BALAN WONDERWORLD REDUX

Chapter 1 part 3: Boy meets Girl

"What?"

The boy and the girl had been staring at each other for quite a while. A little bit later, the boy decided to speak up.

"Umm...Who are you? My name's not Streetbeat."

The girl ended up feeling rather flustered after they messed up their first interaction, so she decided to simply answer his questions.

"S-sorry about that...my name's..."

She hesitated.

"My name's...."

She was rather shocked, she held her head, trying to think very hard about what her name was, but eventually just made a face of utter confusion.

"I-I don't remember..." The girl said, seeming incredibly stressed out.

The boy gave her a strange and somewhat condescending look.

"How can you forget your own name?"

"I don't know! it's really bothering me!" The girl shouted. She covered her mouth immediately after as the boy flinched backward, "Sorry. I didn't mean to yell."

The boy gave a snarling look towards the girl. He didn't like the way she yelled at her. He didn't like being yelled at, at all. After an awkward silence, the boy had calmed down and gave a sigh, before deciding to at least tell the girl a little bit about himself.

"Whatever, it's fine. Anyway, my name's...."

The boy froze. He looked downward.

The girl gave the boy a concerned look, he looked as though he was worried about something. She'd thought about it for a moment, and she figured that she could ask him a question.

"Do you..." She hesitates, but decides to push forward "not remember your name either?"

The boy flinches. As much as he wanted to deny it he couldn't. He was so confused. He'd spent all this time dancing, and now he had to consider all the things he didn't know about himself. He rubs his head in confusion and frustration before the girl suddenly interjects.

"Umm..." She say timidly. "if you don't mind, since neither of us know each other's names...can I call you Streetbeat...?" She suddenly gets very nervous and fidgets with her hands a little. "You can call me something too...if you'd like..."

The boy gave her a look. He wasn't sure what his name was, and this girl he'd just met is suggesting that they make up names for each other out of the blue? It seemed unimportant, but he didn't want to make things complicated. In the end the boy decided to come up with a name. He looked at her again.

"Fighter, then." 

The girl looked at the boy curiously.

"Fighter? Why fighter? I don't know how to fight or anything like that." She giggled a little.

The boy looks at the girl quite embarrased after her reaction to her "name."

"Look, you said you wanted a name, so I gave you one, ok?" He turns away.

"Hehe...sorry. No, it's fine. Fighter's fine." 

Streetbeat and Fighter lock eyes for a moment until a certain voice calls out to them from afar.

"Little ones!"

It was Lance, rushing in from the portal that he'd created, giving a concerned look on his face. He looked over in Streetbeat and Fighter's direction and sighs with relief.

"Oh, thank goodness little one. I'd thought I lost you." He gives Fighter a hug. "I went back to your stage after I was done with my work and I couldn't find you. I'm so glad you're ok."

Fighter looked quite sad, she'd felt as though she caused Lance a lot of panic without telling him where she was or what had happened to her. He deserved to know.

"I'm sorry Lance. It's just-"

Streetbeat steps forward and interjects

"Hey, Lance. What's going on? You never told me there were other people here!"

Lance immediately let go of Fighter and walks over to Streetbeat. Streetbeat gave Lance a dirty look.

"I'm sorry little one, it seemed you were only interested in dancing, I didn't want to interrupt you. You never asked."

Streetbeat couldn't deny those things. He'd spent all his time dancing around, so it made sense as to why Lance felt like he shouldn't have brought it up, but it still felt as though he was betrayed. Streetbeat had a painful sting when he thought about that, although he's not sure why. As if he'd felt that way before.

"Well, whatever I guess. It's not a big deal."

Lance looked upset with himself because he could see Streetbeat's disappointment in him. 

"I'm so sorry little one..." Lance looks into Streetbeat's eyes with a bow.

"Like I said. it's fine." Leo looks over toward Fighter who had just been standing there nervously. She felt somewhat dejected. 

"How did you get here anyway?" 

"O-oh!" Fighter was startled by the attention that was suddenly directed at her. 

"Yes, that is quite the mystery" Lance was curious to know how this happened. "I'm sure you don't even know how to visit other stages, do you not?"

Fighter looked at Lance curiously. "There's a way to do that?" Fighter shook her head. "Never mind that! I was in my stage when all of a sudden a weird voice started calling out to me!" Fighter started shaking a little after remembering the stressful moment. "I started to run away as fast as I could, then all of a sudden a portal appeared and took me here!"

"A portal?" Lance said with a shocked look on his face. He kneeled down to Fighter "Surely not, only I can do that." 

"It's true, I promise!" Fighter was getting a bit panicked about the situation. She'd simply planned a nice day of shopping and making clothes, and all of a sudden, she was somewhere she'd never seen, not knowing her name and meeting new people. It was all so sudden.

Streetbeat put a hand on her shoulder "Calm down. You're OK." Streetbeat interjects with a solemn tone of voice. Fighter took a deep breath and stopped quivering. Streetbeat continued. "Lance, do you have an idea of what's going on?"

Lance had been staring out into space for a moment. After a small period of silence, he spoke up. "I have an idea, but I'll have to take to that a bit later. I'm sorry little ones, but the other residents are calling for me."

Streetbeat looks displeased, he felt as though he was ignoring their plight, but he understood that he had other matters to attend to. Fighter thought the same thing. 

Fighter's eyes lit up with curiosity at the mention of other residents. "Can I meet the other residents too?" She said very excitedly.

Lance stared at her with his mouth wide open. Streetbeat is the first to speak up.

"Yeah, I think I'll come too. I wanna make sure you get back to this as soon as you're done with your work."

Lance feels somewhat hesitant, he hadn't planned for a plus two, but figures that it'd be easier to keep an eye on them this was, so in the end he decided to let the others come with. He opened a portal, and off they went.