Susie and Echo stood before the dark fountain. The air was cold, the fountain flowed with a steady whooshing sound.
"Echo?" Susie said.
"Yeah?" Echo said, a bit distracted.
"That was awesome. You fighting Giga Queen with that robot? Like, seriously. Awesome. I'm not even too mad at this Knight guy for making all these fountains, because we get to go on awesome adventures! But, what Ralsei said, about the Roaring? I... it was kind of scary. I mean, not that we're gonna let it happen! But it makes me think... have we not been taking this seriously?"
"...Maybe a little." Echo said.
"It's just... I get the feeling we're getting into something a lot bigger than we realized... and I don't know if we're ready for it."
"Pfft. We're ready. We're heroes, Susie!" Echo said.
"But that Spamton guy? We kind of got our asses beat by him." Susie said.
"Okay, well, we won in the end..." Echo said. They took a deep breath, then sighed. "But you're right. It's not always gonna be fun and adventures. Still, I've gotta hold on to hope, you know? As long as I've got you guys by my side, we can do anything."
"You gotta stop being right about things." Susie said. "Do your thing, then. Seal the fountain."
Echo stepped forward, glowing in the dark of the room. They closed their eyes and...
...
...They were back in the computer lab.
Berdly jolted up, looked around in confusion, and quickly left, shaking his head in disbelief. Noelle followed him soon after saying goodbye to Susie and Echo. Kris glanced at Echo. Echo winked.
"Well." Kris said.
"Well. That just happened, didn't it." Echo said. "Too bad we didn't get around to studying. We're gonna fail this group project, aren't we?"
"It's not so bad failing with friends." Susie said, giving Echo an affectionate noogie. "Sorry, Kris. We're not exactly star students."
Kris shrugged. "We could study at my house tonight."
"Aw, hell yeah! Sleepover at Kris's!" Susie said.
"No, it's not a... whatever." Kris sighed. They turned to leave. "You guys catch up when you're done goofing around."
Once Kris was gone, Susie turned to Echo. "We should get Lancer back to the Grand Fountain."
"Yeah." Echo said dully.
"You've always got me by your side, you know, and my axe. We're gonna save the world. We're freaking heroes, Echo! Stop looking so sad." Susie said.
Echo nodded. Susie knew they still were upset about something, but didn't press any further.
