By Your Side (JWCC Darius x Oc)

Battle Lines

Ben, Darius, and I walked to stand behind Brooklyn as she stood in front of the door to the tree room, where Kenji was.

"You ready?" Darius asked Brooklyn. Brooklyn took a deep breath before pushing the doors open and walking in, Ben, Darius, and I following behind her. Kenji stopped from where he was picking up plates from the table where the date was and glanced back at us. Yaz then came and lead Ben, Darius, and I to the side where Sammy was.

"Kenj, I am so, so sorry, I...." Brooklyn sighed.

"Stood me up?" Kenji finished for her.

"I know it looks bad, is bad, but, but I had a good reason. Darius, Ben, Evelyn, and I found out that.....that your dad freed Kash. And has Mae working with him to perfect dino control. And they've done it." Brooklyn explained but Kenji slammed the plates he was holding onto the table harshly spun to stare at Brooklyn.

"Are you serious?" Kenji asked, but it wasn't the one of disbelief of what his father has done, but of disbelief in what Brooklyn is saying. But Brooklyn did see that.

"Yes. Which is probably what your dad's big presentation today is all about." Brooklyn said.

"I'm not talking about my dad, I'm talking about you. Instead of showing up to our first date, you decided to sneak around behind my back to prove that my dad is, what, some sort of supervillain?" Kenji questioned.

"We should go." Sammy whispered and went to walk away but Yaz grabbed her shoulder and made her stand still. "Right, we should hear this."

"It wasn't like that." Ben spoke up to defend Brooklyn. "Brooklyn tried to get back for the date, but there were obstacles."

"I don't care. I'm not even mad about that. Why didn't you guys just talk to me about any of this?" Kenji asked.

"You were getting so close to your dad, we didn't want to bring it up unless we were sure he was really up to something." Darius explained.

"Fine, I'll talk to him." Kenji said and walked to the door but stopped to turn to us. "But for the record, you guys are the ones who were obviously up to something." Kenji said before walking out and slamming the door behind him.

"Yeah, definitely wish I had left earlier." Sammy said.

"Nothing's changed. We still need to help Mae and stop Mr. Kon." Ben said before heading to the door with Sammy and Yaz behind him but Darius and I stayed to speak with a sad Brooklyn.

"We got this. You don't need to mess things up any worse with Kenji." Darius said as he placed his hand on her shoulder before me and him started for the door.

"Wait." Brooklyn stopped us. "I'm coming, too. This is for Kenji. He....he needs to know the truth." Brooklyn said.

"Are you sure?" I asked.

"Positive." Brooklyn nodded with a determined expression. I nodded before we ran after the others to head to the building in the jungle where we had talked to Mae.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
We snuck behind trees and bushes as we watched a BRAD-X push a cart towards the building with Kash and Mae following behind.

"Few more tweaks, and it's showtime." Kash said before he turned to look at Mae as he walked. "I told you we'd make a great team."

"Right before you tried to have me killed." Mae blunted.

"Never gonna let it go, huh? Daniel will finally see my genius in all its glor-" Kash was cut off when he walked into the BRAD-X. "Take these supplies inside, then go back for the others." Kash ordered it before following it and Mae into the building.