It was quite peculiar really. Neither my friends, Samantha and Charlotte, nor I were expecting anything to happen on that particular Friday afternoon.
It was Friday afternoon, as I just said. School had ended for the weekend, and the three of us had gone to a newsagents shop which doubled as sweet shop (we all needed to celebrate after going the first hurdle of AS exams) We had bought a few chocolate bars and a bag of sweets. Roland's Randoms I believe. Thanks to the 'freedom' of our school's 6th Form dress-code, and because it was also the halfway point of winter and winter in England sucked, we were wearing moderate-chill protection clothes, e.g. tights and trousers along with smart jumpers and, for one, a cream blazer. I also sported a winter coat, making me look like a rolled up blanket on legs. Since it was after school, we all carried school bags, lightly filled due to the lack of lessons during the exam period. Although in Charlotte's case, her bag was a Sainsbury's plastic bag of psychology.
Anyway, we turned the corner leading to my bus stop, and you know what we saw?
A HUGE forest spreading out from the centre of the road.
Definitely not what you see every day.
The cars and anyone inside them were oblivious to the spread of trees, entering and exiting in light blue ripples of energy. We all stared at it.
"Well….whoa", I said.
"Since when was there a forest there?", Sam asked, not to anyone in particular.
"I doubt it's ever been there. And all my senses are yelling that magic is to do with it", Charlotte replied, hurriedly walking toward the forest, ignoring Sam and my protests as we followed behind. As we neared the first line of trees, I noticed a humid and warm wind blowing through the branches. But it was well into winter! This was definitely strange.
I gazed over the huge branches, reaching upward and outward, stretching into the sky. Large flat leaves topped them. Down lower, bushes scattered around, dotted with small purple lily-like flowers. I pushed at one bush, and felt the leaves. They were oddly soft, and gave way easily. However, no blue ripples appeared. The other two copied me, to the same result. It seemed that we were not only the only ones who could see the forest, but also the only ones who could enter it.
"Are we going round then?", Sam asked.
"No", I replied simply. "We're going in. All of us."
"Yes!", said Charlotte with glee, and we all hurried forward into the forest. Almost immediately, we heard a sucking sound. Turning around, we watched as the pavement, the road and a car turning round the corner behind us whirled into a grey mix and vanished. The sound of cars rumbling was replaced with the sound of birds and leaves rustling.
"…I guess we're not going to be able to go back that way", I said, grinning cheerily at Charlotte.
"No shit Sherlock", she replied, not so cheerily as she had seemed mere seconds ago, and followed me as we headed further into the woods. Our silent walk was only broken a couple of times, at random moments. Mostly like so:
"Are we nearly there yet?" Me.
"No." Charlotte or Sam.
And so on.
It eventually became clear that we were badly dressed for this environment, so at one point we pulled off jumpers (and in Sam's case, blazer), and in my case coat, and pushed them into our bags. As I had no room for my coat in mine, I tied it round my waist. Sam even found a few decently big branches to use as walking sticks (I'm not sure where from but I think some trees might have suffered the loss of a couple limbs). The environment turned bizarre, as we trekked on for who knows how long, sweating in the humidity. I was awed by a tall bush covered in glittering blue leaves, imitating a fountain almost. Sam swore she saw a small purple and lilac dotted deer with scarlet horns. Charlotte didn't believe her, until a herd of the deer scattered from nearby. They truly were tiny!
Eventually we came upon a large clearing. Fresh air was blasted into my face, and I breathed deeply.
"I vote we rest now", Charlotte said, dumping her bag and sitting down. I joined her, grinning widely.
"This really is awesome!", I said cheerily. "I have no clue where we are, but it's still awesome." We looked up. It was a blue-green sky overhead, with an odd tinge of yellow around the edge. White scraps of cloud wisped overhead.
Suddenly, three humming planes flew overhead. Charlotte jumped to her feet to wave them down, but I waved at her to stop. My stomach was twisting, but my grin had widened.
"D-Did you see those?", I stammered.
"Yes", said Sam, curious.
"Those were SKIMMERS!", I almost shrieked in excitement. "We're in Atmos!" I promptly keeled over backward, and lay in the grass. "We're. In. Atmos."
"Atmos", Charlotte repeated. "Isn't that the universe in which Storm Hawks is set?"
"Yep", I replied lazily, my mind thrumming through all the things that we could do.
"Wow." Charlotte also now wore a grin that was similar to mine. I know she hadn't watched Storm Hawks in ages, but still. Different world equals opportunity to kick bad guy butt hard.
"What's Storm Hawks again?" asked Sam.
I was about to explain when another set of skimmers flew overhead. They twisted and turned, and we stared in amazement.
"This beats an airshow any day", muttered Sam. I didn't ask when she'd gone to see an airshow.
Then, with a clang, something hit me on the head.
Charlotte and Sam immediately burst out laughing. I scowled at them, but the giggling didn't abate. Rolling my eyes, I picked up the thing that had hit me on the head. It was an odd headpiece, all sharp points.
"You know what this looks like?", I asked Charlotte, in the way a teacher might spring a pop quiz on an inattentive student.
"…Isn't that like the Dark Ace's helmet?", she replied, staring at the helmet.
"Correct! Gold star." And then, still grinning, I plopped the headpiece on my own head. It was fairly big, and the base reached past my chin. Sam looked concerned.
"If that's the Dark Ace's, shouldn't you leave it?", she questioned.
"Pff, if it was the Dark Ace's I wouldn't touch it", I laughed. "But I highly doubt his helmet can fall off. He does all those aerial type stunts, and it never comes off then, right?"
Charlotte also agreed that it was not very probable that the helmet was Ace's. I then picked up my walking stick, and pointed it at her. She also picked up her walking stick, and then broke it in half to create a pair of small sticks. Without talking, we'd made up our minds.
"This time..no mercy", I quoted, holding my 'sword' up in a fencer's pose. We charged at each other, blocked and swiping. Charlotte played Aerrow well, adding in funky quips or quotes every now and again, although ironically was merciless, landing a cracker of a blow whenever possible. I would fire off quotes too, laughing all the while (except when I got poked in the gut). Sam sat at the side, laughing every time we cracked a funny line or one of us got hit on the head. Usually me, which was odd since I had a height advantage. Never underestimate ruthless red-heads.
"No-one messes with the Gomo!", Charlotte proclaimed once, holding one 'sword' up high. I stopped, face-palmed and said in an annoyed tone, "Domo!"
"Whatever." We burst into laughter at that, and started fighting again.
We didn't hear the leaves crackling under someone's feet, or see the red eyes in the undergrowth.
In a whirl of movement, Charlotte had managed to disarm me, and flick my 'sword' into the bushes behind me. Panting for breath, I giggled as I went to get it.
"That was a neat move there", I called to her, pushing a bush's branches aside as I searched. There was no reply. I guessed Charlotte was also getting her breath back, and continued looking, focused on the ground.
Big mistake.
Something bonked me on the head (again), and my stick fell down beside me.
"Ow!", I grumbled, rubbing my head. Then I spotted a pair of boots in front of me. My gut filled with dread, as I slowly took my view from the forest floor, to chest height, then looking up. Cyclonian symbol, check. Grappling hook thing on left arm, check. Pointy chin POINTY CHIN? Why did I notice that? Well, check. And at head level, burning and clearly angry red eyes, double check. Headpiece, nope.
I knew where that was.
I also knew why the others were silent. They were staring in dread at the Dark Ace, who glowered at me.
"…Run", I said monotonously, breaking the tense silence in the glade. Spinning on my foot, I dashed to the side, just missing getting grabbed. I snagged my rucksack, whilst Charlotte also sprinted to the bushes, Sainsbury's bag abandoned (Well, she was hardly going to need that psychology revision any more). Sam was already disappearing in the forest. I quickly joined them, and from the sounds of undergrowth being demolished, it seemed that the Dark Ace was following us.
"We are so screwed", I panted.
"How?", asked Sam.
"Dude! This is the fucking Dark Ace! Not only is he-" I paused to duck under a tree branch, and heard a terrifying crack of severed wood seconds later. "- one of the most feared warriors in Atmos, but he's over twenty and probably as fit as a…PE teacher!"
"A PE teacher?", said Charlotte, looking at me as if I'd suggested to get a Spiny Gorge Sloth as a pet.
"I'm running for my life, throw me a frickin' bone here!", I snapped. As it happened, something was thrown at me, from behind, and I went sprawling on the ground. In a domino effect, I lashed out and grabbed Charlotte's foot. She also crashed down. Sam screeched to a halt when she saw us go down. I let out a muffled groan, and someone grabbed the back of my neck.
Several curses popped into my head at that point.