Evaded // Evade Fanfiction

Chapter 4 // Rose

His heart skipped a beat. Her black hair was tied into a bun as she waved at the exhausted shopkeeper. Although dark corners of the room were painted shade, her smile was as bright as sunshine. Bobo snapped his head towards her as he gave off his signature smile.

"Hello there, Jard's girlfriend!" He said with a grin.

An unpleasant scrape echoed in the room. Jard straightened his back, ignoring his best friend's comment. 

"I'm sorry, Galf. I've got to talk to Rose for a minute."

Galf hesitates but respects his workmate's request. He gave a quick nod before Jard rose from his chair. Rose looked at the dark corner where her former co-worker was at. Her eyes lightened when he saw his face again. She was glad that Jard didn't get severely injured... or die.

"Jard! It's such a long time ever since I last saw you-"

"Come outside with me for a moment." Jard interrupted with an icy cold tone.

Rose stopped smiling. Her face was grim and confused. What was Jard going to tell her? After all, they haven't seen each other for years. Jard doesn't seem impressed to meet her again. Despite the possibilities, she gave a nod before following Jard outside. Her thoughts were mixed into a blender before spitting out an explanation. They walked into a dark corner of the shop. It was nothing but the flickering lights and the stream of grey water running into the drain.

"Look, I understand what you did was messed up," Rose started, attempting to ease the situation, "but it's in the past. I don't understand why you are still sensitive about it-"

Rose's words got cut off by a brutal force. Her body flung into the cold brick wall. Jard pushed his paws on her shoulder, pinning her against the surface and preventing her from escaping. A loud thud bounced on the tight walls of the outdoor hallway. Jard glared at Rose as the shadow covered his brown eyes. Rose could do nothing, but be forced into meeting his menacing eyes. 

"Do you understand how this situation is serious?" Jard muttered angrily, "You know what I had done, you witnessed it. Galf, Bobo, Defect... EVERYONE I cared about does not know about this..."

Rose blinked, not knowing what Jard was implying.

"If they know, they would think I am a psychopath out for blood," Jard added, "Besides that, the whole Elysium Corporation are on my tail because of this reason. I don't need them to be contaminated by them. I don't need more manhunters hunting me down." 

The former Elysium researcher kept her mouth shut. Sure, she had seen Jard verbally throw a tantrum a few times in the workplace before. His complaints ranged from how the corporation never warned him about dangerous weather events during his travels to how everyone in the cafeteria should shut up. Jard going postal was at its peak. However, she feels more threatened when Jard throws cold words at her as if he is dragging her into the problem. After a long silence, it was her turn to talk.

"Ah jeez-. I just wanted to say hello,"

Jard's face softened a bit, realising that he hurt Rose's feelings. He slowly releases Rose from his grasp. He looks down at his feet.

"Sorry... I got a bit nervous. I didn't want to remind myself back to... you know."

Rose shook her head in understanding. She knew how rough it was for Jard to be living through that guilt. 

Both stood in the tight walls of the hallway. Meeting each other's eyes and not knowing what to do or say next. Jard took it as an opportunity to ask her a question.

"So I was evading around the facility somewhere- I can't remember... but I had seen a lot of wanted posters about you. Like you were classified as an 'M.I.A'. Do you know anything about this?"

Rose dozed into the ceiling for a second.

"I don't know either. I never knew they wanted me back so badly," Rose replied with an honest response, "but I have all the files on each nextbots during you and other interdimensional travellers,"

Jard bit his lip in surprise.

"Do you know anything about Angry Munci?"

"Of course I do! I have it on page 106 in my Nextbot file notebook,"

"Show me."

Rose pulled out a thick notebook before scrolling her fingers through the pages. She scans through the numbers before stopping at '106' in a thick black marker. There it was. He saw him once again, but this time there were clear details. He saw the fading outline of the monstrous nextbot. The two beady white eyes staring back at him. His amusement grew, he had never seen such details on a simple-looking nextbot. He didn't have time to look back while he ran.

"This is amazing, Rose," Jard praised, "how did you get all of this information?"

"With the power of people of course," Rose smiled, "I surveyed about two hundred interdimensional travellers who claimed they had witnessed Angry Munci. Based on the like descriptions, I sketched the appearance myself. This is how accurate I could get it,"

While admiring the sketch, something else caught Jard's eye. The creature seemed to be wearing a familiar attire as him. The classic blackcap was carefully placed on its furry head with his classic black hoodie was worn. Something clicked into Jard's mind.

"What's that one?" Jard asked, pointing to the feline nextbot.

"Oh, that?" Rose replied, looking at the image, "That's what I call, Cat Jard. I named it after you because it reminds me of you. Many people believe that Angry Munci was the fastest nextbot in all dimensions. But from my research, Cat Jard has paced a faster speed than it."

"Isn't that Lemon though-"

"Who's Lemon?"

"You know, Galf's housecat? The one that attacked the Elysium guards?" Jard elaborated.

Rose shook her head.

"I have no idea what you are referring to, Jard."

Concern settles in around Jard. Maybe the sweet nickname given as an alias to Lemon wasn't innocent after all. Rose realised that she had trusted the information to the last person she would trust. Let alone a psychopathic murderer. She immediately closed her notebook.

"I was not supposed to show you that," she quickly said before justifying her action, "How about this, I will keep your dark past a secret and in return, you must not say a word about Cat Jard,"

Jard stared at Rose. He was about to tell Bobo all about it, but he was stopped by a large mental wall. He didn't want everyone in his group to know what he did. Eventually, he looked at the exit of the corridor.

"Deal."