New Life: A Second Chance

Chad watched as Kyle got on the horse easily and admitted that the kid did have knowledge on how to ride a horse. How the kid first made friends with the horse before getting on. The smooth way he got on despite the pants that seemed to be stuck to his legs, the way his back was straight as he sat there, expertly controlling Midnight.

Chad smirked a bit. Not for long though. Let's see how good a panicked look would be on him.

Kyle sat on Midnight, stroking her neck while listening intently to the instructions. At the moment, he was doing two things at once: hypnotising the horse and thinking of how to use the chaos later to get closer to Mansion BMX - and put the blame on Chad.

Chad wanted to give him a lesson, huh? Well, he's going to be taking advantage of this so-called 'lesson'.

Well, Kyle was only playing around with the thought of putting the blame on Chad. It was tempting, but it would probably not be too good an idea if the permission to film here got withdrawn because of the incident. Kyle watched Chad at the corner of his eye, taking note of the facial expressions and body language while his hands didn't stop stroking Midnight at all the important points.

Hypnotising the horse was Kyle's way of ensuring that everything was within his control. The Kazo Art wasn't limited to just humans though the effect was the best on humans (of course). It could also be used to subdue animals quickly, in getting them to obey you or ignore you.

Kyle had already done the first stage when he was talking and stroking Midnight earlier, which ended when he looked in the eyes of Midnight earlier. The second stage involved deepening the ties by pressing certain points on its neck. Once he felt the horse give a slight shudder under his inbetween his feet, Kyle stopped.

It was done.

"Did you get all that?" Larry was asking Kyle.

"Yes, no problem," Kyle said, "Start from the position where the first pole is and first, trot to the second pole. Get into a slow gallop and avoid the ping pong balls until the third pole. Get into a trot again until the final pole."

Larry nodded, "Yes. Remember. There will be six shots in total. You should time it appropriately. Good luck and be careful."

Kyle gave him his Million Dollar Watt smile, which made Larry stop a bit and question his sexuality for a brief moment when he found himself feeling attracted to the kid all of a sudden. Shaking his head, he scratched his head vigorously as he walked off to the side.

Sam came over to talk to Kyle right after Larry left.

"All ok?" Sam asked.

"Yes," Kyle said openly but at the same time, he used his voice throwing technique and gave Sam some private instructions.

Sam gave an imperceptible nod and walked off into position. He had to find a location that was best to record the whole process. He also took note of where the people who were going to do the 'ping-pong ball shooting' were located.

Fiddling with the third button on his shirt, he squeezed it a bit to switch it on and tapped his spectacles to connect to it. It was actually a camera that connected to MIB and his glasses would open a small window that only he could see. This allowed him to view the camera's view and adjust accordingly.

"Showtime, my angel. You ready?" Kyle asked Midnight as he led her to the first position.

Midnight stomped one foot and nodded.

"Good girl," Kyle praised her. Midnight truly was a very well bred horse and an intelligent one. This would make the whole thing easier.

The first part went by as expected. Nothing out of the ordinary.

When the second part began, it was innocent enough with the ping-pong shooting. Kyle dodged the ping pong balls quite easily and the noise wasn't loud enough to spook Midnight. At the third shot, however, the noise from the ping-pong ball shooter was slightly louder, followed by an even louder shot.

Midnight appeared spooked and she reared her front hooves just as the last shot sounded, seemingly making Midnight completely out of her mind. For at the same time, she slammed down on her front and kicked out with her lower leg, as if trying to throw Kyle off.

The ping pong balls started to rain on Midnight, as the shooters had aimed it to go above and behind Midnight - but due to her staying still and starting to kick about, the balls landed on her instead.

Midnight gave a loud neigh and sped off, looking terrified.

Chad stood up, his face pale.

This was beyond what he expected. He had only wanted to scare the kid to take him down a peg. Not threaten his life!

He had specifically instructed that the shots be slightly louder than normal but not that loud! The last one took the cake and having the ping pong balls hit Midnight was not within the plans at all. All that was supposed to happen was that the kid fell off the horse.

He would be hurt, but not too badly. The grass here was thick and Midnight wasn't running fast at all.

Now, however, Midnight was out of control and dashing away before anyone could catch him. To fall off at that speed was unimaginable. It wouldn't be a simple fall anymore.

There were no horses available to chase after them. There was only one other horse on set, and he was secured in the stables without a saddle. By the time he would be saddled up, Midnight would be long gone. She had been a champion racehorse that had to retire early due to trauma.

There had been a shooting incident near her stables. Though she was unharmed, the loud shooting sounds terrified her so much that she suffered PTSD.*

After that incident, Midnight could no longer run. The starting gun would startle her too much and she would either cause damage at the starting point or run haphazard all over the place. She often injured people around her - or herself.

Right now, as Chad watched Midnight galloping away like the Hounds of Hell while Kyle was holding on to her firmly, he gulped.

"What are you doing?!" shouted Sam towards Chad, "Is the screen test supposed to be this dangerous?!"

Chad broke out of his shocked state and looked at this other kid shouting at him. Though he was pissed at the fact that a kid would talk to him in such a manner, he could not deny that the situation was certainly dangerous.

Not just because of the potential harm Midnight would bring - but also for the fact that the security at Mansion BMX was not ordinary. If they thought Kyle was an intruder ...

Chad shuddered and started barking orders while whipping out his phone. He ignored Sam, furiously trying to get the situation under control.

✿✿ ✿✿

Midnight was having the time of her life. It had been an extremely long time since she was allowed to run freely without restraint. It felt like she was on the tracks again but this time, there as no pressure to beat the horse in front.

She loved the wind in her face, the ground at her feet and she just kept on running. She trusted the human that was riding her completely now. At first, she had been hesitant but his voice and demeanor made her defences go down. She found herself obeying him without any rational thought but she didn't think anything about it.

When the loud sounds started, she panicked for a brief moment then she felt complete calm as she heard the human's voice in her ear. She did as he commanded and found it fun. She kicked about to release her stress that she didn't feel any pain or fear even when those things hit her.

The human told her to just run to her heart's desire, so long as she followed his slight jerks in the reins to indicate where he wanted her to go. So she complied.

And ran.

She was so immersed in the joy of running and was completely trusting the human that even when the loud sounds began again, she wasn't scared at all. In fact, he urged her to run even faster and she did.

She jumped over a hedge and landed easily, scaring a young lady that was sunbathing there.

✿✿ ✿✿

Kyle, in the meantime, had the situation entirely under his control. Though he kept up a scared expression as he gripped the reins tightly - it was all for show. He directed Midnight to head towards Mansion BMX as he wanted a closer look.

Kyle had already gotten the position of all the guards in the area, helped with the areal surveillance Team Yume was giving him in real time. Kay was with them and giving him the live reports so he didn't need any earpiece (Kyle didn't want to take the risk of it being discovered).

So Kyle merely avoided them.

It wasn't possible to avoid all of them, of course but he was quick enough to guide Midnight away from the shots. The horse really was a beautiful creature, responding to every slight touch and command of his, which made the whole process so much easier.

As Midnight jumped over one hedge right next to Mansion BMX, she landed neatly but scared the young lady that was sunbathing there.

Her screams made Midnight jerk up and Kyle fell off.