I was making awhile ago."

"Oh. Doesn't look that valuable."

"It isn't," he replied. "Believe me, I've tried selling it numerous times. All of the people I tried selling it too said they don't know what it is, and that it's worth nothing."

"It's so shiny though," Hailee chimed in. "There's no way something that looks that priceless isn't worth anything at all. I don't know what Ezra's talking about."

"Well, since it isn't worth anything, you wouldn't mind giving it away would you, Hector?" I asked. Suddenly, Hector took a defensive stance, and started to clutch the stone a little bit harder. 

"Who said it wasn't worth anything?" he said, with a tone that suggested he was scared. "It may not be worth anything money wise, but it's worth a lot to me." 

"You can find another stone to be sentimentally attached to," I said. "Give me the stone."

"Calm down, Ezra," Alex told me. "Clearly, he loves that stone a lot. You can't just ask him to hand you something like that. Plus, why do you even want it if it's not worth any money."

"You'd understand if I got a chance to explain, but I can't right now. Just trust me. It's for our own good. Especially Hector's."

"I don't care what your foolish reason is!" Hector shouted. "I'm not giving you this stone!"

"Fine, I'll leave you alone," I replied. I went up to him, and did my best to reassure him that everything was okay. Or at least, that's what I wanted him to believe.

"I'm sorry, okay?" 

"I-It's okay. I'm glad you understand how much the stone means to me."

"No, I'm sorry for this."

"What do you mean-"

Before he could finish, I cut him off with a smack on his hand using one of my crutches, causing the stone to fly out. The two of us got into a scuffle on the ground as we pushed and pulled each other trying to get it. It was painful for me, but I had no choice.

"Ezra, what the hell are you doing?!" Phoebe yelled as her, Alex, Bowie and Hailee tried to break us up.

"What I have to do!" I responded, angrily. "You guys don't understand! I need this stone!"

"No, I need it!" Hector replied.

"I need it more!!"  I yelled, defiantly, while pulling him down so he couldn't reach the stone.

"You're only going to make your injuries worse!" Hailee said. "Stop!"

With a valiant effort, I somehow grabbed the stone before Hector could. I could already feel Hector's sorrowful gaze at me as it was in my grasp. 

"Noo!" He cried.

"I'm sorry," I replied. Perfectly on cue, the stone started shining brightly, and slowly started floating towards the sword on my back. It entered one of the slots, and an immediate, familiar gut-wrenching sensation came back. Pitch black aura exploded from me just as it did before, and I began to scream in agony. The markings from before also started to appear. 

"Not again," Phoebe said, worriedly. "Fight through it Ezra!"

"I-I-I'm t-trying!" I yelled, struggling to speak through the pain. Even though I had already been through this before, I was definitely not used to it yet. Luckily, my horrible experience eventually ended, and the pain along with the dark aura went away. I fell to the ground, and heard everybody running to me.

"Are you alright, bro?" Alex asked.

"Y-Yeah...I'm fine."

"You sure?" Hailee said.

"Yup," I replied, as I pushed myself up from the ground. That's when I noticed something crazy. All of my injuries were healed somehow. I stood up on both of my legs to show everyone what I had just realized.

"How are you standing right now?" Hailee inquired, with her eyes wide.

"I-I don't know," I answered. "All I know is that I feel way better." 

"Weird," Alex said. "But, I'm glad you're healed." 

"Same." 

"Okay, can someone explain to me what the heck just happened?" Hector said, intrigued. "I just saw my stone, which apparently belonged to his sword, float into it, watched him groan in pain while some dark energy was being emitted from him, saw him somehow fight through it, fall on the ground, get back up, and all of his injuries were healed."

"Yeah, I'm pretty confused too to be honest," Bowie agreed.

"It's a lot to unpack," I started. "Just know there's something inside me that caused it all."

"Wow, now I'm even more confused, and curious."

"That can't be the weirdest thing you've seen in this dimension."

"Considering you said this dimension, you must be from another dimension," Hector said.

"Yup, I am."

"Ah, even more puzzling things." We all started to laugh at the absurdity of everything that just happened, and the tension in the air from the altercation I had with Hector dissipated. I told him that I was sorry again. I just felt like one apology wasn't enough for my actions. 

"It's fine don't worry," he replied. "I can tell that the stone is important to you."

"But it must've been important to you too."

"Oh, don't worry about that. It was only important to me because I thought it looked appealing. Obviously, your life depends on you having that stone. That's way bigger of an importance."

"Well," Phoebe said. "If everything is cool here, we have to get going."

"Goodbye guys!" Hector exclaimed. "It was nice meeting you all! You know, aside from the fighting over a stone that some entity inside Ezra needed part." We all said it was nice to meet him too in unison, and then started heading out. 

"You guys should get some new clothes," Phoebe suggested, as we walked past a shop selling all kinds of clothes.

"You're right. I mean, I can't keep wearing these tattered clothes."

"Exactly."

"We want to be Outers too," Alex said out of nowhere. Phoebe and I turned to him, and gave him questioning looks.

"We do?" Hailee asked.

"Yes. Don't you want to help out Ezra as much as you can?"

"Well yeah, but I don't know if I'm cut out to be an Outer."

"Hailee," Phoebe started.

"Yes?"

"Do you hate injustice?"

"Of course."

"If you had to, would you fight against injustice?"

"I don't know if I can fight that well, but yes."

"You're now officially an Outer then!"

"What?!" Hailee exclaimed. "That's all it takes?"

"I'll teach you how to fight so you can defend yourself, but pretty much yeah."

"I think that's the quickest initiation I've ever seen," Bowie laughed.

"Let's go get some new threads together!"

"Ew, why'd you say 'threads?'" Hailee chuckled.

"I don't know," I said. "Thought it would be funny." As we laughed at my use of 'threads,' we started heading to the shop to get some new clothes.

After perusing the shop awhile, we all found some clothes that fit us, and looked nice. It was a nice change from the tattered clothing I was wearing previously. Now, we not only were ready to fight, but looked like we were as well. We were going to kick some Dark Phoenix butt in style.