Disclaimer: This story will contain intimate relationships and sex between two or more males. This will also include strong language and graphic scenes. If this offends you, or you are not allowed to read this due to age restrictions, please leave.
The Legendaries: Part Four
Coop stepped out of his shorts, looking at the beautiful man across from him. He couldn't believe this was happening. He had never expected Dominic Eller, North High School's leading quarterback, pitcher, swimmer (whatever, really) to be this....forward.
"So do you want top or bottom?" Dominic asked, also stepping out of his shorts. "Oh, I'll definitely do top. Never been good at the bottom anyway..." Coop said, now stepping into some pants.
They had decided to split the pitcher's position for their game of baseball in Wellness class since the coach had ordered Dominic to take it easy this week and not overdo it for Friday's game. Coop had a sporty body, obviously, but even though he never played sports for the high school, he did happen to enjoy the occasional game for baseball, football, or soccer. He did, however realize he was much out of practice, since he hadn't played pitcher since the eighth grade when he and Dominic were on the Little League team together. Needless to say, he was surprised when Dominic had volunteered him to split the pitcher's position with. Since he would be pitching at the top of the game, he took the ball from Dominic and started to practice making a few throws.
"Alright guys," Dominic called to the other players in the locker room, "I know this is just a game in Wellness, but last week the other team kicked our asses and the whole baseball team caught crap from the coach for not doing better. We gotta really nail them today!"
`I wouldn't mind nailing something else right now...' Coop thought to himself as he gazed at the perfect muscular globes that filled the back of Dominic's baseball pants. He pulled on a visor and followed the team to the field.
The game went smoothly, for the most part, even though the teams stayed neck and neck the whole time. But, smooth was a good word. Coop hadn't missed the ball, and he did strike out once, but that was just because the track team ran by and all the shirtless, sweaty guys were extremely distracting. Now that they were at the bottom of the ninth inning, Coop's team was in dire need of a few home-runs. When he got to the plate, he snarled at the pitcher.
Roy Everton was the cockiest and bitchiest jerk on the baseball team. Also the ugliest. Though he was talented much like Dominic, his looks were lacking big-time compared to Dominic. He still had a mean curve-ball though.
As Roy pulled back to make the first throw, Coop dug into the dirt, preparing himself. As Roy released the ball, Coop made for the swing, missing it when he felt a telepathic intrusion.
`Coop. Where are you?'
Tori. Of course. She would interrupt a perfectly good game of baseball.
`Tori! I'm kind of busy right now. What do you want?' He asked as he glared at the opposing team's snickers. He must have just looked awesome missing that swing.
`I wanted to remind you that you're coming home with me today to work on Zane's.....problems..' Coop rolled his eyes, body tensing once again for the coming pitch.
`Of course I remember. I gotta go.' He thought. He swung again, before receiving another message.
`You're too sassy for your own good sometimes...' She said before he felt her presence leave his mind. Again, he missed the ball.
By this time both teams were fascinated with Coop. The opposing team was wondering how he could had missed the pitch and his team was getting frustrated.
`Alright, no way I'm missing this next one...' Coop thought, digging in again. The pitch came, and Coop swung. After a thunderous crack, the ball went sailing over the fence and Coop's team brought in three home-runs. Coop ran to home plate and smirked at Roy. Roy just threw his glove to the ground and walked with the rest of his team back to the locker room.
Coop felt really proud, especially since he made sure no one noticed the ball stopped in mid air before he made contact with the bat, sending about two hundred pounds of pressure into the swing.
Sometimes, telekinesis was really cool.
Zane woke from his nightmare screaming. The same one again, the skin-walkers torturing him for information he knew nothing about. He looked to his wrists where he had been bound in his dream. Alarmingly, his wrists showed the marks from the bonds he had just dreamed of. The rough red patches brought more tears to his eyes. Why was this happening to him? And how?
After another moment he looked to the window to see sunlight streaming in. Looking to the clock, he noticed it was one in the afternoon. He had slept half the day away. He rose from the bed began to get dressed. He didn't really have anything to do until Tori and Cooper got home. However, Charles did tell him that he could go down to Millennium Hall and look around today. That sounded like fun.
Zane wandered through the house to the first floor study, where he found the remote and scanned his hand for entrance to the dimensional pocket. As he walked through the portal, he thought about just how weird this whole situation was. Strangely enough, though, he felt at peace about it. He knew Tori would say that was because of Zephyr inside him, but he wasn't sure. He shrugged it off though as he walked through the crystal halls.
He reached the room he had been waiting to explore since his first tour and waited outside for a moment. He was really excited, but didn't want to rush anything. He brought his right hand to the panel on the wall as the scanner read his diamond set ring for clearance.
At first he didn't like his ring. Diamond? How boring was that? But it was a very elegant mix of silver and diamond, and it actually looked pretty masculine. Surprise.
The door hissed open and he slowly walked in, trying his best not to have a total geek-out moment.
He had finally reached the extra-dimensional creatures and vegetation section.
Was he a nerd? Yeah! Did he care? Hell no!
And so, he spent a few hours in the Center for Extra-Dimensional Life, just researching all the different life there was to be found in the universe.
But his favorites were the dragons. He already knew a little about the dragons, but had yet to see one. And they were beautiful.
There were two in the containment field, one blue, the other green. They were both only about four and a half feet long and only weighed two-hundred pounds each. Babies, really.
He had read in their file they had only hatched a few weeks ago. The company knew it would be relatively safe to keep the eggs, since they wouldn't be growing up in Dimension 12. That was policy. If it lived in Dimension 12 for more than five Earth years, it could not be kept in Millennium Hall.
So Zane probably spent another hour, just watching the dragons interact and observing how they moved. He loved it.
"They've really taken a liking to you." Came a voice from behind Zane. The teenager jumped, but found only Charles in the room with him.
"Oh, sorry. I hope you don't mind..." Zane said worriedly. Charles just shook his head.
"Zane, this is your home now. The Heart estate and Millennium Hall. You must start to act like it." Zane only nodded to this. A moment passed before Charles spoke again. "You know, dragons are an excellent judge of character. They usually only choose to speak and interact with the `pure of heart,' whatever that means. But, they do like you. Maybe we can get you in there with them one day." Charles said, smiling. Zane could have passed out.
"Me? In there with them?! That would be awesome!" Zane exclaimed, smiling.
"You never know..." Charles was extremely happy to see Zane smiling again.
"So do we know their special abilities yet? Like fire-breathing?" The teenager asked. Charles shook his head again.
"We're not certain yet, and they're still children. Once they've matured, we'll be able to run some more tests."
"How big will they get?" Charles smiled at Zane's intense fascination.
"Well, we're also not really sure of that yet, either. We don't know exactly what species they are yet, and that will help us determine how much they grow. They could grow to be the size of busses, even. They may grow wings, or they may not. Only time will tell."
"Well, I could sit down here all day and watch them." Zane whispered, resting his elbows on his knees. Charles chuckled when the teenager's stomach growled aggressively.
"Maybe after lunch?"
Two thousand miles across the country, a white-haired mage finished his incantation to reveal the entrance to the hidden cave. He wore tight-fitting jeans and a black v-neck shirt to blend with the mortals he had travel amongst.
An opening appeared in the wall of rock and the man walked into the darkness, towards a small basin in the middle of the only room of the cave.
The door closed behind him. That could be good or bad. He walked to the basin and immersed his hands in the cool water it held.
"Per aquam revele me a dimen decimdou!" He whispered, tossing the water in his hands on the walls of the cave. The walls, shimmered revealing a twelve foot long mirror that stood six feet in height. Instead of glass, a smooth obsidian reflected the mage's appearance back to him, before rippling a new image to its surface.
"What news have you, mage?"
That voice. Always the voice. The ever changing, ever present voice. It always haunted him, speaking with the cries of agony from those who were tortured in Dimension 12. The mage knelt and began his rehearsed report.
"My lords, I followed your instructions in traveling to the earth city of Alamat, California, where I succeeded in the capture of the Legendary potential."
"Good. Where is he now?" The voice asked, inflicting mental unease to the human kneeling. A pause from the mage followed.
"The girl who hosts the Darkening came and was also captured by the Naalgoshi, with my assistance."
"Mage..." The voice came, growing impatient.
"They were both rescued by the boy who is now the merged host of the Phoenix and the girl's father. They destroyed the property and all of the Naalgoshi, including the eggs beneath the house. I was able to use the last of my power to escape before I was disintegrated by the pure flame of the Phoenix."
Silence.
"You allowed the rescue of two legendaries and stood idly by as another human merged with his avatar."
More silence.
"This is unacceptable, human." The mage winced at the words. He had feared this moment the second he left California.
"We empowered you with mystic energies from this Dimension itself, powers not even the Darkening could handle well. We gave you a legion of flesh-walkers. All destroyed. But, with this power you were able to save yourself and run away."
More silence.
He could hear unrest from the other members of The Council.
"We have decided to spare you. We will send more reinforcements. In two waves. We will send a small battalion as a distraction so the Legendaries will not intercept them. You will receive the primary force at the coordinates which will be given to you. But be warned. We have raised these creatures these past moons from their birth. They are not to be used sparingly. Included will hydras, gorgons, manticores, chimeras, harpies, aitu, dragons, abaasy, qlipoth, and many other creatures. Use them wisely."
The obsidian stone shimmered again, erasing any fragment of trace of Dimension 12.
The mage remained where he was, just to maintain his breath.
He was still alive.
But not, he must use his life for his demon masters, or lose it.
Coop pulled into the Heart Estate and flew to the door. Literally. He had gotten a lot better at it. He was hoping Tori could tell him just how fast he could go now. Magical speedometer, maybe?
He let himself into the house. He wasn't sure if that was because Guiliano just hated him, or just figured him to be a part of the family. Either way, Chuck said he was making Coop a key, so that's a plus, right?
Coop walked from the front door and through the glamorous foyer into the library. He could see Tori deep in thought in a pile of books on the second story of the library listening to music through her earbuds. This would be fun.
He silently lifted himself of the ground and breezed through the air so he could softly land behind her. He only had about five feet to go before he landed softly behind her, when Tori snapped a finger and Coop slammed to the ground. Hard.
"Dude! Was that absolutely necessary?" He asked, rearranging his limbs to sit Indian style on the carpeted floor. Tori rolled her eyes. "How do you always know, anyway?"
"Coop, I'm not the only one who could do that. You can do the exact same thing, except instead of using magic, you would just be using your telepathy. You have to think, Coop."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever."
"I will admit you got pretty far pretty fast. You must be picking up speed." She said, mildly impressed. Coop puffed out his chest, making Tori roll her eyes again.
"I've been training a lot. My weight limit is... well, I don't really know what it is exactly. Whatever my Jeep is. That's my limit so far." Tori looked up from her book to Coop.
"You've been practicing with your Jeep? Where? That could be extremely dangerous, Coop!"
"It's fine! I take it to that practicing field the band uses. I figured no one really goes out there when the band isn't." Tori opened her mouth to say something before Coop continued. "And I think I can go pretty fast now too. Flying-wise. How fast do you think I can go?"
"Well, even though your telekinesis will only get stronger, you will have a speed limit, so to speak. Even though technically you could move at an atomic rate, your body would not be able to withstand the pressure. So, if I were to guess, considering your regeneration rate and your telekinetic ability, I would say it would be safe to fly at speeds under one hundred miles an hour. Just to be safe." Tori said all while books were rotating around her. It was like she was reading four books all at once. "Anyway, we're not here for you. Zane has been waiting for us all day."
"Oh, yeah, where is the little hotrod?" Coop asking, wiggling his eyebrows. This earned a stern look from Tori.
"Coop, there are so many things wrong with that. One, you both are Legendaries, and it's never been a good thing when the Legendaries have chosen to mate amongst themselves. Second, he's been tortured so many ways, he may never let anyone touch him again."
"Tori, I can't help that your new brother is actually mildly attractive and that we'll be in close quarters from here on out." He said. After a moment Coop started grinning. "Or the fact that he just got out of the shower. And he's dripping wet. Naked."
Suddenly there was a sharp pain in his mind. It only stung for a second before his mental shields went up, but it broke his focus on remote viewing Zane's naked body. He looked to Tori, who looked ready to kill.
"I can handle comments and stares, but you will not use your telepathic powers on him or even near him without his permission! Think, Coop. He was practically raped, both physically and mentally by those demons. It hurts him when I touch his shoulder to get his attention, and we don't even know where he is mentally. Think, for once, about what your powers could do to someone." Finishing her rave, she slumped into a nearby chair, tears in her eyes. "It hurts me, Coop. It hurts me to know that we might have saved him. And now, there's nothing we can do. There's no way to restore the memory. He wakes up at night, sobbing from the pain of the nightmares. He's lost so much."
Coop hung his head, not knowing what to do. He slowly walked and knelt at Tori's chair, taking her hand.
"Tori, it'll be okay. You said it yourself, things happened how they were supposed to happen. There's a reason. And now, we have to work with what we've got. So tell me what we've got Tori. We've got a seriously messed up kid who can create hurricanes, a seriously goofy and horny kid who can create infernos, and some freaky smart girl who can change the laws of physics against a whole dimension of evil. Sound about right?" He asked with a small smile. She laughed and nodded. "Good. So, Tori Heart, what're we going to do?" He rose and held his other hand out. She nodded again, wiping her tears away before standing and walking to the pile of books.
"Zane says if we try anything telepathically, he doesn't want us to push too hard or go too deep. So, I've found a spell that let's me go in a different way. Same principle, just magic instead of telepathy. It should be painless and he won't even see what I will."
"Good." Coop nodded. Sounded like a good plan.
"This is the dilemma, though: The nightmares Zane has been having are not only haunting them, they are hurting him, again, both physically and mentally. His memories are still being erased and he wakes up with bruises from whatever he's dreaming about. The company has placed very precise and powerful spells on this estate, and even I, myself, have had a hand in the protection of our home. So, technically, nothing from the outside should be able to do this to him."
"So, it's something inside the house?" Coop asked, alarmed.
"What would make sense is that the mage who was in charge of the operation would most likely have placed a spell for this to occur. The problem there, is that since he's dead, his magic should be too. He was powerful, but not powerful enough to pull something like "magic-after-death."
"But he is dead, right? I mean I fried that guy, along with everything in a quarter-mile radius."
"We don't know. There were obviously no remains. In any case, all we're doing today is seeing if we can identify the problem." She said, putting her book down. She opened her mouth to say something before tilting her head to the door. "Never mind, here he comes..."
As if on cue, Zane walked through the double doors of the library. Even though Tori had scolded him, he still took a second to look over Zane's body. Coop was the oldest out of the three at seventeen. Tori and Zane were both sixteen. But man, did Zane look good for a tortured sixteen year-old.
He had a very slim frame, no fat, but really no muscle either. He wasn't that tall, maybe around five feet, seven inches. He had brown hair that was about medium length, where his bangs were just above his eyebrows. He had very white teeth which showed off his blue eyes. But his eyes. The warmth that should've been in a sixteen-year-old's eyes was not there. There was sadness, but mostly, there was pain. He felt for the guy. Tori smiled at Zane and beckoned him over to them.
"Hey, how was your day?" She asked softly. He shrugged before speaking in a very soft voice.
"It was alright. Charles gave me another tour and kind of gave me some more intro on the Legendary stuff. Hey, Coop." He said, as if only just now realizing he was there.
For the first time, Coop reached out with his mind. Not to read Zane's but just to see if he could feel him, like Tori did with Coop. He did not expect what he did find.
Power. Like straight-up. The kid was a powerhouse. Like, Coop didn't know what he looked like when Tori did that to him, but this was still really intimidating. And also unnerving. Someone with that much power and they don't know how to control it? Scary.
Since he was already at it, his consciousness drifted to Tori. That was worse. Tori practically shone with power, with a hint of black around the edges of her aura. Coop totally just guessed at that word, but he figured it worked.
"Coop. Did you hear me?" He heard Tori ask. He came from his daze to look at the pair. She smiled a little. "Show Zane your ring."
"Oh. Okay." Coop said. He had to admit he was a little freaked. But, whatever, the show must go on, right? He held up his arm so Zane could see his silver ring that contained his garnet stone.
"Awesome. And you've already got a lot of energy in there, don't you?" Zane asked, which kind of took Coop off guard again. How did he know? "Oh, sorry, I can just kind of feel it. It's kind of like a vibe coming from it, you know?" Zane asked.
"Even though the other Legendaries can't necessarily `feel things out' like we do, they will still be sensitive to extreme power sources or patterns, things like that." Tori said, explaining.
"Umm... yeah... I've just put some leftover energy into it every night before bed....What else can he do?" Coop asked, genuinely curious.
"Well, technically, he has Aerokinesis. He can basically create and control wind currents and fly."
"Fly? Like me?" Coop asked, getting tired of standing and going to sit on a leather couch.
"Not exactly. Like I said earlier, your flight is built in such a way to where your body creates your limits. His flight is built where his control over his power creates his limits. While using his aerokinesis, his body takes on changes at an atomic level, allowing him to withstand the extra pressure of gravity and the atmosphere. So, his only limit is how fast he can go before he loses control of the wind. Ideally, he'll be able to fly much more quickly than you, but we'll see. And aside from all that, he will also develop a very minor telepathic gift."
Zane also went to sit during Tori's speech. No one except for Tori knew he also had a genius intellect, but even with it, that was extremely boring.
"So did you find something?" Zane asked before Tori could get going again. She looked to Zane, confused at first, but then straightened up.
`Here we go...' Thought Coop, preparing himself for yet another informative speech.
Charles Heart stood at the command desk in the War Room in Millennium Hall. Unfortunately, he had spent much of his time here these past few days. It seemed that whatever was behind the uprising in Dimension 12 was becoming restless. Hour after hour he sent detainment crews to capture another demon that just seemed to walk through the dimensional veil, in very unusual places. Then, he would have to send a damage control team. It just seemed like it was non-stop.
He took off the headset he was wearing and stepped down from the platform.
"I'm going to take a break while it's quiet. If anything happens, follow protocol. I've not even seen my daughter today."
He walked out of the room and through the gateway, returning to the Dimension 7 from the hidden dimensional pocket.
"Are you ready?" Tori asked. She was sitting in front of Zane. He nodded, still unsure. Even though Tori explained what she was going to do, every wasn't really clear yet.
"A reveres invidorium vesparu," she whispered as her eyes quickly flashed black.
And then, Tori was inside of Zane's mind.
It was always something that surprised her, going into someone's mind. Reading minds was easy, but going into a person's inner self, to their soul.... it was a little unsettling. And even though every mind "looks" different inside, Tori never expected Zane's to look like this.
Zane had no form of protection whatsoever. Even regular, non-psychic mortals usually had some form of protection. She supposed since Zane's mind had been torn so many times, there wasn't enough life to rebuild any kind of mental wall.
Since Tori was no longer in the physical world, but more along the lines of the astral plane (which happens to be Dimension 5), she knew nothing here was corporeal, including herself. The light which Zane's mind seemed to exude was a calm blue, a good indicator of his inner peace, even if it was only temporary.
Tori's psychic self walked through the rubble of what should have been Zane's mental protection and began to analyze. While there were obviously a lot of spaces, gaps where memories should have been, Tori didn't see anything out of the ordinary. She could probably use a few spells to find something out, but that was too risky. Magic and telepathy were not the best things to mix. She continued to walk.
Zane's mind was structured very differently from most other people's. She figured it could be due to his Legendary status, or his intellect level, or any other number of things. Zane's mind was built into hallways, with doors that seemed to be mirrors, reflecting back the image of a memory. Many mirrors were smashed, so it made it a little easier to locate possible corrupted memories.
Coop watched uneasily as Tori's body relaxed and Zane's body fell back into the couch. It was weird to watch this happen, and he wondered if that's what it looked like when he was using his telepathy. He wandered around for a while through the library, but never went far. He was just nervous that something might happen. And he was totally ready to jump in with his telepathy if he needed to.
Tori searched for what felt like hours until she began her way back to the magical portal through which she entered. As she worked her way back, she stopped at one of the mirrors, a memory. Something caught her eye this time. The mirror showed Zane and an older man, perhaps his father, at a piano. Zane looked very young, possibly five or six. The two laughed as the man would try and move Zane's hands along with his.
But something was strange about this memory. Tori looked at the mirror itself, which showed some cracks around the edged, almost as if it had been attacked, but not to the point of shattering. Inside the memory itself was something that alarmed Tori. It was what she was looking for.
A red door. Bright, emitting violent waves into the memory. This was both the mind's way of focusing on something it thinks is foreign or violent, and probably what a permanent spell looks like. She took a deep breath and stepped through the mirror, into the memory.
She knew they couldn't see her, but she stopped to look at the man and his son, the boy who grew to watch his father die, and then be tortured for information he knew nothing about. And now he was the avatar for Zephyr. Not fully accomplished, but it was there. She looked away from the two and to the door again. The bright light hurt her eyes a little. She mentally prepared herself for whatever was about to happen and waved at the door, causing it to open. She barely had time to throw herself to the ground before bat-like creatures flew from its depths.
Coop had sensed something when Tori began to jerk a little. He started to kneel beside her, as she started to breath more heavily. Zane, who was slump on the couch not two seconds ago, now sat up completely straight, red light flowing from his body.
`That can't be good...' Coop thought. He readied his mind to enter Zane's before a pulse of energy caught him. He was thrown off the ground and into a nearby bookshelf. Disoriented, he looked around, not sure where it had come from. He could feel a presence in the room that hadn't been there before, but he couldn't pinpoint it.
He felt a sharp stab of pain in his mind before throwing up his mental shields. No way it was getting into his head now.
He stood again, trying to locate the whereabouts of his attacker. Across the room, Zane had begun to lift from his seat into the air, and the couches and chairs from the sitting area were making themselves into projectiles against Coop.
`What the hell?' Coop thought easily navigating through the missiles. He deflected two with his telekinesis and dodged the other two pretty effortlessly.
`Tori what's going on?' He projected into her mind. No response. Awesome.
Inside of Zane's mind, Tori flew through the air in attempts to dodge the psychic projectiles these astral creatures were throwing at her. As soon as they had been freed, they grew from bat-sized to about the size of ostriches. And they were really annoying. But she made herself run from the situation to get back to the portal. She knew an astral spectre had been released into the physical world, and that was what had been tied to the spell. As soon as she could get out, she could reveal its presence and Coop could destroy it.
`Definitely easier said than done...' She thought, rolling across the ground to dodge another attack. As if in a whisper she heard from the direction of the portal:
`Tori, what's going on?'
"Hang on, Coop, I'm coming."
As soon as Charles Heart reached the physical world again, he felt a disturbance in his own home. Violence and magic. Not something of his daughter's doing, he was sure. He rushed across the house, bursting into the library doors.
There sat Tori, her body kneeling on the floor in front of where the couch should have been, her eyes closed. Then, Zane's body, floating in the air, a violent red light shining from his aura. Then across the room, Coop rolling across the floor, avoiding attacks of heavy bookshelves and fireplace tools.
"Chuck, about time!" Coop said, waving his hand so one of the pokers from the fireplace wouldn't impale Tori's father.
"What's going on?" Charles asked, now readying magic to defend himself as well.
"I don't know! Tori went into Zane's head and was in there for like, a minute and then she started to jerk and Zane started going on `Transfiguration on the Mount' and I started getting crap thrown at me." Coop explained, creating a telekinetic bubble around the pair.
"But Tori was in Zane's mind, is that correct?" Charles asked, quickly scanning the room. Coop nodded. "Alright, let's see if we can find what's causing this commotion?"
"Revelar mentem adgress vesparu!"
Immediately, a figure shimmered into existence. Alarmingly enough, it looked just like the white-haired wizard who had been at the Naaolgoshi house.
"What the hell, I thought we killed you!" Coop exclaimed. It turned to meet Coop's eyes. That was when he decided this thing was not the evil son of a bitch they had fought a few days earlier.
This creature had the appearance of the mage, but a demon's face, with red eyes and an other-worldly snarl. On top of all that, he looked a bit like a ghost since he was extremely translucent. Coop could see right through the guy.
Since he now had a target, Coop conjured a fireball into his hand, preparing to throw it before he was stopped by Charles.
"This is no physical creature, but one made of psychic power and magics. Your flame will do nothing but destroy my library."
"Then what am I supposed to do?" Coop asked, irritated. Not a second later, he felt another attack on his mind. This one, however, actually did damage to his shields. He smirked at the creature across from him.
"You wanna play? Let's play!"
"Munio mentem, agressatio a aegrum!" Tori said, being careful to word her spell so it wouldn't have any affect on Zane's mind. She was sure whatever these things were, and whatever spectre had been released was feeding from the energy of Zane's body. He probably couldn't take much more.
She turned to the large, winged creatures who were on the ground writhing in agony and used a final binding spell to trap them together.
"Vetche envedorium desparu!" She whispered, stepping through the portal and remerging into her own consciousness.
Tori awoke to nothing but silence. She looked around to find her father muttering a spell over an unconscious Zane, and Coop locked in a silent battle with the astral spectre.
Coop immediately began to attack using his telepathic training he had received, but apparently this spectre-thing was kinda used to it. He kept throwing invisible attacks at it, but only managed to get a few actual hits in.
The spectre zeroed in on Tori when she began to move. It made manic eye-contact with Coop and snarled, throwing power at the witch on the ground.
Coop's arm and power extended before he even realized it. The telepathic energy dissipated into nothingness, and Coop's began to walk forward.
`This thing is only a fraction of our power. Show him what we can do...'
The Phoenix.
It had spoken to Coop, given him some of its knowledge and power. And yes, he was gonna use every single bit of it.
Coop paced up and down the crystal corridor in Millennium Hall. Both Tori and Zane were temporarily out of commission, and Charles was meditating, trying to restore some of the energies he had used while healing Zane. He hated moments like these. Sure, he had managed to get rid of the thing, but at what cost. Zane had almost died powering it. Tori had almost died trying to get out of Zane's mind. And Coop had obliterated the library trying to avoid the same fate while fighting the spectre.
He felt very useless.
`Cooper, do not dismay. You have performed excellently in the time you have had your powers. When the time is right, you will take command, with power and knowledge beyond your years.'
Phoenix again. Cool.
Kind of.
What do you mean I'll, Take command?''
Silence.
That's when it got old.
Coop sat at the Heart's very large dinner table alone, eating some soup that Guiliano had insisted he eat.
"You've not eaten all day, Mister Cooper. I insist you maintain some kind of diet while you stay in this house." The old waiter had said. Even though Cooper grimaced, he did appreciate the butler's sentiment.
But now Coop was alone. He had been for about ten minutes when he felt a hand touch his arm. Cooper jumped at the contact, especially since he hadn't heard anyone come up.
`Gotta start doing that sense-y thing..." Coop thought as he recognized Zane standing behind him. The younger man smiled at Coop and sat down next to him.
"Hey." Came his small voice.
"Hey. How are you feeling?" Coop asked, discarding his soup and turning in his chair to face Zane.
"Pretty crappy, honestly. But, according to Charles, my dreams should go away now. And apparently that thing was feeding off of my mind and energy anyway, so I shouldn't be as tired."
"Awesome. You'll be back in no time. Plus, training will be a lot easier now. You won't have to take a break nearly as much." Coop said smiling. Zane smiled back and warmth gripped Coop's heart. As attractive as Zane was, Coop really didn't feel that attracted to him. I mean, if the kid came onto Coop, he would probably fuck him right there on the table.
But, honestly, this kid was a good kid, and Coop kind of saw him as a little brother.
Tori walked into the dining room to find her boys playing a game of chess. While she didn't feel her best, she felt much better than earlier. She stood in the doorway a moment, watching in amusement as Zane took Coop's king for what seemed to be the fourth time in a row. The kid did have an IQ of 187, not much less than her own.
"Hey, fellas." She said, announcing her presence to them. Zane smiled at her, but Coop only grumbled, staring at the board trying to find what his fault had been.
"So what's up Tori? I heard you and Chuck talking about something. Spill." Coop muttered. He just was not in the mood...Tori acknowledged him and rolled her eyes.
"As a matter of fact, yes, we were discussing something. In private. In any case, the company has discovered a small force of demons who have torn through the veil at Stonehenge."
"That's stupid. Doesn't every demon in Dimension 12 know they'll pretty much get killed on the spot by the outpost there?" Coop asked, finally laying his head down on the table.
"While you would think they would get the idea, apparently some are not as intelligent as others. Anyway, I suggest you guys come back down to Millennium Hall so we can get suited up."
Again, Coop groaned.
"Tori! You said small force. And there's the outpost there. Why can't we just let them handle it?" Coop whined. Zane raised his eyebrow to Tori who just rolled her eyes again.
"Come on, Coop. It'll be fun. It's the first time we've all worked together as a team." Zane said, grabbing Coop's arm and dragging him to his feet. Tori snickered as she watched the smaller teenager drag Coop towards the extra-dimensional entrance.
"What's up, Chuck?" Coop asked flippantly as he entered the War Room. Charles Heart, once again rolled his eyes at Coop. The teenager had begun to notice a trend in this with the Heart family.
"Well, I daresay you got here just in time. But now, we seem to have just a little bit of a bigger problem." Charles said as he typed into a levitating keyboard.
"What's that, father?"
"Well, it seems that there are three different waves of creatures to come through the veil, all on different continents. They all, also happen to be too big to be taken care of by any of our assault teams."
"That's convenient." Coop said dryly, now observing the maps on the screens more closely.
"My thoughts exactly," Charles spoke, turning to the three. "As much as I hate to do this, I think it is for the best. We can't just ignore three collections of demons this size. We'll have to split you into three teams to head off the demons."
"But, father, Zane has never been in the field alone. We can't just-"
"I know, Tori. That's why I will be accompanying him. Zane and I will go to the outpost at Stonehenge and fend the creatures off there. Cooper, you will go to Brazil and defeat the creatures before they can reach the city of Passagem. Finally, Tori, you will go to Russian town of Kaluga and stop the creatures there from doing more damage. Understood?"
The trio of teenagers nodded, before Charles spoke again. "Now, Zane, if you'll inform them of the creatures that have been spotted which you will be facing. Zane nodded, taking the file from Charles and flipping through its pages.
"Yikes. Alright, well it's uncertain if we'll all be up against the same creatures, but these have been sighted.
"Alright, looks like chimeras and harpies. Both pretty much susceptible to anything. Watch the harpies, though, their screams cause blood vessels to burst. Dragons. Great, and we don't know if they fire or what. Lots of uncertainty there...Hydras. Coop, we'll hope you get them. Just remember that they will grow more heads, but you can use flame to seal the opening where a new head can grow. Oh, looks like some aitu as well. They feed off of your fears and negative emotions. Be careful, and make sure it doesn't make physical contact with you." Zane said.
Coop was confused as to how the kid knew all of this, he was about to ask, when Charles returned, already suited up in battle armor.
"Alright, kids. Be careful, and stay alert. Use your energy wisely, and radio in when you're done. I'm not sure how much assistance we can provide you, but you'll all have a small team to go in with you. Good luck."
Coop's figure formed into existence along with his small team of eight. He knew they were near a town in the north of Brazil, and that many demons had been sighted on their way to the town, but didn't know how far along they were or just exactly what they were facing. It did make him feel a little better to have a team with him. He knew he had trained hard for these past few weeks, and he was fairly confident about his skills. Still, having four magic users, a healer, and three members from the company with anti-demon weapons (Coop was still unsure of what they did) made him a little more comfortable with being here. They all managed to settle back into existence, then form a circle around Coop.
"Umm...I guess this is where I give the orders, then... Well, here's what we can do..."
He looked around the area, taking in his surroundings. There was a very large river to one side of the dirt path that led to the town of Passagem. On the other was a rather think forrest, which is where the demons would supposedly be coming from. Coop's team was supposed to go into the forrest and stop the creatures from getting closer to the town. Seem simple in theory.
"Alright, since this is the tree line, they'll obviously have to come out here if they're going towards the town. Our job is to not let them reach Passagem. So, we'll all go into the forrest and try to head them off. If we need to, we'll double back. How many demonic signals are you picking up?" He asked the witch to his left. She looked into a small mirror she had.
"From what we can tell, there are about twenty in the forrest. We still do not know the species."
`Great,' Coop thought. "Okay, make sure to stay in teams if you have to split up. Be careful, and signal if you need assistance."
Zane and Charles both arrived at Stonehenge to find the outpost's soldiers waiting for orders. There were only four of them, but Charles figured they wouldn't need more than that anyway.
"Alright, scrying intel tells us the demons will pretty much just be coming right out at the stones. Make sure you watch yourselves, especially since there will probably be stuff flying all over the place."
Just like clockwork, as soon as Charles turned around, the air in the middle of the stone shimmered, and red light filled the area. One, first, then, two, then four, then ten, then twenty. Demons poured through the opening and attacked mercilessly.
`Here we go,' thought Zane.
As soon as Tori's group landed, screams filled the air, along with the smell of smoke and death.
She took only a moment to assess the situation: Small village. Rows of houses, mostly stone. Villagers running around like mad people. Some already dead.
"Alright, spread out, share intel as you receive it. Your first priority is to save the villagers and get them to safety. I'll create a circle of protection you can get them to."
Then, her team was gone, except for two she had ordered to stay and watch her back while she created the protected area.
"Tutus lociare dormiantarum facite...tutus lociare dormiantarum facite..." She chanted.
It would take her about five minutes to create a circle that would be protected against the vast majority of any demon's attacks, plus putting the people to sleep so they're not panicking. She wasn't sure if she had that time.
"Watch out!" Coop yelled, telekinetically gripping one of his soldiers and slinging him across the forrest floor. Halfway into the forrest, they came upon about thirty assorted creatures. Yeah, that was great.
So far, Coop had successfully slain a harpy, two chimeras, and a Naaolgoshi in it's natural form (not pretty). Unfortunately, he had not been able to perform to his fullest for fear of burning the whole forrest down. So, he pretty much just stuck to the small stuff and his psychic powers.
It was rather crazy right now, never know exactly where to look or what to do.
It felt weird, but he could totally tell the Phoenix was helping him out, allowing his to lean into his instincts and get a good hit every time.
"Thisssss one issss the leader!" He heard from behind him. The man next to him turned, and immediately froze. When Coop looked closer, he realized the man was paralyzed. A quick scan of his brain proved there was nothing the man could do to move. Coop immediately threw out a flash of fire that was more dazing than anything and flew straight up into the air. Landing in a tree, he looked down on the scene below.
The man who was paralyzed, surrounded by two green mermaid-snakish creatures. Two other soldiers had also escaped their clutches.
"Where issss he?" One asked.
Coop was rushing to think. Snakes. Paralyze.
`Gorgons' Came the voice of the Phoenix.
`Gorgons? Like the Greek thing?"
`Yes, Coop. Instead of turning you to stone, the gorgons paralyze you so they can drain your life force and eat your flesh. You should be somewhat resistant to their gazes with your regenerative ability, but you will not be immune.'
`Good to know...'
He held his hand out until a small ball of flame had accumulated. He was about to drop it on the snake-ladies when the tree he was in shook violently, as though something had hit it. He looked to the ground and saw, behind the gorgons was a giant bull-headed man.
`Great, the Minotaur....'
"Contrylate refelta konem!" Shouted Charles, bringing two more harpies down from the sky with bolts of light.
The air whipped around Zane as two qlipoth swirled in the air. The two blue, impish looking creatures were knocked together before Zane released the current and they fell from a great height.
"Not many more now, Zane! Keep at it!" Charles shouted over the commotion. Zane nodded and took the two metal rods from his flank and began to fight a demon who wielded a sword.
Tori had created the circle and began to take as many villagers as she could to its safety. Eventually, though, she knew she would have to stand and fight with her team. She left the small boy she had just rescued after sparring with a vampire to the caring hands of his mother within the circle. She took off in flight across the village to where three of her soldiers gathered back to back.
They were encircled by harpies on one side and adramechs, or fire demons, on the other side. She decided she could take the adramechs but summoning water from the nearby stream, but she would have to distract them for a little while.
"Demon swine, look to me and see your end!" Tori's voice projected with power that was not her own. All the fighting ceased momentarily, until her soldiers decided to take advantage of the demons' moments of weakness. Immediately, two harpies and an adramech were destroyed. Then, the demons split themselves. Some fire demons and harpies decided it would be a good idea to attack the Legendary, and the rest stayed to the mortals on the ground.
"Refeltem an aquam et lux!" Tori cried as the skies turned dark and lightening rained down on the harpies taking flight. That made three more down, and her team had taken care of the remaining demons. As they began to celebrate the small victory, her radio activated.
"Ma'am! We have an emergency! There's a magicia-" The radio went dead.
Tori pulled her mirror from her pocket sleeve and looked at the soldier's location. She conveyed the team to follow her and took off once again. Landing atop of a small building, she looked around for clues of any would-be attacker. Her team was below on the ground. Without warning, the three soldiers dropped to the ground and dragged off in different directions.
Tori dropped from the roof and into what seemed to be the square of the town. Buildings were on three sides of her and a riverbed to the last side of her. Yet, she saw no one else.
She sensed the oncoming attack much too late, and only had a seconds notice to cast a crude protection spell to shield her from the pure assault of auric magic. Her shield shattered on impact, but she was left unscathed. She turned to find the spell's caster and gasped.
There stood the white-haired mage.
Coop knew he needed to get out of the forrest so he could he could use his fire powers, but he would need to draw them out first. He slammed two vampires together and impaled them with a dagger he held. He had managed to keep the gorgons at bay, but the minotaur was a problem.
It was just too great of a combination of speed and strength.
"Phoenix: Bird of Flame." Coop whispered, suddenly, a massive phoenix manifested in the air and flew from the forrest. He could sense that most of the demons were following it. He could take care of those that stayed, then attack from the air.
"Fire whip!" He shouted, striking one of the gorgons from behind. It caught around its neck and Coop increased the flame to burn through the gorgon's skin. One gorgon down. He supposed the other left the forrest. Two more chimeras attacked from their hiding places behind the trees (What was up with the chimeras?), both of which he struck down with a fire ball.
He flew from the forrest after telepathically alerting the team to his plan. When he made the clearing, his avatar was doing exactly what he had planned, it had already engulfed one demon, and was rapidly growing to absorb another. The demons were all unsuccessfully attempting to attack it.
`I guess they think that's me...' Coop thought as he began to pull the fire from the bird to himself. The demons turned too slowly before they were engulfed with the flame. He counted ten more demons he had killed. As far as knew, that should be all of them. Except for...
"RAHHHHHHH!!! Human!!"
The Minotaur. Obnoxious much?
Cooper turned on the ground to see it quickly approaching. He smirked as he tapped into his telekinetic powers and grasped the beast. Skillfully, he pressured the Minotaur, causing it to spiral downwards into the ground. The bull-man landed only feet away from Coop, and this turned against him. The Minotaur swung his massive axe at Coop's feet, tripping him to where he was now level with the Minotaur on the ground.
That was bad.
Zane had now felled fifteen demons on his own, and his new guardian had taken many more than that. Even though there were many demons, the whole time it seemed as though it were too easy. Sure, there were a lot of them, but it wasn't that hard to kill them.
He made sure to keep an eye on Charles, though. He knew the man was a powerful magician, but he also knew Charles' energy level would be steadily decreasing.
Surrounding Charles were four large cyclopes, each attempting to swing a club at him from each side. Charles managed to maintain a somewhat precognitive sight to see where the next attack was coming from, but he knew he was beginning to fade.
"Terra redemis quelifola absurba!" He shouted after rolling away from another club swing. Two of the cyclopes began to sink into the ground. The remaining two once again, began to charge.
Charles realized he could not take the two oncoming giants head to head, but the one charging on the right was quickly swiped away by a gale produced by Zane. He saw blood began to stream from it's body as Zane formed the air into razor thin blades.
"Assault of Enlil: Blades of Air!" Zane shouted, before the air rent the cyclopes to shreds.
`Good enough...' Charles noted, quickly forming the words to defeat the next cyclops.
"In toum vibroi-" Too late.
The cyclops was much quicker than he had anticipated, and had swiped him out of the way with its club.
Crumpling to the ground in pain, Charles looked at the cyclops again, this time making sure to finish his enchantment before it brought its club down in a deathly blow.
"In toum vibroijah barzgoul!" He whispered quickly.
The cyclops froze where he stood, grasping at its head until is sunk to the ground, motionless.
"What did you do to it?" Zane asked, helping Charles to his knees.
"Well, technically, I liquified his brain. Crude, but efficient..." Zane nodded.
"You okay?" Zane asked. Charles nodded and smiled up at the teen.
"I'll be okay. Go on and finish, we're almost done." Zane nodded again and began to run towards the next group of demons, until he heard Charles gasp.
Zane whipped around to see two small creatures on either side of Charles' shoulders. They were small grey with four red eyes each.
Shit,' thought Zane. Aitu.'
Charles rose as the creatures' eyes began to glow deeper red.
"You! You will not take her from me!" He shouted to Zane.
"Charles, whatever you think you're seeing is an illusion. The aitu are feeding off your fears and creating an illusion to make you think I'm the enemy!" Zane explained back. A second later he was deflecting a projectile flame from the wizard.
Charles didn't notice the aitu until they had clenched his flesh, and ultimately, his mind, into theirs. When he looked up to Zane, he couldn't find him anywhere. He was no longer at Stonehenge, either. He was in the hallway outside his bedroom at home.
But this couldn't be real. This was the night.
THE night.
The night he had lost his world.
Mara.
The doctor would come soon, tell him they had lost her. Ah, there he was now. Charles could predict every word the man was going to say. Or, so he thought. Instead of the usual condolences Charles remembered, the doctor began to say something else.
`You were never good enough for her anyway. All you got her was dead. You should have talked her out of it. She said she was strong enough, but you knew better. Now look at where she is." The doctor said, smiling and laughing cruelly.
As Charles threw a flame towards the man in anger, the vision changed.
Suddenly, it was not longer his own home, but darkness. Then, out of the darkness, a figure came. It was a bird, black as night.
The Darkening.
It laughed at the pathetic mortal, pondering his existence.
"You knew. You knew she couldn't handle me. And poor Tori was only five when you realized that your Mara wasn't the host, but your daughter. And now, you fight to provide the chance for your daughter to live as my host, the same entity that took your wife's essence. Used her energy. Burned her up until there was no life in her. The entity that drove your son to madness of the anticipation that he was next. And now it's Tori's turn. You were never sure she was my real host anyway. You know that she can't contain me forever. Soon enough, the temptation will be too great, and she'll give in. Then what will you do? Kill her? Stop her for the greater good?"
It laughed maniacally, bringing Charles to the ground in tears. He knew these words were the truth. They were what kept him up late at night, wondering if he was doing the right thing.
But now he had had enough. He rose angrily and threw his energy into an attack at the Legendary. He would kill the thing had killed his family. Or he would die trying.
Zane saw Charles go slump for a few seconds, then without any warning, he rose from the ground, rushing Zane.
Zane flew into the air and soared over Charles, landing on the opposite side of the wizard. Charles threw a series of energyballs at Zane as he changed course to run at him again. Zane flung himself to the side, narrowly avoiding the attack. When he looked up again, Charles was standing over him, black energy running down his arms.
"You will rue the day you chose to step into my family's life, Darkening! You will pay for what you have done!" He screamed, bringing the attack down on Zane. He hit the teenager again and again, before a soldier came running to Zane's aid. The soldier tackled Charles to the ground, attempting to restrain him. Zane sat up, his face bleeding as he looked to the crazed man.
Zane threw his mind the best he knew how into Charles' in an attempt to reach him psychically.
`Charles, this is not real! Fight back!' Zane thought. He finally noticed the two creatures on his shoulders and took an energy pistol from the soldier's holster. He carefully aimed and shot pure energy at the creatures, successfully removing them from Charles. The older mage went slump again and Zane rushed to his side.
The teenage boy looked around to see most of the demons had been taken care of, with the exception of one rogue cyclops.
"Take care of him." Zane told the soldier as he ran across to the other members of his team attempting to head the creature off.
"Status?" Zane asked as he took flight.
"Sir, the last demon, but it appears to be a little more aggressive than the others. Also seems to be stronger."
Of course. Why wouldn't it be?
"Fall back, I'll handle this!" And then the wind began to ripple once more.
( "You! I thought we killed you!" Tori exclaimed. The white-haired mage only chuckled.
"You wish." He whispered as he sent an attack of white energy towards Tori. She held her ground and merely wiped the attack away. It was her turn to laugh.
"I am not an ordinary magician. Though my father is not weak, he is nowhere near as powerful as I am. You will not find victory today. I am the Darkening, and I control that which you think makes you. You think yourself to be a master of magic? I control magic!" Tori shrieked, sending a powerful attack of auric energy towards the mage. This took him much by surprise as it caught him in the chest and sent him flying through three stone villages.
Tori turned to the remaining soldiers to address them.
"Get to the villagers we saved and transport them to the next town. We'll have damage control wipe their mind and take care of this mess."
"What about you, miss?" One of the soldiers asked. Tori smirked.
"I'll be fine, Captain. It's not me you'll have to worry about." She said, glimpsing to the mage as he rose from the rubble.
She rose in the air and glided over above him.
"I will admit that I am impressed you managed to survive a spar with the avatar of the Phoenix, and then survive an attack from the entity itself. But mark my words, you will not survive this!" Tori exclaimed as her eyes grew black.
The mage, with power beyond his ability threw a wave of magic at Tori, catching her by surprise. She veered off her path, but when she turned, the mage had disappeared.
"That's cute. Hide-and-go-seek?" She asked out loud. She felt the attack coming before the mage probably thought about it. She turned to find him mustering another spell which she quenched easily.
"That's enough, isn't it?" She asked as she lifted him into the air. He was bound with magics he did not quite understand. He was regretting coming here.
"Now, why don't you tell me who you work for?" Tori practically ordered, increasing her magical grip on the magician. He winced but said nothing. She grimaced at his stubbornness. "Speak!" She pointed to the ground and his body followed, slamming into the dry dust.
He looked to her and smiled.
"You may think you have won, witch, but I'll be back. And I'll be more powerful. And I will destroy you."
Without speaking a word the mage slipped from Tori's grip. He dissolved into nothingness, leaving only his clothes behind.
Tori breathed a big breath, cleansing her mind.
What had just happened?
Coop rolled away from the initial attack from the blade of the axe. Getting decapitated today would be bad. He actually didn't know if he could regenerate from that...
He rolled away a second time and was able to use his momentum to stand again. He collected the embers around him to wrap his arms once again in flames.
"Ole!" He called, as he swung another whip made of fire. The Minotaur rushed, almost as expected. However, as Coop threw the whip to grasp the creature, the Minotaur took hold of the whip and jerked Coop towards it. Though the Minotaur was in pain, it took Coop into its grasp and threw him into the river.
Cold water greeted Coop, completely drenching his flames.
Now, Coop wasn't a great swimmer to begin with, but add a rushing river to the mix, and you have one unhappy flaming songbird.
The Minotaur began to trudge into the river easily fighting the current. Coop tried to stand, but only managed to barely hold himself telekinetically against the stream.
`If only I could lift myself,' He thought.
Too late. The Minotaur was suddenly on top of him. With a last ditch effort Coop flung himself upwards into the air with his telekinesis. Just when he thought he was home free, he felt a giant maw on the his leg, and he was again plunged into the water.
What felt like tons of water was pouring over him. His mind was in such a panicked state he couldn't use his powers.
He was going to drown.
That was it.
`Fire.' Came a thought.
`Okay, underwater?' Coop thought. Then words came to him. He recognized them as the first words the Phoenix had spoken to him when they merged.
`Some say that the elements of water, air, or even earth is more powerful than fire. But they are all wrong. Fire is the element that brings life, and light. It can also bring death, destruction, and darkness. But fire is necessary. Without fire, primitive man would not have survived. Forests would not have blossomed. And so, we are life. We are light. But we are also destruction and darkness. No mortal or mundane thing can stop us. We are the fire. We are the Phoenix.'
And suddenly, Coop was on fire. Like, on fire. Underwater. Steam began to rise around the Minotaur, and a giant wave of energy pierced the surface. The Minotaur was thrown back a few feet, but instead of landing in the river, it landed in mud. The creature looked around to see dry land everywhere, and a miniature sun standing in the middle of where the river should have been.
"I am the Phoenix, and I cannot be killed. The waters of the earth could not quench my flame. The voids of space could not control my flame. And you are nothing in my sight."
With that, Coop sent an intense wave of heat towards the Minotaur, dissolving it to ashes.
Zane moved with agility and wisdom that he did not possess. The cyclops was definitely a lot faster and stronger than the others. He sent a pulse of wind towards the ogre, knocking it from its feet. He needed to end this, but wasn't quite sure how yet. He did notice, however, that the end of the cyclops' club was metal. A perfect conductor.
For some reason this calmed Zane, but he wasn't sure why, since he didn't know where he was going to get electricity.
Zane flipped to his right as the cyclops brought a fierce blow down to him. This was getting really old, really fast. He sent blades of air towards the monster, though it didn't seem to affect it much.
Zane flew into the air and began to lift the stones of Stonehenge with the wind.
"Aether's Might: Winds of strength!" He cried, unleashing a barrage of the enormous stones on the cyclops. He had thrown four or five before a returning stone knocked him from the sky.
`That sucked.' Zane thought, attempting to reestablish his surroundings. He looked up too late, however, to see the cyclops with its club in hand, bringing the heavy death upon him.
Time seemed to slow suddenly, and Zane, with no rhyme or reason, rolled away, flew into the air, and drew on his power. He would not discover until later the clouds had darkened and the wind grown deathly still.
"Zeus' Wrath: Lightening!" Zane commanded, and within a second, lightening was streaming from the sky in a constant onslaught.
After a few seconds, it ceased, revealing nothing but charred earth where the creature had stood.
Zane weakly lowered himself to the ground, finding stability in a soldier's arms. The same soldier that had saved him when Charles had been attacking him.
"Thank you....soldier...?" He asked with a wondering tone.
"I'm Captain Rider. Ethan Rider. " The soldier smiled. Zane knew it was finished, and closed his eyes to rest. The next time he would open them, he knew he would be home.
The next few days were...interesting to say the least. Coop had awoken, like he had seemed to many time before, in his guest bedroom at Tori's feeling sore and weak. He discovered that each Legendary had some riveting adventure that they would all get to share, he was sure. He just wanted food, and the plush couch in the den of the house.
"Good morning, Coop. Are you better rested?" Charles Heart asked as Coop hobbled into the dining room. Coop just grumbled a greeting to those assembled, which included Tori and Zane.
"Well, now that we're all here, I'm sure you're wondering what exactly happened. To each of you." Charles started, laying his napkin down.
"Chuck, look. As fascinating as I'm sure this speech would have been, can we just cut to the basics?" Coop asked, laying his head on the table. Charles looked to Zane and Tori, who, regrettably, where nodding their heads in agreement.
"Fine," Charles started bitterly, "You were all successful in destroying the demonic forces. We were not, however, able to predict the size of the forces and this was a major downfall. Also, had we been able to tell what creature was where would have been good as well. We are working to improve this intel."
"Tori saved the small village from further destruction, but also ran into our old friend, the mage from the Naaolgoshi house. Intel does support his existence and we are trying to find more about him as we speak."
"Coop was successful in protecting the city in Brazil, but almost at the cost of his life. He did discover, however, that the flame he produces does not require oxygen, and will therefore light underwater or even in space with enough concentration. He was able to vanquish a three-thousand year old demon and dry up a rather important river."
"Zane and I worked at fending the creatures off at Stonehenge, and received the biggest group of demons of all of you. This included five cyclopes, one of which had been magically enhanced, many vampires, chimera, harpies, and aitu. Zane was able to finish the attack when I became....unable to help. He also discovered the ability of minor weather control, or Meteokinesis. The company is trying to research into this further."
Charles looked around the room to see the three teenagers looking at him with dead stares.
"I know it's a lot to take in..." Charles muttered.
Without warning, the three burst into laughter, filling the dining hall with sounds of joy. Charles smiled and began to laugh.
Though they had been through much the past few days, they could still embrace the simple joy of laughter. The road ahead would be rough, but as long as there were times like these, Charles Heart knew he could endure.
Well, thanks for reading everyone. I know this was a long chapter. Lots of ideas rolling around in my head. Honestly, I kind of forgot about this story, but we'll see where we go from here.
So, Charles has beef with the Darkening, and this could definitely lead to dark places. The trio are growing stronger by the day, and they still have two more teammates to find. And our bad guy has returned, though maybe unexpected.
So, definitely send me your thought, ideas, comments, suggestions. I would love to hear all of it!
Email:notoriouslynick90@yahoo.com
Nick!