The Struggling Life II: Old Bonds Return

Chapter 4: Fire of Hate

Jasmine's Point of View:

I led the team through the fire world's sky, which was filled with many spouting volcano tops that were flooding the planet with lava, and we headed toward the largest volcano on the planet, also known as Mt. Inferno. That was the mountain that supposedly was home to the supposed Dark Fire Angel that Skeleton King dropped off here and is causing all the problems here.

As we approached the base of the volcano, there was a small opening in the form of a pathway, and here I thought that we'd be forced to dig our way through. The four of us landed before the doorway that led into the volcano and I we stepped inside.

It was then that I felt my heart beat like crazy though. I stopped dead in my tracks only after I took a few steps in. It was my powers, not the Power Primate, but my electrical powers, they were speaking to me. I didn't know why, but they made my body ache.

"Jasmine, what's wrong?" I lifted my head and looked at my small team I brought with me. I apparently had lowered myself onto my knees while I was understanding my heart.

"It's my powers; something here is making them ache inside me." I replied. "I don't understand what it means though."

"Is it telling us something's here?" Otto asked worriedly.

"No… it feels more like it senses a friend… who's not a friend anymore." I answered wearingly. I turned toward my second in command. "Antauri, do you sense anything with the Power Primate?"

Antauri for the moment closed his eyes and I saw him float off the ground. He meditated in the air and the three of us watched him. A green light surrounded him and slowly faded off into the air around him. After a minute or two, he finally lowered himself to the ground and opened his eyes. He turned to look at us.

"This mountain is filled with good energy, surprisingly, up until we reach the top, where you believe this 'Dark Fire Angel' is. Though I feel that the dark energy is slowly making its way down through this volcano, and when all of its good energy is gone, the planet is beyond help." He explained. "Though there are also some people that I can sense that are within the volcano. We must hurry and save them."

"Lets move then team." We raced up the dug in path through the mountain; it was like an endless tunnel with slightly glowing walls. Lava started to pour through small holes in the walls surrounding us as we got further up in the volcano.

We soon across a large room cut out of the volcano's walls that were filled with scrolls, papers and books. Maps were out upon a table in the middle of the room and some hung on the walls. A few bags were placed over against the side of one of the walls next to another doorway that led further up into the mountain.

"Looks like someone was here recently," I noted to the others on the fact of the food that was also there on the table in boxes, ready to eat.

"It would seam as so." Antauri agreed as he looked around. "It seams that there were people last here less then twenty-four hours ago."

"And with the volcanoes erupting a short while ago, they had to go somewhere and hid." Cobi continued.

"But where'd they go?" Otto wondered.

"The only way that they could've left this room is if they went down the way that we came from, which had no other tunnels but the strait one that took us in loops around the volcano until we ended up here," I told the others. "Or they could have gone upward and there's some sort of other room further up which might have them trapped."

"Or that Dark Fire Angel has them." Cobi threw in.

"Any of these three suggestions seam plausible," Antauri stated.

"Well... what are we waiting for?" Otto questioned before he ran for the stairs. "Let's go already!" The rest of us nodded and we chased after the green robotic simian. Within the hallway behind the room we had discovered, these stairs were more in an upward spiral, we could see further up, and steps were carved out of the stone before our feet. It seamed that this spiral went up to the top of the volcano, because a small beam of light from the top showed the lava flying over the opening.

"Whoa." Otto gaped at the spiral. "That's a long way up…"

"How are we going to search all the floors in time?" Cobi questioned.

"Everyone activate your rocket packs and looked after a certain part of the spiral as we fly up. If you see any doors or openings, give us a holler and fly in and check it out, while you do so, the rest of us will continue on and look over the space above the room you saw. Come back when you're done or holler if you see those people or find anything we all need to check out. Let's go!" My team and I jumped off the ground and our packs activated. We flew up into the spiral staircase and each watched a section of it as we flew upwards.

We more or less noticed the lava that started to fall from the top of the stair well and from the walls from above. That was mostly the only thing we came across, besides the occasional flying rock hurling toward us as we flew upward. Otto and Antauri took care of those mostly, somehow the two of them ended up on the side with the rocks more or less pouring on them, so Otto and Antauri had their weapons out at all times to cut the rocks into tiny pieces and fly by the debris. Cobi and I had a much better hand in the mess and didn't have to deal with as many rocks, but we still had one here or there. Cobi kept out his sword of Power Primate energy and I was constantly charged with electrical energy to fry the next bolder that came at me and burst it into pieces.

We had to avoid any lava that came our way though. If we didn't, it'd eat through our weapons and flash. Some drops though were too small to really avoid and ended up hitting the guys' armor or Cobi and my clothes and hair, thankfully it never reached our skin.

It wasn't until we were a few levels from the top that we finally saw a door, it was right before me. I gave a holler to the rest of the team and we all jumped into the doorway. As soon as I stepped inside, the floor gave way and fell below. I was thankful that I still had my rocket pack on and I jumped back. I felt Cobi's arms wrap around my waist and pull me back further before my back was against his chest.

"I'm alright Cobi, you can let go of me." He let out a nervous laugh and gently released me. We watched as the dust settled and soon we saw the poor people that must have been part of the group we found bags to in the last room. They were chained to the walls by their hands and feet. Lava thankfully hadn't started to seep in yet and the place felt relatively cool for a volcano.

"Hello? Is everyone alright down there?" I called. All at once I heard cries of joy and for help. Antauri, Otto, Cobi and I all jumped down into the room and we started to unchain the people down there. They were mostly grown adults with a child or two that were over the age of eight at least. One or two of the captives here even looked to be Cobi's and my age.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" One of the more elder men thanked us greatly.

"Your welcome, but we'd better get you all out of here before the lava comes and burns this place too." I replied and gripped one of the female adults to pull them toward the hole we came through when that adult pulled away from me.

"What do you mean before the lava comes in here?" She asked.

"You mean, you don't know what's been going on?" Otto asked.

"Not really." The eldest man of the bunch said. "Yesterday morning we all came here to worship the Fire Angel, our protector and Goddess that keeps us safe and keeps the volcano's dormant. Though in the late morning, and evil version of our beloved savior and Goddess came forth and captured us and put us in chains. We've been locked here since then, only hearing and feeling some tremors and what not from this room."

"Things are worse then what you're describing." Cobi replied to them. "The volcanoes are erupting and many of the villagers in the small town a few miles away were harmed and the village itself burned to the ground." Everyone, other then my group, gasped at the news.

"We were able to evacuate all the people in town and then left them with our medical officer and head of science to treat them along with some others of our group that know basic first aid." I paused for a moment to look at them. "Unless we stop this evil version of your protector, your planet soon will be a volcanic waste land forever."

"To think? Our protector now a predator? It just doesn't seam possible…" another villager sighed.

"Let us get you out of here then." Antauri said to them and this time the villagers didn't fight us as we flew them up out of the room where they had been trapped. Once we had the group out of the hole and onto the spiral staircase when I saw something red gleam in the corner of my eye. I looked up to where I saw it just in time to see a beam of fire being shot at us. All the villagers ducked and screamed and I jumped up into the air before them.

"Lightning Beam!" I shouted and a beam of pure white lightning blasted from my hand toward the flame that was approaching us. The two clashed and a large explosion echoed in the spiral staircase. Through the ash and aftermath of our collided attacks, I saw the Dark Fire Angel escaping toward the top of the volcano, she laughed melodically as she flew off with her large, lava wings.

I turned back to the others and watched them gather the villagers together. "You guys get these villagers to safety! I'm going after the Dark Fire Angel!" I called out to them before taking off in the smoke.

"Jasmine!" I heard Cobi call after me, but I had no time to go back. I hurried after the angel and that's when I broke the surface of the volcano, I'd finally made it to the top.

Just as my vision had shown me previously, there was a small temple off to the side of the top crust of Mt. Inferno. The building looked ancient in appearance and made of stone, either that or hardened lava that was never made into soil.

The Dark Fire Angel was no where in sight as I approached the temple. I slowly made my way inside and I saw that it truly was an old temple. A large fire pit sat alone in the center of this stone building and it had hardly any ceiling. Within the fire pit in the center, a large fire was blazing, and within it was a shadow.

I set myself in a defensive position and watched the shadow emerge from the flame. It was the Dark Fire Angel. Her lava coated body seamed much brighter then before and her hair was white with its fire blazing. Her eye sockets were bright red and her claws were extended at me. That same pendant I saw was around her neck and looked quite evilly at me, like it had a mind of its own.

She lunged from the flame toward me with her claws expanded, she reached for my neck. I jumped up into the air with my rocket pack and landed on the edge of the roof. The angel saw I moved away from her though and jumped up after me and I flipped backward, landing on the ground before the temple. From atop of the tower, she let out a high pitched scream that made my powers ache again. Something was defiantly wrong here, its like these powers are familiar to me, but I've never come in contact with a Goddess.

I flipped backwards over and over again after the Dark Fire Angel jumped off the temple roof and bared her claws at me. After flipping multiple times, the angel finally dropped to her knees and swung her leg around; she just barely nicked my leg before I jumped off to the side and held my hands before myself and shot a beam of lightning at her. She pushed herself off the ground and blasted into the air with her wings wrapped around herself to prevent wind resistance and then shot them out to her sides and used the power she still had from the kick off to shoot herself back down at me, her wings once again wrapped around her and her claws from both hands extended. I shot both my arms out before me and unleashed the most power 'Lightning Beam' I ever have before, this time colored purple, and the Dark Fire Angel countered with a blast of white fire from her mouth. The two attacks once again clashed and created a large explosion which started to provoke the volcanoes around. Eruptions began occurring all over the planet and began shifting many of its earth plates, and that started to activate the volcano that I was standing on.

Mistress, do you need my help? I heard the voice clearly in my mind that I hadn't heard in so long. It caused me to freeze in the mist of the after math of the clash of the Dark Fire Angel's attack and mine. Mistress?

No I don't, I can handle this Elekie. My thoughts after that were interrupted when the Dark Fire Angel leapt at me in my moments of hesitation and made a swung at my chest, and I only moved out of the way just in time to avoid being cut too deeply, but I was too close to avoid the cuts at all, or avoid my straps to my rocket pack being cut off. The machine fell to the ground behind me and I tripped over it.

I felt my back bounce harshly on the ground and rip the skin on it before I felt a hot, claw like hand gasp my throat. The Dark Fire Angel looked at me evilly and I pulled at her hand with my own that grasped my neck. Her grip was too harsh though and she brought me over to the edge of the largest volcano. I squirmed and tried to break free of her hold, but I couldn't.

Mistress, let me help you! The voice called again. Your mother gave me to you for a reason!

I know that! I yelled back at her in my mind. But if I can get though this without your help, I should. Don't feel bad Elekie, you know I love you like I do my family and friends, but it's a personal pride that I want to do this on my own. This is my mission to save my family, but if I do need your help, know that I will call upon you.

Mistress! My eyes widened as I saw the Dark Fire Angel throw me over the edge of the volcano and toward the lava… without my rocket pack.

Great. Maybe I do need Elekie's power this time to get through this one, no, I can't… so what can I do to save myself or learn how to fly?

Mistress! Elekie called out again. I saw then that I had little time to think in this matter, but then an idea popped into my head and I gasped at how it most likely could work.

Elekie, listen to me! I heard silence on the other side of my mind. I want to try once last thing, and if it doesn't work, I need your help, so be ready.

Of course Mistress, I always am. With that said, I shoved my hands before me toward the lava and I shot two beams of my 'Lightning Beam' down into the lava. If my idea works, the blast from my attack should act as a force that should either help me fly or throw me out of the volcano. My beams slowed down my decent and I soon came to a stop. I sighed and I heard Elekie sigh too in the back of my mind.

See? Told you I'd be fine. I heard Elekie snort in the back of my mind and I forced more power into my hands and it shot me back into the air, but this time, out of the volcano. When I came above the volcano's edge the Dark Fire Angel stood there in shock and silence.

But only for a moment.

She soon over came my surprising her and rushed into my direction, but before she could get close enough to me, my hand lit up with the power of my Power Primate and I blasted her right square in the chest. It hit her pendant head on and the strands that hung it around her neck vaporized, forcing the evil looking jewelry away from the creature's body. The Dark Fire Angel was thrown back from the pendant and suddenly all the lava and dark energy was being sucked into the fire like pendant.

After I blinked my eyes, the world was full of flowers and grass, trees and moss, water and life. No longer were any plates moving, nor were any volcanoes erupting. I sighed, there was one more problem solved in the universe.

I turned my head over to the body of the Dark Fire Angel, which wasn't any of those categories in her name anymore. A female human body lay on the ground where the creature once was. Light brown hair hung over the face and the body, though skinny and practically starved, looked slightly muscular. I worriedly walked over to the body and kneeled down next to it. She groaned and twitched and I rolled her over. Bright fiery, ruby colored eyes, glazed over in tiredness and lack of energy looked up at me.

"Jazzy?" She asked tiredly.

"Lyra!" I cried and fell upon her body, hugging the life out of her.

I had my sister back now, my little sister I had lost so long ago…

Witch's Note:

Wow! Now that was a fight! Anyone wanna guess what the hell was that person or thing or creature or whatever Elekie was? I'm not telling until its time… Anyway, hope you guys loved the chapter and see you next Saturday! Hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving! I know I did, I got some sea glass and some pie! I think that day went out well enough.

I love Reviews and I love Questions! So please send in both on anything in the story and out of it that is publicly appropriate for the Q's & A's Please!

Love you all and see you next Saturday!

Halloween Witch