Monday 20th June; 7:00 pm, Some Place In America
I allowed a small sigh to escape my lips, watching, for just a moment, the clouds slowly passing by way up above me in the sea of blue. There, as if hanging by a thread, suspended in the air, the sun beat relentlessly down, basking the Earth in it's light and warmth. Along with it's light came the heat. The inescapable, sweltering heat. Not a breath of air rustled through the trees around us, leaving us to be smothered by wave after wave of it.
I wiped my forehead, removing beaded balls of perspiration that had been threatening to run into my eyes, before giving the surrounding area a once-over glance. My search found nothing out of the ordinary, much to my disappointment. Then, to the edge of the dirt path, I spotted a rock. If you're wondering, by 'rock', I do not mean 'tiny stone' I mean massive-boulder-type rock, or stepping-stone-type rock. "Ky," I groaned, my eyes resting on the familiar, ebony haired boy as he sipped from his water flask. "Haven't we been past this rock already?" I asked, motioning to the said rock. Ky- who had long lost his goofy attitude- glanced over and groaned loudly, confirming my suspicions. Josh and Boomer, our other two companions, stared at the rock with murderous expressions.
Ky- who was, as everyone was, completely exhausted- ran his fingers through his hair in irritation, making it stick up at strangle angles. Then, remembering something, he turned back to me. "Are you not sensing the Kairu?"
"No, it's like it just disappeared..." Nevertheless, I did crouch down and rest my palm against the floor, close my eyes and concentrate, searching for the familiar tug of the Kairu as it alerted me the direction of it's whereabouts. I pulled myself back up to full height, shaking my head in response to Ky's hopeful eyes. "Gone." Was all I said.
He sighed. "Well, lets assume another Team has retrieved it and go back to the X-Scaper." Ky suggested. I nodded while Boomer and Josh gave agreeing mumbles. "Let's go then." We trudged on for a little while, until Josh alerted us of a crashing in the trees behind us, which in all honesty, I had already become aware of, but still... "Run!" Ky urged, as I surged forward and over-took him, dodging past a thick trunk and nearly being assaulted by a tree branch which I narrowly managed to avoid by ducking at the last second. I felt a presence behind me and deduced that Josh was a few paces behind.
"Slope!" I exclaimed, stopping in my tracks as I noticed it. "Slope!" I repeated, louder this time as I could still hear footsteps behind me, but Ky and Boomer still ploughed into Josh, sending all four of us tumbling down the slanted slope, slipping and sliding completely out of control. I yelled loudly and clawed at the rough surface in disparity, attempting to stop my rapid decent. I groaned as my body painfully smashed into the ground, while three others piled on top, knocking the wind out of me.
Boomer, who was the last to fall, managed to slide off, allowing Josh, who had got caught on a branch only for it to snap off in his face leaving a swollen welt dragged himself off and Ky pulled me up after he found his feet. "You alright?" Boomer asked, concern seeping into his voice. Still unable to breathe properly, I just nodded and gave a weak smile while leaning on Ky for support.
"Well, well, well. Look who we've got here; Team Stax." I narrowed my eyes as the leader of the Radikor jumped from a tree branch, landing in front of us, quickly followed by his two Team mates.
Taking in his expression, I immediately realised how convenient this who meeting was; we were exhausted, they looked like they had lots of energy and by Zane's smug look, they knew exactly where to find us. This just reeks; set up! "We've just walked straight into a trap." I dead-panned.
"You finally realised." Zane sneered as Ky ever so slightly pulled me closer to him. "Who do you think was trying to separate you? The Easter Bunny?" And, as he said that, I recalled the near misses we'd had. That tree branch that nearly knocked me off the path, down to God know's where -thank God Ky had tackled me out of the way in time- and that slope, how convenient, then the holes in the path that the boys nearly fell through.
I glared at them, ferocity like never before burning in my eyes. "What do you want?" I growled, clenching my fists tightly at my sides. I knew Ky and the others were glaring, I could almost feel them. If we had heat vision Zane would be melted to the floor by now.
Zair's lip twitched in anticipation as she turned expectantly to Zane. "This." Zane replied simply, bringing his hands up as I shouted move and began to dive away. "Regeneration!" Zane yelled, sending the red attack straight for us, clipping me on the side, hitting Boomer- who hadn't reacted fast enough- dead on, Ky and Josh were pushed into each other and hit the slope sideways. "Get them!" Zane ordered. "I'm going after Maya."
"Run!" I exclaimed, pushing myself unsteadily to my feet. I had to hurriedly untangle myself from the grabbing roots at my feet before beginning to sprint away. I quickly threw a glance over my shoulder, my eyes meeting sky blue ones. His expression was concern like I'd never seen before. Almost immediately a message was passed between us; Go! So I did.
"You can't... Run... forever!" Zane panted. He was struggling to keep up, and I was struggling to maintain this pace. I was already exhausted, now I'm completely drained... I feel almost dead. Not that I know what that feels like. I dodged trees, almost got caught in roots, made a controlled decent down a ditch and scrambled up the other side, ignoring the mud that sprayed up my leg and continuing to run full pelt, hardly caring if I was going in the right direction or not. All that was dominating my mind was getting away. That's all that mattered. My breath was ragged, short and sharp to inhale more oxygen, my muscles were screaming at me to stop, but I couldn't. I wouldn't.
The trees around me began to thin, and I knew I was coming to some sort of clearing. I still wasn't prepared for the plain, flat ground ahead of me. I hared across, my feet kicking up dirt and nearly slipping on the rough grass. Then I stopped. I put on the brakes, my heart pumping as hard I though it might explode out of my chest. Then I looked down and my stomach back-flipped.
It seemed like I was so high up, but this appeared to be the cliff we had spotted from the X-Scaper when we landed. I followed the river and spotted the X-Scaper just where we left it; right before the waterfall and cliff I was currently situated on. I could see three shadowy figures next to the yellow ship. Ky, Boomer and Josh. My heart soared when I realised they had escaped the E-Teens and were waiting for me. But, wait... They could see me! They were pointing up, they were running, they were coming to help me! Just gotta hold out. They've gotta get up here. You just gotta keep your head, My. Behind me I could hear Zane laughing at my predicament. I was now trapped with my back to the cliff. "What are you going to do, Maya?"
My eyes darted from one possibility to the other. Zane, Cliff. Cliff, Zane... Run? Jump? Surrender? What do I do...? What would Ky do...? "It's not hard, Maya. Come with me, I won't hurt you." Zane tried to sound as gentle as possible, as if coaxing a frightened Terrier, it sounded more sneering than calm. You won't hurt me? I won't hurt you!
"Yeah right, Zane. I'm not buying it." I stepped back, glowering at him. Then I felt my centre of gravity shift dramatically. I screamed, managing to right myself before I slipped. The heels of my tattered trainers were now hanging right over the edge of the drop and Zane was slowly closing in. I gave a hopeful glance behind, wishing one of my friends would be there. They were still almost ten metres from the waterfall, there was no way they'd make it in time. "Burn in hell." I hissed, before, taking a deep breath, and jumping off. My world spun, as I screamed, images flashed before my eyes and light seemed to glisten above the water. I curled up into a ball, holding my breath and wrapping my arms around my knees, tucking them to my chest as I fell into the water.
The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was darkness. Then, as my eyes searched, I found the sloped bottom of the plunge pool and realised I was underwater. As a standard reaction, I almost inhaled a mouthful of the stuff. I kicked out frantically, doing the most dangerous thing I could have done at that time and flipping backwards underwater. My lungs were beginning to burn as I struck out towards the glimmering surface. As soon as my head broke it, I flicked my hair off my face and took the biggest, most sweetest breath of air ever. Then, forgetting my breathlessness, my mouth dropped open as my eyes darted around my surroundings. There was nothing familiar about them. Instead of being flat land, were we had parked the X-Scaper, the whole clearing was fringed by row upon row of trees. My hand strayed to my X-Com. "Ky? Can you hear me?"
I waded towards the bank, wringing out the bottom of my tee-shirt on the way. "Ky?" I yelled, pulling myself onto the bank. "Ky!" I repeated, climbing to my full height and cupping my hands over my mouth. "Guys? Boomer? Josh? Ky!" I searched again, wishing to see the familiar tousled hair or the eyes that shined like stars. To hear a joke or even a jumble of computer-crap I don't understand. Instead I was allowed silence.
"Ky! Boomer! Josh!" I messed around with my X-Com for a while. All I got in reply was static. "Anybody...?" I looked up to the sky and sighed. It was already getting dark, I had no idea where I was or how I got here, or even how to get back. Then, in the foliage I could hear a crashing. "Ky!" I exclaimed. The words were only just out of my mouth when a blur of yellow and red tackled me to the ground.
I bit back my scream. "I've got them!" They yelled, triumphantly, the voice sounding somewhat male.
"Don't let them get away!" Another voice replied.
"Yeah, KF, remember what happened Last Time!" This sentence was followed by a sinister cackle which made other voices reprimand someone about some ninja thing.
"When are you ever going to forget that?"
"Er, never! It's awesome blackmailing leverage, KF. You should know we're not letting it go, especially after Last Summer with Red Arrow."
I frowned as I listened to their banter, it was quite amusing, but I needed to prioritise on escaping. I didn't know what was going to happen to me, and to be quite honest I was scared. They could be cannibals for all I know. Whoever was holding me had a vice-like grip. Soon I realised I wasn't going any where, and though back to my friends, wondering it they were alright or not, realising that I may never see them again, or my sister. My little Aliya... Or Master Boaddai or Mookee and his terrible cooking. My thoughts were with them as my heart thumped in my chest, in time with the footsteps fast approaching.
Okay, so this is the first chapter of my first Redakai crossover. It's kind of obvious who's pinning Maya down and what team she's run into.
I do not own the Young Justice Team or Redakai but I do own my Oc's Josh, Aliya etc.
Thank you for reading this chapter, I hope you enjoyed it!