Chapter Four

Bravery

Noman threw himself into the room; it was apparent that they had been underground, as there were stairs, leading up to; a library.

"Ellone... where are we?" Noman was shaking with fear of the Wyres, and puzzlement.

"No... I'm not afraid of them..." Noman mumbled.

The pain in her head eased slowly, gradually... She turned to Noman that was shaking with his fear of the dark beings... Or rather, creatures. She tried to calm herself mentally before she could answer Noman's question. Take a deep breath, Ellone... You are fine, nothing's going to harm you... She gazed at Noman intently and saw how he shook, she wondered why was he truly affected by those creatures - they barely even attacked one of them... Those that awakened from the sleeping pods. "It seems like we are in a library... I barely have any idea of why we are here..." this is the first time she talked to one of those guys that woke up from the pods in her serious personality - though she was completely unaware about it.

She held her forehead with her right hand, trying to comfort the light-headedness she had after she screamed to herself for almost no reason. She tried to let her mind and her soul get adapted to the surrounding - it was really a library. She sighed at this, the library felt safe; but she still have not got to solve of why they were there and how did they get there. Ellone, being the only girl; felt awkward being around guys though she was a social person - this serious part of her knows it is actually pretty awkward and she never actually had friends... Before the hibernation. Then it struck her, she never really had a friend before the hibernation and she had always wanted one, and she also wanted to know what love was... That people call the most beautiful feeling in the world where they feel fuzziness in their hearts...

Atron watched the others attempt to attack the Wyres-he nearly snarled in response. Did they not know that Wyres were invincible against physical human attacks? His parents had reminded him of that so many times whenever he'd tried to engage in battle with one. The girl-Ellone-seemed to show a rather brave courage. He approved of this; at least he knew the girl wouldn't be hurt along the journey. Noman also seemed strong and brave-Atron knew that this group would be strong enough to fight the Wyres if they just had the proper training and weapons.

Atron turned his head to see another figure-someone who actually looked quite dangerous but safe at the same time. He did not emit the same dark aura the other mysterious stranger had given off; this man looked like he actually wanted to help them. Atron nodded in response to his advice, glancing at the weapon the man used before running to the other chamber where Ellone and Noman were.

Once he was in, he silently took a look around the room; a library. Noman seemed to be muttering that he wasn't afraid of...the Wyres? "What is there to be afraid of, Noman? You have strength within yourself. You must simply harness it, is all. The same thing with you, Ellone," he stated calmly. Atron put his hand on a shelf of books, glancing at it and then coming forward to stand next to Ellone when he realized that something seemed wrong with her. Atron said, concerned, "Are you alright?"

The ensuing sounds from the computer room had stopped; now, there was an eerie silence. Noman stood up, ready to fight whatever emerged. To his relief, the man had won against the Wyres.

"Listen; we have to go. We'll wait for Icathus, but then, we leave."
"What about the fifth one?" Noman asked.
"He's on his own now. We don't have time to wait any longer than we need to." The man said cryptically.
"Who are you?" Noman asked; so much had happened in such a short time.
"I am DiZ. I have been given many other names, but, for now, I have been entrusted with the task of keeping the mountain fortress safe."

Atron looked at the man, eyebrows slanted downward at he took a good look at their savior. Nothing seemed wrong about him, except for the fact he looked powerful. Atron made a mental note to keep an eye on him, regardless. His curiosity, however, spiked as he heard "mountain fortress."

He asked, "What is the mountain fortress?" His first thought was of a highly defended building at the top of a very large mountain; but then again, it could be anything.

DiZ turned to Atron.

"The mountain fortress was once the home of a very powerful wizard, and his apprentices; however, they're all dead now. All that's left on the surface, is a seemingly indestructible altar, but there's an entire complex of ruins underground that's remained untouched for centuries."

"How do we get there?" Noman asked.
"Stop with the questions!" DiZ was apparently becoming irritated and annoyed with the three of them. "You'll see, when Icathus gets here."

Ikki had watched as they all tried to take on the dark beings, that proved useless, he watched as the man, Diz, appeared and started fighting them, that was pretty cool, but what had Ikki entranced was the fact that in the pod room there was still another.

"Hey buddy. Wake up" He said to the pod gently tapping on it hoping that this would be enough to wake the sleeping person inside, it wasn't. "Hmm...How bout I..." As he was getting ready to kick the pod he realized that the fighting had stopped. No noises, no grunting, no screaming.

"Oh, seems like that strap faced man beat them all....Straps on your face...Now that's cool, not as cool as flying, but still cool."

Ikki walked out of the pod room and into the computer room, no one was there, he then caught a glimpse of a staircase that, "Lead upwards to the heavens!!!!" He called out marching up the stairs repeating those words over and over again. They meant nothing, they were just something he said to make himself feel better.

As he reached the last step he failed to noticed that Diz was at the entrance, he bumped into the man and was about to tumble down the stairs but was caught by the man. "Thanks a lot." He said staring into the one eye of this man. It seemed as though the man was tormented by something, or someone, he looked sad yet resolved at the same time. This man was cool!

"Hello, Icathus." Diz said, before turning towards Noman again. "We're going to leave for the mountain fortress, now. We're going to get there through specialised teleportation devices," DiZ dived into a pocket, and drew out six blue gems with a white, cybernetic rim. "that will take us there. Noman, hold out your hand." Noman did as requested, and DiZ strapped one of the devices to Noman's hand. He turned back around to Ikki.

"You too, Ikki."

Atron automatically took a step forward, extending his own arm and pushing up the sleeve of his cloak. "DiZ, sir, is this teleportation device safe?" Atron asked, eyeing Noman's device. A simple blue gem-what could it possibly do? Could it really teleport a large quantity of mass to another location in an instant? Perhaps, hopefully, parts of him wouldn't go missing if the teleporting went wrong somehow-that was what Atron truly was fearful about.

"Yes, Atron, it's perfectly safe. It transmits the beam of matter up into a universal satellite, where it's beamed back down to the mountain fortress. Since it's the only satellite of its kind, the beam can't be intercepted, and we perform bi-annual maintenance checks on it." DiZ showed some disdain at Atron's lack of trust for him, but quickly turned back to Icathus.

Ikki stared at Diz and those red straps, he was using every ounce of self restraint not to ask him about it but as soon as Diz popped out the gems, he lost all self control.

"WOW! First the floating guy! Then those black mice! Then you with your awesome straps! Which I want, by the way! And now! These cool teleporting rocks! YOU ARE THE COOLEST!" He said this as he jumped up and down allowing Diz to strap the gem to his wrist.

"I'm red strap guy who gives kids teleporting rocks! Hiyahh!!!" Ikki called out as he pantomimed some sword moves, "Taste my steel! Hiyahh!!!" He just kept slashing and slashing...