Chapter 3

Skylar POV

The white light of the teleporter faded and I stumbled forward, accidentally bumping into Penelope, who simply fell over. Anthony sat next to her, either out of solidarity or because he was feeling queasy too.

"That was terrible," I moaned aloud.

"It's better than walking here," Gordon said coldly.

"And it'll be better next time!" Elliot assured.

"So where are we?" I wondered, taking stock of my surroundings. It was difficult as the only light in the sky was from the stars and a small sliver of moon.

"We are in the night zone," Gordon replied.

"It is very dark here," Elliot said, nodding as if he were saying something very intelligent. The conversation was interrupted by a ping from Gordon's bag. He pulled out his tablet to speak with the Headmaster, Maia and Amber. Their brief conversation culminated in Gordon having a magic tracking app on his tablet.

I peered over Gordon's shoulder at the screen with interest.

"It looks like I have a signal," Maia said. Elliot pushed himself into camera view.

"So do we!" Elliot added. I took a closer look at the tablet; the conversation screen was on the left while a green digital map was on the right, displaying small white dots in some areas. Gordon lightly shoved Elliot out of the way, making him grumble to himself.

"You must find those stones as soon as possible," Headmaster informed. "Good luck, and if you need me, I'll be right here." On the screen, Maia nodded her head.

"Thank you," she said. Ian's face then briefly appeared on the screen.

"Hey-ooh!" he exclaimed cheerfully. Gordon also nodded before closing the conversation window out.

"So what do we do now?" I asked. Elliot glanced at the magic tracker on the tablet.

"I guess we should just look for the Luna Stone. There seems to be more than one magical item around our area, so be careful," Elliot explained. Gordon chuckled.

"For once, you're speaking seriously," Gordon said. "I'm glad you found that part of yourself." Elliot just rolled his eyes, but smiled.

"Yeah, yeah, Mr. Tough Guy. Whatever you say." Elliot replied. Gordon's expression immediately changed then as he glared at his companion. Elliot, on the other hand, began to laugh. I stared at them a bit bewildered, I wasn't expecting the two veterans to argue so much.

"So which magical thing do we go towards?" I wondered, peering at the screen over Gordon's shoulder (which was easy because he wasn't particularly tall). The screen showed various sizes of small white lights pointing in all different directions.

"The Luna stone must be an incredibly powerful object," Penelope said quietly. "It should have a stronger reading than other things."

"True," Gordon said approvingly. "But less powerful objects that are very close to us will still show up more strongly on the detector."

"So we just have to guess?" I wondered.

"Yup!" Elliot said enthusiastically. "We get to go look at all these different magic things!"

"We don't have time to sightsee," Gordon reprimanded.

Gordon and Elliot continued to discuss, which was really more like arguing, about which object to look at first, and I spent the time taking a good look at my group. It had been rushed earlier and I hadn't gotten the chance.

I looked to my two fellow recruits first. They were both rather quiet, the boy more so than the girl, and they watched Elliot and Gordon silently. Penelope was tall, taller than me and Gordon in any case. She had auburn hair that fell just to the middle of her back, covering her black sweatshirt in a wave of dark orange. Her face was marked by a scar, staring at the base of her right eye and splitting her face right to her chin. Whatever had done that must've been nasty and Penelope had my respect for surviving whatever it was. She wore two rings, one, of course, was the ring we'd been given when we joined the organization, hers tied with a blue ribbon indicating water. The other was her own, a small golden ring with a sapphire embedded in it. Her hands were in the pockets of her black cargo pants as her feet, clad in gray sneakers, shifted from side to side in an attempt to warm up..

Anthony had his large black wings wrapped around himself like a personal blanket, something I was a bit jealous of. Not that the cold really bothered me, being a Froslass and all. Anthony's hair matched his wings, though, unlike his wings, the black of his hair was cut with streaks of bright red. The darkness of his wings and hair really brought out his pale features, his skin practically luminous in the faint moonlight. Under his eyes and on his cheeks, there were small blue marks, something that came of his being a Hydreigon I suppose. Most of his outfit was hidden by his wings, but I could still make out the bottoms of his jeans and the black boots he was wearing.

As for the veterans, Gordon wore a lab coat that covered much of his body, only the bottom of his brown slacks visible below and his head above. He generally wore an arrogant expression on his face as he stared at people with his grey-green eyes. His hair was a mess of black spikes and there were various metal bits integrated into his body, part of being a Magnezone.

Elliot, on the other hand, looked a lot more approachable. He was long-armed and lanky with pale skin. His black hair was neatly brushed, the edges of it fading into an aqua blue color. He had zipped up his blue jacket when we arrived to combat the chill in the air. The scarf he was wearing was similarly wrapped around him, tighter than one would on a warm day. Below his jacket he wore jeans and blue-black waterproof shoes.

As I was staring at Elliot's strange yellow eyes, the four of them started moving. I quickly followed, but had no idea where we were going and regretted not paying attention. "Where are we going?" I hissed at Anthony. He stared at me wide eyed, then looked at the ground and hurried ahead of me.

"He's really shy," Penelope explained quietly, taking the spot Anthony had vacated next to me. "We're going to the strongest signal. We're hoping that the Luna stone is powerful enough to overpower everything else around."

"Is that likely?" I wondered. Penelope shrugged. I thanked her and she slipped up to Anthony's side, the two seeming to take comfort in shared shyness or something. I don't know, I've never been a shy person.

The five of us continued walking and it was boring. The only light came from the moon and stars, neither of which were very bright, so I could only just make out the things closest to me. If I looked further into the distance, all I saw was darkness. Because of this, I wasn't really sure what kind of area we were in. We were walking across some kind of grass right now, but there could have been a desert a few paces away and I wouldn't have know.

"It's really hard to see," Elliot said, voicing my thoughts.

"That's because we're in the night zone," Gordon replied in a condescending tone.

"But it's really hard to see," Elliot insisted.

Gordon sighed and pressed something on his tablet. A beam of light appeared from it, filling a small, circular area in front of him with gleaming white. The beam was rather small, however, so it only lit up extremely small areas.

"That's not very useful," I sighed.

"Well I don't see you doing anything to help," Gordon said defensively.

"I wasn't insulting you."

"Just let it go," Elliot suggested. "Gordon's touchy about being criticized."

"I am not," Gordon protested. "I was merely pointing out that I was more helpful than her."

"He also always has to have the last word," Elliot added.

"Not always," Gordon said, unintentionally proving Elliot's point. Elliot decided not to say anymore as he began to laugh.

"Anyways, do you have any idea of where we're heading?" I asked. Gordon pointed at the tablet, literally the only bright thing in this group.

"I have the map right here in my hands. Of course I know where we're heading," he retorted. I rolled my eyes.

"Whatever you say…" I mumbled to myself, hopefully quiet enough that the words wouldn't reach Gordon's ears. Luckily, they didn't, and he continued to walk along.

Every so often I'd take a peek at the tablet screen over Gordon's shoulder and saw the biggest light on there gradually get larger. "Are we getting close yet?" I wondered. I wasn't tired, I was just bored.

"I don't know," Gordon replied.

"This is boring," I complained.

"Sorry saving the world is boring," Gordon retorted.

"Why don't we play a game," Elliot suggested. "Like I-Spy!"

I looked at him, then at out completely dark surroundings. "I spy something beginning with d," I said flatly.

"Darkness?" Elliot guessed.

"Yep. Because that's the only thing I can see!"

"Will you two keep it down?" Gordon growled. "As you just pointed out, we can't see out there. There may be people or creatures out there and we don't want to draw their attention."

I made a face at him, but luckily it was lost in the darkness.

"Excuse me," Penelope said politely. "Anthony and I would like to take a break please."

"We don't have time for breaks," Gordon rejected.

"Anthony is -" Penelope began.

"Let him talk for himself," Gordon interrupted.

Even in the dark I could see Anthony's wide fearful eyes. He opened his mouth and got out, "I-I'm tired."

"We have to keep going," Gordon insisted.

"Hey, maybe it's time for a break," Elliot said to Gordon, trying to smooth things over. "We have been walking for a while now."

"It's not like we even know where we're going anyway," I pointed out. "That light could be nearby or it could be days away."

Gordon glared at everyone, but finally relented. "Fine," he got out. "We'll take a break." He sat on the ground, pressing buttons on his tablet, looking up every so often to glare at one of us.

"T-thank you for stopping," Anthony said, looking at the ground as he spoke.

"I was tired too," Penelope assured him.

"I wasn't, but I was bored," I said. "I didn't realize how uninteresting darkness is."

"It probably won't be like this for long," Elliot explained. "The Time Baron likely doesn't know where we are yet. When he finds out we'll have to be on our guard."

"Speaking of which…" Gordon then said, signalling Elliot to come. Once Elliot saw what was on the tablet, he grinned widely.

"Aw hell yeah! Finally we get some action!" he cheered. Penelope looked at him, confused and worried.

"What do you mean?" she asked softly. Gordon stood up, putting the tablet away and smacking the back of Elliot's head to make him stop jumping.

"Enemies up ahead. Get ready for them," Gordon said. "I knew taking a break was a bad idea," he muttered under his breath.

"What are we fighting?" I asked as I took hold of my bat and assumed a fighting stance.

"Distorters," Elliot said. "They're mindless henchmen of the Time Baron, so don't pull your punches."

"This will be fun then," I replied with a smirk.

"We should stand in a circular position," Gordon said as he directed us into a circular shape, our backs to the middle. "We can't see them well but we know they're coming for us. This way they won't get behind us."

"Right," I said, taking the spot between Penelope and Elliot. I could see both of them fairly well, but Gordon and Anthony were too far behind me to see, and even when I turned around they blended in too well with the darkness for me to see them clearly.

"I-I'm ready," Penelope said nervously as she fitted an arrow to her bow.

The sound of rushing water was the first sound of the fight, after that there was too much noise to distinguish the different sounds. The black-eyes Distorters came at me and I swung my bat at them. I started out aiming for the head, assuming that to be their weakest point, but soon realized that they weren't build like a normal living thing. Even my low power swings made the things just fall apart, the creature dissolving into black ashes. It seemed that their main danger was the number of them, a single one of these things on its own would never take someone down.

I changed my strategy from methodically hitting them one by one to swinging my bat in a wide arc in front of me. This hit more of them and was easier for me. A quick glance to the side showed Penelope shooting an arrow that went through one in front of her continuing backwards to hit several more before ending its flight. On my other side, Elliot was gleefully shooting jets of water at the creatures, seemingly having a great time. I turned my attention back to my own enemies and continued to swing my bat.

I lost track of time and how many of the things I'd taken down as the fight progressed, but eventually no more of the Distorters appeared before me. "Is it over?" I asked.

"Yes," Gordon said, his voice drifting to my ears from his position behind me. "They're gone for now."

"Ca-can we have another break?" Penelope asked, the stutter caused by exhaustion rather than nervousness this time.

"More will be coming," Gordon said. I turned to face him as did the others, our circle now facing inward rather than out. "We should continue." I wasn't particularly tired yet, so that was fine with me. Anthony and Penelope, however, both showed obvious signs of disappointment at the decision.

"Before we leave we need to burn the ashes," Elliot pointed out. "Anthony, you're ring is a fire element ring, right?" Anthony nodded, a motion that was barely visible in the low light. "We need you to set the ashes on fire," Elliot explained.

Anthony nodded again and turned away to look at the ashes. There was a sudden burst of flame which lit up the air and incinerated the ashes. My eyes burned at the sudden brightness and I quickly turned away, no point getting my eyes used to light when it would be gone soon anyway.

"How would you guys burn these ashes originally? Neither of you guys are Fire wielders," I pointed out.

"I can use my Electric ring, but it is much less efficient than using a fire ring," Gordon explained. I nodded.

"Or we do it the old fashioned way," Elliot said, waving a box of matches at me.

"But that always ends with you burning something we're not supposed to," Gordon added, snatching the matches away. Elliot pouted.

"Interesting," I replied.

As we journeyed farther, we still followed the same path, making sure to look at the tracker on the tablet from time to time.

We were getting pretty close to whatever it was when there was a sudden flash. I was temporarily blinded by the flash, and when my eyes finally adjusted to the bright light, I noticed that the light wasn't disappearing. "Why is it bright out?" I asked with trepidation. We appeared to be standing in front of some sort of city. "That wasn't there before was it?"

"It didn't become light. We were sent to the day zone," Gordon corrected. "And whatever it was that sent us here seems to have done something to my tablet. Communications are down."

"So we can't talk to the others," Elliot surmised. "Do you think they switched too?"

"How should I know?" Gordon demanded.

"Just a question."

"It doesn't matter anyway. Now that we're here, we need to find the Sol Stone." He pressed a button on the tablet and frowned.

"What is it?" I asked warily.

"That magic tracking app is down as well. We're blind."

"I think we should investigate the city then," Elliot said, pointing at the stone buildings. "It's the only thing we can do. We might find something, and possibly the Sol Stone!"

"We can't just find a magical stone in a remote place like this," Gordon retorted. "That would take forever, we don't even know what it looks like." For once, I agreed with the arrogant knucklehead.

"True, but hey, it's worth a shot." Elliot replied, shrugging his shoulders. Gordon sighed, putting the tablet to sleep to save it's battery life.

"Fine. But sense anything suspicious and we're immediately leaving, understood?" Gordon questioned. We all nodded in response, following him into the strange city.

We hadn't taken more than ten steps and I already had a bad feeling about this place. I mean, its not like I was scared or anything, it just kinda gave me the creeps. The buildings looked like ruins, rubble and debris littering the ground haphazardly. And the atmosphere this old city had was not a good one.

I had to look carefully at where I was stepping as the rubble was everywhere. Anthony wasn't as careful and stepped on a piece that slid right out from under him. Luckily, he caught himself with his wings before he could topple over.

"Careful," Gordon chastised unnecessarily.

"This place is spooky," Elliot observed. "Do you really think one of the stones are here?"

"I have no idea," Gordon growled. "How would I?"

"You always act like you know everything."

"I know more than you do."

"Uh, can you guys stop arguing?" I pleaded. "I don't think we want to attract too much attention here." The only sounds in the city were the ones being made by our group. Nowhere should be this quiet, the night zone wasn't. Even without being able to see anything I could still hear the wildlife there. Here, there was nothing. Just complete silence.

"I'll talk if I want to," Gordon grumbled, though he was quiet after that.

It felt like hours walking around this abandoned place. Seriously, I felt like we were walking in a complete circle, thinking that we were going a different way every time.

"Don't you find it kinda weird that we just happened to end up here in front of a city like this?" Elliot asked. "When we were sent to the night zone, the teleporter transported us to a completely remote spot. And based off Maia's background when we were talking with her, she was in a remote place as well."

"I-It's probably just a coincidence?" Penelope suggested. Just then, the tablet woke up from it's sleep, the screen flashing green. Gordon look at it, noticing that it was a call from Maia's team.

"I guess communications are fixed," I mused, walking over to Gordon's spot to look. Amber's face was on the screen, making Gordon groan.

"I thought Maia was going to be the caller but no…" Gordon complained. Amber rolled her eyes.

"Just shut up and listen to what I have to say," Amber snapped. "We were in the day zone in front of a city, then we were suddenly in the night zone. Based on the light behind your giant head, it looks like you're not here with us," Amber said.

"You were by a city? We were sent to a city. Could it be the same one?" I theorized.

Amber shrugged. "I don't know. It's possible."

"I think we may have swapped places," Lily said, her face appearing on the screen.

"Do you think it will happen again?" I wondered.

"I have no idea!" Amber said.

"We should act on the assumption that it will happen again," Gordon decided. "So we need to keep making marks we can easily recognize so we can tell it we've actually swapped places."

"We're in a desert of some sort. There are plenty of rocks around, I'll have Lily mark one with her scythe. She'll mark every rock we come across with a number, so if you end up by the highest number, then we'll know you were just where we were," Maia said. We didn't see her, but it's mainly because it was pretty dark over there.

"Wait- how come we can see your faces perfectly fine? The tablet screen isn't that bright, and it's pitch black over there," Gordon pointed out. Amber smirked.

"I think you're forgetting that we have two Fire users on our team. Ian made two torches from the wood Xavier found and picked up." Amber said.

"Hey-ooh!" Ian shouted, his face briefly appearing on the screen before disappearing again. Elliot smiled, nodding his head.

"That'd explain it. Smart! Gordon didn't think of that," Elliot commented. Gordon glared at his partner.

"Is that all you wanted to say?" Gordon growled. Amber nodded.

"That's all, grumpy pants. Good luck," The call ended immediately after Amber said those words. Gordon cursed under his breath, turning the tablet back off and turning to us.

"Hopefully we won't switch again, but we need to be prepared in case we do," Gordon said.

"W-we should probably make a s-sign for them too," Anthony added. Elliot grinned, patting Anthony on the back, causing him to flinch.

"Great idea Anthony!" Elliot looked around. "Just… where?"

"Here," I said, grabbing a small piece of rubble from the ground. I walked to the closest wall and rubbed the piece of rubble against the wall. It left white lines in its path. "What should I write?"

"Amber is an idiot," Gordon suggested. I ignored that.

"A number one?" Elliot replied. "We could number our marks like Amber's team is doing."

"Alright," I said leaving a large number one on the wall.

"Time for more looking around!" Elliot exclaimed.

"Keep your eyes open," Gordon said. "Remember we need to find the Sol Stone."

"And if it's not here…?" I asked. "Looking for a magic stone in a totally remote and vast city is easier said than done."

"Then we leave," Gordon responded. I shrugged my shoulders; I guess it was the only option we had. I took another step forward, but felt the atmosphere around me change. I'd felt this before. Right before we'd ended up in the daytime.

"Get ready for the switch, guys!" I announced. Gordon and Elliot nodded while Penelope and Anthony froze up.

And just like that, we were gone.