The others slowly descended from their trees. Isaias climbed down. Marco teleported and Stephan started to lower them to the ground branch by branch until on the last one he swung down with her in his arms. He let her go and she straightened her hair. Isaias was giving him the stink eye. He ignored it and walked to the opening in the trees and looked around. There was the base of a gray mountain too steep to climb.
“Damnit they've trapped us here,” Isaias growled.
Marco nodded and turned to Stephan. “Can you teleport to the ocean from here?”
“It’s a bit far away but I can feel it still. I can take all of us”
“Won’t that tire you out?” Zen asked.
“I’ll need help. Marco we’ll need to trade powers again, and this time you’re taking part of mine as well,” said Stephan.
“I don’t think,” began Marco.
“I do. Who knows what we’ll run into from here? You’ll need to be a strong elemental if you’re going to make it through the end,” said Stephan.
“It’ll be like last time except you won’t have to drain them bringing Zen into the mind world,” said Marco.
“Let’s get to it then. We don’t have a lot of time left,” Stephan said.
The ground began to shake and a Roller was headed straight for them. Behind it was the battalions.
“It seems we don’t have time left at all, brother,” said Marco.
###
Senka drove to the outskirts of the forest, the battalions following behind him. Seriously when are these morons going to get the fact that a man can’t go against a tank? He kept driving through the forest where he knew the giant ridge was. It was impassable. He’d have to...wait...there were people on the ridge, specifically his family members! Damn! They went the wrong way and I brought the whole damn army to them! Guess there’s no other way, they’ll have to fight their way out of this forest.
He sped up the Roller and pulled up a few feet from the teens. All four were holding weapons and waiting for his disembarkation. He pulled the door open and stepped out. They took a breath.
“We thought you were a guard,” Isaias said, pulling in his gun.
“Don’t put away your weapons. I’ve led two battalions on a merry chase through the rainforest. They’ll be coming through at any moment.”
Any moment turned to a few moments later and the head lieutenant known to the others by the badge he proudly wore on his uniform, grinned as he stalked over to the empty Roller and the five captives. “You have nowhere to go. Hand over the girl and we will let you go free.
Isaias pointed his gun at the Lieutenant. “As if I’d believe you.”
The Lieutenant grinned and began to lower his arm. All around them men lowered into firing positions and Zen began to fret. Would it be such a bad thing to go with these men? Her brother and the others would live.
Use me Zen.
The glow of the crystal encompassed her, frightening the lieutenant and he lowered his arm. “Fire,” he screamed.
A dome of water collected around the group encapsulating them in water. Marco made large air bubbles around himself, Isaias, and Zen. Senka had made his own shadow bubble and Stephan could breathe underwater. The bullets sank into the water and were stopped by tendrils of water batting them away. Some got through and it was up to Marco to misdirect them with his wind powers as little as they were. The bullets kept coming and just when Zen was about to pull out the stops and use Ishevara, a strange whirring sound made her look up. She grinned as the SMVK came into view and Val perched on the rim of the opening hatch, stretching out his hand. Perched on his shoulders was Skin, the huge three-foot disappearing iguana with glowing eyes. It caused a few screams of terror from the soldiers.
The bullets froze in midair surprising the guards.
Marek came from behind Val, fully loaded, and waved his pistol at them. “Come at a bad time, Captain?”
Stephan smiled and stepped out of the water dome for a second to reply. “Nope, right on time as always Marek. Now let us on. Who’s flying if you’re out here?”
“Auto, let’s get all of you on here. Val and I’ll hold them off.”
The lieutenant shook off his shock and ordered “fire,” but all the guards’ guns were on lockdown courtesy of one metal manipulator. Val rotated his hand so that his palm was facing outward and the bullets reversed directions embedding themselves into their owners’ heads. Some managed to dodge but were grazed by their bullets. Those left alive were quivering in fear. Stephan lowered his dome of water and Marco popped his air balloons. Then, everyone vanished to appear in the common room where a grinning Edline stood wearing an orange t-shirt and jeans with a light yellow jacket.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Senka, being left behind, used his shadows to travel inside the ship, scaring Edline as his form arose from the shadows.
“Awesome! How did you do that?” cried Isaias as he greeted Senka.
It comes naturally to all shadow elementals,” he said shrugging and facing Edline. He had scared her enough to set her abilities off. Her hair stood on end as bolts of electricity ran off her skin.
Stephan approached her. “It’s ok Edline. He’s with us. He’s related to Zen and Isaias.”
He winced as Edline shocked him. He grabbed her and hugged her tight, passing a hand through her frizzy hair.
“Shh, now, calm those abilities. You can do it, just like we practiced, Little Spark.”
Edline gulped but slowly reigned her voltage inside of herself until only a small spark of it was left. Stephan rubbed her back and ruffled her hair.
“Good Edline. We always need to have control of ourselves and our abilities alright? You’re still young though. You can still get away with losing control this once.”
Edline looked up into crystalline eyes and nodded. “Yes, brother. I’m sorry, he startled me.”
Senka grinned. “I’m sorry about that Ms. I’m used to traveling like this everywhere. It’s part of who I am but I promise not to startle you further.”
Edline nodded. “Who are you?”
“Senka Amargarita...a shadow elemental as you can see.”
Edline’s eyes widened. “I thought shadow elementals were a myth.”
“No, we just moved planets.”
“Awesome!” she squealed.
Stephan left the group to pilot the ship.
“Marek, Val, we’re leaving! Pack it up,” he yelled. The two pirates came aboard smiling.
“Val put the fear of God into them or well of a metal elemental anyway,” Marek said as he walked inside, Val close behind him petting Skin for a job well done. The hatch was closed. Small pings could be heard as the guards fired on the ship's hull.
“Ants, let’s show them what happens when they mess with us. Go weapons hot and fire into the battalions,” Stephan said as Marek walked up to the co-pilot seat and hit the screen.
“Weapons are going hot. Mind telling me what the hell that was about? I thought you went down there to help not get stranded on a rocky surface facing two battalions!”
Stephan looked at him and shrugged. “Plans change. Good thing I’ve got a crew who arrives in the nick of time,” he said, patting Marek’s back and grabbing the steering gear.
“Weapons are hot.”
“Shoot the suckers,” Stephan said.
“On it,” said Marek.
He pressed the green weapon’s icon and watched from the windshield as the guards ran for cover under fire. This was a warning. Next time they’d be nuked and to hell with the rainforest. The SMVK leisurely pulled away and shot into the sky leaving hundreds of guards dead or wounded. It was a bloodbath in the rainforest and one measly Lieutenant vowed never to go after the crystal again if he could help it. His men came first or what was left of them anyway.
###
Stephan stood gazing at a map Marek had pulled out and had pinned to the metal hull by some magnets. Several areas were circled in different colors signifying the boundaries of each Don and Monarchy on this planet. The only untouched place was the Deadlands.
“Here we have Don Kiko’s territory. It stretches into some of Mexico but above that, no one rules,” Marek said.
“Is there any way we can make contact with a nomadic clan? The Arrio are friends of one and…,” began Marco but Isaias shook his head. “No, they’ll look for us there. Any of you know any nomads,” asked Isaias as he stared at the map.
Stephan nodded. “They’re called the Yuka clan. They live near the volcano and have evolved to survive in the hostile environment,” he said.
“Yeah, Rafael the Jefe would help us but we’d be bringing bad tidings to the Yuka clan,” Marek said pointing to the area that held the super volcano known as Kuja to the nomads.
“I don’t want to bring any trouble to anyone else,” Zen said, clutching Ishevara who pulsed under her hand.
“We get it Zen, but we need some place to hide for now,” Isaias replied, walking towards his sister and ruffling her hair. She groaned and tried to evade him.
“These Yuka are our best bet then,” Marco said, pulling Isaias back from a dodging Zen who ended up behind Stephan. He gave her a grin and nodded to his brother. “They are. Rafael owes me a favor. I can wrangle it out of him now.”
“Then the course is set! Let’s meet some Yukas! I always wanted to meet a nomadic tribe,” Senka said from the back. He had his arms crossed in front of him but he had a lazy demeanor about him. He was slouching. Zen smiled and nodded coming out of Stephan’s shadow. “Shouldn’t you call this Rafael up and explain things to him,” she questioned.
Stephan raised his eyebrow. “Deadlands Zen.”
Zen blushed. “Oh right, no signal. Guess we’re just dropping in on them then.”
Marek grinned. “Almost but not quite. We can communicate with the Yuka using their tech.”
Isaias tilted his head. “You have nomadic tech?”
“Yep, Val built some last time we visited.”
Marco turned to Val who was busy levitating a bullet. “You can build nomadic tech Val?”
Val looked up from the bullet. “I can build anything with metal parts.”
Marco nodded and walked over to where Edline was drawing on the sofa. Zen followed him while Isaias joined Senka and Stephan and Marek went back to the cockpit. Stephan unhooked the metal walkie-talkies from their place on the dashboard and fiddled with the frequency until he could hear a slight roaring in the background.
“1-2 This is 3-4 come in!”
Static noise and then a light female voice answered. “This is 1-2! Stephan is that you?”
“Yeah, Mira. I need to talk with your father, Is he around?”
“Yes! Are you coming back?”
Stephan sighed. “Yes Mira I’m coming to visit and I bring friends.”
A squeal sounded on the other end then ”I knew you couldn’t resist me forever. See ya soon!”
The radio transmission was blocked and Stephan cursed.
“So who’s going to tell Zen about your scary fiance,” Marek said, placing the walkie-talkie back in its place.
Zen knew about Asphodel, not Mira. Stephan groaned and slid further into his chair.