Super Blogger

19. FANPOCALYPSE

"Jason, you didn't do anything wrong," Blitz's whispered. "Don't beat yourself about it."

I sat still, staring blankly at the stars. A mutter escaped my mouth. "All. Over. Again."

Blitz sighed. "You know, I always had a hunch that you two wouldn't work out. Can't say I didn't try to warn you."

My face morphed into a frown. "But ya didn't."

"Did too." He argued. "I've been pro-June from day one."

I jerked forward on the bench as I remembered her. "June! She's going on tour tomorrow. Blitz, I've got to say goodbye to her in person before she leaves."

"We'll slate that for first thing tomorrow morning. Right now it's getting late. Best to be headed home."

"What's the point?" I sighed as I leaned back and slumped. "I won't be able to sleep if I go back. Better to just stay here and ponder what went wrong. Why I wasn't right."

"The point," Blitz stressed. "is the fact that I can only analyze the spaceship part at a certain proximity. I'm still trying to decrypt the network patterns on it and if I succeed-"

I rolled my eyes. "-you'll be able to triangulate the locations of the other parts. You've told me that for the past two days. Why's it taking so long?"

"The Alx Army reconfigured the system settings remotely."

I crossed my arms. "Oh. Then shouldn't we just destroy the part we already have? It's our safest bet that Kazar won't be able to lay hold on it."

"If we did that," Blitz's voice was cautious. "All the other parts might be deactivated too. But it takes only one reactivation to get all those other parts back online again. Even if he can't rebuild the spaceship, there are worse things one could assemble with cutting-edge Rotore tech."

"So we go back to the Villa so you could continue your tracking experiments?"

"Precisely. If I succeed, we can know exactly where to find and destroy every other spaceship part."

I shot up to my feet. The night breeze was numb against my skin. Heck, my heart was numb.

My body moved as if on autopilot, out of the park and down the brightly lit sidewalk in the direction of my Villa.

An estimated twenty minutes walk. Enough time to ponder what went wrong between me and Gina. Enough time to ponder why I wasn't right.

Closed shops lined after each other to my left while street lights, separated by about three meters, lined to my right.

A few people were out by this time of night. Despite Tekeon's best efforts, the streets of New Chronos were potentially dangerous after dark and the scanty populous reiterated that.

And though Petant Lane wasn't a thug hotspot because of the brilliant streetlights and traffic light cameras, I set my pace to 'speedwalk' while keeping my head down.

With each foot crunch on the pavement, my heart felt a crushing sensation. "Why does she not-"

My body bumped into another person, painfully snapping me back to reality before I fell on my butt. My head throbbed from the sudden collision.

A wave of shock washed over me when I realized my tinted glasses had been knocked off. I didn't know when I started tapping around like Velma from Scooby Doo. I could see clearly though, and I clearly couldn't see my glasses anywhere.

With palpitation, I craned my neck at the stranger I'd collided with. He was already getting up, probably didn't bonk his head.

He was dark skinned with an athletic build and chiseled face. His hair was a trimmed crewcut and he wore a black and white Adidas tracksuit.
A glint of awe lit up in his eyes as they recognized me.