#apocalypseburg

           The Duplo wasn’t hard to miss. It was ginormous, with bright flashy colors covering its surface. But I wasn’t. I was carefully hidden among the buildings, watching its every move. It was terrorizing the people and destroying everything it decided it wanted to destroy. Jeez, this situation in Bricksburg was even worse than I thought. I mean, everybody was experiencing Duplo attacks, but the people of Bricksburg were hit by far the hardest, to the point where they had to adopt a whole new lifestyle centered around survival and constantly keeping the invaders at bay. But I had been training for this for over two years now.

           Ever since the first Duplo attack on Bricksburg, all I had wanted was to help fight off the invaders. If I couldn’t be a Master Builder, I felt I should at least contribute to the fight in some way or another. I had always struggled with finding my place in the world, and never felt like I fit in anywhere, so I felt that this would be my chance to finally make a name for myself. But since I was only sixteen at the time, I knew I had to finish school first. Thankfully, that gave me extra time to train and develop fighting skills. I did most of my weekend training in Gotham, since it seemed to be the only place out of all the realms that was devoid of Duplo attacks, and sometimes I was under the instruction of Batman himself. As a coach, Batman was strict and not very emotionally motivating, but he certainly knew his shit, so I was grateful to have him as a trainer. Also, he had a damn good taste in workout music.

           But I must admit that there was another reason I wanted to move to Bricksburg. And that reason’s name was Emmet Brickowski. I had already become fond of him in Cloud Cuckooland, but after getting separated from my dad during the raid and ending up alongside Emmet and Wyldstyle in the fight against Lord Business, I developed quite the crush on the heroic construction worker. I felt he was not all the negative things he initially described himself as; in fact, I found him much more brave, smart, skilled, and creative than he gave himself credit for. And even though he apparently lacked experience leading, I thought he was one of the best leaders I had ever seen in action. Never before had I seen someone corral a horde of Master Builders together the way he did. He had a strong voice, commanding but not cruel, and genuinely wanted to help. He had been torn from his old life and thrown into the ugly truth, adapted well, sacrificed himself and ended up gaining Master Builder abilities instead of dying, and saved the world—all without losing his kind-hearted character. And yet, he was completely humble about the whole thing, even saying that the prophecy was about everyone, not just himself. But what I admired most about him was his huge heart. Not once did he say anything bad about Lord Business, or anyone ever, and when the Duplos first came, he tried to make peace with them instead of jumping to fighting like everyone else wanted to do. It’s really no wonder why I fell for the guy. Though I didn’t really see him in the two years I trained, my heart still raced when I thought of him, and often wondered how he was doing. At the time, I thought it was just a silly schoolgirl crush, and that I’d surely wouldn’t feel much the next time I saw him. Boy how wrong I turned out to be…

           I quietly pulled my sword out from the holster on my back and began sneaking up on the Duplo. It was clearly more focused on thwarting the attacks from the citizens of Bricksburg. They were firing whatever they could at it—lasers, arrows, canons, you name it—but none of it affected the beast. If anything, it only became angrier. Though its anger was rather passive-aggressive: it giggled like a schoolgirl the more it was hit, but its body language made its true emotions clear. I scanned its back, looking for a weak spot I could target. Then I spotted a vertical crease in between the monster’s shoulders. Bingo.

           Being as swift as possible, I ran up to the Duplo, leaped into the air, and plunged my sword into the crease on the beast’s back. I heard a couple of cracking sounds as it screamed in agony, and it took all I had not to cover my ears and lose my grip. I held onto one of its shoulders, keeping the sword in place with my other hand, as the Duplo began spinning around in an effort to reach me. After a few rotations, it stopped as it realized that wasn’t working. I almost fell when it suddenly halted, but my reflexes luckily kicked in. Pulling my sword out, I kicked the alien monster right where I stabbed it, and down it went. My feet landed on top of it and I rose my sword to take a few whacks, but it swatted me away with one of its limbs. I heard a few gasps from the citizens as I flew backwards into a wall. I grunted in pain. That certainly wasn’t going to help my already existing back troubles. But I knew I couldn’t let the pain overtake me if I wanted to defeat this thing. So I lifted myself up and charged at it again, this time punching it square in the gut and bringing it down once more. It started to swing its limbs at me again, but it froze, likely in fear, as I held my sword directly to where its throat would’ve been if it had a noticeable neck. It whimpered like an upset child, and for a moment I almost felt sorry for the Duplo. But then I remembered this was one of the monsters that continually attacked our world for no apparent reason. I glared at it, leaning inward to try and assert dominance.

           “Get out,” I growled darkly, “or you’ll regret ever coming.”

           The Duplo glared back at me with its huge, almost pouty eyes. “You’re no fun,” it spoke in its childish voice. It rolled over, causing me to topple off, before leaving the scene and being beamed up into the mysterious spaceship it came from. I put my sword back in the holster and clapped my hands together, straightening myself out. I then turned around to find the citizens of Bricksburg all staring at me with various expressions. I shot them a cheeky, lopsided grin.

           “Thought you guys could use another fighter.”

           “Light?” a familiar voice gasped from the front of the crowd.

           “Ey, Wyldstyle!” I trudged up to her, and we hugged. “How’ve you been?”

           “What are you doing here?” she asked, dodging my question.

           “Come on, Wyld, you know I’ve been wanting to help you fight off these darn Duplos since the day they first came!”

           “How did you…” she struggled to find the words. “That… that was…”

           “That was AWESOME!”

           My heart shot up into my throat as my attention was drawn to the very object of my affections—Emmet.

           “Where did you learn to fight like that??” he excitedly inquired, running up to me. “Your swordsmanship is incredible!! Oh, and all those crazy kicks you were doing was sooooo cool! And when you hit that building I was afraid you were done for but you got back up! Wait, are you okay?? Gosh you must be in so much pain! How did you make such a fantastic comeback after getting hurt so badly?! Wow! You’re amazing!!!”

           “Okay Emmet, you’re impressed, we get it.” Wyldstyle pushed him out of the way so she could continue speaking to me. “You do realize what you’re getting yourself into, right?”

           I, however, had trouble speaking back up. Emmet thought that highly of my fighting? Emmet, the sweet and strong hero who saved the universe, thought I was amazing?? The guy I had been missing and crushing on for two years was really that impressed by unimpressive me? It was too good to be true.

           “Uhhh, yeah, of course I do! This stuff, this is a dangerous endeavor, but I’ve been training and honing my Duplo fighting techniques for two years, and now I’m finally ready to fight alongside you all in Bricksburg.”

           “Apocalypseburg.”

           “What?”

           “We’re actually calling it Apocalypseburg now,” Wyldstyle clarified.

           “Oh.” I scratched the back of my neck. “Of course. Leave it to me to never truly know what’s going on.”

           “So wait, let me get this straight,” Emmet interrupted our conversation once more. “You trained for two years, specifically so you could fight Duplos here?”

           “Exactamundo!” I made a “you got it” gesture. Emmet appeared very awestruck at this point; his wide eyes blinking in wonder and his mouth falling agape just a bit. A warm smile soon appeared on his face.

           “Wow… that’s really brave of you.”

           I swallowed the lump that formed in my throat as he looked up at me. Oh no, he’s even more adorable than I remembered. It was then that I realized that my crush on him hadn’t gone away even in the least bit.

           “I… well I mean, I figured I should give to the cause somehow. So uhh, here I am!”

           “Well now that you’re here…” Emmet paused to hold his hand out. “Welcome aboard!”

           I hesitated for a moment or two, because goddamn his face was way too adorable for his own good, before taking his outstretched hand and shaking it. I had to resist the urge to kiss his hand instead. “Thanks. I-it’s great to see you again, Emmet.”

           “Good to see you too, Light!” My heart fluttered as he smiled that adorable smile of his, but his smile quickly turned into a look of mild confusion. “Wait a minute, is it just me, or did you get taller?”

           “Uhh, maybe?” I aimlessly looked upward as if I were attempting to see the top of my own head. I was always on the tall side, and, indeed, I was even a little taller than Emmet. He giggled at my response to the question.

           “Alright, well, thanks for helping us out,” Wyldstyle continued, “but where are you going to live?”

           “Oh, I just figured I’d build myself a little apartment somewhere, no big deal.”

           “Oh, are you a Master Builder now??” Emmet eagerly inquired.

           “Actually, no, not yet,” I admitted. “But! I’m still working on it, and I’m not too terrible at building residencies, so all I need to do is find a plot to build on and some bricks to build with and I’m good to go!”

           “Good luck with that,” Wyldstyle deadpanned. “Competition is fierce around here. But I admire your enthusiasm anyway.” She patted my shoulder. “Come on Emmet, we’ve got stuff to take care of.”

           “Alright, I’m coming!” Emmet jovially responded as he started to follow her. “Take care, Light!” he shouted from over his shoulder. “Hey, we should get coffee together sometime!”

           “Y-yeah!” I sputtered, barely waving my hand before he turned back around to face Wyldstyle. As the pair walked off, I noticed just how… happy they looked together. Emmet was bouncing happily alongside Wyldstyle, and she had a genuine smile on her face as he mindlessly chattered with her (or so he appeared to be from where I was). He even excitedly grabbed her hand… oh no.

           I shook my head. Why am I so upset about the possibility that they’re dating? I haven’t even seen the guy in two years, and Wyld is my best friend. Am I really gonna let a dumb crush get in the way…?