Nate Elfirm walked along the streets of the shopping district. It had been a couple of hours since he left Vivid Forest after a run-in with a mysterious masked girl, which led the small Faden duo, Itsy and Bitsy, to reveal Nate accidentally.
The timing was bad, too, since the masked girl ran off before Nate could properly explain. After all, someone with powers must know more things about what was going on in the city than he does right now.
But enough of what happened before; he had to focus on what was in the now, and that was looking inside one of the only fitness gyms in the whole city. Understandably, it was a small city despite the towering skyscrapers in the innermost sections of the districts, but to have only one felt odd to him. But Nate knew it was at least one of the places Sam would be in his own spare time. He realized that the others might have checked here already, but it couldn't hurt to at least try.
He stood in front of the glass door; a neon sign glowed dark purple in the backdrop of the sunset dipping into the horizon. Only a few lights were on, illuminating the inside.
Nate was never much of a gym person, so he didn't really know much about the interior, as the last time he went here was last year, when Cloey dragged the rest of Quad Four to see Sam doing some weights. It was worth it before, since Manson accidentally got hit in the face by Sam while he was stretching somehow.
When he stepped inside, he could see that it was filled with many exercise machines. But the ones that caught his eye the most were the multicolored yoga balls hidden away next to the large television monitor. Staring at the seven spheres of rainbow instantly hypnotized him before he snapped out of it.
The treadmills and weight bench things were all lined up across the room, though it looked like there was dust and sweat where the people usually sat, causing Nate to gag in disgust mentally.
He scoped out the place and saw that only one person was there. It was someone with a red hoodie and gray sweatpants, and with a height similar to Sam's. Nate swore that he finally found Sam in a place other than school, so he went up to him to say:
"Hey, Sam? Is that you?"
The guy took off his earbuds and turned around. No, it wasn't Sam; it was someone else, actually. It was an older face that he didn't know.
"Yeah, bro?" the sweaty stranger said.
"Er, sorry, didn't mean to disturb you," Nate apologized. "I thought you were someone else."
"Oh, you thought I was my bro, my guy, my dude, Sam Davis? Yeah? We both are redheads, so we get mixed up a lot."
Nate's interest perked up at the mention of the name. "Wait, you know him?"
"Know him? Of course, he's my bro and my spotter whenever he comes. I gotta tell ya, he's hella strong; I'll give him that."
"Oh..." Nate could only utter that word.
"I'm Tyler Johnsen, by the way. You may see me jogging down the neighborhood. Trying to lose the extra weight in me..." Tyler remarked.
"I could see that clearly. My name is Nate Elfirm, one of his friends."
Nate was relieved to find someone else who knew Sam Davis. Somehow, he was worried that Sam didn't have other people to connect with besides Quad Four, which would probably make him too clingy to each member. This Tyler fellow seemed like a nice guy. Nate totally understood how someone like Sam would hang out with this person.
"So, any idea or location where he might be? Anything at all?" Nate asked.
"Aaahhhh... sorry, man. Been pretty busy around here, and it's been a while since he last came. Sorry dude, I wish I coulda helped out more," he said with a dejected face.
"No, it's okay. Thank you, though, for the help. I'll probably look around the place for a minute or two to find some clues, and then I'll leave to go somewhere else... probably to think about what's happening recently..."
"I'll make sure to catch him when he gets by. Gonna let him know that one of his buds is looking for him. Good luck!"
Tyler turned back to the gym bike machine, where he put on the loud, sporty bass music vibrating from the earbuds back in place. He continued to sweat more from pedaling in place.
With that conversation out of the way, Nate explored the whole place, checking each corner of the room, flipping the placemats, and occasionally watching the television containing motivational yoga pre-recorded online classes. Now looking back, Nate thought he was just goofing off, searching aimlessly instead of looking for Sam; it couldn't hurt to try to search a little more.
Additionally, he made sure to check the utility closet. A slight dread slowly crawled up his spine as he flashed back to a point in time when he got attacked inside those cramped bathrooms, attacked by a hidden Faden trying to eat those poor Honoway Mall visitors. Nate tried not to dwell on the past.
A couple of minutes of searching... and nothing uncovered so far. Just before Nate decided to leave the fitness gym and call it quits with the search, Tyler suddenly deactivated the machine he was on and put his earbuds back in the pods. He stretched his arms intensely as he groaned in relief.
"Oooooohhh, that's a good one. Man, I'll probably get some water bottles from the fridge before I exercise more."
He stood up and made his way in the direction of the bathroom.
"Hey, um..." Nate began to say, getting his attention. "Are you going somewhere?"
"Hey, you still here in this place? It's gotten pretty late, like the sun's already down, man," Tyler stated. "Looks like you looked a lot around in this room."
"Yeah, nothing here that could help me point the way to where he could be hiding. Maybe I should just go," Nate admitted in defeat.
"Hey, you must be a good pal to Sam if you're that honest about looking for him, man. Like, when he was here, Sam would always try to spread his good vibes, always helping out with the equipment. Even the manager likes him."
"Is that so? I see then..."
Tyler gripped his sweatpants pockets. "Uh, I don't know about you, but I really gotta go to the bathroom. When you need to go, then you gotta go. So 'scuse me before I..."
Tyler's voice faded away as he went behind the bathroom door. It was fine for Nate, since he went to check inside the men's restroom and took a slight peek at the girls' restroom too, but he was no creep to have deeper interest in there at all. He sat down and flooded his brain with sparse recollections, but with the cryptic hints leading to Sam lacking, he was forced to sit on one of the benches, one with no damp gym clothes in the way.
He thought about Vivid Forest and that specific place next to the Lilac Pond. A training place with the Itsy and Bitsy Faden, for it was wrong to think that other people wouldn't arrive there since those two little monsters couldn't really die. But the fact that the masked girl was there too must mean there were potentially other people who went to that specific part of the forest. There was almost no way it would be that otherwise.
He breathed heavily, with the thoughts running through his head, eyeing everywhere in the room until he saw a glint of light in the corner of his eye. Nate stopped scanning and focused on the glint showing themselves.
"This light, it's really familiar... it is so specific, it reminds me of that time...
Curiously, without further ado, he made way. Nate slowly crept up to the location of the glint flashing in his point of view. And that location was in another room, where the door was partially open. It looked like it was supposed to be locked, but someone forgot to lock it when they did their business in the room, for it was as though someone wanted someone to take a prohibited peek.
The thought occurred to Nate that he should take a quick look inside, to see whatever clues could point to Sam's location. Sam was likely known around here, and based on what Tyler said, he was pretty popular because he helped a lot of people visiting here.
The glint continued to sparkle as though it was inviting him to investigate further. Nate knew he was overstepping his boundaries, but it was too late; he had already reached the door handle and pushed. He reached for the light switch upon entering, shining the light throughout the whole room.
The room he was standing in was like any other ordinary office, complete with a desk, shelves, boxes filled with stuff, and even blinds in front of the windows to block anyone from seeing through the window.
The glint of light was clearly more visible from where it was. It was right under the desk next to the chair for visitors. He reached down and went to pick it up, and it was a green item.
"No way! Is this really it, a green theomin crystal right here in the gym!"
Not just that, it was in a different shape than the one in the deposit near the Lone Site, an area in Vivid Forest where he and Pallnem had a dangerous encounter with a Faden nearby. He was sure that it was theomin because of how bright it was and how he could feel its energy pulsing within, but it looked different than he remembered, as it was another crystal that he saw before.
Nate picked it up and silently gazed upon its features. It had been a while since he last saw one of these things, and now that he held it up close in his face for observation, he clearly saw that it wasn't that much brighter than before; only a little speck of light from it could be made from total darkness.
Something so pretty and valuable shouldn't be alone at all; something else was within Nate's presence.
A light coo was heard from Nate. His head darted instantly to the corner of the trash can. Candy wrappers, Buncha Burger napkins, and scribbled sheets of paper were stuffed inside. Only a few seconds of the sound was heard before it stopped.
That's weird. Looks like some kind of animal had dug itself into the trash. Maybe someone forgot to check that there were still chunks of food left in one of those plastic containers. Doesn't hurt to check and shoo it away if I can.
Approaching the trash can, he took notice of a smell irritating his nose. Not in the itchy kind of way, but in the garbage scent kind. It was so bad that it made Nate almost want to turn away and gag, but he pulled through and went closer.
He saw that the papers on top shuffled ever so slightly, and something leapt in the air so fast it was a black blur in Nate's view. Something that was inside could not be like an animal. It had to be something different, something not ordinary, something that shouldn't even be in Standart City at all.
It was a Faden. But, as always, it had a different shape, which potentially holds different abilities. Similarly, the color remained green and dark gray. As a whole, it looked like a small dumbbell with eyes, with a number indicating only two pounds.
And so he immediately acted, hoping for a surge of power to shake his adrenaline levels to the max; Nate summoned his trusty sword for slaying these types of creatures. It was called Rupture, the light-gray Faden-slaying sword.
Thanks to his training and the repeated sword swipes to cut down Itsy and Bitsy Faden, he swung his sword down with ease, crushing the lightweight-looking Faden hopefully into dust. With a bit more precaution, he then let go of the handle and stomped on the blade directly. Each stomp caused a pained coo from under the sword. Nate continued to do so until he stopped and heard only his heartbeat in the room of silence. He stepped away to see that the Lightweight Faden faded away into dust, a signal of its demise.
"That was easy. Maybe I should have just swung the sword once... instead of going all beast-mode on it just now," Nate said between pants.
He wondered if Tyler Johnsen, Sam's friend, heard all the commotion in the bathroom he was in. Apparently, it was only a wall that separated them, allowing a few thuds and grunts to pass over to the other side of the room. Maybe there was a loud air-drying unit placed inside the bathroom?
Hopefully not, because Nate didn't want him to get the wrong idea of why he was in here in the first place.
The room was in a state exactly like before except for the slashed carpet where the Faden was. With worry clouding his mind, he covered the whole affected area with sheets of paper, hoping that someone else would get the blame. He was ashamed of what he was thinking, but thought of getting it to look like Tyler was the one who went inside the office. Sam wouldn't approve such foolishness, though.
* * *
"To the one to the max! You gotta keep going until your heart sets free! I'm no weakling, I'm just getting ready for the moment to max!"
Tyler Johnsen sang the lyrics of the song he was listening to in the deepest parts of his heart, imagining a whole audience watching him rock it out with his voice... in a bathroom stall he was currently using.
"I know what I am, I just need my pals to be with me to the end! Into the sky and out to space, the goal is still the same! To the one to the max!"
He wore the earbuds again and decided to listen to some tunes as he did his toilet business. There was a little bit of sweat and earwax, but Tyler wiped them away with the toilet paper, which he had accidentally dropped onto the bathroom floor beforehand.
"To the one to the max! Before it's too late, we should set up the fireworks to the max. That is how it is in this special world!"
The positive tunes playing from his device won't stop drilling into his head, so he decided to stay in the bathroom for a couple of minutes, and besides, he felt a bit of a rumbling in his tummy. Just in case, Tyler remained sitting on the toilet.
* * *
Nate scanned the room in case he missed something. Anything that he might have touched and placed on the wrong side. He felt relieved when he felt it was okay. Nate turned to exit through the door, but something rolled next to his feet. He turned his attention to the bottom of his feet and found a medium-sized dumbbell.
It contained a pair of eyes, staring right at him.