Chapter 30
Ashley was A-Okay. Everything was fine. Sure, she had just gotten into a huge fight with someone she thought was becoming a friend, and yeah, she was technically currently losing a battle to some evil lady who could create earthquakes out of thin air. But if there was one thing Ashley had learned, it was that no matter what, it was in her own power to maintain a positive outlook.
After the goody-goodies had tried to get all The Challengers to do what they wanted them to do, Ashley and the other independent-minded competitors broke off from the larger group to tackle the various disparate challenges of the trial. It wasn’t long before she ran into an evil lady of chaos who was creating earthquakes to swallow up the city, seemingly for no good reason. Well, maybe she did have a reason, and Ash just didn’t know what it was. What if this psycho was like trying to raze the city to the ground in an effort to stem the tide of Global Warming? Should she be helping her or fighting her? Moral quandary aside, this was a challenge that could eventually lead to Ash gaining a seat on The Council, so it was her job to take this earth witch down!
While Quake (that’s what Ashley was calling the villain in her mind) ripped another fissure down the middle of the road, Ashley dug into her pocket bandolier to find a useful seed. She thought about restraining Quake using her new, totally awesome Liana vines, but there was no telling whether that would stop the earthquakes. She thought of blinding her using Hogweed, but that had the possibility of making things worse if Quake blindly took down a building or something. So Ashley grabbed her strongest multi-use option and threw it into the soil next to the newly created canyon.
From the soil grew the largest oak tree Ashley had ever conjured, and she named him Oakie after the first tree she had created as a kid. The giant oak would be able to help her both protect the civilians who were trying to flee the area safely as well as help her fight Quake. Ash controlled Oakie’s massive branches as though they were her own limbs, swinging some of them wildly at her opponent and using others to create branch barricades to protect the scared masses. Finally, one of her attacks connected, forcing Quake down into her own crevice. Ash paused her offensive and walked calmly over to the edge of the massive hole to make sure the crazed villain was really gone. Fallen into the black depths. But luck wasn't with her.
Quake, or whoever she was, had clung to the wall of the fissure and had shaped the stone into a tunnel, using it to escape the danger. Ashley backed away, trying to figure out the best way to save the surrounding crowds while simultaneously taking out one of the most powerful metas she had ever encountered. She was paralyzed in thought when Quake sprung up from the Earth and created a giant sinkhole just under Oakie, who was pulled slowly into the churning earth like an armadillo into quicksand.
Ashley quickly commanded Oakie to extend his roots out and anchor himself in place, then took out her Liana seeds. She willed them to sprout into long strong vines for people to grab onto and anchored the tendrils of the vines to the parts of the asphalt that hadn’t yet been disrupted. It was up to these people to save themselves now. There were just too many of them, and anything she could manage would be a temporary fix. What she really needed to do was take down Quake before any further damage could materialize.
Ashley was struggling to split her focus. She was trying to keep an eye on Oakie to make sure he didn’t slip further down into the sinkhole, while at the same time, she was dividing the vine staff, again and again, to reach and wrap around all of the drowning civilians. She couldn’t keep this up for long. Maybe she had been wrong to reject June’s initial strategy. If just one of her fellow Challengers were here with her, she would be faring at least a little bit better. If nothing else, she would have been able to avoid this level of dangerous multitasking.
One of Oakie’s largest branches landed a blow on Quake, causing her to lose her balance. Ashley saw the opportunity and willed Oakie to unleash a barrage of branches to wrap around the villain creating a wooden cocoon that left only her head exposed.
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“Oh no. I’m caught. You got me.” Quake said flatly and clearly sarcastically as she grinned. “Whatever shall I do?”
Ashley didn’t love that tone, so she kept some distance, all the while shuffling to position herself between Quake and the sinkhole full of terrorized civilians.
“Oakie is my strongest friend. So, if you can get out of this, well… I don’t think you can get out of this. So there!” Ashley played for time so some more of Quake’s potential victims could climb up the vines and escape.
“You Heralds are so predictable. And ridiculous.” Quake laughed
“No, Quake, it is you who are predictable. Fissures? In the middle of streets? How cliche! What is your goal here?”
“Who the fuck is Quake?” the villain indignantly rolled her eyes and scoffed.
“You ar-” The beginnings of another earthquake interrupted Ashley’s attempts at banter. She quickly looked around to see what further damage was being caused as a brand-new fissure split the sidewalk right under some power lines. They fell like dominos. Electricity sparking as the lines tore apart and fell, one after another. People ran screaming.
The earthquake baddie smiled as the havoc unfolded until suddenly, the leaves and branches that held her in place splintered and cracked, then exploded, sending wood shards everywhere. She hit the ground with a roll and stood up with confidence. Clearly, in her mind, she had already won this battle.
“My power is simple but powerful. I can cause the particles in the earth to vibrate at any speed I want.” The villain smiled like a demon as pandemonium erupted behind her. “You can call me Earthshatter!”
***
Bailey worked her ass off, side by side with Bobby and Joel, to help as many people as she could. She felt like an actual Herald. In a part of her mind, she knew she could use this experience to help her future character work, but in a separate small part, a part she didn’t want to admit existed, she liked the idea of actually becoming a Herald. It seemed to be every kid's dream at one point or another: I mean, how could it not be? Doing this kind of work felt incredible. It was a way to help people directly, to improve or even save lives. She imagined that doctors, firefighters, and soldiers felt similarly about their chosen professions.
“Hieroglyph, you still with us?” Bobby shouted, snapping Bailey out of her momentary distraction.
“Yep, still with you guys!” she quickly replied.
Just then, a loud crash came from midtown. Bailey turned and, in the distance, saw a giant tree waving its limbs wildly while powerlines tumbled to the ground like dominos. Hadn’t Ashley run in that direction earlier, all by herself? It looked like she might need some backup. Bailey just hoped Ashley would welcome her help. It didn’t really matter. It wasn’t about Ashley so much as it was about saving as many people as possible. Plus, it looked like Joel and Bobby had things under control on the beach.
“I’m going to check on Ashbury, I think she’s in trouble. You two have got this!” Bailey encouraged before she took out her phone and wrote “lopen” in the notes app and empowered it. She hadn’t told anyone this, but when she was younger, she discovered that the closer to the origin of a word she got, the stronger the effect would be when she empowered it. So, she had taken up etymology as a hobby and studied the history of words that she thought could be useful. Lopen was one of the roots of the word leap. It wasn't the oldest form of the word, but it would definitely give her a little more oomph to help her get to Ashley as quickly as possible. The effect was thrilling! Instantly, she was propelled toward midtown, bounding higher than humanly possible. She repeated the word in her app as she landed and flew another 20 yards toward the girl that she had been fighting with, or at least in a cold war with, for the last month. Bailey wasn’t thrilled to be abandoning her close friends to help Ashley, but she didn’t want to lose the first challenge to those All-Star assholes, either. “This Herald stuff is tough, but it sure has its moments,” she thought as she flew through the air toward danger.