Chapter 22 "Rocio: Part III"

Chapter 22
Rocio
Part III

TWO DAYS LATER

Knapp’s scarf is completely off. His glowing symbol of the Fifth Universe is now revealed to his team’s eyes. It’s their first time seeing a star half of black and white.

He is sitting on the large floating platform that literally holds up the entire city while Kawaii is carefully absorbing the universe energy out of Knapp’s symbol with one of his open palms. 

“How are you doing now?” Johnny asks, using both voice and sign language. “It’s been more than one day…”

“I think it’s getting better,” Knapp says. “Sorry about that. Ever since I got my powers back, my universe energy has been a little bit wacky. Did you notify Jade that we will be late?”

“Yes,” Johnny says. 

“I’m back!” Clear gets off a rental jet ski that is parked next to the platform. “It’s time to go. Rocio is on the way to the next city… east of here. And he’s alone.”

Knapp wraps his scarf around his neck, covering the symbol. He gets up and then briefly glances at Kawaii, Logy, Clear, and Johnny. He bows his head briefly as he says, “I’m deeply sorry I postponed this mission.”

“It’s no big deal,” Logy says with a shrug as well as a smirk on his face. “It’s just a small delay. We all need to be at our best, right?”

What did I do to deserve this team? Knapp thinks to himself. He nods in agreement. “Yeah, well then, let’s go, shall we?”

~*~

“Dammit,” Rocio curses. His floating car has just broken down. He needs to get to the next swimming competition in three hours. He sighs as he rubs his throbbing forehead. He shouldn’t have stayed one more night because he wanted to impress a pretty lady. 

He takes a look at his surroundings. He is really in the middle of nowhere. He is just standing on the floating platform on waving water. He takes out his cell phone and begins to press it when he senses a few presences approaching fast.

As soon as he turns around, four unfamiliar individuals have already arrived. He narrows his purple eyes in annoyance. “Who are you? Wait a minute…”

Knapp’s smile gets wider when Rocio begins to recognize him.

“Universe Warrior? I’ve heard a lot of things about you… Why are you here on this planet?” Rocio asks.

“Let’s see…” Knapp says. “Why are we here? Ah, because of you.”

“So, after all those years… I’ve finally been found.” Rocio gives them a chuckle. “I was hoping that by hiding here, Double God wouldn’t notice me at all.”

“Actually, he didn’t.”

“What?”

“Double God doesn’t command us,” Clear says. “The Fifth Universe does. That’s how we found you.”

Rocio now looks confused. “Are you saying that you’re doing what a mere universe wants?”

“Hey,” Kawaii says in annoyance but because Rocio is not able to see him, he does not hear him at all.

“So,” Johnny says tiredly. “How did your victims die? What did you do to them? All pointed to a heart stopping. How is it even possible?”

Rocio scoffs loudly. “Are you joking? They might have died around me but I did not kill them. I was interrogated by the police many times, but they didn’t find any evidence against me.”

“But your thoughts say otherwise,” Logy says only using his voice this time. “The second Johnny asked you his questions, I got your answers from your head right before you spat out lies. You have awa energy, which you use to create bubbles from any liquid. Now, how did you kill them with just ‘harmless’ bubbles?”

Rocio is staring at Logy in disbelief. How did he know… Did he just say my thoughts? Does he have the power to read people’s minds?

“You killed them by forming tiny bubbles in their bloodstreams which led to heart attack or heart just simply stopping,” The deaf warrior finishes.

“What the hell are you talking about?” The blue-haired man laughs nervously. “Where did you get the idea from?”

Knapp is getting irritated with Rocio’s lies at this point. He says calmly, “Rocio… There’s no point in denying everything. We are going to send you back to your original universe.”

“Hey, that’s unfair. There’s four of you, and only one of me.” Rocio makes a few steps backward until he glances at his floating car. “Can you dodge this?!”

He suddenly creates a large bubble with his car inside and tosses it hard at Clear.

“Clear, I can’t cancel it!” Knapp yells.

The female engineer quickly dives to the platform, barely evading the car which ends up falling into the water. “Phew! That was close!”

“Oh man, here he goes,” Johnny mumbles in disappointment as he watches Rocio sitting on one of his bubbles, ascending higher and higher into the sky.

“Heheh, goodbye, suckers!” Rocio snickers. But his smirk does not last when Knapp is literally flying towards him. Of course, I’m so stupid. He’s the Universe Warrior, after all. Very similar to the one from my universe, huh?

Just as Knapp pulls back one of his legs preparing for a powerful kick, Rocio hurriedly creates several more large bubbles in the air. As Knapp kicks, his blue-haired opponent has already leaped onto the other bubble. 

“Hm.” The Universe Warrior cannot help but smirk at Rocio’s quick reaction. This is getting more interesting. 

Rocio pulls a small stick out of a pocket of his white and blue sportswear outfit. He then pulls it with his two hands, extending it into a pole. He grins widely as he says, “Sorry but you’re not sending me back.”

Suddenly, a bright yellow orb the size of a basketball moves swiftly until it stops pretty close to Rocio. He asks in curiosity, “Huh?”

“Explode,” Johnny calmly says. His hands are still in his pockets but he somehow manages to manipulate the magical bombs.

“Shit!” Rocio yells in panic as the orb is dangerously becoming brighter and brighter. He swings his pole until he hits the orb hard, sending it further into the sky.

“Hm?” Knapp tilts his head a little to the side, showing a small surprise on his face. He knocked it into the sky instead of anywhere on the surface? I was prepared to stop it in case he deflected it towards the planet.

The orb expands into a huge explosion far into space but still enough to send a powerful shockwave which pushes everyone except Knapp within the range a little bit.

Logy almost stumbles over a little bit but quickly balances himself after the shockwave. “Johnny, you gotta be careful! You could’ve destroyed a part of this planet!”

“Sorry.” Johnny moves his fist in the circle on his chest, but his stoic face does not show that he is really sorry. He already knew that Knapp would stop it if it were to come this way.

“Hey! Get your cowardly butt down here!” Clear yells angrily as she shakes her fist at Rocio.

“Not a chance!” The warrior from the Fourth Universe leaps onto another bubble, hoping to get some extra distance from Knapp. As he starts spinning his pole, hundreds of bubbles come out of either end of his weapon.

“What?” Knapp asks.

“They may seem harmless,” Rocio says with so much confidence. “But they are my best defense.”

Suddenly, the Universe Warrior has already broken through the wall of countless bubbles. He gives his blue-haired enemy the hardest punch, sending him flying into the water. “What, I thought that was your best defense?”

Johnny yawns tiredly. Logy already has his hand on his own face as if he is embarrassed for Rocio, even though they are the enemies. Clear squats down looking for Rocio in the water. 

Rocio emerges out of the water, gasping for air. He finds the edge of the platform as he climbs back on it. Still on his hands and knees, he is coughing hard, trying to get some water out of his lungs. 

Clear, he’s going to attack you first!

“...What?” Clear blinks in confusion when she hears the words in her head. “W-who said that -- oh crap!”

Rocio thrusts his pole at Clear but she barely evades by flipping over backwards. He tries again but gets electrified by her lightning attack.

Knapp gracefully lands right behind Rocio. Within a second, the Divine Sword appears in his hand and then he pokes the tip of his sword on the back of the blue-haired warrior of the Fourth Universe.

“Eirian,” he commands. Suddenly, a blue soul easily emerges from Rocio’s hand without a single sound. It has the shape of a large water tear. Just as it appears, it already gets absorbed into the Divine Sword.

Rocio collapses to the platform. He has not closed his soulless purple eyes since he did not have any chance to.

A-awesome. I didn’t even have to take my scarf off. Knapp thinks to himself.

Johnny gives a tired sigh as he asks, “Is it over? Can we go back and nap? I’ve been awake way too long.”

“Didn’t you sleep for 12 straight hours last night?” Clear sweatdrops.

“Good job, everyone.” Kawaii slowly descends until he lands on the platform along with Knapp. “You have certainly gotten stronger.”

“Right, and what was that just now?” Knapp asks in sign language, clearly directed to Logy. “Did you do something to Clear?”

“Uh, what?” Logy asks in confusion.

“For some reason I saw a small amount of mind energy in Clear’s head,” Kawaii responds in the deaf warrior’s language.

“Oh yes!” Clear exclaims as she remembers. “I heard someone talking in my head. I knew it wasn’t mine!”

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize that I used my mind energy on you with my own thoughts,” Logy says. “I honestly didn’t know that I could even do it.”

“Oh, it’s no big deal! You literally saved my life.” The blonde-haired female warrior grins at him.

“I could tell that Knapp has faith in all of your powers.” Kawaii gives them a small but very rare smile. “You’ve been getting stronger. Don’t stop training. Rocio is a piece of cake compared to the next enemies you will face.”

~*~

“Finally… It’s time for a nap,” Johnny says happily as the door slides open. For once, Logy and Clear both agree with him by nodding their heads. It has been a couple of long days.

The Dark Team has finally gotten back to their spaceship. As for Rocio’s soulless body, they leave him as he is. To everyone on this planet, it will look like he is another victim who has suffered a heart attack.

“Huh? What happened?” Knapp blinks when he notices Jade lying on the floor with two toddlers giggling and poking him with their sticks.

“Can we get off this planet now? Please?” Jade asks pitifully.