Chapter Text
Hi! I’m Evbo! Just a normal boy with a normal life! I recently transferred from being homeschooled to enrolling into a real school. Today’s my first day! I wake up early in the morning to get dressed and ready for school. As I leave, my dad gives me a lunch he prepared for me last night.
“Have a good day, Evbo,” he says.
“Will do!” I glance out the window and see my bus already at the stop. “Ack! I gotta go! See ya later Pops!”
The bus ride was miserable. Kids yelling, I ended up crammed inside a 3 person seat, stuck in the middle of all places, there was a group of girls in the back singing their hearts out (not even singing a good song mind you) and the driver didn’t do shit about it.
I peeked at my map to make sure I was in the right room. Room 107, first period. Yup. I check in with the teacher and get my seat.
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“Are you sure it’s him?”
“100%. That's the third and final Parkour Guardian.”
“Ugh… why does it have to be the new kid… we’ll talk to him during lunch then.”
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The classes pass by quickly, probably because I’m preoccupied by the fact that I’m in a real school. It’s nothing like what I’ve seen on TV. High School Musical made it seem fun and colorful. The school is much smaller than I expected, and most of the walls are either bright white painted concrete bricks, or a pale brown brick, depending on where you are. The lockers are plain and just a flat color. Nobody’s customized them at all. They barely even stop by their lockers. Everyone walks around with their backpacks filled to the brim with their folders and pencils. It’s more depressing than whimsical.
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Lunch finally came and I was starving. The period before, I was tempted to break into my chips, but ultimately decided to save them. The first bite of my ham sandwich was bliss. It feels so good to have actual food. I swear, I almost starved to death! I sat alone at a table near the vending machines, because I don’t really have any friends yet. Once I find someone, I’ll move over to their table.
As I ate, two people walked up to me. Both boys from my homeroom.
The taller of the two is a black kid with dreads tied in a ponytail. He has a grey t-shirt with the logo of a rock band that I’m not familiar with on it. It’s cut to be a crop top and sits off of one shoulder. Underneath his shirt is some sort of tank top that has an exposed strap on his left shoulder. He has two belts on, one is slightly askew. The one on top, which isn’t angled weirdly, is black and studded, the skewed one is a brown leather belt. He has black cargo pants with a small gold chain attached to one side. He also wears boots that are mostly covered by the pants, so I can’t exactly tell what they look like outside of being black with platform soles and gold accents.
The shorter one has light brown skin and short brown hair with large curls and waves. He has black eyeliner with a purple highlight. His clothes are pretty basic, just a white sweatshirt with a small brand logo on the left. Around his neck is a long necklace with a hunk of a purple crystal at the end. His pants are black sweatpants and he has a pair of blue and white sneakers.
The shorter one speaks first. “New kid, uhh… Evbo, right?” I nod. “Right. We need to talk to you. Privately.”
“But… I’m still eating-“ I mutter my mouth full of sandwich.
The taller one tells me it’s urgent and I can bring my lunch with me. I sigh, pack up my food, and follow them to a bathroom nearby. We enter the disabled stall, the biggest of the 5 stalls. The shorter boy, who introduces himself as Seawatt, swings his blue, black, and gold backpack off his shoulder and onto the floor.
Aster, the taller one, sighs, and begins to speak, but is cut off by a sudden voice coming from Seawatt’s backpack.
“Can I come out now?” The backpack says. Of course, I’m shocked. Is Seawatt keeping a little man inside his backpack? I tense up and take a step back, preparing to fight these two for the freedom of the little backpack boy.
Seawatt sighs, turns to me, and says “Okay, Evbo, don’t freak out when I open the bag, ‘kay?”
I nod, but I’m still unsure about all this. Seawatt pulls back the zipper, slowly opening up the main pocket of the bag, and once it hits around halfway, out flies a little man! I jump back. “WHAT THE HELL IS THAT!?” I shout, pointing at the creature, who stretches out and sighs pleasantly.
The flying creature appears to be some sort of cookie. A chocolate chip cookie, shaped like a person. Kinda like a gingerbread man, but with a much larger head. Its head has a bite taken out of it, with crumbs floating around the bite. It has something that resembles clothes, specifically a dark and pale blue t-shirt with a chocolate chip cookie on it and what appear to be white boxers with little red hearts. A small halo floats above its “head” and it has what appear to be small “wings” made out of cookie, and frosted with white frosting. Its face is frosted on with black, and consists of two oval shapes for the eyes, and a mouth that seems to move as if it was a real mouth.
The creature puts its hands on its hips and moves in close, practically touching my face. “My name is Cookie, thank you very much.” It backs up and clears its throat before continuing. “I am one of the Parkour Gods from a civilization far far away.”
“Here we go again…” Seawatt mutters, crossing his arms and leaning against the wall.
“My civilization, Parkour Civilization, is in dire need of help. And YOU-” Cookie aggressively points at me, “-and the other two, are gonna be our saviors.”
Aster continues to explain the situation, saying that they are “part of a supernatural team of guys with magic powers tasked with defeating the Parkour Fighters.” He describes the Parkour Fighters as basically members of a specific area in Parkour Civilization that were corrupted by the Parkour Villain and now serve and help him in his evil plan to destroy Parkour Civilization. The Parkour Villain has been sending his goons out to Earth to destroy the Parkour Guardians (Seawatt, Aster, and apparently me???) so we can’t defend Parkour Civilization.
“So, let me get this straight. I’m now part of a superhero team that I never knew about, which is being led by this flying cookie boy who is also a GOD and we fight just like. Some dudes? And stop them from destroying Parkour village or some shit?”
“Parkour Civilization,” Cookie corrected me. It didn’t even comment on the fact that I called it a flying cookie boy.
I nod, pulling out my sandwich. I’m still hungry, so I wanted to finish my lunch. As I take my first bite, the passing period bell rings. Cookie flies back into Seawatt’s backpack, zipping it back up as it gracefully glides in. Seawatt rushes to pick it up and sprints out of the stall without even saying goodbye. As Aster leaves, he tells me to meet the two of them at the flagpole after school. I nod, pack up my sandwich, and head to my next period.
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“03… 24… 25…” I mutter my code to myself as I open up my locker. As I debate what I should leave at school and what I should take home, I remember what Aster told me to do. I wonder if I could just skip and go home. I don’t want to be late home on my first day of school. But then I remember that cookie freak. They can’t be serious about this. It sounds like the plot to a movie. But… that cookie… that’s not normal. I should at least hear them out first. Who knows? They may not be lying about the superhero thing.
I text my dad, saying I’m gonna be home late. I came up with the excuse that Seawatt and Aster invited me to go hang out at a park nearby. Not even a minute later, he texts back asking which park. I quickly looked up the park’s name. Stellarium Park, it says. My dad quickly sends back a thumbs up emoji and tells me to stay safe. As I approach the flagpole, I send back an “k, love u” and stuff my phone in the pocket of my striped sweatshirt.
Seawatt and Aster are standing around when I come up, although Aster turns to me and waves when he hears my footsteps. Cookie slips out of Seawatt’s backpack as well. I notice Aster has a cross-body bag now, covered in tons of pins. One that stood out to me immediately was a golden one, with three four-pointed stars.
“Aha- you didn’t forget about us!” Aster jokes.
Seawatt scoffs, “you’re late, y’know. You should’ve been here by 2:00.” He leans against the flagpole and crosses his arms.
“Seawatt, it’s 2:01,” Aster turns to him, hands on hips. Kinda absurd he calls me late when it’s only by a minute. Seawatt sighs.
We sort of stand there for a moment before Seawatt coughs. Cookie seems to get whatever message he was trying to send almost immediately, and with a bright flash of light, a long piece of fabric appears in its hand. It’s striped, just like my sweatshirt. Green and black alternating stripes separated by stripes of white. It tells me to hold out my hand, and gently places the fabric in my hand.
“What’s this for?” I ask, investigating the fabric.
Cookie begins to explain, “This is your Catalyst. All the Parkour Guardians have one. It’s what holds your power when you don’t need it. Now you need to keep this with you at ALL TIMES. Never leave the house without it.” I nod and shove the fabric into my pocket.
I looked around at the other two, and neither of them had any fabric like me. I asked Cookie what the deal with that was, and Seawatt showed me his necklace. “Our Catalysts are all different. Mine is this amethyst crystal.” Aster showed me that golden pin I saw earlier. He said that pin is his.
“What? Why do you guys get cool Catalysts-“ I complain. Cookie just sighed and told me it didn’t matter.
“Right, there’s one more thing I need to tell you. One more VERY important thing,” Cookie mentioned, “You should NEVER, under ANY circumstances tell anyone-“
It was interrupted by the sky going dark. It was still day, and the sky had some color, although the Sun casted nearly no light down. It was surreal. I watched as Seawatt, Aster, and Cookie got into defensive positions.
“A PARKOUR FIGHTER!” Seawatt shouts. Right! Those are the guys we need to fight! I awkwardly get into a fighting pose as well. Seawatt points to the sky, and as I look up, a man descends from the sky, landing on the pavement of the school parking lot with two tinks as the person’s metal boots touch the ground.
The man wears a mix of light fabrics in shades of brown, grey, and black, along with shiny silver colored armor pieces in some places. The armor doesn’t look very good for defense, so I’m assuming it’s just for show. The man has black leather gloves with silver accents around where it flares out above the wrist. His boots are chainmail, held up slightly under the knee with a metal band. The knee plate has a diamond shaped blue gem embedded inside. It’s too saturated to be a diamond though, probably some sort of other crystal. As the man takes off his helmet, I’m able to see his skin, a similar caramel brown to Seawatt. His long, black hair slips out in a poorly made ponytail. His dark blue eyes glisten despite the lack of sunlight.
“CARAMINE!” Aster quickly identifies the Fighter, grabbing the star pin off of his bag. Seawatt firmly grasps his necklace and turns to me.
“Evbo, we need to transform! Grab your Catalyst, raise it to the sky, and call out with us!” He instructs me. I nod and dig the fabric out of my pocket.
The other two shout powerfully in perfect unison, although I follow slightly out of sync and stutter a little. I feel really stupid.
“PARKOUR GODS LEND US YOUR STRENGTH! PARKOUR PRETTY CURE!”
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There’s a blinding flash of light, and as I open my eyes once more, I find myself in a dark green shimmery void. My feet struggle to touch the ground, but I find that the ground is gone. I’m floating, although unmoving. My Catalyst floats gently in front of me with a subtle, soft glow. My body shimmers with a strange light, contrasting pleasantly with the darkness of the surrounding area. I panic silently, but I then hear Cookie’s voice shout to me from somewhere I can’t quite find.
“Grab the Catalyst!”
I hesitate for a moment, but only a moment. I quickly follow its orders and snatch the fabric out of the air.
I close my eyes, and my body begins to move on its own, gracefully moving through the air as a new and quite bulky outfit manifests over my body. Finally, I landed on some sort of ground. My eyes open, but the show isn’t quite over yet. My mouth moves without my consent, and I speak words I’ve never heard before.
“The Dance of the Gods performed, twirling through the sky. Cure 360!”
I finished the show with a pose, and whatever seemed to possess me through the transformation decided to let me be, although I’m still unable to move.
From somewhere off in the distance, I hear Seawatt’s voice speaking the same way as I had.
”Spells cast, potions brewed, and the power of the soul imbued. Cure Magic!”
Cure Magic, huh? Alright, noted.
From somewhere else, Aster’s voice echoes through the void.
“The divine punishment given to those who fall, blessed by the Gods, cursed by Sin. Cure Void!”
Okay… Cure Magic and Cure Void… and I’m Cure 360. Wow. Honestly, my intro was kinda lame. I should try to come up with something better and try to force it through.
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With a blinding flash of green, I find myself where I was before the void, still in the same pose I was frozen in before, although this time, I can move out of it.
I sigh, relaxing my body. Aster, aka Cure Void, smiles and gives me a thumbs up. I notice that he seems to be the only one out of all of us that isn’t wearing a dress.
Seawatt, aka Cure Magic, wears what’s pretty much just a yassified Egyptian-style dress with lots of ruffles. His brown hair is now really long, tied into a braid. It now has purple accents running through his bangs and braid. A gold crown with a single point sits atop his head with two small wings floating on either side, and a purple gem embedded in the center. He has golden boots with light blue accents. He wears a rich blue scarf and on the back of his dress is a large bow of the same color. He has his Catalyst necklace still around his neck, under the scarf. Golden chains and other jewelry are present in many areas of his outfit, and on his wrists are cuffs made of gold with light blue gems embedded in a few places. Cure Magic runs off before I can get a better look at the actual dress.
Cure Void, Aster, wears a black tailcoat with gold stars sprinkled about. He has a large yellow bow in his chest area with his Catalyst pinned to the center. His head donns a crown, with three four-pointed stars spread between the front and sides of his head. His hair pulled up into a ponytail held by a purple bow. A few golden chains are on his suit, although not as many as Cure Magic. He wears golden boots, which I have almost no time to analyze before he runs off as well.
I look down at myself. A layered skirt decorated with stripes of green, white, and a dark green-ish grey. My shirt has the same stripes as my sweatshirt from before, although it’s decorated with some ruffles down the middle. I have black, fingerless gloves with cuffs that splay out at my wrist and fade to a dark green. I’m the only one with silver boots, which may or may not mean something. I’m not exactly sure. I do think it looks better with my colors than it would as gold. All of our boots have heels, about half an inch tall. I think the most interesting part about my new outfit though, is the silky fabric flowing from the back of my head. I can’t tell what the two are attached to, but they have the same stripes as my Catalyst. They seem to fade away around the bottom, the missing fabric replaced by shimmers of green and grey. The sleeves are-
I’m suddenly cut off by an intense pain in my chest. I collapse to the ground as I cough and gasp for air. I don’t know what happened. My vision goes a little bit blurry, focusing and unfocusing as I curl up, hoping for the pain to stop. Through the ringing in my ears, I hear Cure Magic call out to me.
“360! HEY! GET UP!” He mutters something, but I can’t tell what. But after a moment, I feel a wave of peace wash over me. The pain is gone, and all the side effects with it.
I stand myself up and rush over towards the Fighter. What did Aster call him again? Caramel? Whatever.
“What- What do I do!?” I stutter over my words. The Fighter is much taller than we are, I didn’t realize this since I saw him from so far away.
“I’m hoping we could all sync up a three block jump and take Caramine down in one go- ACK-“ Cure Magic jumps out of the way of something. I’m not sure what. And… what did he mean by three block jump? Do we seriously fight by jumping? That’s stupid.
I gaze up at the Fighter. Caramine. We lock eyes for a moment, before he pulls two small chunks of wood from his pocket and throws them at the ground. They immediately transform into large cubes made of wood planks, and he jumps between them, never breaking eye contact. He jumps an insane distance, maybe like, eight feet? And as his boots touch the wooden cube, I feel the same pain as I just had, but this time, worse. I cough up a little blood before I collapse this time.
I hear Cure Void’s voice this time. I can’t quite make out all the words. “All this … three block … stronger … stand …”
I feel something large and round poke my sidebar and within seconds I feel the same rush of energy move through my body, pushing out whatever pain was there before. I sit up, wiping the blood from my mouth. Void helps me up.
Caramine laughs, “The new Parkour Guardian seems quite weak. Are you sure you have the right boy, Cookie God?” His voice is deep and gruff. Cookie stares at him, and flies over in front of me defensively.
“Oh shut up you stupid Fighter. He just isn’t used to this! Ugh! Guys, get his ass.” It sighs.
Cure Magic shouts to Void as he circles around Caramine. “VOID! ACTIVATE THE ARENA!”
He nods, and turns to me. “When you see the squares, get to one immediately. Don’t get caught standing outside of one when it turns.”
Square? What square!? My question is quickly answered as a black staff shimmers into existence in his hands, sparkling with constellations scattered around on it. He holds it out in front of him, and it glows in beautiful shades of purple and gold as he mumbles some words I can’t quite make out. I suddenly see the ground light up with a grid of large squares. I scramble to the nearest one and within the blink of an eye, the ground disappears. I find myself stranded on a cube of dirt and grass about three feet all around floating above a bottomless pit. The sky is once again blue, and so is the pit. A seamless transition between the sky and whatever is below me. I pull myself up, heels sinking into the slightly squishy dirt.
Looking around, everywhere there was a square, there is now a dirt cube floating on air. It’s surreal. Scary… If this is a dream, I want to wake up now.
To my right is Void, who is currently… floating? Cure Void takes his time returning to his cube, and once he does, he tells me I did a good job.
“What is this?” I ask him. I don’t understand how this is possible… whether we were teleported… or the entire earth was replaced by the grid of floating dirt…
“It’s my arena skill, I’ll explain later. We need to go help Cure Magic!” Void jumps off between the blocks. I clumsily follow him, struggling to jump correctly. I don’t know what happens if I fall… but using common sense, it’s nothing good.
We make our way to Cure Magic, who’s currently baiting out Caramine’s attacks.
Cure Void shouts to him, “What’s the plan?”
Magic pauses for a moment, “We’re gonna sync up a three block, I think!” He almost gets hit by another attack, but dodges just in time. “I’m gonna try giving you two strength with brewing stand jumps- WOAH-“ Again, Caramine tries to take advantage of Magic being distracted, but to no avail.
“I wouldn’t risk giving it to 360, use it on yourself!” Void shouts back. I am very offended by this.
“Right…” Magic dodges another attack. “Kay, it’ll go to myself-“ he dodges again. “360, you’re gonna-“ do I have to report every time he dodges? “Use your skill.”
Skill? I don’t know how to skill! “What?! How do I do that?” I turn to Void because he mentioned earlier that this is his arena skill, I’m sure he knows how to teach me how to use a normal skill!
“I don’t know how to explain it…” he sighs. “You just… do it? I dunno man. You’ll figure it out, come on.”
Magic pulls out the same wooden cubes that Caramine had earlier and built three jumps. His is much longer, having an extra two jumps between things I’m not familiar with. Those must be the brewing stands he mentioned. The other two make it onto their jumps easily, but as I approach mine, I notice something. There’s a one block jump between me and my jump, but the jump I have to get to is built on top of the block.
“What’s wrong, 360?” Magic shouts to me. “It’s just a one block vertical. You can do it!”
One block vertical… huh? It’s really intimidating… first I have to get across a three foot gap over the void… and at the same I have to go up three more feet? This thing is a little over half my height!
Okay… just breathe, Evbo… or… should I call myself 360? Because that’s my superhero name? I don’t think it matters. Now isn’t the time… I just have to focus on this jump…
I close my eyes and take a deep breath, pushing off the dirt, I feel the wind in my hair.
Once I feel my feet touch solid wood, I sigh, and make sure I’m in the right spot. Yup, I’m ready.
I look at the jump ahead of me. Three blocks… how am I going to do this… I back up a little towards the edge of the block so I can get at least a few steps in to help me build momentum.
Caramine looks at our setup and laughs. “You really think this will defeat me? You’re relying on the boy that was afraid to do a one block vertical! I could handle your silly little jumps easily!”
“Oh really, well then! Let’s see if that’s really true…” Cure Magic looks at us. “When I shout jump, you jump. Got it?” He instructs. We nod, and I lock eyes with Caramine. He stares me down, and it's kinda intimidating, but I know I need to do this. I just need to focus.
Magic begins his first jump, landing on the stand gracefully. Void begins to glow, adjusting his stance. As Magic hits the second jump, he glows as well. He touches down on the wooden block, and screams “JUMP!”
I take a step, gaining a little bit of momentum, and lift off into the air. Time seems to slow down. I glide through the air, and I feel some sort of unfamiliar energy flow through my body. I feel stronger… more agile. I lifted off in such a way that allows me to spin while I jump. I’m not sure why. Something just told me that’s the right thing to do. I’m afraid I might not make the jump… I close my eyes, hoping and praying I’ll make it and be able to go home. I want to wake up from this dream. Desperately. This can’t be real… it can’t be… all of this? It’s all just my imagination. When I wake up, I’ll go to school. I’ll make friends. Different friends. Seawatt and Aster won’t come up to me during lunch. A flying cookie won’t tell me I’m a superhero. I won’t be forced to fight a man using parkour. I won’t be wearing a dress. I won’t-
My boots clack against the wooden block. I made it. I open my eyes and see myself having nearly slid off the block. I move more towards the middle of the block, and watch as Caramine coughs up blood, staggering back on his dirt block. He lost his balance for a moment, but managed to stay standing. His nose bleeds a little bit, and I see a tear run down his cheek.
Clutching his chest, he stutters as he speaks. “Y-you… how d-did you… ugh! You haven’t seen the last of me, boys…” he grumbles.
With a puff of smoke, Caramine is gone.
The surroundings fade back to what they once were, the parking lot outside of the school. With it, our clothing is fixed as well.
“Hah… we… we did it!” Seawatt sighs, shakily running up to me and Aster and embracing us in a hug. He hasn’t been this friendly to me before, although we did only meet earlier today. We’re all out of breath. That last attack really did a number on everyone.
“You did amazing, Evbo!” Aster affirms. He manages to squeeze out from Seawatt’s grip. Seawatt notices Aster escaped and quickly lets me go as well.
Cookie, who I completely forgot about, congratulates us. “Great job, team! The Parkour Guardians win once again!”
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Seawatt ended up driving me home because he was driving Aster anyway and the buses were long gone by the time we were done. I thanked him and he left without another word. I met my dad at the front door and he gave me a big hug.
“Well? How was your first day at school? Was it exciting?” We sat at the table for dinner. He grilled some chicken and heated up leftover potatoes from yesterday.
“It was… surely something…” I joked. The first rule of being a superhero is to keep your identity a secret, so I decided not to mention… all that Parkour Guardian stuff.
“Where’d you get the headband from?” He asked.
“Headband? What headband?” I don’t remember getting any headbands…
Dad reaches over to me and pulls on something behind my head. “That headband, silly!”
I reach back for what he was tugging on and pull it off my head. It’s my Catalyst. So that’s how it’s supposed to be worn… huh. I thought I was supposed to like… tie it into a bow or something.
“Ah… My friend gave me that. Sorry- haha!” I play it off well, and he smiles.
“I’m glad you made friends so quickly!” He glances at the clock. “Ah, it’s getting late. Finish eating and go shower. You have school again tomorrow.”
“Alright. Thanks, Dad.”
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I sit in my room for a little bit, fiddling with the headband.
So… Parkour Guardians, huh? Fighting to save another world? hmm… I think… this might be kinda fun.
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The halls echo with the rustling of chainmail. The Fighter approaches the throne room.
Chained down to the throne is a jester clothed in black and red. The eerie smile painted upon its mask stares the Fighter down.
“So, the final Guardian has revealed himself.”
“Yes sir.”
“Have you had any issues with him yet?”
“No sir.”
“Does he pose any threat to us and our mission?”
“No sir.”
“I see. So all is well?”
“Yes sir.”
“Good, good. Now that they are all together, we can finally begin the operation. You know what you need to do, correct?”
“Yes sir.”
“Perfect. Now then, let the games begin.”