Cooperatively [Akabra]

Hi Despaxas here. Newest addition to my collection of minions... Hm authors. Freshly hatched, with an interesting take on the start of John's adventures. What are you still doing here? Go read it!
But first a word of his sponsor

HELLO! Funatic here. As per the university process used to vet future authors, I have adopted and now, apparently, successfully hatched an egg. As per usual, you will see some common elements, some common elements reinterpreted and a lot of new stuff. What I have seen has my approval and I hope you will find it entertaining as well. Have Fun… well, have Akabra, in this case.

John considered skipping lunch to avoid thinking about his lack of cash, but he quickly dismissed that option. ‘If eating breakfast gave me a temporary buff, skipping a meal may have the possibility of the reverse.’ There was no proof of any debuffs for something as meaningless as skipping one meal, but he didn’t want to risk an avoidable situation while things were still unfamiliar.

Having decided to not skip lunch, John needed to get money from somewhere. Meadow came to mind. ‘It will be easier to ask her than to have Mom question my lack of lunch money.’ With a quick motion he pulled his phone out of his inventory and dialed her number.

Unfortunately for him, there was no answer and the voicemail picked up. Meadow’s sweet voice came through the receiver. “Hey, you’ve reached Meadow. Leave a message and I’ll get back to you whenever.”

‘No answer, I guess I can go over and ask her in person. I’d need to go to her place to collect the money anyway.’ He checked one more time whether he had everything he needed for school before exiting his room.

When John reached the front door, he called out, “Mom, I’m stopping by Meadow’s place before heading to the bus stop. She just called to tell me my gift is finally ready and asked me to come pick it up.” A lie he hoped his mother would believe to keep her from guessing that he’d burned all of his allowance.

His mother headed his way as she responded, “That’s great, sweetie, just don’t get sidetracked like last time and end up missing the bus.” She pulled him into a hug. “You’re an adult now,” she said with a playful tone, “so you have to be more responsible. I don’t want to get a call from you in 15 minutes telling me that you need a ride to school because you lost track of time.”

“Stop teasing me,” John complained, as he wiggled his way out of her loving embrace. “I’ll see you after school, Mom. I love you.” The sudden bright sunlight caused him to wince as he opened the door. ‘Another beautiful summer day.’

“Love you too, sweetie,” was all he heard as the door was closed behind him.

John basked in the warm rays of a summer morning as he walked down the street toward Meadow’s house. He decided it was a good time to put Observe to some use and maybe level it up again. With the use of Observe, everything in his neighborhood that he acknowledged with blanket terms suddenly had a new identity. He ascertained that the greyish brown squirrels he’d seen his whole life had a simple name of Eastern Gray Squirrel, the big trees he used the branches of to pretend were swords were called London Planetrees. He shuddered when he used Observe on Mrs. Roberts, the 58 year old woman that used to babysit him, according to her profile she enjoyed sitting on her porch with a hidden vibrator. ‘I’ll never be able to see her the same.’ He was mentally reeling at the idea of the older woman’s activities.

As he approached his destination, John used Observe on Meadow’s home. It had similar information to most of the other houses in the neighborhood, but the flavor text read “home of the sole friend of John Newman (The Gamer)”. This stung a bit as his bullies came to mind. If Vanessa and Frank had anything to say about it, he wouldn’t have any friends. The pair made it their goal to isolate and humiliate him for reasons unknown to him. Fortunately for John, Meadow’s mother had always insisted on her going to an all girl’s school to prevent unneeded distractions.

He stopped for a moment in front of his destination after feeling pain from his tightly clenched fists. ‘John, relax, things can change now. If those two had any sort of powers like you do, things would be much worse.’ He repeatedly opened and closed his hands to ease their tension. ‘Once I'm on the bus, time will be in my favor and I can mess around with Gamer’s Spirit to try and gain new skills.’ He took a quick glance at his phone as he shifted his thoughts to the task at hand. ‘10 minutes is my safe window.’ When he knocked on the door, it swung inward on its own. This gave him a small view of the disarray in the entry.

John pushed in the door and rushed in immediately. From where he stood, he could see items scattered around and flipped or broken furniture. Everything was in disorder, it looked like a fight had happened. Freaked out by the sight, he dialed Meadow’s number again. “Please answer,” he whispered to himself. A familiar ringtone could be heard from beneath a small, overturned table. There he saw a violet purse with its contents scattered around it.

As John started to call out for the girl, his words escaped him. Only a barely whimpered, “Meadow,” came out. He started to feel light-headed; suddenly he was too nervous to do anything. The voice in the back of his head started, ‘John, the best thing to do is call the police.’ He couldn’t steady the shaking in his hands as he dialed 911.

On the second ring, a calm female voice came through, “This is 911, what’s your emergency?”

The gravity of the situation sunk in further as his phone almost slipped out of his hand when a response that he should have expected startled him. “Hello, um, officer, no, miss, ma’am,” he stuttered nervously, almost squeaky; he never had a reason to call emergency services before.

“Sir, I need you to take a breath and try to calm down. Are you in any sort of danger?” The woman asked in a soothing tone.

“No, I don’t think I am in any danger. Um, my- my-” When he tried to explain his reason for calling, nothing intelligible came out.

The woman on the phone interrupted his muttering, “Ok, sir, I can tell you are nervous, so let's go slowly. My name is Sandra. Please tell me your name, sir.” Being able to put a name to the voice somehow helped him calm down a bit.

“Sorry, um, Sandra, my name is John, John Newman.” The shake in his hands eased up and he spoke a bit louder.

“Ok, John, please try to give me your location so I can send some officers your way, while you explain what happened.”

John took a deep breath. “I am at my friend Meadow’s house.” He gave her the address before he recounted everything; he realized that his freakout had ended and only the worry for Meadow’s safety remained

“Thank you for explaining everything, John. I know that must have been hard.” He could hear the caring sincerity in her voice. “The officers should be on the scene shortly. Please exit the premises. They will need to set up a crime scene and the less it’s disturbed, the better.” For the first time since the call started, her tone carried a stern, direct authority instead of a soft, caring tone. “Do you need me to stay on the line with you while I send some officers to you?”