I am deeply sorry for the long delay between chapters. I ran into a rather large computer problem and my old desktop died on me. I even started this chapter back April when it happened. I know some of you must be excited for the next chapter, so here it is.
Chapter 7: Flightus Interruptus
A single leaf drifts aloft upon the wind, twirling and dipping until it gently glides into an untamed mane of fuchsia hair. Yanking the leaf from his hair, Holden maintains his gaze skyward, watching Alice and Gwen release floating multi colored rings of various sizes.
The young man hadn't the foggiest idea to what purpose the rings served, but Holden knew Gwen would inform him once she returned. As banks of cumulous clouds roll across sky, Holden loses sight of his companions, until their outlines appear against the grey clouds, descending towards him.
Landing gracefully upon the soft grass, Alice and Gwen slowly approach the young man.
"Holden, we set up a flight exercise for you. Gwen will explain the rest," Alice softly mentions.
Gwen smiles at Alice in thanks, before she finally speaks, "This exercise will constitute you flying through several rings at top speed. Each ring is worth a certain amount and you can't back track to a ring set that you already passed. You need a score of one hundred to pass. Do you have any questions?"
Thinking for several seconds, Holden nods, finally voicing, "When you mean pass by the ring set, do you mean I just hit one in the set and I can't go back or do you mean something else and what are each ring worth point wise?"
"Those are both good questions. When you near a ring set, you have to try and maneuver through them as quickly and accurately as you can. Once you have gone several feet from them, you aren't allowed to go back. Point wise, there are four types of rings, red rings are worth one point and those are the largest. Blue rings are smaller and worth three, while green rings even smaller and worth five points. The last ring is the teal ring and that is the smallest and worth ten points. If you see one, make sure to go after, since there aren't many of them. I should also mention that if you hit a ring as you pass through it, you will lose half of that rings value."
With his shoulders tensing, Holden gulps and he nervously asks, "I…I understand this is about pushing my limits and learning to control my flying abilities, but isn't this a bit…too advanced? Shouldn't we start out with something a bit easier?"
Pinching the brow of her noise, Gwen explains slowly, "There isn't anything easier that I can think of that can help you learn to fly. This is really the only way to do it, I'm sorry."
"We know flying seems tough, but in the end, it's really not. It becomes natural once you have taken full control of it." Alice chimes in a soothing voice.
Closing his eyes, Holden gives a solitary nod and asks, "Do you at least have a plan that relates to if I start to fall out of the sky for some unknown reason?"
Gwen's eye shine brightly and she smiles, "Ben and Kevin are in charge of that little operation if the need arises. You shouldn't have to worry about that happening though." As Gwen speaks, a soft beep from her nancom alerts her to an important message. Taking the object from her waist, the device blinks to life and a small screen with a weather report pops up.
Groaning, Gwen glances at Holden with an urgent look on her face. "Holden, you need to get into the air now! There is a storm cell heading in our direction with damaging winds. As it is now, you're going to run into turbulence, so you have to compensate for it while you move."
His face hardens into one of determination, Holden floats into the air, "Then I need to make this run count before things become too difficult."
Without saying another word, the young man fires off like a small rocket into the sky, leaving behind an indigo trail. "You planned on him fly during the storm, didn't you?" Alice asks, giving Gwen a sideways glace.
"Yup, it was the only way for him to really learn," The red head answers, smiling lightly as she turns about, heading back to the stadium with her friend. Unbeknownst to the girls, a sickly green shadow stalks slowly behind them, accompanied by one with a cape.
Having fought through howling winds and lashing rain to ascend to five thousand feet, Holden slowly halts to a hover abreast of the rings.
"Too bad I didn't bring some eye protection with me." Holden muses to no one, brushing hair from his eyes.
Closing his eyes and taking a deep breath to calm his nerves, Holden beings to slowly glide towards the rings. For Holden, flying has always been a mental block and the fact that he couldn't control how he flew always discouraged him. Opening his eyes, Holden accelerates and corrects for the push of the wind.
Clearing the first ring with ease, Holden flips midflight, changing his course to the ring above. The wind intensifies at that moment, blowing the young hero away from his target. Struggling to regain control, the teenager pushes back against the current of air, trying to stabilize himself, but he is too late.
His midsection colliding with a green structure, Holden gasps for breath, winded from the blow. Unable to clench the object in time, he slips from the ring, falling a fair distance onto a blue ring, hitting his head on the inner edge, knocking him into daze.
The sound of wind rushes in Holden's ears he slowly regains his sense and air slowly filters back into his lungs. Being able to breathe normally again, Holden shakes his head, slowly snapping out of his dazed state and with only a few moments to react, swoops out of his death dive.
Panting, Holden stops where he is and scans his surroundings for Ben and Kevin after discovering that he is above the stadium, only to find that neither hero is in sight, "I thought…Ben and Kevin were…supposed to be here in case I fell."
As he slowly drops to the field, Holden hears the soft sound of footsteps echoing from the tunnel that leads into the stadium. Revolving on the spot, Holden's jaw clenches as Mandark strolls onto the field, a smug smile plastered on his face. "You failed the exercise Gwen gave you. You're just like Dexter, a massive failure."
While he laughs manically, Holden glares at Mandark darkly, hissing, "What did you do Mandark? Where are Ben and Kevin?"
"Those two are in the locker room, with Gwen and Alice, trapped in a magic bubble I created,"
At the word magic, Mandark looks rather disgusted at the use of the word and continues speaking, "They won't be able to help you at all. My ultimate plan will see to that."
As he laughs once more, Mandark throws his cape off and a green blob grazes Holden's ear, slightly burning it. Ignoring the pain that he felt, Holden spins round, only to have his face pale in horror.
Standing in the nose bleed section stands a fusion of Oceanbird, but its body is misshapen and its arm slowly detaches from its body and splashes to the ground, only to have a new arm form.
"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO MANDARK!" Holden roars in anger.
"What does it look like? I used some of the Fusion Matter I collected to create a fusion of Oceanbird. So it's a little unstable since Fuse is dead. I will correct that problem once you are disposed of and I have my revenge against Tessa! Attack my fusion minion!" Mandark crows as he runs for cover inside.
The fusion wastes no time in attacking and its arm sprays like a fusion fountain at the intrepid fighter. Holden glides upwards, dodging the corrosive liquid and counters with a sonic scream. Fusion Oceanbird's body pulses in rhythm with the sonic scream and is unaffected by the feeble attack.
Upon morphing its arm into a cannon, the Fusion raises the new weapon, spraying large fusion matter spheroids through the air.
"Yikes!" Holden yelps, struggling to weave back and forth betwixt the spaces devoid of the spheres, but the venomous material still impacts upon his shoulders and chest.
Fusion Oceanbird slowly slushes over the rows of chairs, matter sloshing off its hips and arms, splashing into simmering puddles. Trudging into the stairway, the fusion's left leg slowly tears at the knee cap and the unstable lower leg collapse in a torrent of liquid.
Unable to maintain homeostasis, the fusion wobbles on its lone leg, leaning too far to the right and it crashes to the ground, incapable of replicating a new leg in time. The fusion's body suddenly pulses violently and from its back, small tubes protrude, pointing in all directions.
"I have to put an end to this now or Dexter will have to have to make of Bellwood an infected zone, again!" Holden hooks sharply in the air and dives at the fusion, opening his eyes wide, but it was already too late.
The tubes glow with an eerie green light and seconds later, streams of pure fusion matter burst forth into the sky, mixing with the clouds, which take on a sickly green hue. Barrel rolling quickly, Holden narrowly evades the eruption and continues on to his objective, weaving between the corrosive jets.
The wind howls with ferocity causing the jets to sway slowly.
Unable to dive any further cause of the wind, Holden comes to a gliding stop, speckles of fusion matter rain pelting his face, arms and legs, "This is the only chance I will get with this storm the way it is." Holden seethes, battling through the pain of the fusion matter.
With his eyes glowing a bright indigo, Holden unlashes an onslaught of eye beams upon the unstable beast. Roaring in anger as the beams pierce its weakened body, the matter jets tapper off and the fusion flails about wildly, throwing matter balls in every direction.
Its body pulsing once more, the red eyes of the fusion glaze over and in that instant, the fusion explodes, sending matter flying across the nosebleed section. Exhausted from the battle, Holden slowly drifts to the ground and falls onto his back once his feet meet terra firma.
Enraged, Mandark scampers from the tunnel and stamps his feet, "This isn't fair, you were supported to be destroyed by my minion, not you destroying it!"
Forcing himself to slowly stand, Holden limps over to Mandark, grabbing him by the collar and glaring at him with angry eyes, "You nearly put the world at risk by starting a new war with fusions! Did you want vengeance against Tessa that badly that you would willingly destroy the world and forsake all those you care about?"
Tears well up in Mandark's eyes as he realizes his folly, "What have I done? I could have killed Deedee! What a fool I have been. Now let me go so I can leave!"
Glowering weakly at the genius, Holden eases his grip on Mandark's shirt, whispering softly "You're not going anywhere until you release Gwen and the others from whatever magic you used."
With a weak, fearful gulp, Mandark smiles nervously and marches down the tunnel with Holden tailing behind to block any attempted escape.
Holden gingerly sits on the couch, as Gwen uses her mana to scan his injuries. Kevin in the meantime had just dragged Mandark out of the room to the awaiting SACT transport outside, while Ben had gone along with them to make a call.
Returning with the first aid kit, Alice deposits the bag upon the floor and worriedly asks "Gwen, do you think he will be alright? Those burns look rather severe."
Gwen nods and smiles reassuringly, "He'll be fine. All he needs is a bit of rest, some of the burn cream and an ice pack for the bump on his head."
Alice smiles lightly at the news, before asking in a more serious tone, "How do you think you did on the test?" "I failed," Holden answered shortly, "I didn't even pass through three rings before I was tossed from the sky."
"Just because you didn't pass my test, doesn't mean you failed to learn to control your ability," replied Gwen with a knowing smile.
Blinking a few times, Holden thinks about what Gwen said and a smile slowly creeps across his face, "I wasn't even thinking about flying when I was trying to survive. I just up and did it without putting any thought into it, just like when I was fighting Fuse. I finally understand what was holding me back the entire time."
Gwen beams at the news and pats his shoulder gently, "Get some rest Holden, you deserve it after all the trouble and learning you did today."
With a nod, Holden leans back on the couch, only to be interrupted by the shrill beep of his nancom from the small table beside him. Forcing himself up, Holden nab the com and his email screen blinks to life. His eyes widen at the news and shows Alice and Gwen the screen, unable to speak from the shock. Buttercup was pregnant.
I hope you all liked it and that the ending was out of left field. I would like to thank animegirl for beta reading for me again. See you all next chapter.