The susunod Day…

Dante looked tired and drowsy that morning, since he had lacked hours of sleep. This was possibly because he drowned his sorrows with energy-drinks the night before. The whole deal seemed overreacting, but the bat from yesterday was just one of the reasons. The main reason is because he wanted to cure his headache, which was caused sa pamamagitan ng slamming his head on the pader too many times.

Now that he wasn‘t feeling much pain, he went back to being upset with the situation from yesterday. It was his first encounter with a girl that he didn’t even know, and he managed to mess it up. He wasn’t interested in anyone at the moment, but there was no harm in at least befriending someone, right?

Unable to enjoy anything on TV that morning, Dante decided to just walk outside and see if that would change his mood. First, he shoved the bottles of Red toro and Monster down the trash, then maneuvered around the mess in the dorm to leave. He tried to not make too much noise as he headed for the door, not wanting to wake up the Austrian soro in the susunod room.

Dante remembered how Craiger entered the dorm yesterday without a word, heading to his room to get cleaned up. His wrinkled clothes smelling like chlorine, and he didn’t look too happy. The aardwolf made a wise choice to not ask any questions.

After successful walking out like the silent ninja he is, Dante made his way through the maze of hallways and out the front door without being seen or at least questioned. The immediate cool air that blasted him gave Dante a refreshing feeling, even if he wasn’t an autumn person. He didn’t even like going outside in general.

“Let’s see what this school has to offer,” he muttered to himself, scanning the area.

Nothing interesting or out of the ordinary caught his eyes, except for a fountain at the front of the school. It wasn’t unique, other than looking tall and stony as it displayed its water skills. There was also a figure sitting on the edge suspiciously, and he was surprised that there was someone other than him that was up this early.

Stepping down the steps to get closer, he could see that it was a girl, and she looked pretty lonely. Her balahibo was brown and dark hair flowed behind her, and he also spotted wings sticking out her back, similar to a bat’s.

Dante squinted his eyes, somehow familiar with her appearance. “She kind of looks like- …wait. It can‘t be…oh, CRUD.”

Unfortunately, the last word slipped out louder than he wanted it to be, and the bat’s head snapped back to look. It was too late to walk back inside.

At first, she was startled to see him pop out from nowhere, but then her expression changed to anger as the memories of yesterday flooded in. “What are you doing here?”

Dante gulped in panic, her stare never leaving him. “I…came out for some air?”

Her expression didn’t change. “I’m not convinced.”

“Well, I don’t know what you expect me to tell you. It really is the truth,” he protested.

Narrowing her eyes, she tensed up in her sitting position. “I find it hard to believe you due to our first encounter.”

Dante‘s jaw dropped slightly in disbelief. “What? YOU‘RE STILL MAD ABOUT THAT?”

“It was only yesterday.”

His arms flew up in the air, frustrated with her stubborn attitude. “I apologized! And I even told you I wasn’t serious!”

She pouted. “Well I was.”

Dante rummaged in his mind a bit. “How about we forget all this had happened then?

Confusion was immediately evident in her expression. “…What?”

“Can you hear me out? I just-…I think we should start over. Maybe it‘s better?”

“I rather not.”

His patience shattered. Usually, he would a carefree kind of guy, but he had a limit. “Bu-…ugh! Just…never mind. I’m going back inside,” Dante announced and started to walk back. He wanted to avoid arguing with her, and he found it a waste of his time.

The bat frowned slightly, disappointed with such a short disagreement. “That’s it?”

“Yeah. You wont accept my apology or my offer, and we‘re obviously not getting along. Why keep trying?” he mumbled, not bothering to turn around or even stop.

“I thought you were madami determined than that,“ she stated, standing up to go after him.

Dante realized how ironic this situation was…it was her that was following his heels now. For this reason, he decided to slow his pace.

“…Now you’re going after me?” he observed. “Are you begging for attention? Do you like to have me follow you and plead for forgiveness?”

She didn’t answer, not expecting that kind of behavior from him. Even if she didn’t know him long, it seemed uncharacteristic.

“Exactly. Now, excuse me while I end this discussion,” Dante declared, walking faster.

“So you want all this to be history now?” he heard her call out, and her tone was harsh.

“What else can I do about it?” he called out. “It’s not my fault you’re so stubborn.”

segundos afterwards, some solid object struck him on the back of his head, leaving a sting. Dante stumbled from the pain, trying to control his dizzy vision and awkward steps.

He was starting to regret throwing offending comments at her. If this was the consequences, maybe he should bite his tongue madami often when around the girl.

Dante attempted to glance behind him, figuring out what exactly was thrown. He stared down in disbelief.

Resting on the pavement was a shoe. Standing a few feet away was the bat with an uneven posture, and her right foot bare.

“Making me your target once again,” Dante sighed, rubbing the newly formed bump.

She was not amused. “Listen, smart-aleck, maybe if you kept your mouth shut, I would-”

“Do what?” he interrupted. “All you do is argue with me. It’s like you believe that I see life as a big joke, and because of that, you never take me seriously or listen to what I have to say.”

“From all the things you have told me, how can I even trust you?”

Normally, Dante would have snapped back with a reply, but his mind just went blank. He never intended for such a small comment to get to him, but it did, and he couldn’t stop the echo in his head. Trust…something he was careless with, even going as far as losing it.

“Hey, are you listening?” she questioned, confused sa pamamagitan ng his sudden change of behavior.

Dante stayed silent, memories consuming his thoughts, replaying that single mistake. Even in his trance, he could hear the bat mumbling something about men not paying attention these days, but that was no importance to him. He rubbed his head, wanting to forget.

“You don’t trust me?” the words slipped out, and Dante held his breath to avoid anything else coming out.

She seemed stunned, not expecting him to tanong the matter. Biting her lip, she noticed that he was a bit sensitive about the subject. “Not…exactly. Maybe it’s just my anger speaking.” She crossed her arms. “Anyway, are you going to take back what you said?”

After having his past brought up, Dante’s courage against her had somewhat drained. The memories still clouded his mind, but he shook off the uneasy feeling. “Only if you apologize for the abuse.”

“Abuse?!”

“Yup,” he nodded, his normal self slowly coming back. “Do I have to ipakita you the bump on my head to prove it?”

Her eyes sharpened, obviously aggravated with his facetious comments. He noted her clenched fists and a low growl erupting from her throat, emphasizing her rage. That was enough to make him a bit tense.

Dante didn’t move, not wanting to see the bat unleash her wrath if he did something she didn‘t approve of. He leaned back as she stepped forward, prepared to take action. Instead of feeling unbearable pain as he had imagined, he only saw her ears lower and her expression soften.

“You look awful,” the bat mumbled, squinting her eyes slightly. Since she was closer, she was able to observe his appearance, thus noticing the small bags under his eyes and his messy hair.

He was puzzled, but cooled down. “Geez, your insults are getting weak,” he murmured in a joking way, but was offended a bit.

She frowned. “I’m not trying to offend you! I’m serious…you seem tired.”

He then remembered about last night, and guessed that that his lack of sleep probably got to him. Dante hadn’t seen himself lately, so he had no clue what made him look “awful.”

“…I didn’t sleep much,” he confessed.

For a moment, she looked sincere. It was just a moment, though. “You should get madami sleep instead of trying to follow girls.”

Dante tried not to snap, so he concealed his irritation in a calm voice. “…I wasn’t following you.”

“So it’s just a coincidence that we ran into each other again?”

He shrugged. “It could be a segundo chance.”

She rolled her eyes, sitting back on the fountain edge once more. “Right…if that were true we wouldn’t have broke out into another argument.”

Complete silence hung in the air, both of them were clueless on what to say. Obviously, they did not enjoy fighting every time they see one another. It was unpleasant, and they both had a feeling that maybe they should stop and try to get along. Even if it was their faults in their own way, they wanted to fix things.

“…I just realized that we don’t even know each other’s names,” Dante chuckled a bit, not wanting to remember all their disagreements.

“How about we fix that then?” the bat replied softly.

He grinned to some degree. “Ladies first.”

“Don’t give me that,“ she threatened, but her eyes brightened up when seeing his normal personality revealing itself once again. Dante noticed that she wasn’t as mad as before, and was pleased that she was also trying to work this out.

He groaned in a childish manner, making the bat smile a bit, and then he cleared his throat in a dramatic way. “Would you believe me if I told you my name was Storm?”

“No.”

“Lightning?”

“No.”

“Fla-”

“CAN YOU JUST TELL ME YOUR NAME?” she growled in frustration, and Dante couldn’t help but grin wider.

“It’s Dante.”

“…Dante?”

“Yup. I guess my mom had a fondness for Italians.”

The bat tilted her head and raised a brow. She was confused sa pamamagitan ng his change of moods in a short amount of time, but was happy that they were getting somewhere. “Well, I’m Shade. Shade…Dark. Not sure what nationality it would fit in.”

Dante chuckled. “It’s still pretty…fancy.”

“Fancy? Surrree.“ For the first time in front of him, the bat had a noticeable, genuine smile. “Yours is…sophisticated.”

“And it’s only part of my multicultural name,” he sighed, plopping down beside her on the fountain. “I guess my personality doesn’t fit well with it, though.”

Shade shrugged. “If you’re talking about the personality I met earlier, then I agree with you.”

Dante glanced over to her, and he could see a sly smirk spreading across her muzzle. Despite this, he wasn’t exactly sure if she was joking or not.

“Should I be offended or…?”

“It was intended to be an insult as a payback, but I can’t keep a straight face,” she interrupted, resting her elbows on her knees while keeping her smile.

“I guess I’m the one with the pagganap skills,” Dante commented, and she held back a giggle.

There was a long silence after that, and somehow, they were completely comfortable with it. Maybe it was a miracle that they managed to get along…or maybe it was fate. Both silently agreed that it truly was a segundo chance.

“Is it still too late to apologize?” Dante broke the silence, his hands hanging between his knees.

Shade only shrugged, clasping her hands together on her lap. “You don’t have to anymore.”

Dante sighed in relief, releasing the uneasy feelings he had held back since their segundo encounter. The aardwolf was puzzled to some extent, but he didn’t bother to tanong why she forgave him so fast. He guessed that it wasn’t a serious problem to her, or maybe she dislike the arguments as much as him.

After that, they shared small talk until they were comfortable with the new behavior of one another. Their conversation consisted of tanong and other topics that seemed to amuse them, and there was a few jokes and giggles here and there. Dante started dozing off as they talked, so Shade ended the conversation and ordered him to get some rest…or at least coffee.

“I just hope I can make it back to my dorm,” Dante yawned, and the bat rolled her eyes.

“I’m sure someone will wake you back up if you pass out in the hallway.”

Shade planned on staying at the fountain for a few minutes, and Dante didn’t tanong why. He was too tired to do anything else, and needed to save his energy to make it back. As he walked towards the doors, he stopped and bent down to grab something off the ground.

The bat tilted her head, unable to see. “…Did you drop something?”

Dante stood back up, grasping an object that had been forgotten. “I was actually getting this. I’m sure you want it back…unless you want to walk with a lean all day,” he smiled, holding up her shoe that had collided with his head earlier.

“…Oh, I forgot about that,” Shade smiled nervously. “Sorry for hitting you with it.”

He chuckled and tossed it over to her. “I’ve had worse things thrown at me.”

She slipped her shoe back on and waved her hand, telling him to shoo in a friendly manner. “You better go back now before everyone else gets up.”

“Right.” He attempted to keep his eyes on her as he walked back, but ended up stumbling on the stairs when he reached them. Dante shook off his injury and noticed her laughing in the distance, his embarrassing moments entertaining her.

“…She’s not so bad,” he smirk slightly, brushing off his clothes and ignoring his sore legs as he walked inside.

Grace planned to wake up early to go see Rynk, but as it turned out, Sleak apparently tripped on her alarm, and therefore she did not wake up till five minutos after she was meant to normally. “THEY’RE ALL WORKING TOGETHER…” She growled as the tired and ticked soro got out of bed.

Annie was the one to wake up Grace, and thankfully to also make the dorm’s breakfast. Grace had barely remembered that there was a pull out steel plate that was used as a stove. She always thought it was a cutting board. Either way, those were some good pancakes.

“Hey, I found this on the front door.” Annie sinabi to Grace as they ate. The roomy handed the soro a poster with Mr. Calto on it, and his invention behind him. It had the petsa and time for the class written down. 3:30 P.M. It was probably so late because of how long the other classes might be.

“Blood was trying to steal it away, but I just tickled him.” Annie chuckled. Grace forced a grin to ipakita she heard Annie, but was too busy thinking of how to find Rynk.

“Why can’t she be straight about these things..” Grace mumbled.

“Pardon?” Annie asked with a raised eyebrow.

“Huh? Oh. N-nothing, Annie. Just thinking about a friend I know.”

“A close friend?” Annie sinabi with a wink.

“… It’s a girl, Annie.” Grace informed with lowered eye-lids, and a slight frown.

“… Oh.” Annie was a bit surprised, a bit disturbed, and a bit humored.

The brown soro had to go to class now. She quickly realized that Rynk and she had Gym twice, both at the same time. And unless Rynk was playing sick, she would have no chance but to explain.

Because Grace dropped art, Gym was first. And there was Rynk; once again on the high-ropes. What a surprise.

“HEY RYNK! YO!” Grace cringed once again. This speak of “yo” would have to end soon before someone noticed… too late.

There was faint chuckling at the “yo”, but the sound of the rope zipping as Rynk came down blocked it out. “Yo, what up dawg?” Rynk chuckled as she hit the floor with her feet.

“Yeah yeah. I need to talk to you.”

“You want to know about how I reacted to the name Melcro, the thing about Supreta, and stuff like that, right?”

Grace’s eyes twitched a little. “Uh… yeah.”

“Well no offense, but that’s gonna stay my little secret.”

“What?! It took me forever to find you!” Grace almost grabbed Rynk sa pamamagitan ng the shirt, but resisted the urge.

“I’m sorry, Grace, but it’s just not something I want to talk about. No doubt you’ve got things you want to keep a secret.

“Well… yeah…but is it really that bad?”

“It really is.”

A larger silence came between the two mobians, and lasted for around ten whole seconds. Rynk broke the silence. “So you ready to do some Gym?”

“… *sigh* Fine.” Grace and Rynk were both a bit off for the rest of class; Missing shots in Basketball, running the wrong direction when running laps, accidentally spilling water over and over again. They had their minds on how strange their little friendship and secrets were.

All these secrets kept getting between anything fun they would like to do. And not talking about them would only result in one meltdown or another. But were either of them willing to talk any time soon, or would that decision be made for them?

The weirdness faded out eventually, and sa pamamagitan ng the time normal classes were over Grace had actually come up with a few friendly topics. “So,” She began. These were the first words since the little pre-gym talk… well unless one would count the countless “oops” and “sorry’s” from the multiple water spillings as words.

“So, what did you learn in your special power class?”

Rynk sighed. “Nothing. Apparently I’m madami Wolverine than Night-crawler.”

Grace raised an eyebrow.

“I can’t teleport normally, and I just have metal bones.” Rynk rephrased.

“Oh. How did you know?”

Rynk just shrugged. “I tried over and over, and it just didn’t happen. That and they didn’t find any of that type of energy in me.”

“Huh… well anyway, I was thinking, why not spend the time waiting for the machine to work to draw what we want to look like?”

“But I like what I look like. Especially my stripes.” Rynk smiled.

“It’s not permanent unless you want it to be. Besides, you’d look cool as a tiger or something.”

“Hmm… I guess so.” Rynk began to chuckle. “As long as it’s not a bunny.” She pointed to her very large ears.

Grace chuckled as well. “We’d probably have to tie them in a pony-tail or something. So do you want to do it?”

“… Sure. Why not?”

The two teenagers dashed to Grace’s dorm with excitement, and quickly got to work on their new looks. Sadly, the results were similar to that fateful araw of noodle-drawing, only this time Rynk’s handy-work looked madami like a demonic barney.

Grace looked at the picture wide-eyed. “Are you sure you want him to see that? He might actually turn you into that.”

Rynk yelled in her stress, tugging her large ears to the sides, then plopping face-first onto the ground. “I can’t draw squat!

“I think that’s ‘write squat’.” Grace quipped subconsciously. Rynk was not amused.

“What does yours look like?”

“Well, um…” Grace held up her drawing. It wasn’t perfect, but very well drawn. It had herself, only in the form of a dark purple hedgehog-like form, with long hair-like quills, that didn’t spire in mid-air like Sonic’s, but instead went downward. Her eyes were slightly larger, and sparkling, with her signature curl of hair, only it was silver instead of brown, and she had silver stripes on her hands and feet.

“… DAAAAAH!!” Rynk went back to tormenting herself, and began hitting her head on the wall.

“Rynk.” Grace tried to call out. Rynk was too busy going *BANG BANG BANG* to hear*

Again she tried, “Rynk!!” Still nothing.

“RYNK!!!” Still nothing. Were those ears just completely worthless?!

Grace finally went up and grabbed the back of Rynk’s head, followed sa pamamagitan ng whamming her face into the wall. Rynk stopped and fell backward onto the ground.

“Could ya listen for a second!?” Grace yelled.

“Sorry…” Rynk mumbled.

“Apology accepted, now I was about to say that I could draw the picture for you.”

“… Really?” Rynk jumped right up. “That would be GREAT! I could have black fur, no blue, no silver. YES, SILVER! And have my normal stripes of course, only they’d be completely blue, and my eyes would stay the same two, and my hair would be still black but long, and I’d still have big ears, and-“

“Give, me, a second, to inhale, all, of, that.” Grace interrupted.

In a matter of twenty minutes, the modifications had been made. Rynk was extremely pleased.

Grace turned a glance towards the clock. “It’s already started.”

The two buddies ran out of the room with their drawings in hand, and charged into the gym, where just about every other student was standing. It had been five minutos past when Rynk and Grace had made it close enough to see the invention in action. They passed four students who had already went through. Three of them were guys, and due to the genetic transformation they were looking quite handsome, of course this was not the word Grace and Rynk would use.

Grace went first. The hallway was all colorful and strange. It took a while to put the details from the drawing into the machine, but Calto gave the thumbs, up and soon Grace found herself covered in a strange light blue goop. Eventually the goop drained, making her blind for a moment, then she was shoved into something full of water, where she and her now soapy and soaked clothes got madami soaked. She would have raved about how her clothing was ruined, but later found, after a tagahanga dried her, that her clothes were unharmed, thankfully.

When Grace walked back outside in her new hedgehog form, she instantly remembered one of the reasons she despised boys.

“HAAAAAAAAAAAWTEEEEEEEEEEEE!” One yelled out. This was duplicated sa pamamagitan ng many others, which was followed sa pamamagitan ng snickering, whistling, kisses being blown, and one boy actually sinabi aloud “Man you must’ve been ugly if that’s what your reincarnation looks like.” Thankfully Rynk’s large ears picked up the sound of this boy. The last thing he heard before passing out from his lower-regional pain was “Sparta”.

Grace was disgusted sa pamamagitan ng the remarks, but at least Craiger or Dante weren’t around to say something. “I swear, if I get called ‘hot’ sa pamamagitan ng one madami guy-“ Grace’s nerves were too annoyed to take the passes, so she left the gym before the lesson began.

Outside she bumped into Craiger of all people, who was walking along Dante, of all people. At first the soro did not recognize her, nor did the wolf, but as soon as she began yelling at them saying “IF YOU CALL ME HOT, OR SMOKING, OR AMAZING, I SWEAR I’LL DO WHAT RYNK DID YOU TO!!” they figured it out.

Dante backed up with his hands in the air. “Uh… you look hideous?” He sinabi in defense. Strangely enough, it sounded like a joke, but he was actually being serious, not that he thought she looked hideous, but more-so that he thought she’d rather hear that than a compliment.

“Good.” Grace sinabi sternly as she snapped her eyes towards Craiger. “And what about you?”

Graiger was not as defensively startled as Dante. He gave her an annoyed look, but sighed and answered “Your new look is nice, but I thought you looked prettier as your normal self. Can I go now?”

“That’s what I t-… wha?” *That moment when you know someone is going to say a certain something, but then he says something else*

“I said” Craiger began a segundo time “You look nice in this look, but I thought you looked madami pretty when you were your normal soro self, no self-species-love implied.” Then he walked into the gym.

Grace and Dante stood in the hallway. They were both a bit surprised. Dante broke the silence first. “So am I allowed to call you hot now or…” Grace shoved him to the side and walked off. “Thought as much.” Then Dante followed after Craiger.

The process felt strange a first for Rynk. The goop felt electric against her, painful and nauseating, but she assumed that this was all part of the process, and continued on. When she got to the water she saw a brief reflection of herself. She was white and silver at first… then all of the sudden she turned black, with strange green stripes around her fur. It terrified her, so she did not move. She was pushed through the rest of the process. When she got out though, something strange happened.

Rynk kept her eyes closed the entire rest of the process, even when she walked back out, so she had no idea what she looked like. Then she heard someone say “When is it going to start?” Another sinabi “Send her in again!” and ultimately the one that made her realize what had happened was “She looks the same!”

Rynk flew open her eyes and saw that she in fact was not changed at all. Her stripes, her fur, her ears, her hair, even the blue tips on her stripes were the same. “Why didn’t…” Rynk passed out then and there.

Grace was sitting on a bench outside. The first araw of October (in the school’s time) was none to disappoint. The air was crisp and Fallish. Sadly this was artificially made, or at least the humidity was. Grace needed to be in a real area.

So the soro found the Principal and requested leave for an hour. Miss ICLE was utterly confused, but at this point found it easier to just let it be then tanong this particular student and her large-eared friend.

One randomized choice for a fall-seasoned Mobius later Grace found herself in a fall park, with actual air, beautiful aligned golden/red trees, stone benches, a long green burol of grass, and of course a play-set. She sat down and relaxed, so that she could better think of the events.

“Okay… Craiger sinabi he liked my normal self…was he just saying that to get away from me? He did say ‘Can I go now?’… That jerk… I think. What if he was being sincere? I probably should’ve been a bit nicer to Dante. Scared him half to death. I guess I’ll just have to wait till this wears off then… wonder when that’s supposed to happen. I’ll just wait here. There aren’t many people… unless… there’s a stalker in the bushes! What if he- okay settle down. *sigh* Why is high-school so complicated?!”

Getting a bit bored, Grace attempted to change her age from walang tiyak na layunin points… she failed. “Great. I can’t use my power now until this wears off either. Why did I do this in the first place? I didn’t want any boys to hit on me like that! I can just imagine what they’ve done to Rynk at this point. Probably something involving tsokolate ca- oh crud! I just left Rynk at the school! She’s probably trying to find me! I didn’t even stick around to see her new look! Dah! Why am I always so forgetful? Who am I kidding? Forgetful my rump! That was humiliating! I shouldn’t have to go back there like this! … then again I probably should check on Rynk.”

Grace took a few minutos madami to absorb the beauty of the scenery. “This was supposed to be fun.” She continued to think. “Maybe I’m just making this too big. I’ll just go back and act like I normally do.”

So Grace got up from the bench and was about to say though her skin, where she was injected with the tracking device, “I’m ready to come back now.”, but someone had already made a portal to that location before she did.

“Oh…. Must be a mind-reading thi-“ Grace froze. “Then they read my thoughts… great. Let’s get this over with.” She started to the portal, but found herself colliding with someone else who had come out from it. They landed on the ground, and the portal closed.

“Rynk? What are you- … why do you look the same?” Grace asked as she slowly got up. Rynk turned her face and walked over to the bench where she sat down with her head between her knees and her ears dropped.

“What happened back there? Is it because I didn’t stick around? I’m really sorry about that. I was just about to go-“

“It’s not you…” Rynk sinabi lowly. “… The machine didn’t work.”

“… Why?”

“I… I dunno. I went inside… I gave him the picture… then it was all stingy and I was blinded, and I was white, then black, then I couldn’t see again, then… I was just normal.”

“Stingy? It hurt?”

“It really hurt. And I think I… changed… into something else. I couldn’t figure out what. I tried to do it again, but… it made me throw up instead… after I got out of the machine they sinabi I passed out.”

Grace was very worried now. “Please tell me you went to the nurse!”

“Yeah. She was there when I woke up. They never found out why it didn’t work… I guess there’s just another thing wrong with me.”

“Why would you say that? You’re not ugly like this or anything!”

“… I guess, but… you wanted to know why I freaked out about the whole Melcro thing, right? Well part of it is because… it’s because… “ Rynk couldn’t finish. She was too nervous and sick to do it. Not that Grace actually cared. All she cared about was Rynk being alright.

“Are you feeling any better?” Grace inquired with concern.

“Not… really.”

Grace sat down and gave her friend a soft hug. Rynk hugged back for a bit but went back to her original position out of nausea. She wasn’t going to be getting up from that any time soon, so Grace sat there with her, and they watched the sky till it was night, then finally went back inside the school.

Dante walked uncomfortably in his new form, feeling a bit empty without his bushy tail following behind him. He had heard many stories of people’s experiences in the DNA-thing-a-ma-jig, even spotting the ‘clients’ of the machine roaming around, and soon decided to try it out himself.

There’s was a few problems with his choice, though. Dante was eager and all, but he was indecisive when it came to choosing what he wanted to look like. He enjoyed being his own self, liking the fact that he rarely sees other aardwolfs within the school. Even if knew what he was going to be, he would face another problem: not being able to draw.

He brushed away the issues after a bit of thinking, and ended up with a poorly drawn tiger. He wasn’t that embarrassed about his lack of talent….until he handed the result to Mr. Calto. The inventor couldn’t even recognize the animal without asking Dante what it‘s suppose to be, and that crushed his ego.

The trip in the machine was bizarre but quick, so Dante wasn’t truly frantic about it. When he walked out, he was stunned but relieved that he looked normal, even getting the exact extras and mga kulay that he wanted. It was a miracle that Mr. Calto managed to accomplish the task with his scrawled doodle.

He was now a light blue tiger, designed with silver stripes and his eyes a tsokolate brown. Unlike other male students, Dante chose not to be too masculine, not wanting to feel awkward with extra muscles. He did choose a decent figure, though, earning a few looks from people who don’t go crazy over manly men.

After dealing with a few glances from onlookers, Dante went strolling in the halls, accompanied sa pamamagitan ng Craiger. The soro had tagged along, but didn’t try out the machine for himself for some reason, so Dante got to explain the wonders of it during the walk back. The talk also contained Dante’s complaints about his change. He enjoyed being different, but he wasn't sure if he liked the new him.

Everything was going out fine for a while, until a certain brown bat coincidentally brushed right passed them. Dante tried to act oblivious, going on with his talking, also not giving Craiger a chance to reply. Of course, she didn’t recognized him in his new form, but his talking is what stopped her.

“Dante?” she questioned, walking back to get a closer look.

Dante skid to a halt, stunned that she knows his voice well. He frantically tried to think of something to say before she did, knowing her and her witty comments. Unfortunately, he was too late.

“Wow. This is the first time I haven’t gagged at your sight. You should keep that style instead. Looks good. ”

He smiled slightly, seeing that their insults to each other hadn't disappeared after all. Turning around, he flashed a cunning grin. “It’s a shame that I can’t say the same to you.”

Shade looked slightly offended, and Craiger just stood in the sidelines in utter confusion. Dante noticed this and smiled sheepishly.

“Oh, uh…I should probably introduce her.” He cleared his throat, flicking his thumb over to Shade, “Meet Miss. Shoe-Assailant. I’ve been her target practice lately.”

Shade immediately elbowed Dante’s stomach, then smiled innocently at Craiger. “The name’s Shade Dark, actually. I met this guy yesterday.” She pointed at Dante, who was now wheezing a bit from the blow.

The brown soro did not give a form of acknowledgement for a few seconds. He seemed… startled a bit, but why? Thankfully Shade was slightly distracted sa pamamagitan ng Dante’s weezing, which gave Craiger time to come back to his senses.

“Nice to meet you.” Craiger finally replied with a slight gentlemanly bow.

Dante flinched slightly, knowing that Shade obviously recognized the accent Craiger has. According to what he has seen over time, foreign tongues are irresistible. Sometimes, girls went after Craiger just for his looks, so the accent was just a bonus. Familiar with the bat's flirtatious personality, Dante assumed that she would be teasing in her feminine way at any moment. She wouldn't miss a chance like this. The soro also pulled off a good first impression with the bow, so he had a feeling she was tempted to say something.

Instead, Shade kept her friendly smile, but she did brighten up a bit. "Australian, huh? That's awesome! G'day, then." She paused for a moment. "That's not offending, right?"

Dante was in shock, not expecting a somewhat normal behavior from her, but he kept his silence.

Craiger chuckled at the comment. “Not at all. Though Ah actually don’t remember the last time Ah actually sinabi ‘G’day’ aside from just now of course, and during a little bantah with… someone.” The slight pause from Craiger deciding whether or not he wanted to get some payback for the little water-fun Grace gave him the araw before. Thankfully he chose not to, as he did not want to worsen his relationship with the soro girl.

“So,” Craiger continued, “was this infamous shoe-throwing the reason you two know each othah?”

Shade shook her head. "Nope. We met a araw afterwards, to be honest. It wasn't the greatest first encounter, so I left that out. He was stalking one of my conversations with a friend."

"I was nonchalantly eavesdropping, thank you very much. And I doubt he was a friend," Dante muttered.

They both shared a glare.

"Anyway...it was a short discussion and a few insults being juggled around," Shade sighed. "We didn't even know each other’s names until this morning."

Craiger looked calm but they both could tell he was holding back a chuckle. “Well then…” he sinabi as the humor subsided from his face, “do you have any plans for the rest of the day? The three of us could go find madami shoes ta throw or what-not.”

Dante held up his hand in favor, but Shade pulled it back down.

"Funny. I don't have a hobby of throwing shoes at people," she rolled her eyes. "Perhaps something 'normal' will be just fine for me."

“Well Ah wasn’t actually serious about the shoes. Sorry if that went a bit outa line. What particular normal thing would you like ta do?”

She thought for a moment. "Honestly, I have no idea what I do aside from socializing for a few minutos and sitting under trees."

"Such an action-packed life," Dante nagkomento with sarcasm.

"Well, theres movies, sports, downtown activities," Shade added. "Anything else that is normal... and somewhat boring."

To Craiger all the activates sounded boring, but if you want to know why, you’ll have to ask him. “Well,” He began, giving himself a syllable to figure out his decision, “Ah got some laser-tag mga baril if ya both want to try out a three-way war around the school. That is unless papkorn and actors is madami appealing.”

Dante pumped his fists in the air. "I'M UP FOR IT."

Shade raised a brow. "Not a tagahanga of normal things, huh?"

Craiger’s positive smile faded slightly at Shades reply. “Sadly no. Ah was assuming you didn’t want a normal event. Was Ah mistaken?”

"I did say I do normal things," she shrugged. "I don't mind adventurous moments in life once in a while. If you guys want to do those things I'll sumali along anytime."

“Alright then. Off we go.”

Usually this would lead to something like “The three mga kaibigan departed hand in hand.” But sadly these three were less than friends, but maybe it would grow to be madami someday. And perhaps a bit closer for two of the three. Only time will tell.

Later, Grace went to go see Calto. “Mr. Calto!” She waved. “There’s some things I wanted to ask yo-“ Grace stopped instantly. Calto was disassembling the DN-A-MAZER. Why?

“Wh-what are you doing?!”

Calto turned to face Grace, then sighed. “I’m afraid I can’t stay here. My machine harmed a student, and I am not going to risk it harming another.”

“Well then… could you at least… um… change me back? My DNA hasn’t worn off yet.”

Calto walked over to the stack of DNA samples. “Your DNA was meant to be a permanent. You did not specify otherwise.”

“Oh… b-but you can still put it back to normal, right?”

“… Hopefully.”

Calto put the pieces back in place, then started up the machine. As it warmed up, Grace took the opportunity to ask something. “Do you know why it didn’t work?”

“… No. I don’t. Rynk, or whatever her real name is, she is… unique. I don’t know what made her genes different. Many students had stranger forms than she did, and they were fine, but for some reason, her body did not react well to the change.”

“… She sinabi she saw a black and white version of herself briefly.”

Calto looked surprised. “Black and white? … No, it’s probably just a color failure.”

“… Is there some black and white thing that’s dangerous or something?” Grace asked with slight hostility.

“No.” Calto answered with a still voice. “There isn’t. I was just ruling out the possibility of a hybrid, but her genes don’t ipakita that either.”

Grace, Calto, ICLE, and Rynk were all puzzled. How was this possible? No one knew… or almost no one. Maybe this Melcro thing had to do with it, but Grace doubted anyone would tell her. She got turned back to normal, then left to her dorm. It was a long day.