Chapter 6
Lily's POV
"Damn, is it me, or did it get darker in this area all the sudden?" Amber wondered, sighing in defeat as she sat down to rest on a rock. I looked at her, a little frightened by the tired and angered expression shown on her face.
"I-I'm sure we'll find them soon!" I said, trying to reassure her. Amber only let out a sigh.
"I think it's all Xavier's fault we're in this mess. But, then again," Amber looked up and stared at Ian and I with a cold glare. "You two should've done something about his recklessness! I'm afraid he's going to drag Maia down wherever the hell they are." I felt kind of hurt by Amber's words, especially since she has a higher rank than myself. I glanced over at Ian, who didn't really have a clear emotion showing.
"Veteran, I tried! I told Xavier countless times for him not to enter the place, but because his brain is apparently the size of a walnut, he didn't listen to me. At least he didn't die; if I wasn't there, the rockfall would have crushed him,." I informed.
"Hey-ooh!" Ian added, agreeing with my explanation. Amber sighed again, standing up.
"What did you guys even find there?" Amber questioned. "I'm still trying to understand why you went in there in the first place." I shrugged my shoulders.
"Xavier said, and I quote, 'Magical things are always kept in towers!' I think he was implying that we could find the Sol Stone in there." I replied, shaking my head at Xavier's lack of knowledge with real and fictional things.
"Actually, I know I've been giving that kid a lot of hate, but he might be right," Amber then said, throwing me off.
"Hey-ooh?" Ian asked. I nodded.
"Yes, what do you mean by that?" I asked, assuming that what Ian posed was what I just said. Luckily, Ian nodded his head.
"Realistically, Xavier was making a smart choice about investigating a suspicious looking tower. Who knows, maybe the Sol Stone was in there after all. The only problem with the search was that Xavier was overconfident in his adventuring skills. When it comes to those kind of situations, teamwork is a key thing. And by the looks of it, you three don't exactly have the best chemistry in the world." Amber explained, crossing her arms.
"Well, he's with Maia in only Arceus knows where, so how are we supposed to strengthen the bond between us?" I wondered.
"We find them obviously," Amber replied. "Though admittedly that would be easier if it wasn't so dark!" She shouted the last word.
"Uh, maybe don't shout, we don't know what's out there," I said hesitantly.
"I don't care what's out there, I'll destroy anything that attacks," Amber replied confidently.
"Hey-ooh!" Ian added, looking impressed.
I just shook my head and glanced around nervously. Unfortunately it was difficult to see anything at all in the darkness. "Why are we split up this way I wonder," I mused after assuring myself a monster wasn't going to suddenly appear. "Shouldn't we be in the same groups as we were before?"
"I don't know," Amber replied. "Nothing like this has ever happened to me before, how should I know what's going on?"
"Hey-ooh?" Ian said.
It was clearly a question, but I had no idea what he was asking. "Yes?" I tried.
"Hey-ooh," he sounded disappointed. I guess 'yes' was the wrong answer.
"Say something other than hey-ooh!" Amber yelled. "That doesn't mean anything!"
"Hey-ooh," Ian replied defiantly.
"Please calm down," I pleaded, standing between the two of them. "We need to find Maia and Xavier, not stand around arguing."
Amber glared at Ian for several more seconds, but she backed down. "Fine, let's go search for our stupid friends." She set off in a seemingly random direction and I hurried after her. In this darkness it would be easy to lose each other, and I really didn't want to be stuck by myself.
Maia POV
"Where are we?" I wondered, looking around myself and trying to see through the darkness.
"Not sure," Xavier replied.
"And why is it just the two of us!?"
"We split up before, but I guess Amber and I swapped places or something," Xavier replied. He didn't seem particularly concerned.
"Splitting up was clearly a terrible idea," I moaned. "How are we supposed to find them when I don't even know where we are? What were you guys doing anyway? We looked all over for you."
"Looking for the Sol Stone," Xavier replied. "It was my fault, I talked Lily into it. And possibly Ian, I'm not actually sure what his thoughts were. I'm sorry."
I waved off the apology. "It doesn't matter now. What's done is done. That said, Amber may try to kill you so I'd look out for that." He nodded, his eyes looking slightly fearful.
"R-Right… I'll keep that in mind…" Xavier muttered, his spirits evidently remaining low. I snapped my fingers, a ball of fire appearing in my hand. Though it couldn't beat the darkness surrounding us, it made things a lot more easier to see.
"Either way, we should get going. I have a bad feeling that if we just stand here contemplating, we won't be able to find Amber and the others in time." I said, signaling Xavier with my hand for him to follow. He nodded, picking up the pace.
It was extremely difficult to pick out the surroundings, even with my flame leading me to believe that we were in a fairly flat region. Surely if there were buildings or other obstructions around my flame would be reflecting off of some of them, but it wasn't. It was also extremely difficult to tell if we were going straight or not. With basically no points of reference, we could be just about anywhere.
"This is a really bad area to be looking for people in," I muttered.
Xavier nodded, a motion barely visible in the firelight. "Yeah, we could probably walk past the others and not notice unless they bump into us."
I nodded and then yelled, "Amber! Are you out there? Ian? Lily?" My voice was seemingly swallowed by the night and was met only with silence. "I guess they're not around," I said in a normal tone of voice to Xavier.
"Yeah, I guess not," he replied. "So, keep walking?" I shrugged and began to walk again. Xavier had started out subdued, probably because of whatever happened while he separated from Amber and I, but as we walked he seemed to perk up a bit. He began chattering random observations to me and trying to look at everything we passed, which wasn't much. Out of all of this darkness, I wish there was something easy to spot so that we could wait there…
"Hey! What's that in the distance?" Xavier called, pointing straight ahead of us. It was faint, but surely there: a light.
"Let's go!" I said, dashing off ahead with Xavier following close behind me. Suddenly, when were just about to make it, I fell down, pushed back by some kind of force. Luckily, Xavier broke my fall, since he fell behind me. I quickly got up and brushed myself of, helping him up as well. I touched the invisible wall in front of me, a dark purple pulse rippling on it like a pebble being thrown into water.
"Great. Now how are we going to get through it?" Xavier questioned.
"Well, first things first," I said, creating a ball of fire in my hand. "We try and blast our way through!" I launched the ball of fire at the dark barrier. The flame hit the wall and was flung backwards, the wall rippling as if angry. I quickly grabbed Xavier and pulled us both to the ground watching as the flame flew over our heads. "I hope that doesn't end up hitting anyone," I said.
"So we shouldn't throw things at it," Xavier concluded.
"Apparently not," I agreed. I touched the wall again, wondering what it could be made out of. If I could figure that out, taking this down would be much easier. I tried pushing my hand through, but it just felt like two negative poles of a magnet trying to connect. In other words, the wall rejected my hand. I quickly became annoyed as my hand refused to pass through.
"Augh, how are we supposed to get through this?" I wondered. "This is going to take forever!" Xavier walked up to the wall, poking it to watch the ripples appear and disappear.
"I wonder if it's made out of some sort of dark energy. That might be why it shows up in a dark color," Xavier said. My eyes widened, but I sighed.
"If only Amber was here she could've-" I stopped myself halfway through my statement, but Xavier already heard me.
"She could've…?" he questioned, looking at me curiously. "C'mon, what could she have done? Why can't you do anything?" I began to panic as I laughed nervously.
"S-She could've helped us with this situation! I mean, Amber is good at problem solving, so she would be able to use her intelligence to find a way around this! Haha…" I awkwardly stated, trying to put on a reassuring smile. Xavier made a doubtful face, but then groaned, sitting on the ground.
"Yeah, I guess you're right. Amber is a smart person after all…" Xavier said, sounding defeated. I sighed in relief; there's no way I can slip out Amber's secret so easily. She would literally have my head if I did. "So what do you think we should do?" he asked.
I was the leader, so I would have to decide. I looked at the dark barrier, then back at where we came from. It really all looked the same. "Let's follow the wall," I decided. "Maybe there's a hole in it somewhere."
Xavier shrugged. "Good a plan as any I suppose," he said. I gave him a grin and led the way. I kept one hand near the wall, touching it occasionally to make sure we followed it.
We traveled along the wall for several minutes when I noticed something. "This barrier is curved," I murmured.
"So?" Xavier asked.
"I think we're walking in a circle," I replied.
"Which means we're not getting past this," Xavier concluded.
"Well, we can walk past it. We can't get through it."
"That makes me think there's something important in there," Xavier said. He looked at the barrier, a sudden gleam of interest in his eyes. "That means we have to get in there!"
"Weren't you just upset about how your reckless behavior was endangering others?" I asked.
"Well, there's nothing dangerous around here!" Xavier defended. I sighed but didn't argue. After all, it was rather suspicious that there was a random dark barrier in the middle of nowhere.
"Alright then. But if this ends up poorly like last time, I'm making sure that you're under my watch 24/7, deal?" I suggested, holding out my hand. Xavier slapped it, grinning wildly.
"Sure!" he agreed, too eager to care about what I had to say. I laughed it off though, considering how he's technically a ball of bouncing energy anyways. Xavier stood in front of the barrier, hands placed on his hips and inspecting it closely. His nose was ten centimeters from it, making me worry in case it could do something to him.
"Hm… this barrier is translucent. I can't really see much since this place is pretty dark, but I can make out an outline of some sort of building." Xavier said, confirming his observation with a firm nod. "The light we saw earlier must've came from the windows."
"Strange… do you think this is the place where the Luna Stone is hidden?" I suggested. "I mean, you wouldn't put a protective forcefield like this for a regular building." Xavier's eyes lightened up once again with adventure and interest.
"Of course! It has to be in there!" Xavier cheered, looking back at the barrier. I didn't point out that we had no proof at all it was in there, I figured I'd let him have his fun. "We have to get in there no matter what now!" He tried punching it, but all he got in return was a cracking sound from his wrist. I cringed at the noise as Xavier held his hand out, only to see it flop down lifelessly.
"P-Probably not by force though," I commented. Xavier nodded, the smile on his face twitching.
"Y-Yeah…" he agreed, sitting on a rock to look at his now broken hand. I let out a sigh, walking over to him and looking at it.
"Let's tend to this before we get any farther in figuring things out, huh?" Xavier nodded, smiling through the pain.
Amber's POV
Twenty minutes flew by our heads and we still had no progress. I was tired of walking, and tired of this awkward silence between me and my teammates. If only Maia would give us a sign that she's at least still alive out there...
"Veteran! Look out!" Lily suddenly called to me. To my left, I saw a fireball charging towards me at full speed. I smirked, grabbing my sword and deflecting the attack with the wide face of the blade.
"Do you think it was-"
"Yeah, no doubt about it," I replied, already aware of what Lily was going to ask. "Well done, Maia. Looks like Xavier didn't get you and himself killed yet." I thought.
"Hey-ooh!" Ian said, as if alarmed. If only he spoke regular English like everyone else, maybe I wouldn't be as pissed off as I am now.
"I think Ian is trying to tell us something…" Lily wondered. I rolled my eyes.
"No, he just wants to say what he says all the time because why the hell not," I said sarcastically, throwing my arms in the air. "Of course he's trying to tell us something! But, as of right now, what matters the most is that we get to where Maia and Xavier are," Lily and Ian both nodded, but Ian's expression told me that he wasn't comfortable with our plan. Although I was very interested in what Ian had to say (even though he would literally say nothing), I didn't want to waste any more time trying to force words out of him. Instead, I followed the direction of where the fireball came from, Lily and Ian following close behind me.
"Any thoughts on why Maia was hurling random fireballs?" I asked.
"Hey-ooh!" Ian replied.
"When would I ever ask you a question?" I demanded. He opened his mouth to reply. "Don't answer that!" His mouth snapped shut.
"Maybe it was a signal," Lily suggested.
"More likely Maia was trying to hit something and missed, but it works out either way." I responded, seeing the possibility of that happening. "At this point, I'm just hoping we make it to them in time... they might be in trouble."
"Hey-ooh!" Ian exclaimed, pointing at something ahead of us. I noticed it right away. Maia and Xavier. Their outfits were bright enough for me to see from our position, but, to our misfortune, it looked like the Time Baron wanted to keep up separated as a bunch of Distorters came coming our way. Their shape was different from the last time we saw them; they looked less humanoid than usual, but that didn't stop me from getting ready to fight. I glanced over at Ian and Lily, both preparing to commence as well.
"Amber!" a voice called to me, the tone sounded like Maia. Looks like she spotted us as well. The next thing I knew, a blast of fire came my way. I ducked, allowing it to hit an armed Distorter instead. I turned around, only to see Xavier yelling like a maniac as he wielded his kusarigama and attacking. Maia rushed over to me, pointing in the direction she came from.
"There's a dark wall over there blocking an entrance to a strange looking building. Do you think you can get rid of it?" Maia asked, kind of desperately. I smirked, grabbing her arm and spinning us around so that I can slash the head off of a Distorter that was going to ambush her.
"Gotcha. Just pay more attention,," I said, sprinting away from the battle. I heard Lily and Maia talk before I got out of fight circle.
"Where is Amber going?" Lily questioned, concerned. Maia smiled, shooting arrows.
"Just going to help with a problem only she can handle," Maia replied. "You see, Amber's power is far a lot stronger than all of ours. Even mine." I rolled my eyes, not bothering to listen to the rest of the sentence.
"That girl just can't keep her big mouth shut sometimes," I thought, reaching the barrier Maia was talking about. A small tug curled the ends of my lips up, a dark sphere appearing in my hand.
"Well, I guess this time it's not that bad," I mumbled, the dark energy coating my arm. My eyes flashed red as I punched the barrier with the darkness, a loud thud sound coming from it. The surface of it rippled in response, and once the dark energy I was on my fist was transferred onto the wall, it shattered like glass as a large gust of air blew from it. The gust was so massive and strong, it disintegrated the Distorters one by one. Naturally my aim was good enough that Maia and our trainees were unharmed. The "glass shards" disappeared as well the moment they hit the ground. I dusted off my hands, the red glow from my eyes fading.
"Woah! What on Arceus's name was that?!" Xavier exclaimed excitedly, literally jumping up and down to prove. Lily and Ian stared at me with their mouths dropped in awe while Maia laughed.
"Like I said, Amber has special powers none of ours can compare too," Maia said, crossing her arms. I brushed my bangs from my eyes.
"You guys didn't even see the full extent of that yet," I said. "Maybe once we get closer to the Time Baron, you can see it to it's greatest potential," Xavier became more bouncy and hyped at the sound of that.
"Oh, I can't wait for that to happen!" he cheered.
"That might take a while," a deep voice said. A figure appeared behind me, grabbing my arm and pulling me towards him.
"Who are you?!" I asked, struggling in his grip. "Let go of me!" The man didn't reply, which made me pissed off; I hate people who don't give me reasonable answers, let alone no answer at all. Maia gasped.
"You're-" her sentence was interrupted when we all felt the atmosphere changed.
"Oh no, not now!" Xavier complained.
"Veteran!" Lily called to me, reaching out her hand. I tried grabbing it, but the distance added with this guy's grip made it impossible.
"You know Father is upset with your actions, correct?" My eyes widened; I knew this person. I let out a small laugh.
"When have I ever considered him a father?" I scoffed. "All he will ever be is a big old joke. You should know that better than anyone, Jun."
He didn't reply back, but it didn't matter, since we were already gone from the Night area.
