"You wanted to see us, Komorka?" Sena asked, as she, Donha and Tori walked into the command room.
Komorka smiled up at them from her chair and cup of tea, Hak was sitting next to her, smiling as well.
"I have wonderful news," Komorka said, "it seems we will have a new member on our team."
Tori jumped up and down with excitement.
"What's their name?" Tori asked, "are they my age? Is it a boy or a girl? Do they like to play games?"
Komorka laughed softly to herself, "his name is Finn, and yes, he is very close to your age, Tori. Maybe just a little bit older."
"Do you know anything else, Komorka?" Sena asked, excited herself.
"I don't know anything else," she said, "Elder Sid will be dropping him off on our ship this evening."
"Elder Sid?" Donha asked, curiously.
"Elder Sid is one of the three elders of the Tigeroids, he is very kind and Finn has been a special student of his since he was a little boy," Komorka said, "Elder Pyron and I are the other two elders."
"Ah, I see," Donha said, "but why is he coming here? Not that I'm unhappy, but it would seem to me that someone trained by someone as important as Elder Sid would be doing especially important work."
"I understand, Donha," Komorka said, "even though Finn has gone through difficult training and is qualified to do very important work, Elder Sid would like him to be around children his own age. Since he was been caught up with so much training in a faraway place, there weren't many boys or girls around where he was. Elder Sid feels that this is best for Finn."
The group nodded in agreement. They were so excited though, that it felt like forever until evening came and Elder Sid's ship landed next to the Chasers' ship.
"They're here!" Tori cried out, running down to the ship's entrance and out the door.
Sena and Donha followed him, they stood outside the ship, waiting with anxiety.
A few Tigeroid guards walked out of Elder Sid's ship, then an old man with a hooded robe, similiar to Komorka's, walked out with a young boy. The boy was about the same height as Sena, maybe a little taller. He was pale and had long, dark hair. He had a small frown on his face, he scanned his new teammates with piercing blue eyes.
"Elder Sid," Komorka said, "it is so good to see you again."
Komorka walked over to the old man.
"It is always a pleasure to see you, Komorka," Sid said, smiling a friendly smile.
"And it is good to meet you, Finn," Komorka said, looking down at the boy.
Finn bowed politely and said nothing.
"Why don't you meet your new teammates, Finn?" Sid said, "I've heard they've been very excited to meet you."
Finn continued to say nothing and looked at the ground. Elder Sid smiled and put his hand on Finn's shoulder.
"It will be alright, Finn," Sid said, "we will see each other again soon, I promise. But I feel this is for the best, you can't always train with me forever, you know."
Finn looked up at Elder Sid, his bottom lip trembling. Sid gave a sad smile to Finn.
"You won't be alone, Finn," Sid said, leading him over to Sena, Donha and Tori, "and they don't look like they bite."
"Why don't you stay for tea, Sid?" Komorka asked, walking over to where Sid and Finn were standing.
"That is very kind of you, Komorka, but I must be going," Elder Sid said, "I have very important matters to attend to."
Sid gave Finn's shoulder another pat and then he turned and began walking towards his airship.
Finn watched until Elder Sid's ship was out of sight. Suddenly his sight was full of Tori's eager face.
"Hi there!" Tori exclaimed, "it's nice to meetcha! I'm Tori, by the way! I like your name, Finn! Do you like to play games?!"
Finn was taken aback and backed up into Donha.
"Whoa, sorry there, Finn," Donha said, "my name's Donha. If you ever need anything let me know."
"And I'm Sena," Sena said, "it's great to have you here, Finn!"
Finn didn't say anything, and the silence began to turn a little awkward.
"Come on inside, Finn!" Tori said, grabbing Finn's wrist, "we have a lot of things to show you!"
Tori pulled Finn inside the ship and the others followed.
"This is the kichen!" Tori said, "and this is the command room, and here's Komorka's room, which has the Tai Chi in it! And this is the bathroom, and here's your room. Now that you know the ship, let's play a game!"
"Uh, Tori," Sena said, trying to catch up to them, "why don't we let Finn settle in a little bit before he plays with you."
Tori let go of Finn's wrist and rubbed his head.
"Oh, yeah, I guess I didn't think of that," he said, "okay, Finn, let me know when you've settled in and then we can play!"
Tori ran down the hallway and out of sight. Sena smiled and sighed.
"Tori can be a bit of a handful, but he's a really sweet kid," she said.
Finn still said nothing, and Sena got worried.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" she asked, "I'm sure this is pretty overwhelming for y-"
"No," Finn said, and walked into his room and shut the door.
Sena's eyes went wide, her mouth gaping.
"Uh...okay," she said, quietly. Walking away from Finn's room.
Finn looked around his room. It was pretty standard, a bed, a desk and chair. He took a deep breath, at least it was quiet. Finn had never heard so much noise before, it was always peaceful at Elder Sid's headquarters.
Finn walked to his bedside table and put a picture of Elder Sid on it. Then Finn heard a knock at his door.
"Hey, Finn," Donha said, "Komorka wants to see you, I'll take you to her!"
Finn followed Donha to Komorka's room. Finn walked in and closed the door behind him.
"Hello, Finn," Komorka said, "please, take a seat."
Finn did what she asked.
"I'm sure you know how happy we are to have you with us," Komorka said, "but I haven't heard what you feel about being here. I'm sure this is a big change for you, Finn."
Finn looked down at his hands.
"I wanted to go with Elder Sid," Finn said, finally.
Komorka nodded, understandingly.
"It was painful for him to let you go, too, Finn," she said, "it was a very hard thing for him to do. But he felt that you needed this experience."
Finn nodded, not looking up.
"I have these for you," Komorka said.
Finn looked up, there was a Tai Chi activator and a card holder. He opened the holder to see the Bing card in it.
"Elder Sid also wanted you to experience hunting down Tai Chi symbols," Komorka said, "he felt you were ready for this. I agree with him."
Finn clipped the holder and activator to his belt.
"Why don't you go and get something to eat," Komorka said, standing up, "I believe Donha is cooking tonight and he is very talented."
Finn followed Komorka to the kichen, everyone else was already sitting down to eat. There was a plate of food in a vacant spot in between Tori and Sena. They looked up at Finn and smiled.
"You came just in time, Finn!" Tori said, "Donha's food is amazing!"
Finn sat down and looked at the plate. It was spagetti that had a cheese smiley face staring back at him.
Without another word he began to eat, the others looked at each other and began eating as well.
Komorka smiled and left the room.
Once Finn was finished, he grabbed his plate and began to wash it.
"Oh, that's okay, Finn!" Sena jumped up and walked over to the sink, "it's my turn to wash the dishes tonight. You can just take it easy."
Finn nodded and left the room.
"He doesn't seem to like us very much," Tori said, sadly, eating the rest of his spagetti.
"I'm sure he does, he just needs to get used to us," Donha said, "from what I heard, he was about the only kid who was trained by Elder Sid. He's probably not used to having kids his own age around."
Sena sighed and began to wash the dishes.
Meanwhile, Finn was standing up on the ship's deck. Looking out at the setting sun. The airship moved above the clouds and he could see some stars popping out.
He thought back to being on Sid's ship before meeting his new team.
"But I want to stay with you, Elder Sid," Finn had said, looking up, pleading, into Sid's eyes.
"I'm sorry, Finn," Elder Sid said, "you need to have new experiences outside of your training, you have a mission, Finn."
Finn sat down on the deck's floor. His heart sank when he saw Tori coming towards him.
"Hey there!" he said, "whatcha doing out here by yourself?"
Finn didn't answer, and Tori smiled.
"That's okay," he said, "and I've thought of a great game we could play!"
Sena walked up to the deck's door and opened it up, and gasped.
Tori was running circles around a sitting Finn.
"Uh, Tori, what are you doing?" Sena asked, walking over.
"I'm playing a game with Finn!" Tori shouted, running even faster, "we're going to see who can run the most circles around each other, I'm at 157 already!"
Sena looked down at Finn, he was staring blankly ahead.
Tori stopped running and collapsed at Sena's feet.
"Okay, Finn, 161! Beat that!" he gasped.
"Tori it's actually getting kind of late," Sena said, "why don't we let Finn sleep and then he can be ready to beat you."
"Okay, Sena. Goodnight, Finn!" Tori said, stumbling back into the ship.
"Uh, I guess now would be a good time to explain to you our team and what we do," Sena said, "our job is to find the lost Tai Chi and to fight the Dragonoids when they get in our way. That's not the only thing we do, though, like Tori showed you, we goof around a lot! We also work together to keep the ship up and running, with chores and stuff like that."
Finn nodded.
Sena sighed, and turned towards the door.
"I'm sorry that you don't want to be here now, Finn," she said, "I hope your opinion changes soon, though."
Sena went back into the ship, Finn thought of Elder Sid. Soon he got tired and went to bed.
"Good morning, Finn!"
Finn woke up to Tori's happy shouts.
"Hak said that there was a Tai Chi on the scanner!" Tori said, pulling Finn out of bed, "oh man, only one day in and you already get to search for a Tai Chi!"
Tori ran out of the bedroom and Finn got dressed and followed him.
When he entered the command room the rest of the group smiled at him.
"Good morning, Finn," Komorka said, "I hope you slept well."
"Yes," he said, nodding to Komorka. Which he really didn't, he was up most of the night thinking about his old life and Elder Sid.
"Good, because it looks like this Tai Chi will be a tough one!" Sena said, "from what Hak said, it looks like it's up high in that mountain up ahead."
Finn looked up to see the peak of a large mountain, continuous lightning shot out from the peak, which was hidden by clouds.
"We think that the lightning is the caused by a symbol," Donha said, biting into an apple.
"Hak, find us a place to land," Sena said, "we'll have to do a lot of hiking to get this one."
They were lucky enough to find a place to land at the base of the mountain.
The Chasers stepped out of the ship.
"Wow," Tori breathed, "it's huge!"
He was right, the mountain was icy and there was snow from the hidden peak down to the base.
"Yeah, but we can do it!" Sena said, "let's get started!"
The team began to hike up the mountain, it was pretty simple at first, but then the mountain began to get steeper.
"Tai Chi Mok! Tree!"
Sena and the rest of the team jumped onto the growing branches. The branches took them up like an elevator to a high ledge.
Tori looked over the edge and stepped back, groaning. They were really high up. The ship was just a speck to them now.
They still had a long way to go.
While Sena was working up the energy to use her Mok card again the team looked around.
The ledge they were on was pretty decent sized. The Tigeroid airship probably would've fit up here if it could fly high enough.
Finn turned around sharply, he heard something.
"Is everything okay, Finn?" Donha asked, walking over.
"I heard something," Finn said, suddenly an explosion sounded.
The team threw themselves to the ground to avoid getting blown off the mountain.
Garnia and Jahara stepped out of the smoke, smiling evilly.
"Hello there, Tigerbrats," Jahara said, as the team picked themselves up.
"It looks like you have a new Tigerbrat with you, too," Garnia said, bringing out his battle hammer.
"Tai Chi Seok! Stone!" Donha began to throw boulders at the two Dragonoids.
Jahara leaped out of the way and Garnia began smashing the boulders with his hammer.
"Tai Chi Bing! Ice!" Finn sent blades of ice towards Jahara.
"Blasted kid!" Jahara cried, jumping out of the way just in time.
Finn sent some more blades at Garnia.
"Gah!" Garnia cried out, the force of the ice backed him up against the wall of the mountain.
"Nice job, Finn!" Tori cried, running over.
"Uh, thanks." Finn was surprised, no one besides Elder Sid has ever complimented him before.
"It's not time to celebrate yet, kiddies!" Jahara jumped down in front of them.
"Tai Chi Saw! Thread!" Glowing streams of shot out towards the Chasers. Two pieces wrapped around Tori and Sena.
"Tai Chi Bing! Ice!"
"Tai Chi Seok! Stone!"
Blocks of ice and rocks rained down on Jahara, forcing her to let go of Sena and Tori.
"I'm not finished yet!" Garnia said, charging out towards Tori.
Tori, taken off guard, cringed down waiting for Garnia to plow into him. Suddenly, he felt himself getting shoved out of the way.
He turned around to see Finn standing up to Garnia.
"Go find the Tai Chi!" Finn yelled, "I'll hold them off!"
Donha looked over at Sena. She nodded, and ran over to Tori.
"Are you hurt, Tori?" she asked, helping Tori to his feet.
"I think I twisted my ankle real bad," Tori said, leaning on Sena, "but I would have been worse if it hadn't been for Finn!"
"Donha! Get Tori back down to the ship!" Sena said.
After Donha took Tori, Sena began to hurry up the mountain towards where the Tai Chi signal was coming from.
Finn was still holding Garnia's attention and Jahara was still disoriented to fight.
Finn sent another rain of ice on Garnia, but he was starting to get worn out and his attacks were getting weaker.
"Ha ha, you will never defeat me, kid," Garnia gloated, "Pok! Explosion!"
Finn was knocked off the ledge by the force of the explosion, he just barely grabbed the edge, saving him a long fall to the ground.
Garnia smirked down at him.
"Not so tough now, are you, kid?" Finn gritted his teeth as Garnia drove his heel into his fingers.
Just before Finn was forced off the ledge, a stream of lightning took out Garnia.
Then Sena appeared above.
"Give me your hand, Finn!"
When Sena helped pull him up he could see the unconsious heaps of Garnia and Jahara.
"I got the Tai Chi! Let's get out of here!" Sena said, jumping onto the branches of her Mok card, Finn followed her.
When they came back to the ship Donha was waiting outside for them.
"I'm glad you came back okay!" Donha said, "I was about to come up after you. Do you have the Tai Chi?"
Sena showed him the card.
"Wow, a Jeun card, we'd better show this to Komorka!"
The three hurried into the ship and Hak took off.
Once everyone was in the command room Donha gave the card to Komorka.
"Ah, yes," Komorka said, examining the card, "this is Jeun, the lightning card. It electrifies our enemies and stuns them out of their attacks."
"Wow, that explains why it was so difficult to pick it up from the mountain," Sena said, smiling.
"Yeah, and I hope that we don't have to fight Dragonoids on mountains anymore," Tori said, leaning on his crutch.
"Yeah, that was a tough battle," Donha said, biting into a sandwich.
"I think Finn should have the Jeun card," Sena said, "he really took control up in that battle."
"Yeah, and he stood up for me with Garnia!" Tori said, "you're my hero, Finn!"
Finn looked over with surprise at Tori's smiling face, and gave a small smile back. Sena gave him the card and he placed it in his holder.
"You all did very well today," Komorka said, "I think we all have great potential in finding the lost Tai Chi."
"Well, I'm starved," Donha said, "let's go get something to eat."
Sena laughed, "but you have a sandwitch, Donha!"
Donha smiled and shrugged, "we didn't have breakfast."
The team went down into the kitchen, Tori and Sena made lunch and everyone sat down to eat.
Tori laughed as he reenacted Jahara getting taken out by Finn's ice and Donha's stones. Sena told them about how the card was at the very tip of the mountain. She also told them about the funny look on Garnia's face when she blasted him with the Jeun card. The team laughed and even Finn gave another small smile.
"You're going to have great time being here with us, Finn," Tori suddenly said, after he caught his breath from laughing.
Finn looked at Tori and the rest of Chasers, they were smiling at him. Then he suddenly realized that this was the first time that he wasn't thinking about how much he missed Elder Sid. Finn smiled at them and nodded.
They don't seem so bad, Finn thought, I think that I will like this new life.