Aquaterra

Earth

Day

Joe blinked in surprise, realising he was standing before a mass of countless blue mountains. Clear water, reflecting the skies above lay encasing the base of the mountains. The fresh smell of the sea cleared his head, putting him at ease. The landscape was beautiful. At the edge of this landscape was a gigantic blue building, dwarfing even the tallest mountains. It appeared that a massive waterfall was coming from the edge of that building, seeping into the mountain range.

“Where are we now?” Joe marveled.

“Aquaterra,” Egg answered. “One of the major bases of the Prionaca Militia.”

“It looks…amazing.”

“Yeah, it does!” Aka agreed with enthusiasm. “I can't wait to go inside!”

“Don’t let its appearance fool you,” Egg warned. “This place is built on blood, and I'll be damned if there aren't at least a hundred bodies buried under every mountain you see. The Militia are killers. Ruthless and brutal ones.”

“Yeah, I've seen that,” Joe nodded.

“Mako was nothing but a small fry compared to what we're going up against. Don't underestimate them.”

“Got it.” Joe didn't need Egg's advice on that. His heart was already pummeling so hard that he wondered if it would burst out of his chest.

“Why did Cheeta bring us out here, instead of in the base?” Aka wondered. She took a few steps forwards and Joe suddenly spotted a glint in the distance. At the same time, Egg had moved his arm in front of Aka with astonishing speed and precision. Joe gaped in shock as in Egg's hand was a blue hilted throwing knife, the blade still red-hot and smoking from sheer air friction, centimetres away from Aka's face.

“That's why,” Egg answered. “Past this point, we're in their range. And they already know we're here from the looks of it.” He dropped the knife with a clatter and it struck the stone ground. Aka blinked with surprise. “Well, let's get going.”

The three of them ventured through the mountains, carefully avoiding the constant traps around the entire perimeter. From flying weapons, to hidden bear traps, and even real life sharks jumping out at them.

“You know, this is actually kinda exciting!” Aka remarked as she ducked under an arrow that had just flown at them.

“I wouldn't exactly say that,” Joe retorted, his back against a large rock. “We should get in as quickly as we can.”

But as the three of them neared the massive facility, they were right away met with an issue.

“There's two entrances?” Aka frowned. Sure enough, they were at one entrance which led to a certain part of the building while there was another, quite a distance away. “Which way do we go?” Both her and Joe turned to Egg.

“You two take this one,’” He told them. “I'll go through the other.”

“Is that a good idea?” Joe fretted. “Splitting up like this?”

“I'll be fine,” Egg said. “I could handle anything here without an issue. We can't risk going all in on one entrance and the enemy escaping out of the other.” He walked away from them, before taking a sudden leap that tore through the air and he vanished from view.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

“Alright, let's go in!” Aka said with a wide grin.

“We're screwed,” Joe muttered under his breath. Aka examined a blue barricade blocking their way in.

“Hmm, Joe, do you think you could break that?”

“Uhhh…” He looked at the material. It seemed to be made of solid steel. He pictured something that could break steel. A massive, spiked sledgehammer appeared out of nowhere in his hands. Despite the head of the hammer being larger than his torso, it felt light. Almost weightless.

“Wow!” Aka gasped.

His chest swelling with pride at this new recognition, Joe drew the hammer back, then swung it with moderate force at the barricade. The steel was completely shattered, bits of metal flying through the air. Joe shielded his face, then waved away the debris as he looked forwards. A swarm of those men in black he had seen before stood waiting in the shiny metal hallway they had just broken into.

“Ah shit,” Joe cursed. The blacked out men raised guns simultaneously and fired at them, loud bangs racketing everywhere. Joe winced in anticipation, but he didn't feel anything. As the bullets had soared towards them, the air in front of them seemed to have stretched, slowing the bullets to a halt before them. Aka stared back at the men, her hands outstretched in front of her. Joe blinked in confusion.

“You guys suck!” Aka taunted. To Joe's shock, the bullets bounced back many times faster than they had been fired, tearing through the men like paper. A bunch of them fell to the ground.

“Is that… your Parabone ability?”

“It is,” Aka nodded. “I call it Spring. I can control something called a Spring Constant. I can apply it to anything!”

“I see.”

“Yeah, so I can make things stretchy, springy or bouncy!” She suddenly stamped the ground and ripples spread along it as if they had stepped in viscous water. The ground itself before then swayed, the walls and ceiling wobbling like jelly. Even the men still standing seemed to bend out of shape. There were screams of horror and confusion among them, as they stumbled around, trying to find a solid foothold. Aka then crouched down and pinched thin air in front of her.

“What are you doing now?” Joe asked. Aka didn't reply. Instead she drew back her arm, stretching the very air in front of her.

“Stand back,” She warned. Joe did as she said, as she seemed to be pulled back further, the air getting seemingly harder and harder to pull. It looked as if she was pulling on an invisible bow and arrow. The ground stopped moving in front of them. Aka gave a smile as the men resumed their attack. She released the air and a massive wind blast shocked the entire building with a deafening roar. The solid steel walls around them were shredded asunder as men were blown away from them.

“Wha…” Joe was completely speechless. Aka turned to him with an excited grin.

“What do you think?” She asked eagerly.

“Your powers are… awesome!”

“I know right?” She said with glee. “With both our powers together those smelly sharks have no chance against us!”

“You might be right,” Joe agreed, returning her smile. Footsteps alerted their attention as more men wearing black approached from separate hallways on either side Immediately, they heard gunshots. Joe formed a shield in either hand, parrying the bullets. He thought of something that could beat all of them at once. A large throwing knife appeared between his legs. “Seriously?!”

“What's the matter?” Joe looked up to where Aka's voice had come from. She was hanging from the ceiling she had elasticised.

“I just thought this'd give me something better.”

“If you want that, you need to be more creative,” Aka said to him as if he were stupid. Joe lowered one of his shields as the men drew closer and grabbed the knife. He threw it at them and it cut a row of them down right away, then ricocheted off the wall, hitting the next row. It continued ricocheting until it had cut down all of them.

“How did it-” The knife continued ricocheting towards the other group, who began to run away from it.

“I got the rest of them!” Aka declared. She swung from the ceiling, dragging her leg. It suddenly elongated into a massive whip, striking them all. The men went flying in every direction, hitting the walls and ground. She landed on the floor with a light thump, her leg retracting with a loud snap, then ran her hands through her red hair. “Who's next?”

“That would be me, I suppose,” A low voice boomed. Aka and Joe looked around, confused, searching for the source of the voice. It seemed to be below them.

“Who's there?!” Joe demanded, forming a crimson sword in his hands. Aka raised her fists. The ground beneath them suddenly tore apart, water spraying in a colossal burst. Both of them leapt back as a giant buzzsaw gyrated through the air, almost cutting them in two. It cleaved right through the ceiling above, continuing on its unstoppable path. Before them, a light brown skinned man landed on the ground, drenched from head to toe. His long black hair lay flattened at his heavily muscular back. He wore an open beach shirt along with beach shorts. As he rose up to full posture, he loomed over them, a muscular menace. In one hand he carried a humongous chainsaw. In the other, he held several unconscious women. All of them had brown skin and were wearing nothing but underwear.

“Bull ain't here, huh?” The man frowned. He then looked down at Joe and Aka, who were still stunned by his sudden appearance.

“Oh, Saw, you've already arrived?” Another, more calm voice asked from another hallway. A dark shadow crept across the walls. Joe's heart began to thump as he only could imagine what else was in store for them. And as he had feared, even more terrifying in real life, the massive monstrosity of a man, even bigger and stronger than the first, Bull strolled in smoothly as if he was on holiday. He walked over to Saw and took the unconscious women from him, before turning back.. “I'll have fun with these. You deal with those two.”

“Didn't-” Saw began, but Bull raised a hand, looked around at him with an irritated expression.

“I don’t care what Mr. White says. Fighting weaklings isn't fun. I'll wait for the other one to show up.”