RISING PHOENIX ACT SELECT

CHAPTER 9: STRONG FORCE

It had been a month since they first decided to team up. Christmas break had passed, and the Dexterous Detectives were all still hard at work cracking the Rising Phoenix case - all while balancing their schoolwork at the same time. As it turns out, the Rising Phoenix really is good at hiding its tracks. In the meantime, Marco continued to practice combat every lunchtime in case he ever had to fight again, using the equipment in the exercise room of the gym to train. On this day, Brianna sat in the corner and helped him whenever necessary.

“Alam mo na di mo ‘to kailangan gawin, diba?” Brianna asked Marco while he went to town on a punching bag.
“I don’t know why you keep saying that, Bri,” he told her between punches and panting breaths.
“Not what I meant, but ok.”
“The next time they get me…I won’t be so lucky. They won’t pull their punches. You know what…why did you come with me anyway…?”
“...Wala kong magawa, e,” Brianna told him.
“That, and there’s something I’ve never really…told you about.”

Marco stopped punching and grabbed a towel to dry off his sweat.
“You can tell me after I'm done training my punches,” he told her. As he said this, however, the top of the punching bag snapped, dropping it to the ground and startling Marco. It then fell towards him, spilling some of its stuffing on his feet.
“...On second thought, you can tell me now…” he told her sheepishly.

“So…you may think of me as some basic girl, but I actually know quite a few maneuvers myself…” Brianna told Marco as she unfurled a long mat on the floor.
“Right, you told me about this…” Marco replied.
“It was because of - ” Marco blurted out before stopping himself.
“Sorry, I forgot I can’t talk about…”
“Okay lang yan. I know it wasn’t on purpose.”

“Anyway…in real life, you can’t just punch your way out of every fight. Minsan, kailangan mong ma-outmaneuver yung kalaban mo. Halika rito,” she said as she motioned to Marco to step on the mat.
“I watched a video about karate moves last night, I think I know what I’m do - ”
In the blink of an eye, Brianna grabbed Marco by the arm and the leg and threw him down on the mat. Marco let out a huge grunt when his body hit the floor.
“Aray ko! Ano ka ba…?!” Marco shouted angrily while Brianna laughed in the background.

“That’s the stuff you can’t learn by just watching a YouTube video…you have to do it…in the flesh!” she exclaimed.
“You…fish sandwich!” Marco yelled at her as he got back up on his feet.
“...Fish sandwich?”
“Whatever, Bri! Just…can’t we try something less intense first? Like fencing, for example!” he told her as he picked up some heavy sticks off the floor.
“Para sa arnis ‘yan, Marco…” she told him with an unamused look on her face.
“It’s just a little sport, Brianna…care to try?” Marco asked her smugly.
“Fine…but I don’t see the point of this,” she told him reluctantly as she caught one of the arnis sticks that Marco had tossed to her. They stepped foot on the mat and began their friendly match.

“See? Now this is actually fun…!” Marco told Brianna as they exchanged a few light hits with their sticks.
“To you maybe…but you know this isn’t going to help! Do you really think they’re going to use swords to fight you…?!” Brianna asked him angrily as they started exchanging more hits.
“Oh, give me a break, Bri…I’ve been stressing over the Rising Phoenix non-stop, just let me have some fun this one time!” he told her as he began to back Brianna to her end of the mat. Soon, she began to push Marco back towards his own.

“That’s all you ever talk about with me nowadays, Marco! Rising Phoenix this, Rising Phoenix that! What ever happened to having regular conversations…like whether Taylor or Ariana is better…?!” she argued as her hits became more and more frequent and forceful.
“If the Rising Phoenix wins, Pisay falls! As long as Obsidian’s still out there, stopping them is priority number one!” Marco yelled out.
“...and for the record, Taylor is better! Ari’s new album sucked!”
“No it DOESN’T!” Brianna yelled back. As she said this, Marco attempted to swing his stick towards her, but she quickly dodged it and used the opportunity to win. She thrust her stick at Marco’s torso, which made contact. As soon as he realized what happened, Marco dropped his stick on the floor.

“...I’m sorry you feel that way, Brianna. We can talk more about it later…” he told her.
“You played a good game, by the way,” he added as he offered a handshake.
“Have you done this before…?” he asked.
“No…I’m just that good,” she explained as she shook his hand.
“I gotta go to the bathroom…” she told Marco as she walked towards the door.
“By the way, your detectives are here. Go deal with them,” she said nonchalantly as she pointed to Glenn and Prairie, who were entering the area. She went straight to the bathroom as the two walked up to Marco.

“Hey guys…!” Marco greeted them.
“...anything new? I haven’t seen much progress in a while.”
Glenn motioned to Prairie who was excitedly holding her notepad.
“You do the honors,” he told her. Prairie cleared her throat before explaining what they’d found.
“Ok…sa wakas, may lead na tayo!” she explained.
“Really? How’d you guys do it?” Marco asked enthusiastically.

“So I may have spent the past month tapping into Pisay’s Wi-Fi and servers and extracting all its contents…” Glenn explained to Marco, who was gobsmacked.
“If they find out about this, we are so screwed...” Marco said as he rubbed the bottom of his forehead with his fingers.
“We? Nah, if they find out about this I’m pinning it on you the first chance I get,” Glenn retorted. Marco gave him an unamused glare soon after he said it.
“Just, continue…” Marco requested.
“Gayunpaman, gumawa si Glenn ng program na nagpadala ng laman ng mga servers sa akin. At hulaan mo kung anong nakita ko kagabi...” Prairie explained as she opened her phone and showed Marco a picture from her gallery.

“What is this…?” he asked.
“It’s an unencrypted series of messages between what we believe to be two members of the Rising Phoenix. They messed up, it was on public Wi-Fi somehow…” Glenn explained.
“From the messages, we’ve deduced that two members codenamed Hexane and Octane are going to meet at the backmost left table of the library tomorrow Wednesday at 12 noon,” Prairie outlined further.
“Wait, tomorrow? But there’s gonna be a school-wide event at the gym…we’re all required to be there!” Marco exclaimed.

“Huwag mag-alala…may kilala akong tutulong diyan. Pupunuin lang niya ang attendance para sa’tin,” Glenn reassured Marco.
“We’re just piling the offenses on now, aren’t we…”
“If I remember correctly, you’re the one who started this whole team thing.”
“Fine…but just this once,” Marco told him.
“They may be meeting to exchange the flash drive…we can’t mess this up.”
Marco continued discussing the finding with Glenn and Prairie, reassuring them both that he would inform Brianna about it later.

After dismissal arrived, Marco soon found himself wandering around the ASTB hall, unsure of how he could kill time before the bus would leave. He soon noticed Darren at the back ASTB, staring placidly at the pond. He quickly went out the glass doors and joined him.
“Oh, uh, hey, Marco…!” Darren exclaimed, not expecting Marco to show up.
“Looks like I caught you by surprise this time, huh?” Marco teased.
“Haha, yeah…” Darren replied.

“So…what brings you here…?” Marco asked him.
“Ewan…gusto ko lang…magpahinga.”
“We’re in Pisay. Don’t we all?”
The two shared a laugh as they continued to take in the surroundings. Soon, a flock of ducks arrived and began to chew on the plants growing in the pond.

“Aww…it’s a bunch of duckies…!” Marco said in a cutesy tone as he pointed at them.
“Hey, Marco…did you know that ducks can fly so high, airplanes can hit them?” Darren told him.
“Woah…that’s crazy. Not really something I want to think about while looking at ducks, though.”
“Oh…oh my God, I’m so sorry…! I should’ve said something different…” Darren apologized profusely.
“Haha, don’t worry, it’s fine. At least you’re passionate about something, am I right?”
“Yeah, haha…” Darren replied nervously. They stood in silence afterwards as they watched the ducks come and go.

“You know, I miss the elem days…we were way closer back then,” Darren recalled.
“I miss them too. When I’m with you, I feel like I can just…forget about everything for a while.”
“R-really…?”
“Yeah. I’m not very good at making friends…I shouldn’t have let our friendship…slip.”
“Well, we can start again now…” Darren suggested.
“Yeah…we can do that.” After Marco said this, another round of silence followed.

“Before I go, there’s something I wanted to ask you…” Darren told Marco.
“What is it…?”
“Um, do you…uh…do…you…” Darren said, stumbling on his words as a confused Marco stared at him.
“Do you…know when our Math AA is due…?” Darren asked.
“Oh. Um, January 16, I think,” Marco replied.
“Ok, thanks, gotta go, bye…!” Darren told Marco as he ran to the drop-off area, leaving him at the pond. Although still befuddled by the whole encounter, Marco put it aside and thought about the plan he was going to execute come Wednesday. He knew it had to go right.


It was the only way.