A/N: Since this story is much bigger than just the twins, this chapter will be told from the perspective of the three elementals seen at the end of the last chapter. Also, thanks to JustSoBored for betaing this.
Review replay to cailey: Since you didn't log in to review, I'll include it here. I hope I can live up to your expectations here. I'm hoping to make this even better, and the action will be coming soon. Don't worry, I'm not going to abandon this story.
"If floods will come all our lives,
just climb the stairs, let the water rise,
we'll build ourselves up to a towering height."
Our Own Versailles, Galt Aureus
Chapter 4: Search for the Orbs
Aaron carefully guided the old pickup as they travelled across the great desert with heat surrounding them that made them forget it was winter. They had just left El Paso, seconds behind the large semi they were pursuing. It may have seemed foolish to anyone else, but both elementals had an unexplainable feeling that their target was within that truck.
"How do you think we're going to get it?" Heather softly asked.
"The best thing to do would be to wait until they stop, then search the truck for it."
"What makes you think they will stop?"
"Well, they have to stop for gas or food sometime," Aaron answered logically.
"We can't keep going forever you know; our gas tank is only half full, and besides what if one of us has to pee?" she asked worriedly.
"You went before we left didn't you," he said harshly turning to her.
"Yea, but that doesn't mean I can last forever," she responded raising an eyebrow at him.
Aaron just shook his head and focused on the road ahead of him, his hands tightening on the steering wheel. He was already getting irritable, and he had a feeling it might just be a long day.
_
Altinia stepped out of the airplane that had deposited her in Boston. She stretched her legs, hating how much the planes confined her. Even for being away so long, she never imagined the world would be so different. Humans truly amazed her with their ability to keep making new discoveries that would astound those from even a generation ago, not to mention one as old as her.
She picked up her bags from the baggage claim, thankful for the advice of the other elementals not to try taking her bow and arrows aboard the strange flying machine. Fighting her way through airport security might be fun, but would not be beneficial to finding the orb.
As the ice elemental walked down the hallway that led out of the airport, she cleared her mind and tried detecting the presence of the orb. To her surprise though, she felt nothing. Even though Boston was a great city, that shouldn't be enough to keep a creator of the orbs from being able to find it. That could only mean one thing; the orb of fire had been moved.
"Can I help you ma'am?" a worker said walking up beside Altinia as she started out the window.
"I don't believe so Miss Wyntirsno," the elemental said, reading the worker's nametag.
"Well, if there is anything I can help do for you, feel free to ask," she politely said as she walked away.
Altinia pondered her next move. She knew that it would be pointless to randomly go out in a direction. If necessary, she could use her grand reveal spell to locate the orb but that took several days to prepare. She gazed around the airport looking for anything that might give her a clue, but she figured that would be a fruitless search.
After wondering aimlessly for an hour and getting chicken for lunch, she decided it might be best to just return to El Paso and figure out where to go from there. She walked up to the counter, noticing it was the same worker from earlier.
"And what can I do for you?" Wyn said placing her magazine down to take care of the customer.
"I need to get on the next flight back to El Paso," she said sadly. Her whole trip had been a complete waste of time, and now the orb was gone.
"It looks like our next flight will be leaving at about 8 pm, will that be acceptable?"
"Sure," she said pulling out a credit card that may or may not have been obtained illegally. As she handed it to the worker, the magazine the attendant was reading caught the elemental's attention. "Who is that?" she asked pointing to the celebrity on the cover.
"Oh, that's London Tipton, one of my favourite celebrities, and she doesn't live that far away."
Altinia grabbed the magazine and began studying it intensely. "There's no doubt about it, that's the orb of fire," the elemental said quietly, not wanting to attract any unwanted attention, noticing the necklace around the celebrity's neck. "Do you know where she lives?" Altinia asked franticly, nearly jumping over the counter.
"Yea, she lives at the Tipton hotel," Wyn said nervously. She was quite concerned about the franticness of the customer, and quite frankly it was starting to scare her.
"Where is that!?" Altinia demanded.
"Take a left turn out of here, and go about 3 miles down the road, and turn right. It will be the huge hotel on the right, you can't miss it."
"Thank you," Altinia said, regaining her composure and walking out the door.
Wyn was glad to be free of the crazy customer, but with a job like that, she was sure she'd see more mentally unstable people before long.
_
"This is getting annoying," Aaron said after they had finished the second hour of travelling, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel.
"Yea, why can't he just stop," Heather said, agreeing with her brother's annoyance. She looked out of the window, wishing for them to miraculously stop so she could get out and stretch her legs. They were beginning to really hurt.
"That would be nice, but that's not what I was talking about," the older sibling said, "I really have to pee."
"And you were yelling at me to make sure I went." Heather said, turning back to Aaron, rolling her eyes.
"Yea, I know," he said, hating being scolded by his little sister, but he should have known better than to drink that much before they left. Suddenly an idea hit him, one that would be completely insane in any normal situations, but in times like this it was only partly insane.
He grabbed the near empty water bottle sitting in cup holder and quickly finished it. "Heath, take the wheel while I take care of this."
"What do you mean," she asked worriedly.
He set the cruise control and ducked beneath the steering wheel to relieve himself into the bottle while Heather leaned over and kept the car from crashing into the cactuses on the sides of the road.
"I swear, you are the weirdest brother on the planet," she said as she heard the plastic container being refilled. The noise made her feel slightly ill.
"I'll take that as a compliment," he said with a chuckle. Once he was done emptying himself and making sure the cap was on tightly, he placed the container back in the cup holder. This caused his sister to send him a disgusted look. "Well we don't want to forget to bring it in. I could just see Dad taking a drink of it thinking it was mountain dew."
"Ew," Heather said physically cringing at the thought, but knew that their Dad would be the one to do that. She let her brother have control of the wheel again and they continued on.
They hoped it wouldn't be much longer until their target would stop, but they knew there weren't many rest stops through the desert roads of New Mexico. They had just passed the entrance of White Sands National Monument, so they guessed it would be a while until they came across the next potential stop.
They gazed forward, noticing how the sun had begun to set, and she saw a flash of red coming from their side. "That's not the sun!" Aaron screamed, slamming on the breaks. The flash turned out to be a giant fireball, which collided into the semi, blasting it off the road and sending it rolling into a sand dune. The elemental siblings pulled over and jumped out of the car, knowing a battle was coming.
_
Altinia walked into the Tipton hotel well after night had fallen. She hated that she wasted so much time just walking, but stealing cars or using her power to travel faster would attract too much attention.
She noticed a person in a Tipton uniform standing behind a desk who quickly ran over to greet her.
"I'm sorry ma'am, but we don't allow guests to check in this late," he nervously said.
"Then why was the door unlocked," Altinia responded logically.
"Um, well I'm kinda new here so I forgot. I'm Skippy, the night manager here." he said holding out his hand.
"Thanks, I'm Altinia," she said shaking his hand, but then switched to more serious matters, "I'm not here to get a room though, I'm here for information."
"Well, that's not really my specialty."
"I'll make this simple then. I need to find London Tipton," she said sternly.
Skippy knew from her tone that he didn't want to make her mad. "Well, her suite is 2514 on the 25th floor-"
"Thanks!" she said running to the stairs before he could finish.
"Except, she isn't there," he said to himself before locking the door and returning to his desk. She'd have to be back eventually.
After about 10 minutes of running up stairs, she found herself on the right floor, and quickly found the suite. She knocked on the door loudly, but no response. At a moment like this, remaining unnoticed wasn't overly important. She gathered the moisture in the air and formed a large block of ice which she sent flying into the door, taking it off the hinges and slamming it into a coffee table.
At this, the Tipton's maintenance worker ran out of the bathroom and noticed the damage. "Whoa, she's not going to like this."
"You're not London," Altinia said as she carefully analyzed the situation before she made another move.
"Nope, Arwin Hackhouser at your service."
"Do you know where she is?" a confused Altinia asked.
"She's out on the SS Tipton travelling the world," Arwin said.
"Do you know where it is heading?" Altinia asked, knowing that she still had a long way to go on her journey.
"You're not one of her stalkers, are you?"
"That is not your concern," she said pulling her bow out of her bag and notching an arrow in it.
"Um, well, I'm not sure," Arwin replied nervously, fearing for his life.
"You can find out though, can't you?" she asked, pulling the arrow back, causing Arwin's heart to pound even more rapidly.
"Yea, of course," he said quickly pulling out his laptop. After a couple minutes of getting his internet connection to work properly, he found what he was looking for. "Its next stop should be Eastbourne England, and will be there in five days."
"Thanks, have a good night," Altinia said lowering her weapon and leaving the room while stepping over the door.
"That was odd," Arwin said shrugging his shoulders and returning to work. It wasn't everyday a women with the body of a goddess threatened his life with a bow and arrow.
As Altinia rode the elevator back down, she noticed that she should check for modern convinces before running up 24 flights of stairs. There were more important things to worry about though. Even though she was still far from the orb, she hoped her opponents would be as well. Being cramped in a plane for the trip across the ocean was not something she relished, but it had to be done.