Chapter 3: That Person

Teal looked confused. "What...?"

"It seems this was between the end of second year and present." Van replied with a calm tone.

"And how do you know that?" Teal now even more confused asked Van with how sure he was souding.

"Remember that time you messed with those from the other school? They attacked us in group bringing a knife with them and tried stabbing me.You were the one who stopped that guy but you got stabbed in the palm trying to block the attack. That knife went through your palm coming out of your back of the hand..." He replied with a soft tone and a smile.

"Yeah... I remember that. Your wimpy ass started crying after I beat them up." He teased him with a grin on his face.

"Wha— I— I did not cry!" Van was completely flustered avoiding looking at Teal. "It—It's different now... I am not the same person I was that day."

"Yeah, you are different now. You didn't seem to cry when I collapsed today. Anyway why did you bring that up." He smiled with warmth, looking at Van.

"Ahem." Van cleared his throat. "So that day you got stabbed in the palm and you bled there, but when I cut now, it didn't bleed. Instead, it was the robotic palm, with the skin being like a leather piece covering it. The scar is proof that there was a wound. Whoever did that your arm made sure to maintain the detail of it as much as they could and it seems like they made sure that the arm goes unnoticed by anyone. Maybe they analysed the arm carefully before replacing it."

Teal looked surprised how Van broke down the details, every sentence making perfect sense, everything sounded logical and every puzzle piece were coming together to one single conclusion: the person who did this was an expert in what he does maybe the best at his line of work.

"Wow... that's why you are called a genius... but I have a doubt, I don't remember being kidnapped or losing consciousness so long that one can just rip my arm off and replace it with a prosthetic."

"Like I know who did that to you. Look, I just examined the arm and gave you the brief explanation of what "might" have happened. As for how they did it... I am confused about that too. More than that I am thinking why they particularly did that to you?" Van grew more curious about how the arm was built and replaced without Teal's knowledge.

"What to we do now? Although we know the time period of when this happened it's practically useless." Teal grew uneasy. The only clue they found wouldn't let them to any solid lead for now.

"Ugh, this is frustrating." Van groaned but suddenly his eyes widened "Wait. We know the person knows about this stuff. Prosthetic arm with this level of functionality is only possible if the one who did this is a robotics expert. Only a genius would be able to create something so unheard of." 

Teal looked at him but he didn't seem impressed by Van's words at all "You know, you said that only a genius could create it so you are repeating what you said earlier."

"No dude. I mean think about it. Who is a person who knows robotics and and knows many people. A person we know very well like that?" He looked at Teal with a expectant look.

"Who the scientist you admire? What was his name again? Arnold Fingers?" Teal replied with a dumb look on his face.

Van looked at him completely dumbfounded "Wh—What?! Are you stupid? We don't know this dude very much do we? I was obviously talking about Principal Shades, you buffoon." He covered his face and looked up in disbelief.

Teal blinked for a few seconds "Eh? Oh! Debra Shades! Our principal! How can I forget her! Hahaha."

Van looked like he would die of embarassment with the way Teal acted without shame.

"Yeah stop the act. I know you totally didn't get I was mentioning her"

"Hehe you caught me. But who would get it if you just give a slight hint." Teal tried to brush it off by shrugging, trying to play innocent.

"Well leave that. For now our only lead is Principal Debra Shades. Before you ask any dumb questions, we are going to her because she is known for her robotic skills and knows people, so she might know someone who has this kind of knowledge about robotics, we may find the person behind your arm swapping." 

Teal looked at Van "Then what are we waiting for, let's go. It has been a while since i saw Miss Shades."

He rolled the sleeves down to cover his arm. Finding a gloves to cover his hand from the drawer.

Van got up getting ready to leave. They started heading out of Van's house towards their school.

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They both passed through the gate, heading inside the school.

As they walked through the empty hallway, Van and Teal trembled for a moment as a shiver ran down both their spine.

"The school sure looks creepy when there is no one in the hallway. Almost looks like a haunted school from the movies." Van looked around not finding a single soul in sight.

"Aren't most of the haunted school called haunted because it looks empty?"

Van looked shocked, acting sarcastically. "You do know how to think, huh?"

"Now you are just straight up thinking of me as an idiot. I just didn't get one clue you were mentioning." He scoffed in disbelief.

As they moved forward, the silence grew. "What are you boys doing here?" A voice cut through the space between Van and Teal. They suddenly jerked to the sides of the hallway scared, taking up defensive position.

There she was, she stood dressed elegantly. The Principal: Debra Shades. She smiled at the boys with a hand on her hips. "Oh my. Did I you scare boys?" 

They both became breathless, totally scared by the sudden intrusion. "Huff... Who comes so suddenly miss Shades? I thought some ghost popped up." Teal placed his hand on his chest.

Van was scared but regained his posture quickly.

"Who pranks their student in the middle of the hall..."

"Haha. I am sorry, I was strolling the hallway and it was getting boring and I saw you both so I decided to sneak up on you, I didn't know you would get scared like that." She let a small chuckle out, looking at her flustered students.

But her face suddenly shifted to a strict demeanor. "Tell me, what are you two doing so late at the school? Are you here to steal something?"